FSE

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Raine arrived precisely on time for her appointment; even including the short argument she had with her guards, who were quite insistent on escorting her into the shop. They were forced to relent though, and were even shooed into waiting at the cafe across the road instead of waiting outside. Her guards were probably not wrong to worry about her in general, yet at the same time she was not wrong to feel safe in Kathrin's shop. Raine had made most of the enchantments that protected it, with Trace's help and Clovis' watchful eye, if not intervention. She didn't know the full extent of the charms that protected her, but Clovis did and she felt safe here. That was a ringing endorsement even if some of those very spells were also to contain her. (Those were the spells that had been thoroughly explained to Kathrin).

Both her and 'Red' arrived wearing the recognizable white one piece jacket of the Templar, though covered it with black hooded cloaks that at least partly hid their identities, if not allegiance; the cloaks had the same Templar crest emblazoned across the back. That symbol still made Kathrin feel uncomfortable; she'd come of age during the dark days of Trace's reign when the Templar were the symbol and enforcement of anti-keidran racism. Memories of Roderik didn't help much either. Still she understood that it meant something different now, under Raine, who she ran up to and gave a big hug as soon as she was through the door, and before she could decline it.

"Oof! Hello Kathrin." Raine took a moment before relaxing and hugging her back. Being the Grand Templar was a difficult and stressful job that often required her to put on an emotionally blank and ruthlessly serious expression. Kathrin had therefore learnt to hug her before she could forget she was amongst friends and try to politely decline it. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice."

Kathrin let go once she was satisfied she'd properly greeted her friend. Red however politely declined a hug with a wave when she turned to look at him, and she understood. She knew he was still very human and weird about close contact sometimes. He would get hugged first next time. "Of course, what can I do for you two?"

Red sighed, and Raine managed to look both slightly uneasy and comically entertained at the same time. "Well we have an event coming up in a few weeks and we'd like new outfits for it."

Kat let her tail wag about happily behind her, she loved any excuse to design a new dress from scratch. "Oh that's great! I've been hoping for an opportunity to try green on you, I've got some beautiful new dress silk I'd like you to look at."

"Actually." Raine interrupted her thoughts before Kathrin could go looking for the file where she kept all of her customers' measurements and notes (something important when she specialised in people that needed to change shape without changing their clothes). "I'm looking for a suit, or something else that's male culturally." she sounded slightly uncomfortable saying that "At least recognizably male to Humans and Wolves. And then Scarlet is going to need a dress."

Kat looked over at 'Scarlet'. Well, she figured he was Scarlet at least, a variation on the nickname Sythe gave him. She knew how to fit a dress to a man of course, gender shifts were one of her specialties, but it was going to be difficult with his wide shoulders. Though now Kathrin looked at him, his shoulders seemed a little narrower than usual. His hair was the same mess of Red it always had been but his jaw seemed a little rounder; his beard, which was usually so scraggly and impossible to keep trimmed for more than half an hour, was shaven and smooth. Also he seemed to have breasts, which was probably why they were going by Scarlet today. It also explained the dress.

Scarlet sighed.

Kathrin brought her hand up and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "This doesn't rule out green but I'll need to see what I have." She looked between Raine and Scarlet, and an idea formed. "I assume you'll need to be able to transform Raine, but will Scarlet be shifting gender at all?"

Raine nodded for the first question, but answered for the second. "No. She'll be a woman the whole night."

Scarlet sighed again.

"Ok great, I'll need to get you fitted for the suit but if Scarlet doesn't need anything special done then I'd like to have Clovis find her something." She paused for a moment to let them raise any objections to the plan. When they didn't, Kat turned her head back and called out to the rest of the shop "Clovis! Are you busy right now?"

In the quiet that followed while they all listened for the reply, Kat heard some shuffling from the back corner of the shop, then a few moments later Clovis stepped out from around one of the clothes stands, still holding the ruler and notepad from where she'd been doing the inventory. "You called, miss?" she grumbled.

"Yes." Kat said cheerfully, and gestured towards their customers "I'd like you to go and fit Scarlet here for a dress." Kathrin had been training Clovis in the ways of the tailor and seamstress, and she'd picked it up very fast in fact, even if she denied as such. Still it was worthwhile letting Clovis start working alone on a customer that wasn't going to be put off by her bad mood, and there was something for letting Scarlet be worked on by someone that also considered themselves a man.

