Tifa's 7th Heaven Bar

[DragonHeart]

[Note: Marlene and Tifa are NPCs (unless someone wants to participate as either/both) and thus you don't have to wait for me to post, just control them as you like.]

The radiant glow of sunset filled the skies over Edge, a bright contrast to the shadowed ruins of Midgar looming in the south just beyond the fledgling city. The warm, friendly light streamed through the open windows of the best bar in town, Tifa Lockhart's 7th Heaven. With the workday winding down, it would soon be filled with patrons from every corner of Edge and beyond.

Marlene hummed to herself as she flipped the sign in the window from “Closed” to “Open” while Tifa finished preparing for the coming night. She had barely turned away when the bell hanging above the door jingled, signaling their first customer. She turned to greet them immediately.

“Welcome to 7th Heaven! What can I get you?”

[Dodie16]

[It's alright to go ahead and do this right? I thought I would give this a shot. I'm crap at making characters though, so I'm just playing myself. ]

A young woman in her mid-20's just finished work that day. It had been a long one, what with all the construction that still needed to be done after the Meteorfall and Deepground incidents. A lot of progress had been made since then, and Edge was coming into it's own as a pretty hospitable place to live. Children no longer feared to play outside, and adults worked together to make sure that future generations wouldn't have to go through the terrors that occurred only a few years ago...

These days have been quite happy, and the young lady decided it was high time to treat herself to something good. She had heard about a bar near the center of town, and thought it would be fun to go in and check it out.

As she approached the establishment, she saw a young girl, who appeared to be no older than eight, switch the sign from "Closed" to "Open".

"Wow! Perfect timing!", she thought to herself. She made her way to the front door and pulled it open. A bell rang out that signaled to the young girl, who quickly turned around to greet the new customer.

“Welcome to 7th Heaven! What can I get you?”

"This little girl...works here?" the woman thought to herself, puzzled as to why any parent would allow their child to work at such a young age, especially in a bar. However, she quickly dismissed the thought, and figured it really wasn't any of her business to know. She thanked the little girl for her hospitality and asked her what her name was.

"I'm Marlene!" the young girl cheerfully replied. "What's yours?"

With a smile, the woman responded, "My name is Julie, but you can call me Dodie if you wish. That what a few of my friends and family call me."

Marlene giggled a bit, and then asked if there was anything she could get for Julie. Julie responded that a glass of water would be just fine for right now, and Marlene skipped off to get her one. Julie made her way to a booth near one of the windows to relax a bit, and get off of her aching feet. Marlene delivered the water, and also a menu that Julie could look at and order from. Marlene informed her that she would be back if Julie needed anything and turned to head back to the bar area, where another woman who seemed to be about Julie's age was tending.

Julie took a glance at the menu, and saw all the pictures and descriptions of the delicious-looking food and assortment of drinks that could be ordered. Normally not a drinker in the slightest, looking at what was offered, she decided that having one drink wouldn't hurt anything.

Just as she was making up her mind on what to order, Julie heard the bell of the front entrance ring out, as another customer walked into the establishment.

[Rhaps]

Ever since the Meteorfall, Chocobo breeding, herding, and selling just hadn't been the same. Today, the haggard man in his mid-forties meandered into the bar with desperation in his eyes. He just HAD to find a jockey who was willing to buy a chocobo, even if they did move slower nowadays, looking to make it big in the developing Edge.

However, a day of no luck left him feeling defeated. "Maybe the bar will have some willing youth to bring back the sport," he mumbled to himself walking down what remained of LOVELESS avenue in the direction of the bar. "And if not, I can drink until I'm drunk enough to sell my herd to a butcher. . . Nah. I think I'll just live in the wild with them," he ranted to himself.

These mumblings combined with his tired looks combined to make him blend with the riff raff outside of the bar, luckily avoiding a mugging which would have cost him the last of his gil. Fate must have had this place in mind for him.

Opening the door to the bar, he noted there was only one person seated, and she didn't strike him as a jockey. "Well," he thought, "Maybe she is. People have switched up their appearance on you before, remember that delivery boy who could lift a sword bigger than he was? Yeah, if people like that are running around in this place, maybe that lady over there is a racer."

He strolled over to her booth and asked, "Ma'am, are you a chocobo jockey?"

