RP Log - Not Another Drunk...
Who: Nagi, Sumeragi
Where: Hut 16
When: April 23rd
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Notes: none
Summary: Nagi wakes up and meets one of Schuldig's roommates.
Nagi blinked, slowly sitting up and taking a few minutes to realize that he was in Schuldig's room, head miraculously not hurting much. Just enough to be a bother, but not enough that he felt like he had to stay in bed the entire day. He got up, heading out into the kitchen to see what was around that he could mix together into some sort of meal since he hadn't eaten in a while.
Sumeragi was in the living room, a bottle of malt whiskey on the coffee table with an empty glass that had ice in it next to it. She was watching the TV, her legs crossed over one another as she somewhat lounged on the couch. She fiddled slightly with the silver bangle bracelet, glancing over when she heard someone moving about.
Nagi heard the sound of the bracelet before he noticed the person in the living room, turning just so he could see who it was. He let out a sigh of relief when it wasn't Zelas, having heard that that particular resident had a fondness for making her jewelry ring out to announce "her" arrival. Ignoring the woman for now, he started poking around the fridge to see what was in there.
The boy looked pretty young... in fact, he couldn't be much older than Setsuna, last that she remembered the Exia pilot. She reached over and put the cap back on the bottle. "Afternoon," she said. After all, he was a guest... albeit an apparently rude one.
Nagi shrugged, then looked over his shoulder at the woman. His sense of time was a bit off after the much-needed rest, and he needed to make sure it really wasn't morning like his body was telling him it was. "Is it afternoon?"
"Barely, but enough to use the phrase, I'd think," she said. She nodded to the clock. "12:14."
Nagi sighed, glad to hear he hadn't exactly slept through an entire day. "Thanks."
"Sure thing." She bounced her leg slightly as she watched him. "Need a hand?"
"Yeah, I think so..." Nagi was looking back in the fridge again, and had no idea whose stuff was whose. He'd really rather just use up some of Schuldig's stuff in the time he was forced to stay here.
She stood up and headed in. She probably smelled a little bit of alcohol, but she wasn't actually drunk, yet. Just enough to feel relaxed. Debating for a moment on which name she should introduce herself with, she decided that, since Neil was the only other one who knew so far, she'd stick with her Celestial Being codename for now. "I'm Sumeragi," she offered. "I haven't seen you around this hut before."
Nagi wrinkled his nose at the smell of alcohol, but let it go without any comments. He figured that his expression could say it all. "I'm Nagi. Schuldig insisted on making sure I stay in decent shape, whatever that means beyond making me stay here for a few days."
She mentally flinched when she saw his reaction. Okay, so she did have a bit of a nose to her at the moment. She'd rectify that later... when she was done with the bottle. "I see." She shrugged. "He didn't mention anything about having a guest. I suppose you're welcome to whatever, it's not like anyone here really has anything they don't share much of. I have to say, your red-headed friend seems to be making off with some of my alcohol now and then."
"He's not exactly a friend." Nagi pointed out, giving up on the fridge for now in favor of a glass of water while he thought about what to have. "More like a nuisance I have to put up with because we're on the same team. No surprise he wouldn't have told anyone he was keeping me here for a few days."
"Nuisance, hm?" Sumeragi chuckled. "That fits then." She waved it off. "Nuisances rarely warn others of changes they're about to introduce into a situation."
"Sometimes I think he lives for that." Nagi snorted, managing to find the glasses and get his water. He sipped at it, trying to figure out what he wanted to eat and if it would be around.
She leaned against the table, watching him for a moment. "So... how long have you been here?" she asked him.
"Here as in...?" Nagi blinked, his brain not really sure what the seemingly-drunk woman was asking about. Then again, he had just woken up, that might have something to do with it.
“This whole weird dimension place," she continued.
"Oh...over three years, I think." Nagi shrugged, "I think I was almost sixteen when I got dumped here, or at least that's what Schuldig claimed. Now I'm nineteen, according to him." He didn't remember his birthday, and age didn't matter that much to him beyond a general idea.
"According to him?" Sumeragi looked mildly confused by that. "Interesting..." She wasn't going to ask. If anything, this was a woman that understood the meaning of some things were better left unsaid. "Teammates... What kind of team? If you don't mind me asking."
Nagi chuckled a little inside at the confused look on her face, enjoying it in a mildly sadistic manner that he must have picked up from Schwarz at some point. "I don't remember my birthday. And it's not like birthdays get celebrated by the group I'm with."
Sumeragi nodded. "I can understand that." She eyed him closely, then. "So... team?" she asked again. Drunk maybe, but she was by no means dull.
