Ooh I fall apart, down to my core

Kaisel

His trip to Stormbreak would not be complete without seeing how Mateo's faring through everything. His brother fellow city-kid has just as much history in these hallways as the rest of his family, and is being thrust out of them with the same amount of carelessness as anyone else living here. That is to say, Stormbreak doesn't care. Bitch fallin' apart too much to manage anyone else's expectations.

Sighing through his nose, a near-constant since coming up here to assist his family and friends, Kaisel stands before La Verbana. Between rounds of packing boxes in different homes, he's gone for last looks of the various things he'll miss, and he's got one such thing in his hand now. "MATTY!" he calls up, hoisting the frozen, chocolate-dipped and nut-coated bananas above his head as if they are answer enough for whatever Mateo might wonder.

It's a great take-a-break-from-your-life-falling-apart treat, especially when it's the middle of Longheat and the sun decides to make your body cry as much as your eyes when it comes to packing up and moving your entire life. His orange, flame-decorated overshirt flaps open across his black undershirt in what small, merciful breeze deigns to whip by every so often. His backpack is slouched a bit off to one side, echoing the fall of his hair that has definitely seen fingers run through it more than a few times today. Much as he'd prefer the flip flops, he's fully embraced as part of Torchline's chic, expecting all the running around and moving, he's got on some bright red sneakers, laces a shiny silver that matches his basketball shorts. "Need some help?"

---

You was talkin' shit in the beginning
Back when I was feelin' more forgivin'
I know it piss you off to see me winnin'

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

It isn't uncommon for La Verbena to be draped in greenery; Mateo has been cultivating the cascade of lavender against the side of her hull for as long as he's lived there. This, though - this is taking it to the next level. The botanist has successfully cleared out his shop and its contents now, but that means his schooner is currently supporting an impressive variety of flora - and not all of it is safe to handle.

"KAI!" Mateo pops up onto the deck of the ship at the sound of his name, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and grinning down at his friend, because if he stops being cheerful and breezy about this then he's going to crack like an egg. "Ooooh, you brought treats! Come on up." Beckoning him aboard, Kai will see that the deck is still laden with boxes, some of which are fine to stay open to the elements but others that need to be brought belowdecks.

"If you are offering, I would really appreciate it," he admits with a smaller smile, reaching up to tighten the messy bun his curls have been swept into so he can keep the heat off the back of his neck. For the botanist's part, he's wearing a tank top that's more hole than fabric and looks as if it's been fashioned out of a fishnet (because it has) and a pair of yoga pants with crashing wave patterns. "I need to move the rest of these boxes downstairs."

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

Kaisel

For all the plant life on the ship, La Verbena is missing one Flora, which is for the best given Kaisel's continued birthday quest. Not that it's on his mind just yet, but certainly packing up is a good time to reminisce a bit, and what else are frozen banana breaks for if not distracting from the very real problem at hand of evacuating?

It is hard to spy Mateo among all the foliage, but once he meerkats above the edge, voice carrying across the greenery, Kaisel's grin flashes out in answer. He grapples with the railing as he hops over, mindful not to step on a leaf and really cause Mateo a problem. "Yeah, touring all the city's greatest hits before...well, y'know." Better not to say it aloud, and he rolls a shoulder as if the entire region crashing and crumbling apart is easy to accept and not freaking him the fuck out every time he brushes past the idea.

Extending out one of the bananas to Mateo once he's aboard, Kaisel glances around at the organized chaos on deck. It's no small thing to see someone's life displaced among cardboard and pots, feeling somehow too small and immense simultaneously. "Don't tell your sister, but you're much better at this than she is," he remarks, muffled, around a bite of the frozen fruit. "Helping her move onto the Sugartide was an experience. More pillows than I thought possible." There's a fondness that finds his voice whenever speaking of her that he can't fully hide, even when it's about the impracticality of too many comforts on a small ship. "I'll help as soon as we finish these, can't let them melt!

