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Post by Briar on Oct 1, 2020 19:32:21 GMT -6
"Say, Yeo-reum," said Aubrey, considering the card in his hand. "Do you think you'd want to go to a party?" Yeo-reum, who had been sitting at the window, looked up at Aubrey's words. He had been people-watching, probably; it reminded Aubrey a little of a cat sitting at the windowsill and watching birds go by, except of course that Yeo-reum was much bigger, and the thoughts in his head were probably more complicated too. Not too complicated, or too labyrinthine, for Aubrey's voice to draw him out of them though. Yeo-reum wasn't really like a cat in many ways; he liked people, and was willing to be silly so long as it was on his own terms. In retrospect, Aubrey thought he probably didn't even need to ask. Was he kidding? Of course Yeo-reum wanted to go to a party! It probably barely even mattered what kind of party it was. 1
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Post by Briar on Oct 1, 2020 19:44:06 GMT -6
Not that he could have asked, of course. Aubrey still hadn't worked out a way for them to have a proper conversation, and as much of a shame as it was, those fancy speech collars were a little too far out of his price range to consider.
But almost any party was a good party in Yeo-reum's book. The Tat confirmed this by brightening as soon as he processed what Aubrey was saying, his mane fluffing up. Aubrey laughed. "I'll take that as a yes," he said. "Well, you're in luck then. I've got an invitation." He waved the card in Yeo-reum's general direction, but no sooner had he said this than did Yeo-reum scramble to his feet and make his way over, knocking a chair out of the way in his hurry to see it.
"Hey, careful with the furniture," Aubrey said, getting up to steady the chair before it fell over.
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Post by Briar on Oct 1, 2020 19:50:18 GMT -6
That was all the opportunity Yeo-reum needed to snatch the card from him and peer at it. Not that he got a lot of useful information out of it, since Yeo-reum hadn't been taught to read Common yet either. That was something Aubrey always meant to fix, but he'd been pretty busy as of late, and he had barely learned to read recently himself, so he didn't feel confident enough to be teaching someone else yet.
Still, the card was interesting enough even without being able to read its contents that Yeo-reum studied it for some time. Aubrey was content to let him, only interfering when the Tat-lung stuck out his tongue as if he was going to taste the thing. "Okaaaaay, I think that's enough of that," Aubrey said. "Do you want me to read it to you?"
Yeo-reum inclined his head expectantly, so Aubrey cleared his throat and looked at the card.
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Post by Briar on Oct 1, 2020 20:06:52 GMT -6
"You are hereby invited to attend a celebration," Aubrey read. "Come to the following address on Hallow's Eve... This is a costumed party. Feel free to bring your animal friends. We humbly await your attendance."
There was an address written beneath, and not much else. Aubrey checked the card one more time, even glancing at the back, but that was it. He hadn't actually given it a thorough look before this point, though he supposed he probably should have. Now that he had... It was, admittedly, a little sparse on details.
Yeo-reum perked up again, and dashed to the entrance to retrieve a hat from the rack by the door. He jammed this onto his head and looked questioningly at Aubrey.
"R-Right," said Aubrey, suppressing a laugh. He didn't know if Yeo-reum was doing this earnestly or as one of his jokes, so it was better not to laugh and accidentally give offense.
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Post by Briar on Oct 1, 2020 20:09:02 GMT -6
... Or at least it probably was, anyway. Would it be more disappointing to Yeo-reum if his joke fell flat? Aubrey didn't know. Anyway, he cleared his throat again. "You're right, we'll have to dress up for this. I haven't really thought about costumes before..." There would be plenty of costumes for people, even if it might be a bit harder to find something in his own size. The issue was how to make up a costume for Yeo-reum.
The invitation didn't say, of course, that the 'animal companion' had to be dressed as well, but it was abundantly clear that Yeo-reum didn't give a fig about that. He wanted to dress up, and he was going to dress up. It was part of the fun, and something that he was looking forward to, and who was Aubrey to deny him that?
Besides, calling him an 'animal companion' was probably selling him short.
