paixaorpg | A Gambler and an Esper go to a Cafe [Complete]

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A Gambler and an Esper go to a Cafe [Complete]

Character(s): Terra Branford, Setzer Gabbiani
Content: Two friends reunite at the cafe
Setting: Cafe Ersesat
Time: Brunchtime, so about midmorning.
Warnings: None, I think.

On the one hand, she did find out that one of her friends was here. On the other, she found out that Kefka was here too. She could have done without that, but it was probably best to get those things out in the open. Admittedly she was a bit disgusted with herself - talking that way that is. Her anger had gotten the better of her. Even she could see the hypocritical stance she'd taken; not that she had backed down even when Kefka called her on it. As if she would listen to anything that that man said.

She supposed she didn't have a right to pass judgement on whether he lived or died. Did wanting that madman dead for everything he'd done make her a bad person? With a vague noise of discontent, Terra shook herself out of her mood and armed herself. She wasn't going to give Kefka another thought, if she could help it. She was instead, going to meet Setzer at the cafe, and *that* at least, she looked forward to. So after she left the hotel room, she trotted down to said Cafe, parked herself by the window with some juice drink she'd forgotten the name of, and settled in to wait.

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She wouldn't have to wait long. Setzer'd already been on his way in the direction of the cafe when he'd stumbled across Terra's message and it was but the work of a moment more to reach the cafe.

Of course, even with the promise of a relatively low key meeting with one of his friends, his mind couldn't help but think about some of the things that Kefka had brought the night before. The city had done to him what he'd previously thought impossible and clipped his wings for him. And for all he'd laughed it off (no need to hand his weaknesses to the man) the loss still irked him. What good was an airship pilot without a ship and his sky; what good was a wanderer with nowhere to wander to?

By the time he arrived at the cafe, however, any outward signs of his annoyance were safely hidden behind his nearly ever-present smile. It wouldn't do to bother Terra with his problems after all, when she undoubtedly had her own. Kefka was enough to bother anyone, after all - and he wasn't here to talk about Kefka.

He was here to talk to a friend.

A conversation without Kefka being brought up was a wonderful conversation indeed. Unfortunately for Terra, her thoughts kept wandering back in his direction. She almost missed Setzer's entrance, prompt as he was, but when she heard the door opening, she immediately glanced up, wary.

The smile on her face that followed made up for any offense that he might have taken from the initial reaction, she'd hope. "Setzer..!" She rose from her table, drink forgotten, and waved the wandering gambler towards her table. Sadly, she hadn't considered how upset the gambler might be for being grounded.

"As you requested," Setzer answered with an easy smile. This was one hand he'd hardly intended to be late to. That was for other matters, not this one. Besides, if he'd been late, no doubt Terra would have been worried for his sake. No, this time the thought of arriving at a time that would better suit his sense of the dramatic was barely even an option.

"I haven't kept you waiting too long, have I?"

Terra would definitely have been worried if Setzer had been late, or worse, not shown up at all. She shook her head, and felt her ponytail brush against the back of her neck with the motion.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask. "You look well," Terra smiled, motioning to a seat across from her as she sat back down. "Have you been here - in Paixao - a long time?"

"Long enough for things to get a little stale, and longer than some I could name," Setzer answered, taking the seat Terra gestured at. "But not quite long enough to take any means possible to arrange a way out of this hand."

He didn't want to think about the exact details. Not when every day spent here was a day spent without the sky. He really needed to find a way to fix that. Preferably sooner rather than later.

"Stale?" Terra inquired, tilting her head curiously. Wisely she didn't ask about the 'some'. It might have been Kefka. "Were the others with you when you came here?"

She toyed with a straw absently - honestly for a place with no animals, there oughtn't be food either, but it was pretty plentiful. "A lot of people here seem to think there isn't a way out." she mused, "But I don't believe that."

"The same old hands played over the same number of times." In other words, things had been starting to get just a bit monotonous. "People come and people go, but not the wanderer, unfortunately."

"As for myself, I arrived alone. The others I either found here or came after."

Presumably this meant that the rest were back at home taking care of his Falcon, although he'd no way of telling. But he trusted that they'd know what she meant to him all the same, and would have the sense to not crash her.

Terra barely kept herself from looking skeptical at mention of monotony. After all, Kefka was there. But she didn't want to discuss the mad clown, no matter how many times her mind drifted back to the man.

"Maybe they'll show up again," Terra said after a thoughtful moment. "But at the same time, if they're safe back home, then..." She hesitated, decided not to finish that sentence. "Oh, sorry," she blurted abruptly, "It's my treat today, so -" She waved a hand in the air as if summoning a waiter.

Truthfully it was more of a 'what will you have?' kind of gesture.

To a man like Setzer, monotony was a little easier to run into, and especially when there was there was only so far the city stretched. Being born to wander was a curse at times, and he'd never really liked being tied down. Admittedly, not having run into Kefka in person save for once helped, but that wasn't really here or there. If a game grew boring, he'd just need to find his way into another one.

Or so he'd been telling himself. Whether or not it would work was another question entirely.

"Oh, they might manage to deal themselves into this hand. But only time will tell whether will still be in or not by then. We'll just have to see how our luck fares."

Terra'd not been in Paixao long enough to have felt the bite of restlessness or monotony. She was probably lucky that way. Then again, she tended to have the poor luck of getting the wrong kind of attention. Hopefully this would not be the case in Paixao (koff).

The half-esper fell into a brief, thoughtful silence. She then leaned back in her seat, looking up at Setzer, "So what have you been up to? I know you said you've been wandering, but.. that's terribly vague." She noted with a teasing smile, and added. "Staying out of trouble I trust?"

