We'd never used paint in Eorzea. Dye, yes, for clothing and armor, but never paint. Ul'dah was all sandstone, Limsa was all coral, Gridania was all trees, Ishgard was all prissy cut stone and so on. So we didn't have a recipe for something convenient to paint the shed with. So some pretzel money went toward the bus and pie money covered paint.
We went with barn red, simple and classic. I probably should have painted the panels before putting them up, but painting standing up worked too. More zen for more thinking. We'd been doing camping Saturday nights since Sunday is kind of a dead time at the diner, but I thought maybe we could stick around and find out what the fallout was from The Hat Thing.
Ordinarily a head piece wouldn't fall off so easily. Had it been properly equipped, the guy could have hit her with a two by four and it still would have stayed on. But the manor beret is battle caster gear, and we've been wearing Monk gear since coming here. The caster gear is a bit too flashy to pass as casual wear, and a Monk can't equip the beret. We couldn't even glamour it to a Monk head piece, assuming we actually had glamour crystals.
So, rather than head equipment, Tsu'na simply used the beret as a hat, perched on her head and covering her ears. Where it stayed for the most part until that asshole punched her. (She hasn't told me who the asshole in question was. I might've indicated a predisposition toward a gentlemanly/husbandly sense of obligation to inflict physical harm on him. She said she can handle it, which we both know is true.)
Deciding to not wear it after it had come off surprised me a bit. She'd said she was tired of hiding herself, especially since I'd been quietly spreading the convention/fangirl story. I suppose as long as the cat's out of the bag(gy hat) I can understand it. The question is how understanding everyone else will be.
Which I assumed was why Sam came out with a cider and sat on the bench. I kept painting for a while.
"You source your own lumber. You source your own paint too?"
"Hardware store down 51."
"I coulda chipped in. It's my shed."
"You weren't using it. We're the ones who want to. Besides, rent, remember?"
Sam nodded absently. He looked around. "Your wife here?"
"She's at the library."
"Didn't know it was open on Sunday."
"We asked nice, made an arrangement, offered to vacuum and stuff."
"'Course you did."
I finished the board I was working on. We need to seal the cracks and weatherproof it and all, though we also need to think about ventilation. But that can come when we work on the roof.
I closed the paint, put the brush in a bucket to soak, and sat down next to Sam. I opened the cider and took a pull. We gazed out at the yard. "This about the ears?"
"Maybe."
"Thought I told people about them."
"Ain't the same as seein' em."
"Okay, well...now you've seen em. Whaddaya think?"
"...They look real."
"Cosmetic surgery. For what she paid for them, they better look real."
"What about her real ears? Under her hair?"
"No, those are her real ears now."
"But...I mean...you say 'cat ears', I think o' those hair things kids wear. Pointy on top."
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Echoes of Home
قصص الهواةA man from Earth finds his way to Eorzea, and finds his way out again, bringing his miqo'te bride with him. But you can't go to Eorzea and come back unchanged. Earth is no longer his home, and it was never hers. A serialized story based on Final Fan...
