melodiesofeternity | Raise a Glass [OPEN]

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Raise a Glass [OPEN]

Who: The XV Cast and You!
When: June 6th
Where: Curti Center, Jiminy's Juicery (bar)
What: After saving innocents from the Dream Width, some people just need a drink.
Warnings/Notes: Alcohol consumption, possible violence, whatever people do in bars.

Their first foray into the search and rescue business in the Dream Width had been intense, to say the least. Stressful, heartbreaking, exhausting, and enlightening were other words some might use to describe the experience. After a night of rest and a day to somewhat sort things and people out, the next evening brings about a mighty need to head to the local tavern. Some drink to forget, some drink to remember, some drink to relax. There are even representatives of the Bard's Guild providing live music. You can try to make a request, but chances are they don't know your foreign songs.

Maybe you were invited by one of the excitable young men from Lucis, or maybe you came on your own. There's enough room in the bar for quite a few people, so long as they're of age. Sit right at the bar, or pull up chairs around a table, the choice is yours.

[OoC: Make your own toplevel or tag around. Please put content warnings as necessary. Have fun!]

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"Species... yes, species," Ignis repeats after Shiro, seeming to be in a deep thought. When in reality his mind wandered off to species and types of fish. Noct likes fishing. Is there a lake nearby? They should go swim.

"Humans are the weakest though," he says with a nod, watching the stack of shot glasses rise. He wants to contribute so he nudges over his own glasses. "Body-wise. We have the weakest bodies. You can train and train and train for years and then you get old and your reflexes poof away and it's all for nothing."

He separates the shot glasses into two simple stacks. It looks okay and he feels satisfied with the results. "That's true." He agrees and nods with a frown marring his face. "That's a thing you worry about when you're flying. The older you get the slower you get to respond and then..." You're dead, essentially. That's really dark and not what he wants to get into.

"What thought are you chasing about species?" Better topic. Maybe. His mind is attempting to orient towards safety and not thinking about all the bad things he drank to forget in the first place. He reaches up and flicks his white bangs out of his eyes.

"Flying is terrifying." His fingers tap idly against the surface, "I wasn't against it before but damn it, space flying is terrifying." The drinks just opened the honesty floodgates. Sorry if it's insulting, Shiro, he didn't mean it.

Species, species...

"Ah-! I was thinking about fish. Fish species." ... "Noct loves fishing. 'Tis odd we didn't go fishing yet. We also didn't have sushi in a long time." He sighs and leans chin on the palm of his hand, half turned towards Shiro. "I miss camp-grilled fish."

"You could probably go camping out in the wild on this planet. No idea what sort of fish is out there." He pauses, as something occurs to him. "But...I haven't had sushi in a long while either." At least a year and some change. He partly turns towards Ignis as his thoughts slide right back to flying.

"...space flying is always risky. That's why they do a ton of tests back home. Only top students get up there. That didn't feel like normal space does. Even some of the odder areas don't have that sense of..." He gestures with his right hand in an encompassing gesture. "Waiting? But we didn't have the proper equipment to navigate. You should have all had space suits and lines tethering you to the ship since this world lacks jet packs."

"'S too dangerous. No clue about wildlife and no haven camps to protect us," Ignis groans, some rational part of his brain making him resist the urge to smack his forehead against the bar. "Could do one-day trip though. For picnic. It would be nice." At least there are no daemons around.

Hopefully, they never appear.

"Wow... sounds more complicated than it looks." He'd offer a more... intelligent response if he weren't trashed the way he is. "Question- does time pass fast in space? Or is it just an illusion?"

That draws him up short. He leans back on the bar and really strains his booze ridden brain to think about that one. "...It's an illusion. It can seem like a year or more passed but it hasn't. Sometimes it feels like a year has passed but only a few days have happened."

He glances at the bartender and quietly asks for a glass of water. It's something. He has a feeling he's cut off. Probably a good thing anyway. Shiro rests his metal elbow on the bar top. "It depends on what you're doing and how fast you're traveling."

He should ask the question rattling around in his brain. Haven camps? "...can you explain what a haven camp is?"

"That can mess with people's minds," Ignis says, attempting to think further into it but coming up blank.

The Bartender places two glasses of water for them and Ignis eyes it as if it suddenly turned into his arch enemy. But, he still takes a sip of it because it has ice in it and the bar is too hot.

"Ah. Places of lands blessed by the Oracle." Ignis trails a finger around the edge of the glass. "The haven is usually round, flat rock, decently sized, engraved in runes that protect campers from daemons and wild animals."

Oracle. He notes that as he takes a sip of the water and listens to Ignis. “So, it might be possible once we understand the magic here better to possibly create them?” Or make a tech version. He will bring it up to Hunk if he...remembers this in the morning.

