milliways_bar | bartending!

Entry tags:

bartending!

Tonight's Specials:
Absolute Heaven
Blue Heaven
Almost Heaven

Tonight's theme is probably not the hardest one to ever figure out, but the small smile on Tifa's face and the humming coming from her as she puts away her chalk and gathers her hair in a ponytail both say she's not so homesick that she's not content to do her work.

On the contrary, her shift's one of only times all those other thoughts fade away into background noise.

Her smile turns into a grin as she ties an apron around her waist. "Can I get anybody a drink?"

[ooc: Thanks for the tags, guys! A little later than advertised, we're taking these babies slow from this point on.]

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"From what I've heard, heaven sounds boring," he grins. Thus his preference for Milliways.

"The drink version, however, sound much more interesting. Think I could I try one of each kind of heaven?"

She laughs out loud. "My favorite kind of heaven is my bar at home, so I don't think I can argue with you there."

If she had sleeves on, she'd roll them up.

"For you, I think I could mix one of each." She starts setting out three appropriate glasses. "Which one do you want to start with?"

"Start with the blue kind of heaven, finish with the one that's absolutely heavenly?" he says, eyebrows raised.

"So, your bar is a pleasant sort of afterlife, too?" Deliberately misunderstanding, but smiling in his curiosity.

"A natural progression," she comments approvingly.

Starting her preparations, she lets out another laugh. "Afterlife probably isn't the most accurate description for it, but the name of it is Seventh Heaven. It's actually the second Seventh Heaven," she adds, still sounding a little amused. "There was an incident" -- tactful, she thinks -- "that destroyed the sector of the city my first bar was in."

"What is it with all the sevens everywhere?" he mutters, dry.

"Mind if I ask why it's called Seventh Heaven? Are heavens one through six somewhere else?"

Do you have to read all six of their promotional flyers to get a special discount?

She pauses, surprised enough to be caught off guard for a moment.

"I bet there's a bar just called Heaven somewhere out there." Now she smiles, and for the life of her, she's not sure if he's joking or not. "Seventh heaven is a phrase on Gaia -- and on Earth, so I've heard -- used to mean a state of utter happiness."

Just sheer bliss. And if she were back home right now, she'd probably be convinced she'd named the bar the right thing.

Not that she's ever really had a problem with the name.

"You've never heard that one before?"

He smiles, eyebrows raised, and shakes his head. "There was no real concept of 'heaven' in the Old Kingdom, as it... is derived from a belief in a specific afterlife. Everyone goes to the same place, eventually, in the Old Kingdom."

Though the fact that the point-of-no return was a night sky so populated by stars, innumerable and vast, that it glowed... may count as a heaven. But as a good place? No one really knew, except that Necromancers fought like hell (aheh) to keep from passing that final barrier.

She's less surprised about the phrase not being used where Yrael's from than she is to learn it's not used more often around here.

"On Gaia," she starts, getting back to work on the first of his drinks, "some people think of heaven as a spiritual state of mind -- a reward, maybe, for being a good person -- that we'll only know when we die and rejoin the Lifestream."

She likes to think of herself as a good person, but it's never really been an idea of heaven that's moved her unless it's been her bar or the final technique Zangan taught her.

"The Lifestream?" Cue curious headtilting, like a cat.

It sounds a bit like the Charter, to him.

She presents him with the first of the heavenly drinks, blue to live up to its name, and nods slightly.

"It's like a river that flows through the planet. Every living thing on Gaia is made from it, and we return to it when we die." Watching to see what his verdict is on the Blue Heaven, she starts getting together the ingredients for the next one but doesn't actually mix anything just yet. "It could be said that the Lifestream remembers everything."

She believes it. She knows it. If she hadn't gotten submerged in it with Cloud, she's not so sure she could've helped him piece together his own memories.

No, now it sounds more like Death.