[Dodie16]

Julie looked up from the menu to see who was coming through the door. A man with a haggard and worn appearance hobbled his way inside, and looked around the place. He seemed to be searching for something, or maybe someone. When his eyes focused on Julie, and she quickly turned her attention back to the menu, hoping that he didn't notice that she was looking at him.

He had a pretty intimidating appearance, and she didn't want to get involved in any trouble. As she sat focused on the words of the menu that she held up in front of her, she heard the sound of footsteps coming closer and closer to where she was sitting. With every dull thud of his heavy boots making contact with the wooden floor of the bar, her heart started to beat a little faster. Fear was rising up in her chest. She didn't know this person, why would he be approaching her like this? She told herself to remain calm, and that if worse came to worse, she had her special move ready to go: a round-house kick to her opponent's face that she learned from Master Norris, her old karate teacher.

By this point, the stranger was at her booth. She nervously looked up at him, placing the menu down on the table. She could smell something faintly familiar coming from this man. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was distinct. As she tried to think of what the smell was, the man spoke to her.

"Ma'am, are you a chocobo jockey?"

This question baffled her for a moment. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting to be asked that today..." Julie thought to herself. She replied to the man, "Erm... I think you might have the wrong person. I work in construction." The man looked a bit disappointed in her reply, and that's when it hit her. She finally remembered where she smelled that scent before. It was Gysahl Greens, and it was a chocobo's favorite food.

"This man must work pretty closely with chocobos," Julie thought to herself. She had read in the paper before that the market for chocobos had taken a heavy fall, and didn't seem likely that it was going to pick back up any time soon. Looking at his appearance again, she noticed that he seemed to really be in a tight spot financially, and she felt a little more at ease with his presence. She concluded that he wasn't going to cause any trouble for her, so there was not reason to feel apprehensive.

"He's either looking to sell me a chocobo, or wanting me to race one for him." Julie thought to herself. She couldn't very well keep a chocobo in her small apartment, and she had never raced chocobos before in her life. She did however have family out in the country that would keep a few of the giant birds around as pets, and that's where she remembered smelling Gysahl Greens for the first time.

"Maybe they would be interested in keeping a few more now?" Julie thought to herself, "Of course, this is only assuming he's actually trying to sell 'em off."

"Pardon me, but why did you want to know if I was a jockey?" Julie finally asked the man.

[Alpha]

Tim looked up from his slumber, sleep almost dripping from his wrinkled face. He rubbed the welts that adorned the left side of his face. Not sore, anymore. But probably looked painful. He was in a dark corner of a bar. He must have managed to make it here at some stage, but he couldn't have told anyone when he arrived or how long he had been here. Lifting up slightly, he caught a glimpse of quite a large man, speaking to someone in a booth at the very far end of the bar.

At his feet, a small cat rubbed its face into Tim's legs. Tim kicked the cat roughly, sending it skittling away, and colliding with a metal dustbasket as it did, creating somewaht of a cacaphony.

"I had been wondering when you were going to awake. That was quite rude you know!" The female barkeep said.

"I hate cats." Was all Tim managed to say.

"Clearly. But you've also been there for an entire night, and all day. This is not an inn."

"I've got gil, I can pay you." He turned his face away for a moment, to reach into his pocket, and the woman sent out a sudden yelp.

"Your... your face! What have you done to yourself?!"

"What did I do?" Tim chuckled, but he didn't find it funny. "Mind your own damn business. I need something strong. Are you a bartender or not?"

Taken aback both by the marks on his face, and by his attitude, Tifa didn't reply. She reached for a bottle of blue liquid from the top shelf, while automatically pulling a small glass from the drawer.

Pouring a small glass, she asked,

"If you want the strong stuff, it will cost you." Tifa stated.

Tim simply placed his large, hairy hand into his pocket, and emerged with a full handful of gold coins, with some silver ones milling about. Tim threw the coins across the table in such a manner that two things became apparent to Tifa. The first was that this man was wealthy. The second was that he didn't even seem to care. Not willing to question anything more about this man, she walked over with the whole bottle of High Elixir. She took only two of the coins on the table in payment. The amount of money he had calmly slapped around was phenomenal.

