Baron Pub
The air of the kingdom was different. More hopeful, more joyful, less worried, less fearful. The people were confident again, proud of their homeland rather than ashamed. While the celebrations were over, the wishes of making peaceful lives seemed fully attainable. And everyone seemed to be fully into it, hoping to see their dreams too.
It was also different that Cecil was looking this place over as part of the kingdom he ruled, rather than the kingdom he served. In a way, he still served Baron. But he would be the one making the big decisions and everyone would be looking to him for answers. He wasn't out fighting monsters every day anymore, although he felt that he liked this life better than that one.
Gathered with his friends in the town pub, hearing talk about all parts of the globe, it seemed like the whole world was in this hopeful mood. No one talked of war; the closest were those like Kain and Yang who continued to train in order to keep the peace, or to perfect their selves. But they weren't getting too serious today. It was a time to celebrate friendship.
Rosa, Porom, Palom, and Rydia excused themselves from the table, in order to check out the merchants who had come to the town's open market taking place outside. Edge's eyes followed the latter, but he stayed with them. Then he got a grin on his face. "So, what do we talk about now that the women and kids are gone? How about dancing girls?"
"Excuse me?" Edward asked.
"Two of us here are married, you know," Yang pointed out. "And all of us are supposed to be respected members of society."
He waved that concern off. "Yeah, but it's just us talking like old pals, right? Like you," he pointed to Edward, who seemed surprised. "I heard after that shipwreck, you spent months living in Troia, the kingdom, no, queendom where the most beautiful women in the world live. You lucky dog you."
It had been long enough ago that they didn't mind chuckling about that. Edward smiled a bit. "Well I was sick and heart-broken for most of that time. My heart wasn't on any of them."
Pounding his fist on the table, Edge replied, "Maybe, but Troia has that famous pub where all sorts of girls in sexy clothes hang around and entertain folks. And sometimes it's really personal entertainment. I always wanted to go there, but they gave the bouncers my picture and told them not to let me in."
The whole table laughed at that. "I'm not surprised by that," Edward said. "I never went in there myself. But the water dancer around Keipo is talented. It's hard to see what exactly she's doing, though, and I've heard that she doesn't like people going in the water with her."
"You heard or you know?" Edge asked teasingly.
"I heard," Edward insisted.
"Have you seen that dancer in Fabul Castle?" Yang asked. "The one who dances on the bar itself."
Edge looked intrigued. "Really? That would be quite a show."
"Yes, he's quite talented," Cecil said plainly, causing Edge to get embarrassed and make the others laugh again.
"If you want an actual lady," Kain said, putting his mug down, "there's always the Agart dancer. She dances among the beds, but it's very traditional; sometimes you find dwarves in the underworld castle doing the same dance."
Cecil considered it, then poked his old friend in the shoulder. "I'm surprised that you'd remember her, and not the one who lived around here."
At that, he grinned. "Oh yeah, her. I'd say she was the best of them all."
"What's so special about her?" Edge asked.
Deciding to understate it again, he answered, "She would tear her dress off at the start and was so good at it that she could put it back on after the dance and you wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary."
"And don't drool," Kain said to Edge. "She wore a flesh-colored wrap underneath and wore that for her dance."
He acted indignant. "Oh, you tell me not to drool and then tell me that? Man, you're trying to push my resolve, aren't you?"
They all laughed, not worried about problems or being overheard. Life was good.
Nobody ever comments on the dancers! I think it's a funny detail, especially the one in Mysidia (who will still turn Cecil into a mini-pig-toad when he's a paladin!). And of course I wanted something silly to end it with.
I was going to do a similar drabble series for II while I played through that. It is a fun game, once you get past the initial stat-grind learning curve. However, the characters in it are just not as interesting. They have very vague personalities and any individuality (like Guy talking to animals) is shown rarely. So the drabbles ended up being a chore to write and I gave up on the project around the Dreadnaught infiltration. That means that FFI would be even worse for this, as the characters are total blank slates (that, and I've been blasting through the game on an unintentional speed-run). But I have something else in mind for I.
So, I think I'm going to start a Random Encounters for V instead, next week or so. I've also got VI and VII I could cover this way. VI is kind of daunting, though, because there's so many characters.
