dualislogs | b natural, c sharp, and take a stand ( OPEN )

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b natural, c sharp, and take a stand ( OPEN )

Who: Tifa and anyone who wants to stop by
What: Tifa finally has her own bar! One part cleaning up the place and getting it ready for use and one part actually in business!
Where: The B Natural Bar and Grill
When: Part 1 in early Nov and Part 2 in mid-Nov
Warnings: TBD

Part 1 early Nov

Unsurprisingly, Tifa is tired. She's had to jump through so many hoops to even start getting this bar off the ground and now with Cloud's underground AVALANCHE-but-not-quite idea going strong, her bar is going to be their unofficial headquarters. A lot of pressure is riding on her shoulders, but at this point she's used to it. Cloud was right to question whether she'd be willing to do the same here that she did for AVALANCHE with 7th Heaven. She'd had a lot of misgivings about AVALANCHE at the end and what they were doing; hopefully, Cloud won't make her go through the same thing this time.

Still, she won't know until she tries and if she's the one backing them, at least she'll know everything is as safe as possible. They'll just have to do their best not to have a repeat of Sector 7.

The location itself still needs to get fixed up and ready for business, so she spends a lot of time doing that. She can be found anytime in early November cleaning the inside, touching up paint, figuring out how to decorate it, moving items or furniture in or out, and lots of other things. Anyone who wanders in and doesn't look like they're going to offer help will likely be put to work anyway.

"Would you mind bringing me that broom in the corner there by the door? I have to move a couple of these tables to make sure I've swept all the dust out from under them."

Part 2 mid-November

Eventually, she manages to get everything set up to her liking and the bar is open for business. She's sent out a video advertisement, letting everyone know that she's got a new bar open to check out, but that's the only sort of ad she's likely to do for it. So, now she just settles in to keep things moving and clean while she waits for people to wander in.

a - When someone does finally make their way through the doors, she glances up from wherever she is, likely behind the bar or checking on whoever is already seated, and smiles. "Welcome to B Natural! Can I get you anything?"

b - She tries to take a few minutes off when she can, so someone might wander by the bar to find her... actually not there. She's in a corner sitting in a chair with her feet propped up for five seconds, but she pops up the second she sees someone looking for her. "Sorry! Did you need something?"

c - At the end of the day, she lets everyone finish their drinks and food before helping them get outside and closing up for the night. Exhaustion is quickly seeping into every line in her body, but she tries not to show just how tired she is. If any of her friends, or people who might want to try for a position working here, are still around, they'll be put to work. As soon as the place is properly shut down, she flops into one of the comfy chairs, puts her feet up again, and leans her head back to close her eyes.

"Just give me five more minutes," she says to the person who just walked up.

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[ it really is just a little too much for one person to handle. to be honest, tifa wouldn't have asked for too much help even in moving all of the things into the new place and getting it all cleaned up and situated. but cloud is cloud and he had practically jumped to help her, even without her really asking. she's grateful for that, more grateful than she could ever properly say.

so she's been letting him help her, watching him take boxes stacked on top of each other, directing him towards where she wants everything to go. And something about this feels oddly right, too, like this is just something the two of them do.

it makes knowing what she's doing, and having the strength to keep doing it, just a little bit easier. ]

Sure. That would be great.

[ she probably could manage the tables on her own, but that's not the point. it's all about leaning on each other, about helping each other.

it's about not being alone in this strange, confusing place.

so she steps over to one side of the table she wants to move and gets a good grip on it, waiting for cloud to get into place on the other side before she lifts. they get it moved just enough for tifa to get a good sweep underneath where it was and when they set it down again, she leans over it, her hands pressed to the top of the table and her head bowed just a little. ]

Do you really think this will work? [ she asks, and for all that her words could easily be taken to mean that she's thinking of the bar itself, she also means the bigger picture. are they really going to manage their ultimate goal? how much faith does cloud have in all of this?

tifa might be an infinitely strong person, both physically and emotionally, but every so often even she needs a supporting word or two. ]

[It's kind of nice, doing this. The bar itself doesn't feel like anything yet- it's slow to take shape and take form, it still smells a little bit, and even though a supply had been arranged, the place was still pretty bare. But it's coming. Slowly. And just spending time with Tifa is nice.

