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

Entry tags:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tifa gives a shake of her head at his question. "I'll be all right. I'll probably go right to sleep after all of this," she says lightly. She's really going to be tired after the hustle and bustle, and stress, of the opening day. "I'm glad you came. Do you want to walk around and look at the place or can I get you a drink or something to eat?"

Sleep after all this—that sounded like a good plan. Tidus had wanted to get some food, but now he wasn't so sure, not when it seemed to be just her at work). Still he slips into one of the bar stalls, asking as he does: "How about just a drink? Nothing with alcohol, just...something sweet and sour? I don't know a lot of the drink names," he admits with a small laugh.

If there's a drink menu she wants to point him to, sure, he'd look at that. But he was fine with a surprise, when everything there was still largely that.

The nice thing was that even from there, he could look back, take in the view of the decor.

"The place looks great. Is this how your bar back home looked?" And then thrown on, when he sees it— "Can you play that?"

It might help to say the name when he's not looking at her, but Tidus is pointing over to the piano. Woah, fancy!

For right now, it is just Tifa at work here, but that's mostly because she's going to be pretty picky about who works with her and who knows how much about what goes on in the background here. It's okay, though. Right now she's more interested in keeping the place alive and afloat than worrying about workers.

At the request, she sets about making him an Orange Sunrise... just without the alcohol. "Try this," she says as she sets it on the bar in front of him. "No alcohol. Tell me what you think and if you don't like it, I'll find another one for you." She has always been a big proponent of making her customers happy. More so with this current situation.

A glance is spared in the direction of the piano and she nods. "Yeah. I can. I didn't set it in here just for me, though. It's open if anyone wants to play, as long as they don't break it. Seventh Heaven was different, but I wanted this one to be its own place, not a knock-off of what was."

Even if the two places had the same underlying purpose, she had been going for something different.

Tidus takes the drink with thanks, sips on it slowly to taste test. It hits a mix of sweet and the tang of the orange, though it's...very sweet. It's not exactly a bad thing though with the ice, and Tidus finds it too easy to keep on sipping if he doesn't watch it. But maybe the standards of his taste buds are extremely low, after everything.

He'll give his approval if she asks right away (as well as offer the money for it), but otherwise, he doesn't mind being momentarily distracted by the decor, and else.

"It looks a lot livelier than the way you described everything in Midgar." Which if he's remembering right, was where her other bar was. "That's good. You've got to come here to work and see it every day, and there's no reason it has to be drab. It's good to have things to look forward to."

He says the last part somewhat wistfully, maybe a quiet sort of hopeful. But looks at her, or somewhere in Tifa's direction when he asks, "Did I ask how long you've been here before?"

If so, he's forgotten, and it's a way of asking again.

"It's a lot different from most of Midgar," Tifa agrees. The only area this sort look would have worked for was Wall Market, where Don Corneo reigned, but that was its own area with its own problems and Tifa doesn't like to think about it.

"I wanted this place to look more like the city it's located in. There's no point in making a recreation of something very different."

Especially when that something different is now flatter than a pancake and probably squished a bunch of people with it. That's a cheery thought.

"How's your drink?" she asks, for something else to think about.

"Very sweet," he grins, not necessarily a bad thing. He doesn't really care whether that makes it good or not. It's tasty, so it works. "I haven't had anything like it in a long time. I like it. Reminds me of home."

Of even having the option to sit around and enjoy a fancy drink. Tidus taps his fingers against the side of the glass, staring into the liquid.

"Hey, Tifa... I know this probably sounds stupid, but do you kind of... have you ever..." He rolls his lips, trying to find the right way to continue. "Do you hope maybe...this place doesn't have to be so bad? I know getting pulled here without a say isn't great," he hurries to say, "and there's been other stuff too. But I mean...some people don't come from great cities—" starting with M and ending in 'idgar' "—and some... some don't have a city to go back to."

Or anywhere. He lets the end of a finger get cold against the glass, takes in a breath he immediately lets out.

"It would be great to be able to start over."

"I'm glad you like it," she says with a small smile. Maybe she'll make something similar but a little different for him the next time he comes in here.

The rest of the conversation takes that train of thought and derails it completely. That's a loaded question if ever there was one. Tifa takes a cloth and proceeds to wipe the counter with it as she ponders her answer. She knows what she believes about this place, what she and Cloud think: that there's something sinister going on and the Head, and the Heart, can't be trusted. But she isn't about to say that out loud. No way. Instead, she acts like she's considering the question before she finally answers.

"That would be nice, wouldn't it? And who knows? Maybe it's true. But I also think we shouldn't get complacent about a world we know so little about."

Midgar isn't a great city. It's not even a good city. It's just big. And it's run by Shinra, which makes it just about as bad as this one. Not being complacent is sound advice from someone whose previous participation in a resistance ended in the death of one-eighth of the entire population.

"I know."

There's no argument, no real pause or consideration; Tidus accepts the point with an already accepted ease. His finger continues playing along the side of the glass, mind jumping between the things he could continue to say, to add. What if you've got no other choice? What if there's nothing else? —Would it be so bad to let it slip to Tifa? There have to be others in the same position. The same as him. It might help.

The want to say more isn't entirely devoid from Tidus's face, and he lets the silence in as his mind stays undecided, yet knowing—he won't. He doesn't want to. So finally he wraps his hand around the glass, and throws Tifa a practised smile, a returned cheer.

"At least we've got a year! Let's make the best of it we can."

As long as nothing comes to kill them.

Honestly, if Tifa had anything that would be comforting, anything that wouldn't just be an outright lie or blowing smoke out various places, she would be offering it. As it is, while she believes in trying to be hopeful, she also doesn't want to get anyone's hopes up in case the situation turns out to be just as dangerous as they think. There's no telling what the Heart wants and the Head... well it's already proven to be less than sympathetic, if those murderbots are anything to go by.

She's good enough at her job to be able to figure out that there's a lot of turmoil in him, more things he isn't saying. Maybe his question had been for himself or maybe it had been for someone else. That she doesn't know. What she does know is that people don't often ask those kinds of questions without reason.

So she wipes at another corner of the table before turning a small smile back at him. "That's all we can do," she agrees gently. "For what it's worth, I hope things are good for you here."

"Hey, you too." He means it, and it's easier to smile when you mean it. "Starting a business? I couldn't do it. I'll bring my friend next time too--Yuna. She's from my world." He nods. "Gotta support the new businesses!"

Maybe they won't come for drinking, but eating? It should be fun. And some familiarity in their lives will be nice, even if it's just seeing the same faces every now and then.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject