Yuki happily threw her arms out, poking her hands out of the long sleeves to give Cronic his proper measurements. "Will I have to pay for it?" she asked. "Miss Arcadia offered to let me help in her shop if I wanted to! For... 'Septims'. Is that your currency? I could earn some," she followed with. For a teen with little experience of Tamriel, she seemed to be settling in better than most Thalmor captives would...

----------

Aria meanwhile hadn't even made it to Dragonsreach. The Thane was back, strolling up the steps as a strong, confident figure. The Dragonborn was back, without Lydia... Aria wondered what he'd returned for, ultimately deciding to wait for them to conclude their business with the Jarl before entering herself.

"This one's on the house." Cronic said, as he set about taking Yuki's measurements. Height, Arm length, chest, waist, and so on, while mentally taking notes on the design of her normal clothes beneath the Thalmor robe.

"The experience is payment enough. I get to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new." Cronic said, putting away the tape measure once he was done, having written down the specifics on one piece of parchment.

"Now then... Do you want something similar to what you're wearing now, minus the Thalmor robe, or something more in tune with local attire?"

Serena, meanwhile had chosen to get out the building and get some fresh air, gesturing to Yuki and Cronic as she passed by, heading towards Dragonsreach herself.

"More local sounds much better. Warmer and safer, too," Yuki replied. She imagined herself wearing something like Aria or Serena, seeing as they were the only two she found looked nice. Their gear was for travel and adventure, light, but hard wearing.

----------

Aria raised a hand casually at Serena as she watched her walk up the steps to Dragonsreach. As quickly as he'd entered, the Dragonborn strolled back out looking to be in a hurry. He tipped his head quickly as he passed the two, and carried on. People tried to spark up chatter with some small talk, but he quite literally just ignored them all and carried on. Life as a legend among mortals was probably annoying, Aria decided. Starting to walk toward the doors, she gestured for Serena to follow.

"Heading in? I was just about to ask the Jarl's people about this 'Miraak' whackjob. Or vampires. Irileth usually has intel on nasty things hiding in the Hold."

"Alrighty. I'll start gathering materials and brainstorming ideas. I might have something ready by day's end, but don't hold your breath on that one." Cronic said, rolling up the parchment he'd written Yuki's measurements down onto and tucked it away into his coat.

"In the meantime, feel free to explore a little more. Just ignore a guy named Nazeem if you come across him. Redguard citizen, has more money than sense and dresses the part. Also tends to talk down to everyone and anyone. I tend to quickly excuse myself before I feel the need to introduce my fist to his groin." Cronic said, walking over to the door.

-------------

"Mostly just stepped out to get some air, wandering without direction, really." Serena said to Aria as the two headed towards the doors to Dragonsreach.

"Be nice to know who's in charge around here though. I tend to try and stay on the good side of local authorities, but that objective is commonly tested when the Thalmor are involved." The woman said, her right hand twitching at the mention of that hated faction.

"Doubt I'll be able to grab some reading material here, but it'd be worth a shot, at least."

An idea popped into Aria's head as Serena mentioned looking for a good read, causing a tiny mischievous grin to creep across her lips. "I'm sure we can get some books from the court wizard. He won't mind!" she said. She pushed open the doors as they arrived at the entrance, and opened her arms as if to display the great hall of Dragonsreach to the newcomer... It was pretty amazing to behold. The perfect seat for Jarl Balgruuf the Greater, who was a fair and just leader of the central Hold.

"Farengar is the court wizard. We'll take his books, because he's got copies. In particular, we're after books on vampires, and books on the dragon war - in particular on Solstheim, or Miraak. Long story short, there's money in beating the crap out of either of the groups that have been screwing with the province lately. The Imperials and Stormcloaks are too busy hacking each other to pieces to spare forces for investigations, scouting, and fighting 'em."

Irileth put her hand on the hilt of her sword as she watched the two women enter, but immediately recognized Aria as one of Balgruuf's 'honoured guests'. She instead offered a nod, which the redhead returned as they headed into Farengar's office. There was a map of ancient burial sites posted on a board beside his desk, which he inspected. He didn't even notice the two enter. And to that, Aria simply walked past him and toward a tall, wide, filled book shelf. Like she said, he had copies of important works and tomes. Surely he wouldn't miss just a few...?

"Feel free to nab some," Aria whispered, knowing Farengar was concentrating way too hard to even regard their 'borrowing' from his collection.

----------

Yuki did exactly as Cronic suggested, and found herself visiting Whiterun's various points of interest. Sky Forge, Jorrvaskr, the Gildergreen, the temple, and various stalls and businesses. It sated her curious little head to take it all in... Was this going to be home? The thought made her happy, after being dragged from Akavir in chains. The people were so nice here, even the scary ones.

Opting to think things out rather than haphazardly rush into the crafting process, Crobalt chose to take a seat by the Gildergreen and begin to ponder, taking out a blank piece of parchment and an Inkwell to begin the designing process, drawing a crude sketch of Yuki's body type before beginning to design around it.

