Completed The Last Shirt (Solo)

[Tabitha Aryns]

Winter 52nd, 513AV Traveller’s Row > transition to > Soothing Waters Two bells after the crack of dawn, or what could have been the beginnings of a long morning; if one could even tell immediately within the castle city, despite the lack of sunlight to signal the departure of night. Tabitha arose from her bed, breaking from a comfy slumber, eyes heavy with sleep still as she would look around her dark room expecting to find light where there was little. Outside her small apartment walls came the low rumble of life, the only clear sign that the day for many residents had started, and that her own would also come to fruition. Back to the daily grind. Tabby loosely thought as she got up from bed and readied herself for the day, leaving her apartment behind, and then beginning the short trek to the Soothing Waters. There she would enter, sewing kit in tow, and towards the back room she went with the laundry, and the clothes in need of repair. It would start slowly, and then as the day went on, and more customers came in, the faster Tabby would have to work to keep up with the piling demand. First came the early birds, and Tabby would take their torn garments with a silent reassuring smile, sitting, and opening her kit up to pull out her spool of thread and needle. Assessing the clothing article, it was a pair of breeches, a rather large hole had torn in the back just underneath where one’s butt cheek would be covered. Tabby couldn’t help but die a little inside with kept laughter at the thought, the chuckles she did internally would translate into a wide smile, how embarrassing it must have been to be seen walking around with such a large hole. Turning the pants inside out whilst having of placed the needle in her mouth, pointed side out, she gently smoothed the fabric out, and laid it on her lap. Only when she had took hold of her spool of thread, and unwrapped a long string of it, did she remove the needle to wet the free end of her thread with her mouth. Tabitha held both thread and needle up close to see better, and began poking at the needle’s hole with the thread, it took a few tries, but she managed to push it through and then loop it around twice to make a knot so the thread wouldn’t escape when she was ready to begin the mending process. Now thats done, how much thread will I need..? Tabitha questioned as she eyed the large rip, and then her spool of thread in her lap. It was a fairly large hole, it would require a lot of thread, but she couldn’t underestimate the amount she needed lest she would have to start all over again. The girl wasn’t entirely certain, so she unwound an excessive amount, cutting it off from the main source with her teeth and then putting the spool back into her kit. If by chance she had overshot the amount she needed, she could always use the excess for other torn garments, which was not so much of a chance, but a for sure certainty. Pulling the needle up from where it had been formerly dangling against the side of her leg, she readied her sewing hand.

[Tabitha Aryns]

Pinching the fabric in between her thumb and index finger, she pushed the needle's tip into one side of the rip, and into the other, leaving it there for a moment to quickly tie a small knot at the end of the thread before continuing. She pulled the needle clean through and tightened it to make sure the knot itself would hold- it popped through the fabric instead much to Tabitha’s dismay. Taking the knot out, Tabitha would repeat the same thing, she left the needle in the fabric for a moment, and then took to tieing a second knot over the first one. She had to be incredibly careful with her knot tying precision or the whole thread itself would be full of uneven, and unsightly knots that could have been better prevented. Tabitha watched as she pulled the thread, squinting her eyes in concentration, she had to halt as the knot was an inch off its mark if she didn’t quickly adjust it. So she began pushing and pulling it until finally it would land on the first. Satisfied, she pulled the needle out and much like last time made sure the knot wouldn’t pop out like it did last time, and it didn’t, Tabby was relieved to see. Untangling the rest of the thread and smoothing it out, she pinched each fabric’s ends and pushed the needle into the same end as she had started, twisted the needle, and pushed it into the second end, pulling the thread, and repeating. It was a fairly simple method of repairing clothes, and one Tabby was most used to using, so the breeches itself found its ungainly hole had fled, with only the plain white thread against brown wool as a trace. She tied it off at the end by making a good few strong knots close to the fabric, and biting off the excess thread so as to disconnect the needle from the finished piece. By the time she had finished those breeches there were four shirts, and a pair of underwear that had found their way to her pile of clothes needing to be fixed. Internally, Tabitha waned as she saw them, having of been far too absorbed with the breeches to have noticed beforehand that her load was slowly growing under her nose. Three of the shirts were fairly simple, the seams were falling apart and needed to be restitched, while one of the shirts had a rather large tear in it starting from the shoulder area and travelling down. The underwear however, Tabitha almost recoiled from them, the stained and dirty things were so ragged, and torn, she wondered how anyone could have let them get so bad. Wrinkling her nose, she picked the wretched little thing up with her thumb and index finger delicately, inspecting the wear and tear further, trying to determine if they were actually clean for her to fix in the first place. A faint odor wafted from the undergarments as she sniffed quickly, face paling as she jerked it away. There goes my lunch for today… Tabby groaned in disgust, moving from her spot to give the nearby laundry washer’s the Zith spawn of all undergarments. The one Tabitha had given it to didn’t so much as bat an eyelash at it, amazingly, what every day atrocities did they face? It would come back to her when it was done being washed, but at least it would be easier to fix it without constantly having to repress every urge to lose last night’s dinner. Quickly retreating back to her supplies, and the shirts waiting to be fixed, Tabitha took her seat and grabbed the needle laying on the floor next to the kit.