You was talkin' shit in the beginning
Back when I was feelin' more forgivin'
I know it piss you off to see me winnin'

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

"Ugh, yeah," Mateo says in quiet agreement, frowning gently out at the Skyport and the city beyond it. It's still upright for now, still everything it had always been for him growing up, and if he can just hold that image in his head, it feels like nothing will change. Childish, of course, but there's nothing like having one's childhood home plummeting out of the sky to take you back to your youth. "I promised myself I would not go back out there," he says. "I said goodbye to everything and everyone, got forwarding addresses for friends, and now i just have to finish this up and... well, and leave."

He glances across the deck and accepts the frozen banana treat, raising it in a toast towards Kai that's half gratitude (both for the dessert and the offer of help) and half melancholic camaraderie. "How are your folks getting on?" he asks, before following the other man's gaze to his belongings, teeth cracking through the chocolate to get to the frozen fruit beneath. "Ah, you say that, but all of my pillows are already belowdecks," he says with a musical laugh. "Most of the things I had to move were from the shop."

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

Kaisel

He supposes he should be grateful that they’re able to have this. The ability to reach out to friends and family and discover where they’re going, to help them, to take one last look. This evacuation is not the panic of the one beneath the Family, but somehow he can’t keep it from feeling worse. At least before there’d been a target to turn back and fight against, however frightening the prospect. Now, there’s nothing to do but beat down the acceptance of the matter, and that’s a far harder foe to manage given it’s yourself.

”What’re you gonna miss the most?” He wonders it quietly, the question full as he chews the thought around the frozen treat. Perhaps not the kindest thing to poke the bruise, but there’s few Kaisel has who he can ask and truly appreciate the reciprocation of what’s being lost. ”For me, it’s the view,” he answers on a show of good faith, glancing past the greenery draping the railing to distance rooftops. ”Used to climb out my window and up onto the roof of the house. Felt kinda like a god, being above clouds and everyone else.” His lips twist, but it’s not near enough to a smile to properly call it that. ”Kid dreams,” he reassures with a wistful sigh. ”Killer sunset views though.”

Barreling onward, not willing to linger on pasts or the present about to become the past for too long, Kaisel circles back to his parents. ”They’re all set. Helped them pack yesterday. They’re going to the Grounds, said it feels the most like home. Them and my uncle Kimo.” This of course brings his mind to Koa, which nearly tips him into a frown. He’d denied his offer of the Wildering house, and not that he really blames him, but, it would have been nice, to have him close again, to feel like maybe less things have changed in the end.

”Well,” he says with a clearing of his throat. ”I’m glad about one thing out of all this,” this time he tips into a smile. ”Getting to have you at the home is gonna be the best company we’ve had yet.”

You was talkin' shit in the beginning
Back when I was feelin' more forgivin'
I know it piss you off to see me winnin'

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

"Mm, there is nothing like it," Mateo agrees of the view, turning to lean against a stack of crates and gaze out across the Skyport and the Falling beyond. At Longheat there's not a cloud in sight up here, and the sky and ocean melt together in a watercolour he could watch for hours. "For me though, it is the Silk Houses - and not for the reason you are thinking." He flashes a grin over his shoulder to Kai around another bite of frozen banana. 

"That place raised me, it felt like. It is where I had all of my firsts. And there is no other place like it in Caido - nowhere else you could get a tattoo, a cocktail and then go window shopping all at 2am." His laughter is warm and easy, drawn from memories and occasions in those cobbled alleyways. "It had its downsides and shadier places, do not get me wrong. But that is what made it what it was."

Blinking away the nostalgia before it drags him under, Mateo angles himself to look back at Kai properly. "I am glad. Better to be out of here sooner rather than later. A lot of people seem to feel that way - the air traffic is getting really strict." Even he has had to book a timeslot to set off with La Verbena alongside a few other skyships bound for Torchline, just to avoid unexpected collisions in the air. 

