BECAUSE I'M ON A PERMANENT VACATION ♠ open ♠ itazura's intro

"Your hardest drink please~"

      Sensitive ears twitched subtly at the noise, a hardly notable movement, especially when placed against the backdrop of her thick and very unruly ebony hair. Even if she had not been right there and distracted when he spoke? The short, 5''2, female currently standing on the exact other side of the room, far as possible from him, was easily able to detect his words. However most people would think the male had not been heard, since he was at the bar in the back and the only visible waitress at the moment was all the way in the front of the store, cleaning up a table from the meal of costumers whom had just left, and she couldn't be more glad they were gone! Even if it was bad mental state to wish your own revenue source away? The little spitfire really couldn't help it, they kept staring and whispering about the state she was in, and mocking the establishment for making her work, not realizing that if she was not moving like this, she'd have lost her mind already! After two years with her leg's locked together, hands chained behind her back with a blindfold on, Jiyu couldn't stay still, and letting her work in a supervised environment had to be a better alternative to not knowing where the Wind Mage was in the city, or worse yet letting her alone on a job, in the guilds opinion. Ever since returning? She'd only went around the city, barely gotten out of the hall. Honestly she couldn't blame some people for worrying thought...

         "Yeah, yeah, one second." she sounded jaded and exhausted, dropping the dishes by the kitchen, leaving them on the ground next to it. If she went inside the room? It wouldn't be good, she did not like fire and with good reason, with the burn marks on her body, deliberate and cruel marks. However that explanation was not verbally given as she pushed one hand against the bar, jumping over it instead of going around it, waist length hair flying behind her, swinging as she landed, red jacket with fur trim falling back into place as she turned around on him, the material of her loose maid dress shifting noticeably as she did so. Honestly? it appeared her large chest was the only thing keeping he dress up, burn and scrape marks along her collar bone. "One second" she sniffed the air, near each bottle, mumbling under her breath as she did so. Her way of picking through beer? Was to sniff for the strongest, her nose could tell easily, thought unluckily this action gave the guest a good view of the scratched and bruised side of her face, offering a vantage of her bruised legs which looked like purple leg warmer or the result of being chained for a long time.

"here you go." as she set the drink down in front of him? bruise markings close to those on her legs could be viewed on the wrist exposed to him, odd colored eyes glaring, before she forced herself to smile. "Anything else?" she did actually want to do this job, despite her current annoyance, it kept her busy until she could slip out for another job.

Valkryes at a table near the bar, one of her weapons unceremoniously scattered across its wooden surface. A drink sat a bit away from her mess, and was most likely what was keeping her going. Her usually fair hands were stained with some sort of dark substance, as was the rag she was clutching on to. Her brows were furrowed in deep concentration as she stared at the seemingly disorganized parts. It was like a puzzle; how does one reassemble a rifle. The blonde didn't seem at all concerned by the mess she had made. She could take her weapons apart and put them back together in her sleep. It wouldn't surprise her if she had actually done that before.

The gunner picked up one of the disassembled rifle parts and ran the darkened rag along its surface. She wasn't at all gentle with her cleaning, and the grime the coated the weapon wasn't giving in any time soon. She let out a frustrated growl as she scrubbed harder, determined to maintain proper maintenance. Even if her guns were magic weapons, they still had to be cleaned on a fairly regular basis, hence why she was so good at taking the things apart. If you let all the grime and gunk build up, things could become dangerous fairly quickly. The only way to assure that everything was debris-free was to clean each individual piece, one at a time. It was by no means a fun task, but one that absolutely had to be done.

"Damn it!" Valkryes cursed as a fairly loud RIP could be heard. She looked down at the dirty rag that had been occupying her hand, only to see it nearly torn in two. The material had become caught on the stubborn grime, and the amount of force she was using to scrub it off had caused it to tear. Well, this wasn't good. A now very frustrated Valkyres snapped the rag off of where it had become caught, further damaging the poor thing. She stood, aiming to snag a replacement from the kitchen. Surely they had some towels back there. But then again, some people weren't overly find of others just wondering in there.

Valkyres, knowing the kitchen was probably a bad idea, looked to the bar. She could make out someone over there, so she grabbed her half-finished drink from the table and made her way over. She left her disassembled gun laying on the table, knowing it would be useless to anyone but herself. After all, not many people know how to put a gun back together. The gunner slipped onto a barstool, placing the drink on the countertop. She looked around for another guild member, preferably someone who was currently on-staff.

"Hey, Jiyu, do you have a minute?"

She spoke somewhat softly, not wanting to startle the frail girl. Honestly, she looked like she'd fall apart if someone so much breathed in her general direction. Valkryes still hadn't heard the whole story on how she'd gotten to such a state, but something told her she didn't want to know.

As she waited to see if Jiyu had heard her, the blonde noticed a new face seated at the bar. Though she hadn't ben with Black Rose for long, she had gotten to know most of its members, if only by appearance. This was someone she didn't remember seeing around. She studied this stranger with her piercing green eyes, her curiosity now peaked. Though, she wasn't 100% sure that this wasn't some member that she just hadn't met yet.

Neyvahn was sitting at a table near the edge of the tavern. No drink, no food, just thinking. He wasn't hungry right now. "Kei, do you know exactly what happened? Back with Iza?"

