1999th Year, 359th Day

Nian looked Griffen's appearance over, while gathering up the courage to tell them their message. Paying particular attention to what they were wearing.

The majority of ninja, became ninja because they were born to a ninja clan and were encouraged to do so, and thus the clan they came from would usually have the strongest influence of their fighting style as well as more superficial things like clothing style.

Some ninja, starting from their childhood would spend much of their time deciding on what style of weapons they would use and even more time daydreaming about what sort of fashion they would wear. Then when they became adults, just like most people everywhere, they would sober down somewhat and loose most of their originality.

With the exception of those invested in espionage, most ninja, where their individuality allowed, would next choose their clothing based on their own tastes of what seemed ‘cool’, classy or beautiful/handsome to them. However as can be expected a large majority possessed similar tastes or had tastes based on the tastes of others.

For to most ninja ones clothing and appearance was important, especially as most ninja were basically mercenaries who made themselves into a brand to attract clients. Like some people wear a suit and tie to work, ninja also had a 'uniform' of sorts, that didn't usually  really differ between individuals.

Nian had been born to clan that compared to most, garbed their members in a style that was almost abnormal. Basically Nian's Mirror clan generally focused on a sense of strong unity, conformity and 'oneness' in general in almost all parts of the clan member's lives, what was important to most clan members and Nian (though it should be noted that they were an exception in a lot of ways) was practicality and that everybody wore the same thing, thus Nian had also never cared for things such as appearance unless it was a component vital to a mission.

This had never been a problem however, for example Nian, in their younger freelance days had never needed to worry about attracting clients because after letting their skills do the talking for them they had never run short of job offers and now that they were employed by the city in what was basically a long term contract they didn’t even need to care about getting new clients at all. And because even later on they had no reason to change out of habit they continued to just wear their clothing in the style of their clan.

In other words, the clothes they wore now were not much different than the clothes they wore since childhood with the exception of the fact that the quality of the materials used were much more valuable and expensive as Nian had only gone for the best and most suitable. But keep though it was high quality the mastery of the tailor who had created the outfit had done a great deal to hide it so only someone with a keen eye might notice the fact.

Nian also wore a hood and face mask which covered their face almost completely with the exception of letting a small band of skin and their eyes peak through. This look, if used properly was intended to be intimidating towards enemies while giving off a somewhat harmless and mysterious and deceiving vibe to friends. In addition to Nian’s well-hidden face, they were clothed in loose pants that looked easy to move in and a long sleeved shirt, which left only the ends of the soft leather boots and gloves uncovered.

An odd aspect of the cloth that made up their clothes, was it seemed to change color slightly depending on the surroundings. When they had been in the dim forests the shade had been an almost greenish dark grey that leaned towards black.

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Right now as they stood directly under the light, the color was nearer to being grey and it had lost all hints of green. This was part of the reason for their success in blending in the forest despite the handicap of the sword. Other than several leather bags and pouches strapped about their person including the large shiny swords sheath, they were mostly free of accessories.

They had a neat appearance despite it becoming slightly ruffled due to the hug and the whole get up just screamed ninja and  I would say, though technically Nian's appearance was quite unimportant, especially considering the type of ninja Nian was, it did suit them quite well.

Griffen on the other hand was a completely different case.

I said earlier that most ninja just like all other kinds of people usually ended up falling the trends of the majority or following the style of their clan's. Well Griffen was an exception on both counts. Neither of his parents came from families that were even anywhere related to any ninja clans, and rather then settle on his own style or follow the majority...when it came to Griffen's sense of fashion you would either think he didn't have any or rather that he had too many.

Almost every day he would change what he was wearing, or at the very least how he was wearing it. He rarely if ever bought things custom or personally made from professionals, with the exception of a layer of armor which he always wore underneath his clothes, he had the habit of buying everything he wore second hand and what he bought wasn't usually built for ninja's.

A large part of the reason he changed outfit's so often was probably because, the usually civilian quality clothing couldn't stand up to the wear and tear of a Ninja's daily work. Griffen unlike Nian, had no clan to restrict his fashion choices and also seem to have very strange ideas of what he felt looked ‘cool’, ideas which changed depending on his mood and what he could dig out from second hand stores and various unknown locations.

In this current scene, Griffen’s head was mostly uncovered except a long brown and red checkered scarf wrapped partially around his neck and forehead like a clumsy turban, which only slightly kept his long wildly curly black hair in check. The rest of his almost shockingly colorful clothes would easily deceive most who saw him, into thinking that he was anything but a ninja. Especially as though the pattern was ordinary, the colors of the bright orange shirt and violet and blue pants clashed obnoxiously.

Besides the eye burning outfit he also had a large old looking leather bag strapped to his back along with several staffs, a hammer, a sword, and several more exotic looking weapons.

Nian after getting a satisfying eyeful of the rest of what Griffen was wearing carefully studied each of the weapons, one by one. It had become Nian's habit since child hood to study and observe what Griffen was wearing every-time they saw them. To most people Griffen's appearance called to question his sanity among many and most…well…were the less kind sort of thoughts.

To Nian, Griffen's clothing was a puzzle they could never solve, something  mentally stimulating and comforting in the way that it kept their always busy mind occupied, at least for a little while.

Griffen was not surprised about this strange behavior as he was well used to his friends many eccentricities, in fact he even helped him with the process by stepping back and spreading his arms and even spinning in a circle once or twice and taking various poses, all the while his eyes were focused on what he could see of his friends face. 

Though most would find what was happening right now something especially strange. Specifically other ninjas who didn't know the pair well would be completely flabbergasted at a minimum. However for the two friends such a scene was a common way of greeting that had started not long after what Griffen thought of as friendship, and Nian as a friendly master-servant relationship first began to become close.

Eventually they completely finished analyzing or overserving, and knew that they were pushing the boundaries of what was considered normal even for them, and so they reluctantly stopped.