Alcohol: Cause of and Solution to All of Life's Problems [completed?]

[8sins]

WHO: Hakkai and everyone who responded to this (or whoever wanders in on them).
WHAT: A meeting for discovering the true intentions of Rivelata leaders.
WHERE: Tavern attached to an inn, Market District
WHEN: Day 2, Late afternoon

Comments

[waywardwings]

Zidane missed her.

She was constantly on the corner of his mind; her beautiful voice, the fire of her dark eyes, her regal grace. He'd found himself frequently daydreaming of what she might be doing. Overseeing the rebuilding of her kingdom, of course. Carrying out her duties as Queen Garnet Til Alexandros XVII. But just plain Dagger would be thinking of Zidane every other moment, surely, just as he thought of her. Zidane, who they'd left behind as they disappeared into the dusk on their airship. Zidane, who ran off on some wild mission to try and salvage what could've been called his family.

And now he'd left her. The thought tormented him, but he'd tried to push it aside. He had to stay focused on the problems at hand, instead of wallowing in self-misery. So it was such irony that he should find himself at a tavern, immediately bringing up memories of when she'd first become queen and he was alone again in Alexandria, drowning his miseries in alcohol like a lovesick puppy

[8sins]

Hakkai looked up when he heard someone address him, noticing with a bit of embarrassment that there were now three empty beer bottles beside him. It wasn't that it was possible for the brunet to get drunk, but it wouldn't do to have all of these strangers assume the man contacting them was something of a lush.

He smiled at the teen, offering him the empty seat beside him. "I'm... sort of the man organizing it. I know that we communicated earlier, but I'm afraid I don't know your name. Mine is Cho Hakkai."

[causticguy]

House had spent most of the day watching. He'd watched the way people moved, the way they talked, interacted. He'd watched the expressions on their faces, studied the way they dressed, the things they carried in their arms

[waywardwings]

"Zidane," he replied shortly, settling in his seat and immediately noting the empty bottles at the table. "Have you been waiting long?" He supposed it wouldn't be that suprising; even with Zidane's good sense of direction the town was still very much an unfamiliar place, so the others would likely be later in coming. If he happened to notice the nearby man watching him, he was doing a good job of concealing it. Zidane would be a rich man if he got a thousand gil for every stare he'd been given since arriving here.

[roman_tragedy]

It figured that it was a tavern, in the end. Bars usually served as a crossroads where all manners of diversity and strangers came together to meet on equal ground. It was usually the alcohol that leveled the playing field. The smell of the frothy golden liquor, above all, overtook her senses the moment she stepped through the front door. It was a characteristic odor, but one that would fade away to the back of the mind sooner or later

[8sins]

Ah, yet another presence joining their party. Hakkai smiled at the newcomer, a woman this time. "Not by too much. I'm Hakkai, we spoke through the journals." He gestured towards the teen sitting next to him. "And this is Zidane."

Was it his imagination, or was she purposely trying to bait their eavesdropper? Perhaps her innocent appearance was just that... an appearance.

[causticguy]

It wasn't so much that House wanted to eavesdrop, per se, as that he didn't want to be expected to actually participate in a conversation if he didn't know that he had something he wanted to say. And so far, he wasn't completely convinced about the discussion at hand. Oh sure, he was as fed up with Her Royal Pollyannaish Pain In The Ass as the next person with half a brain, but that didn't mean that he wanted to talk to these people about it any more than he wanted to ask the bartender to tell him his life story.

But being very nearly directly addressed, he wasn't going to pretend he wasn't listening either.

He looked up at the woman who'd approached their two tables and who clearly meant to include him in her greeting, and offered her a somewhat facetious smile. "Oh don't mind me. I'm just, you know," he gestured at his leg and then at his cane. "Leg hurt, figured I'd come in and have a seat."

[waywardwings]

Zidane resisted temptation to fire off all manner of cheesy chat-up lines on the newcomer. She was pretty, but she also looked intelligent enough not to give him a jot of attention. That, and he had Dagger to think of, most importantly, which was strange in itself. He'd flirted with every pretty girl the length and breadth of Gaia, but now... it was different. Taking advantage of her brief exchange with the other man, he managed to quell the epic battle of raging teen hormones in time to snap his attention away before she noticed him.

Arranging his features into a suitably innocent expression, he turned to the older man and said bluntly, "You can join us if you want, y'know."

