Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Sudden Realization

When Tess got home, she was met by a rather enthusiastic Ellie. “Hey, how was it?!” She asked excitedly. “Anything cool?”

Tess shrugged. “Eh, not really? More stuff that’s just…passively nice, I guess. I did see a couple of things I’m pretty sure I’m going to be seeing in my nightmares, and I got some new armor, though, so that’s cool.”

“Uh, you want to talk about that or…?” Ellie said hesitantly

“Just nasty-looking monsters. Apparently mini-dungeons can get uh….creative. You’ll see what I mean eventually, I’m pretty sure they’ll take you there too, so have fun with that.” Tess sat down on the couch in the living room, laying down so she took up as much of the couch as possible.

“Well, that’s just wonderful. Can I see the new armor? Is it more leather or something different?” Ellie asked, sitting on the couch across from her.

Tess reached into her bag and took out the armor. “Some sort of…I think it’s called a gi?”

“Yeah, a Gi.” Ellie confirmed. “Could you put it on for me? Please? I wanna see it!”

“Yeah, sure, why not.” Tess replied, lifting herself off the couch. “Stay here, it’ll be a sec.” Tess made her way to her room, where she began to change. She struggled a bit to get the armor on, but eventually was able to. Her first thought was that, while the armor was far more comfortable than the leather she had been using, it was still much less comfortable than the clothes made by Rachel.

That was to be expected, though. Rachel was supposedly one of the best seamstresses out there, and Tess had always thought school uniforms or other clothes were horribly uncomfortable. That made sense now that she was thinking about their quality compared to her day-to-day wear.

But it wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever worn, not by far. If forced to rank how comfortable her clothes were, she’d probably put it relatively high if she was to ignore the clothes Rachel made. She put that thought aside and went back to the living room, where Ellie was waiting patiently.

Ellie stared unabashedly at Tess, and Tess could swear Ellie was almost drooling. Tess fidgeted under the gaze for a moment before speaking up. “Does it…look weird?”

Ellie nodded. “No, it looks good. Really good. Like…dang, I wish I could look half that nice.”

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