Holiday Snark

Holiday Snark
Date of Scene:	24 December 2012
Location:	Traverse Town - District 3
Synopsis:	Avira and Sable meet to talk about adventure, holiday plans and snark at certain to remain nameless main character type figures.
Cast of Characters:	Sable, Avira

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Sable has posed:
Traverse Town is crammed to busting with people at any time of the day or night, the big sweeping plaza of District 3 bustling with activity, the brick roads teeming with people and goods. The Town is straining to keep up with the demands, the pressure eased somewhat by the efforts of adventurers, aid workers and mercenaries alike in keeping things from devolving into a bureaucratic chaos.

Somewhere in this tangle of streets there are establishments in which the weary traveler can take his ease and celebrate another day of survival. This is-- not quite one of those places, but like much of Traverse Town, it doesn't quite dip low enough to be considered 'dingey' but doesn't seem to have far better aspirations than that.

It is clean and even respectable enough, but it is also a little gloomy, a little secretive and a place where everyone's business is their own. That business could possibly be anything, especially with some of the more esoteric boards posted in a clutter of papers and icongraphy and so more than a few strange types come through here.

Avira has posed:
Presumably tonight, this Christmas Eve, will be spent in the company of her fellow Twilight Detectives. But for now, the mutate Avira will enjoy a little bit of 'alone' time with some eggnog. She herself gravitated towards the spaceport since the higher density of aliens made her own appearance less novel.

It's little comforts like that something that Avira appreciates right now. Sure, she does get a few looks as she walks into this little establishment but it's nothing like the piercing stare of humans that have only been around other humans all their lives.

The first thing she does is slide up to the bar and order an eggnog with plenty of rum in it. It was the holiday season, after all! Once that is delivered, she doesn't opt to sit, instead browsing the board with all of its papers. In Ivalice, it was pretty common to see marks posted in taverns as such a place seemed to be a well-known gathering spot for adventurers.

Sable has posed:
An economy is a terrible thing to be thinking about on Christmas, but as some don't actually observe the holiday (or understand what it means-- or are possibly, secretly The Grinch) Sable is thinking about the rising and certainly cutthroat prices on healing items when he enters the tavern. As such, he is preparing to throw himself into the teeth of another fool's errand with the very specific frame of mind of taking a job that is going to be the absolute LEAST likely to have the Shard Seekers involved in any capacity whatsoever. Then he is going to choose a job that is the mirror opposite of that job, take it to a different tavern completely and choose a third job.

These sorts of paranoid preparations are fully justified in the mind of the teenager who is still smarting from having a Great Desert Adventurer and his (Friend)(?!) Leida fall on him just after he had been toasted on both sides by an irate Chocobo.

As such, Sable is in Status Effect: Dire Mood and although he looks young there is an aura of 'Seriously, don't bother me' that bakes off him very slightly like a heat mirage as he enters the tavern, brushing at his shoulders and hair as he makes his way over towards the boards. He blinks several times, noticing Avira and the grip of the status effect tightens a bit as he frowns, then forces himself to smile grimly. "Ah. Hello, Avira-- "

Avira has posed:
'Shard Seekers' is not something Avira wants to be thinking about right now, especially in light of yesterday's mark. Yes, take a mark, that'll take some stress off. Nothing like a triumphant and successful monster battle to raise the spirits, right? Well usually, but not when they end with the sheer level of shenanigans they did.

Those that look close enough will find patches on Avira where the fur is a bit thinner, having been burnt off during yesterday's fight. Unlike Sable, after yesterday, Avira was not exactly rushing off to find a new job.

Much like before, Sable manages to 'sneak' up on the mutate as she's lost deep in thought. It isn't until he greets her that she turns around, slight surprise on her face. "Oh! Hello Sable." She lifts her half-filled glass of eggnog, "Happy Holidays." It's obvious she's in slightly better spirits than the dire mooding Sable, perhaps due to the better spirits currently held in her hand. "Are you feeling any better?"

Sable has posed:
Sable raises an eyebrow. "I've been getting that a lot today. What's particularly happy about it?" he looks annoyed with himself for saying that, and instead forces himself to apologize.