Hard to escape the wrong kind of attention with a madman of a mage in the city and already aware of her presence here. But he was just one man and with luck could be avoided - Setzer'd certainly been managing, after all.

"For now, at least," Setzer answered with a smile. "There are few too many variables to make that a profitable venture here just yet."

And no real way to flee to the skies either.

Truth there. "I'm relieved." Terra smiled.

Hrm. Profits. Without really thinking about what she said, Terra brightened, "I know," She seized upon the fledgling idea that had popped onto her head. It might have been something Setzer himself had considered, but there was no harm in saying it herself. "Why not open a small casino or something here? I bet the people in Paixao would appreciate it, and if we're going to be stuck here for a time, we might as well make the most of it, right?"

"It doesn't even have to be all that big to start," Terra added, "It could be just a small area, sort of like what you had on the airsh ---" She bit her tongue and winced. "Um.. sorry." A bit belated to remember he didn't have the ship now isn't it, Terra?

A casino. Now there was an idea that had merit. "Why not indeed?" he asked. "It could be just the thing we need to stir some life into this stale old hand." Of course, he'd have to find a place, and some tables, but they couldn't be hard to find and for once things were looking up.

Or at least, they were until Terra mentioned his ship, a flicker of sorrow crossing his face at the reminder of the ship he'd had. Not that the Falcon was a bad ship or anything, but the Blackjack had been his and he hadn't had the time to make the Falcon his in the same way.

But there was a smile on his face when he answered, even if it was just a little bit forced. "It's alright." Just a simple slip of the tongue, right?

Terra smiled broadly, momentarily surprised he hadn't thought of it before. Of course he may have and was just pretending - but she didn't think he'd do such a thing. "Right, and playing a few games can be just the thing to take people's minds off of the situation. At least for a while."

Of course she did catch that slight change in Setzer's mood, and OH, how she kicked herself mentally, for it. She'd been careless, and she doubted Setzer meant it's alright because ... well. "So .." she stammered briefly, and valiantly sought to take his mind off of the matter, "I imagine you'll have to speak to the person in charge of the city for that sort of thing."

"Not necessarily," Setzer answered. "All it takes is an empty building."

Besides, hadn't the mayor been killed a while ago? Surely a dead man wouldn't mind someone make good use of an abandoned building?

"And if that lands me in trouble, it'll hardly be the first time."

"Really?" Terra clearly hadn't known that, "Well that's a lot more convenient than waiting for permission for things. "I suppose next we'd have to see if there are any suitable empty buildings to use."

With a soft chuckle, she nodded his remark about being familiar with trouble. "What would you call it? The casino I mean."

"I'm sure there's one or two around," Setzer answered. "The hard part will be finding the tables for it." Cards and dice, on the other hand, were relatively easy to come by. Or so he assumed. Presumably there was some manner of general store around somewhere.

"What do you think we should call it?"

Terra nodded, "Given that there aren't really any trees, I can see the problem. Maybe there's a place with discarded furniture that can be fixed up.." Well, probably not, actually. Still... it's an idea.

Surprised by the question, Terra laughed, "Oh, goodness, I don't know. Um - I suppose it should be a name that's catchy to get the interest of the visitors and locals." She looked thoughtful, "I'm not very good at that.."

"We'll just have to see what fate is willing to give us, I suppose." Besides, he wasn't expecting to have it all finished up in the less than a day. Not something of this magnitude.

"Well, we still have some time to think of something." After all, they'd only just come up with the idea.

Terra folded her arms against the table and sighed softly. "It should be interesting if nothing else," she admitted. And Setzer would be doing something that he enjoyed, second only to flying his airship - and one day maybe he'd be able to do that again. They just had to hold out till then.

She glanced out the window briefly, "Well.. I shouldn't keep you too much longer. Just one thing," Terra said, hesitating, ".. You haven't seen any magicite here, have you?" She wasn't sure if she wanted him to say yes or no to this.

"It should be," Setzer agreed. Certainly better than spending his days being increasingly bored and bitter about the domes overhead.

"Not here, at least." The last time he'd seen any magicite was back on their own world, and even then it hadn't seen fit to follow him on his journey between there and here. Of course, with Kefka here that was probably for the best, even if it meant that they'd be a little more limited as to what they could do in a fight.

She had mixed feelings about this; but admittedly, the majority of them were leaning towards relief. "Ah, that's good I suppose." Chances were her magicite had been dropped back home, and not.. well.. here.

Alas, all things come to an end, and Terra slowly rose from the table, "I'd best get back then," particularly if she was going to think about name suggestions for Setzer's casino. Honestly how did one go about that anyway? Maybe she should go for a walk and look at the names of the other stores around later. "It was good seeing you again, Setzer. I'll stay in touch," Terra smiled. "And I'll let you know if I can think of anything for your casino." Of course they had a loooooong way to go till then, so it wasn't a rush.

"I won't be too hard to find." After all, with the domes to keep him in more-or-less the same place and the journals as well, he'd never really be all that far. Provided nothing kept him from being able check the journals, but he wasn't going to think about that.

"I'll look forward to it." Even if he came up with a name or two on his own it wouldn't hurt to pick up a few suggestions as well.

Nothing or no one. Still spending some time and chatting with a friend did wonders for Terra's mood, considering her distress at realizing Kefka was around. Hopefully she hadn't ruined poor Setzer's with her slip up.

"Then I'll see you around." Terra grinned, "Take care, Setzer." The half-esper added, waving a hand as she sauntered out of the cafe.

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A Gambler and an Esper go to a Cafe [Complete]

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