Wodka, double. No ice. [private]

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

Yet another day went by in Seireitei, and for Toja Hagiwara, it had been yet another day of grueling physical training, meditation to resist the second voice within his head, and a whole lot of honing his control over the flames of his Zanpakutō. In short, he was pretty damn beat right about now. Ever since he learned of his fated encounter with his own darker self in the future, he spent every single minute preparing for it. Of course, he knew that Kaminari would be at his side - to make sure it didn't hurt anyone. But as far as he was concerned, he'd get stronger, much stronger - and beat that monster within himself into submission by force.

But he couldn't spend ALL day with training. So today, like every other evening, he took a shower after training before getting ready... to hit the bar. This wasn't the first period in his life in which he spent the majority of his evenings drinking - but the last time had been a few hundred years ago, back when he was still getting used to his life as a Shinigami. Since then, while still 'good' enough to drink half of the Seireitei under the table, he generally didn't do it too often.
Tonight, Toja wasn't heading for the usual bar he went to where most of his squad frequented. Mostly because he wanted some time for himself, and also simply to check out the other bars ready to welcome off-duty Shinigami. The reason was maybe a bit childish, but he actually had an agreement with Kaminari - after this Hollow-crisis was over, they'd go grab a drink together. So of course he wanted to chose the best possible place.

Walking in, Toja took one of the stools directly at the bar - only a few eyes wandered over to him, most people seemed to care only for their own free time right now. That was just fine for the petite Shinigami.
"Wodka, double. No ice." ordering his drink, the clear liquid was downed almost completely in one go once it arrived. The burning feeling in his throat and stomach was one that Toja knew all too well.

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Mon May 19, 2014 10:10 pm

"Ora, ora! Another!" Laughter came next from the tough-looking woman sitting on a bar-stool that was quite close to where Toja had just taken his seat. She had a humongous grin on her face, and several empty glasses of something on the bar in front of her. She wasn't sure what she'd been drinking for the past hour or so, but she knew that it was pretty damn good. Something about... 90 proof or something like that. She had never been well-versed on the nuances of drinking alcohol--she just drunk the stuff and enjoyed it. With a smirk on her face, she took the next glass of amber liquid and downed it with a gulp and a laugh. The liquid burned her throat, but she didn't care in the slightest. It was nothing compared to the usual pain she felt in most other situations. Right now, she just wanted to get trashed, and she didn't care who saw her.

"Wodka, double. No ice." She blinked and turned her head slightly towards the sound of the voice--there was a person sitting on the stool who, for all intents and purposes, looked like a woman--but at the same time, Sascha wasn't sure. They (she would refer to them as they until she discovered their proper gender) grabbed a drink of what seemed to be Vodka, and downed it in a shot that seemed to make their figure look far more interesting. She chuckled and placed her glass on the bar, asking for another. She wasn't wearing her Haori at this time; she had left it behind in an attempt to be unrecognized, so she was instead wearing just her normal Shinigami's uniform. She, for obvious reasons, could probably be recognized by face--but she left that one up to chance, since she also knew that a lot of people weren't too versed on the faces/names of the various Captains other than their own. This was especially true of a lot of the grunts. That said, she was sure she'd noticed a Vice Captain's band on this person's arm. She could be wrong, though. Instead, she'd keep an eye out and watch them, while continuing to drink herself into oblivion.

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

After annihilating his first drink, Toja pretty much immedeatly ordered another. During the short wait time, he let his eyes wander. The bar certainly seemed well-kept... even if it was a bit dusty. Most off-duty Shinigami here seemed to mind their own drinks or their own small groups - the only one making any destinguishable sounds was a woman sitting near him. And for some reason, Toja could've sworn that he had seen that face before, somewhere... Eyepatches weren't exactly common fashion items within the Gotei. But he was pretty sure that this woman wasn't Kenpachi in disguise, either. And if it was, then that alcohol was a lot stronger than it seemed, that much was assured.