"Sorry. I guess I should be the one with the stormcloud over my head this time." he looks to the board in an ostensible attempt to gather his thoughts before speaking again. "What about you-- how are you holding up, Avira?"

he looks at the drink in her hand, raising his eyebrows a little in curiosity "What's that and do I want to even know how many of them you have had?" Sable says this with a grin, shoulders and body relaxing a little as he compels himself to relax. The thing about compelling yourself is that the tension can still be seen around the edges when you don't pay enough attention.

Avira has posed:
The response to her mention of holidays brings a wince to Avira's face. Maybe it reminded him too much of modern Earth? She lowers her glass and gives Sable a sad look that continues, even after he apologizes to her. "Well you have been through a lot..."

Avira looks into her drink, "Well, better than yesterday at least." Doesn't seem she's going to go into details.

A laugh escapes her and she holds out the glass again, letting Sable smell it if he wants to. "This is eggnog. It's been mixed with rum. And I'll have you know that this is my first glass." She draws herself up, "I do my best to drink responsibly! Now I'd offer you some, but you're kind of underaged."

She pauses, "...not that that law is really enforcable anyway. Here." she turns the glass around to a side that Avira hasn't put her mouth all over. "After what Reize put you through yesterday, you deserve some."

Sable has posed:
"I'm so happy to have you looking out for my welfare, Avira." This starts out as a grumble, but Sable seems to lighten the tone near the end until he's grinning again at Avira. He gingerly takes the drink as if it might be a loaded gun and takes an experimental sip.

He stares at it for a moment, eyebrows raised and then takes another drink before shifting the glass back around again, offering it back to Avira. He seems to have a natural caution of anything to do with alcohol it seems. Maybe past experience.

"Yeah. So, Reize's his name? God-- that moron really makes my head hurt." he smirks. "And my back, oddly enough." he looks around at the board again then at the tavern at large. "You want to sit somewhere? I've got an hour or two before I have to go back out there." He chuckles. "You know, maybe I should use some of my share to buy a few more swords. According to Luso, having more magic swords makes all the difference."

Avira has posed:
"Hey, someone's gotta when you're so grumpy like that." Avira teases right back, electing to respond in a more lighthearted tone this time. It is the holidays so she'd rather be in a good mood, especially when she joins Mercade and all for dinner tonight. Her hand releases the glass once its in Sable's hands.

Surprise registers on her face. Sable took a few more sips than she'd expected-then again, eggnog doesn't taste that alcohol-y. It was actually kind of dangerous like that. Once offered, she reclaims her glass.

"Yes, Reize would be the /second/ idiot that showed up and jumped on the chocobo." Her ears tip downwards in annoyance. "Sure, let's sit." Avira will take the lead with that, picking a table rather than the bar to sit at.

"Hah, Luso, I don't know that guy as well. But he sure does love his swords. You're right, we both need to buy more swords. You need a sword. I obviously need like three more because one sword-thing isn't enough, amirite?" With a sigh, she takes another drink, this one a bit longer than before.

"It just isn't right. We do all the work and knock that thing down...then Reize shows up out of nowhere and catches it." Her fingers drum on the table. "I've been around Reize before. He brings nothing but bad luck."

Sable has posed:
"At least three Avira. Maybe one for each hand? Maybe one foot? Or you could hold it in your teeth." Sable follows her over to the table, eyes scanning the room before he takes a seat. "That guy seemed to be dragging someone along behind him. I can only assume a junior adventurer? Somebody else in his clan?" Sable takes a seat, rubbing the side of his temple with one hand and taking the leather thong out of his hair in order to retie it again.

"She looked pretty confused." he sounds ambivalent at this, but the humor returns as he continues. ".. but yeah, It didn't help that while we were fighting, Reize was just holding up that map and frowning as if they'd gotten lost. He just stood there until the thing practically walked up to him and tore a chunk out of his scalp." This sets him to chuckling quietly at the memory. "I haven't seen many chocobos, but that mark?-- That was down right mean."

Avira has posed:
"My tail. My tail's actually prehensile so it can definitely hold another sword. Maybe even /two/ other swords." Avira jokes, shifting in her seat. Sure enough, she slips her tail up and 'waves' with the tip. It moves exactly like a snake. Sable brings up that strange girl that was hiding behind Reize most of the time and Avira frowns.

