"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair" - Words inscribed onto a stone tablet, amidst nothing but endless sands.
It was early in the morning. The sun's rays were just barely starting to creep down the walls, highlighting the trophies and wall ornaments which adorned the upper reaches of the main hall. Brann sat at the bar. He was always at the bar. Sometimes he felt as though he spent more time filling mugs and preparing drinks than he did actually managing the front of an Adventurer's Club.
In front of him y a small stack of papers, he had been looking over the st month's finances. In his experience, adventurer's lived for two things, booze and dignitas. So he made sure to provide as much access to both as he could within the walls of the Sword and Scroll.
SpoilerIn ancient Rome, the concept of Dignitas was extremely important to one's social status. It is like a combination of glory, personal influence, moral character, and honor.
[colpse]He rifled through the sheets, he was pleased to see that they had sold more drinks in the past week then normal. No doubt the new winged Bar Wench was helping in that regard. When the girl had come to him looking for work he'd eagerly agreed, knowing the character of the his usual crowd would ensure the bar's popurity. Disappointingly she'd ft out refused to work in more intimate ways. It was a shame really, both she and the club would profit immensely, but he supposed some folks weren't very money savvy.
He and the local brothel had agreed to send customers each other's way should the need arise. Hot blooded adventurers could walk across the street and have their needs fulfilled, and rakish patrons could come over for a cool one after satisfying their more base desires. The arrangement had it's merits, the brothel didn't have to deal with drunk adventurers squabbling over the same courtesan, and the bar was able to send adventurers elsewhere when they became hungry instead of just hungry.
He flipped over to the next sheet. This one detailing various jobs and contracts which the Adventurers had completed recently. While the bar certainly made enough money to cover most of the running costs of the Adventuring club, the real income came from the small cut they took from each contract completed. He sighed, unfortunately it was also his job to keep track of each contract, and it's value. Most of them were pretty standard stuff, cleaning out monster infestations, escorting merchants to and from towns, finding lost items, but there were also a few bigger ones. Sying particurly nasty beasts, acquiring rare and exotic materials from distant nds. There was even a contract posted by a local senator requesting knowledge on shipbuilding techniques. Brann scoffed at that one, the contract had been up for years at this point without any cimants, and what interest did a Roman have in the sea anyway. Real dignitas was earned on nd as was proper.
The creaking of wooden stairs made him look up from his papers. The new wench Aurelia was gently plodding down the steps, despite her grace of movement there was inevitably a certain amount of bounce and jiggle in some eye-catching pces.
Brann was happy with her performance so far, the kitchen liked her, the two other wenches who worked for him liked her, and the patrons definitely liked her. He watched as she marched into the kitchen, eager to have her breakfast before the patrons came along for theirs when she'd be too busy to find any time for herself.
Despite her obvious success with her work, and the obvious benefits which came with employing her and having her visible within the establishment, Aurelia was a puzzle that Brann couldn't quite figure out. She didn't look like any non-humans he'd ever seen, and none his wife had seen either when he'd asked her about it. He'd made enquiries shortly after she'd started working for him about her past, it'd been obvious enough she was one of the fosterlings the temple of Ceres squirted out at arming rates. But he'd hoped that there'd be something to learn about how she came to come into the clutches of the temple. All he'd been able to find out was that at some point years ago, a merchant caravan had stumbled upon the ss when she'd been just a babe, and had dropped her off at the closest temple along their way.
A frustrating response, to be sure. It gave him nothing about what manner of creature she was, or would become.
As the first few adventurers of the morning crowd began to stumble in, Aurelia emerged from the kitchen and began to circute. Smiling enticingly as she swirled, Brann was gd he'd given her the smaller outfit. There had been a Tauren wench who'd worked here st year, so he'd had a set of bar-wench clothes that'd fit Aurelia better than the tiny outfit she wore now. But after seeing the eyes of the patrons raking up and down her form, sticking to pces which were deliciously exposed, he'd known he'd made the right decision.
A problem with running a bar which catered to people who were many times more powerful than your average person, was that some got the idea into their head that they could take anything they wanted and that nothing could stop them. Many an ego had infted after besting creatures which mothers used to scare their children into doing their chores. It'd taken him a bit to make sure that the patrons knew the wenches were off limits. They could tip handsomely to grab a feel, or more personal treatment. But after a few initial incidents, everyone knew to keep their hands off the dies which brought the booze.