Eyeing over her glasses, it was pretty obvious that she could hold her liquor better than your averge Shinigami - good, Toja could use someone to drink under the table later. He highly doubted that many of the others here stood a chance, as they seemed to be here to relax after work, not to get drunk. Toja raised his second glass and made a 'cheers' notion towards her with it, before emptying it in one go, just like the last. The barkeep was by now eyeing the small Shinigami with some suspicion in his eyes, but got to filling up once more.
Some louder voices came from a table in the background for a moment - a group of multiple Shinigami that looked like young men, although that didn't exactly say much about actual age. It was always a pain to estimate age in the Seireitei. Still, none of them seemed even remotely interesting to Toja.
"Good to see that someone here can hold his alcohol." he mumbled, giving the female Shinigami another nod, before waiting on his next glass to be filled.

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:47 am

She raised her glass back in response, before downing her drink with a satisfied gulp. She didn't know how good this drink was--in fact, it had probably lost all taste to her in the recent times--but she knew that it was getting her more and more drunk. She finished that glass and poured herself another, just buying the bottle now to keep herself going. The bartender gave her a pretty dissatisfied expression, but she didn't care. Instead, she simply continued to drink, watching this person and grinning at him. "'eyyyyyyy, you're lookin' pretty good with your drinks there, bud." She held no concept of subtlety.

As well as this, she was pretty sure they were holding their drink damn well. So she got down off of her barstool (with a minor amount of difficulty) and staggered over to the stool next to him, ploppin' her ass down on it and bringing her glass/bottle with her. She chuckled softly and smirked, pouring more drink into her glass and knocking it back. "So, y'got a name? M'name's Sascha. Don't need m'last--at least no'right now, anyway." She slurred her words slightly, looking at him with a practiced eye. She still wasn't too sure about this person's gender, so she'd have to take some time to discern it.

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

Toja looked over to the woman drinking at the bar when she spoke up, and his usualy serious face had a small smirk on it. She was damn right - he was looking good with his drinks so far. In his prime, he would've knocked back double of that amount already, but he wasn't exactly the youngest Shinigami around anymore. With her sitting down next to him, and introducing herself, Toja nodded and knocked back yet another full glass of pure wodka. The burning in his throat and stomach was quite pleasant compared to the burning in his muscles after every single day of training.
"Toja's the name." With that statement, Toja ordered his next drink and eyed the person next to him a bit more closely. Eyepatch... Sasha... no, the name didn't ring any bells right away, and neither did the eyepatch. They weren't exactly the most common thing in the Seireitei, but he also wasn't someone that kept track of either fashion or sustained wounds, depending on what that thing was meant for. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he should know who he was talking to... that he was missing something crucial. Oh well.
His own voice was a little bit changed by now, but not to the extend of Sascha. Well, with his name, her own questioning about his gender would've probably been laid to rest - Toja wasn't a feminine name, thankfully. The horror of having a feminine name AND a feminine appearance would've probably caused him to go crazy long ago. Well, crazier than he actually was.

"You're lookin pretty good yourself with the drinks. I swear, these youngsters around don't know how to properly drink anymore. Passing out after a single bottle o' booze... really, they're pansies." chuckling a bit, Toja knocked back another drink. His own time of getting drunk way too quickly was a few hundred years in the past by now, but even back then he could chug like no person with such a small and fragile-looking body should be able to chug.
"Ya can't really go drinkin' for the company nowadays." Lamenting the failings of new-age drunkards, Toja sighed slighty amused. Finding even a single person who could keep up with him was quite amazing.

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Thu Jun 19, 2014 10:02 am

Geez, she was already impressed with this guy. Not many people had the stomach to knock back pure clear spirits--especially vodka--in such a manner. She watched him for a second more before he finally spoke his name. "Toja's the name." Aha, that confirmed it. The name definitely did not belong to somebody of the feminine kind, therefore this was a man. She nodded and chucked back another shot of whiskey, breathing out happily as she did so. The way it tickled her throat was nice, even though most people would call it burning. It was refreshing, and made her feel up to fighting something. It wasn't the alcohol talking about just randomly fighting someone now, was it? Nah, it was definitely her. She laughed internally and looked back over at Toja with a large grin, just as he spoke again.

