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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Another sip. This is karma for talking about the giant bug in the moon. He hadn’t even given the details on that one. “The one talked about in Alice had wings.” That’s safe. He wracks his brain for the rest. “It’s about a girl that wonders about the world on the other side of the mirror. She steps through and has an adventure. It’s really...strange. I only remember parts of it.”

It felt like a drug trip and if he remembers right there is something to that. He leaves it alone. “Block puzzle? Can you tell me more about that?” He can’t say he’s joking. Not when he’s seen a lot of really weird shit in space.

Oh, Shiro. If only you knew...

Noctis listens with as much rapt interest one could give while intoxicated. "Really? Huh..." That is interesting, though. "Maybe ours did. It was kinda stuck in the depths, so..." No place to spread out its wings. It's kinda sad, really. Except he remembers how much it hurt and he's kinda glad it wasn't freely roaming the surface? Especially with all the shit already going on up there.

"Namuch to say 'bout it. We got to what looked like the bottom of the ruins, noticed a bunch a' square 'tiles' on the ground and decided to poke one. It descended an' we found out it wasn't just one, but a series of cubes. With no exit until ya either found the hidden chamber with and elevator to the Jabberwock's lair, or a large room filled with daemons." Guess how he found that one out. "Oh yeah, and every cube move or two there'd be daemons that suddenly appeared. That was fun after the second day."

He stares at him. "...how many days were you stuck down there?" He ventures as he sets his drink down. For now. He keeps it close. He has a feeling he's going to want to drink more. The daemons had been awful looking as it was. He can still recall how his arm how glowed with blue silver light.

The bayard's shapes in there had been the same ones Zarkon used. He assumes that's because of how he'd seen Zarkon use it and not the bayard itself making commentary. Shiro shoves those thoughts aside. "Maybe the original Jabberwock down there had wings but, over time...?" That's a bit sad but at the same time.

Yeah. Thinking along these lines reminds him there is a time limit on his friend's life that's horribly short. He puts it aside as gently as he can manage. "Anyway, it sounds like an ancient prison or trap for the daemons."

He holds up two fingers, then a third when he realizes that he's missing a thing. Completely unphased by the stare. "Two days, three nights." Just thinking about it makes him feel tired again so he rests his forehead back on the cool surface of the table. "Never been so happy to see the tent."

Because, camping. They were too exhausted to even make it to an inn. The haven was right there. "No idea. There was only the one," he replies. He'd be more than happy to spitball ideas about the bayard shapes if he weren't so drunk. "Only reason we went there is because the daemons stole one of my family's glaives from his tomb. The Jabberwock ate it."

Yeah; try not to think too hard about that one, Shiro.

Silence. The Jabberwock ate a glaive. He'd seen them before too. The glittering crystalline weapons circling Noctis and unleashed to fight on their own. The sheer power of it hadn't taken away from how beautiful their deadly dance was... He stares down at his glass in thought. Grief whispering up through the cracks of his iron defenses.

'One way or another, they who wield the light of the Lucii have to face the fact that they will burn. One way or another. Even me.'

Shiro's hand clenches on his glass. It has to be done. Someone has to stand against the darkness and push it back. Noctis is that person and yet. That man on the walkway...it all feels like a manipulation and the King is a sacrifice when a better way could be found. Can...it be found? He realizes he'd been silent for a minute or more. Shiro lifts his head and takes a sip to hide his brooding thoughts.

"Those crystal weapons that appeared for you, right? Those are the glaives?"

It's easy to fall into the silence. For anyone else, it would probably just seem like he's asleep. In fact, it would be normal for him to just... drift off. He's known to do it.

But then the thoughts he'd been trying to drink to forget come back. That vision from Ignis' memories, how all twelve of his ancestors would... and then his father...

It's a good thing that his head is resting on the table and his arms block out the sight, he figures.

"...Yeah. In this case." Because it wasn't capitalized- I mean, what? "The 'glaives of rulers past'..." He says, waving it off. "In this case, it was the Sword of the Tall."

"I see." Rulers past. Those who burned at the end of their reign. Shiro sets his glass down a little harder than he means to. He has to steer them away from this path. "Alice wanders in the world beyond the mirror and runs into all sorts of magical beings and creatures. The Jabberwock was mentioned in a book. They learn how to kill it from the reversed poem inside."

Stories won't do it either. He leans on the table, studying his friend carefully. Shiro gently puts his hand on his shoulder. "What did you enjoy about traveling? Are the Chocobo here exactly like the ones you know?" Safe topics. They should forget they're leaders tonight. Isn't that what they set out to do when they came. Forget, forget. Just be Noctis the man. And Shiro, the pilot.

"Interesting. Kind of like a couple tales back home." He pauses. "Not that I can actually remember the deets, maybe when'm sober." Because he's not so far gone yet that he doesn't realize if he's rolling around on the floor? Yeah, he might be a teeny bit drunk.

"Honestly? Meeting the people. Everything was different from what it was in Insomnia. Only the common tongue, no Lucian." He said, in Lucian, which sounds a lot like Japanese. He blinks when he realizes this. "Oh. Sorry."

