[center][h3]Stolen Moments[/h3]
Roland, Zenkichi, Captain Falcon, Sandalphon
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3314 (+4 EXP / +1 REXP)[/center]

Roland had decided after getting back on the Avenger after such an intense fight to go get a drink to settle his nerves. Unlike the others, he wasn’t aware of Ace’s ability to avoid death for him and some allies so when he got to the Avenger, he was surprised to see some of those that ‘perished’ in the fight being totally fine even if the giant bee was more or less forcing people to get clean. That wasn’t something he was going to argue, so after a quick shower to wash off the gunk of battle, he went to the bar to grab a drink and relax. He hadn’t seen Midna or Goldlewis on the ship… had they been actually killed?

Captain Falcon was of a similar mind. Victory or not, as soon as he was back on the Avenger. He too made a beeline to the bar. He’d never been one for drinking, personally. Such vices usually didn't find their way in the bounty hunter’s system. But this? Losing two comrades and most everyone else ending up beaten down to some degree as well? This definitely seemed the kind of occasion that called for an exception to his usual rules. And so he sat perched on one of the barstools, nursing a glass of whiskey. It wasn’t a drink he chose out of any personal taste or preference. No, he picked it because Goldlewis seemed like the kind of man who enjoyed a whiskey. And so Cap figured he could drink one in his honor if nothing else.

[color=1f66b2]”You had the same idea too, huh?”[/color] He asked Roland, briefly turning his head to acknowledge the fixer before going back to nursing his drink.

[color=d7d7d7]”Yeah. We don’t get much of a chance to drink without consequences. Gotta do it when you can!”[/color] Roland said, starting with a basic lager. Cirrus, on duty behind the bar as usual, obliged without comment. In the silence that followed, calm, jazzy piano notes wandered throughout Stolen Moments, played at a low volume by a small portable radio.

As the pair chatted, Zenkichi entered the Stolen Moments with Sandalphon by his side, catching sight of his fellow Seekers having a drink and talking. He made his way over to the bar, sitting next to Roland and offering the seat on his other side to Sandalphon. [color=BFBFBF]”Great minds think alike, huh?”[/color] He joked somberly as Cirrus came over. [color=BFBFBF]”Just a dark ale, please.”[/color] 

The scruffy-looking bartender nodded. With more people here, the rather gloomy place was looking a little more lighthearted and lively.  “Coming right up.”

Hearing the piano notes on the radio, everyone could see Roland’s free hand visibly tense up before relaxing. It was only when the piano was playing, as if something involving one really tormented him. [color=d7d7d7]”Wow, more of you coming for a drink huh? Guess we can really get to know each other then.”[/color] Roland said, trying to ignore his own problem and just get some casual chat going.

Cirrus seemed to share his surprise, especially when it came to Sandalphon. “Miss angel,” he greeted her, an eyebrow slightly raised. “Here for holy spirits?”

His wordplay was not lost on Sandalphon, but she did not crack a smile. He ought to be careful; making jokes like that around somebody like Ms Fortune would give him a lot more puns than he bargained for. “Just coffee, if you don’t mind.”

That request only made the man more incredulous. “Just coffee? Not even a shot of honey bourbon for a little burning sweetness?”

That felt targeted–word about the archangel’s dietary habits must have gotten around. Unfortunately for her, he’d’ made the right call. Sandalphon’s pupils were loading rings only for a moment before blinking into check marks. “I will give it a shot. No pun intended,” she clarified stiffly. Cirrus smirked, and with everyone’s orders placed, he got to work. Sandalphon then turned her attention to Zenkichi, reasoning that in order to invite her here with him, he must have some purpose in mind.

[color=1f66b2]”Another shot for me, while we’re at it.”[/color] Falcon said briefly, ordering another round of the whiskey he had been nursing.

[color=d7d7d7]”If we were still at the library, I had a colleague who was really into coffee. He probably knows some coffee that tastes like honey or something. He kind of ruined my taste for coffee by showing me I had been drinking it wrong my whole life.”[/color] Roland said, giving some conversation.

