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"I don't think so, no," he mutters.
Then, his shoulders jump a bit, and he turns back again.
"Do you have an opinion on the colour pink? Or an aversion to it in particular?"
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"No, why would I?" Caster crossed his arms. "Some fresh flowers are pink. It's not a bad color."
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"Glad to hear it," Sunny says, and then continues, "I happen to have a coat of that colour. Right...right here." He fumbles with the other bag before tugging out what seems to be a pale pink winter coat which was definitely intended for a girl. And no, the narrator's not saying that fuzzy pom-poms on the front of a coat prove the point, but they certainly lend to it.
"It is still somewhat large, but the sleeves can be banded here," he adds, flopping the right sleeve to prove his point.
Let's just say that the stutter was cute, but the logic is not.
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He leaned forward to get a better look at the coat being offered, but finally focusing only on the collar size to make sure it wouldn't slip through his whole shoulders. The texture looked comfortable too.
Finally, Caster nodded and stretched out a hand.
"Can I touch it?"
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"Of course. Take it if you wish." He extends the coat towards Caster like he would a cat. Okay, maybe not like a cat.
Regardless of whether Caster chooses only to touch it or to take it outright, he can feel that the top of the coat is soft, being made of (fake) fur. The bottom portion of the coat is slightly more conventional, though it is still soft rather than leathery.
It's a nice coat, it's just...y'know.
Sunny takes the time to ponder what else he has in store. In particular, he's coming up blank for footwear, but maybe if the pants or leggings cover them...?
He really is failing to think of the possibility that maybe the other won't be able to walk.
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The coat was received with a firm squeeze from Caster's hand. Oh, the material really was soft!
Few seconds passed after that realization and then he took the coat from Sunny's hands to grab it with both his own. Caster pressed the fuzzy part against his face, still marvelling at the feel of the synthetic cloth.
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Sunny turns around to look for more stuff as soon as his hands are freed from the coat. It doesn't take him long to come up with some brand new cotton socks, long tight jeans, and a belt. Reasonable enough.
Looks like good progress is being made!
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Meanwhile, his companion was still inspecting the coat. He's caught up in checking the fake fur part, having pulled out a few bits of the fuzz to see how it held to the cloth.
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Sunny's too much of a coward to ask the other to please not do that. Instead he's busy stealing the other narrator's idea. (In his defense, this needed to be done.) He pulls out a vest he's never worn.
Really, all of this is stuff he never wears, save for the belt, maybe. But even that's brand new.
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It took a while but Caster finally left the coat alone. Satisfied with his observations, he held it bundled tight with one arm in a manner very similar to hugging.
What other things had Sunny chosen? He peeked inside the tent once more.
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Sunny has successfully messed up every single thing he had folded neatly in the baggage. The pieces of clothing he has set aside are in a haphazard pile on his right, while everything else is heaped on top of each other on his left.
He's looking for just one more thing, but otherwise Caster can see (from top to bottom) the vest, belt, and jeans. The socks are somewhere in that pile, hopefully, but they can't be seen right now.
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Well, that looked enough like a complete outfit. At least, Caster could picture how to put the chosen pieces on. So it should be a convincing enough set of clothing...hopefully.
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"Tada," Sunny murmurs in the most deadpan voice ever. He twists around, showing what seems to be a hiking hat.
"This is all I can scrounge up for now," he states. "Thoughts?"
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"It looks okay. Interesting too." He nodded to show his approval while raising the coat to make sure it was included in his opinion. "I can put it all on and tie it up with the belt. Except the hat, of course."
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"Alright. Wait, except the upper clothing too, right?"
Sunny tilts his head and peers at the other curiously. Here's another one of those moments where it's real inconvenient not knowing how much the Grail has transmitted as information goes, but all he's imagining is Caster somehow tying himself up head from toe and rolling alongside him in Nazoja.
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"That too," he replied confidently before making a tying gesture around his waist. "It needs to hold up well."
What Caster is picturing in terms of clothing is to layer everything on, then use the belt to secure it all in place. The strategy generally worked for clothes that were too large. But maybe it wouldn't be so good for too many layers? No way to know until he tried.
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Sunny is struggling to visualise what Caster is trying for, but he does manage, "The belt is likely not long enough to do such a thing."
Said belt is probably intended to be held by the jeans' clasps, but it is a bit longer due to...well, everything still seeming a bit too large.
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He stared at Sunny for a few seconds before realizing what that meant. A soft "oh" escaped his lips, and he tilted his head.
"How is everything going to stay on, then?"
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"Everything on the torso should be able to stay by itself." Sunny takes ahold of the vest to illustrate his point. "See, the shoulders are not so wide, and...oh, wait."
He turns around and takes out a long-sleeved shirt of some light tan hue.
"The vest holds this in place so that you can take off the coat while outdoors," he states. "Then the belt is for the jeans. It's intended to be looped through the clasps there. The jeans in turn hold the socks in place." He stares at the pile, taking a moment to register how they aren't exactly at the top of the pile, and adds, "Those do not have a very wide ankle circumference, so they should be fine as well."
Wonder if Caster is used to wearing socks. Maybe not.
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"Jeans..." he whispered, repeating the new word to himself. Thankfully, that didn't seem to distract Caster from paying attention, as he clearly was following the explanation with all his senses and a brief nod to confirm he understood.
