The Perk, Thursday Morning

[puppy_fair]

It was a nice morning today. Not too hot, not too cold. Zack had taken Girl out for a morning jog, which was always more about nudging himself to get out of the apartment and around than it was even really for the dog's sake, and, rather than retreating immediately to the relative quiet of the apartment above the Groovy Tunes once their jog was through, he'd decided to make a pit-stop at the coffee shop. Girl waited outside, of course, for the few minutes it took to go in and place his order, and then he was coming back outside to enjoy the morning with a mint-strawberry iced tea in hand and a bowl of water and a treat for his dog.

He was perfectly happy to just sit in a chair outside and enjoy the sunshine for a while, his sword propped against the wall nearby and Girl happily going to town at the water before settling herself down in the shade of the table.

There were some days, like this morning, when he was actually pretty content with the quiet of the island. It wasn't where he'd hoped to be by this point in his life, it wasn't even close, but it was better than where he could have been, too.

[OOC: Open! The work crazy has eased off, and today seemed like a good day for some zen with the puppy and his dog.]

Comments

[1000yearstoolate]

Today Seivarden wasn't going to the Perk, which the baristas probably appreciated. She was just walking past when she saw Zack, and stopped, giving a nod in greeting, then added:

"Good morning."

They hadn't met since that weekend when they had been teenagers, and young Seivarden had been a lot less subtle about showing when she appreciated someone, especially when she didn't get the impression that it could be mutual.

[puppy_fair]

"Good morning, Seivarden," Zack replied, giving her a pleasant nod, a smile, and lifting his drink in greeting. "Nice morning to be outside, isn't it?"

Sorry he was still so oblivious about all that flirting. That was just the way Zack was wired.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden, who was still unaware of Zack's obliviousness, felt a little awkward, but did her best not to let it show.

She could help it though, she was still wondering whether those pretty blue eyes were real or not.

"It is," she replied cheerfully. "How... is the dog?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack blinked, glancing down at Girl with a faintly puzzled expression on his face for a few seconds. He'd recovered by the time he looked up again, smiling just as brightly as ever.

"She's fine, thank you. And your cat?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"Oh, Issa is fine," Seivarden said, resting her hands on a chair next to Zack's table. "She ran away to play with Kanan's dog last week. I was really worried."

She looked down at the table.

"And how are you?"

[puppy_fair]

"I can't complain," Zack replied, shrugging and settling back in his seat. "I mean, today seemed like a good day for some fresh air. Any day I can say that is probably a good one. You?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"Oh, good too," Seivarden said.

"I... was thinking about that week," she said. "When we were teenagers."

Better to make clear to Zack that her adult self didn't approve of her teenage self, although, she couldn't say that straight out, of course.

[puppy_fair]

"You were?" Zack tilted his head a little, looking at Seivarden with a sort of open curiosity. "It was a pretty okay week, I think. Less weird than most of Fandom's weird."

He was apparently not going to make this easy for her.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden hesitated fro a moment, then sank down on the chair opposite Zack. "Yes, well, there are worse things that could happen. I was just reminded about... that I wasn't quite... tactful as a teenager."

She wasn't always tactful as an adult, but in a different way.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya had been going to the Perk for some tea, now that she was finished with radio and got the bug in her brain about it, but she didn't make it far before something gleamed just right to catch her eye and stop her in her tracks.

"Why, hello there," she said.

To the sword.

Not you, Zack.


[[i am 95% sure I'm going to wind up buried in work stuff today, but I just couldn't not]]

[puppy_fair]

Hey, swords needed love too. And if the Buster Sword had been prone to caring, it would probably have thought it was nice to not immediately have somebody say it was far too large.

"You like that, huh?"

Don't mind Zack, Amaya. He was just going to sit there, looking amused.

[special_rabbit]

Too large! But a sword being too large depended on so much more than just size! It was more about balance, really, the materials it was made out of, and who was trying to wield the thing. If anything, it had too few spikes for her tastes, but making a sword like that and doing it well was impressive, and she'd want to meet the person who forged that and shake their hand.

"Now that's a weapon," she said, then tilted her head at Zack. "Yours?"

She certainly hoped so. If someone was going around, leaving swords like that just lying around, she was going to have to find out who so she could go box their ears.

