FemBard: Look for a suitable costume for the party tonight
From Create Your Own Story
You had thought about approaching the Dancing Mermaid to perform, but from what you remember, they were a rougher tavern and already had performers, both someone to play the harp and a dancing girl who tended to sing rather lewd songs while wearing outfits that were more than a little revealing. Not that you have issues with that. You have done the same thing on more than once occasion. Being a bard without being in service of nobility meant you lived from performance to performance, playing for your meals, a small, cramped room, and a few copper, if you were lucky, silver, coins passed your way.
I guess I should stick with the costume and just be another party reveler. you think to yourself.
You search the market area, checking in various shops. One tailor dealing in more silk and laces than your meager pocketbook could afford, another that was purely for common, functional outfits.
After checking shop to shop, you finally find one that has a few costumes stuffed in the back. The work seems okay. Nothing to stand out, but the cut of the dresses in the shop appears fashionable, at least as far as you know. Fashion has never been your strong suit.
A young man shows up, giving you the once over. Not much older than you, he still shows a surprisingly critical eye, noting every loose thread, every stain, every fold and wrinkle.
Apparently you pass muster, but are unsure how much as he greets you with a half hearty welcome.
You shrug. No noble treatment for you, but it is not like you expected it.
As you look through the costumes, he stands behind you. Noticing him from the corner of your eye, you see him look you over, staring at your ass and bust when you turn. You reassess the passing muster part. His eyes aren't focused on your pocketbook. They are focused on you in lecherous lust. As you turn, the expression again turns into feigned half interest.
It creeps you out a bit, but with all other shops either carrying nothing appropriate, or sold out of appropriate attire, you have no choice but to endure his lecherous looks until you find something to blend in.
Grabbing a couple potential costumes, you ask him where you can change. Normally there is a screen for you to go behind, but he shrugs.
"Sorry, my screen was broken and is still at the woodsmiths shop being fixed. You can change back here to try them on, and I will watch to make sure no one enters and disturbs you." His fake look of feigned innocents and 'I am just put upon as you' did little to sooth you. You reluctantly nod.
Watching to make sure he turns away, you remove your clothes until you stand naked. Undergarments were simply not something you had ever used, or thought about, given few women but nobles could afford to buy them and wear than, and given you weren't in the habit of undressing in front of strange men, it normally isn't an issue. You ponder on this, wishing you could afford them, for just such an occasion as this.
You glance out of the corner of your eye and find the shop proprietor glancing at you, trying to not be noticed doing so.
Tempted to hit him, you feel yourself blush. You bite your tongue and start trying on costumes.
You try a dress covered in feathers, a mask to make the wearer look like a hawk. You look at yourself in the grimy mirror, the reflection bubbled and hard to make out. The reflection looking back at you sees the mask, a fierce hawks face, the feathers giving you the impression of a woman ready to take flight. Quickly, you discover that the costume comes with its own drawbacks. The feathers stick out, poking your skin, itching. This costume definitely needed something under it, and adding in a body slip would wipe out your dwindling funds.
You sigh, taking it off, glancing at the proprietor glancing at you. This time he notices you take note, and turns away hastily.
With that, you grab the fools costume. Slipping it on, you laugh at the sight of you in the mirror. Normally made for a man, it is baggy in some places, tight in others. The twin points at the top of the hat remind you vaguely of rams horns, without quite curling around. The outfit feels slightly better, but still, you want to get information, not be a fool.
You sigh, taking it off, then search for other costumes. Wild beasts and strange creatures. Some leave you sweaty under their heavy fur, and others barely cover anything at all.
You look at the latest one you picked up. The linen scraped so thin that you can see your skin underneath. The feathers placed in just the right spots that you don't actually see your nipples and pussy, but just barely. Twisting it slightly, it becomes clearly visible. Your bet is that it would be visible from other angles. Tempting, as you have seen these costumes before during these parties. True, the women wear masks to hide their identity, but it is not an uncommon site. It still shocked you that the higher the person's station, the more willing they were to dress provocatively once safely masked during festivals like this.
But still, although the sex appeal would indeed help you get more information from men, there was also a good chance that some may take it wrong and decide that you were offering what you were showing. And not being noble, the watch would not bother to stop them or help you.
You slip the outfit off, then glance back at him. You meet his eyes. It seems he isn't even bothering to be discreet about looking at you anymore.
Once again, you contemplate hitting him, then leaving. But the information you are supposed to get from this party could be promising, so instead you cover yourself with your hands as he leers.
"Here," he says. "What do you want the costume for? Perhaps I can help you."
"Just attending a party at The Dancing Mermaid," you tell him. You don't bother hiding your glare.
"Perhaps we can make a deal," he states. "I have a costume I think would be perfect."
He walks passed you and goes through them. Grabbing one, he turns around.
He shows it to you, and you find yourself biting your tongue yet again, this time to keep from screaming at him, insulted that he would even ask you to wear something like that. Instead you wait to hear him out.
"This is my mermaid costume. I have tried to recreate it the best I can from the tales I have heard from sailors. If you are willing to wear it, and to tell all who ask about it about my shop, I will let you use it for the night. I would even be willing to pay you a little and offer you this outfit here to keep." He pulls out a set of clothes, the cleavage deep, the skirt a bit shorter than appropriate. It was halfway between harlot and whore. But, it was still something, and with some coins being thrown in, it could help. Maybe you could find a whore or harlot to sell it to...
You look at the mermaid costume a bit again.
"Fine, fine, let me try it on," you growl at him. "But keep your eyes to the front." He chuckles, then honors your wishes, turning away. He even has the decency to not look at you, at least not that you can tell.
Slipping on the mermaid costume, you check yourself in the mirror.
