>>5977617But there is no waiting. Many small but determined hands push you along, pinching or poking you whenever you object or push back. Soon enough they’ve ripped away your outer attire to reveal your blood-stained undershirt and trousers, both of that pristine and somewhat-reflective Lunar white. They coo and pull gently at the fabric, admiring the material and clucking their tongues at the rips and stains, speaking quickly in a patois-common that is difficult for you to follow.
“W-what was that, again? Slower, please?”
"You spoil up dis outfit nasty, man. Yuh want we fuh change um straight, or keep some ah um?"
“Oh, uh… Keep the shirt, maybe?”
"Yeah, man,” the halfling woman replies skeptically. “You is de boss."
"De customa always right,” agrees another.
The bloodstains will be covered up, based on the designs Testa had been doodling, but the shirt itself has a great deal of sentimental value to you—as a gift from Nym and Devi, the Lunar Eladrin who had been your attendants and friends for a year, as a reminder to yourself and others of your journey to Holy Luna and your time as a student of the Sacrae Scholae Lunae, and even the red-blown flecks and splotches serve as a reminder of your struggles for (and against) the Sylvan Realms. Hidden and kept close to your breast, the fine glossy shirt brings you a strange sense of comfort and continuity, even as a very different, much more ‘fashionable’ sleeveless tunic-robe is constructed around you and your pants replaced with a patterned pair.
"You wan some symbol?” asks one of the halfling girls.
“Uh?”
She puts her hands on her hips and frowns, attempting to clarify: “Coat of arms, or a company stamp, or suh?"
“Well…”
>You request the stoat symbol of your father, Rudolfo, which he wore upon his adventuring outfit>You request the New Moon symbol of Princess Miannie, your mother’s patron deity>You request a symbol of the Hawksong Mages’ Tower, the so-called spire-and-star>You take a symbol of your own—perhaps a maple leaf and cluster of berries, to represent the Hill?>No need—your words and actions will speak for themselves>Write-in[C]
