Ok! After a rather lengthy interval, I have returned! Again! Even though I have exams right now I think, if I try very very hard, that I can crank out a chapter a week, sound good peoples? Ok, on to the thank yous for today!
-K-Jaye- As long as you promise to give him back for whenever Rikku needs him to freak out Gippal, you can have Needles, (original, I know). His credits include understudying for Michael Flatley, THE Lord of the Dance, body-doubling for Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing, and representing Belarus in Olympic gymnastics (he didn't win, as he was disqualified for being a miniature possessed cactus).
-devours ice cream like horde of locusts- Mmmmmm... and thanks for the concern, I'm ok again!Sure I ended up giving flu to the rest of my family, but meh, I'm fine!
-Cutekitty- I didn't originally intend to have Gippal around for QUITE so long, but he just loves to hog the limelight, so I'll let him, lol. Hope you enjoy the chapter!
-oOoDancingQueenoOo- Awww, thanks for reviewing! Yaaaaaaaaaaay reviewing!
-green-eyed blonde- Whoa! You read it ALL? -applauds- And thanks soooo much for the fave! I so happy!
-blackrosemint- Thanks for enjoying it so far, I hope the next chapter won't disappoint!
-FlyHigh4Ever- I love Jim-Bob, I hope I can give him another cameo sometime in the future, lol, either him or Needles the damned puppet, whichever causes more havoc... lol... Enjoy!
-RikkuSWiRLS- Er... um... I'm just going to nod and smile and pretend I understood that -sheepish- Thanks for reviewing though!
-Jezzi- Thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter too!
Disclaimer: Not mine... someone else's, -cries tears of anguish-
"..." Speech
'...' Quotes, emphasis
-Italics- Thought
Chapter Nine: Costume Changes, Curtain Calls and a Disappearing Act
We must've looked an unlikely duo, consisting of slightly dampened sunshine (Me, for anyone who's forgotten that I'm slightly more cheerful than Paine) and macabre-tinted death in stiletto heels, but the guards didn't dwell on that for long. I'm thinking that it was possibly because Paine's sword had magically caught ablaze; and the light reflecting off the midnight blade was illuminating her ruby orbs with all of the demonic majesty of the inferno. I was of course kicking myself for forgetting to reload the pistols strapped to my hips, whilst fumbling with various types of ammunition from behind the relative shelter of the landing ramp. Procrastination finally over, I triumphantly flicked the main chambers back into place and clicked off the safeties.
"Me and Dr. P are in the house!" I crowed, cackling in a way that made me sound mentally unstable, and whirled out from behind my sweet metallic asylum, to pout like a child who hasn't gotten her way. "Paine, we have gone over the concept of sharing before haven't we?" I asked petulantly, kicking a dirt clod vindictively, as if it would relieve some of the adrenalin pounding around my frame. Paine pivoted around to smirk at me, grinding an iniquitous heel into a soldier, who was only able to moan quietly from his sprawled, singed position.
"I believe we've broached the topic." She replied somewhat cryptically, which just made me even sulkier.
"Well then, you can see how redundant my battle cry was, seeing as me and Dr. P are the ONLY ones CONSCIOUS in the house." I muttered, jutting out my lower lip in a particular way, you know, the one that can bring empires to their knees. Paine wasn't buying, obviously, as she just snorted amusedly and grabbed a soldier by the leg. She started to drag the man, who was thankfully still cataleptic, across the dirt track on the outskirts of the forest; until she was happy with his new position, where she callously dropped him to the ground. Traversing the small clearing again, she chose another subject, to repeat the process and lie him down next to his previously manhandled comrade. "Er… Paine? Painey-Paine? What the hell are ya doin'?" I asked nervously, wondering whether all of the violence had finally made her snap.
"None of your business…" Was the reply, well, more of a grunt than a proper exchange, but I realised anyhow that I was just going to have to watch her ritualistically set up her tableau of whatever the hell it was, much like a little girl with her dollies at an imaginary tea party.
-Speaking of tea… I was really thirsty after all of the running and shouting and more running…-
"Can I get you anything?" I asked pleasantly enough, in the safe area between annoyingly saccharine and dangerously volatile.
"Rope… lots of rope…" She demanded in a no-nonsense tone. I just nodded passively and tried to think what the hell she needed rope for. "And vodka… I need vodka…" She concluded, before resuming her task. I looked to her for a few seconds, but Paine was far too engrossed in whatever it was that she was doing, so I just sighed and went back inside.