He takes another sip and winces at the chill. Maybe he’d sober up enough to not need hauled home by his own teammate. “And yes, space can mess with your head. In a number of ways. I’d bring up some of the weirder things we’ve seen out there but, I’m too drunk to make them sound less horrifying than what I told Noctis about.”

"Mmm, I don't know. Don't think so." Ignis sighs trying to remember the reason WHY is the answer to this question a no.
Oh. Right. "You... you need the Light of the Oracle to activate the runes. But all our magic is useless here. So, even- even if Oracle did arrive here, she wouldn't be able to make them." Or something like that.

Horrifying things from space? That is not so surprising. And yet, Ignis feels like he will regret this. "I've seen and went through a lot of-" shit, wait he's advisor, he can't curse, "- stuff. I think I can handle one story."

"One story." He agrees and looks up at the ceiling. Which one? The Robeasts are not really all that bad. Finding the Marmora is personal. He's really damn drunk. Shiro flicks his hair out of his eyes. "I don't mean using the same magic you used before. It might be possible to recreate the protection with magic of this world."

Anyway. Story. "Anyway, story time. Okay so back when we were new to being Paladins we needed training. We were supposed to go visit a gauntlet of sorts. Except Coran got kidnapped because of his bar debt and to get him out they sent us out to get something of equal worth to a ten thousand year old bar debt."

It sounds nuts. He pauses and shake his head. "...We were tracking it to a planet and got attacked by-" Another pause and he takes a sip of water and looks at Ignis with one eyebrow raised. "Wait. Do you have any specific things you're afraid of. Bugs, body horror, etc? I'm really drunk and I need to know this before I keep going." At least he sounds concerned and a touch worried.

Edited 2018-06-16 01:13 (UTC)

"Mmm," Ignis taps his fingers against the counter. "...perhaps. But again, I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to create a rune to fill it with the... with the replacement magic." It's a good thought, to make an attempt at it- even if the runes end up being temporary and work around 12-24 hours.

Ignis has no clue who Coran is, but from description Shiro just game him, he sounds clumsy and very bad with finances. "A ten-thousand-year-old interest laid on a bar debt. I can't say I want to be in his shoes." It sounds like an interesting story though.

"Things I'm afraid of?" There's a long pause. "Not really... I fought molten lava daemon giant with my daggers, slain snake size of two houses, speared a naga with a polearm and broke off centipede's legs." Another pause, then he raises his eyebrows. "Ah. Noct behind the wheel. That sends a shiver down my back despite the fact that he's not as bad as he used to be."

...that counts, right?

He nods. Okay so Noctis used to be pretty bad at driving. He won't remember this or he'd offer Noctis some pointers. "The thing to know about this whole thing is Coran and the Mu of the quadrant actually made that debt up. Acted out the kidnapping to sell it more. They wanted to motivate us to find better unity and there was a pretty bad problem about to hatch free of a moon. Two for the price of one."

He sighs, and continues slightly exasperated but that's the booze. He's not all that upset about it. Compared to other missions that one wasn't so bad. "So we were trailing this lead on the item and were attacked by a giant bug...does your world have praying mantis?"

Edited 2018-06-16 02:54 (UTC)

Maybe Ignis will end up pointing it out again when he's not sober. He likes poking his King about it- Noct gets all pouty. According to Lord Clarus though, he's better than King Regis so that's a plus?

A praying mantis? "We have similar things. We have- brutal bees, killer bees, soldier wasps and killer wasps. I suppose praying mantis is a queen of the swarm?" It's usually like that but he wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. It's space after all.
...maybe it's a swarm of praying mantises! Okay, that image is disgusting.

Shiro's eyebrow climbs up at the list of stinging insects. Brutal bees? What do they do ram into people? Not a fun mental image. "It's a green bug that stands up on its back legs and has front limbs like scythes. Small pincers. Long neck." Creepy as hell.

"It had scythes like that coming up out of its back. It was heavily armored and muscled, but we did manage to kill it. Turns out it was a village guardian." In fairness it had tried to kill them first. Shiro finds his water glass and keeps it close. His head still hasn't cleared. "So, we had to fight what it was supposed to be holding off."

And what Shiro described is both similar and not similar to the things that are on Eos. "Sounds disgusting. Something I wouldn't mind shoving my dagger in," Ignis says without thinking twice.

Ignis tilts his head, trying to process the situation that was just presented to him. "It was guarding something bad? Well- it all sounds like a real mess up to me. But- not judging you. Those things on Eos attack first and never ask questions so- kill or be killed." And he definitively doesn't want to die or let bees injure his king or his friends in any way.

