citylogs | ( semi-open ) though it may hurt today

[ the nest kid: currently being his nest-iest carefully examining the set of roland's suit. fascinating, kaveh thinks. custom-made material that is durable, and can withstand blows. and yet the suit itself still contains a neat and classic line all the way from lapel to hem.

kaveh side-steps to examine the side profile, and then, with a dip of his head, examines the hem of the cuff with a thoughtful hum - and it's thin, too. perhaps not breathable, but suits like those typically aren't. it doesn't make them any less effective, but it also means that they're likely terrible to try and wash. ]

What sort of blows? Edged force, blunt force, or elemental force? [ wait, teyvatian elemental laws don't apply - oh, but that doesn't meant there aren't comparable ones. kaveh considers this, and lets the question stand for itself. in any case: ] Well, in any case, your suit is matte. You see here? [ kaveh's head tilts in askance, before he gently taps roland's sleeve. ] It doesn't quite catch the light in any kind of noticeable sheen. The ties you've picked out seem to be pure silk; they're catching the light just fine. Any one of those that you pick will draw the eyes to your chest in a way that's incongruous with the way you look. It's also dangerous, isn't it? Assailants will aim for whatever they see first.

[ hm. kaveh straightens. ] Come with me. I thought I saw a few more ties in the back. There has to be one that matches; and have you thought about tie pins? Or cufflinks?

[ Sometimes you see a man screaming on the ground and that's a normal every day occurrence for you.

Just kidding, it sure ain't, otherwise Welt would be a lot more indifferent to the sight in front of him. He had been slowly sifting through the seemingly endless vaults contained within the bank - is his own in here somewhere, are there any other names listed that might give him some sort of clue as to the secret behind this place - but the abrupt noise has his head snapping around and his feet moving forward of their own volition. ]

Hey—

[ His mind follows the frantic pace of his footsteps, conjuring and then dismissing possibilities one after another. One hand reaches out as he crouches down, fingers wrapping around the other man's. ]

It's alright. It'll be alright.

[ Maybe it won't be alright, he can't know that for certain when he has no other clues to go off of, but it's the only solace he can offer right now. ]

Don't act like you know how it feels like to fall for someone...

[ has he??? is gregor been holding a candle for someone this entire time? that kind of gossip would be a nice distraction from roland's thankfully nonlethal breakdown, but alas.

he stops sniveling when gregor asks for specifics, though. there's that urge to tell him what truly killed her, but it's not like he was lying in the first place... still, it's oh so personal, and roland hates it when things get too personal. nobody in this vault would survive if he actually gets a meltdown, like in the library -- ]

Told you... It's an Abnormality. Remember the White Nights and Dark Days, and how all sorts of Distortions start cropping up from out of nowhere? It's during that.

[ whaddahell... it may be boring but at least he looks really snappy in a suit? but what does a millenial like junpei would know, anyway.

roland considers the tie the other guy picked out for him, taking it out of junpei's hands and quickly fixes it on his person. hmm. hmmmmmmm.

... ]

Too dated. Come on, Junpei, I'm not that old. What the hell.

[ only grandpas would wear a design like this, damn ]

Yeah, that was weird. Taking away any living being is one thing, but the thought of taking engines from cars just in case people like us are gonna try some shit is a little funny, not gonna lie.

[ there's nothing to laugh about in this situation, though. roland squints at the note, then looks down at the pair of gloves. ]

"If you will not share it, you cannot use it." Maybe we gotta exchange them? For maybe a couple of minutes. Then talk about them a little. I dunno, I'm not too eager to spill my gloves' backstory even to a reliable guy like you, Doc. No offence.

A sea on the moon...

[ although this time, roland doesn't quickly dismiss tsurumaru's ramblings. he walks closing to the railing and looks up at the moon. it's so far away. ]

Nostalgic? You been to the sea before, then?

It's pretty excessive, if you ask me. Still, I guess it's not like we could take the cars anywhere anyway.

[Daan shrugs, putting on a faint smile.] Oh, I'm reliable? I'll take the praise. [But more seriously, he adds:] Anyway, I'm in agreement about sharing. I feel like we both had plenty of that already, and I'm not eager to get into more details myself.

I don't know how I'd have you use the sewing kit, though. Unless you want to make something with it?

[worse: junpei is a zoomer

Anyway, what's wrong with the tie... Junpei considers a super cool "could have fooled me" joke, but actually:]

I thought it looked like a nice tie.

[What's wrong with it!! It's hip! Some people like patterns they can see, unlike those other ties he still doesn't think are actually different.]

What about a bow tie? [lmao]

[ STOP it just looks so old-fashioned... it's totally something his older coworkers would've worn too. roland doesn't want to reminisce about it.

that suggestion only earns junpei a completely flat look. ]

Do I look like I'm preparing for a wedding here?