Finishing his banana and raising his eyebrows at the possibility of even one good thing in Stormbreak's demise, the botanist scoffs and nearly chokes as Kai comes out with it. "You know," he says, "Flora has been trying to persuade me to move down to Torchline for so long, if you told me she had orchestrated all of this just to get me in the house, I would be tempted to believe you." He grins, though, the thought of his sister a fond one. "You are right, though. It will be nice to liven up that big old place."

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

Kaisel

He absolutely leapt to the conclusion Mateo accuses him of, his grin racing out just as fast as his thoughts and Mateo's insistence. What starts as a sure, sure expression gradually fades to something more authentic as he hears his friend out, the listening only broken by the crack of the chocolate shell as he continues to whittle away the dessert. "I know what you mean," he says with a softer smile edging into one cheek.

His head tips back, glancing up at memories with a fondness that risks melancholy. "I feel like I would grow up every night I spent there. What'd take a year to learn in the city, I'd find out in an hour there." The exact reasons, he's certain, that his parents had never wanted him there, and exactly why it became so appealing to go. Some lessons had definitely been harder than others, but he doesn't regret learning any of them.

Resetting with another bite of frozen banana, happy to leave the reminiscing behind them lest his visit make them both worse for the wear, a new realization dawns on him suddenly. "Hey!" he cries out, stick waving as he gestures towards Mateo. "You could be the one to teach me to sail!" Talk of air control, something he hadn't even considered, sparking the recognition that Mateo is skilled in exactly what he needs and far more reliable than the ancient in the Grounds or the old man in Torchline. "I've been trying to be more useful on the Sugartide—did Flora tell you some baby starwhales almost broke it all?" His brows lift, hands demonstrating the ramming and destruction for added effect. "I mean, when you're settled, and only if you want," he shrugs, recognizing that maybe now is not the best time to plan it all out.

He absolutely loses his fight with his smile when Mateo suggests Flora has masterminded the fall of Stormbreak. "I would not put it past her to be that dramatic about you telling her no too many times. I hope this doesn't mean the house is also going to come crashing down when you move in and continue to say no to things," he laughs with a true ease he hasn't felt since Flora first wrote to him about Stormbreak's inevitable fate.

"Which, reminds me," he says, popping his treat into his mouth to free his hand for swinging his backpack around and rifling through it. The bottomless aspect does make it rather easy to lose things, and he's begun to stuff more and more inside it, so he has to drop down to the edge of his shoulder and really fumble around for the right shape. Grabbing hold of the glass orb, he withdraws it and presents it to Mateo. "I'm already working on her birthday gift. This," he nods to the crystal ball and pulls out the banana with a slurp. "Can hold memories and replay them later. So, I've been collecting memories from people that matter to her. If you wouldn't mind...think of your happiest memory of her, or with her, that way she can always see how much she's loved." For his sanity, he'll busy himself with the box as soon as Mateo begins.

---

If you have a thread the memory is from, please link it on the bottom of your post!

Everkeep | a handheld glass globe that can hold memories to be replayed later and include sight and sound.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic | Cost: (None)

You was talkin' shit in the beginning
Back when I was feelin' more forgivin'
I know it piss you off to see me winnin'

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

"Mm, it was still teaching me things even as late as last week," Mateo adds, though the slant of his smile suggests that he deserves Kai's sure, sure for that remark. Wiping off his hands now he's finished his dessert and turning to appraise the crates anew, he reaches into his pocket for a bit of pink chalk he'd been using before his friend called up to him, marking boxes to go downstairs with a bright X. "Teach you to sail?" he repeats with an arched eyebrow. "Are you getting yourself a skyship?"

His dimpled grin softens as Kai clarifies, and he nods to the other man. "She did not tell me, but I cannot wait to hear the story firsthand," he says, giving a quick and wary glance around at La Verbena, as if easily able to imagine the damage even a small starwhale might cause. "And I know the feeling, where the most useful thing you can do aboard is to stay out of the way. I would be happy to teach you, once I have moved everything back off it and there is room." Right now he'd be trying to teach Kai to navigate around several species of philodendron, and that will make a sometimes-complex task even more difficult.