He sat up straight for the first time, and Tifa noticed his height. He wasn't the largest man she had ever seen, but he was very tall, and quite broad. He leant against the wall, and put his feet up on the table, the heavy boots shaking a few of the more insecure coins to the ground. Disregarding the glass Tifa had supplied, he drank straight from the bottle. Tifa was not at all impressed, but didn't dare say anything.

Truth is, Tim only had a vague idea of what went on before he had arrived here. He knew he had bumped into an old friend, but things had gotten out of hand. He was also absolutely certain that this money was not his. What had he done? What had someone done to him? How would he re-piece the events of the previous day?

At that moment, a face he thought he recognised appeared through the door to the bar. Tim quickly slunk back down in his chair, boots off the table. If this was who he thought it was, this was a man Tim knew to steer well clear of.

[Rhaps]

"Pardon me, but why did you want to know if I was a jockey?" The woman asked. He had seen the fear welling inside of her, but then melt away as he got closer. Strange, but not as strange as the very large man at the bar he thought.

'Wait she's asking why, maybe she's looking for a job change! Or maybe she just wants to know before she knocks your lights out. . . Either way, better quit standing here like a fool.'

"Oh, I am the current owner of the Chocobo Ranch not too far from here. It's just before the swamp, or what remains of the swamp. . . Anyway, I need to sell my flock before I take another financial nosedive-" he looked down. A small cat with it's tail bushed out in fear brushed his leg.

"Oh hello little friend, I'll pet you in a moment, I've things to deal with." That's when he noticed a coin that had rolled from the large man.

"Uh, excuse me ma'am," he said bending down to inspect the coin. He was sure he looked desperate, but hey, anything helps. Lifting the coin into the light, he was shown it was a 1000 Gil piece! He turned to the man at the bar, who was strangely looking at the door and acting odd, and excitedly said

"Sir! You there, at the bar, may I keep this?!"

[DragonHeart]

Looked like it was going to be another busy night, Marlene thought. At any other bar it would also be considered a weird one but she had seen much stranger things than this in her short life. A young woman just trying to relax, a scruffy man trying to convince her to buy his chocobos, and another giant of a man with welts on his face and far too much money for his looks. Actually, they were probably among the most normal of the patrons she expected to see on any given night.

Then the bell over the door jingled again and a truly intimidating man entered. Tall, with long dark hair, pale skin and crimson eyes. A tri-barreled gun rested on his hip, a golden claw-tipped gauntlet on his left arm. His ragged red cloak bore silent witness to his many battles. He was not a man to be trifled with.

Marlene walked over to greet him, smiling as he briefly touched the top of her head with his hand.

Tifa, distracted with another patron, only spared him a glance. Then she did a double take.

"Vincent! What brings you all the way out to Edge?"

"You tell me," he said, his voice quiet and deep as Marlene remembered. She hadn't seen him in awhile, but he hadn't changed at all.

"What do you mean?" Tifa frowned as she set a drink down in front of him.

"You called me."

"I haven't. Marlene, did you call Vincent?"

Marlene shook her head, as confused as Tifa.

The bell jingled again, but this time neither of them noticed.

[masamune]

Lance had lost all his memories 3 years ago. He now worked for the WRO in hopes that they might be able to help him find out who he used to be. For you see Lance had at one point in his life been in Solder.

From what records He had been able to get on himself from the WRO he had been a 2nd class Solder. his home town had been in Nibelheim. He had been on a mission near Nibelheim when he went MIA. Which meant there was no way to find out why the last thing he could remember was being in Wutie where the women had found him.

Lance had been given some time off so he had gone to Help in the reconstitution of New Midgar. on his way there he had stopped by the ruins of Midgar to see it for him self. He had heard rumors that a giant known as weapon had destroyed it. while he was there this guy with spiky blond hair had shown up and pointed him in the direction of New Midgar and recommended a bar named 7th Heaven.

As he walked in he noticed a young women talking with a scruffy looking guy about chocobs. A mean looking man with a lot of coins scattered around him, a little girl who didn't look like she belonged hear, A Beauty of a women standing behind the bar, and.................. Vincent valentine?

Why did He know this man why?

"Sir! You there, at the bar, may I keep this?!" The scruffy looking man asked the men looking one.

This was no time to be thinking about why he Knew the man in front of women behind the counter this could get
interesting. depending on how the mean one responds

Lance quietly sits in a seat so he could easily stop any fight quickly.