soul_logs | Needles, thread, MACHISMO! [Closed]

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Needles, thread, MACHISMO! [Closed]

Characters: Kanji and Auron
Location: Death City Heights, Building 6
Rating: Pg-13 for some potty-mouth
Time: April 7th, Afternoon
Description: It's time for a Stitch & Bitch session, after everything that's happened lately.

All things considered, Kanji should get out there and make himself known as an unpartnered Meister. His skills were only increasing exponentially, and resonance was beginning to become easier - hell, he managed to work with a guy he was personally rather glad to part ways with once everything was said and done, unable to really work out if he could trust the guy. But today wasn't about Katou, and today wasn't about the invasion and the crashed island just outside of town, and the tents flooding the streets filled with refugees. Though... they did have a lot to do with how he felt lately.

Kanji was pissed. Tifa was gone, yet he couldn't let go of this apartment. He knew now she definitely wasn't coming back, and if she did, she wouldn't remember anything. He was fine with that. What he wasn't fine with was just how helpless he felt without a partner, having grown so used to one after the last two months. He needed to change this and fast, but with so much worked-up steam to blow, there was no way he could make any sort of clean connection with a Weapon as he was now.

So he turned to a hobby that always helped to calm him down. As he turned and handed Auron a needle, two fabric swatches and spool of thread, he hoped to give someone else in similar troubles something of an outlet. He wagered if it went well, he would finally start those damned classes all ready.

"Here. These're yours."

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Auron studied his pile of scraps and thread dubiously. He did promise he'd learn though, so the older man started unbuckling the straps on his right hand and slipping off the gauntlet. His massive sword was propped against the wall.

"So...what do I do with these? Am I stitching them together?"

"That's the plan," he replied with a nod, immediately turning to get his own while dodging the lanky gray and white cat who tried to rub against his legs for a little attention, giving a soft chirping meow. This company was new and strange; Iza was used to the short one with the hat.

Kanji returned and had a seat, turning his upper body to thread and tie off the end of Auron's needle before doing the same with his own.

"We're gonna start with a line stitch; easiest one in the book. Y'wanna start at one'a the corners, push the needle through the fabric, and pull until the knot stops the thread," he explained, starting with his first pull through. Then he started his line stitch.

"In, through, back, in, through..." He moved the needle in the steps indicated. "Repeat until the line's done. Line stitch is pretty much the only one you need for most projects. Y'wanna get fancy, well, there's bunch've other stitches for that, but that ain't important right now."

Kanji sighed quietly, and proceeded on with a project he'd been working on. May as well get something done while he was doing this, right?

"...Y'think Shibusen's gettin' pissed that I decided to keep this apartment?"

Well. This was about as basic as it got. Auron eyed his fabrics and string. He lined up the squares and started poking the needle through until the knot caught. Then he threaded the needle back the other way.

"I'm still where I am and they haven't asked me to move yet." Auron frowned his his line of stitches didn't look terribly even.

"What are you working on?"

Kanji'd noticed Auron's stitch wasn't looking too good, but practice makes perfect and that's what the swatches were for.

"Well, I uh... th-there's a birthday comin' up, so I'm tryin' to finish this up while I got time to do it. Shit seems to rain down on Death City about once a week, and people don't seem to get that stuff like this is what keeps everybody from going batshit, y'know?" He turned the doll over and inspected another seam.

"People can bitch about parties, the Bazaar, whatever else 'til they go hoarse, but even in a war I learned that a little break ain't so bad. We can't fight all the damn time, right?"

"True. You have to have something to look forward to or else you lose hope." At least here it wasn't hope masked with lies. Terrible things had happened and might still happen but the city and the people running it gave them a chance to breathe.

"A birthday for someone? A friend of yours?" Auron paused and looked at his squares. Well, he'd stitched the two of them together on one side but not evenly. Maybe it'd be better on this new side. "That's something I haven't done in a really long time."

Kanji cleared his throat. Well, Auron was half-right, b-but--

OH GOOD, an opportunity to steer the subject away a little bit. "What, birthdays? Don't tell me you're another person who goes n' shrugs off their birthday. I mean, it's your day, right? Why not cut loose a little bit?"

Hmm, that line he made was all right, if a little messy, but he looked like he was going to press on regardless. Awesome.

"It's just not important anymore," he said quietly, looking down at his stitches. "I don't remember when it is, anyway. But I don't mind celebrating other people's birthdays. I got kind of good at setting up someone's parties over the years before I came here."

He furrowed a brow at that, ready to protest that it was his birthday so it WAS important damn it, but Auron continued. He didn't remember when it was? How could you really forget, unless...

"S'that mean, you were immortal back home or somethin'?" Honestly, back home he would have called bullshit, but this place was surprising him less and less.

