thefeywood | the cellphones and fishing au

The air itself smells different--she can tell that as soon as she arrives at the Aetheryte in Kugane. One of the things she enjoyed about Limsa Lominsa is the smell of the sea, but it's a different scent. Surely all the star's waters are connected in some way or another, but there's a variable difference in salt content, in temperature, and the general aura of the ocean itself. When she arrives in Kugane, there's something inside her that immediately pings as familiar.

No matter where she goes, there's a part of her that will always belong to the Ruby Sea.

But it is no longer her home, something she accepted years ago. The world is much wider and more welcoming than she could have ever expected, nor did she imagine that she would find a new sense of home in a landlocked city dusted in snow. It's a large departure from what she grew up with, but perhaps that is part of the charm. Still, Himeka knows well that it's the people that make her want to settle down there someday. Someday.

As if she's ever good at settling down anywhere. There is someone she knows who shares that sentiment, which is why her first stop is to the food stalls not far from the plaza. She enjoys squid as much as the next, but that Estinien has taken a particular liking to it is a little endearing.

Fried squid in hand (as well as a few other treats, because why limit yourself to one snack?) Himeka takes out her tomestone and quickly types away with her thumb. (She is absolutely already digging in.)

I'm here in Kugane! Where are you?

Conveniently for their plans, Estinien had not wandered too deeply into the Ruby Sea. Given the leisurely nature of his plans, it seemed more prudent to have a place nearby to stow his more cumbersome gear while he attended to the sea, going out with only what he needed to explore it.

That is: his lance, his tomestone, and water-friendly clothing. One thing he hadn't yet had was a snack, which made summoning him in Himeka's direction easier than it might have been otherwise.

His dragoon leap makes traveling back to the city relatively easy, and once he arrives, he swiftly claims a vantage point to spy his friend from. When she messages him, he looks out more keenly. Down below, he spies curly red hair. From far up the hostelry tower, he descends.

One of his sandals lands before he does, not being the best footwear for being airborne. Estinien catches up a moment later, gracefully landing in a crouch before straightening up before her. He looks at the lost sandal with a soft 'hmph' before turning to her once more.

He's wearing a haori, tied loosely closed with a sash that is almost certainly not being used correctly. Beneath it, he is wearing some manner of close-fitting scale breeches that gleam in the sunlight. He crosses his arms.

"Well met, Warrior of Light," he says.

By now she should really start looking up if she's trying to find a dragoon, but be that as it may, Himeka also happens to be fairly food motivated and is enjoying the last dango on a stick. Kugane is just an excellent place for street food--getting to walk around, people watch, and eat at the same time is like three of her favorite things combined into one.

Number four would be including a friend or two, and one arrives just on time.

And by arrives we mean his sandal arrives first, which is enough for Himeka to stop mid-chew and stare at the seemingly random shoe in front of her. She only needs to wait a second before its owner arrives with it. She can't help but smirk a little at his grunt--yes, damn that shoe for having a mind of its own. Shame, shame on it like a sad whale deep in the ocean.

She does not bother hiding that she gives him a once over--it's a new outfit, she has to check it out for herself--but settles on a pleasant smile up properly on his face, dango stick hanging from her lips. She shakes her head.

"Mmm, no no, this is off hours. Or else I get to call you 'Ser Dragoon' all afternoon and I'm pretty sure you will get tired of that."

Himeka puts her tomestone away (somewhere magical on her person) and then now bare stick back into her little box of dango--there are decidedly three more that are uneaten. She holds the box out in offering.

"Dango?"

He pauses at her correction, almost as if he'd briefly forgotten that this wasn't still some manner of serious business, and then easily shrugs his shoulders. His smile is faint.

"Himeka," he amends, checking out how much food she seems to have gotten in turn. Part of him is looking for the squid, like a dog that can smell treats, only for his attention to be more immediately grabbed by the dango. He reminds himself that there is no need to rush, and nods his head slightly before taking one of the offered skewers. Additionally, he needs to manage his gil carefully, and if Himeka is going to pay for food, he'll gladly take her up on it.

"My thanks." After taking the dango, he remembers his sandal, and scoots over a few feet to flip it over with his toes and slide it back on. "I know not how the people here keep these shoes in place."

Absolutely no need to rush. They may be on a quest to teach him how to catch some of the more exciting, open sea creatures as well as trying to garner him some interesting new abilities, but it's all in the same of fun. And frankly? She could use a calling that's a little less serious. Himeka never set out to become a 'Warrior of Anything', so she does value the time where she can just bum around with a friend.

Which starts with snacking in the middle of town. Better to hunt on a full belly else your stomach makes your choices for you. (Though, to be truthful, hers often does anyway.)

