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 Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:08 am
Well, this area looks promising...
The narrow street Chizumi was observing looked interesting, at least, even if most people wouldn't call it promising. It would all have to do with what it was they were looking for; a number of people already carousing in the early afternoon, obviously having a good time, would make it pretty clear what it was she was looking for.
Or maybe not so clear; she wasn't just looking for a place to drink, after all. She was looking for a place with excellent drinks - she was new to Rukongai, but that didn't mean she had to be any less then informed about the best places to drink!
Humming idly to herself, she started into that street. She'd already had a sample drink or two at some other places, but they hadn't done much more then put a little bit of color in her cheeks; the way Chizumi saw it, she likely wouldn't be drunk enough to cause trouble until much later in the evening. Causing trouble could be fun, but she might put it off at first...she was new, after all. She should probably get her bearings before she does that.
Chizumi swayed her head a bit as she walked, in time with her humming (and likely giving the impression she had drank more then she actually had), when she suddenly got the impression that the ground had moved. Or, well, it could have been that her sandal got caught on something and she tripped, but the ground moving was a much more interesting explanation.
She decided it wouldn't be a good idea to blame it on the ground, however, to the person that she had just crashed into.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:44 am
Chiharu slowly wandered about an unfamiliar part of the Rukongai, not that she really knew much of it anyway. She had been out here looking for something interesting to do for a while now, and at best there were a few children who offered to play ball with her. She sighed and walked at a slightly brisker pace with her arms folded upon her chest. Maybe she could just look for a place to have a drink. She wasn't an avid fan of alcohol, but she figured a bit of it could never hurt.
Chiharu sampled a few drinks at a few places that looked promising, but none of them could match up to her prestigious standards. She soon gave up on her search of a place to drink and continued wandering around the streets. Maybe if she was lucky she'd be able to find something worthwhile here.
Slowly, but steadily, bits of her vision blurred. She was starting to get slightly drunk. Chiharu figured that she had sampled one too many drinks. She immediately found a shady place under a tree to rest for a bit. It definitely did not take too long for her head to clear up for she was up again within minutes of sitting. She whistled quietly to herself and carried on walking when suddenly...
BAM!
There was a light thud as two bodies collided and were sent to the ground. Chiharu shook her head and discovered the source of her crash. There was another person on the floor not too far from where she herself was, and common sense told her that this was the person she had crashed into.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:05 pm
Chizumi just laid there for a few moments, attempting to get her bearings. It was hard when everything was still moving, which suggested that she might have had a bit more then she'd thought.
But really. It wasn't all that much...maybe it'd been the sampling of some of those stronger drinks.
She pulled herself up against the tree the other person was against, and decided to wait for a little while. At least until the ground stopped moving; she could deal with buildings moving just fine. Chizumi glanced over at the other girl, and offered a lopsided smile at her.
"You're probably not too interested in meeting the person who just knocked into you, and sorry about that...but I'm Chizumi.
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Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:00 pm
Slowly standing up, Chiharu patted off bits of the dust that clung persistently to her kimono. Luck was on her side considering the fact that she hadn't gotten too disorientated from her earlier drinks, or standing up would've been harder than it usually was. Chiharu decided that any major cleaning up of her kimono could wait until later.
Strangely enough, Chiharu did want to know more about the other girl. Not because she bumped into her, no, definitely not, but because it'd be nice to know at least one person in the Rukongai. Not that she had ever made friends with much ease.
"It's alright, I understand that accidents are always bound to happen.", Chiharu shifted the position of her body slightly to face the other girl, Chizumi. "My name is Fujiyomi Chiharu, but you can just call me Chiharu.", she said with a light smile on her face. It probably seemed odd to Chizumi that Chiharu would be so formal, but her parents had taught her to always introduce herself like that. No exceptions.
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:24 am
Chizumi was anything but formal, so she did think it a bit strange to receive such a formal greeting (especially considering what her own introduction had been), but she just shrugged and straightened out. Some folks were just strange like that.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Chiharu!"
Chizumi didn't make too many problems making friends, herself - or perhaps drinking buddies was a better choice of words? Typically, she became very good friends with anyone else who was drinking nearby. Of course, they weren't the sort of 'friends' you'd spend any time with outside of drinking...
So, meeting someone who didn't spend all their time in a half-dazed state could be a good idea.
"So, Chiharu, what are you doing on this fine day?"
She could probably guess, based on the area they were in, but the other girl didn't seem particularly inebriated...so perhaps she was doing something else.
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:55 am
Chiharu nodded lightly in agreement. "Likewise, Chizumi.", she commented. Formality was one of the only things that Chiharu had been taught to use as a child, fore she was scolded whenever she was informal but... Chizumi didn't seem to be the kind that seemed beset suited for the more formal conversations. Maybe this was finally a chance for Chiharu to loosen up and make a new friend.