He didn't even have to intervene anymore, when some asshole started to get pushy, the other patrons would knock some sense into them real quick. Everyone wanted the food and booze to flow smoothly. After a while, they'd even started to attract dy adventurers when it became clear that this was a pce where a woman could rex without being put into uncomfortable positions with assholes.
He reached into the colr of his shirt, and pulled out a small pendant. It was still a dull blue, like it had been for days. He sighed, and tucked it back under his clothes. He hoped his wife would return soon. While the attempt to form an official Adventurer's guild had failed, there were whispers that some people were willing to try again. And she needed to be here when it happened whatever the outcome.
Aurelia stretched her back. The breakfast rush was over, and most people had either headed out into the city to start their day, or out into past the city gates on a contract. The bar-wench outfit that Brann had given to her was small, but having a corset, albeit a small one was an unanticipated relief.
She looked down at herself. Not able to see anything past her plunging cleavage. The st time she'd been able to see her stomach or feet without contorting herself in the process had been when she was barely past her twelfth winter. She'd grown to live with her proportions, knowing that many at the temple would have sacrificed much to attain a fraction of the bounty her body dispyed. She'd heard many young dies and priestesses compining about back pain, or the burden of constantly being filled with several children, but that was always something that had been strangely absent from Aurelia's troubles. She certainly had the proportions to cause the strained back from carrying such a bounty in her breasts, but no aches had ever come from it.
Her main issues with carrying such rge additions to her form was that they got in the way soo much. Under the flowing tan robes of juveniles, there had been a serious ck of support, so she'd meticulously bound her chest each day to try and constrain their size and movement. Despite this, she'd still had to learn how to move and work with significant limitations to the mobility of her arms and torso.
The outfit with it's corset was different. She couldn't bind her chest anymore, not when dispying her assets was half her job. And she found more and more these days that she didn't want to. The corset gave her chest support in a way that her wraps never did. They lifted and supported, without constricting her breathing and mobility like her bindings did. The fact that with the corset there was plenty of jiggle on dispy did wonders for the tips she received each shift was an added bonus.
Aurelia roused herself from her contemption, and checked over the state of room. It was as tidy as she could make it before her shift was over, one of the other girls would be taking over soon. So she climbed the stairs to the second floor and headed to her room. Eager to change clothes, practically bouncing in anticipation of what she had pnned for the afternoon. Not literally, of course. Her head was close enough to the ceiling as it was, no need to give herself another bruise.
The streets were bustling as Aurelia walked to the small shop not too far from the Sword and Scroll. She was typically only out in the city proper during the mornings and evenings during her temple days, so she was still unused to the sheer press of bodies as the crowds hurried to and fro. It helped that she was so much taller than the average human, most only came up to her elbows, so she could still see clearly despite the crowded streets. Her wings were tucked tightly to the sides of her body, she didn't want to take more space than she needed to, and occasional brush against her feathers as people pushed past her was uncomfortable enough.
At st she came upon the threshold she'd been seeking. A sign at the front of the store had the symbols of a hammer, and a robe inscribed into the wooden pte. As she stepped from the crowded street into the shop she rexed her shoulders, she hadn't even realized she'd been so tense during her walk here.
It seemed like she was the only customer here for the moment, there were mannequins dispying sturdy looking armor the bronze shining with obvious care. She quickly looked past those, the money she made at the bar was generous compared to most serving dies, as she'd come to find out. Likely due to the adventurer clientele and her personal assets on the job. But even with those advantages she'd have to work for months or years before being able to afford any of the bronze equipment. She quickly walked past the shining dispys, there were also grieves and helmets on shelves just past the mannequins, obviously they were meant to accompany one another. All the way at the back of the store there was a low counter where a short man kept a steady eye over his wares.
It seemed like this store catered to adventurers as well, most of the equipment on dispy was just that, a dispy to entice customers from outside. Now that Aurelia was standing in front of the man and could see over the counter, she could see versions of the dispy pieces in various stated of repair or creation. On each written in chalk were initials, sizes, and dates.
She smiled politely at the man,
"Good afternoon! I have an order for Aurelia, is it ready?"
The man nodded, and reached under the counter. Grabbing a rge bungle of cloth and leather.
"Aye, got it all right here. If I remember correctly, ye payed half up front. So if ye've got the other half ready now I'd be happy to hand this over to ye"
Aurelia beamed, and reached into her tan robes to produce a small coin pouch, which clinked satisfyingly as she opened it and withdrew the necessary coins.
