what_the_shock | A bar on the mainland

Miguel had looked around, found a pub with good food and plenty of beer, and called a taxi to get them there. The bar even had $1 drafts on Monday.

They might regret that after these two started drinking.

[Expecting one, and NFB for distance!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

puppy_fair

"That price can't be right."

Zack was eyeing that special like a very, very skeptical puppy, yes. Because that was how pubs ran out of beer, right there.

From:

what_the_shock

"Most people probably only drink a few," Miguel pointed out. "But I figured there's no reason we should have to run up an insane tab. Anyway, they're supposed to have pretty good food, too."

From:

puppy_fair

"And I probably should eat something," Zack allowed.

He... had maybe been bad at that over the past week. A bit. At least Girl was there to bully him into at minimum a meal a day, otherwise he'd waste away or something.

"What goes with beer?" A pause. "Maybe I'll just get some fries."

From:

what_the_shock

"Fries are good. I think they've got some good loaded tater tots," Miguel said. "Probably nachos; don't all bars have nachos?"

He slid into a seat at the bar and started looking at the draft beers. "Wow, they've got a lot. Think they'd give us funny looks if we ordered one of each?"

From:

puppy_fair

"Pretty sure they'd give us funny looks," Zack mused, "but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Then again, unless we're really knocking them back, we might want to order them a few at a time? Flat beer's no good, either."

He was already pretty devoted to overthinking this.

From:

what_the_shock

"True." Miguel shrugged, and when the bartender came over, he ordered the tots and something called an 'eyelash viper'.

From:

puppy_fair

"... Is that an actual snake?"

Zack would probably find out soon enough.

"Doesn't matter. I'll have the fries, and the first three draft beers on the list. I plan on working my way through as many as I can tonight."

That would be all of them. Possibly twice.

From:

what_the_shock

Miguel laughed. "I thought we were going slow. And no, it's not a snake. I mean, it's on draft, so unless they've got snakes in there, it's definitely a beer."

From:

puppy_fair

"This isn't slow? I only ordered three," Zack pointed out.

... So, that was where his head was tonight, apparently.

"I guess I'll get to the snake beer eventually." A pause. "If there's actual snakes in there, I should probably pass on that one, though."

From:

what_the_shock

"Actual snakes are not a thing in Earth beers," Miguel said. "Not as far as I know, anyway. Silly names are, though."

He shrugged. "Don't worry about how slow is slow. Drink what you want. I doubt either of us is getting drunk tonight, and even if we do, we're getting a cab home anyway."

From:

puppy_fair

Zack nodded a little, giving a soft sigh as he settled into his seat, one knee bouncing away anxiously.

"Right," he sighed. "We don't have to worry about how we're getting home. That's right."

Maybe he could sleep in the park tonight. Or crash upstairs from the animal shelter...

From:

what_the_shock

Miguel nudged him. "Yeah?"

Did you want to talk, Zack?

From:

puppy_fair

Zack's knee was going to just continue a-bouncing away. A lot.

"Iris came home today."

Bounce. Bounce. Bouce.

"I don't know what to say to her."

Bounce.

"I probably should come home at some point."

Bouncebouncebounce.

From:

what_the_shock

"Probably." Miguel grimaced. "You're welcome to my couch, but that's just putting it off. Are you...she remembers everything, too, right?"

From:

puppy_fair

"She... has all of it, I think," Zack hedged. "I'm not completely certain how, or what, but..."

He hiked up his shoulders a little, reaching for the nearest beer as the bartender brought out their drinks.

It didn't last long.

"I don't know, man. I think maybe she's going to not want to look at what I've lived, when she has this perfect alternative right there besides. She didn't want to look too hard at it before the world changed, you know?"

From:

what_the_shock

Miguel fiddled with his glass before taking a drink. "That's hard."

He had no idea what else to say. "Is it...are you mad at her? For that, or for changing things?"

From:

puppy_fair

Zack swallowed. Shook his head a little.

"For doing something that saves the world? No. I... I wouldn't have minded... anything. A heads-up. A 'brace yourself.' Maybe even an, 'I'm about to do something that could even undo who you are, as a person.' I mean, it didn't. But it sounds like it... kind of undid everybody else. And I'm left... dealing?"

He reached for beer number two.

"I'm left dealing. You'd think it'd be easier to deal with 'the world got better.'"

From:

what_the_shock

"The world got better, but it's not your world anymore," Miguel said. "You're allowed to be...well, you're allowed to be whatever you are, honestly. Hurt? Lost? Confused?" He shrugged. "And the one person who really knows what happened is all tied up in that mess."

From:

puppy_fair

That was about it, really, wasn't it? The world was better, but it wasn't home any more than the one he'd been hiding from on the island for the past few years had been.

"Lost," he settled on. "Lost is a good starting point, I guess."

Beer number two vanished almost as quickly as beer number one had.

"I couldn't go back before, anyway," he noted. "At the end of the day, maybe nothing's all that different after all."

From:

what_the_shock

Miguel finished his first beer and called for another.

"I guess the difference is that now you could, if you wanted to. You just don't have a reason to. Would you want to try? Fitting back into that world, I mean."

From:

puppy_fair

Zack grimaced a little.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I could go back to Gongaga, maybe. It's my hometown. But there's nothing really in Gongaga except jungle animals and a mako reactor. Midgar.... I don't think I can handle Midgar. There are too many people there who won't understand why all of a sudden, I can't look at them without flinching."

From:

what_the_shock

"It's...weird," Miguel said. "I've never had that happen at home, but I've been to enough similar worlds that I've seen people in one world, fought them, then had to help them in another. And there's no way of telling them why. I probably shouldn't tell them, because what would it do but make someone feel bad that probably doesn't deserve it? It's not like they can change what another version of them did."

He gave Zack a rueful smile. "And that's not remotely as personal as what you're going through."

From:

puppy_fair

"But you kind of get it," Zack noted, reaching for beer number three. "That's something. At least I'm not just sitting alone screaming into a total void."

From:

what_the_shock

"Nah, I kind of get it," Miguel agreed. "And the other part, too. I mean, if someone went back and undid the screw-up that made me what I am...that other me might be happier. Parts of the world might be better, maybe, who can say? But I wouldn't be me. Part of the reason that other me would be happier would be because of all the things he doesn't know. And I can't just give that up."

From:

puppy_fair

"That whole 'ignorance is bliss' thing is great, right up until you realize ignorance could really have actually happened."

He was glad to remember. Wasn't so certain his entire mind hadn't just rallied up against whatever other life had been presented to it, screamed at the dissonance between the two, and then rejected it outright.