"Don't know what you'd really call us." Nagi shrugged, "Sometimes assassins, sometimes bodyguards. It depends on what we're hired to do."
That actually saddened her a bit. She looked down slightly, off to the side for a moment. It sounded so... harsh for someone his age. Then again, back home, she'd been making battle plans with two pilots who hadn't been old enough to drink when they'd first met. She supposed it wasn't much different, in that respect. "I see," she said. She brought her eyes back up to his again. "Have you been on the team long?" She wasn't quite sure why she wanted to know so much... maybe because he did seem awfully close in age to Setsuna...
Nagi just nodded in response, figuring that it wasn't going to hurt to let her know about that. And he was sort of with Schwarz for a while, even if most of it was spent on the island. He didn't know why she wanted to know, but maybe he'd find out if he let her talk on at him.
She sighed slightly, nodding as well. "I wish children didn't have to fight," she said softly, considering, for that moment, going back to the bottle in the other room. But, she wasn't going to do that with him here. She wasn't that classless. Not that she hadn't shared with Feldt and Christina once, but that was after they'd worked so hard on those back up systems and... She shook her head, stopping that train of thought. "So, what are you interested in eating?" she said, changing the topic as she opened the fridge.
"Usually if I'm making something, it's ramen or soup, maybe sandwich." Nagi shrugged, ignoring her comments about children and fighting. Life on the streets had taught him something different. "Definitely not what Schuldig usually eats."
"Well, I haven't really paid attention to what Schuldig eats," Sumeragi said. She glanced at him. "Just soup and sandwich? No wonder you're a stick." She made a face at the selection then. It was lunch time. She didn't normally eat lunch herself. "Oh well... Let's figure something out. Is there anything in particular you don't eat?"
Nagi snorted at being called a stick. Sure, he was thin, but he didn't think it was that bad. "Not really. Learned to eat what I could get, so I'm not that picky. The only thing I never learned to like was sweet things."
"Well, that won't be too much of an issue," Sumeragi said. "I come from a Spanish Japanese family. We preferred spicy."
"Only Japanese one on the team, they learned to fix their own food if they didn't like what I made." Nagi smirked, sipping his water. He winced a little as the twinges in his head got a little worse, "Got aspirin?"
"I never go anywhere without it," Sumeragi said with a chuckle as she began to assemble things. Taking a break for a moment, she went to get it from her room.
Nagi shook his head, almost wondering if he really needed to ask if there was aspirin around in a hut where someone apparently drank on a regular enough basis.
Sumeragi came back then with the bottle. She handed it to him, figuring he probably knew his own tolerances well enough, and went back to making lunch.
Nagi refilled his water glass after taking the bottle, pouring two of them into his hand once he was ready to take them. He washed the pills down with some water, handing the bottle back to her. "Thanks."
"Might as well leave them out here," she said, waving him off. "If your friend drinks as much as I think he does, he probably needs them, too, every once in a while."
Nagi nodded, setting the bottle on the counter for now. He was curious to know how much Schuldig was drinking now that Crawford wasn't around to keep an eye on him. "How much of your alcohol has he been taking for his own use?"
"Not sure," Sumeragi said. "Sometimes, I lose track of how much I drink myself, so..." She blushed slightly, not quite meeting his gaze. It was clear that, no matter how nonchalant she acted about it, her drinking did, on some level, bother her. She knew it was wrong. "But, enough. I'm sure he gets it elsewhere as well."
"There is a bar, he could easily get it there, too." Nagi sighed, shaking his head. Even with all the stuff he had been through, he could not understand why someone would repeatedly drink enough to get drunk. "It's not just you that gives it to him."
"There's a bar?" So the boys hadn't given her the entire tour. Sly little pilots... "Interesting."
"Yeah, well, the one that runs it isn't human." Nagi snorted, shrugging a bit. "I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her without my abilities."
Another intriguing statement that left her with at least two questions... maybe three? Three. First, if she wasn't human, just what was she? Second, why was she untrustworthy? And third, what abilities? Sumeragi worked over them for a moment. "Not human?" she asked, deciding to just go in order there.
Nagi nodded, peering over at what Sumeragi had been putting together before the questions had started. "Yeah. Not human. I don't know exactly what."
"Is that a common thing here?" she asked, glancing at him. Chicken Caesar salad... easy to make. "Are there a lot of 'non-humans'?" She'd already met at least one.
"Not really." Nagi shrugged, not minding the thought of having salad for a meal. It wasn't any worse than what he usually did. "There's a few, but most of us here are human."
