“What’s in this bag?” Crystal asked.

I pulled out some of the costume materials.

There were four ways to go with a costume. The first was to make it yourself. It leaned heavily on one’s own ability, and I wasn’t sure I had the ability to keep everything trim while also giving it a unique cut. The second way was to buy it, but that had problems, and a lot of the places and people that offered costume making services had a way of injecting their own tastes into things, so one of their clients often resembled another. The third way was to have someone else handle that for you, working for the like of the Wards or Wardens and leaving it up to the Branding department. Not an option for me.

The fourth was to mix and match. I’d take a small shortcut. I’d bought black and white versions of the same hooded top, picked for the slanted cut around the collar, shoulders, and the more sleeves. I could cut one up and use it to apply trim to the other and know the cut would match. Then I’d apply the additional elements that would make it a costume.

“I was going to do some sewing to keep my hands busy while I read up on things, but plans changed.”

“Cloth isn’t that heavy. What else is that, that makes it so heavy?” Crystal asked.

“Spare stuff from Dad,” I said. I pulled out some equipment. It was the right kind of material, all in a matte gunmetal, but the texture was all wrong. Dad was ‘Flashbang’ and the armor panels, mask, straps, and guards were all in the style of a grooved grenade exterior. I’d always thought it was a dumb theme when most flashbangs were smooth-exterior canisters. “I was thinking I could maybe get you to trim it, Crystal. Sear off the knobby bits and leave just the panel of armor. I haven’t quite worked the process out.”

“I can do that. What look do you want?” Weld asked.

I grabbed the binder, and began flipping through it. Costume notes and ideas.

“There are years of geeking out in that binder, for the record,” Crystal said.

Sveta collapsed into the seat next to me, looking at the art I’d picked out for reference and ideas.

I found pages, opened the binder to retrieve them, and then closed it so I could fish for more.

“Hood, layered long sleeves I can remove as needed for weather. Fingerless gloves with decoration. Metal decoration at the front and edges of the hood… like this image here. Spikes, like my old tiara, but at the shoulder, decorating edges of the hood, and at the breastplate… which would be structured on a basic level, just like this image.”