“That’s exactly what happened. We were going to ask the village for information and it attacked. I don’t blame it either. It was doing its job.” He sighs. “So the village always has this feast. It was massive. A yearly feast to feed their guardian. The guardian itself...even after it fed on the feast depending on how it liked it...it ate some of the villagers too. That was incentive each year to get the feast right. But I don’t think that was always the case.”

Shiro tips his head slightly to the side in thought. His words come out slow and measured. Even drunk he still thinks too much. “I think it was just a celebration then the massive bipedal, made of tentacles beast attacked. It smelled the feast and came running. Thus they needed the guardian. ...we didn’t know this at the time but Hunk figured it out when we were fighting it.”

He shakes his head and looks at Ignis. “Have you seen the red wings that jut up over housing? Or what they’re connected to?” It’s likely hard not to see it. The Black Lion is massive and parked right by B - 02.

Ignis didn't know what to say to that. A guardian that eats its own villagers? It sounds awfully familiar somehow... He brushes off that uneasy, familiar feeling and tries to focus on the rest of the story.

"It would seem that saying 'best way to reach someone is through their stomach' isn't just for laughs," Ignis clicks his tongue. In the end, everything comes to basic survival.

"Mm, I have noticed. It makes quite a shade for the neighborhood." Sorry Shiro but yes, he just made a joke about your flying lion. "I speculated it might be your spaceship but I didn't get a chance to ask."

He can't help but flush in slight embarrassment. He sigh. "...sorry about that. I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it that would be close and safe." Shiro looks aside and coughs. "The Black Lion isn't our spaceship. It's a combat fighter. But with Hunk's direction, we used the body of the former guardian to...make a giant soup. The beast ate it and passed out. Black and I were bait at the time to keep it busy."

He shoves his bangs aside. "So now they use the feast to keep it at bay. We got our lead and left."

"It is alright. I believe that Noct really enjoys the shade it makes in the morning. It takes additional ten minutes to get him out of bed because he thinks it's still dark outside."

A giant soup. A giant soup made in a combat fighter. Ignis can't lie- that sounds pretty cool. "Is it edible? The soup? For people? I'm just curious."

"...I have no idea. We didn't try it. We made it with our Lions and once things were alright, we left. We were in a hurry." He looks up at the ceiling, really puzzled. He's way too drunk to even guess at if that would have worked.

"My recollections are really getting fuzzy I think I'm too drunk." He has that much awareness. Wait. He blinks. "Is Noctis hard to wake up in the morning?"

"What kind of cooks you are if you don't try the food you prepare? Even a lick would've sufficed. Ah, well," Ignis shrugs.

The question makes Ignis smile at first and then chuckle lightly, "These last few months, it has been easier to wake him up. But before- waking up Adamantiose was easier," Ignis says so casually, drunkenly expecting Shiro to know what Adamantiose is.

He gives his best puzzled stare. “A what?” It sounds like some kind of turtle. He isn’t sure though. Their world is weird and has smelly birds instead of horses. “I don’t know what that is.” He shrugs, adding lightly. “I’m not a cook of any kind. It’s actually better for everyone I stay out of the kitchen.”

He doesn’t sound miffed. He frankly could care less what people think of that. “But I think from how the Abomination made of tentacles passed out after eating it. Better we didn’t try that soup.”

"Adamantoise. An ancient turtle that was asleep for over thousands of years. Currently carrying a mountain on its back." Ignis takes a sip of water that bartender placed in front of him. His throat is parched. "Said to be born at the dawn of time itself. It was considered to be a myth."

"Until recently, of course," he grouses, leaning chin on the palm of his hand. "Somehow everything happens when we are around." A small pause. "A turtle soup sounds good." Shiro mentioned soup so Ignis' brain latched on it as well.

Thousands of years. He tries to wrap his head around that and the sheer mass involved in carrying a mountain. Even sober he'd have been doing the math for more than a minute. "It is a little weird how everything seems to happen just when you show up, doesn't it? It's like that for us too. Maybe that's a constant in every universe. Its defenders have to deal with problems?" He sounds skeptical.

"Or maybe I'm too drunk to even get philosophical. It certainly feels a bit tiring how often things go to shit. But we see more than anyone else ever has." But from the look on his face...he has to wonder at the cost to that.

Ignis chuckles:"This defender would like one night of calm sleep. Maybe someone to make him breakfast and coffee. Take a day off... but I suppose when you're defending the entire star, you can't take a day off huh?"

They both are too drunk to get too deep into this. Ignis is basically just throwing out the first thing that comes to his mind. "Hmmm... I'd like the world to pause for a moment. Wouldn't that be great?"

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spaceforged - 2018-07-02 17:12 (UTC) - Expand

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