He then looked to what remained of his uniform. “Hey, do you think I could pretend to be a Ninja?” he asked. “A ninja-bounty-hunter guy out to hunt down a Berserker? Yeah! What do you think, Krys?” "Um..." Kryschenn hedged, draping the blue cape around her shoulders. Cole seemed to be enthused about the idea, she hated to tell him outright that it probably wasn't a good one. "Well, we'd have to find you a proper hood for you first," she said, "and besides, I'll bet that descriptions of all the Outworlders have already circulated through the guards in Macula. Remember, Night Steel was already given the role of Ninja. It won't be very effective to hide yourself as an Outworlder by adopting the identity of another Outworlder, would it?"
Getting herself a little more comfortable in the longer, fuller cape, with an impish smile, she flung it around herself, struck a pose, and quoted Gloria Swanson's famous line from Sunset Boulevard, "And now, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup!"
Though she'd intended it for a laugh, her reference to the main character of that movie, a wealthy silent film star, made her think up a different plan entirely. "Saaaay," she said, looking at the blue cape more closely. "They're expecting to find warrior types, aren't they? Playing bounty hunters would almost be like walking right into their hands, wouldn't it? So what if we pretend we're not warriors at all? What if we say we're rich travellers, like nobles or something?" Arranging the cape around herself, she could almost convince herself that it was a Lady's travelling cloak. And it was full enough to pretty much hide the fact that she was wearing leather armor rather than a dress of some sort. Plus, if she slouched a bit and bent her knees under the cover of the cape, she could appear several inches shorter than she actually was to further hide her identity. It just might work!
"Or maybe..." she trailed off, studying Cole's plain black outfit thoughtfully. "I don't know if we can make you look like a noble or anything in that costume... so..." She trailed off, thinking hard about the possibilities. "So maybe I'm a noblewoman and you're my bodyguard? Hm. Which I guess means that you should be the one to carry this." Picking up her sword from the ground where the Mentalist had dropped it in their fall from the horse, she retrieved its sheath and belt, and helped him buckle it around his waist.
"There," she said, circling Cole with a critical eye. "No... something's still missing. You don't look quite official enough. You need something like a badge or a sash or a cross-belt or something." Considering for a moment, she snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "I've got it!" Taking Cole's cape from her shoulders, she then unfastened her own shorter, tartan cape, folded it diagonally, and then rolled it up into a long, thin roll. "Ta-da! One sash! Here, let's put this on you. Arms out to the side," she told him, draping the "sash" over one shoulder and running it diagonally across his chest to fasten at his waist. "I just need a pin or something, I don't want to tie this in a knot... oh, wait, here's one!" Unpinning the magical rose from her tunic, she held the stem in her teeth (being very careful where she put the thorns) so her hands were both free while pinning the sash together. "Hold still, I won't stab you. Trust me, I'm a theatrical costume designer, I know what I'm doing."
"And there we are!" she exclaimed triumphantly a moment later, stepping back to admire her handiwork (and also speaking much more clearly now that she'd taken the rose out of her mouth). "One bodyguard!" Picking up Cole's cape again, she wrapped it around her shoulders and said in her most 'noble' voice, "And I am the Lady whose body you must guard!" Chuckling, she pushed her red hair out of her eyes, and then sighed, "Although I should probably do something about this," referring to the fact that her hair, although it had started out fairly neatly, was getting progressively wilder and wilder as her time in the Realm went on. "I wonder what hairstyles are popular among the nobility?"