Sumeragi nodded at that, a bit relieved, in all honesty. "So... why can't she be trusted?" she asked. "Kind of strange for a bartender to be untrustworthy."
"She feeds off people's bad emotions. If there's anything that drinking lets you escape from, she won't let you get drunk."
"Hm." The tactician paused in her salad making for a moment, pondering that statement and what it meant for her. It wasn't a pleasant thought. Shaking it off mentally, she turned and handed Nagi one of the bowls and a fork. "I see..." She picked up her own bowl and fork and sat down at the table. "So... you mentioned abilities...?" she then asked. "I'm assuming you don't mean normal things like piloting a mobile suit." Not that piloting a mobile suit would be normal in his world, but it was in hers.
Nagi shook his head, taking the bowl and fork and sitting down at the table with it. His dark blue eyes looked as if they belonged to a much older person for a moment as he glanced at the salad, then he answered her question. "Psychic abilities."
"Like seeing the future and reading people's minds?"
"Not quite like that." Nagi shrugged, "Boss can see the future, Schuldig reads minds. I make things move around."
That was a little hard to take, but she supposed she'd seen stranger things. For instance, quantum brainwaves like had been spoken of in that data Allelujah had given her about the testing lab he'd been in as a child... but she wasn't quite sure if that was the same. "That must come in handy at times," she said.
"I guess..." Nagi never really thought of his abilities as handy, either something that meant he wouldn't have to carry things himself, or something that could cause a lot more destruction than he wanted to. "You mentioned mobile suits. Which bunch are you with?"
"Neil, Lyle, Feldt and Allelujah," Sumeragi said. She gestured over to a blue Haro sitting on the couch in sleep mode.
Nagi sighed, at least now he knew which bunch. He had nothing bad to say about two of the people she mentioned, at least. He picked at his salad, getting used to a slightly different taste than he was used to.
"I think Allelujah's the only one that didn't show up with a Haro in tow. Then again, he didn't always react favorably to them."
"Neil's asked me to help with Haro programming for when they start getting made." Nagi commented, not minding the robots too much as long as they were quiet. "His Haro maintains the machines in the arcade."
"At least it has something to do there," Sumeragi said. "I wonder sometimes if he didn't give this one some sort of observational mode with the way it follows me around." She chuckled a bit. "Oh well. He's the protective sort."
"He is..." Nagi added quietly, taking another bite of his salad. "Never thought I'd need someone playing bodyguard for me here."
"So he's taken you in as well?" Sumeragi smiled. "You're about the same age as someone else on the team. Perhaps he feels a connection because of that. You remind me of him in some ways as well... your mannerisms... quiet personality."
Nagi nodded, remembering what the pilot in question had told him about his team members. "Yeah...he told me a bit about that one. Setsuna, right?"
She nodded. "He's the youngest... at least, until he finally gets older than Neil was when..." She sighed and looked down at her salad.
"I doubt I'll live to see Neil's age." Nagi commented, "Unless I'm stuck here for that long. Maybe if I'm still here, I'll learn to control all my abilities."
"Neil isn't really that old... he was younger than me."
"He's older than me. And it's not like guys like me live all that long..." Nagi pointed out, fully expecting to either burn out from his abilities or die when he got back to his home.
"How old are the others on your team?" she asked him.
"Schuldig? When I left he was around 22, and our boss was 27. The psychotic Irishman's younger than Schuldig, but still adult as far as I know. Want to say 20..." Nagi had to think for a few minutes, "Not sure about ages now. Time's different here."
"Mm... I could understand that. I've noticed that everyone from my world basically comes from a different point in our timeline. It's rather... unsettling." She poked at the remains of her salad for a moment. "Strange how that works."
"Yeah. Only Neil's girlfriend would know how time works here." Nagi poked at the salad, then ate more of it. It wasn't all that filling since he hadn't eaten in a while, but it worked for now.
Sumeragi nodded. She'd met Pluto... and knew who... and what she was. It was somewhat intimidating, even if she was a very nice woman.
"You were the strategist." Nagi commented offhandedly, wondering if he should get some bread to go with his salad. "Neil told me."
She nodded again. "It was my job to get each mission successfully completed... each intervention... with minimal loss." She absently twirled the fork in her fingers. Her voice sounded flat as she said it.
Nagi nodded, getting a better idea of why Sumeragi drank, at least. He knew she couldn't keep every member of her team alive, since Neil was proof of that. "I'm the hacker."
"Feldt was good at that," Sumeragi said, brightening a little. "Christina, too... they made a good team..." The brightness didn't last very long, though.