Her smile brightens considerably when he takes a stick for himself as she grabs her second, quickly devouring the first of the three balls.

"Mmmm~" She hums again around the food in her mouth and begins talking when it's (mostly) gone. "You have to grip forward a little with your toes."

When she swallows, she takes a second to switch her glamours from her decidedly more modest woolen coat and boots to her decidedly less modest attire from home. But the point is to be made as she lifts one of her own sandaled feet and wiggles her toes, flexing them forward and down to show the grip. (Because he needed a demonstration, clearly.)

"And then squeeze a bit between your big toe and your...index toe? Second toe? Do any of the toes but the big and little toes have names?"

Estinien is taken a little bit aback when Himeka activates her glamour plate, often forgetting that it's a thing that one can even learn to do. Of course, she's been playing with them since they first met in Coerthas, but one never quite gets over the image of someone's clothing changing so suddenly. Not least when it's into something that's considerable more revealing.

He furrows his brow for a moment, and then looks towards her feet. He scoffs and then bites off a piece of dango.

"They make passable footwear for the oceanside, but I can't imagine having to grip my toes in combat." Still, as he speaks, he's obviously gripping his toes, lifting a foot to sway back and forth, and get a feeling for how much support it offers. He considers for a moment.

"...No matter what they are called."

She raises a brow at that as she starts on the second ball, chewing thoughtfully as she glances down at his feet. Yes, she can absolutely tell by the way his toes are curling that he's trying it out. Unfortunately for Estinien, she is also the kind of person who would not quietly accept his attempts, however disgruntled he makes it a point to seem.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you're the sort of person who always rises to the challenge, huh?"

The fact that she can say so with a saccharine smile probably doesn't help. Himeka finishes off her second stick rather quick and leaves it in the box with the last. There is one more dango set that she will generously offer Estinien even if he hasn't even finished his first. He should probably be used to how quickly she can stow things away in all five fulms and two ilms of her.

"But this is a good look for you! The blue really brings out your eyes. But you tied your sash wrong and the way your robe is folded is how they dress the dead."

He blinks at her and then takes the other dango, unwillingly to refuse it, leaving him in a position where he's awkwardly standing there with a dango in each hand. Which is only exacerbated when she decides to comment on his outfit. It is really a one-two punch of mischief. He looks down at himself in surprise.

He really hadn't considered the difference. Yet, he's not even completely sure what she means.

"Folded?" he repeats. He'd really just bought the thing to wear over his underclothing when he was anticipating being in and out of the water. Similarly, he'd just bought the sash as a way to keep it closed. Yet, apparently, he's wearing it wrong?

He's not really one to think about such things, but he does know that Hingashi culture takes that sort of thing fairly seriously. He looks at her helplessly.

Yes, she really did not set him up for success in this instant, did she? Luckily for Estinien, view people are also looking up for foreigners, so his attire thus far as probably gone mostly unnoticed. Mostly.

"Yes, yes, the way you have the front." She lets the bag of the rest of their snacks slide down to hang off her elbow as she lays her hands flat, holding one over the other on her chest.

"You have it like this, which is the way they dress bodies in funerals. It's supposed to go like this--" And she switches their positions.

But he needn't worry, because she immediately moves into action, tapping his elbow and beckoning Estinien along.

"Hurry, eat those up before they drop on something! We can find a dark corner and I'll fix you up."

Because sneaking off into some dark alleyway is completely innocuous.

Estinien is mildly exasperated by this, and part of him wants to tell her that it doesn't matter because he doesn't care, but also... he supposes this is part of her culture, as well. He sighs and finishes eating the first dango stick with an acquiescing grunt as he follows after her.

Besides, wearing his haori in the manner of a corpse does seem like a bit of an ill omen.

He's in no particular rush, but he will arrive after in whatever secluded area she's chosen. He's still got two balls of dango left by the time they get there.

"I wasn't aware there was a particular manner in which sashes must be tied," he says. Which is true. He's not sure he's ever worn anything that had a sash like this, before. Only over the shoulder styles, as Aymeric has sometimes worn.

Himeka leads him around the bend towards the back alley of the little line of shops not far from the Aetheryte plaza. There can be some traffic back and forth there, but it is mostly private and it isn't as if they are doing anything suspicious.

"I wouldn't worry too much--if anyone noticed you likely got a 'pass' for being a foreigner." Despite her teasing, she attempts a reassuring smile as she sets down the bag on the ground and unceremoniously undoes his sash, allowing the robe to fall open.