That made Auron look over at him and chuckle. "No, no, nothing like that. I've had a lot of things happen to me over the years that by the time I actually thought about how old I am, I just don't remember what the day was anymore. There's also completely different calendars so now it's really up in the air."

Auron decided to turn that question around. "What about you? From what I understand, you're from this world, although a different version of it. When's your birthday?"

"Makes sense. Y'got a melting pot of worlds here. Why not make up a birthday?" He shrugged. If he didn't remember when his was, he'd probably just make one up for a day he thought was pretty cool; better than the day he was born really.

"...Yeah, our calendars are the same as the ones here. My birthday's January 19th. BREW brought me here about a week before. Ain't exactly on my birthday wish list to be chucked into a war."

Auron lets the other comment go by. It's just one of many things he stopped caring about all because of one fatal fight 10 years ago and more ago. "I don't think that's anyone's wish," he said, in response to Kanji's other question. "Not anyone sane. So you'd be about 16 or 17, right?"

"16, yeah." He nodded. Kanji, you hardly even look 16, and yet... there he was.

"Maybe 17. I dunno. I had my birthday back home, then jumped back two months when I showed up here. Can't really call that another birthday when y'go back in time, right?"

"Probably not. So 16." Auron tried stitching on another row with somewhat greater success. "You wouldn't have liked me when I was 16. I was kind of prideful and uptight. Kind of like a lot of monks in training."

"Never met any monks... but uptight? You?" He asked with a bit of a grin, turning what looked like a costumed hero doll in his hands before he continued attaching the head to the body.

"Extremely. I concentrated a lot on my training and was working on rising up in the church. Now it's not something I care about but the things you do care about change over time." Hmm, this line seemed to be looking better.

"I bet you could say the same."

"Yeah. About a year or so ago, nobody would'a liked me. All I cared about was pushin' people away, because nobody bothered to get to know me; they were okay with lookin' at me like I'm some kinda freak and writing me off like some kinda street punk. Now? ...I want people to get to know me better, look past all this, y'know?" He gestured to his face, but looked ahead.

"That's what my old man was tryin' to tell me to do before he died. I kinda wonder what he'd say if I asked him how he thought I was doing."

Auron set his sewing down to contemplate Kanji's question with all the seriousness it deserved. "I don't think there's anything wrong with your face," said the man with a very visible scar over one eye. "And from what I can tell, you've landed in a city you didn't plan on going to in the middle of a war. You've chosen to get a job, look after yourself, make friends and you had a partner to help do your part to save this world. I don't know your father but I did watch over someone for a long time, so I know kind of what a parent would feel. I think...he'd be proud of you."

To some extent, he disagreed; a year ago, he didn't pay much heed to how he looked other than 'the scarier the better, the manlier the better', but right now he was sick of scaring people he was honestly trying to get to know. While he wasn't ready to change completely - though the thought to pick up a couple of outfits did cross his mind - he felt that what he wore was a part of what made him HIM. Yet despite a note of humbleness felt in response to the compliment, his eyes still turned Auron's way. He, too, was scarred and harsh-looking... shit, he didn't piss him off a bit by saying something like that, did he?

But Auron rationalized, and everything rang true; despite being abducted, he managed to find a job and a life here, full of friends and deeper connections. A knot formed deep in his belly as he caught no bullshit from the other man.

His dad... his dad would be proud of him. At least, Auron thought so. Among the growing number of people Kanji will come to know in Death City, Auron was one of very, very few people whose thoughts and opinions mattered to him most. His heart ached just a little at the vote of confidence, causing his expression to soften.

"When ya put it like that, I believe it. Maybe he is. ...Thanks." And at that, he fell silent, letting it sink in.

"Your line... it's lookin' a lot better," he noted finally, nodding to the swatches and stitch work. He set his finished doll on the table, where it stood on its own. There was a jingle from the far left, before a gray and white blur of a cat darted into the room, fiercely hunting a jingle ball.

Auron started and dropped his cloth swatch. "That's exactly why I never liked cats. They just bolt out of nowhere."

However, the cat did do a lot to change the mood. "Owning a cat kind of does a lot to change your image," Auron said with a little chuckle.

Iza's appearance made him start a little as well, but he stopped himself before he's shout at the cat in front of a guest when she'd done nothing at all.

"She's like that. 'Apex predator' or whatever. Iza's a good girl, though." He still couldn't wrap his head around it, but he could swear the cat got snugglier when Tifa was sent home. It was almost like she knew Kanji needed a little companionship in that rather dark hour, and continued to be extra affectionate even to this day. But today was a day to be a hunter, and kill this jingly thing dead.

"The people I have over tend to like her a lot. She's her own social butterfly. ...Cat." Kanji clicked his tongue and Iza looked up, fangs deep into the jingly ball in her front paws as her hind paws looked silly kicking at it. Her tail whipped around for a moment. She was killing this thing, what did he want now?