Clovis looked confused for a moment at the instruction, but then she saw Scarlet. Then the realisation hit her, then she grinned, and then she snickered quietly.

"You can be quiet." Scarlet grumbled back, to the entertainment of everyone. Her voice was much higher pitched than 'Red's' was.

"Welcome to my world." Clovis snarked back.

"Can you do that Clovis?" Kat said, trying to get the conversation back on track, especially if the two of them were going to be argumentative.

"Yes miss." Clovis replied with a grin and quite a lot more enthusiasm than Kathrin had been expecting. She led Scarlet towards the back left corner of the shop, where they had the second fitting stall set up.

Kathrin meanwhile led Raine over to the main stall, the one she had set up just right with her favourite modesty brake, and all her tools and notepads just where she liked them. "So unfortunately I'm going to need to measure you again." She explained while moving things around to make room and getting out the low stool for Raine to stand on while being measured. "Mens clothes are cut differently and while I've got some conversions I've figured out, this will fit much better if I have the right lengths."

Raine took off her cloak and hung it up on the corner of the privacy blind; then obliged and stepped up onto the stool so Kat could go to work re-measuring almost every part of her, starting with her legs. And with her in her human form, Kathrin had made most of her wardrobe so she knew measurements would be needed in both forms. "So is this for a Dragon Masquerade Nora is hosting?" Kathrin asked quite innocently, though with a large dose of curiosity.

"Yes" Raine replied quite perplexed, so much that she moved slightly while looking down at Kat quizzically and threw off her position and Kat's last measurement. "How did you know that?"

"Clovis figured it out." She answered before really thinking about it. She supposed Clovis had told her that the invitation list was meant to be a secret, perhaps that it was being hosted at all was also supposed to be a secret?

Raine hmmmed thoughtfully before changing the topic. "Speaking of which, how has Clovis been since we last talked?" Raine spoke in a more hushed tone intended only for Kathrin to hear. Unfortunately though, she had inadvertently chosen the exact moment Clovis had crossed the shop to pick up more pins from the back shelf.

"Disillusioned with life generally." Clovis replied in a great deal of frustration, before returning back to where Scarlet was waiting.

There was an awkward lingering silence while the two of them waited for her to actually be out of earshot before continuing. "Don't mind her." Kathrin hummed, "Brutus hasn't been able to visit in more than a week and that always makes her grumpy. Can you hold this up as high as you want the inside of the pants leg to go?" Kathrin switched topics without warning, and handed Raine the end of her measuring tape while she waited at her feet to take the measurement.

Raine hmmmed again while she fumbled about trying to place the tape between her legs without leaning over one way or the other.

Kathrin continued on talking while she did that, scribbling down in her notes once she settled on a length. "But I would also usually be rewarding her with days as a man when she behaves herself, and that always helps cheer up her mood."

Raine had spent enough time in Kathrin's shop being measured and fitted to know when to lift her arms out to the side, and let the tailor effortly shift position to keep wrapping her tape measure around and along limbs. "Has she not been behaving recently then?" she asked with more than a hint of worry in her voice.

"Oh no she's been very good." Kathrin reassured her while wrapping the tape around Raine's waist. "But she's started saving it up to skip her heat in fall."

Raine relaxed slightly and let out a tense breath she'd been holding. "I can't blame her for that. I tried it once and I could only stand two days of it."

"Well she has eighteen days saved up now which is far past all that she should need." Kathrin sighed as she carried on, "To be honest I've been looking for an excuse to let her skip it anyway. She wasn't very nice to be around last time, but if I give her nice things without her earning it she'll lose respect for me." She had learnt a great deal about how to manage Clovis while teaching her to be a better person; including that she respected power above all else, and would only respect Kathrin if she exercised the power she had.

Raine gave her a thoughtful hum in response.

Kathrin finally brought the tape up and around Raine's chest. For modesty's sake she did so from behind but that didn't help much with the next thing she needed to ask. "So I'm afraid we need to talk about how much squish you're willing to put up with around the chest. Suits aren't normally cut for cleavage."

Where she couldn't see it, Kathrin was quite sure Raine was frowning, no one really liked this bit of fitting but it was important for a surprisingly large number of her customers. "Well I'll need to be able to move enough to dance, but I still want everyone to know I'm a woman instantly. I'm not going as a man, I'm dressing as one."