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Post by Briar on Oct 24, 2020 17:38:36 GMT -6
They didn’t have a costume ready made for him, of course. The issue had never come up before, and it hadn’t really occurred to Yeo-reum before to do this either. Aubrey thought, a little lamentably, that there probably didn’t exist ready made costumes to buy for Yeo-reum either. If Yeo-reum wanted to dress up, Aubrey was probably going to have to make the costume for him, or at least do some very careful, creative shopping with the Tat in tow.
But they had some time for Aubrey to prepare, so it wasn't the most unreasonable request, and it would be worth it to see how happy Yeo-reum would be to be in attendance with a costume of his own. “Let’s figure something out together,” Aubrey said to Yeo-reum, who looked heartily pleased by the prospect of it. “What do you want to be, do you think?”
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Post by Briar on Oct 24, 2020 17:38:54 GMT -6
Yeo-reum didn’t immediately have an answer, but in the coming days, he presented Aubrey with all sorts of ideas on several different occasions. Most of these were him pointing to illustrations in books, with Aubrey growing increasingly dismayed as he realized most of the ideas that Yeo-reum had weren’t very practical. It wasn’t even an issue of the suggestions all being human, though some of them were; sometimes Aubrey didn’t even know what he was getting at. When Yeo-reum pointed to an onion, of all things, in a cook book, Aubrey felt as if this was maybe some sort of mystifying Tat-lung thing that he was too… earthly or whatever to figure out.
Fortunately, eventually he settled for the idea of dressing up as a classic pirate. That was easy enough to do. They found a hat that was almost in his size, and Aubrey did what he could to make sure it stayed in place.
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Post by Briar on Oct 24, 2020 17:39:12 GMT -6
After a lot of experimentation mostly ended up being in the form of hairpins. And it was easy enough to construct a sash, and even to stick a child’s fake sword through it. Yeo-reum insisted on an eyepatch, and after some miscommunications, managed to convey his desire for a loose billowing shirt. The latter required extensive modifications, but eventually Aubrey was able to cobble something together that didn’t look too shabby with the sash.
All this work on Yeo-reum’s costume inevitably meant that Aubrey hadn’t had much time to spare a thought for his own. But he didn’t realize this until the party was almost upon them, at which point he complained about it to Yeo-reum, and began to muse as to whether he ought to simply show up in plain clothes.
But apparently, while it had slipped his mind, it had not slipped the Tat’s.
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Post by Briar on Oct 24, 2020 17:39:38 GMT -6
Yeo-reum dashed off and came back not long after to present Aubrey with a heap of green cloth. Slightly puzzled, Aubrey unfurled it to reveal… what looked like a bird-themed onesie. Miraculously it was more or less his size, though he didn’t know if this was supposed to be for adults or if it was for older children.
Either way, he wondered how Yeo-reum had even managed to find it, let alone acquire it. There was a distinct possibility that it was stolen, considering Yeo-reum didn’t actually have access to Aubrey’s funds. Aubrey did love the Tat like family, and trusted him to a certain extent, but an apt manager of finances Yeo-reum was not.
… Just in case though, it might be worth changing where he was keeping his money again. Sadly.
Yeo-reum looked highly pleased with himself. Aubrey gave a slightly dismayed laugh at the sight of it.
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Post by Briar on Oct 24, 2020 17:39:49 GMT -6
“You want me to go as your parrot?” said Aubrey. Yeo-reum looked back at him with gleaming eyes. Hesitantly, Aubrey said, “Parrots usually ride on the pirates’ shoulders…” At this, Yeo-reum sat up and waved his foreclaws in a very obvious ‘no no no’ gesture. Aubrey, privately, was a little relieved. He had heard about the pride of Tat-lungs, who felt that carrying a rider was beneath them. If Yeo-reum had expected Aubrey to ride on his shoulder without seeming to be riding him, that would have been an uncomfortable balance to maintain.