Upon reaching the cabin, which had been an eerily calm, uneventful trip, something I still wasn't used to, I waved an obligatory hello to Barkeep, who asked after the wellbeing of my person. This was seeing as last time I'd seen him, her, it… I'd been bleeding and stuttering like a mad person.
"Hey, Barkeep!" I chirped, glad and saddened at the same time that this was the only constant in my hectic existence. "I'm doing some errands at the moment, so while I'm foraging around upstairs, can you get me a bottle of whatever vodka you've got back there, please?" I added as an afterthought, cos it hadn't exactly been even anywhere near the top of Pops' list of priorities to teach manners to either me or Brother. I was halfway up the stairs, gleefully cackling away that I finally had an excuse to go rummaging about in Paine's things, before Barkeep interrupted my rare moment of pure, malevolent happiness.
"Mish Rikku ish sheventeen, yesh?" He stated, and/or asked, you could never really tell with Hypello.
"Yesh?" I answered cautiously, before slapping my forehead at the slip and retracing my steps back to the counter.
"Barkeep cannot allow Mish Rikku to purchash alcyhol when she ish underage, yesh?" He concluded in his typical roundabout way. My face fell instantly and I was quite ready to smash my face into the oaken surface of the bar-top. Then again, I'd found out that Hypello actually did have enough energy to care about the legalities and fine print, even though I was finding it more farcical than inspiring.
I realised after a few drawn out moments of puerility that I actually had a set of options available to me; they were pretty damned limited, but they were there nonetheless. To cut a long story short, I could lie, cheat, steal, or assault the unfortunate Hypello, because seduction had been thrown out the window as soon as it had sailed into my mind. Or I could mosey on back to the Bridge to find me a consenting adult of legal drinking age, but that would be REALLY boring. So, seeing as I was a master thief, and I'm not blowing my own type o' brass instrument,
-I could steal the core from a machina from under a solid foot of plate-metal!-
I decided that stealing would be infinitely preferable, if a weensy bit immoral, to grievous bodily harm. I mean, I liked Barkeep! Sure I was mugging him without him being aware of the fact, but technically the vodka was already my property. Stay tuned for the explanation kiddies, or just channel surf 'til I'm done.
In a really long, roundabout way including many vast loopholes, this ship partially belonged to my Brother. Well, more to me than Brother if we're counting that carbon copy sheet I slipped over the deed to his shares that I asked him to sign… But that was his own damned fault for being stupid enough to think that I WANTED his autograph anyway!
So, as I was saying, 50 of this airship is mine, and I've chosen the side which contains the bar, so it's more a question of taking MY vodka to give to the raving psychopath outside. Not that she needs alcohol, I'm sure it'll only fuel the madness, but if I didn't fulfil her request she might kill me and add my body to her horde, so, if worst came to worst then I could either smash the bottle over her head and run or make her drink herself into a stupor, either was a good suggestion if it kept me from being dead.
-And now that I've convinced the voices in my head, it's time to move out!-
I walked cautiously to the end of the platform that held YRP's frugal beds, with their mattresses that stabbed me with their springs in the middle of the night, and peered over the banister. Barkeep was in the midst of perpetually polishing a shot glass, which was slowly being eroded by the poor Hypello that was single-mindedly trying to be the best stereotypical bartender that he could be.
Seeing that my only obstacle was distracted, which he was at the best of times, I swung a leg over the wooden barrier, followed by the other as I rested both feet on the wrong side of the narrow ledge. Sliding my hands down the interlocking rails as I bent my knees, I gripped the sheer surface tightly with bare hands, lowering myself as the muscles in my arms strained under my weight.
"Mish Rikku? Why ish yoo hanging there? And what ish that horribibble shmell?" Barkeep answered, and his worry was so much that I could actually hear it in his tone. Then again, I guess even Hypello could tell that girls shouldn't be hanging from the upper floors in normal circumstances.
However, before I could answer with some ridiculous fabrication, a callused fingertip prodded into the naked, defenceless flesh covering my spine. With an animalistic yelp my hands left their purchases to flail at the digit that was poking me. Consequently, instead of falling the remaining five feet in stealth that would make a ninja turn green with envy, to land catlike on my feet; I came plummeting down like a screeching Zuu, to fall through the arms of my potential saviour, and hit the ground like a sack full of bricks. And judging from the familiar cackling dancing around my head like the cartoon birds of a concussion victim, I knew why they hadn't tried to catch me.
