Nothing is Safe, aka The Big Sealed Carriage Break-In

[revengeisalie]

WHO: Asano Rin (revengeisalie), Octavia Blake (plangona), Caitlyn Kiramman (clavesregni), Jayce Talis (hexcope), Chuuya Nakahara (materialized), Osamu Dazai (unaliveyourself), Cassandra de Rolo (littlestderolo), Cloud Strife (nimbuster), Sleeper (solo_sleeper), Monkey D. Luffy (tensibility), Trafalgar Law (resuscitative), John Reese (aimsforknees), Heather Mason (ingestion)
WHEN: a few days into the train journey
WHERE: various spot, but the main stage is the Sealed Carriage
WHAT: EPIC BREAK-IN
NOTES\WARNINGS: violence

[ Sub-categories and TLs in the comments. ]

Comments

[nimbuster]

"They're not," Cloud replies with a little more definitive firmness than strictly necessary. There's no way in hell he's going to let anyone make this kid work anywhere remotely like a lab or clinic.

"From what I've gathered, it's mostly cooking, sewing, that kind of stuff. Or the library, which should be right up your alley." There's a bit of flat sarcasm in that last one, but only a little.

Cloud has also noticed the careful way Sephiroth has been avoiding touching anything, and he can guess why, given the state of things in the Dregs. "Use the shower if you want. I'll go find some clean clothes in your size in the meantime."

[miniroth]

"..Do you think so?" A library, really? He liked books well enough, but he hadn't gotten the impression his passtimes were things that Cloud would have known about. Maybe he'd misunderstood their future relationship somewhere. "...Cooking and sewing is also fairly straightforward. What task I am put to, I will see it done."

He is if nothing else, adaptable. And he'd learned a few things about cooking serviceable meals without being too fancy about it, fancy was best left in more capable hands -- but unless he was expected to cook for the higher classes, which was unlikely, that too should be fine.

... But any such decisions can wait, because there's an opportunity to clean up and while Sephiroth could tolerate being grimy as long as necessary, it is no longer necessary and immediately he pivots, pulling off the shirt he's wearing as he goes. "I will, thank you." Right now.

[nimbuster]

Cloud shrugs. "Maybe. I know adult you was pretty introverted, and I know he was well-read, so he might've spent a lot of time in libraries. Just don't get obsessed with researching one thing to death."

One of these days, he needs to tell Sephiroth the rest of the story. But this mission is definitely not the time. The kid's already on edge and some major shit is going down soon.

"Uh...sure." Getting thanks from Sephiroth is still kind of weird and unexpected. "If I'm not back by the time you're done, just stay put for now. Need to fill you in on some plans."

And he'll leave Sephiroth to it, heading back out into the carriage to find someone who can provide clothes for a teenager.

[miniroth]

He'd.. only ever been in one library that he could recall, and that was Charlie's. Maybe at some point his research and 'entertainment' wouldn't be quite so closely curated? It's enough to make him pause briefly, shirt in hand, very obviously tempted to ask further questions about that, but he changes his mind.

Priorities.

Although the Professor had long since made things like a lack of clothes to put on after getting clean a subject of embarrassment, he still knows enough of everyone else's social mores to at least wrap himself with a towel.

But when he does finally emerge, smelling a fair bit better, and still damp, he seems a bit disturbed. "Your facilities are damaged. The water kept turning warm."

[nimbuster]

The shower's still running when Cloud returns, not that he can blame the kid for taking his time under the circumstances. He makes a little pile of the folded clothes he's brought on the edge of the bed - black, because Cloud's literally never seen any Sephiroth wear any other color, but old-fashioned enough to be clearly from some past era by their reckoning.

"What? It's not damaged, it's supposed to be warm."

The question gives Cloud a sinking feeling. If Sephiroth thought something was wrong with the shower, then whatever bathing he was doing back at Shinra HQ must have been perpetually cold. Which there's absolutely no damn reason for - not like R&D didn't have enough money. What the fuck, Hojo?

[miniroth]

"...That seems inefficient." It wasn't bad, but there was something alien and decadent about a shower that was anything other than bracingly cold. "Does this train really have so many free resources to spend on heating water for such a mundane purpose?"

Did the one in his small apartment, barely tested for anything but necessary cleaning, also turn warm? He hadn't bothered to find out. On was on, and it was good enough.

At least he's not being dressed in pastels. Black is nice, it hides a lot of dirt, almost all blood, fit in everywhere and matched everything. This would have resulted in Sephiroth fairly immediately finishing off his dry and getting dressed, but Cloud is still there, and Matt had made it very clear that people do not just strip with other people around, outside of locker settings. This. Is not a locker room.

Pants are dug out and he retreats with them. It's a good enough start, the rest would be well within the range of accepted public morality. Shirtless people were inevitably everywhere.

[nimbuster]

"Most people don't consider hot water a luxury. Maybe a little in the slums, but the issue there was more the quality, not the temperature." Because screw Shinra. "Nobody wants a freezing cold shower all the time. Except you, I guess?"

Cloud's patient as he waits for Sephiroth to go get changed and pokes around on the network, managing not to say something along the lines of being unsurprised that he takes showers as cold as he is.

Don't worry, kid, Cloud would never make anyone endure pastels.

Cloud wouldn't have cared if Sephiroth had just dried off and dressed right there - he's used to locker rooms and barracks and such - but he has no issue with modesty, either, if that's what the kid needs.

[miniroth]

Here, without the distraction of the endless crush of other people, the faint sway of moving train is harder to miss, unfamiliar but not in a terrible way. He'd never been on another, if this was what they were all like, aside from the back carriages, maybe.. it wasn't terrible. "I don't know if it's something I 'want'. I didn't know it was an option."

This would require more testing at a later point in time, now was not an ideal time.

"Who am I expected to speak to about gaining a profession?" Cloud would surely know, or he wouldn't have dragged the boy out of the dregs as he did. Libraries or sewing had been suggested, sort of, and he was willing to try either willingly enough, fighting momentarily with a sock. Some of the clothing didn't fit perfectly but not everything was tailored to his exact needs, so it was just fine. "..Additionally, what plans?"