Noticing Sandalphon's look, he explained his reasoning for bringing them to the bar. [Color=BFBFBF]”Figured I could use a drink and some company after all that. And I kind of wanted to see what you'd end up getting, too.”[/color] he admitted simply. When Roland spoke up, Zenkichi turned to his fellow Ex-Turk with a puzzled look on his face. [Color=BFBFBF]”Wait, how do you drink coffee wrong?”[/color] He asked, incredulous. The archangel, as someone who just assumed she had the science of coffee down pat, couldn’t help but be interested as well.

[color=d7d7d7]”Well uh… you know how in the lower plates of Midgar there were those coffee shops that all tasted the same where they added tons of cream and sugar into like, instant coffee? It's good for a ‘pick me up’ but isn’t really all that tasty? Chesed was a coffee fiend and would constantly get me and everyone else to try all these different coffee blends he made. It's crazy how coffee can be sweet, bitter, sour, spicy… once you’ve had tons of gourmet coffee made by someone like that you kinda learn that what you’ve been drinking on the streets to stay up after a long night isn’t right. Kinda ruined coffee for me really.”[/color] Roland said, explaining his story, taking a sip from his drink afterwords. He was pretty cheerful recounting the story regardless of how he ended it.

His explanation seemed to bring Sandalphon some amusement. “Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. This Chesed sounds like a fellow connoisseur. I never attempted to make my own coffee, but I did go to great lengths to source quality beans. The coffee that most people make do with -even on the upper plates- is rather alarming. Perhaps ageusia was more common in Midgar than one would think.” The archangel paused for a moment as Cirrus delivered the latest round of drinks, eying her mug of fresh honey-bourbon coffee. To the naked eye, it didn’t look any different. She picked up the mug and let the warmth soak into her palms. “Funny that out of everyone in Midgar, the three of us -two General Affairs Agents and a DespoRHado officer- wound up here together.”

[color=1f66b2]”Huh,”[/color] Cap hummed, accepting his newest shot of whiskey, [color=1f66b2]”never much of a coffee guy, myself.”[/color] He said with a shrug, taking a sip. [color=1f66b2]”I can usually get by on sports drinks if I need energy. I’ll drink maybe one coffee in the morning if I’m feeling extra groggy. After that, I’m usually good for the rest of the day.”[/color]

[color=d7d7d7]”Well, from the looks of it, a lot of the others aren’t accustomed to city life or they are children or mythical creatures. A couple of them would look odd in MY world, and the City had no shortage of crazy looking people.”[/color] Roland said, getting a top off on his beer. [color=d7d7d7]”We’re probably some of the most human looking of the people on this ship. Well, besides the people from the medieval period.”[/color] Roland said. [color=d7d7d7]”Although I’d say we’re all human at the end of the day regardless of if you look human or monster.”[/color] He said on a somber, ominous note. 

He then changed tacts quickly, in a practiced manner. [color=d7d7d7]”You know, I wonder what would happen if you gave some of them coffee? Like would it even affect the bee? Or have the medieval people even tasted coffee? Although probably not wise to give it to the kids.”[/color] Roland said, giving a bit of idle chatter. Surprisingly he was a bit of a chatterbox once you got him going.

[color=1f66b2]”From what I’ve seen of her?”[/color] Cap commented, [color=1f66b2]”The last thing someone like Nadia needs is caffeine. Otherwise you’ll be getting puns at a thousand kilometers a second.”[/color]

[color=d7d7d7]”That sounds kinda fun.”[/color] Roland said, thinking about it.

Zenkichi, on the other hand, blanched a little. [color=BFBFBF]”I’m…not so sure about that. Her and that Ace guy…like two peas in a punny pod. I’d be scared to make it even worse.”[/color] He chuckled, shaking his head at himself for making his own pun. 

“Considering that there’s coffee available in the mess hall and that’s where she appeared to be heading, you may be closer to the truth than you realize.” By now Sandalphon had tried her beverage. The flavor combination was quite enticing, but as someone who never consumed alcohol, the archangel knew that her tolerance would be low and was trying to pace herself. She considered Zenkichi’s observation. “Those two do seem to have an affinity for one another. I have yet to conclude whether such fraternization is foolhardy, or wise. On one hand, should this campaign succeed, any such pairs would be permanently separated. On the other, if this campaign peters out, such a bond could give rise to more Lost Numbers.” She glossed over the implications of her matter-of-fact explanation with remarkable composure. “Our new allies here, and the Avenger itself, are all products of our predecessors’ investment in the future. Without them, sieging the Qliphoth would have been far more costly, if not outright impossible. We would have never reunited with the remnants of the Alcamoth Mercenaries, and we might have been destroyed alongside the Virgin Victory by Moebius Z.” Her monotone voice sounded more somber than usual, somehow. “We owe them a great deal.”