His mind wandered while he was here, too. He wondered what it'd been like for her in Midgar. Whether or not she's actually created the Seventh Heaven from a building, or whether it'd been something AVALANCHE always had. He wonders- but he doesn't ask. Instead he watches, wondering if he could see her doing this very thing back there.

...Before it'd been reduced to rubble, anyway. He remembered clinging to Barret, hearing the sounds of thousands of screams beneath them- the wire shaking as the column it was attached to fell, and a rough landing with all of the rest of the shrapnel. It snaps him right out of this pondering- and as the table is shifted, he finds himself looking at her.]

It has to.

[His exhale is small, considered. And while he wants to reach out, to touch her, he can't.]

But if it doesn't, then I'm not going to let anyone, or anything hurt you.

[ tifa doesn't honestly want to think about seventh heaven for a lot of reasons right now. too much had gone into all of that and the price had been far, far too high at the end. those screams would haunt her for a long, long time. sometimes she could still feel that wire cable shaking in her hands, the landing they took from it, and the awful screeching sound right before the gigantic CRASH that ended so many lives and stopped avalanche's efforts in sector 7 cold.

very, very cold.

barret's reaction over marlene had been the worst. thankfully, marlene had been saved. at least they had that to cling to. but all the others who hadn't been so lucky...

tifa curls her fingers over the edge of the table, holding so tightly to it that her knuckles go white. ]

You always were my knight in shining armor... weren't you?

[ when she looks back up, her smile is soft and gentle, but very, very fond. it's a quiet sort of fondness. she never needed protecting and they both know it now, but cloud's willingness to help her, to stand in the way of anything that might threaten her, means so much to her now.

even if she's still questioning a whole lot of memories and time.

she sighs and pushes away from the table to grab the broom and start sweeping. ]

But you're right. It has to. And I'll just have to make sure it does.

[That's a surprising response. Except it's not. The only thing about meeting Tifa again, so long after Nibelheim that was surprising was the fact she sure as hell didn't need anything of the sort. Well. That and her occupation. That wasn't exactly a shock, Tifa should've hated the Shinra after everything that'd been taken away from her. But a terrorist group? Yeah. It was a surprise.

His eyes move to hers as soon as she says it, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he gives her a small look, one, mostly, of incredulousness before he moves them away. Swiftly.

Colour faintly comes to his face.

...He was so stupid back then.]

Wanted to be. I didn't know you at all back then.

[He'd fallen for her, yeah. But it'd been the wrong sort of idea entirely. He'd fallen for someone that needed saving. From her stupid friends, before she got as stupid as they were, from the despair of losing her mother, from the mountain that almost killed them both regardless of how he'd tried.

...And later, from...
No.

His eyes follow her as she moves away, stepping out of the way of the broom. He leans against the bar, folding his arms in front of himself.]

...This is the easy part. All we're doing until the first year is up is preparing. If the Head even sends things to snoop around for it, and finds what's here, it's not enough to think anything. After that time's up, it'll get harder. But then..

[Then they'll have resources. Some form of fighting back.]

...Tifa. If you want to back out, now's the time to do it.

[ in some ways, it's a little strange to talk about "back then." even though they had known each other since childhood, they hadn't been really close until recently, until after nibelheim burned and they lost everything and everyone, after those four years passed and something in both of them changed. tifa still remembers that trip up the mountain, when she'd thought she could find her mother at the top of mount nibel. he probably does, too.

everything had changed after that. a lot of things between them had a habit of changing in nibelheim or because of it. ]

Good thing we have time now, isn't it?

[ someone somewhere might accuse her of flirting. in reality, she's just being genuine. she's glad for the opportunity to get to know him outside of what had happened in nibelheim. now that they are both adults and not starry-eyed children.

she knows what she's getting into as an adult, in more ways than one, and she gives her head a firm shake at the out he gives her.

she's not a quitter. she won't give up this early. ]

I did this for AVALANCHE and I didn't quit then. I'm not backing out on you, either.

[ she turns her sweeping so she can pause and give him a small, encouraging sort of smile before she goes right back to it. ]

It'll be hard and I know that. I know the risks. But I'm not giving up on you.