Really Kathrin should have been focused on her work, but instead she was thinking about how much fun a big dance at a ball hosted by Nora would be. She would love so much to go, and to make a resplendent dress to wear that people would hopefully ask her about.

With enough daydreaming done for now, Kathrin went back to work. "Ok, so a bit for support, but not too much. It might be a bit tight while you're a wolf though." Kathrin scribbled down some notes about that, adding adjustments to the original measurements of the chest.

There was a sigh of relief from Raine, followed by some thoughtful humming "It's probably better that I dance as a wolf actually, make a show of being a mixed couple."

Kathrin scribbled out her last notes and re-wrote them assuming how much she knew Raine's floof added around her chest. She went back to measuring though, now along Raine's arms, though this was a fairly consistent measurement between men and women so it was mostly double checking what she had memorised. "Raine." she said, after a thought occurred to her. "When did you learn to dance on keidran feet?"

Raine let out a long sigh of embarrassment. "Good point, I'll dance as a human then."

Kathrin scribbled out the new notes and wrote the old ones back in.

"So, Clovis has been fine otherwise then?" Raine brought the subject back around somewhat cautiously.

Kathrin nodded "Yes she's been fine. She has her grumpy days but she's mellowed out a lot. Also I'm done with measurements for now, but I'm going to need to take them again in your other form."

"I'm glad to hear that." Raine said before closing her eyes and concentrating. The ability to control her ability to perfectly shift between two species had taken great time and effort for her to master. Kathrin had been there with her, early on, when she'd struggled with it, and now watched very proudly as she began to shift from her legs up with barely any worry. Her shoes and socks had been magically enchanted, and teleported out of sight as her feet turned to paws, while her tail popped out the back of her pants where Kathrin had tailored a suitable hole that was comfortable both with and without it. Her shirt puffed out slightly with the extra volume of fur, but still fit comfortably, something that had taken them together several tries to get right. Then finally, the transformation reached her arms and head.

Kathrin took a moment to feel some pride in the way that every inch of fabric Raine wore fitted her just as well as a wolf as it did as a human. Then she went back to work, checking the length of Raine's leg, but working to dimensions of male pants.

"You've not had any other 'incidents' with her then?" Raine asked softly, and gently. That, was a delicate and very embarrassing subject for everyone involved that they'd quite happily never remind Clovis of especially.

If anything like it had come up, then Raine would already have known by now, and probably been the one to fix it. Still, with all she had invested into this project to reform the former guildmaster, Kathrin couldn't blame her for worrying.

"No nothing of the sort." Kathrin reassured her while jotting down more notes. "I didn't really like using lacy underwear as a punishment, but it didn't happen again." She thought back to that set. Clovis had grumbled all through the fitting process and had bit her tongue the whole day when she'd had to wear them. But they'd also been some of the nicest lingerie Kat had ever made. "I'm just sorry she only ever wore them once when I put all that effort into them."

Raine grinned widely with a mischievous smile and opened her mouth to say something. But then, on the cusp of speaking, she changed her mind, bit her tongue and tried to hide her own amusement at something she'd just barely decided not to tell Kathrin "Yes, a shame." she said, struggling to regain her poker face.

Raine had a better liar face than that and Kathrin knew it. She also knew Raine had sent spies to watch Clovis on some of her days off before, and that there were things she hadn't then told Kathrin. She decided that later today she would check and see if that lingerie was still in the back room (Clovis had refused to keep it in her bedroom), and if it was, to check if it was still there the next time she went out with Brutus.

"Ok, I need to get a bit personal here." Kathrin said as she held one end of her tape against Raine's ankle and unravelled the rest of it up the inside of her leg. "The pants would come up to here, is that ok?"

"Yes." Raine marvelled, "That's quite low."

"Mens pants." Kat explained. "Anyway don't worry about us. Clovis grumbles because she's Clovis and she has to put effort in if she wants nice things now. But she knows where she'd be if I hadn't offered her a job." It was a very dark and painful place in fact, and somewhere she and Raine had both worked very hard to avoid sending her. When they'd offered her this job was still the only time Kathrin had seen her cry, and though she put on a tough act now it was still a powerful moment no one had forgotten.