Zenkichi, however, was much less uncertain. [color=BFBFBF]”I think it’s worth it. Even if we go back…I think it’s better to have tried to find happiness where we could. And…if we do fail…our lives will have been better while they lasted. I guess I am a little worried about going back with all my memories and knowing I’ll never see you guys again, but I’d rather remember you as friends and comrades than distant allies I never got to know.”[/color] He concluded with a sip of his ale. His words seemed to resonate with Sandalphon, who followed his example with a sip of her own drink. She’d focused more on the quantifiable benefits, while he considered the psychological aspect.

[color=1f66b2]”They do seem to have a lot more skin in this game, don’t they?”[/color] Falcon observed, speaking about the Lost Numbers. [color=1f66b2]”Take me for example. I only just joined the effort a week ago. But for the Lost Numbers? This has been their whole lives.”[/color] He paused and let the silence hang a moment while he took a drink of his whiskey shot. [color=1f66b2]”Don’t think that’s occurred to me much until now. Really puts this whole thing in perspective and makes me wonder about all this.”[/color]

What they all said hit Roland a bit too close to home. But at least this time he wasn’t forcing apart a couple… again. [color=d7d7d7]”Well… that's quite the heavy thing to think about. Not the first time I've seen stuff like this. Lets just hope their love pushes them to great heights to maintain it. “[/color] Roland said, being quite a bit guarded and calculated in what he was saying now even while a bit tipsy.  [color=d7d7d7]”The whole ‘only being here for less than a week’ thing is also kinda familiar. Has it really only been that short and we’ve made so much progress? It took months and months for the Library to get this far. That's kinda impressive on its own.”[/color] Roland said, swapping the subject more for himself than the others.

Zenkichi shrugged. [color=BFBFBF]”Me and the kids toppled a national conspiracy that was overtaking the entire country and was about to spread to the rest of the world in like…two months? A little less. Once you find what you’re looking for, you strike. Police work’s the same, though those investigations tend to take a bit longer. We were finding bad guys and hitting them within a week, though I guess it was a little easier for us because they were…pretty obvious.”[/color] 

[color=d7d7d7]”Kinda feels weird though that things are going at their pace, at least for me. I guess it makes sense why Nadia and Ace got together so quickly… which worries me but that's another discussion. Even more concerning that you took apart something in weeks. Where I come from, time frames don’t work like that. Well… I guess they do and don’t? I did take out quite a few Stars of the City when I worked for Charles office and they were a few days of recon, then striking and having… usually… a 2 hour fight. Yet anything thats like… world altering takes millions of years if what I saw what Angela went through is anything to go by.”[/color] Roland said, taking a sip to wet his lips. [color=d7d7d7]”Although if you guys say things go over this fast normally in your worlds… maybe mine is the exception.”[/color]

[color=1f66b2]”In all fairness,”[/color] Captain Falcon piped up, [color=1f66b2]”we often find ourselves in the position of going through a lot of things happening over the course of a single day. So I can imagine even a period such as a week can feel like half a lifetime when you’re surviving so many fights and other dangerous missions per day.”[/color]

[color=d7d7d7]”I suppose. We only got one reception a day at the library most days. ”[/color] Roland said.

The amount of jargon and unexplained proper nouns Roland sprinkled throughout his speech tended to make his chatter hard to follow, even for someone like Sandalphon. In her opinion, he seemed to be making much ado about nothing. If he thought that some of his allies were too quick to give romance a chance, these weren’t the right people to be saying that to. “In my experience, significant events always happen fast, but long periods of downtime tend to separate them. By their very nature, periods of normalcy tend to get glossed over and undocumented, without significant events to mark the time.” She tilted her head slightly, her pupils shaped like inverted triangles. “There’s also the matter of altered perception due to Galeem’s influence. For all my fastidious attention to detail, I cannot say for certain how much time I spent in Midgar prior to the Seekers’ arrival. I can only say it felt like years–an indecipherable blur of conflict and tedium.” When she tried to calculate just how many years, though, Sandalphon’s pupils became stress marks, and her grip tightened almost imperceptibly on her mug.