Chiharu put a finger to her mouth lightly and tapped it pondering. "To be quite honest, I was looking around for a place to drink, but...", she paused for a second before finishing her sentence. "I think that I'm done looking for now. None of the places really... Suited me." She continued honestly. Getting drunk was the last thing she wanted so drinking more than the few that she had already had might not be the wisest of actions. "How about you?", in all honesty Chiharu could probably guess what Chizumi had been doing by the slightly disorientated look she had. But... It was always nicer to be polite than blunt she figured.
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:42 pm
"Well now, I'd think that should be obvious! I'm on a quest, you see," Chizumi gave a grin and a wink, her hands flying out to the side dramatically as she continued; she wasn't quite this animated when completely sober, so drink did loosen her up in at least one way.
"I'm searching for the perfect drink. Or at least a really good one. I've found some so-so ones, some good ones, and some that are only fit for fleas, but I have yet to find the perfect one...and it has to be somewhere," after saying this, she deflated slightly and let her arms slip back to her sides, before continuing, "But I think I'm ready to put it on hold. If I keep up at this pace, I won't be able to even taste the difference in drinks later tonight; I should probably take a little break."
Pacing was very important, after all; it was better to spend a day in just a slightly dazed state, then become so drunk you passed out. In fact, she was very, very good at working her way up and then not getting to the passing out stage. That ruined the fun, after all - if you passed out, you couldn't drink anymore!
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:07 pm
"That sounds like fun." Chiharu admitted with a light chuckle. She had been looking for a great beer place too. Somewhere that lived up to her standards. Besides, she figured that she could handle one more drink tonight before having reached her limit. "What do you say to one more drink?", she mused. If the place they found wasn't the one they could always try again some other day.
When she was alive, looking for places to drink was something she seldomly did, no, almost never did. It'd bee nice to wind down from a long boring day with the perfect drink she mused.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:59 am
"One more drink..." Chizumi didn't really have to think about it, to be honest; she was almost always up for 'just' one more drink. One more seemed to always turn into more, but perhaps her new drinking buddy was serious about it being one.
"Sounds like a good plan. This area seems to have plenty of people enjoying themselves - why don't we see where they're congregating?"
Sometimes, that was a decent way to tell where the good drinks were. Well, either good drinks or good entertainment, anyway. There was the occasional place with wonderful drinks that attracted the quieter crowds, but she could always seek those out another day.
Chizumi gestured down the street with her hand in an exaggerated motion, towards where there seemed to be more people.
"Shall we?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:08 pm
That was a good plan, Chiharu figured. If there weren't many customers then the place probably wasn't the best, but a crowded place would either have to be really good or just have good performances. Either way it was worth a shot. She wasn't particularly an avid fan of alcoholic beverages, so when she suggested a last drink she'd hold firm to that thought.
Chiharu was practically a polar opposite of other drinkers. She preferred the quieter less crowded taverns over the crowded ones any day. Usually for her the less populated taverns were the ones for the wealthier group like her family was.
Chiharu looked over in the direction that Chizumi had gestured to. There were indeed quite a few people milled around the tavern there. If luck was on their side then they'd reach there jackpot there. She nodded to Chizumi's offer and started toward the tavern at a steady gait.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:30 am
The tavern in question was filled with people; it certainly seemed one of the more popular locations on the street. Finding a couple of chairs was doubtlessly going to be difficult, although there were enough people moving around that they could probably snatch a pair when someone moved.
"Well, what do you say I grab us some drinks, and you find us some chairs?"
It still wasn't going to be easy, though. That only had a slight factor in her reasoning, of course - Chizumi wasn't going to let someone else try to pick the 'best' drink, if it was only one drink left. So after speaking, she slipped into the crowd, and through to speak with the tavern keeper; he would be able to tell her more about the drinks there then a simple server, she was sure.
Whether she was right or not, she couldn't know for sure - but by the time she was finished and had retrieved their drinks, she had managed to learn quite a bit about this places drinks. With the help of the tavern keeper, she thought that she had selected the best drinks available - for her, anyway. The stronger, the better, usually.
Now came the task of searching the tavern for where ever Chiharu had gone; easier said then done in this churning mass of people. After a few moments, she gave up on trying to see through people, and just decided to see above them. Climbing on the table gave her an excellent vantage point, if she got a few annoyed looks upon nearly kicking over some drinks.
"Chiharu~"
And some annoyed looks after shouting, although really, it was loud enough that she really didn't think her shouting made it much worse.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:52 am
Chiharu aws rather surprised from the turnout. The tavern had seemed to be popular from afar, but she couldn't exactly say that this is what she'd expected. But judging by the popularity alone, Chiharu figured that this tavern had to be relatively good. There didn't seem to be an entertainment anyway.