"Gippal, this is your lucky day, cos if I could feel my legs I'd kick your ass; and your identical twin's too!" I growled, rubbing my own injured posterior and wishing I'd had more collagen to pad out the blow some. Gippal just snorted, an action immediately copied by the sibling I never knew he had. I mean, the action was so instantaneous it was like they shared a psychic twin bond, which would be a really neat party trick; maybe they could do it at the wedding! Both Gippals offered their hands and I looked to each one in horror.
-Which was which? How was I supposed to differentiate between them, identical twins were identical for reasons, you know! It was even in the damn gene description!-
Should I choose one at random and hope that I picked was the one I was ENGAGED to? What if I got it wrong and Gippal never spoke to me again cos I hit on his relatives?
-Wait a second… there ARE subtle differences in twins… like… freckles or something!-
Due to extensive research, I have discovered that neither of them have any freckles. "Damn the pair of you and your melanin counts both!" I shouted huffily, scowling in a juvenile manner and reaching out for a hand chosen via split-second decision, and going right through to fall flat on my face. "Curse you momentum, why must you also conspire against me?" I asked no one in particular, seeing as the small collection of Hypello in the background were just… wobbling feebly. Oh, and Gippal and his alien clone were both doubled over, laughing at yours truly. Propping myself up on my elbows, and noticing quicker than usual that Gippal and his equally perverted doppelganger were rather entranced by the way my cleavage had been brutally forced up and out, I glared for lack of anything constructive to do. "Fine, if neither of you are gentlemen enough to help a lady up, then you can at least get back into my good books by buying me some damned vodka while I try and shower off the stench of river water and vomit, which I've already trekked into the carpet, so you can deal with Brother when he flips out." I spat, irritation building as I received more snickering for my troubles.
After a truly harrowing experience of trying to get myself upright, an action participated solely by me when I almost kicked a Gippal in the face with a knee-high, sick-covered black boot, I meandered my not-so-merry out of the cabin, apologising briefly to the wall fixtures that I decimated along the way.
I managed to reach the bridge with no life-threatening experience that could be turned into an epic saga, seeing as the only harm I did to anything was the elevator control panel, due to the fact that the buttons had blurred into an incoherent mess so I just pushed all of them… with my fist… Anyways, I'd got there; the lift was going to be pogo-ing up and down like a squatter monkey on amphetamines for a while, but the top of my list of priorities at this particular moment in time was to give Shinra my gunner's dress-sphere and hope that he could save my outfit. My top, which was skimpy enough anyway, due to the massive patches cut out that would have once covered my abdomen and collar bones, had another flap cut out at the back, putting a shoulder blade on display as well. My indigo and periwinkle stockings were already beginning to shrink as they dried, cutting off the circulation to my thighs, which were beginning to come up in goose-bumps due to the ridiculous level of air conditioning in the room. Oh, and what was left of my outfit, originally of indigo and burnt umber, was now an aesthetically horrifying shade of swamp brown. Plus, the tassels of my half skirt were all knotted together with bits of pondweed, and did I mention that my brand, spanking new boots were covered in sick?
-I did? Many times you say? Who asked you anyway?-
With a sigh that did little to take the weight of the world off of my shoulders, I handed the spheres I had collected on my travels to Shinra, who started to pore over them excitedly. It was kind of weird that the only time I saw him actually acting like a child was when he was experimenting with ideas complex enough to make any Al Bhed's mind reel, unless we were counting that time when Yunie and I had to read him a bed time story on wave-particle duality because the batteries in his nightlight had died… You wouldn't think someone who could understand that light was created as a result of these tiny little deelies travelling in pulses faster than the human eye could follow would be scared of the dark, but there you have it, every eight year-old prodigy had his weakness.
-Where was I? Oh yeah, Shinra needed to get a life outside of machina, or he'd end up like Gippal, until I told HIM to get a life outside of machina, and he found he had a different talent, which just happened to be picking up women…-
"Shinra?" I asked as politely as I could, but when the little boy turned around I still felt him glaring at me for interrupting. "Don't ever change." I said sincerely, not being able to cope with the idea of a Gippal junior to be who could one day be leading my own children astray. Then again, they'd be part Gippal spawn, so Shinra might have some competition to the title of Desert Casanova, but what am I saying? I'm seventeen, and Shinra's eight! Unaware of my thoughts, the miniature genius just gave me a despairing glance and patted me consolingly on the shoulder.
