[attr="class","TheHandmaiden"]While it was four in the morning, Aless was wide awake. He sat on the floor of his living room, embroidering a rug. Flowers bloomed across much of it already, swirling vibrantly across the black and red background. He'd begun working it once he had the money to buy supplies and, since he didn't need to sleep, used it to keep his hands busy at night. He worked at an inhuman speed. This was his domain and he'd worked it for thousands of years. Practice bred precision and speed and it culminated in a rug half done in only a couple of days. Not to mention his nights were largely uninterrupted. There was the occasional phone call, a request for assistance, but they were few and far between. To his displeasure, though, tonight's interruption wasn't a phone call, but a scream that tore through the walls as if they were paper. Aless turned up the music on his phone and adjusted his earbuds. It wasn't his problem. However, the screaming continued with variance and persistence. He finally hissed sharp and set down his work. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous it was much too early for this sort of trouble. While he had no sleep to be disturbed, the shouting still angered him, especially as it continued on and on. He could hear the neighbor above him shuffling around with heavy steps. Angry, no doubt, as well. A phone call was one thing. Business was always welcome. This, though? This was a very much unwelcome interruption and it soured Aless' mood immediately. He snatched up his keys and stepped out of his apartment with more grace and quiet than his neighbor above. Anyone who was going to be woken up, surely already had been, but he kept his footfalls quiet so as to not apply salt to the open wounds of being jarred so violently from sleep. With a scream like that, something was wrong, surely, but it was only with mild urgency that he walked the couple of doors down to the source. It was with eagerness to get back to work and not concern for whoever was screaming.

The source was apartment 103. Who was it that lived here? It was a double like his, he knew that, because all apartments on this floor were doubles. He couldn't remember ever meeting these particular neighbors, though. He knocked hard on the door. "Number 103, you're waking the whole building!" He said, voice raised so as to maybe be heard over the man's incoherent screaming. Oh, but perhaps he ought to display some degree of concern. That was only appropriate, right? The bare minimum? "Are you okay, 103? Please stop screaming, it's four in the morning."

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden03"]GOD OF WATER

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden"] "Oh, yes, there are always good people and I'm sure you might consider some of those who ran away good people, but they still ran away." He paused and shook his head, "Have you really only been surrounded by kindness in your life? How lucky you are. It's good to believe in others, but be careful. People will take advantage of that to hurt you or use you to hurt others." The boy was clearly an idealist. Had he been hiring him for actual Business, that quality alone would've ruined his chances of the position, but this was a tailoring store and he had no intention of dragging the boy into his affairs. People might abuse his kindness, but Aless was not going to be one of them.

"Don't worry about it. The standard of stiff and formal interviews where one makes unreasonable demands and the other lies their way to the job is ridiculous and I am very much against it. This is fine. You'll be fine," He assured with a slight and gentle smile, "Oh, there should be some pens around here somewhere if you want to fill that out while we talk." The application wasn't particularly difficult. It asked for the applicant's name, age, desired responsibilities, requested wage, and then featured a table where they could mark their available hours each day of the week.

"So you know the basics, good. We can work up from there. Two, have you ever worked in retail before?" He continued on, pulling questions off the top of his head and only half memorizing the answers. If Yugi wanted to work here, there would be training and the degree of which hardly mattered to him. Patience was bred by age. Most of it wasn't difficult work, anyway. Tailoring itself would be the hardest part, but if Yugi wanted to focus on the sales aspect then they could skip it entirely. This whole ordeal was a formality brought because Yugi wanted it. Aless would've hired him on the spot, really. He'd be lying if he said he didn't have ulterior motives, though. His other business of cleaning up other people's messes left him leaving work suddenly and for uncertain amounts of time. Business hours were erratic at best and Yugi would help stabilize them. As long as he could leave it in his care for a few hours things would run much smoother. And then there was the puzzle around his neck. Aless ached to know about it and he hoped he might find out if Yugi took the job.

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden03"]GOD OF WATER

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden"] Alessandro wove the gold thread through the fabric with methodic, rhythmic strokes as he seemed to stare somewhere past the fabric. He considered how to go about this as his hands moved of their own accord. There was little he actually knew about Yugi and even less he knew of the spirit inside the puzzle he wore. Yugi, at least, seemed unaware of the existence of the spirit he carried around and Aless did not wish to reveal it to him. He felt personally that it was something they ought to figure out on their own, especially since the spirit did not seem to wish Yugi any harm. What about this one, though? This could be an entirely different entity from the one with yugi, from a reality wildly different from the boy's. Perhaps he should've held his tongue, kept Yugi's existence to himself, but oh, it would only be a matter of time before they ran into each other. In the end, he only sped up the inevitable.

"How does this look?" Atem broke through Aless thoughts sooner than he had expected, really, but not enough to amount to any degree of surprise. He set down again and his embroidery and walked over. He checked the fit of the jacket first before he took a step back to properly examine him.