[Tabitha Aryns]

With needle in hand, Tabitha quickly set to work on the three of the four previous shirts, turning them inside out, and pinching and pulling around the seems to find the bigger holes needing to be pulled together. In, out, her needle went, darkened blue eyes squinting as she focused in on the needle work, in, out, pull, tie, bite, she gnawed each string off with her molars in the back of her mouth. The next shirt, the one with the large rip, she would need to be faster if she were to finish her quota by the end of her shift, Tabitha’s eyes darted to each pile, folding the fixed clothing as fast as she could, and as neat as she could. She stuck the needle between her teeth as she folded the three shirts, left, right, center, and set them to the side to be picked up. Snatching the fourth shirt up, Tabitha began to rush with the torn shirt, why people could never just replace their beyond simple repair clothes would never cease to amaze her. Turning the shirt inside out, she began; In, out, the needle went again, yanking the string as her stitchwork wavered the harder, and the faster she mended the shirt together; in, out, stab, yank backwards, as Tabitha misaligned her shots and punctured the thin layer of her epidermis with a sharp needle, and pulled her hand back with a surprised and pained gasp of “owch!” Tabitha pulled her hand back to inspect the damage she had wrought, it was red around the puncture mark, and a small bead of blood appeared not too long after, and throbbed lightly. Of course, she couldn’t let a small prick of her finger get in the way, so she wiped the digit on the side of her pants and continued on. Okay, slow down Tabby, slow down.. She chided at herself as she readied the needle once more, though, on closer inspection, Tabitha recoiled at her stitchwork. Either too much was bunched together, or the thread was far too close to the edge so instead of keeping the material together, it was falling apart again. No. This just would not do, she picked at the thread carefully, pulling apart her abyssal work out of the shirt to start again. Look at what you’ve done, you rushed, and now you have to start all over. Tabitha internally called herself out for the pitiful workmanship. Raising the needle up once more, this time she pinched just enough fabric together, held it tight, and slowly pushed the destructive little device for a needle into one side of the fabric and out the other, doing the same as the first shirt. The shirt itself was halfway done when she fell into the lul of her work, and an easy rhythm, but much like before, she felt the pressure of finishing before her shift was over, and only ¾ of the way did she start screwing up once more. Tabitha concentrated like she had never before, driving the little needle into the fabric, trying to remain conscience about where she was stabbing it, even if she ended up pricking her fingers more, she would finish this shirt. When she finished the blasted shirt, her fingers were so sore, but she had done it, she fixed the shirt. Both thumb, index, and forefingers began to throb at the end of the pre-massively torn shirt’s finished repairs. Tabitha wanted to groan at the incredibly annoying sensation, but duty called, she looked to the rest of her work with a small sigh. Would she end up working over-time?

[Tabitha Aryns]