[ there are so many implications in those simple sentences that she just keeps sweeping, even when she's done with the spot under the table. other spots on the floor need to be swept and it's a perfect cover for the slight flush of her cheeks as she looks down at the floor.

she isn't giving up on any part of him, on his memory or this cause they're now both fighting for. he won't be the only person invested in this fight; he'll have her at his side. ]

["Back then" was kind of the reason he hated the place so much. Everything had changed from the instant they'd been found at the base of the mountain, him bleeding, Tifa ...worse, as that was the day the differences between him and everyone else he'd mentally perceived actually became real. The village hated him from that instant. They'd thought he'd taken her up there. They thought what had happened was deliberate. They'd thought...

Many things. None of it true. But they'd thought it regardless. The only person that listened to him was his mother. But from then, he'd avoided Tifa. ...Beat the shit out of her friends, yeah. Which felt good, but didn't. exactly. help matters. But he'd not talked to her since then. Not until that night, when he'd asked her to meet him at the water tower, when he'd told her everything.

When he'd made that stupid promise. Then... even after everything he'd done to her, she'd listened to him. Like now, even if all of this is dangerous, she's hearing him out. She's not wavering.]

Thanks, Tifa.

[Said, of course, sheepishly. They have time here, sure. But...]

We need to think of what we're gonna do when we're back home. All of that's not going to just stop without us.

[ in all honesty, that's probably one of tifa's best qualities, that she listens. to everyone, not just to him. not just to barret or cid or aerith or any one of them. she listened to vincent and yuffie, was there for cait sith, despite what they had discovered about the anthropomorphic cat's reality. these people had helped. maybe not all of them had had the best motives at first, but in the end they all had. and she supposes she can always ask vincent if anyone else betrays them, but she hasn't wanted to face that.

speaking of things she doesn't want to face...

she pauses visibly in her sweeping, missing half a beat at cloud's last words before she manages to force herself back into the rhythm. ]

I know. It's a lot to think about.

[ so much for her to think about.

she is so not ready for this conversation. ]

Do you have any thoughts about that? What we'll do when we get back?

Well, first thing's finding Aerith.

[A slight pause, exactly when Tifa's broom misses a few strokes, what a surprise. Both of them falling silent at the same time makes the moment last longer, makes it linger. And...

He moves, back behind the bar, taking a rag from the countertop and slowly decanting, and wiping clean, all of the glasses from the boxes before putting them where they're supposed to go.]

...Look, Tifa...

Zack... told me a few things. She's here [Among other things. But he can't speak about them to Tifa, of all people. He can't.] but I don't know what's going on with myself. It's best for me to leave her alone while she's here. I don't know what'll happen if I'm around her again.

[His voice is pretty melancholy, eyes downcast toward a certain glass as he's giving it the wiping of its life.]

...But when we're back, we've got no choice. I don't like the thought of her being out there, alone. And Sephiroth knows about her. [That's probably news to Tifa. So he brings his eyes up.]

Aerith spoke to me after I passed out outside the Temple. He was there too. He knows about her, and he knows she can stop him. We can't let that happen.

[ tifa manages to keep sweeping this time, though her grip on the handle of the broom tightens considerably. her knuckles whiten and she has to force herself to breathe or risk breaking the broom.

it might crack anyway with how tightly she's holding it, like the broom itself is her only lifeline in the sea of trauma and confusion she's floating around in. it's not much of a paddle, but every so often she can touch the metaphorical bottom of the sea and use the broom to keep her head above the water.

because she knows what will happen to aerith. tifa saw it with her own eyes and vincent all but confirmed it. it's still something she can't talk about, not with anyone but especially not with cloud. it's all too much to bear and so, even though she was the one to bring up the original topic, she latches onto the other part. ]

Do you really think that's best here? [ she asks, finally glancing at him again. ] Sephiroth is here, too. Maybe we should keep an eye on Aerith just in case. And I don't think she would want you to cut yourself off from her. She's your friend and I don't care what anyone says about Sephiroth's behavior or memories, he's still a threat. To all of us.

Maybe we should all just [ she shrugs, like this is really no big deal and she's not trying to repress any traumatic events. ] stick together as much as we can.

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b natural, c sharp, and take a stand ( OPEN )

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