"Ah. Let 'er kill her prey and she'll decide she wants attention."

Auron gave a sound of amusement. "Cats are mercurial." He finished off the last line of the swatches. "What do you think? Not bad for someone with no depth perception."

"Mercurial?" That's one word that failed to be defined in his head. May as well ask the guy who used it to figure out what it means. Boost the vocabulary, y'know?

But he leaned forward, examined the lines and blinked. "This is a hell of a lot better for a first try than the people I had workin' on their own with two functioning eyes. Who knows? Y'might pick up knitting real quick, too, make a cozy for that huge-ass pig-sticker over there."

"Means changing unpredictably. Sounds like a cat. Calm one minute and having a fit the next." Nothing wrong with having a bigger vocabulary.

"A what?" That made Auron chuckle. "I don't think covering my sword in yarn is going to work out very well. All I'd end up doing is slicing it apart. I'd settle for fixing up rips in my coat. I kinda like this thing, so I don't want it to get too torn."

"Ohhh. Yeah, that sounds like a cat t'me," he said with a smirk.

"Y'hear that, Iza? Now I can't just call you a 'brat'. I got a fancy word for you." He laughed when the cat seemed to sigh loudly from her nose, continuing on with her prey that seemed to jingle and not die.

"That sharp, huh? So we'll stick to fixing the rips in the coat. For that, you wanna use a thicker thread that matches the color of the area that's ripped. Sew it too tight and it bunches up the fabric. Too loose, and it'll just tear again. Got any tears right now? Consider it a test or whatever."

"Let me look at it first." Taking off his coat became a process, having to remove two belts and a sash before slipping off the coat. "Been on two pilgrimages and a lot of missions with this coat."

While Auron looked over his travelworn garment, it revealed his arms as his high-collar shirts were always sleeveless. His arms were quite muscled from years of swordwork. They also painted a kind of contradiction. Although Auron looked older, his build suggested that might not be the case.

Pilgrimages? Huh. Last he heard of those was in those old history books at school. Made him wonder where Auron needed to be, or why he'd go on one in the first place, but that soon went out the window when the coat came off. Kanji blinked.

"Shit... How much do I gotta work out to reach that level?" He asked. Dude was graying, yet he had arms like he was maybe half his age.

"What?" Auron was honestly confused for a moment until he figured out what Kanji was looking at. "Well, I started the sword when I was really young. Probably five. But the monks didn't get into serious teaching until I was 12 and I was probably your age when they trusted me with actual steel. So I've been used to the heavy sword weight for about...20 years. Probably about how many years I'm older than you. Sounds about right."

He did find a little tear near the bottom of the coat. It could end up a huge rip and a liability in a fight.

He spotted it, too, and seized hold of the fabric. All ready he was looking for one of his thicker threads in the same color, and a smaller needle before threading it and offering it to him. "All you, man."

"Twenty years? Shit... I've just done a lotta heavy lifting for the last, what, four? So I'm gettin' there! All I lifted was tables n' chairs. --Hey, you've been here longer than me. There ever been a Weapon that turned into a desk?"

Auron sighed. "I hope I don't make a giant hole in this thing."

He had to think about that question. "It takes years to build up strength and concentration for any kind of heavy weaponry. I've been here a while, but never heard of a desk as a Weapon. Is that what you use at home?"

"Well yeah! I just kinda take up whatever's handy and beat the shit outta things with it. Shields, chairs, desks... I like the weight of 'em. I was actually thinkin' I'd hit up a weapon shop and ask if they can make a really sturdy, reinforced folding chair..." Wait. Wait, he was serious.

"I think that'd be pretty badass for those times I can't find a handy Weapon nearby, y'know?"

"It does make sense. That's why I have my sword, after all. Your choice of weapon might make it harder to carry around but if it's what you're used to, go for it."

Auron gingerly threaded the two worn parts of his coat together.

He nodded. Maybe it was his choice of weaponry that gave him the build that he currently had, but that was neither here nor there.

"So you were a monk, right? Like robes n' everything? What kinda pilgrimage didja go on?"

"I was a monk that fought off fiends to protect the temples of the Church of Yevon on Spira. So I wasn't completely spiritual. More combative. And the pilgrimage...well. That's a long story. I can summarize it if you want me to."

((OOC: You do know the basic history of FFX right? Just wondering how much I need to explain.))

"...Combative? You better summarize, old man! You got me interested!"

"All right. It all starts with one thing. We called it Sin."

While he worked on stitching up his coat, Auron explained the basic framework of Sin, fiends and the like, how it affected Spira and the basic pilgrimage involved with Summoners and Guardians to try to fight Sin.