"Ah, I doubt Flora would want to put her own house at risk. She never lived in Stormbreak so it is fair game - Wildering House is more valuable," he says easily, straightening up from a crate just as Kai goes rifling around in his endless backpack. Mateo watches with amusement to see almost his entire arm disappear into it - as an owner of a bag of holding himself, he's familiar with rummaging and hoping for the best.

His eyes widen a fraction at the glass ball, the botanist taking it between his hands (tucking the chalk behind his ears to do so, leaving a pastel pink streak). "Like a memory snowglobe?" He smirks. "Gods, my happiest memory with her? There are so many to choose from. But since we are on the subject, I also taught her to sail properly..." It's easy to bring it to the forefront of his mind, the memory playing out before him within the crystal.

---

Mateo offers a memory of him teaching Flora to fly on La Verbena! 

i'll rig the game for you

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

Kaisel

Shaking his head at the question of his own skyship, and continuing on to explain, he snaps his fingers as Mateo's understanding fully lands. "Exactly! Spice is a better sailor than me," he half laughs, half groans. Charmingly amusing as it is, it's also pitiful. He perhaps should have spent less time fucking around with kites and gliding up here and put his time towards actual skills with the wind. Nothing a decent crash course and some practice couldn't fix at least, which leaves him with renewed hope for Mateo's future tutelage. "You're the best."

"Certainly," Kaisel hums in response to whether Flora would or wouldn't upend her home for a good cause (victory being enough). There's no denying its significance, but Kaisel rather thinks Mateo himself would be what stays her hand. No point in crashing down the same roof they'd both be under, because whatever Mateo says no to would always mean less than that. "though far less so than you, so I think even if you're the source, you're also the immunity in this case."

Fortunately Mateo looks superb in pink, so the addition of the chalk only improves his current look. Offering over the orb, Kaisel's smirk hikes up at the comparison. "Yes, but with a disappointing lack of snow. I should have had that added." Finishing off his frozen banana in a swift, if cold and slightly too-large bite, chewing as if it's static in his mouth, Kaisel reaches for a marked box as Mateo begins. He pauses though, leaning back with the weight, surprise evident. "You taught her?" He expected it would have been... "I didn't know that," he admits, and then twists the soft moment into a tease because what else expresses affection any better? "Well, perhaps I ought to consider another teacher then!" Tipping his head back with a laugh he retreats to the safety of downstairs with his box while the memory unfolds inside the glass.

Marching back up in sets of twos, Mateo seeming finished, he reaches out to reclaim the crystal ball and stuff it back inside his backpack for safekeeping. "Thanks! Now lead on, boss." Another box is already being claimed by his arms, happy to be of use and have a place to funnel the inevitable return of his anxiety over this city.

You was talkin' shit in the beginning
Back when I was feelin' more forgivin'
I know it piss you off to see me winnin'

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Mateo

"I am the best, aren't I," Mateo purrs his agreement, watching over his shoulder as Kai helpfully grabs one of the marked boxes and starts to haul it belowdecks. "And if you cannot be the immunity to certain things when your sister is the Queen of Torchline, what is even the point?" Shrugging theatrically without risking letting go of the memory (snow)globe, he does agree that the other man should have considered adding some, and he might even give it a little experimental shake when Kai isn't looking.

"Mm? I did," he announces, all pride and puffed out cheeks and chest. "Did you think it would have been her charming, murderous ex? Flora only got the Sugartide after they were already over." It's easy tea to spill, and Mateo's got buckets of the stuff if they ever have a quiet night in Wildering House. For now though, Kai is disappearing down the steps and Mateo's mouth falls open in sudden and exaggerated offence. "I am telling her you said that!" he calls.

Only the fact that the crystal is a present that Kai is painstakingly crafting for his sister prevents the botanist from yeeting it at his head upon his return, Mateo instead thrusting it towards him and grabbing up a crate for himself. "You can take all the heaviest ones," he informs him, grinning over his shoulder and starting the slow march back down into the belly of his ship.

~FIN

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am