[OTA] Shop Til You Drop

[falsepretences]

The trip to the outposts - they went to both Diamond and Spade - with Sophie had yielded a few sketches of buildings through a strange mist, but mostly it had cleared Jordan's head and made it clear to him that he was just so damn tired. Of being serious all the time, of keeping his head down, and of basically behaving more like he was forty six instead of twenty six.

The cure for this, obviously, was shopping.

Specifically the cure for this was hat shopping, though Jordan might also be getting distracted by a display of pocket squares too.

Comments

[falsepretences]

"It's not such a bad thing," Jordan agrees as he picks up another hat, examining the inside of the brim of it. "But you have to figure out what that is, and intimidating Henry isn't going to help you decide. It's not like he's keeping you from something else."

If Hadyn knew what he wanted to do, Henry would let him go. Reluctantly, but he wouldn't hold him.

[maskofhearts]

"I don't know what goes on between them, I only take wild guesses. Either way, it is likely to be a long, boring season for me. Which is for better or worse, I guess."

Oh well, he was just going to have to get over it he supposed. "How did your trip go? Find out anything useful."

[falsepretences]

"Nothing concrete. It's weird." He sets down the hat and leans his elbows on the counter. "If you go to the outposts, it's like you can see...buildings in the distance. Sort of misty, like on the horizon. But if you go towards them, you just end up Outside."

He frowns a bit. "They remind me of the embassy. All the spires..."

[maskofhearts]

"....What? Like some ghost version of the arcana lands is meeting us?" Hadyn asked, skeptically. "You can't seriously think that is happening. I mean...That would be like. That would mean..."

Well, he honestly didn't know what it would mean, aside from 'not good'. Frowning he shook his head though, and looked off.

"Whatever is going on, if it keeps it up, the castles are going to be five minutes from town and the town will have doubled in physical size at least."

[falsepretences]

It meant another litany of terrible, horrible, the sky is falling theories, no doubt. Brainstorm sessions with the researchers were starting to be like attending some kind of apocalypse convention.

"And don't forget that we'll have to put additions on the Castles to accommadate all the people who refuse to live in Town now," Jordan says a little dryly. "Any day now someone's going to start putting people together, dormitory style."

[maskofhearts]

"Ha, well..." It was a strange time to be in the deck, he supposed. Though he went quite for a long moment, silently considering what the real results might well be- none of his predictions ended very well, though. He almost wished everything would happen like a loud bang, and then the tense waiting could end.

And they would either be dead, or know what was happening to them. It was the uncertainty that made it all so difficult.

"Not everyone has moved to the castles yet. Some people are still stubborn about it." Luka Novak was a prime example of that, for starters.

[falsepretences]

"Grandfather won't move into the Castle unless we all ganged up and hauled him bodily," Jordan says. "And that strikes me as a fantastic way to make everyone else miserable."

Maybe if Clive made him twitch.

"But enough other people are. Your sister and Mr. Fox had to move apartments early to free up space." He shrugs, though. "There's not much point in worrying about it constantly, though. It's Clive's job."

[maskofhearts]

"Clive does it so well, too." Hadyn said with a snort. Oh well, at least someone else could worry for a while.

"Anyway, I should get going- trying not to buy too many pointless hats. You don't even wear the ones you have now."

[falsepretences]

"I'm thinking of wearing a different one each day, and save the obnoxious ones for when I need to get paperwork from Tens." Which was often. Clearly a reason to invest in obnoxious hats.

"Have...fun with Henry. We can do lunch tomorrow or something."