[Color=BFBFBF]”Yeah, tell me about it.”[/color] Zenkichi concurred, shaking his head with a sigh. [Color=BFBFBF]”I've got such a jumble of memories up there I still have a hard time figuring out which set some people are from. The really important ones are easy to remember, but some of my coworkers? The random cops I'd run into day to day? I can kind of assume the ones with Japanese names are from the same world as me, but anybody in Midgar with a Japanese name would get lumped in with that group.”[/color] But he shrugged, seemingly resigned to the fate of forgetting some people, and took a long drink of his ale.

[color=d7d7d7]”Tell me about it. I can at least sort between the Galeem world and my world memories at least; the good day to day ones are from the Galeem world.”[/color] Roland said.

The more Roland brought up his world, the more it sounded like a hellscape. “Odd to think that would be the case,” Sandalphon observed. “And you’re fighting in the hopes of returning whence you came someday?”

[color=d7d7d7]”If I had a choice…”[/color] Roland said, thinking about it. [color=d7d7d7]”I’d like to have my few friends from my world here, but otherwise either keep or expand this Galeem world. But I see problems with this conglomerate world as well… so… it's all the same no matter where you go.”[/color] Roland said. [color=d7d7d7]”I’d rather not have all the necessary fighting but.. yeah.”[/color]

He then thought for a little bit. [color=d7d7d7]”Wait, thats a question for everyone. If this is a world made of multiple other worlds, and it's supposed to encompass most of reality or whatever, why are there so few people? There's gotta be something weird going on there.”[/color]

While Sandalphon knew a tidbit of information that might be relevant, it did not serve to explain everything, and she did not deem it wise to share at this juncture. “I doubt any of us have the answer.”

[color=1f66b2]”Ha!”[/color] Falcon laughed somewhat, [color=1f66b2]”You think [i]your[/i] memories are jumbled? Try having memories of this world, your world, [i]and[/i] memories of other similar excursions against two giant sentient hands and an invading army of extradimensional beings from Subspace along with all the rest of the confusion.”[/color] He said jokingly as he knocked back his glass and downed the remainder of the shot within it. But there was at least one interesting thing included in his joke: the existence of [i]two[/i] giant sentient hands rather than just [i]the one[/i] the Seekers had seen thus far.

Zenkichi let out a whistle at Captain Falcon’s own issues, nodding at the bounty hunter solemnly. [color=BFBFBF]”Oh jeeze, that sounds like fun. But more of those hand guys out there? Greeeaaaat.”[/color] He sighed, shrugging. [color=BFBFBF]”Ah, oh well. We’ll just have to deal with that when it comes up, I guess. As for all the missing people, I mean…this could just be one world out of a billion he made. Unless we get a rocket ship and go out into space, we can’t really tell, can we? And with the whole ‘system’ churning out new copies of people, could just be that people are assigned to different planets based on a bunch of random factors.”[/color] Zenkichi ventured a wild guess on the matter of how many people were present, though it was clear based on how he said it that it was an off-the-cuff guess without much thought behind it.

[color=1f66b2]”Ha, it’s not quite as bad as I make it sound.”[/color] Falcon assured the detective. [color=1f66b2]”Just a little joke more than anything.”[/color] With no more drink in the shot glass he stood up from the stool he had been sitting on. [color=1f66b2]”Anyway, I think I’ve reached my drinking limit for now. Good to talk with everyone. Let’s do it again sometime.”[/color]

Sandalphon stood up as well. Despite her own drink being two of her favorite things, she’d managed to exercise enough moderation to stop before she actually felt tipsy–a sensation the archangel did not by any means want. “Likewise. It won’t be long before the Avenger lands. We should all make ready for departure.”

Roland finished his drink, a bit miffed that there was still more work to do.  [color=d7d7d7]”It never ends. If I’m still tipsy when we land I’ll go get some Coffee.”[/color]