After what felt like forever in Torensten waiting for that play, Caius was off the hook and headed to Provo to check in on Yuna. The summoner seemed fine, though he wanted to talk to her sometime about the possibility of her taking charge on a Provo branch of the Dragonblades officially. Deciding to stick around town for a little while in hopes something might come up and he could contribute to their continued growth in the province, Caius had found himself wandering into some kind of... What in the world was this?

He only realized there was a sign that read "Zoo" nearby when he looked around, curious of where his wanderings had taken him. He'd heard the word before, he realized, but he wasn't sure where. He recalled it being uttered once, someone mistaking their chocobo farm for something... Right! They thought it was a chocobo zoo! And a zoo was a... Viewing thing for animals, right?

Caius realized this in time to look up and see a monster, causing his breath to hitch and his sword to appear in his hand. But instincts calmed down fast when he remembered that zoo meant viewing. And the monster was behind glass. He could still hear his heart pounding in his ears as he quickly withdrew his blade. He did his best to regulate his breathing and try to return to a normal state, but that always did take a little while. So Caius kept walking. Walking, trying to return to a civilian mindset, trying to be... Well, not some freak that could only think of fighting. Be normal, he needed to be. He needed to fit in, not draw attention, and try not to get arrested. That would be bad. And awkward.

But nothing ever went right when Caius was around. Soon enough, he heard the voices.

”Mommy, that guy looks weird!”

”I don’t want to go that way!”

”Look at that sword!”

Caius let out a low groan. Great. Had they seen that? But when he looked, they weren't looking at him at all. In fact, Caius' outburst had gone completely unseen on account that they were staring at someone else. But he hadn't had a chance to see what or who it was. Well, at least that meant he was in the clear, but... What was that all about then? All of a sudden he didn't think he could return to a state of "normal" anytime soon. This would keep him on edge easily enough.

The ambience of cawing birds calmed him down a little. The sounds of nature were familiar to him, gave him some familiarity even if he knew by the way it was coming out that it was manufactured. But the roads themselves, and the atmosphere of it all remained familiar, and for that he was happy enough. For a moment, he relaxed just a little. He felt like he was in his element, even if it wasn't exactly real. He could view the monsters and examine them without finding himself on edge. It was actually kind of wonderful. This was a zoo? This was neat! He might actually have to come back here. He'd brought a few others along and they were out exploring the city somewhere, maybe he'd show one of them the place?

But then came the scream. Because Caius apparently couldn't be happy for five minutes without something going wrong. Every inch of bliss and relaxation that had formed from the walk was driven out in mere moments. First what came before, and now that screaming and the wailing? Caius knew that his relaxed state was done for good this time. For one thing was very clear.

Something about this zoo was hella sus.

Had one of the monsters perhaps broken out, and the sword comments were just unrelated? Or was it all tied together? He didn't know. But Caius broke off at a run, his expression sterning into that all-business gaze as he found himself warping forward repeatedly until he came a short ways from the source of the wailing before he moved to a walk. No monsters had run amok. Nobody was fleeing for their lives. Caius blinked a few times as he stared about, puzzled. But one thing did take his attention. And when his gaze fell upon it, for one reason or another he couldn't help but feel a pit welling up in his stomach.

The large man with silver hair that fell near to his feet stuck out like a sore thumb even more than Caius did. He could hear the whispers, the wailing, but... The man wasn't actually doing anything. Caius examined him a moment. No blood, no signs of violence, just a big dude with neat hair and a neat coat, and... Holy crap, that sword! Caius' gaze fell on the sword as he continued stepping forward until he stood beside the child. After a few absentminded moments of staring at the sword, he realized where he was and quickly recovered by kneeling down next to the child. He placed a hand on her shoulder and greeted her with a warm smile.

"It's okay. Nobody's going to hurt you. Head back to your mommy" he spoke softly, keeping his movements gentle as he realized he was dealing with a child as he fished out a bit of gil and handed it to her, wanting to calm the situation as quickly as possible. "Tell your mom I said it's for a new pastry."

With that, he rose to his feet and turned to the stranger. He tried to form words to speak, but something about him chilled him to the bone. But Caius was stubborn enough to swallow those feelings as he spoke up.