"Feldt and I are working on the Haros." Nagi's expression softened just a bit, enough to show that his personality really did exist. "She's working on a chess program for them."
"Chess?" At this, Sumeragi finally laughed. It was a good change of topic. "That does sound like her. I can't wait to see that happen."
"At least it will give them something to do besides follow people and be irritating." The softness vanished from Nagi's face as he smirked again, wondering what would happen if he programmed a Haro to bother some residents at interesting times of night.
"Or spy on us..." Sumeragi said, glancing at the one in the living room. "I know Neil won't admit to it..."
"I wouldn't put it past him. Maybe he'll assign one to spy on the damn tiger so he'll leave me alone."
"Tiger?" At this, the tactician looked a bit alarmed.
Nagi nodded, twitching a bit. He really did not like Byakko at all, and next time he saw him, lightning was going to come down. "Damn thing found me one day and thought I was cute. Pervert."
Her eyebrow quirked. "Thought you were cute..." She shook her head. "Sometimes, there are still things here I find hard to believe. Does that ever fade?" she asked him.
"Huh?" Nagi blinked, not quite understanding what she was getting at.
"The shock factor," she clarified.
Nagi shrugged, "Depends on the person. Some who were here for a long time never got over the shock of this place, others who are here for only a short time adjust well."
She nodded. "I suppose that would factor in," she agreed. "Makes sense." She sighed a bit and finished up her salad.
Nagi nodded, finishing his salad as well. He needed it, and his head was feeling a bit better now that the aspirin kicked in.
She picked up her bowl, offering to take his. "Done?"
"Yeah." Nagi handed his bowl over to her, nodding slightly. "Thanks."
"Sure thing." She gave him a small smile and then put the bowls in the sink to be cleaned later. She stretched her arms over her head.
Nagi sighed a little, not quite relaxing in the chair. Although this woman knew Neil, and he obviously trusted her, it was going to take more than that to get him to relax.
Turning around, she leaned on the counter. "So... what kind of job were you given here?" She didn't expect trust right away. Heck, she hadn't given her real name, why would she?
"Started out in the school, then got assigned to the arcade." Nagi shrugged, "Split my time between a couple classes, arcade, and training."
"School?"
Nagi nodded.
"Do a lot of people here attend classes?" she asked.
"Mostly just the kids." Nagi shrugged, "I'm the oldest one there, but languages is going to help more than anything else."
"I could see how it would be helpful for almost anyone," she agreed.
“Most people have jobs somewhere, some don't show up. Others show up when they feel like it. Case in point: Schu."
"Mmm... He does seem kind of... self serving." She smiled a bit.
Nagi snorted, "You don't have to live and work with him."
"Well... technically, here I have to live with him." She chuckled.
"But not work with him."
"No."
"Don't." Nagi sighed, "He's a pain in the ass. I don't know how many times he's come back drunk and pissed off the boss, among other things."
"Sounds thrilling," Sumeragi said with a slight eyeroll. Not that she hadn't worked drunk before, but she'd never pissed anyone off.
"I'm amazed he actually knows how to make ramen without ruining it."
"That bad, hm?"
Nagi nodded. His opinion of Schuldig's attempts at cooking was that he could barely cook ramen, let alone anything more complicated than that. He wondered just what force was stupid enough to put the German in the cafe.
"I'll avoid the kitchen when he's in here," Sumeragi said. "Thanks for the warning."
"You're welcome." Nagi chuckled darkly, having a jaded outlook on some things in life.
"No idea on how long you'll be here, huh?" she asked. "I don't mind, just kind of wish he'd mentioned something instead of seeing you suddenly pop up like that."
Nagi shrugged, "He might have thought I'd have slept longer. Who knows?"
"Mm..." She shrugged as well. "It would have been more embarrassing if we had met in slightly different circumstances."
"Like what?" Nagi snorted, thinking that nothing would really surprise him at this point. Not on an island where a werewolf ran the cafe, Death's daughter ran the clothing store, and all sorts of weird people ended up together.
"Well... if I'd been doing something other than sitting on the couch, watching TV..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter now."
"Yeah..."
Sumeragi gave Nagi a small smile. "Well, it was nice meeting you anyway," she said. "Did you need anything else while I'm in here?"
Nagi shook his head just a little, in case his headache decided to come back worse. "Should be fine. I'll just get some water and head back to Schu's room."
"Alright. I guess I'll see you around, then." She nodded and headed back into the living room.
"Yeah." Nagi waited until Sumeragi had gone to the living room before filling up his water glass and making his way back to the bedroom.
