"What is the purpose of these beads?" Sephiroth asked, fingering the string at his belt, the only purely ornamental part of his outfit aside from his hair.

"They're a holdover from magical accessories," Kuja replied without looking up from his poetry. he was reading an epic, about a bestial man, a king, and their relationship and adventures. "not unlike your materia."

"Any mage worth her salt should have a rosary of spells on her person!" Kefka crowed from where he was perched on the bookcase, ripping embroidery thread with his teeth. The doll he was working on had long white hair, but without the clothes and only half the face, it was hard to say who it was supposed to be.

Sephiroth looked thoughtful; which is to say, he stared intently at the beads like they might crack under the weight of his gaze. The beads remained resolute, however, so Kuja deigned to add his own look toward Sephiroth.

"The early history of synthesizing on Gaia started as a way for mages to preserve and pass on their spells, so that a mage could reach master of a spell in a matter of weeks instead of years. These first items were beads, which were easy to imbue and easy to carry, but much more difficult to make and far more fragile than modern spelled items."

Kuja neatly ducked a thimble tossed by Kefka, allowing it to clatter on the floor. Let him jump down and bat after it like the cat he was mimicking by being way up there.

"You're as bad as him! You both must have strong stomachs, since you two clearly swallowed an encyclopedia or ten."

Kuja was about to ask archly if Kefka felt like condensing the history of magic into an easily digestible bite instead when Sephiroth asked another question.

"Then, do your uniforms hold the same principle?"

Kuja and Kefka rolled their eyes at each other. Sephiroth was raised in a strict military cum laboratory environment, so he was allotted some leniency as the pair understood at least half of it, but he sadly couldn't recognize fashion choices if it waved a spotted scarlet scarf in his face.

"You may have swallowed a set of encyclopedias, but you've got a long way to go!"

Kuja, ever the more tactful of the group, made mental note to make a brief report on sartorial history for Sephiroth to peruse.