trails and tribulations of a newbie [ Traverse Town Café - Open to ALL! ]

[onargentwings]

After her interesting meeting with Greed, Alice had been quick to make her way to the café he'd spoken about for some food. She had no idea how long it had been since she'd eaten last, but she was well aware that she was positively starving. After her currency being denied, the girl had made another trek to the exchange counter to trade her money

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[sunshine_dark]

(OOC: LOLBS :D)

After that meeting in the hotel and seeing the posters for Hollow Bastion tacked on every surface in this district, his appetite should have suffered. He didn’t feel hungry at all despite not having eaten that day. Regardless, Cloud had retreated to the first district café hoping that seeing would provoke the hunger. He picked one of the chairs near the outside of the café, and slouched in it.

Unfortunately it didn’t work that way at all. What he had ordered ended up being shoved aside to cool then eventually neglected for the sake of looking over other things. The blondes journal had been scribbled in worth five words then sat aside, all in order to take another look at that military poster.

Cloud sighed, “Their finally getting back on their feet, I guess.” It was the military, and try as he might even he couldn’t just brush that off. After eight years with not a trace this was a huge undertaking for that world.

[onargentwings]

Alice hated to seem nosy, but the blond man had caught her attention the moment he'd set foot in the small café, if only initially due to his wild hairstyle. Further inspection, though she didn't like to stare and was sure to avoid it, revealed a small journal similar to the one that she'd been given upon waking up in Traverse Town. Her eyes lit up, and she stood to approach him in hopes that he could tell her about this "underscore."

"Excuse me?" Alice asked politely, standing a comfortable distance away from the stranger; she didn't want to seem pushy after all. "I noticed that you've got one of these too." The girl offered her own journal as proof. "I'm another newcomer here, and this might sound a little silly, but I was wondering if you could help me with something regarding it."

[sunshine_dark]

Anything was a welcome distraction at this point, so it took very little to tear his attention away to what he had been brooding over. The one who came up to him, a girl, was a lot more polite than most of the gruff people in Traverse town.

Instead of anything that most new people asked about, she seemed more curious about the journals -- a welcome change from the usual barrage of questions about heartless which most of the newcomers seemed to be brimming with. Strange, too. “These?” Cloud snatched his own journal off the table so the both of them could see it-a little dim-witted reaction since it was pretty obvious by her showing the journal that it was what she wanted to ask about, but it wasn’t something he got asked about a lot. “What about them?”

[onargentwings]

Oh, good. He didn't seem to be in the same boat that she was in after all. Alice breathed a soft sigh of relief, feeling her cheeks flush again as she hoped her question wouldn't sound too stupid. Then again, she was new here, and, if this man had been staying in this Traverse Town for any, significant period of time, he'd probably had to deal with dozens of people like her asking all sorts of mundane questions.

"Well, I'm supposed to contact a man that I met recently tomorrow, and he gave his name on these journals. He talked about something called an 'underscore' between two of the words, and I really don't know what that is," Alice explained quickly. "I don't believe we had any where I came from, and I really should've asked him before he left. Do you think you might be able to show me what one is?"

[sunshine_dark]

Some worlds weren’t as adept in technology as others, but it was still a little hard to imagine what kind of slight differences each world would have between them. Hard to imagine other worlds where they didn’t know about small things that others brushed off as second nature-like this for example. It didn’t mean that Cloud hadn’t broken the habit of giving a strange look every time a strange sounding difference presented itself. The blond shrugged rather perfunctorily at the question. “I probably could.” It wasn’t like informing a new person about what a line was would make him feel any more intelligent or superior.

Cloud grabbed his own journal as an example. Odds are if she didn’t know what it was right off, then a visual would be the best explanation. “An underscore is just another name for a line.” He opened a page with his own username, underscore and all, and handed it to the girl so she could clearly see what it was. “It sits there on the bottom between two words like a space.”

[onargentwings]

"Oh, I see," Alice mused as she observed the marking in the man's journal. It looked simple enough to her, so she handed it back with a grateful smile. "Thank you. That was really a big help, even though I'm sure it doesn't seem like much."

The young woman stood by his table for a moment, pausing as she wondered whether or not he would appreciate a little company. Well, it was really for him to decide. The very least she could do would be to introduce herself.

"I'm Alice, by the way. If I can ever return the favor, please let me know," she continued, hoping she wasn't being too much a bother.

[sunshine_dark]

An honest to goodness thanks-hadn’t had one of those in a while for answering a question. Thus far he hadn’t received anything but the occasional snarky remark, along with various sticky situations for helping newcomers out. It was actually kind of sad how he was more caught off-guard by being thanked instead of something negative.

Albeit being slightly taken back by the gesture, it was a welcome change of pace. “My name’s Cloud.” As for the offer, he was quick to shrug it off. There probably wasn’t anything that this girl could him with; a newcomer in Traverse town did know all that much, and she looked too petite to be much help otherwise. “Your new here, so I don’t think there’s much you could help me with.” The blonde folded his arms over his chest, “I can take care of myself.” It was pretty unlikely that, without exchanging the user-names, they’d meet in another world anyway.

[onargentwings]

He seemed so taken aback by her thanks. Alice fidgeted slightly, wondering if she'd somehow managed to offend him. She supposed her fears were groundless, however, as he still seemed to polite when he got around to responding to her.

She was a touch annoyed that he seemed to write her off so quickly just by looking at her but supposed that he would end up being right anyhow. If she did leave the next day with Greed, she wouldn't really be around to prove him wrong. Ah well. Perhaps they could exchange journal names?

His final comment did make Alice smile fondly. How familiar it seemed...

"I don't doubt it. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise," she finally said, that somewhat wistful smile still lingering on her lips as she spoke. "I should actually be leaving soon enough with another..." What would the proper word be? "...refugee, but perhaps we could exchange journal names? I doubt I could lend much of a hand to the military efforts, but I'm good with..." Another pause. "I'm good with medicine, if anyone you know is ever in dire

[sunshine_dark]

If her speciality was medicine, she could be an important asset to any military whether she realized it or not; Along with combatants, they did need healers or those who were adept in medicine. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He responded to her offer of healing if he were ever in the need.

As far as exchanging usernames, that wasn’t a big deal. She had already seen his username since Cloud had used it as an example for the use of an underscore. If she wanted to give her own, that would be fine. A pause on his own end did result from her comment about the military-her having known about it and making sure that she mentioned it. Maybe she noticed the flyer on the table. Who knew.

The blonde picked up his journal again and handed it over, “The name is on there if you want to write it down.”

[onargentwings]

Alice took the journal in hand, practicing the use of that "underscore" as she entered Cloud's journal name in addition to Greed's. When she was finished, she took the opportunity to record her own name for him and quickly offered the journal back to him.

"There. Now we'll be able to keep in touch if you ever find yourself in need of that favor I owe you," she replied with a smile. From the looks of it, her lunch (or dinner?) seemed to be finished as the waitress set the food down at the table she'd previously been sitting at. She would've offered to eat with Cloud so he could have some company, but they'd only just met. Of course, she had agreed to possibly accompany Greed on a random adventure, but she somehow doubted that he and this Cloud were of similar temperaments. "Thank you again for help, Cloud. Do take care," Alice offered politely, waiting a moment for a response before heading back to her table.