"I see. Each layer secures the one under it." Now the shape of the clothes made perfect sense. There was only one thing he wondered. "What about shoes? Do socks now replace them sometimes?"
Caster glanced at Sunny's shoes as he asked that. He could not imagine that a person walking around in the wild with only socks on would feel comfortable. Well, he wouldn't mind, probably. But others might.
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(I keep reading "jeans" as "Jesus" xD)
"Ah." Now they're both staring at each other's footwear. "Well, I do not think I could find anything that isn't much above your size, so I was hoping we could keep what you have on currently and obscure it through the jeans?"
To be honest, now that he's thinking about it, why couldn't the Grail have allowed Heroic Spirits to manifest different outfits? It would certainly be more convenient.
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A reasonable solution, and besides, people probably wouldn't pay much attention to the shoes. Especially since he was going to have a coat on. It would have been much better if the coat had had a hood though.
"Okay. Don't worry, I won't trip," Caster reassured.
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"If you do, I'll catch you," Sunny says, and then winces to himself. What does he think he'll be doing? Teaching Caster to ride a bike?
"I have a hat for you to wear as the sun gets brighter," he adds. He's speaking slowly now, so something stupid doesn't blurt out of his mouth again. "But it is likely in the other tent."
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The thought brought a momentary smile to the boy's face. He decided not to refute the offering.
He nodded in agreement to the other sentences. "I like hats. It's okay."
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"I'll go search for it. Feel free to try on the clothing in the meantime. Oh, and let me know if you need help with any particular piece."
It seems the mage is back to being polite again. It's not like it's insincere, it's just very typical. Though he does happen to be backing out while making the offer, which doesn't match as well with his words.
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Caster hm-ed in agreement, but turned his head to follow Sunny's movement until there were several steps of distance between them. Then he entered the tent to inspect the chosen clothing more closely and knelt down next to the pile.
The pink coat was set to a side of the stack and patted down with care. Now, he'd been told the shirt went first, right? He picked it up. It probably would fit snugly on someone bigger than himself. But he did have a preference for looser clothes, so he set it down briefly to get ready to change.
He undid the clasp on his cloak, letting it fall behind him and vanish. The material was light--he didn't feel any major change--but now he had no hood to pull up and cover his face. A second-long sensation of being watched passed quickly and then he paid it no heed. Or, rather, chose to ignore it.
The tunic went off next, and then it was only a matter of getting the shirt on, which he did quickly with a shake of his head to free his hair from the high turtleneck. Perfect. But when Caster reached for the vest, he noticed something. The sleeves covered his hands.
Trying to roll back the sleeves without using his fingers was hard work, so he compensated by biting the edge of the fabric and pulling back until his left hand was freed. Then he repeated the process for the other hand without thinking much about it.
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As soon as Caster stops watching him, Sunny retreats as quickly as he can without being loud and goes over to the other tent. There he manages to remember which bag he put the hiking hat in.
...unfortunately, when he finds it, it's a little bit smooshed, so he tries to hold it so that it restores its original shape. He has some luck, but not completely, and from what he can remember, he doesn't know of any structural magecraft spells that could fix it. Sigh.
He holds it against his knee as he tries to find that (probably equally smooshed) second backpack that he had packed somewhere. Maybe he had another hat in there somehow.
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Having conquered the process of putting on the shirt, Caster found it easy to slip on the vest. The lack of long sleeves made the task much easier.
Now, which one next, the jeans or the socks? The pants were supposed to hold up the socks, though because of the size it would not be a tight fit. Maybe it would be better to just go in the order he'd been told instead of trying to figure it out by himself. He could do that later. So, Caster shifted to shake off his shoes and then roll up the socks until the border was thick enough to not slide down.
And finally, he stood up for the last of all the "inner" clothing: the jeans.
That one looked simple too. He didn't take off anything else for the pants were long enough to cover up the entirety of his legs (and feet). It was just a matter of pulling up the pants, up as high as they'd go- and then Caster realized he forgot the belt at one side. As soon as he leaned over to pick it up though, the pants threatened to fall off, and he crouched to avoid that. A slow but sure stretch towards the belt and then, voila!
But looping it around the jeans' waist turned out to be another matter entirely, as when he put the belt through one loop, the pants' waistline dropped on the opposite side and the belt slipped out with it.
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No luck, huh.
And that's speaking on both sides. The hat in the other backpack is plainly too big, being the larger of the same variant. Really, seeing as Sunny's hair is coloured just as strangely as Caster's, one would think this matter wouldn't even be a concern to begin with. But of course the mage isn't thinking on that.
With a final attempt at reverse-twisting the hat back to its original shape, he heads back to the other tent again.
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Maybe he was trying at it in the wrong way. Caster paused for a moment to regard the fallen pants and the belt in his hand, and an idea sprang in his mind.
If he couldn't put both on at the same time, it was just a matter of going one by one. First, the belt through the loops, and then, pull up the pants. There, problem solved!
But a new trouble appeared soon after: the belt was much too long to clasp closed. This wouldn't have happened if the clothing were made to size, and yet Caster didn't think much of the lack of belt-holes at first. He could probably bite a new hole so it would fit, or do something similar, but then... maybe Sunny wouldn't like that.
Ah, well, belts are simply thick strings. Caster pulled it tight into a knot (though the clasp, as he had been told to do!) and twisted the ends of the belt in and out. Now the pants would stay up!