Nevertheless, Yeo-reum was asking for a sort of role reversal with this costume. Yeo-reum would be the master, and Aubrey would be his pet. Aubrey wondered if this was intentional, or if Yeo-reum was merely accessorizing Aubrey as a part of his costume with the same degree of thought that a child had when they asked a parent to dress up in theme with them.
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Post by Briar on Oct 25, 2020 16:43:02 GMT -6
… Well. Yeo-reum could have just asked Aubrey to be a fellow pirate, he supposed, if that was what he had really wanted to do. Aubrey didn’t know whether he ought to be angry about it. Coming from a more aloof Tat-lung, it might have felt like a disheartening sort of slight, but Yeo-reum was so blithe in almost everything he did that it was difficult to be really upset with him.
The most Aubrey could do was sigh and just… go along with it. What other choice did he have? “Alright, I guess I’ll wear it,” he said. Yeo-reum looked pleased, but not overwhelmingly so, as though he had expected this. But then, well, what other choice did Aubrey have, besides going uncostumed or trying to shop for some last minute get-up? Yeo-reum had probably anticipated this too. They did say Tat-lungs were more clever than people, after all.
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Post by Briar on Oct 25, 2020 16:43:17 GMT -6
On the bright side, he supposed that was one less thing for him to think about, though in this case he wasn’t sure if he wanted his problem to be resolved in quite the way it did. But now that it evidently had been, there was no sense in feeling any more uncomfortable about it than he had to.
With the matter settled, there was nothing else to do but to wait for the night of the party.
On the day of, Aubrey spent most of the morning getting Yeo-reum into his costume. The problem wasn’t the costume itself, but that Yeo-reum wanted to wear it as soon as he awoke. Aubrey managed, with great effort, to convince him to delay this until after they had finished their respective breakfasts, but all the good that did was getting him to bolt down his own food and then stare at Aubrey pointedly until Aubrey finished his meal as well.
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Post by Briar on Oct 25, 2020 16:43:49 GMT -6
And after Yeo-reum got it on, he paraded in front of the mirror, alternatingly admiring himself and critiquing the fit of it. The rest of their time was spent making little adjustments here and there until Yeo-reum was satisfied, and then inevitably having to do it again when the satisfaction wore off, minutes or tens of minutes later, and he found something else he wanted adjusted.
By the time they set off, Aubrey was exhausted. He had spared much less care for his own costume, but fortunately Yeo-reum was inclined to be less particular about it, because it wasn’t himself wearing it, probably. And they both understood, of course, that Aubrey was merely an accessory to what Yeo-reum saw as the main attraction, which was himself. By now, Aubrey was sufficiently resigned to the prospect that he was actually kind of glad for it, now that he was thinking about it.
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Post by Briar on Oct 25, 2020 16:44:10 GMT -6
After that morning, and with the prospect looming of a night among crowds of strangers, it was nice to know that he most likely wouldn’t attract too much attention himself.
They had left a little early. One of the things Aubrey had neglected to do was to scope out the address beforehand, and so he had left himself a little wiggle room in case they got lost trying to find the place. The city wasn’t huge by any means, but Aubrey had only started living in it properly recently, so it was a little challenging to navigate when you were basically learning how to do it for the first time as a young adult.
His instincts turned out to be right. It was a bit of a tricky address to find. When they finally located it, it turned out to be recessed from the street it was on.
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Post by Briar on Oct 25, 2020 16:44:31 GMT -6
The actual building was tucked behind a bit of surrounding wood and set back along a path leading off from the main road. And rather than a house, or even a mansion, Aubrey and Yeo-reum found themselves face to face with a bona fide tower, which wasn’t really what Aubrey had been expecting.
But then, it was a Vai Min Mur party, wasn’t it? Maybe the venue was meant to reflect that, somehow. Aubrey wasn’t entirely sure himself. Aster had been from abroad, and they hadn’t celebrated the holidays or worshipped the gods here very closely. Aubrey was given to understand that the religious systems back where Aster was from were different than the ones here, but Aster had never gone into much more detail than that.
Or maybe this person just liked towers, or happened to purchase one because the price was right. Who was he to judge their choices?
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