[ duh ]

You look like a guy who wears a suit every day. Didn't you get the memo? We're all unemployed here.

[Put on some goddamn sweatpants, Roland, damn. But Junpei can play along with Roland's compulsive suit-wearing behavior, looking again at the ties. Stop him before he finds a bolo tie and ages 40 years instantly...]

I guess if you don't like the dots or my red one, pick the boring plain one.

There's what in which Nest...?!

[ THAT'S REALLY CONCERNING TO HEAR WHAT THE FUCK

but if don is going to move through that rather quickly, then roland's going to follow her lead. he's used to it, she's used to it... everyone from that hellhole's used to it. ]

But yeah, he's a pretty polite guy. Rather naive, too. He's no Fixer, sure, but he gotta get a stronger spine in order to survive where we came from.

[ and yeah, he's not going to ask sinclair for any more personal deets anytime soon... ]

[ nope... zoomers are just Doomed no matter where they are. sucks.

red, huh. of course, the first thing he thinks about the color red is blood. then the red mist, who was so aptly named because of blood. but this kind of morbid thinking isn't really roland's thing, so he shakes his head to get his mind off it. ]

Mm, it's all right. [ a shrug. ] One other guy even recommended me a red tie, but the design he chose was pretty meh. So I was hoping for a different color than that.

Nah, I wouldn't know how to use it. My wife probably would've figured out a way, though.

[ he speaks of her so casually now. reluctantly, he extends the pair of gloves over to daan to take it. it's made of sleek, high-quality material, and it probably would've felt heavy if it weren't for this weird world taking away certain abilities. ]

About the gloves, I used to wear them before. I couldn't help it, what with her being gone and all. [ he smiles wistfully. ] You know how to sew?

...Yeah. Yeah, I did get the memo. But despite how good it sounds on paper, the idea of not doing any sort of job doesn't sit right with me. Weird, right?

[ then again, he was supposed to be retired from the fixer business with his wife until Shit Happened. he could always make up for lost time in his retirement, but he can't exactly lay back and relax now that he dropped the bomb about the killing and stuff...

he hums in deep thought. hmm. hmmmmmm. the he looks at junpei like, ]

Okay. But how about this - why don't we try putting you in one of these for once? Just so you know how it's like.

[ oh, wow. look at him firing all sorts of questions like a gunner from Full Stop Office... ]

Oh, all three of them. I don't always encounter ones that use the elements, but I did fight off the Liu Association guys a while back and those guys can really pack a lot of fire in their punches.

[ like, literally. still, it's always fascinating to listen to someone who seems to know their stuff quite well, and it's actually refreshing to meet a tailor who isn't a weirdo this time around. kaveh's just passionate, and as someone who doesn't really have a lot of passion outside of cooking, roland can only nod along to whatever he has to say. ]

But yeah, exactly. I'm not the type to stick out at all, so the plainer I look the better. Still, I want a tie for normal days - well, as normal as it can be in this City.

[ haha, a normal city. what a joke. in any case, roland follows kaveh to another display with better looking swatches, looking even more and more perplex. ]

Uh, no, I haven't really thought about pins or cufflinks either. Just 'cause we're in a formalwear shop doesn't mean I'm planning to get married. [ never mind the fact that he was married, once upon a time. ] You a tailor or something?

[ happy don can say concerning things even to her own city-fellows. ]

And there, thou art mistaken!

[ ... but maybe it's because they're companions she can say so confidently. she's coming over with. a whole mess of colors. each one of these is a different link, setting them down in another chair nearby with a hefty exhale; don quixote turns to him with her hands on her hips. ]

Young Sinclair hath a spine as straight and strong as any others'! In fact, I would say he is merely too reactive -- but that owes to his youth rather than anything else. [ as if she is one to talk. ] But he is strong and courageous, and though naive he may be at times there is no doubt he is a quick learner as well. It is not his fault he was born in circumstances most fortunate, after all!

[ but he does learn quick, and that's good. adaptability is needed. ]

[There's a soft noise from Daan, almost a laugh as he takes the gloves. Excellent make, well made; after his life living in the Baron's estate, Daan has gotten an eye for these things, for better or for worse.]

Of course. One could hardly blame you. [Daan certainly doesn't!]

Hell, I sure hope so. I've sutured enough patients. [He smiles wryly.] I never learned to make clothes or dolls, but I'm an excellent surgeon. I'd be lucky to know how to make curtains, though.

These gloves are beautiful. Good taste, I should say. Though I'm not sure what abilities you were expecting of them.

I'm Kaveh, actually, first and foremost. I'm also an architect. [ it's said with a self-deprecating little smile, the kind that speaks to a not very funny in-joke. but kaveh continues as he navigates them past rows upon rows of blacks and silks and cotton composites: ] I just happen to have had a very good tailor. He never stopped complaining about how my torso was just a little too short, and my arms a little too long. The man was a miraclemaker, which made up for how often he threatened to never tailor for me again. But because of that, I learned a thing or two about textiles and how it ought to fit on a man's body.

