Surprisingly Little

Morgala stared dumbfounded at the contents of her locker, which consisted of merely a pair of hardy workman's boots, a pair of welder's gloves, and a miner's helmet with a red gem on the forehead. The small locker was completely empty besides that, meaning her prospects for clothing were just as bare as she was now.

At first, the elf assumed she'd been given the wrong key and that this was someone else's locker. Unfortunately, a cry to her left confirmed this was not the case. "Is this a fucking joke!?" Takoff yelled, stomping over to the registration desk, just as naked as ever. She held up her own pair of identical boots and helmet, shaking them angrily, and screamed at Malak, "Are you guys hazing the new girls or something? Because this isn't funny!"

"Trust me, miss; you'll know when we're messing with you in jest." Malak chuckled as she pointed to the items being held in her face. "This is 100 percent serious, I'm afraid."

"You're telling me you expect us to work naked? Isn't that against guild policy or something?!"

"The opposite, actually," Takoff whipped her head around to see Bralite approaching the desk, and her eyes widened at what the dwarf was wearing. Or rather, what she wasn't. The beefy woman was baring it all, her dark lavender skin contrasted only by the stark white hair on her arms, chest, and lower lips. She was positively glowing in the dark cave light, putting the pasty skin tones of Morgala and Takoff to shame. "This is standard for going into the mines these days."

"Bu... but... how?" Takoff could barely stutter out a response, the reality of her misfortune continuing to make her spirits plummet.

"Simply put, it's sweltering down there. The heat from those magic gems will make you sweat buckets, and we don't need thick coveralls making that worse. There won't be any heatstroke on my watch, you bet your ass."

"Isn't it dangerous, though?" Morgala piped up, gaining a bit of courage to speak her mind. "Shouldn't we have protection from... rocks and stuff?"

Malak chuckled. "The only things Duergar need to protect are our toes, fingers, and noggins. So that's all the uniform we need. The guild master's been loving the gold we save on textiles, frankly."

Bralite looked over the two shivering nudists. "I'll keep a close watch on you lot to make sure nothing bad happens, that sound fair? Trust me, you won't need to worry about that for long. Before you know it, you'll be regular cave dwellers."

Takoff didn't like the sound of that. Getting used to living underground was a step beyond what she'd (reluctantly) signed up for. But she didn't get the chance to voice any more complaints before Thurkla sauntered in, wearing her work boots and hardhat and smiling ear to ear. "This is so neat. I feel like a regular working woman."

Morgala giggled at her lover's enthusiasm and looked down at her own clothes. It wasn't much, but shoes and a hard hat were better than nothing, even if she would have preferred to put clothes on again. With a sigh, she pulled on her thick leather boots, squeezing her ankles into the surprisingly tight apparel, and placed her miner's cap on her head. She smiled at Thurkla and quipped, "Well, at least we still match."

Takoff rolled her eyes but, realizing there wasn't any other option, followed her traveling companions and supervisor as they walked towards the mine entrance, awkwardly pulling on her boots as she walked. Malak just chuckled and shook her head at the three goofballs they'd just brought it; they'd better stay safe down there.