The two drifted in and out of conversation as they pushed towards the market. The bustling crowd Pi encountered earlier had yet to subside, so the pair often found a stranger or five shoving their way through the conversation. Piraen was, however, determined to struggle his way through a dialogue.
It started with cordial chit-chat. Alea would comment on the weather, Piraen would agree politely and then a bratty child would gnaw through the space between them. Pi would recover, adding how the geography around Ravok was optimal, Alea would nod, and an old couple would stop and separate the pair like a stream around a rock. After a few more instances, Pi grew irritated. Furrowing his brow, the man linked arms with the young lady and locked his hands together. He remembered her earlier behavior, and quickly smiled.
"Wouldn't want you to lose your sock." Alea allowed it. Pi nodded, feeling very pleased with himself. He decided to channel the good mood into the best sewing tips he had.
Piraen started with the basics: threading needles, using the right threads, picking out the correct needles, et cetera, et cetera. He reminded Alea of the tricks he used earlier, and expanded on them: "If biting the tip doesn't work, you can always take a piece of wire instead. That's much easier, actually. Just push the wire through the needle, stick the thread through the wire and pull the wire back through the needle. Simple as that." From there, he talked about how there were needles for every type of job. Piraen always thought that needles were much like people. They came in different sizes, shapes, and colors. Some were bold, some were curved, some were dull, and they all had their own purpose. You could never run out of uses for a needle, either, just like you could never run out of uses for people.
As Piraen explained in specific detail the difference between sharp and wedge needles, he caught a small yawn escape from Alea. "Ah, right...this is useless to you." Piraen lightly chuckled. "If you ever find a use for it, though, I live right over there. Last door on the path, red door." Pi wove his long arm around a stranger's head, pointing down a small footpath that led to his apartment. Alea nodded, and the two remained silent the rest of the way to the market.
By the time they reached the market, the two had endured almost half a bell of complete silence. It had killed Pi. He had a deep-seeded hatred of silence...it made him feel uneasy. Silence always brought memories of his mother's parties to the forefront of his mind, made him feel as though he were a silent statue once more. It was as though his silence would drag him back into the mansion walls, forcing him to become an invisible backdrop to another's life. Pi shivered, then frowned. The lack of words had sufficiently put him into a bad mood.
Grumpy attitude in hand, Pi dragged Alea to a tarp-covered stall. He pushed to the back, ignoring the owner's obvious discontent. Emerging from inside the tent, Piraen dropped to the ground in discontent. "Wait here a tick, hm?" The man looked down as the rhetorical question slid from his frown and began to pick at the corner of the tarp. After creating a run in the corner of the tent, Pi victoriously pulled about two to three arm lengths of the string loose. Satisfied with the length, the kelvic bit the string until it snapped free.
Scooting back, Piraen curled into as little a ball as possible: his legs curled into his chest, his head bent over and his arms snuggly fit into the space between his chest and legs. He quickly prepped the needle and began his work. In a few chimes, he had sewn a circle around the hole. This would keep the hole from running and tearing even more of the cloth. After tying another knot, Piraen began to repair the hole itself. He ran a whip stitch from top to bottom, holding the sides of the hole together. When he tied the patch off, it looked like a string prison cell. You could clearly see through the vertical rows that he had stitched in. Sighing, Piraen started sew from left to right. He wove the needle through the vertical stitches to form a type of lattice. When he reached the bottom, the thick tarp material and cloth lattice had patched up the hole. It wasn't pretty, but it was fixed.
"All that and a side of nuts, aren't I?" Piraen dryly joked as he stood and handed Alea her items back. He was no longer having fun. He had realized while sewing that he left his apartment almost four bells ago, and had gotten next to nothing done since. Feeling unproductive and annoyed, Pi decided it was time for this outing to be done."Well, as I said, if you need anymore sewing lessons or work done, you can stop by at any time." Piraen gave Alea one more smile before stepping back into the stream of people. "It was lovely, Alea. I hope to see you again soon." With that, Piraen turned and let himself be carried away by the same crowd that had brought him to Alea. Same crowd, same mood, same old shyke. Pi let out a snigger. Oh, what a life.
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