What is Sunlight, and How Do You Do Social? [Marquetta, Arawn, Invite]

If not for the fact that fire was his thing, the burning sunlight would make him unhappy. Extremely unhappy. The only reason he wasn't pale as the average human's idea of a ghost was because he wasn't human, and therefore couldn't actually be 'ghostly' pale. His human form was constantly tanned from the heat rising from his inner flames, so he didn't have to worry about sticking out more than he already did. If his brain was processing 'normal' time correctly, it had been two or three 'days' since Mar had stumbled across his shop; and they'd spent it in quiet company of each other. He tended to pass his time working on side projects, and rarely had any reasons to be verbose; so it had taken him a bit to get talkative. Well, talkative for him, anyway. That first conversation with her had been the most he'd spoken in... years; literally. He just had no reason to speak outside of when he was taking orders from customers that actually came into the shop; most just left orders in the small lock box mounted on the wall beside the door. That was just basic business talk, sizing and prices and the like.

It had taken a bit of work, but he'd managed to hunt down clothing that wasn't his usual apron and woolen trousers. They'd been... some other color originally, but after years standing in front of the bellows and fires of his work stations it had been impregnated with enough coal dust, soot, and oil that they had turned some off color of iridescent black. They also left a trail of nearly impossible to remove gunk behind, so they where not appropriate for wearing out of the shop. He'd managed to find what was likely meant to be his second set of work clothes, but he'd entirely forgotten about them years ago; they where still in the original box and wrapping he'd bought them in. Shit, he'd even cleaned up before changing into them; just because he was a creature of fire didn't mean he was aquaphobic or something like that. His people had a bit of a love-hate relationship with water; they loved it, it didn't like them so much. But given the water he kept down in the shop floor was nearly boiling already, the chances of it flashing into steam the moment he touched it where slim to none; so he was able to get the layers of gunk off of his body. The strange patches of blackened and charred skin where totally normal for him, that was his true skin showing through the human disguise.

Now that he was cleaned up, he was adjusting into his fresh clothing; the pretty common tradesmen uniform seen across the city; an odd khaki material that the humans seemed to like a lot, which was thankfully flame retardant, acting as pants, and something more his personal style, a tunic cut in an older style that was rarely seen anymore, cut from a batch of black dyed silk of a fairly high quality. It was loose fitting and covered most of his upper body, leaving only his neck and hands showing really; covering the markings where his skin appeared broken and burned from the eyes of humans that would start freaking out.

When Mar was ready, he locked up the shop good and tight, he had all kinds of protection runes and such on the place to be safe; it was possible to get those things still, even in a small city like Soubi; and led the way across the Market District toward the far side; the cloth and clothing centers of the market where far, far away from the smithies and such that populated the neighborhood where Houjin's shop was. Too high of a risk of fires breaking out; many of the tannery vats where highly flammable, and anywhere storing massive bundles of cloth and basic silks was a giant kindling pile waiting to go up. Outside of the shop, his body was no more warm than any human-ish being, so he was no danger to be around in the area. "I would recommended that we find a proper tailor, and have you sized properly. I know a few of the better tailors that are like us, they will be able to create clothing that will work best with your natural form and such."

Marquetta had cleaned up some, and even hand washed her clothing the day prior: she preferred such a old method compared to the washers and soaps the humans used – they did something to the clothes that irritated her. So her clothes were clean, though given its worn-torn condition it still wouldn't adorn her to the locals. Still, it mattered little to her what the humans thought – she was as far from their world as she could be while still being in it when it came to customers and such.

She glanced about while Houjin locked up his shop and then up to the sky: it was quite bright and warm, which was nice compared to the way the wind felt after being warm for so long. She nodded to Houjin's words, prepared to following him. ”Alright, sounds like a plan. That's better, anyway... It's quite hard to explain to a human tailor that I need slits in the back of my clothing specially designed to allow my wings to move freely....” Marquetta chuckled suddenly, remembering the last time she had had to have that particular conversation: it hadn't gone over well, and she had in fact been run out of the shop. She had been younger then and thought the whole thing was a huge joke. But, looking back on it now she saw it for what it was; human prejudice.

Wandering. Ni had been doing it a lot lately. She was like a lost soul with no place to go. Her best friend was killed – having died protecting Ni herself. And now.. she felt alone. So, she was searching for someone she knew – one of her old friends who she could visit with and perhaps shake this terrible feeling that was upon her. She was beyond tears now, beyond the mourning, and simply into full and complete emptiness. Like a shell that had been hollowed out.

So, her travels had finally brought her to Soubi Shingai: a beautiful island built right on top of a once active volcano. According to the little research she had bothered with the giant volcano had been sleeping for quite some time, but still produced a good bit of heat that kept the place rather warm all year round. Still; it was bright and sunny and that was enough to have her quite unhappy.

She was in her usual airy clothing: a white short sleeved top that hung off of her shoulders and which went down to her thighs with a belt around the middle made out of gold rope. A pair of baggy white airy pants as well, and what would appear to be white flats. Over this though was a dark black cloak made out of incredibly thick material. The hood was up, despite the heat, shielding her face and skin from view; though several strands of her rainbow colored hair would stand out. Her and the sun didn't get along given her vampire-like nature: while she wouldn't outright com-bust and burst into flames the sunburn she received from even minor exposure was cringe worthy.

Ni headed towards the market, whistling a tune she had been whistling for almost her entire life – something her grandmother had taught her that stuck with her for forever...