"My analysis concludes that the sphere you picked up at the Moonflow could be useful to us, especially seeing as your Gunner sphere isn't going to be ready for a few days." He announced calmly, scratching the side of his head as I nodded comprehension. "Judging from the state of you, the memory residing in the fragment is pretty totalled, so I just have to try and reset the components without losing any of the data." He announced, and I squinted in an attempt to absorb the information better.
"This is like what happened with the Songstress sphere, right? We're playing dress-up in some long dead girl's clothes or something?" I asked cautiously, waiting for Shinra to sigh and start muttering about his unappreciated genius.
"Right; and judging from your expression, I'm as surprised as you are." He muttered amusedly, before brandishing Tobli's sphere before me. "Seeing as it's going to take awhile, the data in this sphere shows the remnants of a troop of Gun Mages, back in the early days of the Crusaders. If you give me a second to scan the data into some blank spheres for the others, I'll hand it over and you can either leave or change, cos you're really beginning to smell." He said, not unkindly, but in that typical, brutally honest fashion of his. The problem was, seeing as he practically had a gas mask strapped to his head, it probably meant that Buddy was asphyxiating slowly and horribly in his chair, while I seemed to have become immune.
"Thanks Shinra! I owe you a giant chocolate chip chocobo cookie, 'kay?" I smiled as I gratefully accepted my new dress-sphere.
"My equipment's recorded everything, so don't try and get out of it." He replied bluntly, and I chuckled softly as I traipsed up the stairs to the elevator.
It'd calmed down since its earlier abuse, suffered at my hands, so I rode back down to the cabin, briefly wondering where Yuna and Paine had gotten to whilst impatiently tossing my sphere from palm to palm. Expecting the familiar public house tableau to appear before my eyes, I was thrown for a bit of a loop when I saw Barkeep watching Gippal with unblinking fascination, as he had managed to con his way behind the bar and was flipping a cocktail shaker around with more coordination than I could ever hope to possess.
I adopted Barkeep's stunned countenance as my ridiculously versatile fiancé poured a concoction of tropical colours into a glass filled with crushed ice, before whirling around to toss another indiscriminate bottle of some particular substance into the air, catching it after it somersaulted backwards and tossing a dash of crimson liquid over his creation. Snickering under his breath, he skewered a slice of orange beneath a Maraschino cherry, which looked like an odd kind of totem pole when a chunk of pineapple was added to the mix as the base. Proudly brandishing his fruit salad on a cute little cocktail umbrella, he daintily dropped it into the glass and clasped his hands together, sensing a job well done. Cocky smirk gracing his features, he slid the glass along the bar as I lunged forward to stop it from meeting an early demise. I gave the cocktail in my hand a dubious glance, fiddling awkwardly with the little umbrella while the index finger of my other hand started to collect the sugar from the rim of the glass.
"It's called a Desert Sunshine, made 'specially for you, Princess." He announced triumphantly, before wiping his sugary hands off on one of Barkeeper's spare rags. I chuckled softly after quickly devouring the hollow circle of sugar, then decided to pluck the pineapple from the wooden skewer and popped it into my open mouth. The slice of orange promptly met the same fate, until I was left glaring disdainfully at the cherry.
"Gippal! You KNOW I hate these things!" I declared snottily, glaring at the evil piece of fruit in question.
"Of course I know that, and YOU know that I love them, so pass it back over here." He replied just as snobbishly.
I fondly remembered the days from my childhood where he and I had grudgingly swapped cherries for an ever-growing collection of cocktail swizzle sticks which came in every colour of the rainbow. These were at the earliest functions that Pops dragged me to, where Gippal and I actually interacted, seeing as his simpering assortment of cronies hadn't been deigned worthy of invites. We were only there cos he was the Al Bhed's prodigal son, and I was the big cheese's daughter, and the genius of the moment would laugh at me in my puffball dresses whilst I would try to garrotte him with the ties his mother made him wear. But when she died, Gippal's introverted behaviour drastically contrasted with his usually outgoing self, and he took the first boat out of Bikanel when he was old enough to kill the monster that killed his mother. His loyal supporters found a new leader, Cid found a new protégé, and only the hole in my heart confirmed that he'd lived with my people for sixteen years of his life.
I took an unladylike swig of my cocktail and smiled.