"I know, I know." Raine chafed at being chastised for asking, but Kathrin had sympathy for her concern. She'd been the first person to back the idea and put much of the effort into making it happen. She was responsible for most of the magic that kept Clovis under control, and therefore giving everyone else the peace of mind that she couldn't hurt anyone.

"But she's getting used to being good now, no one can resist my cheerfulness and charm forever." Kathrin said only half in jest, and it got a small chuckle out of Raine. Still, it was true that Clovis had changed. She'd certainly tried pretending to be good and nice in the beginning, but that wolf was far too headstrong and stubborn to pretend to be someone she wasn't for long. Kathrin had broken that facade last year, and even if she dragged her feet from time to time, she had changed, and she was a better, nicer person for it. Speaking of which, she'd made another little step of progress earlier today. "This morning I even caught her trying to cheer me up."

That got a perked eyebrow from Raine. "Ohhh?" she asked, and then just as Kathrin was about to elaborate, she remembered why she'd needed cheering up and went quiet. After a moment without a response, Raine continued, asking "What was wrong this morning?"

Oh well, no dodging it now. "I was upset about Nora not inviting me to the Masquerade actually." Kat said wearily, all the emotions and feelings of being rejected or left out were welling up again. "I don't suppose Nora gave you a spare invitation at all?" She immediately regretted asking, it came across as begging and ungrateful.

"I'm sorry but we don't." Raine didn't seem to take any offence at the request at least, which let Kathrin relax. "In fact, I don't know of anyone else that is going, even Trace didn't get invited." she said, emphasizing her surprise.

That made Kat feel a little better about not getting invited. Then that feeling made her feel much worse, because she'd never been the jealous sort to feel better for someone else's misfortune. That wasn't her. She tried to reorder her thoughts, and considered that she was actually a bit sad that Trace and Flora weren't going to get to go, but it did also mean that Nora probably wasn't inviting people based on friendship. Though she did in fact know someone else that was going, at least that Raine knew. "Well Sythe also sent a letter last week asking for an appointment, so I'd guess he probably got invited."

Raine gave her a little hmmm of surprise in response "That's interesting. Though he might be going as a diplomat; Nora does usually invite someone as a representative of all the heads of state." she supposed aloud.

That made sense to Kathrin. Nora was the sort of powerful that nations wanted to court. "Clovis thought the same this morning." She replied, wondering if Raine was perhaps the representative of the human empire, or of the Templar. That then at least let her conclude that she wasn't being left out and should feel less bad about not being invited. She didn't, because she still wanted to go, but at least she hadn't been snubbed. "You know, I got more than a dozen letters last week asking for urgent appointments, and tailoring isn't usually urgent business. It's going to be interesting to see how many of them will be going."

"You might just have the most complete list of who Nora invited." Raine said, before Kathrin wrapped the tape measure around her chest again and she was forced to hold her breath in.

"Clovis thought that as well. Now hold on." Kathrin said while first measuring carefully, then pulling firmly, until she reached where the outfit would be sized for based on her first measurements. "Ok, that's where it would come to."

"That's fine." Raine said, testing her movement with it. Her wolf form had fur, and that added a little to her bust line, along with almost every other line around her body. They had worked together to come up with underwear that stretched out with a little magic and a wardrobe that could either give a little, or otherwise had room to grow. Formal wear though, needed to fit snugly, and that always meant it was a little tighter.

Kathrin let go of the tape measure, letting it fall off around her before she went to work on her arms. "Anyway, Clovis said that Nora is deliberately opaque about who she invites and keeps it a secret. Apparently she's serious about people not knowing who's there." She chuckled at the thought of that. "At least as serious as Nora can be."

Raine furrowed her brow at that, which at least did not throw off Kathrins measurements, but also wasn't amusement at the joke. Instead she glanced backwards over her shoulder and raised her voice to call across the shop. "Clovis, how do you know so much about the Dragon Masquerade?"

There was an awkward silence. It continued for longer than either of them had been expecting. It was eventually followed by a frustrated sigh and then finally, in a defeated tone, Clovis replied "I spent a lot of time sneaking a pair of assassins into one of them once."

Kathrin and Raine's gaze immediately met each other in surprise, confirming that the other had also just made the same connections. They raced each other to ask the next question and by a hair's breadth Kathrin won. "So is that how..." she started.

"That's how everything!" A very irate wolf yelled back before Kathrin could finish. "My whole life seems to revolve around that day."