He has no idea if Shiro understood that or not, but he'll just... continue on to the second question. "Well, for starters... they're a bit bigger back home. Giant puffballs the size of chickens. Chocobos are becoming rare back home. With all the monsters... their numbers have been dwindling for a while. Only ever saw the common yellows helping out a rancher named Wiz... save two black chocobos." But despite the somberness, he chuckles. "One of 'em stole Iggy's glasses right from his face before we were s'possed to make breakfast. He had to distract the birb while I snuck in to snag it from the nest." Good times. Goooood tiiiiimes. "The other we saved as an egg from some sahagin that we think at her mother. There weren't even feathers left."

He blinks. “Why are you sorry? I understood you. You’re not that drunk, Noctis.” It has taken a moment but the tones and wording had made sense. He puts that aside. Chocobos being bigger makes sense. Noctis has said they don’t have horses. He doesn’t ask about what caused the surge in monsters. He has a feeling he already knows. The man with red hair dressed in some gaudy other age’s style flashes before his mind’s eye.

Yes. Him. Shiro laughs quietly, “Bigger. Arus is already big enough and runs like the wind. I’m still having trouble keeping in the saddle.” But he’s learning. One day riding a white smelly bird won’t be weird. He smiles at the memory of wind in his hair and the feathers brushing against him.

“I like meeting people too. There’s a lot to learn and the people...they’re all incredible. So many view points and so many ways to live...”

Noctis blinks. "Really? 'Cuz I just accidentally switched to Lucian." He pauses, but shrugs it off. Eh, if Shiro understood it? All the more power to him. He's just gonna keep his head against the table.

"Adult size is similar. Hatchling isn't." He corrects the other, before that smirk is just barely visible. "Gonna have to work on that." Because one day, they're gonna have to race. It's just what he does with his friends. Chocobo racing.

"Exactly," Noctis agrees readily. "So many sights to see, too. Prompto always dragged us to get the best shots." He chuckles. "Even if I nearly got stomped on by a catoblepas the one time."

Oh there’s another weird ass creature that likely will make him crave more whiskey. Shiro does the sensible and slightly tipsy thing and focuses on sane part of the conversation. “Lucian? It sounded like...” He tips his head slightly to the side. “Japanese with a slight dialect shift. Here, listen.”

He takes a sip of his drink and says in Japanese, “I like the sights too. I have seen many wonderous things on our journey. Some events I have only heard of or were theorized by scientists for decades. Terrible. Beautiful. It doesn’t matter. No human has seen as much of the universe as we have.”

Excuse you, they're typically gentle giants! ...When you don't have a handful of their favorite snack in your pocket. Which he did at the time. Don't ask why. Though that gets Noct to lift up his head, and stare. Slightly. Wh-?

"Sweet Shiva," he quietly exclaims, before smirking a little and falling right back into Lucian. "Much as we talk about the stars, we Eosians don't really get much of a chance to think 'bout what lies beyond the outer atmosphere back home. But the large differences in terrain and cultures were always interesting." He paused. "Well, except maybe the marshes. Could do without the Marlboro."

He grins, it's been several years but it's as home to him as English. "I think everyone can do without Marlboros. It took a while for us Earthlings to get a look at the stars. Then we...just couldn't stop." Shiro takes a sip of his drink and blinks. Tipsy.

Yeah, he's pretty sure he's tipsy now. A laugh bubbles up out of him. "Most of Earth has mixed so much with each other we don't really think too hard about where we come from. Well, unless it's brought up." They're just people. He shrugs and traces his fingers over the wood of the table. "So we share this too. That's cool."

Noctis' smirk only grows slightly. "Yeah, probably. Still wondering what god thought it was a good idea to have a vine monster that spits noxious fumes." The bartender places a glass of water in front of him. He thanks him in common before continuing. "Sounds about right for any people, really." He sips on his water.

"Sounds like the dream I have for Eos," he mulls over, lightly tapping his index finger on the cool surface. "No borders. No 'Niffs' or 'Lucians'. Just... people. Eosians." This feels silly. It felt silly when he told Prompto, too. So dead set on changing things for the better. "We'd been at war with one another for so long, it's like some have forgotten that the other side is full of people who also have hopes and dreams. Sure, there're monsters. Real ones, even, but... it shouldn't matter where anyone's from."

Said the guy rambling in a different language hoping no one else would understand it. Yet he can't do anything about home. Unless the guys successfully come up with another plan while he's stuck in the Crystal, he never will.

Yeah, he really needs to take it easy on the booze next time. He smiles sincerely. "Yeah. Kinda weird."

He's tipsy but he recognizes Noctis is sharing a dream with him. Shiro shifts and wraps an arm around his shoulders and leans in a little. "Hey. As a man who grew up in a world with no borders...that's a wonderful thing to imagine and want to have." But...will Noctis see it happen? Grief cracks through the ice he'd placed over it and he grips Noctis shoulder a little tighter before forcing his hand to relax.

"I think Eos can achieve it. I truly believe that. If we can put aside all our wars and infighting. So can you. Then you'll mix so much it won't even matter. Everyone will have ties to everywhere." If his voice is a little softer than usual he'll blame it on the booze.

"Speaking of that...any time you need it. Hunk and I will always welcome you at our house. Any of you or your people. You're my friend, and...I want to do all I can to help you."

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Raise a Glass [OPEN]

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