"Not that I don't appreciate the thought you put into this, and the cocktail itself, but the vodka was for Paine, I'm not the one that needs to drink herself into a coma." I said wryly, before taking a smaller sip. Gippal strode over, until only the oaken counter separated us. Rolling my eyes, I dutifully swiped the Maraschino cherry from its stick and held it up. Gippal, smiling as he played along, opened his mouth childishly and waited patiently. I giggled as I placed the cherry on his tongue, grazing my thumb on blunt enamel as my fingers retreated.
"I'm quite tempted to make a pun along the lines of taking your cherry, but that cocktail stick looks mighty sharp." He chuckled after savouring the ridiculously syrupy morsel. In fact, his expression made that one fragment look so delectable that I unconsciously put my fingers in my own mouth, lapping up the juice, before the spell was broken and I grimaced, trying to scratch the flavour off my tongue with the aid of my teeth.
"Then you were definitely right when you told me not to belittle your survival instincts, cos you have it in spades." I drawled, amassing the quip with another slug of vodka. Gippal chuckled at my hard-boiled, film noir detective routine and leapt back to the side of the bar used by the patrons.
"So, does Paine still down a Black Magic?" He asked conversationally, giving me the puppy dog face until I gave him a sip of my drink.
"She asked for one once and only once, seeing as Barkeep put the whole lemon, zest and all in the blender. Now she drinks neat whiskey, when we can afford it." I said with a chuckle. "How'd you get so good at this anyway? Get a job to impress a girl, or did you need the cash that bad?" I asked slyly, leaning into the arm Gippal equally deviously wrapped around my waist.
"Nah, I just got good at it, cos two years ago, the four of us were too poor to buy anything other than cheap vodka or equally cheap cider for when we celebrated, so I became the bartender. Because we could do virtually nothing with the cider, I think I learnt every vodka based cocktail known to man." He said with a short laugh. I smiled and craned my neck so I could have a view that didn't totally consist of his shoulder.
"So, Paine had a yen for Black Magic, what was your favourite?" I asked sweetly, until I became internally disgusted with myself and vowed to say something scathing next time I opened my mouth.
"Sex on the Beach, of course!" He stated, before cracking up at his comic genius. I resisted a groan, and the growing urge to pinch the man, and just sighed that I'd crashed into such an obvious pitfall. "Because we could never actually get hold of a damned pineapple, my drink was a Screw Driver, which was surprisingly appropriate." He said with a nostalgic smile.
"I see what you mean, instead of working, you use the tools of the trade to knock yourself out and become a gibbering mess in the corner, funny how some things never change." I quipped cheerfully, squirming feebly when Gippal inserted his hand into the bird's nest on my head masquerading as hair and proceeded to give me the mother of all noogies. "Owowowowowowowow! Gippal! Stooooooooooop!" I shrieked, floundering awkwardly about as I struggled to get away. "Ok, ok, I give, Gippal is the greatest machina genius in all of Spira, and I am technologically illiterate!" I wailed, and as soon as I was released, a little person knocked on the door to my brain with a huge oxygen debt to be repaid. Panting rather pathetically, I downed the rest of my drink and slid fluidly off of my stool. "Anyways, as you'd probably have guessed, I still stink BADLY, cos you stole the shower away from me before, so I'm going to try and see if my hair is still salvageable." I said, wondering if any of my dignity could be retrieved either.
"I didn't steal the shower Cid's Girl; I was waiting for you to join me!" He replied, pivoting around on his barstool to smirk at me. He got his desired reaction, as I blushed from the roots of my hair to my toes, and started to sputter indignantly. "Does this mean you want me to take another shower, now that you know my ulterior motive?" He mock-squealed; and it took a hell of a lot of willpower to not just sit back and combust from the heat my face was producing. Instead, I took the offensive, and draped myself across the still cackling Gippal's lap, smiling coquettishly. I waited a few moments, enough for the full onset of shock to settle in for the winter, but before he regained his senses and his hands started to wander. Ticking off the seconds in my head, I smiled broadly and ran my index finger down the side of his face.
"Did you use up all the hot water? Cos I'm a grouchy shower buddy when I'm almost frozen solid…" I purred, waiting patiently for Gippal's seduction overloaded mind to process the information.
"You… what… huh… really?" He asked, struggling and failing to come up with the catch.
"The only condition is that you scrub my back, some places are just soooooo hard to reach." I said forlornly, pout adorning my features. I swiftly put my feet to the floor and sashayed into the bathroom, turning on the water as I took ample time disrobing. The expected knock on the door came exactly as planned, so I wrapped the biggest towel I could find around myself and bunched my disgusting outfit into my fist. I swung open the door and smiled beatifically, waving with my free hand at the confused, scared and obviously suicidal level of curiosity that Gippal apparently possessed. I slammed the door shut seconds later, relishing Gippal's expression in the few seconds before my reeking garments hit him slap in the face.
