"Insulation is important," Diryas agreed. They could insulate windows, too, as needed. Just in case some of them were no longer sitting correctly in their frames. It would be easier than trying to reseat windows without breaking them, something neither he nor Zebulon had the skill set to do. They were chemists, not carpenters. Though, Diryas was starting to have the thought that he might like to pick up carpentry and bricklaying in his spare time if this mission type was going to be a regular occurrence.
He'd rooted through the suitcases at some point while waiting, taking inventory of their contents. The clothing inside was clearly for formal events, so nothing very sturdy. Silks, embroidery, ribbons... The ribbons could be useful, at least. Silk had a dense fiber weave, so it could help with
some heat retention. Silk fibers themselves had high tensile strength, so there was that... He looked over at one of the broken windows they were passing, pausing for a moment. Broken glass was dangerous, even if it did deter and injure birds trying to get to it. Diryas didn't have scissors, but he did have an idea.
He pulled out a silk blouse and wrapped it around his hand. Approaching a window with little glass left in it, he regarded the shards left in the frame with some apprehension. Well, only one way to find out of this idea would work... With his hand wrapped tightly in the blouse, he formed a fist and attempted to knock the remaining broken glass out of the window frame. It didn't work as well as he hoped, but encouragingly enough it was because of the strength of the glue between the glass and wood, and not because it sliced his hand open. It did cut the blouse, a bit, but not as much as Diryas had feared it might. It was still safe enough, and he gave it another go. It shattered the shard, leaving jagged bits closer to the frame, and left a slice through the fabric that had nipped into his hand just a bit. He inspected the wound and decided the bleeding wasn't serious. Not enough to need stitches, therefore not enough for concern. It did hurt, but he was pretty sure the cold alone would hasten scabbing over.
In the meantime, left with now a bare window frame with the aluminum cross bars exposed, he unwrapped his hand. The cuts in the blouse gave him a vantage place to start tearing it, being that he didn't have scissors. He was very careful, and so Diryas was able to get some messy, but functional, strips of silk out of the blouse. He tied them together and began to weave them around the window frame. It would help with some of the draftiness, at least. A blouse wasn't enough, so he did have to dig another one out of the suitcase. This time, he wore a hole in it by rubbing it back and forth rapidly over the remaining glass edges and ripped from there.
Well, the bright colours--cerulean and fuchsia, respectively--of the blouses would also help signal that there were people in the building. Hopefully.