"I only saw what you saw," he echoed in Ney's head. "The most I could make out of it was that we were implanted with a message. One that would only be shown once we became a full fledged Bakeneko." Neyvahn groaned again, letting his head fall onto the surface of the table. It was all just too much to think about right now, so soon after it happened. Maybe he really did need a drink. With thoughts still swimming around in his head, Neyvahn made his way over to the bar. It was there that he saw three new people he had never met before. Mages by the way their auras projected. Were they all new? Or perhaps he had just been sparing no focus towards the members of the guild.

Great, what a reliable guy he was. Neyvahn sat down next to one of the mages, a hood over his head. He waited until the bartender was done with any other customer, then ordered a lemonade iced tea.

(word count: 175)

A pale hand tucked a strand of her orange dyed bangs behind her small ear, trailing down the line of her jaw, before returning to its original position. Hardly seconds later, both ears twitched noticeably at the sound of someone else’s voice, apart from the new customer. Of course? Jiyu could and did clearly hear Valkryes walking up towards the bar, she’d even heard the rag tear in two, due to her sensitive ears which shockingly looked completely normal, except for their ability to twitch. However the wind user never really commented or showed off her extended sense’s much, especially these days, mostly it was an overload for her brain, during captivity every sense expect her sight had grown stronger, likely to compensate for the fact she’d been blindfolded, most times her senses were bombarded due to how, well sensitive they were. It could be considered mean to act like she didn’t know why the gunner had come over to the bar when she did in fact know why, but no one else really had any way of knowing she was fully aware, everyone could only see her weakened body, the injuries inflicted to her over two years, and nothing else, honestly it irritated her to no end that they gazed at her with such pity and tried to shelter her! Even if her body was not in the best condition, her determination and temper more than made up for it, plus she was very skilled with her wind magic. Kazehime supposed thought, that there was really nothing that she could directly do right, in this moment, to change their clouded judgement of her. Even so, one day she would set them all straight on who she was, not someone to be treated with pity and certainly not someone who could be broken that easily!

“Hn, Yeah, What do You need Val?” her soft voice rolled off her tongue easily, it seemed not so hoarse as when she first returned, but you could still tell that as some point in the recent past, her vocal cords had been overused and abused. Considering she knew what the young requip mage was going to ask for? The long haired teenager turned around, bending down to open a fridge placed on the wall beneath the counter. “There, Lemonade Ice Tea.” though she still never quite understood why people came to a bar, anywhere, and did not want anything of an inebriating effect. However she was not displeased by this, she only liked the scent of the liquor because it reminded her of Marschal and a man she’d once been able to rely on and look up to, even though he’d fallen so far now.

“Don’t behave stupidly if you choose to get shitfaced or I’ll have to throw you out.” the warning rang clear with a tone of humor in her even voice, heterochromic eyes focused on the male and the mages sitting at the bar she was working. Jiyu chuckled as she sat down on the bar itself, feet hung over towards the inside of it, one hand against the wooden surface small regrowing claws tapping the wood as she smirked. “You don’t intend to stay.” the comment was spoken as if it was also a joke, laughing softly her fist coming up to right under her mouth. “Be careful than, this place has a habit of sucking you in, at first you're only staying for a few days and then next you know you’ve joined.” that was what had happened with her mostly, she had not put up a fight, she’d come in to sit around for a bit and within a few days she was going on her first job with Leigh.

Valkryes turned to face Jiyu, the torn and dirtied rag hanging from her grip. She smiled sheepishly as she spoke, knowing that she really shouldn't have ripped the stupid thing. Not that it was her fault, but she still felt badly about it.
"Do you think you could grab me another rag from the kitchen? I kind of, sort of, ripped this one in half. Or, more accurately, my rifle did. I'm just scared to go in the kitchen myself, since I hardly know my way around there."
She didn't like asking someone else to do something that was her responsibility, but she didn't have much of a choice. She also hated to ask it of Jiyu, as it seemed she was busy enough as it was. That much was evident by her sheepish, almost guilty expression. For crying out loud, she looked like she'd just stolen something and gotten caught, not like she'd simply destroyed a rag.

Valkryes turned to face the new-comer once again, now certain that they were indeed a new face. The chatter from the other guild members had revealed that little fact. That said, she had also heard his reply; something about just being a traveler. Well, that sounded familiar. It was almost as if that was she had been up until recently. Oh yeah, it was. Now curious, the gunner leaned over the bartop, trying to get a better view. She was subtle about this, making it appear as if she were merely finishing off her drink. Even then, she had difficulty making out details. That bothered her. So, she got up off of her stool and walked over to the figure.
"A traveller, huh? Be careful, this place has a way with making itself a home to those kinds. I know first-hand."
The blonde smiled, giving off a friendly enough vibe. She wanted to talk to this guy, as he had caught her interest.

Neyvahn sipped on his lemonade iced tea, mumbling to Kei. "Is that really all you know?" he asked Kei.

"All I can really put together," Kei explained. "The 'Hekuto' part is still kind of confusing..."

Neyvahn put a hand to his chin, thinking for a second. "... Hekuto?" he mumbled out loud. The name was odd, and it rolled off the tongue in a strange way. Neyvahn couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it just seemed so odd. The name itself was strange, and he'd never heard anyone named something like that...

While he was thinking, Neyvahn took another sip of his drink. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he could see the stranger looking at him. Neyvahn didn't pester though. He may have been wrong. Besides, if Kei was even half right about this kid, then Neyvahn wouldn't want to get close to him. Mischievous, like Iza... Ugh, just the though of it sent chills down Ney's spine, so he sipped the iced tea again.