(ooc: Sorry bout the slow reply, got distracted.)

[roman_tragedy]

"Anyway, it's nice to be able to meet you all. My name is Lucretia Crescent." She had to introduced herself, even if the last unknown remained as such. She would have turned to sit in the seat next to him had it not been questionable that he wished to stay or be included. It would have been a bit cruel to make him move after the reference to his leg, though. The cane and the positioning he carefully placed it at as he sat was enough testament to its authenticity.

"If it's a dream, we might as well try to make it a pleasant one, right?" She tried to be supportive of Hakkai's gesture as they addressed the man. For one reason or another, the man's leg was also reason for concern.

As if it were any distraction, while he did decide whether or not to participate, or perhaps Hakkai would decide it better to move, Lucretia couldn't help but to give a small smile to the younger boy who had been introduced as Zidane.

[causticguy]

House looked at Hakkai, assessing the man in his apparent assessment of House, and cocked his head a little. "No plan. No one to tell either," he said bluntly. "Other people came along with their brother's sister's former roommates, but I'm all alone," he made a face of mock sadness which said, plainly, that was absolutely not pitying himself in the least.

But if he had a modicum of patience for Hakkai's desire for secrecy, he had less than none for the banal platitudes Ms. Crescent seemed intent on offering. "On the logic that if we all think about sunshine and puppies then we might be ignorant idiots, but at least we'll be blissfully happy ignorant idiots?" he threw back at her, his words dripping with sarcasm and more than a little outright cruelty. "If you want to dream up Pleasantville Central, it looks to me like you've got a whole town full of people ready to dream it right along with you."

[8sins]

Well, this was definitely too bitter even for Sanzo. If he was disgusted by someone, he'd at least have the decency to ignore him. Lucretia's statement might have been a little naive, but that was no reason to indirectly call her an idiot.

"I'm not saying it's a dream," he corrected. "I'm saying that the girl is being controlled and we have to stop the person controlling her. Ideally, I'd like to get closer to the government here, possibly an infiltration. It might be the key to getting us home."

He sat back with a shrug. "Although, you're welcome to sit here and mock our attempts if you'd prefer."

[roman_tragedy]

She could certainly see why a man like him would be alone. She forced the small smile as she looked back at the elder man, though her hands clutched at the back of her arms while they crossed behind her. She had gone through enough skepticism and outright ridicule in her days as an aspiring student and idealistic researcher to crumble from a few outright insults now.

"Well, Sir," Lucretia offered him instead without the sarcasm he liked to lace his words within. "I wasn't the one who suggested being delusional to begin with." That was all she really needed to respond with, if anything at all.

"It might be a good idea to discuss in a private room somewhere," Lucretia suggested as she turned to Hakkai. "Unless, of course, it would be more helpful to have a few critics to keep us on track."

[dame_tsuna]

It took a while, Tsuna had left early in the morning to go out and explore, but he quickly got lost. And so he had no idea how to get back to the tavern that Hakkai-san had written about.

"I'm gonna be late!" he complained, as he stood alone on the street. He hung his head and started off toward where he hoped was the right direction.

A few hours later the boy came into the tavern, looking out of breath, like he'd been running all day to find the meeting place.

"I'm here!" he said, smiling at the small group of some people who he knew, and some he didn't.

[8sins]

Zidane wasn't talking, and the abrasive man had only responded with another look of contempt, so Hakkai had begun corresponding with another person in the journal. He heard a familiar voice and looked up again to see Tsuna approaching.

'Finally,' he thought. 'Now we're getting somewhere.'

[dame_tsuna]

"Hakkai-san, Zidane-san," he said when he noticed the two he recognized. And then he looked at the old man, who he realized as the Doctor who talked to him on the journals.

"Doctor?" he asked when he caught eyes with House.

[8sins]

"Doctor?" Hakkai repeated, looking over briefly at House. If that were true, the man's bedside manner was definitely lacking.

Clearing his mind of that thought, he offered the one remaining chair at the table to Tsuna. "I was afraid you weren't going to make it."

[kabukichoqueen]

"More please," Kagura said to one of the serving maids, handing her an empty bowl of stew. So far she's eaten two wild boars, three chickens and drunk twenty gallons of... well... water. They refused to give her alcohol and they didn't have enough milk.

She hasn't paid them anything either.

And there's this huge dog outside, still waiting to be fed.