"I always wondered how she ran into Nora." Raine noted with a hushed voice again.

Actually, Kathrin had been more curious about whether that had been how Zen and Natani had escaped from Clovis' guild. At least she assumed that was who Clovis meant by 'two assassins'; recently the wolf had been more inclined to refer to any of her previous employees as 'idiots'. Kathrin was again cut off though, before she could get another word out.

"Natani would appreciate it if you didn't tell Roselyn though." Clovis continued, slightly calmed down from the previous outburst. "He got in by knocking her out and taking her place, and he doesn't think she ever connected him to it."

Well, that answered Kathrin's question anyway. "She'll get a treat later for calling Natani a man by the way." She whispered to Raine, though what exactly she hadn't decided yet. "I've been trying to establish some positive reinforcement there."

Raine sighed lightly. "I still feel like a hypocrite for keeping her as a woman, while also expecting her to treat Natani as a man." she noted, also keeping her voice down.

"Yes I know." Kathrin had started out with some very similar feelings on the matter she'd made well known to Raine. She hadn't shared them with Clovis of course, but was pretty certain she'd figured that out anyway. "We needed Natani's support though, and he was right, it did motivate Clovis." His support had been contingent on Clovis' gender being a reward she would have to earn; and they had needed his support, especially since he had probably brought Zen and Keith with him.

Natani's proposal had come as a surprise to Raine and Kathrin, almost as much of a surprise as him backing the idea at all. In the time since though, Kathrin had come to understand his reasons, because it wasn't just giving her a carrot juicy enough for Clovis to bite and follow it. Letting Clovis be male again, without condition, would have turned too many people away; it was risky, and would negate what some of them saw as just consequences. But making it a reward gave her the chance to be male again, even for good if she earned it, and Kathrin liked to think that was what Natani had really wanted to see.

The silence told Kathrin that something was wrong though and a glance at Raine's frown through one of the mirrors around the fitting station confirmed it. A change of subject was in order. "So, thinking about gender, why is Scarlet a woman at the moment?"

Raine clapped her palm to her forehead with a soft poof of fur, luckily choosing the arm that Kathrin wasn't measuring at the moment. "Ugh. Several wolven nobles seem to have concluded that he's actually secretly controlling the Templar through me, and that I'm just the puppet. So at the last meeting they tried to converse with him directly, and that went as well as you'd expect." She sighed, loudly.

That was unnervingly accurate to what Clovis had already figured out. "Ok, but, why would they think that?" Kathrin asked.

"Because he's a man." Clovis answered from the other side of the privacy blind. When Kathrin stuck her head around it to see, she found her apprentice back over at the workbench rummaging for safety pins. "They've always assumed there was a man behind the scenes pulling on Raine's strings, they just took the wedding to be him stepping out of the shadows."

Raine was frowning again, as Kat was taking the last few measurements. "We need to convince them I really am in control of the Templar." She seemed exasperated but didn't refute what Clovis had said. "So we need to make a big statement that I sit at the same diplomatic table as them, and that he doesn't." She sighed again. "And the best way to do that is for me to dress like a man and for him to go as a woman."

Clovis made a point of walking over to the fitting station to talk to Raine directly, something Kathrin would normally have chastised her for over privacy concerns, but in this case Raine was fully dressed, and Keidran. "Raine." she said, quite sternly, "I hope you've had it explained to you, that you need to establish to them that you are the man in your relationship."

Raine looked over her shoulder at Clovis behind her, not granting her the respect of being talked to face to face. Kat let the tape measure fall by the wayside and stepped back while the two of them talked business. "It's more about convincing them that I am the dominant person in the relationship, or more powerful if you will." she replied, putting that serious expression and tone of voice back on.

"Your translators are being nice to you Raine, the word they will use is <man>." Clovis didn't back down, didn't blink, and didn't show any sign of weakness in the face of the Grand Templar. Yet at the same time there was a little hint of joviality to her voice, she was trying not to make this a staring match of wills. "It means both of those things as well as what you would normally translate it to."

Raine frowned disapprovingly, but also didn't try to debate the matter. This was a culture Clovis had killed her way into, and she knew how it ticked. "So will it work?" she asked flatly.

"Magnificently." Clovis accentuated her entertainment with a chuckle and a grin. "In their eyes, no real <man> would allow himself to be turned into a woman and be made to wear a dress. So they'll conclude that Scarlet has the heart of a <woman> and then accept you as the man lesbian and him as the woman lesbian."