Where: Hut 16
When: April 23rd
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Notes: none
Summary: Nagi wakes up and meets one of Schuldig's roommates.
Nagi blinked, slowly sitting up and taking a few minutes to realize that he was in Schuldig's room, head miraculously not hurting much. Just enough to be a bother, but not enough that he felt like he had to stay in bed the entire day. He got up, heading out into the kitchen to see what was around that he could mix together into some sort of meal since he hadn't eaten in a while.
Sumeragi was in the living room, a bottle of malt whiskey on the coffee table with an empty glass that had ice in it next to it. She was watching the TV, her legs crossed over one another as she somewhat lounged on the couch. She fiddled slightly with the silver bangle bracelet, glancing over when she heard someone moving about.
Nagi heard the sound of the bracelet before he noticed the person in the living room, turning just so he could see who it was. He let out a sigh of relief when it wasn't Zelas, having heard that that particular resident had a fondness for making her jewelry ring out to announce "her" arrival. Ignoring the woman for now, he started poking around the fridge to see what was in there.
The boy looked pretty young... in fact, he couldn't be much older than Setsuna, last that she remembered the Exia pilot. She reached over and put the cap back on the bottle. "Afternoon," she said. After all, he was a guest... albeit an apparently rude one.
Nagi shrugged, then looked over his shoulder at the woman. His sense of time was a bit off after the much-needed rest, and he needed to make sure it really wasn't morning like his body was telling him it was. "Is it afternoon?"
"Barely, but enough to use the phrase, I'd think," she said. She nodded to the clock. "12:14."
Nagi sighed, glad to hear he hadn't exactly slept through an entire day. "Thanks."
"Sure thing." She bounced her leg slightly as she watched him. "Need a hand?"
"Yeah, I think so..." Nagi was looking back in the fridge again, and had no idea whose stuff was whose. He'd really rather just use up some of Schuldig's stuff in the time he was forced to stay here.
She stood up and headed in. She probably smelled a little bit of alcohol, but she wasn't actually drunk, yet. Just enough to feel relaxed. Debating for a moment on which name she should introduce herself with, she decided that, since Neil was the only other one who knew so far, she'd stick with her Celestial Being codename for now. "I'm Sumeragi," she offered. "I haven't seen you around this hut before."
Nagi wrinkled his nose at the smell of alcohol, but let it go without any comments. He figured that his expression could say it all. "I'm Nagi. Schuldig insisted on making sure I stay in decent shape, whatever that means beyond making me stay here for a few days."
She mentally flinched when she saw his reaction. Okay, so she did have a bit of a nose to her at the moment. She'd rectify that later... when she was done with the bottle. "I see." She shrugged. "He didn't mention anything about having a guest. I suppose you're welcome to whatever, it's not like anyone here really has anything they don't share much of. I have to say, your red-headed friend seems to be making off with some of my alcohol now and then."
"He's not exactly a friend." Nagi pointed out, giving up on the fridge for now in favor of a glass of water while he thought about what to have. "More like a nuisance I have to put up with because we're on the same team. No surprise he wouldn't have told anyone he was keeping me here for a few days."
"Nuisance, hm?" Sumeragi chuckled. "That fits then." She waved it off. "Nuisances rarely warn others of changes they're about to introduce into a situation."
"Sometimes I think he lives for that." Nagi snorted, managing to find the glasses and get his water. He sipped at it, trying to figure out what he wanted to eat and if it would be around.
She leaned against the table, watching him for a moment. "So... how long have you been here?" she asked him.
"Here as in...?" Nagi blinked, his brain not really sure what the seemingly-drunk woman was asking about. Then again, he had just woken up, that might have something to do with it.
“This whole weird dimension place," she continued.
"Oh...over three years, I think." Nagi shrugged, "I think I was almost sixteen when I got dumped here, or at least that's what Schuldig claimed. Now I'm nineteen, according to him." He didn't remember his birthday, and age didn't matter that much to him beyond a general idea.
"According to him?" Sumeragi looked mildly confused by that. "Interesting..." She wasn't going to ask. If anything, this was a woman that understood the meaning of some things were better left unsaid. "Teammates... What kind of team? If you don't mind me asking."
Nagi chuckled a little inside at the confused look on her face, enjoying it in a mildly sadistic manner that he must have picked up from Schwarz at some point. "I don't remember my birthday. And it's not like birthdays get celebrated by the group I'm with."
Sumeragi nodded. "I can understand that." She eyed him closely, then. "So... team?" she asked again. Drunk maybe, but she was by no means dull.
