bartending!

[antishinra]

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.]

Comments

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

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

[sleazeoverstyle]

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?

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

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."

[sleazeoverstyle]

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

"Wasn't me."

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

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

"It was my darkness."

[sleazeoverstyle]

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.

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

"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.

[sleazeoverstyle]

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."

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

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.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"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."

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

"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.

[sleazeoverstyle]

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'.

[dontloselight.livejournal.com]

Cloud watches the other man for only a brief moment before he turns back to the bar, contemplative and a little curious about this world Another Version of him lives in.

There are enough familiarities - Aerith, Tifa, Sephiroth - to make it matter to him; and yet, there are differences - Vincent, Reno apparently, an absence of Leon - too. He wonders whether there's a part of him that might have known them once, before his memories were shot to shit and he was consumed by his darkness.

It's something to think about.