"Hmm... The primary thing for her is to get her something that will keep her warm in these climes. She doesn't seem to use any weapons, so weapon sheaths and the like aren't neccesary... Something for holding magicka potions I wager would be more useful." Cronic thought to himself as he sketched in a potion belt, all the while working on something more mage-like in appearance, yet more in tune with Skyrim's design style.

"At the same time though, I don't want to make it too constrictive in the event she needs to evade. Or something she can't take off without risking indecent exposure if she's too hot indoors. The backlash from that one wouldn't heal overnight..." Cronic thought to himself, opting to add in a removable jacket with a few leather inserts to protect her torso with minimal weight added. This train of thought carried on for quite some time...

-------

Serena promptly began to browse for anything of interest, although she seemed a bit skeptical about Aria basically saying to commit theft while the owner was in the room. But then again, Serena herself killed Thalmor operatives by the squad on the regular, so she didn't exactly have much right to take the moral high ground. Returning to Aria's guidelines, she began looking for anything on Vampires, and spotted something pertaining to vampire clans.

Aria gave a nod as she peeked at Serena's find, but remained silent while they went about 'borrowing' the books. She couldn't find a anything relating to a Miraak, but grabbed a couple of notes on Solstheim. Farengar was still lost in his apparent genius when Aria gestured toward the exit.

Once they'd made a break for it, Irileth gave a single chuckle as she saw what the two were carrying. They passed through the great hall, and went straight for the doors.

"Nothing looked like information on cults..." Aria shrugged, "Find anything you liked?"

"Found a book on Vampire Clans. Maybe we'll find something in there about your Vampire problem? Though I have absolutely no idea what the heck we're supposed to be looking for in this thing." Serena said, showing Aria the book she'd "borrowed" from Farengar as she kept pace with Aria, before scratching the back of her head.

"Well, whatever it is, we'd better get these back. Better to study these on secure turf, no?" Serena said as she tucked the book under her arm, opting to follow Aria back to the Odd Jobs.

"There's this.. 'Harkon' character. Didn't manage to get anything else out of the vampire me and Cronic fought before an arrow turned him to ash." Aria explained, sighing as the two stepped out of Dragonsreach. Behind them, a confused Farengar could be heard asking around about his collection. Walking faster to avoid an angry bookworm, Aria would lead the way back down into the market, and toward home.

"We'll make an evening out of it - I'm sure Yuki and Cronic could join in. We're after a 'Harkon' and a 'Miraak'. One's a supposed high-ranking vampire in Skyrim. The other is apparently the 'true dragonborn' according to some cultists we messed up."

"Assuming those two aren't busy making final fitting adjustments to her new clothes when the time comes." Serena said, walking alongside Aria through the market.

"...I suppose I'd better ask for permission before I drag him upstairs in his sleep though. I'm kind of amazed he didn't wake up from it all." Serena said, looking somewhat bewildered.

"I had an eye open. You're pretty strong, even when you're tired!" Aria chuckled as they approached the shop entrance. She thought for a moment before going inside and nodded along, "I guess we've both been tired recently too. Before we met you and the kid, we had some pretty violent jobs. While we're all for that, it takes its toll. That, and mild paranoia makes me lose sleep - between assassins and Thalmor agents..."

"I don't wield this sword because it looks intimidating, you know. These arms of mine might look slender, but I killed a bear with these once. And I thought I pissed people off on the regular..." Serena said as she pulled up a chair, before loosening her jacket to pull one of her arms out of the sleeves for a brief moment just to prove her point.

"Are you trying to make a record of people from various walks of life, or unlife, I guess, that're pissed off at you?" Serena said, returning her arm to it's sleeve before doing her jacket up again.

"Not trying, ...but definitely succeeding! To think, I opened this place for a chance at peace and quiet. Or maybe not that, but, normalcy, you know?" Aria chuckled. "Little pieces of odd work. Instead, the Odd Jobs name has a dragon to it, bandits, monsters, vampires, cultists... Well, the dragon was us, but we preferred the credit go to Jorrvaskr. Too big a name will attract all kinds of people wanting us to do mercenary work."

Aria took a seat at her desk and kicked her legs up on it like usual. "Shouldn't be what we're all about... I figure its nicer to spill blood for good. They say that's hypocrisy, but bad things don't just go away. IE, I'm thinking that we find vampires, kill them, find cultists, kill them, and anything equally scummy we find along the way can get killed, too. Jarls like to be rid of threats, and they're usually happy to pay for that service..." she explained.

"But I wouldn't take our youngest addition on any jobs like that... She seems interested in magic, and I can feel a little of her power when I really focus on it... But whether she's strong or not, she's just a kid. And kids don't..." Aria frowned for a moment, something crossing her mind that cut her off. "...shouldn't fight."

"Amen to that... But it's not always that cut and dry growing up. I know I didn't have that choice. I partly grew up in High Rock. Back then I was the same as any other girl... Save one small difference; I was born with a sort of "Gift" if you will. My singing voice could enhance the abilities of those within earshot that I trusted. From enhancing the user's strengths, to wiping away their fatigue, to even giving them more magicka reserves." Serena said, before letting out a sigh as he mind drifted back to simpler times.