Kathrin had endeavoured to stay out of this staring match, but she also wasn't going to put up with talk like that from Clovis; keeping her in line was her duty. "That's now how gay relationships work Clovis." she put on her serious face, the one she needed to while chastising the occasionally wayward wolf.

"I know." she replied, keeping that playful tone while she slunk off around the edge of the privacy screen and went back to the other fitting station. "I'm in one."

Raine took a deep breath before she relaxed enough to let Kathrin finish measuring her wrist. "So he is her boyfriend then?" she quipped with a smirk.

After writing down the last few measurements she needed, Kathrin put her notepad down and went to go looking for her sketchbook. "She takes a more Keidran cultural view of things and calls him her mate. Which I think covers everything from a second date to a permanent life partner." She beckoned Raine over to her work table at the back of the shop as she started sketching out the outline of a suit. "Now I've had some time to think about style, since you said you were looking for something that was a mix of Keidran and Human fashion right?"

There was a soft magical hiss as Raine shifted back into her human form, being careful to do so while walking over to Kathrin so her legs could shift in the air and her shoes and socks could reappear magically (Kathrin wasn't quite sure how since Raine had enchanted them herself, not trusting Clovis to do so). "Ideally yes, if that's possible. I know that fitting it for human and wolf forms does impose some constraints on it."

Kathrin nodded while sketching out the lower tail of the coat. "Long jackets for men are still very in fashion, though Keidran and Humans do the tails quite differently." She sketched out both overlapping each other. "Humans prefer the whole jacket to come down to about the calf, with a flat lower rim. There's always a slice down the back but the two halves overlap and that's only so it can move."

Raine nodded thoughtfully while watching Kat sketch "But I'm going to need space for my tail."

"Mhm." Kathrin sketched out on top of the human design a wedge in the back of the coat tail, starting just above the base of the tail and widening out until it reached two points at the full length of the coat on either side of the legs. From there the edge of the coat traced back up to the waistline in a straight line, forming two pointed coat tails to the side. "Keidran fashion splits the coat at the back, the pointed lower edge is more a matter of style since it makes it symmetrical front and back."

"Ok. Keidran styled below the waist." Raine noted, while Kathrin erased the human elements from the base.

"Right." Kathrin moved on up to the front of the coat, "Now Keidran prefer a flat front to the jacket, with both halves meeting in the middle, no exposed chest, no lapelles and a tight rising collar." She sketched that out with a line in the middle for the meeting point and a high collar, but only gesturing for the detail. She also drew it lightly, expecting to erase it momentarily. "They then decorate the panels of the front so they aren't plain." She didn't bother drawing that out, since styling varied so much.

"That looks like what Sythe has." Raine noted. "It would probably be harder to pull off with breasts though." she observed, frowning slightly.

"Also I could only fit a high collar for one of your forms, the other would either be too tight or too loose, so we probably want to go more human with that." Kathrin was already sketching out what a more human front looked like. "The two halves of the coat never actually meet, they're parallel up the lower torso, then at the mid way point fold back to make lapels, which also make a wide and nearly flat collar. The middle space is open and you wear an under-vest which goes all the way to your neck and is much easier to fit to a woman. Over the top of that you wear a cravat at the neckline."

Raine watched Kathrin sketch out the coat thoughtfully. "This all looks very similar to the outfit Zen used to have." She observed.

"That's because his old coat and vest are old. They're from when Keidran and Human fashion were the same, before they began diverging..." Kathrin thought about how she could possibly put it gently, because there was nothing gentle about what had happened. She realized she was being silly though, they'd both had to come to terms with that particular set of events. "Well, when Trace came to power. Keidran fashion moved on much faster than Human fashion with the jacket fronts."

There was no discernable reaction from the mention of Trace's rise to power. It had affected Kathrin only slightly, thanks to the protection Eric had offered, but changed Raine's life dramatically, for better and worse. Instead Raine gave only thoughtful consideration. "Can you make it not look like a throwback to that era of fashion? I don't want to come across as old fashioned, literally." Raine didn't piece together what she was saying until she heard it out loud. "What I mean is, wearing clothes that seem to be a throwback, even to a more peaceful time, doesn't fit my diplomatic narrative."

