[Private] 'Tis the Season

Sen nodded his head once at Esther's response. Gardens eh? That sounded vaguely familiar but he hadn't paid it much mind since it had no direct effect on him. So he shrugged it off and went back to the topic at hand.

"Waterproof material eh? Well you could just purchase a waterproof jacket or coat or you could have some material waterproofed for you which I could do actually. Just not anything made of wool or easily rubbed off stuff. Other than that though most material can work." As a fashion designer he'd learned to work with all manner of fabrics and materials.

Heng's comment earned him a quick frown. "I told you to let that go. There's no amount of apologizing that will being my clothes back." He hated being reminded of that encounter.

Just Esther? Heng would try. No promises though.

"Being polite is uh, is the least that I can do," Heng replied.

Heng just nodded at Sen. He wasn't as... outwardly angry as Heng pegged that he'd be, which was good. He still had no idea how he was to go about making up for the coats, no matter what Sen said. Oh well. He'll leave that for later, he supposed.

When Miss Esther asked for further details on what Heng had let slip about the Cave Incident, he shot another glance over to Sen, like he was waiting for permission to maybe.. divulge more information? Of course he still remembers their pact of "no divulging any information whatsoever of this unfortunate incident".. but you know...

The rain? Lies. Or omissive half-truths, at any rate -- there was obviously something they were concealing, and she’d seen Heng look at Sen as though seeking approval to talk. It might be fun to chip at them until they revealed it… but. No. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t a vital piece of information. Just a mildly interesting one. Probably too minor to be worth potentially overstepping boundaries.

If there had been anything out of the ordinary -- and Hunter attacks didn’t qualify as too out of the ordinary, anymore -- they would’ve spilled some beans already.

“Ouch,” she said. “Guess you’d know how important waterproofing clothes is, then, huh?” The statement (it wasn’t really a question, despite being phrased like one) was directed at Sen. “Hm, well… sorry to hear about it.” She wasn’t really too sorry, though.

Her hunt for a decent coat began to grow halfhearted; there didn’t seem to be anything that screamed “buy me”. The teenagers by the sales sign were more engaging than the coats. They were talking loudly, their conversation audible over the Christmas music and other miscellaneous chatter.

Shifting her attention to them, Esther heard bits and piece of what they were saying. Something about family going to Mexico soon, I swear to God, then ice cream. How the two topics were related, she didn’t know… but they talked animatedly, and eventually the conversation drifted from down the street, not too expensive to did you see that girl get run over --

… Esther stopped rifling through the coats, letting them fall back into place on the rack.

“There’s nothing here I want to get,” she announced, dusting her hands off and turning back to the other two. “Unless one of you has a good suggestion.” A huff. “Maybe you saw something I missed?”

The teenagers talked amongst themselves in the corner, voices low, but still audible. The woman behind the counter looked up from her computer to eye them disapprovingly. Such was life.

"You bet I do." Sen replied looking a bit miffed still about his lost garments. But losing those was better than loosing his own life he supposed. His blue eyes lingered on Heng for a second and then flitted away. And he begrudgingly admitted to himself that yes it was better to lose the clothes than the fossil. Not that he'd ever say that out loud. but then his actions often spoke louder than words so the old man's presence was a testament to that. He'd just deny it regardless though and find some childish excuse and stick to it.

Esther lamented the lack of anything she'd wanted and he just shrugged and smiled. "Well sometimes finding the right coat takes some time. That and location. he might have said more. But the Samurai's comment on ice cream pulled him back. "Ice cream'" His eyes lit up just a little bit at the prospect almost as if he was afraid to show any outward signs of joy at the desert, He loved ice cream. And while it was a cold it had been some of his fondest memories having the stuff with his family on hot summer nights and usually right after they'd gotten home from an expedition. Just as quickly as it came though it vanished and was replaced with a devious grin. "I guess as long as you're buying I won't say no."

Heng smiled, a relieved kind of sappy smile.

"I uh, I believe that I passed an ice cream parlour on my way to the meeting spot. It was on the um, the same street as that candy store," he said, looking hopeful. "It's been a um, very warm winter this year anyways," he continued, trying to keep some small talk, trying his best to further dissipate the tense atmosphere that was there earlier.

He ushered his two companions out of the store, turning to nod at the store clerk (not that the store clerk was looking in their general direction at all, of course).

Taking a second to adjust to the light outside, he let out a foggy breath. It was snowing again, light fluffy snow. A taxi stopped by the road, letting off a well dressed passenger. Others milled up and down the streets, a group of teenagers were playing that horrid "let's run across the street game" that Heng's observed the youth seeming to like. He sighed. All of their threads were white, so they won't die playing the game at this time. Probably.

Stores were starting to turn on their evening lights, and street lamps buzzed to life. The sun was setting on the horizon.

The teenagers ran across the street, their threads still white. That, at least, meant that none of them were going to die.

Didn’t mean that one of them wouldn’t get hit, though. Maybe a broken bone or two would teach them a lesson about running into traffic.

Esther had said nothing as they walked out of the store; she didn’t even bother saluting the store clerk, who was preoccupied with something or another on her screen. For the most part, her thoughts had drifted back to the wall-eyed Santa cutout ever so briefly (a similar one was perched in a different window, ever-charming). Sen’s question snapped her focus back into the matter at hand; primarily --

“Where are we going?” she wondered aloud, looking up at Heng. “There’s a place nearby, right?” Stifling a shudder (maybe she’d been too quick to judge the person wearing two jackets earlier), she looked down the street at the shop signs, which were quickly beginning to light up as the day got dimmer. The unsaid "there better be" seemed almost audibly tacked on to the end of her sentence.