The man counted them, and with a nod, handed the bundle over to her. It was surprisingly heavy to her, but she had asked for leathers in addition to the cloth she'd be wearing. Only the more successful adventurers at the bar wore bronze, she'd noticed. And with the prices on dispy, it was obvious why.
She opened the bundle of cloth, making sure everything she'd ordered was there, before smiling again at the man and bidding him farewell.
The walk back to the S.S. was just as bad as before, now that she was carrying a rge package, the tightly packed crowd seemed even more pressing than before. But after some time, and a few unpleasant brushes with rushing passerby's, she eventually made her way back into the bar and up the stairs to her room.
Brann have her an interested look as he saw that she was carrying something, and gave her a small nod of acknowledgment before returning to whatever had been occupying him. She saw one of her coworker's catering to the afternoon patrons, a lithe Felis woman with tabby ears, and a tail rising behind her, swishing like a cat's as she walked around carrying drinks and food.
Aurelia quickly walked to her room, trying not to rush in her excitement. She closed the door behind her, and quickly shed her robes. The temple robes from before were still what she wore when not working, her wench outfit not suitable for everyday use. She quickly opened the cloth sack, inside were two sets of robes, and one set of leather armor. The sack itself was a cloak, the green fabric had been cleverly folded to act as a sack when carrying the other parts of her order.
She pulled out the two robes first, these would be her everyday clothes. She didn't want to be wearing her temple robes any longer, and she couldn't afford any of the togas of the rich yet. So she'd settled for two dependable robes. They were more tight fitting than her tan robe, which was something she was happy about, since it meant she was separating herself from her past and becoming more independent. One was a pale blue, the other a light pink. She couldn't afford to splurge on more vibrant colours yet, but the pale shades were wonders more expressive than the drab tan she'd donned before.
She tried them on in front of the bronze mirror in her room. They covered her nicely, though still dispyed her curves, and a bit of cleavage. They draped down to mid shin, long enough to keep her warm, but not enough to get in the way of her movement. She liked the way the light blue resonated with her golden hair, and the pink made her skin look positively luminous. Satisfied so far, she picked up the cloak, the green providing sharp contrast to the lighter shades of her robes, and body. She'd wanted the cloak a bit darker than the others, aiming to have it the same green as the foliage and leaves of the groves she'd grown up in. And was pleased with the results. She was big enough that stealth, or any sort of subtlety wasn't really in the cards for her, but having a cloak like this would at least make sure she didn't standout brilliantly like the sun during her future endeavors in the wilds surrounding the city.
Lastly, she removed her clothes once more, and began to don the leathers she'd commissioned. They were the bulk of the cost, them and having the more vibrant green added to her cloak. The skintight leathers sunk into her curves, a stark contrast to the robes she'd just worn. They covered her chest and most of her torso.
Being as big as she was meant that buying clothing and armor was much more expensive than normal, so she'd had to compromise on coverage. The leather covered most of her vital bits, but still managed to look provocative. It came in two pieces, the top covered her chest and most of her torso, she'd been strapped for coin, so she begrudgingly admitted that it looked simir to tops she'd seen exotic dancers wear, dispying plenty of cleavage simply because there wasn't enough material to cover everything. Thankfully, she'd had enough foresight to ask for a modification to the standard top. Below the rather plunging neckline, was a leather corset which supported her chest nicely, as well as covering most of her upper and mid torso. While the leather didn't cover as much as she would have liked, what it did cover was shielded under thick leather. Which was as good as she could do for now.
The bottom part was simirly constrained by her budget. It covered her maidenhood, and not much else. Her midriff was bare, exposing her navel and waist. Fortunately, the rather small bottom had a short cloth skirt, alongside leather pteruges which draped down to her upper thigh. Giving the impression that it was still some sort of armor, no matter how little the coverage.
Spoilerpteruges were typically strips of leather worn by ancient Greek and Roman soldiers, arranged simirly to a skirt and often worn alongside other clothing, it provided sufficient protection, and ease of movement
[colpse]Looking at herself top to bottom, she was as happy as she could be with her purchases, the clothing would do her well, her new cloak would keep her warm, and the armor would hopefully keep her alive. Most soldiers merely wore cloth, so she supposed any amount of leather would be an improvement.
She tried making dramatic poses in front of the mirror, making intense facial expressions and fring her wings as she reenacted dramas and stories.
After having her fun, she removed the armor and donned the pink robe. Now all she needed was a weapon... and a contract.