After I exited the shower, still highly sheepish about accidentally almost flooding the bathroom, due to all the hair and pond-life that I was moulting clogging up the plughole, I sphere changed into my newest ensemble, sighing when I became aware that someone had cut the abdomen out of an otherwise decent outfit, again. I was tempted to just trundle back along to my wardrobe and choose an item of clothing to cover my stomach, but I didn't have time enough to be accessorising when we should be getting the hell out of Bevelle. I started to braid my hair again, glad that it was at least flatter, even if it was going to dry funny, but my thoughts wandered off and led me to think about one of the few flaws in an invention of Shinra's.
You could instantaneously materialise into one outfit or the next, but obviously the young genius still thought girls with no clothes on were obviously much too frightening a notion to entertain, so you had to spend forever changing back out of them. I mean, after a long hard day, I'd like nothing better than to just transform into a nice, baggy pair of pyjamas and then sleep until someone was cruel enough to wake me, but no, 'these clothes were for fighting, not domestic issues!'
I snickered at the thought of Shinra throwing another temper tantrum and gave myself a quick once over in the mirror, deeming my appearance to be acceptable and therefore vacating the bathroom. I at last discovered where Yuna was, seeing as she was sitting demurely at the bar as Gippal and Barkeep flustered about behind the counter.
"If you two are having some kind of cocktail war, keep me out of it…" I said, revealing my awesome presence to the group. Gippal's ears pricked conspicuously, but he didn't look to me for fear of being called a pervert. I'm guessing probably cos Yuna would kick his ass if the aforementioned scenario occurred, which just made the thought that much more palatable. "Aw, come on Gippykins, I'm embarrassed enough for the both of us! Come on, you honestly thought I was a 'co-ed showers on the first date' kinda gal?" I deadpanned, giggling when I saw a telltale rose infusing his angular cheekbones.
"I thought you'd lost your mind and was going to take advantage of the situation until you regained what little common sense you once possessed and slaughtered me with extreme prejudice." He answered glibly, pouring a mixture as blue as his Hypello nemesis into a large, curvaceous glass, before beginning the beautifying process. Barkeep, meanwhile, had poured something equally blue into his own glass, and was fumbling around with something that looked disturbingly like a crazy straw.
"So, who actually ordered the Curacao?" I asked, directing my hesitant gaze to a cocktail a colour that Yevon had never intended to naturally exist. Gippal noticed my expression and chuckled, before tipping his head to the High Summoner.
"The only vodka cocktail Barkeep knows is a Windex, which is pretty damn obscure, but we've had a little wager, and the Lady Yuna's the judge." Gippal revealed, and I rolled my eyes.
"What did you bet?" I asked curiously, pondering as to what twisted suggestions could be at stake.
"My Safety Bit against his Cerulean Ring, on who makes the better drink." He answered smugly, giggling when I continued to stare at him unblinkingly.
"Those cost 10,000 Gil EACH!" I shrieked, storming up to the bar to break up the proceedings. However, Gippal just slipped the drink into my hand, and smiled endearingly, so I fell mute and scowled instead.
"Mish Yuna?" Barkeep stated, gesturing to his cocktail, which, did indeed have a crazy straw swimming about in it. The drink in my own hands was prettily decked out with another swizzle stick dressed in impaled fruit, with a cute umbrella on the side.
"So, both of us take a sip and judge?" I asked redundantly, as both bartenders nodded enthusiastically, well, Gippal's excitement more than made up for Barkeep's lack of any facial expression, so I took a hesitant swallow. "Surprisingly, this isn't bad! I prefer the Desert Sunshine, but at least it doesn't taste like REAL Windex!" I said with a laugh, passing it back to Gippal who stole the Maraschino cherry while he thought I wasn't looking. Yuna, however, was looking rather ill on her side of the bar.
"Barkeep, THIS is real Windex, isn't it?" She asked ruefully, and groaned harder when the Hypello nodded happily. I looked to the almost empty glass and gawped, as Yunie started to wobble in her seat.
Suddenly, every siren in the place started to go off, and all of us looked to the intercom system, apart from Yunie, who slid off her chair unnoticed, to sprawl in a giggling, undignified heap on the floor.
"Gullwings, it's official, we've been burgled."