CH71 Chef Clothes
The nymphs' bamboo steaming racks proved useful during the late night in the kitchen, where everyone practiced making sticky rice. Alex, in exchange for demonstrating a new rice preparation method, received a pair of stackable steaming racks to take back to the carriage.
Although Alex wished to speak with Ki about Charlotte's sudden independent movement, sleep seemed a more pressing need. A short walk through light rain brought Alex and Fufi back to the carriage, where the magical girl and bird cleaned up and retired for the night.
The next morning, Alex and Fufi headed directly to the kitchen, where Alex lit the stove and scrambled eggs.
“How’s this?” Alex placed a simple pepper and mushroom omelet on a plate.
“Hmm, can you make it cuter?” Fufi critiqued.
“Fine, let me try again.” Alex tried a second dish, crafting squid-shaped sausages complete with ketchup eyes and mouths. To complete the meal, a ketchup smiley face and hearts adorned the omelet.
“Much better!” Fufi praised.
“They are about the same thing.” Alex eyed the two omelets. “But one is kinda embarrassing.”
“Try them and check your stats.” Fufi gestured a wing at the plain looking omelet then the cute one.
Alex shrugged, taking a bite of the first omelet. A quick phone check showed no bonus. The second omelet tasted the same, but as Alex bit into it, the magical girl felt a wave of… something she couldn’t quite place.
Name: Alex Parker
Class: Magical Girl
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Strength: 11
Constitution: 10(+1 for 1 hour from consumable)
Dexterity: 17
Intelligence: 7
Cuteness: 16
Skills:
Cleaning: 2
Cooking: 1
Dancing: 2
Tailoring: 4
Toymaking: 1
Feats: Empower Doll
Spells: Animate Doll
Lesser Grow Plants
Traits: Mental Resistance: 3
“That gave me a temporary increase to constitution” Alex showed the phone to Fufi.
“Behold the importance of cuteness!” Fufi flapped her wings in a dramatic manner.
Alex made a few more decorated omelets for the crowd. “Okay, I think I am starting to get the hang of this but I don’t want to spend too much time cooking. I’m not in the right outfit. In the right outfit I think I can do even better.”
Once the cleanup was complete, the duo returned to the warehouse. Their next task: crafting a chef's outfit.
Like most things, Alex started with a sketch. “Let's see here. What things make an outfit say chef?”
“An apron? They can also double for maid outfits.” Fufi craned her head over Alex’s shoulder.
“You must really like maids Fufi.” Alex meticulously sketched a collared shirt, featuring a distinctive double row of buttons. Following this, she turned her attention to the hat. The magical girl designed a voluminous, chef-like hat, rendered from various perspectives, deliberately avoiding any aesthetic that might suggest a maid's uniform.
“Oh that hat is fun. It is all puffy.” Fufi regarded the hat sketch.
“Now for the bottom. I was thinking some striped pants? Something that if food gets spilled on them it won’t be super obvious.” Alex sketched out a pair of drawstring pants.
Fufi hummed. “Would they be better with some ribbons or frills? I think that would make it cuter.”
Alex shook her head. “We are going for the chef look not the magical girl look here not everything has to be sunshine and rainbows.”
“Fine, I’ll reserve judgment until the final product.” Fufi huffed.
The last thing to sketch was the apron. “Okay, I’ll compromise and we’ll have frills along the edge of the apron. Also, we’ll need to use the loom to make another bolt of stripped cloth. My tailoring skill says that trying to put stripes on a white piece of cloth is just going to make it look like a poor quality tie dye.”
“It is too bad we still haven’t found a cobbler. I don’t think your wooden sandals or dance shoes are going to be a good match.” Fufi brought up a recurring problem.
Alex thought that dying some thread would set them back for a day. However, it seemed like someone had been busy. Not only were there more spools of thread on the shelves that Charlotte had stocking, many different colors dotted the shelves. “Wow, someone has been busy. I suppose that means that I should make more than one outfit.” The magical girl pauses. “Well, if this works out. I should keep with the theme of sharing. I should make another outfit and leave it in here for someone else to use.”
“Sharing is caring.” Fufi approved.