"Well the coat edges will be straight, since the curve went out of style everywhere; and I suppose I could dress the vest up a bit, throw in some of the styling wolves have been putting on their jackets." Kathrin scribbled some designs on the vest quickly, she hadn't thought much about it beforehand but she had several dozen ideas sketched out on other pages for whenever she next needed to make a jacket in a wolven style "Also everyone has abandoned the frilly cuffs. Keidran cuffs tend to be closer fitting but I'll go looser to make room for floof."

The discussion on designing a totally new style, which Kathrin found fascinating, was interrupted by the appearance of an extremely smug Clovis. Without saying a word, she sauntered up to Kathrin and held out her notebook to be inspected.

Kathrin took the notepad and quickly skimmed over the measurements Clovis had taken of Scarlet. She'd already done the calculations to find the best fitting dress size, and the modifications that would be needed. Everything seemed to be in order, and also in much better handwriting than Kathrin's; Clovis had an ornate and delicate font in all of her writing. "This all looks really good Clovis." Kat started with the praise. "Have a look around and see if you can find something we have and try pinning it in place to test fit."

Clovis grew even more smug, something Kat knew she had an almost limitless capacity for, yet rarely got to see. "Ohh I already have," she said, leaning on the work surface and looking back the way she'd come from. "She's just shy about the new dress."

A very sheepish Scarlet stepped out from behind a screen wearing an armless, flowing dress that started off a brilliant bright red at her shoulders and shifted to darker tones as it went down, through a bright rose over her breasts, ruby red down her legs and finishing in a deep crimson just above her feet. The change in tone was accented by interspersed metallic sparkle woven into the fabric, and a swirling golden pattern that added to the lower half of the dress. Dying dress fabric with a gradient had been a long and arduous development and one of the first things they'd worked on together. It was highly reliant on Clovis' magic and the style had sold moderately well given the high price tag they'd had to charge for it.

"You're trying to sell that before I can put you in it." Kat quipped at Clovis. She knew what the sneaky wolf was up to, besides selling an expensive dress to a customer that could afford it. From Raine's reaction though, she was going to get away with it.

"I wouldn't let her pick or dye anything in black." Clovis responded, still smug, but as innocent as she could, "and if you're leaving me to pick anything it's going to be red." That at least was honest of her. Clovis' only had taste in style for two things: red and expensive. It fit Scarlet well though, the tonal shift of the dress meant it never clashed with her hair by being a slightly off match shade. " Still, I think it compliments her hair."

"You could be more sympathetic." a rather unimpressed Scarlet shot back at Clovis.

"So could you." Clovis fired back.

"Well I think you look beautiful dear." a rather enamoured Raine said, ending the discussion there.

Before anyone, especially Clovis, had anything else to say, Kat gave her shirt a tug and drew her attention to her sketch pad. "What do you think of this Clovis?" For all that she was currently an assistant tailor, the golden wolf had more experience with politics than the rest of the room together. In particular her opinion on how the wolven nobility would react could be crucial.

There was a long moment of silence while Clovis brought her hand up to her chin in thoughtful consideration while she examined the sketch. She made a humming noise, then continued watching silently for another half a minute before she hummed again. Finally she looked up, turned to Raine and asked her "You do know this is going to start a new fashion trend? Half the wolf and human kingdoms will copy you and the other half will follow them."

"I don't think that would hurt." Raine replied, "But does it get the point across of blending fashion while also coming across as..." she searched desperately for the right word to convey the mix of intentions, politics and cultural cultural norms, before finally settling on <male.>

"Oh yes, magnificently." Clovis responded bluntly. "The blended styles should go down very well with the wolves." She then turned to Kat, and asked half seriously, and half jokingly. "I'm serious about this starting a new trend though, there will be political momentum behind emulating Raine."

Kathrin did a slightly uncertain shrug in response. "It isn't how I'd expected to do it, but ok." She'd put much more hope and expectation into the blended dye fabric and honestly, didn't quite see the optimism Clovis had for one person wearing a coat starting a whole new fashion trend. Though if there was one person that could do it, it would be Raine.

"So can I get out of this now." a rather downtrodden Scarlet was leaning against one of the shelving racks, doing her best to not be in the dress she was wearing.