"Don't know what you'd really call us." Nagi shrugged, "Sometimes assassins, sometimes bodyguards. It depends on what we're hired to do."
That actually saddened her a bit. She looked down slightly, off to the side for a moment. It sounded so... harsh for someone his age. Then again, back home, she'd been making battle plans with two pilots who hadn't been old enough to drink when they'd first met. She supposed it wasn't much different, in that respect. "I see," she said. She brought her eyes back up to his again. "Have you been on the team long?" She wasn't quite sure why she wanted to know so much... maybe because he did seem awfully close in age to Setsuna...
Nagi just nodded in response, figuring that it wasn't going to hurt to let her know about that. And he was sort of with Schwarz for a while, even if most of it was spent on the island. He didn't know why she wanted to know, but maybe he'd find out if he let her talk on at him.
She sighed slightly, nodding as well. "I wish children didn't have to fight," she said softly, considering, for that moment, going back to the bottle in the other room. But, she wasn't going to do that with him here. She wasn't that classless. Not that she hadn't shared with Feldt and Christina once, but that was after they'd worked so hard on those back up systems and... She shook her head, stopping that train of thought. "So, what are you interested in eating?" she said, changing the topic as she opened the fridge.
"Usually if I'm making something, it's ramen or soup, maybe sandwich." Nagi shrugged, ignoring her comments about children and fighting. Life on the streets had taught him something different. "Definitely not what Schuldig usually eats."
"Well, I haven't really paid attention to what Schuldig eats," Sumeragi said. She glanced at him. "Just soup and sandwich? No wonder you're a stick." She made a face at the selection then. It was lunch time. She didn't normally eat lunch herself. "Oh well... Let's figure something out. Is there anything in particular you don't eat?"
Nagi snorted at being called a stick. Sure, he was thin, but he didn't think it was that bad. "Not really. Learned to eat what I could get, so I'm not that picky. The only thing I never learned to like was sweet things."
"Well, that won't be too much of an issue," Sumeragi said. "I come from a Spanish Japanese family. We preferred spicy."
"Only Japanese one on the team, they learned to fix their own food if they didn't like what I made." Nagi smirked, sipping his water. He winced a little as the twinges in his head got a little worse, "Got aspirin?"
"I never go anywhere without it," Sumeragi said with a chuckle as she began to assemble things. Taking a break for a moment, she went to get it from her room.
Nagi shook his head, almost wondering if he really needed to ask if there was aspirin around in a hut where someone apparently drank on a regular enough basis.
Sumeragi came back then with the bottle. She handed it to him, figuring he probably knew his own tolerances well enough, and went back to making lunch.
Nagi refilled his water glass after taking the bottle, pouring two of them into his hand once he was ready to take them. He washed the pills down with some water, handing the bottle back to her. "Thanks."
"Might as well leave them out here," she said, waving him off. "If your friend drinks as much as I think he does, he probably needs them, too, every once in a while."
Nagi nodded, setting the bottle on the counter for now. He was curious to know how much Schuldig was drinking now that Crawford wasn't around to keep an eye on him. "How much of your alcohol has he been taking for his own use?"
"Not sure," Sumeragi said. "Sometimes, I lose track of how much I drink myself, so..." She blushed slightly, not quite meeting his gaze. It was clear that, no matter how nonchalant she acted about it, her drinking did, on some level, bother her. She knew it was wrong. "But, enough. I'm sure he gets it elsewhere as well."
"There is a bar, he could easily get it there, too." Nagi sighed, shaking his head. Even with all the stuff he had been through, he could not understand why someone would repeatedly drink enough to get drunk. "It's not just you that gives it to him."
"There's a bar?" So the boys hadn't given her the entire tour. Sly little pilots... "Interesting."
"Yeah, well, the one that runs it isn't human." Nagi snorted, shrugging a bit. "I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her without my abilities."
Another intriguing statement that left her with at least two questions... maybe three? Three. First, if she wasn't human, just what was she? Second, why was she untrustworthy? And third, what abilities? Sumeragi worked over them for a moment. "Not human?" she asked, deciding to just go in order there.
Nagi nodded, peering over at what Sumeragi had been putting together before the questions had started. "Yeah. Not human. I don't know exactly what."
"Is that a common thing here?" she asked, glancing at him. Chicken Caesar salad... easy to make. "Are there a lot of 'non-humans'?" She'd already met at least one.
"Not really." Nagi shrugged, not minding the thought of having salad for a meal. It wasn't any worse than what he usually did. "There's a few, but most of us here are human."