She thinks, quite hard, to place that face, but cannot. "Must be a new recruit? I've never seen her before. Reize winds up with a whole lotta girls in the Shard Seekers. In fact he almost has as many girls as VALKYRI which is pretty unfair. Near as I can tell, they're all capable of fighting."

A low, bitter chuckle spills forth from the mutate. "Typical Reize behavior. He cannot navigate his way out of a paper bag. I made the mistake of giving him the map once and we were lost in the desert for hours."

Another long drink follows and Avira drains her glass of eggnog. "I'll say. That's quite a mark for you to take as your first one, Sable." she looks up at him, grinning, "You've got guts. I like that."

Sable has posed:
"Well. You've got to have /something/ to survive in a world that's more comic book than anything." Sable smiles, but it's a more pensive and self mocking expression. He strips the armored gauntlet off his arm slowly, taking a better look at some of the fastenings and frowning a little at places where the leather has been charred and the metal warped in some places.

"I don't know how people do it. Just go out there-- risk their lives for people they don't know." Sable shakes his head, saying even quieter. "Then turn around and do it again the next day." Sable fixes his eyes on the gauntlet. "So. Now I know which clans to stay away from." The teenager smiles wryly. "At least if I don't want more trouble than I've already got on my plate."

Avira has posed:
"Maybe extreme comical obliviousness is a superpower, then. Maybe it creates some kind of anti-danger field around him that prevents him from truly getting hurt." Avira sighs, resting her head in a hand propped against the table. With her other, she signals to the bartender to bring her another eggnog.

Avira falls silent, considering those words of his as he considers the lives of those who would call themselves adventurers...or even heroes. "Each person has their own reason. It's different for everyone." she says softly, only to grin as her second eggnog is delivered. "Oh, you know though, you really should join up with a clan. For someone in your position it can help a good deal to have someone get your back."

Her smile is distant and wistful. "A few months ago, I was where you were now. I lived in Brooklyn, which got destroyed, and wound up in Ivalice. So I busted my butt and picked up a new life in Clan Dagda. It's hard, but doable if you put your heart into it." She takes a drink. "You've got a lot of promise. I bet you can do it too."

Sable has posed:
"If you give me that you are too old for this nonsense, I am going to take that eggnog and dump it onto your head." Sable tells her with an Absolutely Serious Expression(tm) (which might actually not be as serious as advertised.)

"Well" he says quietly. "I don't really have a home either, so I do the best that I can. Thank you Avira." after checking the fittings, he starts putting the armor back over his hand, wincing a little at some of the more raw and uncomfortable spots on his forearm.

"Although I'm not sure how far I can go without magic. It's.." he laughs softly. "Surprisingly difficult to manage, just day to day."

Avira has posed:
"Old!? I'm not old!!!" Avira sounds a little frantic and taken aback, "I'm only twenty-four, that's not old at all!" Okay, so it's old in male protagonist terms maybe. Though she does seem to realize that Sable's not all that serious about that threat.

'I don't really have a home either.' "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry." She wants to tell him that she did all she could to fight for their world but realizes that it'd just open up old wounds that were still very sore. His mood has improved so far since they've been talking and Avira didn't want to ruin it again.

As she sips her eggnog, she watches him put his armor back on. "Well you /could/ try learning. Just focus on one spell and apply it creatively. That can actually be far more effective than focusing on big, flashy powerful spells." Yeah, says the person who was exploding with fire yesterday. Whoops. "But physically, there's just as much you can do. Don't think you've hit your limit, keep pushing yourself." She lifts her glass, holding it by the 'top' with the edges of her fingers while pointing one at Sable, "You get me?"

Sable has posed:
Sable nods soberly. "I get you. But I don't know.." he smiles in a chagrined way. "Honestly? Magic freaks me out a little bit. Maybe I can find something small to work with. I'll look around." he drums his fingers on the table. "That reminds me. I should probably figure out how to charm, wheedle and or cajole Phil into letting me back into the Coliseum." he smirks lopsidedly, rubbing the back of his neck with his unarmored hand.

"I've been thinking about what your friend said." He raises his eyes to the ceiling as a matter of adding 'yelling' in the place of 'said' "Maybe I should.." he pauses, as if this were difficult. "..try.. teaching some of what I know. I mean.. I used to do it." he frowns. "But that seems like a long time ago. I don't know if I'd be any good at it."