Clovis let out a chuckle with just a slightly concerning amount of amusement. "Of course miss, let me go help you out of that." She then led the way back to the fitting station with Scarlet following and grumbling. Kathrin wondered what had happened to the moody, pessimistic Clovis from earlier that morning. She hoped it was just breakfast kicking in, but she suspected her apprentice was taking a bit too much pleasure from Scarlet's misfortune.

"So, about vest styling." Kathrin said, getting Raine's attention. She reached up to the shelf next to the workbench where she kept her sketchbooks and picked out the one for male keidran styling. "I've got several ideas for coat styling we could adapt for the vest, some of them are proven but others I would need to prototype out first and check with you." She opened the book on the table and began flicking through a few, highlighting the one she'd used for Sythe's and Natani's coats, as well as some that needed some development work but would produce an original design.

"Honestly Kathrin, I barely understand womens fashion, this just bemuses me." Raine seemed exhausted and perplexed at the choice available to her. "Would you be able to pick something nice? I trust your eyes here."

"Of course!" Kathrin beamed back. She'd had a number of ideas planned out that she'd been waiting for an excuse to try. Though it needed to be balanced by the need to get her outfit done soon, she was likely to be very busy over the next two weeks.

All prep work for a party she wasn't going to herself.

She bottled up that thought and snapped herself back to the moment, she still had questions she needed to ask about the coat. "What do you think about the green though?" She asked. "For the vest, and the lapels on the coat I mean. We could go with green for the main coat I guess, but black has been in style for a very long time. A few forest wolves pick white because it can go better with their fur but most stick to black."

There was another thoughtful hmmm from Raine. "Green is good actually. It's politically neutral and not too common, but maybe keep it to the highlights. We might be starting a new fashion trend but I still want it to look familiar." she sounded doubtful of Clovis' prediction. "If it's all colour it could come across as trying to pull all the colours from womens fashion into mens."

"Hmmm, that's a good point." Kathrin didn't really understand the political world Raine lived in now, but trusted her on it. "Black with green highlights it is." She wrote down a few more notes around the margins of the coat sketch, then safety-pinned the sheet from her notepad with all the measurements to it.

While she was doing that, Raine asked one of the more important questions for her. "So, when do you think you can finish it by?"

Kathrin had already been thinking about that of course. She had in her mind not only getting this done for Raine, but estimates for how long any work for her other appointments might take. She would have preferred to spend a week or more planning out every detail excruciatingly, but with the time limit; well, there were going to be some long nights, some shortcuts and perhaps some easier pattern choices. "Thursday for sure, if you need it done fast. Though I would prefer if you can wait until the weekend so I'm not pushed, and if you want Clovis to enchant it with her suite of protection spells it will take another day."

Quite calmly, Raine shook her head and replied "I don't think I'll need..."

"All of them!" Scarlet yelled from across the shop, drawing both their attention. "All the protection spells you have, especially the anti-magic shield!"

Kathrin turned back to Raine and raised an inquisitive and slightly confused eyebrow.

"We stopped an assassin a month ago." She admitted slightly sheepishly. "We never got all of the details out of them, but they had a very complicated plan and anticipated some of the spells I was wearing." She didn't elaborate any further than that and Kat understood; it probably wasn't a very comfortable thought to be watching for assassins at every turn. Still, it was a ball put on by Nora; surely no one would be foolish enough to try anything in front of her?

Except Clovis had; and at least Natani had gotten in apparently so maybe Scarlet had a point. Dying at one of Nora's parties would be very embarrassing. "So is the weekend good for you?" She asked, changing the conversation.

Raine nodded. "Yes, that will be wonderful Kat. Thank you. I'll try to be back in town to pick it up myself, but if not then I'll send a runner with payment."

"A runner can't try it on to check if it fits." Kat reminded her.

Scarlet and Clovis reappeared a few moments later, with the former back in her templar attire and latter still grinning. With an exhausted sigh, Scarlet looked to Raine "Look, not that it hasn't been nice to catch up with Kat, but are we done here?"

Raine turned a sympathetic eye to Kathrin who nodded in understanding. Whatever gender swapping magic they had used was probably static, like the one she had for Clovis, and Scarlet was likely eager to be a man again. "Yes, we're done here for today. Let's get going before my guards start to panic."

Kathrin didn't let either of them go without a hug. Then when they were gone, she went to work making Raine a formal evening coat and vest; while trying not to think too hard about the event it was for.