"I think it looks good, but the more important question is what do you think?" He asked, "Did you try on the other jackets? Pick one or two that you like best or if you like different parts of different jackets I can see if I have one that has it all."

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden03"]GOD OF WATER

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden"] It had to be a child. They'd flinched back at his touch and he wasn't surprised at the action itself, but the severity of it. Most would simply try to pull away, but the boy practically recoiled back, eyes squeezed shut and body braced. Did he think he was going to hit him? He didn't apologize, but he made a note to keep a closer eye on his actions from then on. The urgency had been interpreted as aggression and he had no intention of causing the boy harm. He quickly recovered and Aless could see the fretting worry on his face, how it was replaced with a gawking shock. Maybe the concept of immortality was a little heavy for the kid. Perhaps he should have worded it differently, but what was done was done and he was just thankful that a barrage of questions did not yet come.

Oh but it really just had to be such a small thing, didn't it. He was almost bitter at his luck, but what the kid lacked in strength and height he made up for in sheer determination. Aless had kicked his heels off to make the ordeal easier, but in the end he still did most of the work himself while the boy helped him keep his balance. The walk to the shop was slow as Aless limped along, but they made it without him falling so he counted it as a success. "Just, ah, help me to the sofa." It sat in the middle of the floor, a low hardwood coffee table in front of it, "And flip the sign on the door." He sunk with relief onto the sofa and for a moment he just leaned back and contemplated his options. How unfortunate that he had to feel pain. Such a human sensation, a feeling that had kept them alive this long, but he, a god, felt it as well and in no dulled capacity. Perhaps one had to have pain to have pleasure. Still, what a nasty thing, this was going to be. He only had one good hand, as well, and it wasn't something he was going to trust the boy with, so he'd have to do it himself.

"I would look away." He warned as with his right hand he grabbed the twisted part of his left. He paused, waited, to see if Yugi would look away, and then suddenly, sharply— A series of cracks disrupted the quiet of the shop, stood sharp contrast to the soft music playing. Sharp hisses shot from between tightly clenched teeth as he realigned the bone. A heavy sigh and he was done with the first one, arm now no longer twisted in the wrong direction. He tested it, carefully moving his left arm. It would take time to heal, but it worked and that was what mattered, because he still had his leg. The cracks, the pops, they were louder than before, and a deep growl rumbled through Aless immediately after the fact. Again he leaned back and again he sighed, more of frustration than pain.

Oh, right, the kid. "Thanks." He said belatedly, "What's your name?" He looked at him closer now than before. He certainly had unusual hair. And the pyramid around his neck— Ah. He looked sharply at him, knowingly. " Who's in the pyramid?" Another entity, a spirit, hiding out of sight. Maybe it was rude to pry like this when the child just helped him, but oh his curiosity ached. He so wanted to know what was tied to that oversized pendant and why.

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden03"]GOD OF WATER

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden"]Work was slow, as it always was, but that was why he liked it. It satisfied the government that he had a job, but he didn't typically have much to do, so most of his time was spent working on his various crafts. Today, again, was embroidery. Gold thread bloomed flowers across black fabric as he worked quickly and meticulously. He worked from the comfort of a sofa situated in the middle of the floor, intended initially for customers, but now used most by himself. People didn't seem to need suits too much on the island. Everything was more lax, more casual, no higher corporate greed forcing unreasonable standards on the people. An expensive suit simply wasn't a requirement for job interviews here. He almost didn't like it, the casualness with which the island functioned. The utopia-like appearance, candy-coloured and too sweet. The perfection was achingly boring and although he'd had some fun a few days ago with those two that had tried so foolishly to kill him, his hands already itched again for another fight. This island might be advertised as perfect, but Alessandro was horrifically bored with it already.

A gentle bell rang, a voice called out, and Alessandro looked to the door. "Yugi—? No." That wasn't him. He looked like him, but a closer look was all that was needed to determine that they were not, in fact, Yugi. He paused in his work, but he did not get up. "Welcome." He said slowly as he scrutinized Atem. This man held himself high and proud, eyes forward and never down, and while a mild anxiety seemed to have settled onto him, he still maintained a dignified air. Yugi was little like this man, timid and still too much a child, and Aless was confident he could stare down the boy with ease, but Atem hardly seemed to flinch under his gaze. "Who are you?" Pleasantries were skipped as Aless jumped straight to the question on his mind, "You look like my employee, but you're certainly not him. Yugi's still alive, for one." The taste of death hung around Atem, although perhaps mortals would not notice. So even spirits were pulled to this god forsaken island. How truly sad. To be pulled from your promised after life must be a bitter taste, a promise broken right as it was to be fulfilled. Alessandro pitied him.

Slowly, he returned to his embroidery. "If you're looking for the boy whose face is so similar, he's off today. If you're looking for a suit, though, I can help with that."

[attr="class","TheHandmaiden03"]GOD OF WATER