"You can probably see where this is going. Naturally, a certain band of High Elves found out about my ability... And sought to claim it for their exclusive use. Obviously they failed on that one... But not before torching my home village to ash, and the people I knew put to the sword... All for one little girl's power." Serena said, clenching her fists as the pain of that memory threatened to consume her.

"An anonymous tip off however, let my Parents arrange my escape on horseback in the care of a warrior who fought pretty much like I do today... Up until Thalmor agents dropped him. By the time the Thalmor had arrived at my village, I was long gone. The excuse they gave for his execution? 'Harboring a dangerous fugitive', when really they just wanted their missed prize... But I wasn't a scared little girl any longer. I wasn't just skilled in the art of wielding a really big sword... I'd picked up quite a bit of Conjuration magic too... And they were the first to feel my rage."

Aria sat quietly and listened to Serena, half expecting to hear something like this. Cronic did say that she had reasons to hate the Thalmor... They wanted her power, and were willing to destroy her whole world in order to gain control of her gift. She’d escaped, but even now she might be one of the many dossiers locked up in the Thalmor Embassy - a woman with an enchanting voice, to be captured if located...

“Nice to know you’re strong, ...guess you have to be.” Aria commented, before breaking into a quiet chuckle. “A girl hounded for her power, huh? I take it that’s the case with Snowy,” she said, nodding at the window as young Yuki ran by the shop yet again, with bags full of herbs, jars of specimens, flowers and the like. Seemed like Arcadia had found a tireless apprentice!

“Poor kid.” Aria mumbled.

"Yuki seems to have suffered the same fate... And as if that wasn't enough... Bastards had her marching through the wilds of Skyrim barefoot with clothing that wasn't suited to the climate...!" Serena said, thinking back to the time where she was being escorted to Northwatch, hands clenched into fists as she repeated what the Thalmor called her... And how they treated her.

"Few more hours in that weather and she'd be a frozen corpse... Or at the very least, would need her legs amputated. Not exactly the way you'd expect an Akaviri Priestess to be treated... But the Thalmor didn't view her as a person. More like an object for them to use and abuse as they saw fit...!" Serena said, her eyes almost ablaze with rage. Aria would likely know Serena's pain all too well... And her lust for vengence was dangerously close to consuming her. All the wrongs they'd done, all the pain they'd inflicted, and the very recollection of it all was making the brunette's blood boil. It was at that very moment that Cronic returned from his trek to Warmaidens with a bundle of clothes tucked under one arm, before noticing the anger on Serena's face.

"...Is this a bad time?" Cronic asked, turning to look at Aria.

“All this pent up aggression needs an outlet, and I figure Jarl Balgruuf wants bandits killed, dead.” Aria deadpanned, turning to look at Cronic with a sweet smile. “And so, we’ll get that done tomorrow if Serena is okay with it! I have a location already,” she suggested, looking to Serena again.

“How about it? Just... imagining they’re Thalmor, so we can let loose for a while.”

Serena quietly nodded, taking deep breaths to calm the fire within. Once he was certain she wasn't going to put a hole in a wall, Cronic went and set the clothes down on Yuki's bed before returning to the rest of them, pulling up a chair and taking a seat.

"...So, I hate to be that guy that addresses the mammoth in the room, but... Mind telling me why you dragged me upstairs to share a bed with you?" Cronic asked, not making eye contact with Serena, clearly still finding the whole thing awkward.

"...My slumber is rarely a peaceful one these days. Yet strangely, sharing a bed with someone kind of makes it more likely I'll get a good night's sleep... Though for whatever reason, it only works with a member of the opposite gender. Though such instances aren't always possible. And when I am sleeping alone, I'm tossing and turning in the night." Serena said, keeping her cards close to her chest, Cronic cocking an eyebrow in suspicion, but chose not to pry.

Aria couldn’t help but wear a smug grin as Serena explained herself. Cronic wasn’t exactly complaining, and Serena was happy to admit she needed the comfort he provided! All she could think was how they might make a cute couple in the future. Still, she worried about income now that there were two more ‘employees’ at the shop.

“How about it, then? We could head out tomorrow morning at first light and scout the west plains. Allegedly bandits took a castle in the area, and keep using it to mess with travellers and caravans.” Aria said, clearing her throat, “The castle is worth a lot to Mr. Balgruuf.”

"Well, it could be a good paycheck. We don't really care much for the prestige, only the septims such a job offers... And with two more mouths to feed, we're gonna need it. Getting a reputation is a sure fire way to get ourselves killed or captured by Thalmor operatives... And that's a major no-no." Cronic said, folding his arms, but he made a mental note to get back at Aria later for that grin on her face.

"Plus, it'd be a good idea to remain in Balgruuf's good books. Connections in high places can save our skin when things go south." Cronic said, Serena pondering what to do as the two spoke. Eventually, she found her voice again.

"Maybe... Vengeance isn't something I can claim. The Thalmor are numerous, I am but one. I would probably end up dead before I got close to wiping them out completely." Serena said, a somewhat crestfallen look on her face at the realization.