Chiharu doubt the wiseness of the splitting up, but she couldn't necessarily disagree at this point. She simply nodded and looked for a good place for them to sit.
The tavern was... Well packed. Finding a spot to sit was a much harder task than Chiharu had expected. Bodies were bustling about and everyone was packed together, much like a herd of horses. She sighed and looked around. From her point of view, which was rather limited at this point, there was going to be no where for her to sit. She sighed once more. There was only one thing to do now.
Chiharu darted past drunken men laughing and bellowing to one another and grabbed a seat from one as he stood up, one down one to go. She held firm to the chair knowing that letting go of it would cause it to disappear once more in the mass amount of bodies around. She looked around and before too long snatched another chair as someone was getting up. She'd never really done this kind of thing before. It wasn't ladylike is what her mother probably would've told her, but at these circumstances she really didn't have a choice, did she?
There was a small table nearby that didn't seem to be occupied so Chiharu slid over there. As she closed in on it she realized that it was rather small. Only big enough for maybe two drinks. It'd have to do for now. She set down the two chairs and waited around for Chizumi. What seemed to be minutes flew by and still no sign on Chizumi, Chiharu debated upon abandoning her spot and just looking for her when she heard someone call her name. She looked forward and saw Chizumi standing on a table hollering at her. The expression on her face was probably priceless as she stared at Chizumi up on the table like that. "I'm over here!", she called back wondering whether or not her voice had been drowned out by the rest of the crowd.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:22 am
Chizumi cast her gaze around the room, listening and looking for any sign of her new friend - and by a bit of luck, managed to catch her voice from a particular direction. After several more moments, she managed to spot her, and began to climb back down. Which wasn't exactly easy, given she was holding two drinks; it had been far easier to climb up with them, really.
She'd avoided disaster when climbing up, but her path down wound up involving an innocent drink just lying their on the table - but thankfully, it avoided her. And also thankfully, the owner in question (whom it had just drenched) was somehow managing to snore loudly enough to heard over the racket.
After that, Chizumi forced her way through the crowd to where she thought she had seen Chiharu, and promptly plopped their drinks down on the small table (spilling a bit in the process). She gave Chiharu a cheeky grin, as she spoke, "I've been promised these are some of the best drinks in the house, by recommendation of several regulars."
Those regulars who favored this drink, according to the tavern keeper, visited quite a bit; they were the sorts who loved a nice strong drink. Chizumi thought it sounded perfect, herself - flavor was important, certainly, but if it was her final drink for the night she wanted it nice and strong as well.
She fell into her chair with a distinct lack of grace, not seeming to mind the size of their table; it was enough room for their drinks, that was the important thing.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:12 pm
Much to Chiharu's amazement it seemed like Chizumi had actually managed to catch her voice from the crowd. She herself almost hadn't heard it. She watched as Chizumi climbed down from the tables. Surely the trip was much harder than what it looked like from where she sat.
It was surprising to say that Chizumi made it to where Chiharu sat without spilling much of the their drinks. It was also surprising to see the man that she had knocked the drink into still stayed asleep. Before too long Chizumi had made her way to the small table.
"That's good to know, I'm sure they'll taste fine~", Chiharu mused. Or at least hopefully they'd taste good. She didn't want to have gone through all this work for nothing. She picked up her glass and took a sip of it.
The flavor in the beer was definitely good. It was nice and strong and yet still managed to have a definite taste to it. It wasn't the best drink she'd ever had, but she had to admit that it was the best beer she'd had in a long while. "So, what do you think?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:37 pm
Chizumi took her own sip, and scrunched her face in concentration; it wasn't really necessary to pay that much attention, but as it was her last drink of the night, she felt it deserved a fair amount of it. After a few more sips to be sure, she tilted her head towards Chiharu.
"It's acceptable."
Then her serious mood broke, and she chuckled; really, she would drink pretty much anything, so acceptable didn't mean much. But it was pretty good, compared to what she had tried here so far; not bad flavor, and the strength was at a decent level.
"This isn't bad for a last drink."
Although usually, taste didn't matter quite so much on the last drink - she thought this was a better starting drink then ending drink. Usually by the last drink of the night, she wasn't so inclined to notice taste. Circumstances were different tonight, however.
Chizumi rested her drink on the table, occasionally bringing it up to take sips from it; she was fairly calm (for her) which was a bit unusual - normally she'd be one of those up and moving around, and making plenty of new friends. This time, however, she'd started out with a drinking buddy - so she'd stick with her.
"So, you come around this area often?" Briefly, she wondered if that sounded too much like she was attempting to pick Chiharu up. You could tell Chizumi spent most of her time in taverns, when her conversation starters all sounded like that, regardless of intent.
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