He did not add all the twists and turns. Those were later stories.

"So monks were vitally important on Spira because they traveled around to protect temples and sometimes people when they traveled a little bit. But people don't travel a whole lot when something like Sin could come from anywhere. They taught me how to use firearms which were the rare allowed machina but I liked swords a lot more."

'Sin'... he knew that word from its religious connotations in faiths followed in countries outside of his own. But to think that it was an actual monster in Auron's world, always showing up presumably to wreck the shit of anyone who so much as thought about using a machine. And Auron's choice of using a sword made a hell of a lot of sense; stick with the classics, rely on one's own strength. He had to admire that.

"So everyone walked on eggshells so this Sin wouldn't wreck the place. So souls or spirits were a pretty big thing back in your world too, then. ...But when y'said Summoners... what, they called down dragons or somethin' big? How's that not match up against somethin' like Sin?" But Kanji paused before continuing. He didn't have the entire story from Naoto, but he'd apparently helped take down a godly being through 'summoning' himself. But the whole thing sounded pretty cool- swords and sorcery, wanting to grow as opposed to living under paranoia of some unseen deity.

"They're called Aeons and the reason is that Sin is gigantic. It can swim, it can fly and if it were here, it could easily destroy this city with no effort." He'd seen that destruction first hand, even if the Zanarkand he'd been living in was just a dream.

"A Summoner needs the fayth to get the Aeons. Once a summoner visits the temples and is seen worthy to wield all five major Aeons, then the party travels to Zanarkand and gain the Final Aeon. However, that only gives a summoner a chance to win. And if they're successful and they cast it on Sin, they die. So it's a question of if the Summoner is willing to give up themselves for a chance to finally defeat Sin forever or is it better to live as they were? In the thousand years of Sin, only a handful of parties managed to defeat Sin for a little while. More than ten years ago, I decided to go on my first pilgrimage. But that's another story."

"No offense, but that don't make any sense- if getting all these Aeons, then this Final Aeon only defeats Sin for a little while, why keep doin' it? I mean, if it didn't get rid of it for good, then wouldn't somebody've come up with a different plan? I mean, these summoners are dying just for a little break for everyone else... wouldn't somebody want what amounts to ritual sacrifice to end?"

"The thought of the church was that there would come a day when the people had repented enough. On that day, when Sin was defeated, it would stay defeated. So even though it seemed like a large waste of life, so many summoners over a thousand years decided to do it for everyone else. Just to have a chance for the world to hope it might be the time. The other thing was there really wasn't any other way. There's no machina, no means to travel without a lot of danger. People did try other ways. I saw one once." Auron shook his head. "Didn't end well. But that was after I found out a few things. It's a really long connected story of several stories."

"Damn it... but it all sounds so hopeless, y'know? Givin' up your life for a maybe? I mean, if I had to give up everything for the chance that everything might work, I-I'd do it, but..." He sighed.

"A thousand years of it..."

"The story does get better, but it gets a lot worse before it gets to that point."

Auron eyed the section of his coat. "What do you think? Looks all right?"

Another sigh. "It always does."

And then, a nod. "You make a mean stitch, old man. You're pickin' up fast for havin' one working eye."

"Guess I have a good teacher."

Auron slipped his coat back on. "I have to get back to work soon. But I have to admit, I kinda like this. You mind if I come back?"

Kanji stammered out a pointless sound at the compliment, trying to decide between insisting that he wasn't or explaining that there were other stitch types to work with and...

!?

"S-seriously!?" That just slipped out, and for a moment he gaped at the older man. Usually there were the polite yet nervous confessions that maybe this wasn't for them, followed by a hasty exit. But he... wanted to come back.

"S-sure! I got a lotta free time between missions since Death By Pastry's cut my hours back a little bit... they say I'm workin' too damn hard and could use a vacation or whatever." He wanted to come back... holy shit...

No, really, he was jazzed about this.

"I guess you don't get a lot of students wanting to learn to sew. But it's a useful skill so I want to learn what I can."

He had heard Kanji tell him before that part of his culture tended to frown upon men doing things with a needle and thread. Was that why he looked so pleased?

"Pick some time in the future and I'll see if I can show up. I'll keep telling my story and you can tell me some stories from your world. Sound good?"

Kanji practically beamed. "Hell yeah! A lotta people think this kinda shit's boring, but they don't get that it focuses the head, calms you down, and it's perfect for shooting the shit, y'know?"

He nodded, and went to gather up the hyperactive cat to keep her from bolting out the door or something. Iza mewed and started to purr - weird-ass - as he went to see Auron out the door.

"I'll give you a call when I'm free up next. Don't be a stranger until then, man."

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Needles, thread, MACHISMO! [Closed]

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I've seen the game from beginning to end and know the history. :3

Cool

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