The head piece was worked to look like a real mermaids...fins? You suppose. You had never really seen a mermaid.
The top was hard worked leather, somehow dyed green. Slipping it on, it left the entire insides of your breasts bare, and most of the top, just covering the sides and bottom, and barely covering the nipple. It also seemed to shove them together, forcing the tops to round out, look bigger.
The pants were also dyed green. Like the bird costume, the linen was scraped so thin that your legs might as well have been bare. The only thing saving it was what looked almost like a loin cloth around the front and back. It came down barely below the split between your legs. You groan, thinking that now might be a good time to have some undergarments.
In back was some extra material, trailing behind slightly, with leather ridges standing out like yet more fins. Like she had a tail, or maybe that the mermaid was halfway through her shapechange.
More revealing than you liked, you supposed it could work, and save your coin between. At least you had no worries about finding men to talk to you. Now, you just needed to be careful that no one decided you were offering more than you were.
"Okay," you tell him. "You can turn around."
He turns to look at you, and you can see his breath catch. "You look wonderful! I never knew it would look so good."
"Okay, turn around," you tell him. He shakes his head no.
"You need to stay in it," he says, "And promote my shop. Here, let me take these from you," he tells you, reaching for your bag.
A growl escapes your throat. "Don't you dare," you tell him. Your hand slips inside, wrapping around the dagger. You may not be the best fighter, but you can do just fine when needed, especially against some lecherous, soft shop owner like him.
"Look, either leave the bag here, or give me back the mermaid costume and leave before I call the guards."
"Why? So you can steal my stuff?" You retort.
"No, to hold until you get back, to make sure you return my costume."
I thought about it, and finally, after slipping out my coin pouch, I pulled my dagger out. The sheath was made to be able to be tied around my thigh, or arm, or wherever, which I promptly did. Unfortunately, with the costume, it was quite obvious. I shrugged. Not like I would be the only one in there with a weapon. In fact, there would probably be very few without, so it shouldn't matter. Once secured, I pulled the dagger out, placing the tip under his chin, ready to shove hard, right through his throat. "If I find a single thing missing, I will slit your throat." He stared at me, trying to watch the dagger. Perhaps he realized that I was not some helpless woman that could be ogled as he wanted.
"Fine, fine," he said quietly, trying not to move. I took the dagger away, lifted the green linen leg, and slipped it into the sheath. My harp and flute were in there, so I would definitely be back.
- Notes:
Meh, okay, research is hard...what kinds of "costumes" did people wear in medieval times?
No choice but to go for revealing outfit, since you are a low level adventurer, and a bard without much combat ability. You will not be able to threaten information out, and with your low funds, will not be able to bribe information out. With the revealing outfit though, men will be more interested in answering questions in an attempt to impress you. Also, the shop keeper is more bold with her since she is an obvious stranger, so he is not concerned with you making him lose customs because of his attempts to do more with you than he would to a normal customer. Adventurer has "Take advantage of me" written all over for the sleazier people.
Fine, we can stick with the mermaid costume, and do the whole "payment for your assistance in promoting my shop" thing, but I need to rethink the payment. A bard probably would not care much about being able to sneak weapons in the costume, so no idea why she would go for a pirate wench costume, unless something further in the story needs this costume. For the extra gold offer, well, not sure if I will bother including this. I will see how I can work in her flashing herself to the shop guy. Possibly as part of the "payment" for the costume loan. Or, I could rework it so there is no changing room, so there is little choice.
Original below during rework
You decide to find a costume for the celebration of Fleetswake tonight, so after a little bit of searching you find one tent in the market with a couple costumes left. The young man running the shop seems to take a keen interest in you, though you are not sure if it's you or your money he is more interested in.
He insists that you try on a couple costumes. You're pretty sure he just wants to see you in a couple of his creations so you humor him and proceed to try on some costumes. The first one he gives you is not exactly what you would wear for a night on the town but for a costume party, it just might be just the right outfit. "The Busty Barmaid", as he calls it, is nothing more then a short skirt with a bodice that shows off plenty of cleavage. You're pretty certain that if you're not careful, you may fall out of the flimsy top.
He shows you a few others including a nice "Pirate Wench" outfit, which would allow you to carry a weapon as part of the costume. However, you know for certain the one you would not pick. The only reason you even tried this one on was because he mentioned if you model it for him, he'd give you a discount. You agreed to wear a skimpy mermaid costume complete with a seashell bikini, and after trying it on he offers to give you a costume for free if you agree to help him promote his costumes for the party tonight.
So, dressed as a mermaid, you help him promote his costumes for the party. You naturally are a dancing mermaid as the name of the tavern where the party will be held, so it makes perfect sense, right? He would have been happy to get you to promote his costumes regardless, but once he saw you in he mermaid costume he wanted to keep you in it for as long as possible. On more than one occasion you found yourself exposed as the seashells would not quite keep their proper location. Groped, pinched and pawed at for most of the time, you put up with it partly because you wanted the free pirate costume, and partly because it turned you on being 'forced' to wear that outfit for his amusement.
He quickly sold most of his stock with you as the advertisement and, reluctantly, he lets you go. He hands you a package and thanks you for your business. He also places 10 gold on the counter and tells you it's yours if you take off the mermaid costume out in the open rather than going into the changing area. You smile at him and take the 5 gold, placing the seashell bikini on the counter and saunter into the changing area.
Taking the extra 5 gold for food was a good idea, he was kinda cute so you sort of regret not removing the entire costume. At the time, you figure you spent most of the time out of the bikini anyways. Well, looking ahead now you have the package with your 'wench' outfit, so you can look around some more. Or perhaps nab some food at a tavern, you have a few hours till the party tonight.
