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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He looks to Cloud's left. He looks to Cloud's right. He looks over him, then around to see who the fuck's chain is really gettin' yanked here.

"You've never met me before."

(Hello, you watched me push that button and destroy your beloved friggin' Sector 7.)

"That a fact? You ain't shittin' me?"

He shakes his head, curious now as to what this man's relationship is with the Cloud that is not him.

"I'm not lying," he reassures him, in his deep, srs bsnss voice.

The friggin' fuck: must be free pass night for the Turks' #1 pilot.

"No shit, huh? In that case, let me buy you a drink while you tell me who exactly you are and how there could be another guy in the whole friggin' universe with hair like that."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he knows: he oughtta talk.

He shrugs. It can roughly be translated into: 'Sure, whatever. Go ahead. I've got nothing to hide.'

"My name is still Cloud," he starts.

"And mine's still Reno. So now that we got the basics out of the way, what'd you do with our friendly neighborhood SOLDIER turned AVALANCHE turned fine upstanding if somewhat mopey Gaian citizen?"

He sure as fuck ain't done nothin' with the guy. Last he knew, he was based outta Edge doin' some sort of delivery shit.

"And if you ain't him, where the fuck are you from?"

"Hollow Bastion," he replies curtly.

He isn't sure he likes this guy very much; his manner is far too abrupt and vulgar. Makes Cid look like Aerith.

"Vincent once told me that it's possible for there to be parallel worlds," he explains. "That might be the case here."

Vincent?

"Valentine? You got another one of him where you're from too?" if so, what's the friggin' world coming to. But now he's genuinely curious. "Look, I don't know where Hollow Bastion is. But you sure look and sound like the Cloud I know. Come on, we both used to work for the same company." Kinda, sorta, maybe in someone's dreams. "We're practically partners."

They ain't, but this Cloud doesn't know that.

He shakes his head.

"I met Vincent here," he explains, eying Reno with a certain level of unexpressed suspicion. "I've never met him before; there isn't a version of him on Hollow Bastion."

So, basically? Yeah. He hasn't lost his memory (well, he has, but not the one that coordinates with Reno, Vincent and the Tifa he knows here) or anything.

All right, now they're gettin' somewhere.

"So no Vince where you're from. I got it. And you don't know me. You got a Tifa there?"

Might as well ask, see if they can be three for three but no matter what, this place is fucked up.

"Yes," is his response. Simple and curt.

Huh.

"She ever show up here?" Shit, one Lockhart's enough to handle. He can't imagine twice the trouble... although if there was two of 'em, then maybe he could make some time with the other without pissin' off his partner.

Wait, what the fuck is he sayin'? He shakes some friggin' sense back into his head.

"Your Tifa, I mean, not ours, she's already here. 'Cause if she did, that could get confusing."

"She doesn't know about Milliways," he replies. And truth be told, he'd like for it to remain that way.

He isn't sure he can deal with two Tifas in one place either; it would be too confusing, and a little ow, besides.

"Hey. Pal. I ain't gonna be the one to tell her."

Especially 'cause he has no friggin' idea where this Hollow Bastion place is, and 'cause one Tifa's more than enough trouble.

Also, Rude would kill him.

"I won't either, as long as she remains ignorant of it," he says. "Only Leon, Aerith and I know about it."

Aerith?

Aerith?

"Gainsborough?" He ain't sure who Leon is, but he'll sure as fuck be lookin' through the database for him when he goes back to work on Monday.

The weird thing is this: Aerith's dead. And they didn't treat her none too good before that happened, either.

The fuck, right?

He nods in confirmation.

"I heard that she ..." He trails off, momentarily unable to finish the sentence, because the thought itself seems so wrong to him.

"Tifa has warned me of Aerith's future in her - your - world."

Immediately, his hands go up in the universal gesture of innocence.

"Wasn't me."

He eyes him. If he was even instigating that Reno had done it, it certainly hasn't crossed his mind.

"It was my darkness."

O-kay.

They got themselves one nutjob masqueraading as an ex-SOLDIER sittin' right here at the bar.

"What is this emo shit? Your darkness my ass. It was Sephiroth. He's friggin' crazy."

Or was.

"Yes. Sephiroth. He is my darkness," Cloud says, taking in a breath.

It might work differently in Reno's world, but as far as Cloud is concerned, Sephiroth was created from him (he remembers that much) in his world.

It his responsibility to defeat him before he hurts anyone Cloud knows on Hollow Bastion, including (and perhaps, especially) Aerith.

O-kay again. Whatever floats his friggin' boat.

He is my darkness. Sounds like a giant load of crap, but if the kid here wants it, who the fuck is he to say he can't have it? He ain't gonna take no one's favorite toy away.

"Shit. We are from different worlds." Sometimes the realizations take a while to sink in and this is one of 'em. "So do me a favor. You ever come to my little planet, leave your darkness behind. You already got rid of him where we are and no one wants to see him again."

Cloud nods, in a sort of 'told ya so' way. Their worlds, possibly, could not be any more different. While some live, some do not. And while others exist on one world, they don't on his.

He is about to tell Reno that he doesn't control his darkness (the way it seems to control him), and that Sephiroth is a difficult one to find, but something distracts him.

"I did?" Well, technically he (a version of himself) did, but ... it's mildly encouraging.

"It's the story they tell."

Scratching his head now, he wonders if he's said too much.

Wait, what the hell's he sayin': this guy ain't Cloud. Well, he is, but he ain't, and fuck it 'cause it can't matter.

"This whole conversation hurts my brain. I need to go home and drink heavily."

"It is confusing," he agrees, but he doesn't seem to protest or encourage Reno's leaving.

If he wants to leave, fine. If not, that's fine too.

Well, ain't this a giant barrel of laughs. Shit, he came here to give somethin' to Tifa and that's done, and out there he already does enough babysitting to confused and sad people consumed by darkness -- their own or others -- who want to change the world.

Changin' the world ain't his friggin' job. Like he gives a fuck what happens someplace called Hollow Bastion? He doesn't, so he slides off the bar stool and shrugs. There's no hey, Cloud, catch you around pat on the back or anything.

He's just done. Right hand stuffed in his pocket, he saunters off toward the door. He's got someone new to look up... next time he goes back to the office. And wonder of wonders, he might actually spend ten minutes at his desk if he can find it under the cobwebs.

But first, there's gonna be some heavy friggin' drinkin'.

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dontloselight.livejournal.com - 2008-10-13 01:46 (UTC) - Expand

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