Alex sighed, gathering a generous supply of black and undyed linen thread, and made her way to the loom. The warehouse was mostly empty, save for a few individuals. Charlotte was outside, basking in the rain and sun, attracting many who admired the wooden spider girl rooted in the dirt. Determined not to be sidetracked, Alex loaded the shuttle and began to weave.
The shuttle moved with superhuman speed, creating thin black and white stripes with Alex's expert tailoring skill. Minutes turned into an hour, and soon, a bolt of striped linen was ready to be removed from the loom.
With swift cuts, Alex fashioned legs from the cloth.
Her hands a blur, almost as fast as a sewing machine, Alex sewed the legs together with needle and thread. She then cut out smaller pieces for a waistband and a drawstring. A final stitch at the bottom of the legs created a neat hem just above the ankles.
Next, it was time for the coat. Fortunately, Charlotte had provided a fresh bolt of white linen. Alex decided to use wool thread for this part, adding a subtle variation.
Again, the cutting and sewing commenced.
The chef shirt quickly took shape. The only hiccup was the absence of buttons in the warehouse.
“Bah, I forgot about the buttons.” Alex searched the shelves in vain.
“What kind of buttons do you need? We could ask around and see if anyone can help.” Fufi offered a vague solution.
“Just some circles of wood with some holes in them. Let me try something.” Alex walked to the wall where a wooden trunk grew up. Alex placed a hand on the living wood and activated the ‘grow plant’ skill, visualizing some button shaped pieces of wood that could just be popped off. Instead, the plants just budded some leaves.
“Darn, Ki makes that seem so easy.” Alex slumped.
“She’s also got years of practice over you. Want me to go ask her for some help?” Fufi craned her long neck.
“Let’s save that for last. I still have a hat to make.”Alex occasionally reverted to old habits. The former Alex resided solo in a woodland cabin, priding themselves on self-sufficiency. The stark memory of early nights spent in a makeshift shelter of logs and rusty metal served as a grim reminder of the challenges faced when going it alone.
Crafting the hat proved challenging, particularly the floppy top. After a few attempts, the headband was successfully cut and sewn. The initial hat turned out uneven and appeared incorrect. The key to success was meticulously attaching the puffy section to the headband, ensuring uniform stitching around the radius to prevent a lopsided result.
Following the hats, Alex moved on to the shirt and pants, replicating the process. By lunch, only the buttons remained to be sewn. They ate in Ki's office, where, to their surprise, a box of wooden buttons lay on her desk.
“Hey, buttons, did you make those?” Fufi craned her beak up to the box of buttons.
“Yes, a little tree told me that you needed some buttons.” Ki smirked.
“Thanks, I tried to use some plant magic like you did but it didn’t work out,” Alex said.
“Don’t worry about it. Manipulating plants is as much of an art as skill. It takes a lot of trial and error to get good at it.” The green-haired nymph handed the box of buttons over.
Alex inspected them. They even had four small holes in the center. “That is the last thing I needed to finish the outfit. You are a big help Ki.”
The nymph just waved a hand. “Think nothing of it. I see that you’ve adopted my cousin's practice of sharing everything. I'm sure one of those nymphs that like to spend all their time in the kitchen will love to try something created by the ever-interesting magical girl in our midst.”
After more small talk, Alex said goodbye to Ki. Alex took the box back and quickly sewed the buttons onto both outfits. She was eager to try on the outfit and see if it provided the bonus she anticipated.
“Oh darn, I realized I forgot something.” Alex rolled her eyes.
“What did you forget?” Fufi asked.
“I forgot to make an apron.” Alex picked up the paper that most definitely had a sketch of an apron.
“Ah, I was enjoying your tailoring so much that I forgot as well.” Fufi chirped.
Making an apron was a lot easier than any of the other parts. Alex cut some bolts of wool into the pattern and went at it with a needle and thread. In less than an hour they got the pair of aprons finished.
Alex got changed and pulled up the stat app on her phone:
[Chef’s outfit +3 cooking]
“Oh look Fufi.” Alex showed the phone to Fufi.
“Nice, that’s the first one you’ve made with three skill bonuses.”Fufi danced around. “Good job.”
Alex found a spot among the warehouse's communal items for the spare outfit, hanging it on a wooden hanger. The warehouse, it seemed, was almost entirely communal, making it easy to find a place.
As prepared as she could be, Alex returned to the dungeon the portal a second time.