[ fire, though. something about the emphasis suggests to kaveh that it isn't just a mere figure of speech. protection against pyro energy has always been a priority in sumeru, given the abundance of greenery and the textiles that they have reliable access to. it's just lucky that the rainforest is too humid to allow for unattended fires to catch on too quickly. it suddenly has kaveh wondering what the fire prevention systems are like in a city like this. he hadn't looked into it. it could be relevant.

still: the swatches before them are the kind of lightless monochrome that speaks to technical design. kaveh stops at a display with a thoughtful hum. unloading his own armful of textiles on the case, he reaches over it so that he can take out another set of ties. ]

Ah, for you, I'm thinking something like this. [ his fingers skirt over the material, and then, holding it up, gives roland a critical look-see. ] A bit of subtle elegance, but it doesn't take up the entire show. It's also a little easier to clean if it gets dirty. Try it on; there's also a skinnier version, and I can't tell if it'll look better on you or not if it's not modeled.

I know I can't, but...

[She's always dancing out of his reach. She works like a chess grandmaster. In the end, you only meet with her pawns.]

[The contempt makes him raise his head, clarity returning ever slightly into his morose gaze. It reminds him, with a raw feeling, of that night. Tears behind a mask. A tone filled with murderous intent. Not directed at him this time, but...]

Whatever. I'll....I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. She will pay. I assure you of that.

[Why does he feel like he needs to promise that to Roland? He doesn't know. It's like an urge. Roland as penance. Roland as judge and executor. He let his dreams flow that one time, even though they barely knew each other.]

[He wants a soul like him to understand, that's all.]

A sea.

(Not the sea in particular.)

It was much louder... and if you went there today, you would never know who had been there before.

(Wistfully, sighing,)

Imagine erasing thousands of lives. In the end, they just become a number.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir here about being restless. Still, it's not like I'd want my old job back. Uh, either of them.

[Seeing the horrors of human depravity or working part-time night shifts in retail, wowza... yeah, he's fine as far as being unemployed goes. It's the existential restlessness that's getting to him now, but maybe he's just bored! It's fine.

So, since he is probably just bored,] I guess I could try on a suit, but you have to let me keep the red tie. How do I pick out the rest...?

[ in his incessant panic, roland hasn't realized that he might've attracted attention of some other people who are trapped in the vaults along with him. he couldn't care less about making a complete fool of himself, though. he just couldn't. he's so, so tired of having to keep a level head, especially upon remembering that awful, awful day --

but then fingers wrap around his, and he snaps back into reality with a couple blinks of his eyes. an unfamiliar-looking man is reassuring him, but welt may as well sound like he's miles away from roland's point of view right now. ]

I... I... [ his voice is still shaky. the shame is settling in now, and he swallows. ] You... You saw it, right? That memory...

[ this isn't the first time roland's memories are exposed for everyone to see, but he'd like to know if he isn't the only one experiencing this, thank you very much. ]

[ he nods along to don's comment about sinclair, trying not to look at the campy outfits the woman selected from him. ohh man they look so fucking awful. maybe if roland doesn't acknowledge them they'd just be laid forgotten. hahahahaha. ]

Mm, I get it. He's probably at the youngest Fixer cutoff, so I get the naivete. Hopefully this place will help get him up to speed while encountering less of what our City has to offer.

[ if not, well. roland will just have to do all that again -- kidding. kidding. that was so stressful on everyone's parts, okay.

or is he? ]

Just curious, but which District did Sinclair come from?

Oh yeah, you can do that. You're better off learning how to make certains, though. Hopefully I don't get too banged up to the point where I'd need to get stitches...

[ unless there's anesthetic lying around here somewhere? even then, he'd rather take an HP ampoule to the arm than resort to such primitive methods of first aid... ugh, just thinking about it makes him cringe. ]

Haha, thanks. The gloves act like a dimensional pocket. It's where she stores all her weapons, and why I could try blasting the vault door down to get us outta here. She's got quite the collection.

[ there is probably some sort of psychology connection between instantly correlating red with the color of blood... but, since yoshida is as blind to it as everything else, he can only really speculate what this man didn't seem to like about it.

maybe it really was a bad design? ] What made it "meh"? [ he asks absently before he pulls up a random tie clip. the tie clip he picks up happens to be a tentacle tie clip. totally standard and normal. with that, he clips it straight onto whatever tie roland may already be wearing. ]

What about grey?

( semi-open ) though it may hurt today

sorry for the delay! work busy's over, so i'm back. cracks those knuckles

finally here for insanity days later

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otsukare...... ive been busy myself too so. we out here 💪

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also collapses here a couple of days later.....

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