"My apologies if I have interrupted anything, I found myself quite taken with your sword" he brought up to the man politely, motioning to the massive blade on his back. It looked like a katana, which was pretty commonly used by Kingsglaive in his world. But the length of the thing was incredible. How long must it have taken for the crafter to pull that off? How much patience and skill had it taken to continue to keep the shape consistent while shaping it to be that long? What was even the practical use of it? Was it meant to be used like a polearm? He had so many questions and he wasn't sure if he had the time to ask them all!

"May I ask who crafted it? I guess you could call me a..." he trailed off, what was the word again? Afection-at-something? Ah, screw it. "I can't remember the word, but I'm a bit of a weapons buff and I've never seen a weapon like that in my life. It's clearly the craft of an expert."

It was though any chills he'd felt were overridden by his enthusiasm for such a blade.

"Another Shinra. Interesting" he mused aloud as the man responded with a short note of it being custom made by the organization that the orange-haired turk had described in her story, and had been mentioned by several other members of her little group since. Sadly this meant that this wasn't the work of a local and Caius wouldn't be able to obtain any advice or be able to learn from them when it came to the craft. Shame, but he wasn't surprised really. Oh well, suppose he would have to continue working through trial and error if he wanted to perfect his weapon crafting capabilities.

The man turned to leave as soon as he got his answer. Caius at least knew enough about reading the room, even if that wasn't a lot, to just let him go. He didn't get the impression this guy had any interest in being social. He didn't want to keep him too long, so he'd try to keep it brief.

"Thanks. I'll do my best to keep my last question short. Do you happen to know if the blade was made with a certain steel? It looks unique. Especially sharp, at that. You could call me an aspiring weaponsmith, so I can't help but be a little curious" he asked curtly as he looked about a moment to see if the commotion had died down and people had begun to walk away from the cat-eyed man and the other tall man. He then held out a hand and materialized his gunblade, holding it out horizontally. It was clearly Caius' own custom handiwork, as it didn't resemble anything that one would find at weapon stores around here. It also bore a small imprint of the crest of the Dragonblades on the blade itself. An amendment he'd made some time ago as his skills in the field continued to grow.

Caius half-expected the man to just walk away and ignore him, he seemed the type. But to his surprise, the silver-haired man humored him, bringing up that it was synthesized, made by a weapons department. If Shinra was part of all this, then by what he'd heard about the organization, he supposed it made sense. Which meant that it was likely not made of metal that Caius could get his hands on himself. Though that didn't mean it was impossible to forge something like it. It just meant that Caius needed to do a bit of research, perhaps spend some time looking into outlets beyond just Torensten. If Sonora was anything like this city that he'd heard about where Shinra had come from, then perhaps it might do him to start there, as much as he really didn't want to go back there again anytime soon.

The answer wasn't much, but it was enough and he knew it was all he would get. So he nodded his head, giving a formal half-bow in thanks before figuring it was best he stopped bothering the man. Before he could wish him well though, he brought up something himself. Caius listened, happy to help in exchange for the information if possible. He was looking for someone, he said. He allowed his sword to disappear as he described the person he was looking for. He quirked a brow.

"Hmm... I'm afraid I don't know what mako eyes look like, or anything about a sword only a soldier could wield, but..." he trailed off, scratching his beard a moment. "You said a man with black hair, and a sword distinctive for its size..."

He held out his hands and outlined the length and width of the Buster Sword. "It looks about like this, right? Wide, thick sword? About the length of my body? I've met two individuals who possessed a sword like it, both with strange, blue, murky sort of eyes. One matches your description. You wouldn't happen to be looking for Angeal, would you?" he inquired curiously. Did Angeal once work for this Shinra as well? And what about Cloud? Both seemed like nice enough guys, didn't seem the type to get mixed up in all the shifty business that Shinra seemed to do. "I met him in Aljana, though he indicated he wanted to head out to greener pastures awhile back. We were planning to talk business whenever he decided to finish up there."

Angeal was perhaps in this city, then? Perhaps he'd need to catch up with him.

"I can let him know you're looking for him, if I see him."