That is, of course, when one of the back doors opens to someone attempting to bring out a bag of trash. They pause, blinking at the sight of Himeka standing there with an obi her in her hand and Estinien now standing in front of her, holding a dango, with his robe open.

"Oh!"

Of course she takes the opportunity to hand this poor bystander the now defunct dango box. "Do you mind? Thank you!"

They just...blink and...set the bag to the side before closing the door behind them.

With that out of the way, she flings the open to rest on her shoulder as she rearranges his robes so that they sit the correct direction.

"It's always left over right. I hope that I'm not going to be the one to dress you the other way, so let's stick with the living, alright?" She flashes a cheeky smile as she smooths out the fabric, finding a small tie somewhere close to his waist to secure the two sides together.

"Also, you actually should be rolling it up a bit to create this line..." Which she demonstrates, rolling the fabric up neatly at his waist just two folds to create the semblance of a seam between the upper and lower halves of the robe. "And then the obi goes over that."

She holds the robes with a a press of her hand right in front before wrapping the sash properly around his waist, knocking his hip with her knuckle in cue to turn so she has better access to the back.

"And you should always tie your obi in the back. When the bow is in the front, you may be 'advertising'."

Up till now, Estinien has mostly just been a little annoyed, but tolerating it for the sake of allowing Himeka to teach him something. When the stranger appears just in time to see her staring at his open robe, however, he actually starts to flush in the face. Try as he might, he can't completely escape the hang-ups of his homeland.

Which only makes her last comment worse. He allows her to finish wrapping the robe and to do up the sash, eating the remaining dango with his free hand as she does, but whatever that is supposed to imply pushes him over the edge.

"Advertising what?" he snaps, as if offended by the basic premise of the way his clothing is tied implying anything. This already seems like a lot of hassle for him, and he's already inwardly acknowledged the fact that he isn't going to do this in the future of his own accord, but this subject, in particular, is actively threatening.

He spits out the dango stick that he's been holding between his teeth.

Luckily for Estinien, she ties his obi with a practiced deftness that will allow him a moment to regain some semblance of dignity. And luckily for Estinien, she takes the sudden shift and sharpness of his tone in stride. Finished and pleased with her work, she slips around to stand in front of him properly with an empathetic expression...but with a raised brow.

"Yourself," she says plainly. Then places her hands on her bare stomach where her obi, were she wearing one, would be situated. "Easier access by opening up from the front, you know?"

Putting her hands on her hips, she gives Estinien one final review and nods proudly.

"But look at you! Now you are absolutely set."

He thinks about it intensely, despite the innocuous way she explains the concept. He sincerely doubts that anybody actually thought that was what he was getting at, given that he's clearly out of place here in more ways than one, but the entire concept gets to him.

That he would wear a sash like that because he wanted someone to... what? Pleasure him? He makes a disgusted sound out loud, but part of him reasons that actually, it might have made his own experiences go a bit more smoothly if there had been a way to recognizably express that was what you were going for. Then again, to even put yourself in that situation would make you look unsavoury in Ishgard.

He finally tunes back into what Himeka is saying, though he still looks sort of flustered and irritated by his own train of thought.

"I'm only going to be taking it off again," he protests, and then the memory of what they were just talking about catches up to him again, and he immediately regrets it. He growls. "For the water. I bought it so I'd have something to put on after swimming."

She has to raise a brow at the correction. She would not have assumed otherwise, but she also worries a lot less about what the people around them may or may not be seeing. Being Ishgardian must be a trial.

"Once we make it to Sui-no-Sato, we will have to get you something more suitable, then. That way you won't need to change clothes every time you get in and out of the water."

That seams the most reasonable to her, at least. There are definitely fabrics that get extremely waterlogged and others that were made by people who have spent all of their lives in the sea. Whether or not he enjoys the fashion is a problem for another time. A time that is decidedly not right then.

Himeka picks up the bag she had deposited on the ground and rummages around for a moment. He's in a sour mood now and that is not going to suit their adventures. So she produces the squid he asked for with a smile.

His Ishgardian heritage truly is a constant burden. He's at least glad that Himeka hasn't continued to talk about the issue. He crosses his arms over his chest, watching her rifle through his bags.

It's true that, back home, there is not much clothing made to accommodate water - not before the Calamity, and definitely not now. Wool could wick moisture away from within, but drying it off from the ocean would be difficult. Honestly, when alone, he just hasn't been wearing a shirt at all.

He has to be dressed more decently with company, though.

"These breeches will suffice, but if there is something to be found for the upper body with appropriate coverage, I would appreciate it."

Then she hands him the squid and it takes it without delay, not even hesitating to pop open the container and pull one out.

"...My thanks," he adds, after a delay.