[puppy_fair]

"Mine," Zack confirmed with a grin. "Well. It belonged to a mentor of mine, once. But mine now, at least. It's been far too long since it's seen any action, though."

Which didn't mean he was going to start leaving it at home when he wasn't at work.

[special_rabbit]

"Most people," said Amaya, with the wry grin of a person who loved weapons but didn't exactly run about using them, "might consider that a good thing."

[puppy_fair]

"Most people weren't raised surrounded by monsters," Zack replied, smiling a little, himself. "Though my mentor would have argued that use brings about wear, tear, and rust..."

Zack wasn't quite Angeal, that way.

[special_rabbit]

"All the things to keep a blacksmith like me in business," Amaya had to laugh a little after she considered those points. "Maybe I could deal with a few more monsters around here, myself. What kind of monsters? Pretty big ones, I'd guess, judging by the heft of that sword."

[puppy_fair]

"There might have been a dragon or two over the years," Zack agreed.

He wasn't mentioning the few deities that he'd also faced with it.

"Home's got bigger fare than the island usually sees."

[spectre_alenko]

Coffee. Coffee was necessary for brain function this morning. Wednesday had been more exciting than usual, the game rooms had been a mob of activity right up until closing and Kaidan had been up until 2 hosing them down, vacuuming up crisps dust, and setting them to sanitary rights again.

Leaning against the outside wall of the Perk was a sword. Kaidan glanced at it, glanced at the guy sitting next to it, and then he saw the puppy. Which wasn't actually a puppy, but as far as Kaidan was concerned, all Good Dogs were puppies. This one was particularly fluffy. Like all burly, macho men, Kaidan promptly dissolved into gooey pieces. Only, not literally.

Plopping to his knees near the table, he cooed. "Hi, baby! Aren't you a pretty puppy! Are you friendly? Are you going to attack and try to bite my face off?" Both questions were asked in the same cheerful tone. "I mean, I'd prefer the first, but the second would still be mighty cute, you're so little and fluffy. Are you a good dog? You look like you're a good dog."

[puppy_fair]

Girl, like the good Girl she was, tilted her head up at the strange man, turned her ears toward him, and gave a tentative wag of her tail.

"She's a very good dog," Zack offered, smiling a little and giving his iced tea a sip. "Not much of a face biter, really."

Karla had brought in a bunch of trained therapy scelties for the shelter from Glacia, back when she had realized just how hard Nibelheim had messed with Zack. It had all been a sneaky, sneaky ploy for him to fall in love with one and take her home. So Girl was a very good Girl, looking up at Zack for permission before sitting up and sniffing at Kaidan curiously.

[spectre_alenko]

"She looks it," Kaidan answered with a grin, letting the pupper sniff him and decide whatever it was dogs decided by scent, "Can I scritch you? Do you like scritches? Most dogs do, and your fluffy little head is just asking for scritches."

Glancing back up at Zack, he asked, "What's her name?"

[puppy_fair]

"Her name is Girl," Zack replied, with all the wryness he could muster as he shared that name. Yes, he was aware that, so far as names went, it wasn't exactly a masterpiece.

It fit. Girl seemed to like it. And she liked scritches too, so, once she'd decided that this new person was probably okay, she leaned her head up to solicit some of those.

[spectre_alenko]

At least it was something he could pronounce.

"Hi, Girl," Kaidan cooed, obliging her with scritches all through her fuzzy, fuzzy fur, "I'm Kaidan. It's nice to meet you. You are adorable and have brightened my morning just by being here."

There were so many cooing noises happening it is only slightly surprising Kaidan didn't turn into a 6' dove. It was, thankfully, Not Wednesday.

[puppy_fair]

"She's pretty much the best dog," Zack agreed, with absolutely no bias whatsoever. "You're a dog person, I take it?"

Wild guess. Going out on a limb and all that.

[spectre_alenko]

"There aren't many organic dogs where I'm from," Kaidan said, as if that sentence made perfect sense, "I'm taking every chance I get to enjoy them while I'm here. This is only the second one I've met, though. How old is she?"

He continued cooing and scritching the pupper, because that is what you do when there is a friendly pupper.

[puppy_fair]

"She's about... a year and a half? If that," Zack replied, watching the good good girl happily wagging her tail at the attentions, now.

Kindred Scelties did a good job training up those puppies that Karla had brought to the island, apparently.

"Still young, but really well-behaved. Organic dogs? What are yours?"