Sumeragi nodded at that, a bit relieved, in all honesty. "So... why can't she be trusted?" she asked. "Kind of strange for a bartender to be untrustworthy."
"She feeds off people's bad emotions. If there's anything that drinking lets you escape from, she won't let you get drunk."
"Hm." The tactician paused in her salad making for a moment, pondering that statement and what it meant for her. It wasn't a pleasant thought. Shaking it off mentally, she turned and handed Nagi one of the bowls and a fork. "I see..." She picked up her own bowl and fork and sat down at the table. "So... you mentioned abilities...?" she then asked. "I'm assuming you don't mean normal things like piloting a mobile suit." Not that piloting a mobile suit would be normal in his world, but it was in hers.
Nagi shook his head, taking the bowl and fork and sitting down at the table with it. His dark blue eyes looked as if they belonged to a much older person for a moment as he glanced at the salad, then he answered her question. "Psychic abilities."
"Like seeing the future and reading people's minds?"
"Not quite like that." Nagi shrugged, "Boss can see the future, Schuldig reads minds. I make things move around."
That was a little hard to take, but she supposed she'd seen stranger things. For instance, quantum brainwaves like had been spoken of in that data Allelujah had given her about the testing lab he'd been in as a child... but she wasn't quite sure if that was the same. "That must come in handy at times," she said.
"I guess..." Nagi never really thought of his abilities as handy, either something that meant he wouldn't have to carry things himself, or something that could cause a lot more destruction than he wanted to. "You mentioned mobile suits. Which bunch are you with?"
"Neil, Lyle, Feldt and Allelujah," Sumeragi said. She gestured over to a blue Haro sitting on the couch in sleep mode.
Nagi sighed, at least now he knew which bunch. He had nothing bad to say about two of the people she mentioned, at least. He picked at his salad, getting used to a slightly different taste than he was used to.
"I think Allelujah's the only one that didn't show up with a Haro in tow. Then again, he didn't always react favorably to them."
"Neil's asked me to help with Haro programming for when they start getting made." Nagi commented, not minding the robots too much as long as they were quiet. "His Haro maintains the machines in the arcade."
"At least it has something to do there," Sumeragi said. "I wonder sometimes if he didn't give this one some sort of observational mode with the way it follows me around." She chuckled a bit. "Oh well. He's the protective sort."
"He is..." Nagi added quietly, taking another bite of his salad. "Never thought I'd need someone playing bodyguard for me here."
"So he's taken you in as well?" Sumeragi smiled. "You're about the same age as someone else on the team. Perhaps he feels a connection because of that. You remind me of him in some ways as well... your mannerisms... quiet personality."
Nagi nodded, remembering what the pilot in question had told him about his team members. "Yeah...he told me a bit about that one. Setsuna, right?"
She nodded. "He's the youngest... at least, until he finally gets older than Neil was when..." She sighed and looked down at her salad.
"I doubt I'll live to see Neil's age." Nagi commented, "Unless I'm stuck here for that long. Maybe if I'm still here, I'll learn to control all my abilities."
"Neil isn't really that old... he was younger than me."
"He's older than me. And it's not like guys like me live all that long..." Nagi pointed out, fully expecting to either burn out from his abilities or die when he got back to his home.
"How old are the others on your team?" she asked him.
"Schuldig? When I left he was around 22, and our boss was 27. The psychotic Irishman's younger than Schuldig, but still adult as far as I know. Want to say 20..." Nagi had to think for a few minutes, "Not sure about ages now. Time's different here."
"Mm... I could understand that. I've noticed that everyone from my world basically comes from a different point in our timeline. It's rather... unsettling." She poked at the remains of her salad for a moment. "Strange how that works."
"Yeah. Only Neil's girlfriend would know how time works here." Nagi poked at the salad, then ate more of it. It wasn't all that filling since he hadn't eaten in a while, but it worked for now.
Sumeragi nodded. She'd met Pluto... and knew who... and what she was. It was somewhat intimidating, even if she was a very nice woman.
"You were the strategist." Nagi commented offhandedly, wondering if he should get some bread to go with his salad. "Neil told me."
She nodded again. "It was my job to get each mission successfully completed... each intervention... with minimal loss." She absently twirled the fork in her fingers. Her voice sounded flat as she said it.
Nagi nodded, getting a better idea of why Sumeragi drank, at least. He knew she couldn't keep every member of her team alive, since Neil was proof of that. "I'm the hacker."
"Feldt was good at that," Sumeragi said, brightening a little. "Christina, too... they made a good team..." The brightness didn't last very long, though.
