Kilt!

[camwyn]

I have a character at Mediterranean Nights, a MUSH set in Monaco. Alec Fitch began his life on the game as a Kinain character who made musical instruments - he's a luthier who left the schools at sixteen to apprentice to a carpenter. Last year he Chrysalized as a type of Gallain I created and got approval for, a Silene. (Like satyrs, but based on horses rather than goats, a little more focussed in their passions, and with slightly different Birthright and Frailty.) Alec had some trouble with the initial aspects of his change-over, most of which had to do with anatomy - he simply couldn't convince himself that his pants fit any more, since he had the anatomy of a Friesian stallion from the waist down. So after about three days of trying to compromise he said 'screw it' and became the only man in Monaco to routinely wear a kilt*.

I was combing through BBC News Online today and saw this. Immediately thought of Alec.

Dress protest worker wears kilt

A civil servant in Birmingham who was banned from wearing jeans in the office is coming to work in a kilt instead. Dennis Fitzpatrick, who works at a Jobcentre Plus, claims a new dress code imposed by managers, requiring men to wear trousers, shirt and tie is discriminatory.

The 45-year-old has used his Scottish ancestry to take advantage of a rule which allows workers to wear national dress. He received a written warning from the Employment Service after wearing black jeans in the office while his kilt was being cleaned...

Alec actually puts some effort into assembling a proper, formal outfit when he's not spending most of his work time doing sawdusty, varnishy things, but it's always the kilt. It's simpler to kick people who ask why he's wearing a dress than it is to try and get his damn trousers over his bloody hocks and his bloody tail through the bloody hole**.


*With baggy boxers under it, it gets drafty around the workshop
**He really did try more than a few times but it finally got to be more than he could take

Comments

[pelogrande.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Utilikilts (http://www.utilikilts.com/) yet? I'd like to get myself one of these once I have enough spare cash.

[batyatoon]

I am actually reminded of a book I read many long years ago, authored by someone whose name I can't recall, titled The Obnoxious Jerks. About a group of high school kids called so because they enjoy messing with other people's heads, especially about stupid and pointlessly restrictive rules.

About halfway through the book there's a heat wave, and they protest a school rule against wearing shorts by coming to school in skirts.
And yes, there is a point where one tells another who is a bit squicked at going out in public in a skirt: "Just pretend you're Scottish. You're wearing a manly kilt."