He gestures with the armored hand as if to waive away what he's been saying. "Tell me about this Clan Dagda. I haven't heard very much about it."

Avira has posed:
Avira shakes her head, "If you're not comfortable with magic, I wouldn't try it. It's really hard to start practicing and actually pretty dangerous to try if you're afraid of it." She sounds very honest about this, almost pleading.

She seems to be in a hurry to drop that serious subject though, "Haha! Good luck, that little satyr is pretty hardcore. Though might I suggest getting a pretty woman to try and vouch for you? Saytrs doooo have a soft spot for the ladies." Her smirk fades as Sable harkens back to Tifa's angry words during their little sparring incident. "It'd be a very kind thing to do." Avira says quietly, encouraging him especially as she hears that hesitance in his voice. "And any junior hero would be appreciative of the help. Give it a try, Sable."

With a gesture, she sees Sable's quickly trying to flee that topic too. Apparently Tifa's words had an impact on the teenager.

"Clan Dagda is a tiny clan native to Ivalice, based out of Rabanastre. There's only five members, including myself, though I haven't been back to them since I mutated. They're not very famous at all. If anyone knows their name outside of Rabanastre, they probably heard it from me or Angantyr."

Sable has posed:
Sable taps his fingers again on the table and frowns as she pleads and then encourages him.

"Well. I guess it'd be stupid to play with something I didn't understand." he says this with another self inflected moment of irony, still seeming resistant to the idea of Avira's encouragements but when she continues to talk about her clan, he becomes attentive again.

He comes to a full stop though towards the end her explaination though. He blinks several times, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "I'm sorry.. since you what?"

Avira has posed:
She seems a little relieved when Sable admits that he's certainly not all that for dealing with magic. But his confusion strikes her as odd for a few seconds, but then it hits her. Oh. DUH. OF COURSE.

"I'm actually a human." Avira explains. "This form you're looking at right now was cursed onto me by science."

Sable has posed:
Sable looks chagrined. "I should have guessed because of where you came from, but I've seen so many weird things since the fall I just start taking things as they are and work back to things making sense later." he pauses, looking troubled before he asks.

"There-- isn't some kind of magic that can help you?" he looks at her for a long and uncomfortable silence before he waves the question away. "Sorry. It's the holidays. I really don't have the right to ask these things."

Avira has posed:
"You'd be guessing right, actually, since there are other mutates where we are from." Hopefully they were able to escape, but deep in the Labyrinth, Avira doubts it. "There are strange things from that world but they did a really good job of hiding themselves."

Avira looks back on that thought with disappointment. She went through her whole life without knowing.

"I don't know." she says honestly, "There's supposed to be a cure which needs to be hunted down. I...yeah, it's something I'm going to confront later. For now..." Avira lifts her glass high in the air and turns it around. Sable will suddenly get the impression that she's not looking at her drink, but her reflection in the glass, "...for now I just wanna enjoy the night. I'm lucky enough to have friends that accept me even when I look like this. In fact, I'll be having dinner with them a little later."

Sable has posed:
Sable takes this in and shrugs, as if the vagueness of Manhattan was something he wasn't too skilled in handling and thus has simply given up on the whole concept. He pushes himself out of the chair. "Well. One night without troubles sounds like a miracle. I hope it works out that way."

The teenager looks towards the board then back at Avira. "/Responsible/ people like me are going to go out and probably get their clocks cleaned again while you drink eggnog." he raises his eyebrows and tries to look imperious, but it just comes off as silly because he can't keep the smile off his face. It doesn't quite reach his eyes and he turns away before she can notice. "No rest for the wicked, I suppose. I'll see you later, Avira."

Avira has posed:
"Were you interested, by the way, in joining up with Clan Dagda?" Avira suddenly says, jumping back to an earlier topic, "I promise it isn't run by some kid with no sense of direction or an unhealthy obsession with swords." There's a smirk on her face at this. "I can show you where to go get in touch with them. Maybe....maybe I'll even come with you..."

She sounds unsure, afraid of how her clan will react.

But she laughs. "Oh fine, you go out and be responsible! See you later, Sable!"