There was no way to adequately measure the amount of time she had spent there, it would only be when another girl would come in to switch shifts with Tabitha that Tabby would know her work was done. Which, if she remembered correctly, would be around the noon time but the girl that was supposed to switch with her at the end of Tabitha’s own shift had proved to be more than a mouthful, and more often than not came running a little late. Oh, please, please, don’t be late, I don’t want to do more than I have to. Please. She pleaded to the unknown forces around her with her mind, hoping, though with a slight tinge of doubt, that the next girl would be here on time for once. Yet this wasn’t the time to be grovelling to unknown powers for petty wishes, she began work on the rest of her load; a pair of pants that had floated into her work pile with a small hole was her next victim. The hole itself was a fraying circle, small, but certainly not a problem Tabitha couldn’t handle if she went slowly, and with a steady hand. She ruffled through her sewing kit for a small patch of fabric a different color from the pants around its size and held it up to the victim’s wound, judging. Where she would be fixing the pair of pants, it probably was best if she just cut out a similarly sized patch of fabric the same color, or close to it at least, but she was pressed for time and time just wasn’t something she had. She turned the pair of pants inside out and then held the piece of fabric and needle up to it, pinning the needle into the fabric and pants, before tying a knot at the end of the thread. Pushing the needle through, she began doing the same as she did all the rest of the clothing she was fixing, it was really the only stitch she knew how to do. It was just the simple in and out, over hand looping to the other side, and repeating the same slow process. Her fingers stung as she applied pressure into the needle but she ignored it, focusing more so on her work, than the pain itself. The work itself was the best of distractions, even if it added onto more of the problems when pricking her fingers by going too fast, it was simple, little accidents on her part. When she finished applying the patch to the hole, she gnawed at the thread sticking out from where she had tied a knot to make it less as long and annoying when the pants would be worn. The rest of the work came easily enough, they were simple tears in the fabric, or the threads themselves were far too loose, and the clothing article would soon come apart. All easy enough that she blitzed through them as fast as she could and with as much care too, if mistakes were made along the way, she would certainly hear about it from her manager later. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but could anyone blame her? There were more people in this city than she could count in her head, all different faces, shapes, sizes, and a lot of them came into the Soothing Waters. When is that girl going to get here? Tabitha questioned the unknown forces as she sat in her chair, looking towards the exit, her soon to be freedom. It felt like the air around her had grown stuffier, the door was opening, and who was it? Not the girl supposed to take her shift, instead it was one of the other girls that brought the clothes in, in her hands, a lone torn shirt, and the girl was coming straight for Tabitha. The young woman could only watch in horror.

[Tabitha Aryns]

“It seems the girl suppose to take your shift is running late again.” The older looking woman scoffed as she held the shirt out to Tabitha. Eyes rolling in disapproval. “Do you mind doing just one more shirt, Tabby? Its a squires, can’t have him waiting for a lazy good for nothing tart to finally come around and get the job finished.” As if that made any sort of difference to Tabitha, considering she had just finished, apparently, her shift. Though, the look in the woman’s eyes suggested that Tabitha should comply, so she reached out for the shirt and repressed a sigh. “No, I don’t mind. Not at all.” Looking down at the shirt, she cursed it, and that girl, how infuriating that was to be forced into over time just like that, and it was likely she wouldn’t be paid extra for it. Tabitha unstrung a small amount of thread from her spool, and readied the needle, placing it in her mouth to quick fold the shirt inside out, preparing the clothing article for repair, she took the needle and stuck it into the shirt around its torn area. Tieing off a double knot at the end of the thread, she pinched the fabric on each side, and then repositioned the needle for better aiming. Pushing it through, she went slow, her shift was over, but she didn’t really have the energy to shove onwards like she had just a bell previously. Her shoulders sagged as she pulled the fabric together, tightening the thread, smoothing it out, and then plunging the needle back in, for it to pop out on the other side. Repeat. It was of a common material, what material that was Tabitha wasn’t entirely sure, she had never really paid attention to her mother on most tailoring endeavors attempted at a young age on the girl. Only the ability to repair clothes had seemed relatively useful to her, and had been the only thing that stuck with Tabitha through the many years of childhood, and her teens, up til’ now. Who would have thought that Tabby would end up working in a similar profession as her mother? Tabitha hadn’t, that much was for sure. The shirt was nearly complete, its shoulder cuff almost fixed, and Tabitha had to wonder, what was a squire, what did they do? Sure, she had heard the words ‘knight’ and ‘squire’ only in passing, garbled messages that Tabby didn’t have the time to listen to, but she truly didn’t understand what the difference was beyond that the words were being used in context to protection, or law. They all seemed to wear the same things, did the same things, or whatever it was that the law did, guard, patrol, keeping evil at bay, more specifically thieves away from her pockets, and thugs from her throat. Tabitha squinted more at the shirt, thoughts taking her away, and far beyond, only when she pricked her finger a billionth time did she jerk out of the trance. Frowning, she had sewn too far past the tear itself, but it wouldn’t really make a difference, the shirt would still be functional despite the random stitching going down the back. Without further ado, Tabby bit the string off, and tied a good and tight knot to keep it from falling apart soon after being worn, and then packing her kit up. The other girl had never shown up, but it didn’t matter to Tabitha, she was leaving, kit, and shirt in hand. Continued Here

[Radiant]

Tabitha :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 XP
Sewing	+5 XP
Endurance	+1 XP
Socialization	+1 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Location: Traveler's Row

Location: Soothing Waters

Sewing: Fixing Holes And Tears On Fabric

Sewing: Tying Knots

Loots

Notes :

Woah, I hope Tabby's finger is alright... Enjoy your grades!

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.