"It sounds a bit like the Charter and the River of Death combined," he says, sipping the Blue Heaven. From his pleasantly surprised look, he likes it. "

"The Charter defines and connects all things that live in the Old Kingdom, continuously regenerated, while the River of Death underlies the entire Kingdom, another plane, where the spirits of the Dead travel to their rest."

Now that looks like approval. She grins at the reaction.

"It does sound like it combines elements of both of those. I have to admit I like the name of the Lifestream better than I like River of Death. I know death doesn't have to be thought of as so final" -- but sometimes she can't help it -- "but it does sound a little less... positive."

Still grinning, she gets a second glass ready and starts working on the Almost Heaven.

"You said you went to Hollow Bastion before, right?" Maybe it's her talk with Cloud that's put the thought in her mind. "Did you meet Aerith there?"

Yrael grins. "No, I didn't meet her there. I did meet her once, though, here. She had come in with Cloud."

"I don't think he trusted that my intentions were honorable," he shakes his head, smiling. "Even though all I did was introduce myself."

With that smile, though? Can one really blame Cloud?

She's in the middle of adding the cranberry and pineapple juices, but the idea makes her pause for a second and laugh.

"It was Cloud that took you to Hollow Bastion, though, right? He must trust you."

She knows she wouldn't take someone home with her unless she trusted them. The Cloud she met here is so guarded that she'd be surprised if he didn't feel the same way.

"No, taking me to Hollow Bastion to visit the library there was the price I set for him stabbing me, the first time we met."

Yrael leans on the bar, counting off on his fingers, "I know he doesn't trust me due to my appearance, my attitude, and the company I keep, and I do get the feeling he just doesn't like me, either."

"Though the trip to Hollow Bastion proved to be very much worthwhile, turning up some very useful research information."

Once she's done with the juices, the drink's as ready as it gets, and she slides his second Heaven over toward him, leaving it inches away from the first.

The appearance problem she can understand. If she'd met Yrael under the same conditions Cloud did, she'd have warmed up to him a lot more slowly than she did. And his eyes are very similar to Sephiroth's. But... "What kind of company do you keep?"

It's a little bit more amusing to her than it probably should be since she's only ever seen him with a baby for company.

Again, she rests her arms on the bar for a minute or two between drink preparations. "And what where you researching?"

"In that... group of worlds, there are people called Nobodies, who are... incomplete. The universe doesn't want them to exist, but they fight it, seeking to be whole again. In their reduced state, they are unable to make moral judgments, so some of their methods in trying to regain themselves have given them somewhat of a bad reputation. That nearly half of their number originally came from Hollow Bastion probably doesn't help their reputation with the locals."

"One of them is a very good friend of mine, and has been for some time. He had left the Organization which had such a bad reputation, but was still seeking to become whole. I wished to help him, and had heard that there was a grand library in Hollow Bastion that contained information on the subject, so I sought a way to visit it."

Thoughtful, she props her chin on her hand. "What made them... Nobodies in the first place then?"

Given what he says about so many of them coming from Hollow Bastion, she guesses she can see where Cloud would be wary.

"Your research at the library was useful. Does that mean you were able to help him become whole again?"

"They lost their hearts," he says, finishing his drink. "And yeah."

Yrael grins as he picks up the Almost Heaven.

"I made him a heart, with the help of all his friends here. He's whole."

She's used to hearing of people losing their hearts when they fall in love. Not like this.

As he starts on the Almost Heaven, she smiles again and straightens, moving her arm off the bar and gathering what she needs for the last of the drinks. "That's wonderful. It can't be easy to make someone a heart."

"It wasn't," Yrael replies, sipping his drink. Mmm. That's nice.

"It took all morning, and the support of every person in attendance, whether they knew they were giving it or not."

"And he's happy as he is now?"

Even as she scoops ice to put in his glass and begins pours the precise mixture of vodka and juice over it, that seems to be the most important thing to her. So long as nothing that hurt anybody happened, it seems to her like something really good came out of what could've been a very bad situation.

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bartending!

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