melodiesoflife | The Saloon Doors are Open

Characters: Saori Nakagawa, Brigid, & You
Where: Aqures Ixen; The Space Saloon
When: Throughout September
Summary: With Barkeep now in Stasis, the Space Saloon is need of help.
Warning: None for now

A. No Trouble in This Place
When news of the Barkeep went into crystal stasis spread, Saori's heart sank. Then came the matter of the Space Saloon. Since she was no longer in part of the police force, that left her schedule wide open. Besides getting some extra gil definitely helps. The day started after a quick morning work out, a trip to the marketplace to order more for the saloon, and getting breakfast on the table back home.

From there she went to the Saloon for kitchen prep while slipping in some job training in between. When the sun went down and everyone was stopping for a drink or a meal, Saori could found behind the counter, taking orders and prepping drinks. Despite how much she was on the go, she could be easily stopped especially now that she sported a new shorter haircut.

B. Writer's Block

One lone moggle sat at the counter at the Space Saloon with a notebook as big as her . She started scribbling something down but paused. With a frustrated pout, she ripped out the page.

"No, kupo! This doesn't feel right!" Brigid crumpled the page furiously and threw it behind her. There was supposed to be wastebasket nearby but there was a mountain of rejected writing where it was. Instead of flying towards the pile of rejects, it hit someone passing by. "Nothing's working, kupo!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Crystal Stasis or not, life in Crystallis goes on regardless. There were only a few days that Sephiroth could spend putting the fractured parts of his personality back together in the wake of losing Terra, but at least his work gave the structure which was pivotal to his getting back into a routine, without her.

He'd been back to Esdham again since then, but the next time he was on rotation within Aqures; helping to reinforce security given swollen population of the City- there was an altogether different commitment to see to when he could catch a few hours off duty. He hadn't expected to see the Saloon open, at all, since Barkeep had also slipped into stasis but-

Sephiroth was stood at the edge of the bar nearest the door, wearing his usual leather pants/boots alongside a light-grey muscle shirt, silver hair loose and shimmering down his back, hopefully not attracting too much attention given the mark to his reputation which had occurred in these premises not-long enough ago.

He'd already sent word to another of the staff to go and fetch the manager to see him. A medium sized gil pouch rested on the surface, but his hand didn't ever really stray too far from it.

Saori was rather confused when a worker asked her to come to the front even though she was in the middle prep work. Though probably not as surprised as Sephiroth might be to see the red head working at the Saloon.

"Oh! Sephiroth, it's nice to see you. How can I help you and what's will the gil pouch?"

Clearly, Barkeep didn't keep her up to date on everything at the Space Saloon.

At first he casually looked over the woman as she approached him, clearly coming out from doing some kitchen work in the back, and maybe it was the shorter haircut that threw him a little but sure enough he blinked, shifted on his feet a little and couldn't help but to grant her a small smile. A flash of one, anyway.

His smiles didn't ever reach his eyes anymore, though.

"Oh, Saori. I didn't expect-"

Wait, back up. Sephiroth tilted his head to one side minutely as logic caught up. Of course, after all, it made sense. He squeezed his hand around the gil pouch as she quickly indicated it and didn't hesitate about the answer. She seemed busy and he didn't want to disturb her.

"-this is the remainder of an amount that I owed him...for this place." He quickly glanced around, though was very careful to avoid eye contact with any of the patrons.

"I've been too...busy to settle it as of late."

Since leaving her homeworld, she had kept her Assassin's hood up until they made it back here. True she dearly missed her long hair but an emergency forced her to take dramatic measures into her hands. Thankfully she could at least get it fixed up before returning.

Saori opened her mouth to ask what Sephiroth had meant about owing Moredecai money but stopped herself after seeing his body language. Maybe she'll look up the story later. Still that smile of his made her concerned.

"Oh, not to worry. Thank you for the payment. Would you like a receipt?" Saori ignored whatever looks the patrons gave at Sephiroth. He is still a guest and will be treated as one. If anyone objected, they were more than welcome to leave. Saori wouldn't pull any punches if it came down to ejecting guests after all.

"Hey, um, you know can keep in touch with me for anything, right? Are you taking care of yourself?" Saori was all too familiar with dealing with loss.

Given that, he too, still managed to somehow keep and maintain his own back-of-the-knee length locks, Sephiroth might empathize with Saori on more of an equal wavelength than others might. He'd lost a few inches himself once, courtesy of the battles with Hera, but then he'd essentially been reset by crystal stasis not much later.

It had to have been the way he was standing, that the lighting hadn't revealed the tight support bandage bound around half of his torso -firmly encasing one shoulder and half way down one of his arms- as Saori had first looked at him. He didn't seem to be favoring one side or the other though, being left hand-dominant and that side was fine. When prompted he slid the gil pouch across the bar to the new owner of the Saloon.

A light shake of the head dismissed the receipt for it. Better that the whole business be forgotten entirely. But the follow up question Saori posed almost seemed to make him flinch, a slight tensing up almost as if he were to stand to attention, before he caught the gesture and stopped himself over-expressing. He did raise his gaze from where it had been inspecting the grains on the wood of the bar top, though, as he began trying to read between the lines of Saori's expression.

Was it genuine interest or not? It was painful how obvious his emotions were being as of late, and almost punishing to have known that even after nearly a week of that incident he wasn't right still. He was trying to move on.

"It's been...tough." The political answer, for sure. But at least Saori was worth an answer.

"All we can do is move forward."

The Saloon Doors are Open

[Mid-September; the next time he's around in Aqures]

[Mid-September; the next time he's around in Aqures]

[Mid-September; the next time he's around in Aqures]

[Mid-September; the next time he's around in Aqures]

[Mid-September; the next time he's around in Aqures]