"Feldt and I are working on the Haros." Nagi's expression softened just a bit, enough to show that his personality really did exist. "She's working on a chess program for them."
"Chess?" At this, Sumeragi finally laughed. It was a good change of topic. "That does sound like her. I can't wait to see that happen."
"At least it will give them something to do besides follow people and be irritating." The softness vanished from Nagi's face as he smirked again, wondering what would happen if he programmed a Haro to bother some residents at interesting times of night.
"Or spy on us..." Sumeragi said, glancing at the one in the living room. "I know Neil won't admit to it..."
"I wouldn't put it past him. Maybe he'll assign one to spy on the damn tiger so he'll leave me alone."
"Tiger?" At this, the tactician looked a bit alarmed.
Nagi nodded, twitching a bit. He really did not like Byakko at all, and next time he saw him, lightning was going to come down. "Damn thing found me one day and thought I was cute. Pervert."
Her eyebrow quirked. "Thought you were cute..." She shook her head. "Sometimes, there are still things here I find hard to believe. Does that ever fade?" she asked him.
"Huh?" Nagi blinked, not quite understanding what she was getting at.
"The shock factor," she clarified.
Nagi shrugged, "Depends on the person. Some who were here for a long time never got over the shock of this place, others who are here for only a short time adjust well."
She nodded. "I suppose that would factor in," she agreed. "Makes sense." She sighed a bit and finished up her salad.
Nagi nodded, finishing his salad as well. He needed it, and his head was feeling a bit better now that the aspirin kicked in.
She picked up her bowl, offering to take his. "Done?"
"Yeah." Nagi handed his bowl over to her, nodding slightly. "Thanks."
"Sure thing." She gave him a small smile and then put the bowls in the sink to be cleaned later. She stretched her arms over her head.
Nagi sighed a little, not quite relaxing in the chair. Although this woman knew Neil, and he obviously trusted her, it was going to take more than that to get him to relax.
Turning around, she leaned on the counter. "So... what kind of job were you given here?" She didn't expect trust right away. Heck, she hadn't given her real name, why would she?
"Started out in the school, then got assigned to the arcade." Nagi shrugged, "Split my time between a couple classes, arcade, and training."
"School?"
Nagi nodded.
"Do a lot of people here attend classes?" she asked.
"Mostly just the kids." Nagi shrugged, "I'm the oldest one there, but languages is going to help more than anything else."
"I could see how it would be helpful for almost anyone," she agreed.
“Most people have jobs somewhere, some don't show up. Others show up when they feel like it. Case in point: Schu."
"Mmm... He does seem kind of... self serving." She smiled a bit.
Nagi snorted, "You don't have to live and work with him."
"Well... technically, here I have to live with him." She chuckled.
"But not work with him."
"No."
"Don't." Nagi sighed, "He's a pain in the ass. I don't know how many times he's come back drunk and pissed off the boss, among other things."
"Sounds thrilling," Sumeragi said with a slight eyeroll. Not that she hadn't worked drunk before, but she'd never pissed anyone off.
"I'm amazed he actually knows how to make ramen without ruining it."
"That bad, hm?"
Nagi nodded. His opinion of Schuldig's attempts at cooking was that he could barely cook ramen, let alone anything more complicated than that. He wondered just what force was stupid enough to put the German in the cafe.
"I'll avoid the kitchen when he's in here," Sumeragi said. "Thanks for the warning."
"You're welcome." Nagi chuckled darkly, having a jaded outlook on some things in life.
"No idea on how long you'll be here, huh?" she asked. "I don't mind, just kind of wish he'd mentioned something instead of seeing you suddenly pop up like that."
Nagi shrugged, "He might have thought I'd have slept longer. Who knows?"
"Mm..." She shrugged as well. "It would have been more embarrassing if we had met in slightly different circumstances."
"Like what?" Nagi snorted, thinking that nothing would really surprise him at this point. Not on an island where a werewolf ran the cafe, Death's daughter ran the clothing store, and all sorts of weird people ended up together.
"Well... if I'd been doing something other than sitting on the couch, watching TV..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter now."
"Yeah..."
Sumeragi gave Nagi a small smile. "Well, it was nice meeting you anyway," she said. "Did you need anything else while I'm in here?"
Nagi shook his head just a little, in case his headache decided to come back worse. "Should be fine. I'll just get some water and head back to Schu's room."
"Alright. I guess I'll see you around, then." She nodded and headed back into the living room.
"Yeah." Nagi waited until Sumeragi had gone to the living room before filling up his water glass and making his way back to the bedroom.