Appropriate coverage. Estinien, she never pegged you to be such a prude, but for once Himeka keeps that thought to herself. She is, at the very least, cognizant of how far she can push the boundaries.

Or rather, she has learned how far she ought to. And she did sort of impose herself out here on him so that they could have a good time. Teasing him mercilessly is really only a good time for her, and for a short while.

"I am confident we will find something suitable," she says instead. Though for her effort, she does reach over to pluck a piece of squid from Estinien's stash and pops it into her mouth. If he wants to complain, he can, but she bought it and she has always made it a habit of sharing food. (That is part of what makes visiting Aymeric so dangerous.)

"Now, have you been all the way to Tamamizu yet? Or do we need to take a more traditional means of transport?"

Estinien won't fight her over the squid, since it's true, she did buy it. Also, already having eaten the dango, he's in a state where he can approach his consumption of this a bit more leisurely.

Though sometimes the more open dress of others causes him some surprise, he's really more worried about his own body than anyone else's. Primarily, he knows that he doesn't want to be forced to show more of it than he wants, whether by circumstance or otherwise. In that sense, stubbornness may play a key as well.

"I've been to the island, but not the town below," he says, continuing to snack idly. His irritation seems to be waning already. Maybe the squid is just that good. "Do they allow strangers to attune to their aetheryte?"

He understands that Himeka isn't a stranger, but he's had no reason to impose upon the kojin until now.

Himeka nods, pursing her lips thoughtfully. That makes it a little more difficult to get there in the timely manner she was hoping, but travel itself is half the fun, isn't it?

"Well then! Have you ever ridden a whale?" she says as if this is a completely normal question.

Estinien stares at her, and the answer to her question seems obvious. Of course he hasn't - he has nowhere near the penchant she does for taming bizarre creatures. He's not irritated by the suggestion, but he is baffled.

"Do you intend to summon one by mimicking its calls?" he asks.

She raises both her brows at that. Is he calling her out, here? He would not be out of place for doing so. Though she has no issues with making a scene, she feels that he may.

"I could," she says lazily, as if the thought itself is of no difference to her or not. "But I do have a whistle."

With that, Himeka steps around the corner and beckons Estinien to follow her away from the back alley of his sordid redressing and out towards the plaza proper.

"Tako is a little big, so we may be better off calling him by the docks."

Yes, she did name her whale mount after the local word for 'octopus'.

He really should have been more cautious with that joke, because it's true, she would have little reason not to make a show of calling out for her whale friend. Thankfully, she has some mercy.

"Tako..." he murmurs, wondering what the name is referring to. Did she name the beast Tako, or do whales already come with names? He's unsure. Usually, she seems to name things after food. He feels like it may have heard that one before, but he isn't the best at picking up new words.

"How does one train a whale?" When it comes to animals you ride, he's mostly accustomed to chocobo and horses. Anything else is beyond him.

It's a good question and one she considers as they make their way down to the pier proper. Kugane was the first real city she travelled to once she left the Ruby Sea, so it will always have a place in her heart. Always busy--especially at night--she does enjoy watching the plethora of different peoples pass by, each with their own story to tell.

Another time! She and Estinien have a mission.

"I'm not sure I trained him as much as I offered him food a few times and he started to associate dinner with me. Though that is sort of training, isn't it? Whales tend to be fairly friendly so it really does not take much to get on their good side. It was just a nice surprise that when we came back to the Ruby Sea he still remembered me! And now he gets to travel the world, too."

Nevermind that he can fly out of water, but magics are just a Thing.

Once they reach the docks, Himeka goes to stand at the edge and whistles. Not the normal mount whistle that she uses for others, but with her fingers.

Only moments later does the surface of the water begin to bowl upwards. Small boats tied nearby begin go pull at their restraints, water splashing up onto the wooden pier. A massive whale finally breaks through and lets out a deep but merry call, keeping itself level with the docks.

"It's nice to see you too, Tako!"

"And no small wonder it is that you avoided being that dinner," he comments blandly. Whales eat people, right? Being so large, they probably do.

Estinien wonders about a lot of things. Like, how the whale could hear her while beneath the water, for example. He knows that once he's submerged he can perceive little that goes on above the surface - and that's even with an Elezen's keen senses. Do whales have ears? They must, he reasons. He squints at the beast, wondering where its ears are.

He involuntarily takes a step back when it breaches the water, something about any large bodies surging towards him still setting him at ill-ease. He crosses his arms, though, steadying himself. He doesn't really know how he's supposed to greet a whale, or if it even understands words. Himeka choosing to speak to it is really no clear indication.

Eventually, he settles on a neutral nod of acknowledgment.

the cellphones and fishing au

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