"You're lookin pretty good yourself with the drinks. I swear, these youngsters around don't know how to properly drink anymore. Passing out after a single bottle o' booze... really, they're pansies. Ya can't really go drinkin' for the company nowadays." She blinked, before laughing out loud, "Y'don't exactly look like someone of any reputable age y'rself, but I've learned over me many years in th'Soul Society tha' when it comes t'spirits, age don't mean much when y'er lookin' at someone, y'know?" She laughed again, downing another whiskey and placing the glass down on the counter with a happy yell. "It feels good, bein' able t'drink like this. Especially when y'er havin' girl troubles..." She chuckled and looked down at the bar, smiling softly. "They make th'funnest times."

(If this is okay with you, I'm having this thread based after the "Ah, we meet again!" thread. If not, I'll edit.)

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

Toja chuckled at her remark about the age of Shinigami. Really, it was a huge pain in the ass - you never quite knew how old someone was. The guy looking like he was twelve could be twenty or two-hundred, no way of telling! Heck, he didn't even know if Sascha here was around his age, younger, or older. From her behavior, he didn't assume that she was the youngest person around... but also not on the level of old man Yamamoto during his time. Maybe she was around his own age, but maybe it was also just the alcohol making his discerning-abilities even lower than normal.
"I've got my own rule to see how old someone is, really. Just add around 'hundred more than I thought at first." he remarked with a chuckle, his speech slightly slurred, but still with no signs of stopping his relentless fight against the alcohol, as if in an attempt to catch up to Sascha, who had been drinking for a bit longer this evening. Yep, this was good alcohol, and as good a time as any to forget about his problems for a few moments. He could of course never truly forget the lurking danger from within his own soul, but at times, you just needed to relax.

Her next remark got him thinking, though. With a light sigh, Toja looked down at his glass, without really seeing it. Girl troubles... What a strange thought to him. Before a very recent event, he never even thought about relationships or love at all. Realizing what his Zanpakutō was fueled by - and more importantly, the person who revealed that to him - changed that, and Toja noticed how little nearly 800 years of service did for you in terms of knowing how to deal with those feelings.
"Can't say I got much experience with girl troubles. But hell, they sure know how to make life more annoying." Downing another glass and ordering the next, he continued. "Worst is, if she doesn't know, and you got no idea how to tell her. Even worse, if you're friends. Ya simply don't know..." Shaking his head slightly, he grimaced. "Nothin' in life is easy. Except maybe for Kidō." And with that profound wisdom, Toja got his next drink served to him.

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:04 pm

Apparently her words hit him somewhere that he didn't like, as when she looked over towards him, she realized that he was looking down at his glass with a bothered expression. She smirked slightly and watched him carefully for a second, trying to make sense of what his mindset was like. "Can't say I got much experience with girl troubles. But hell, they sure know how to make life more annoying." She chuckled and nodded, looking back at her glass and closing her eyes. What would Mae Fujii-abe do in this situation? Well, she was already writing a novel--so that much was out of the way. It didn't help that she was basically transposing everything she was feeling into the novel itself. Looking back over at Toja, she attempted to get a feel for him from appearance--she wouldn't use his exact face, obviously, but there was something about him that interested her, in a literary fashion. "Worst is, if she doesn't know, and you got no idea how to tell her. Even worse, if you're friends. Ya simply don't know... Nothin' in life is easy. Except maybe for Kidō." She chuckled and took another swig of her drink.

"An' War. Bes' part is when y'can't really tell 'er, because you worry that you'll come off as... scary, I s'pose. Or y' don't know if she's into women th'same way I am." She shot back the last of her drink and placed the glass onto the table, her thoughts going back to Kaminari's face for a second, "An' even better is when y'feel like she's into oth'r people, but can still see tha' tiny lil' bit o'hope just glimmerin' in th'future. Makes ya stick around, even if y'know it's not going to go anywhere." She laughed softly and turned towards Toja with a soft smile, watching him intently. "So, I gotta question f'er ya. What d'ya think you'll do abou' it? Y'can't exactly ignore these feelin's. If y'do, it'll be bad news for ya." She grinned at him, "What say we work out 'ow you can maybe put these girl troubles t'rest. Who knows? Maybe I'll work somethin' out for myself, in the meantime."

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

Helping him with his girl troubles? Well, why the hell not. He was already talking with a stranger about it, might as well go all the way, as long as he didn't say the name of the woman he felt himself slowly falling for. Because no matter how small the chance, identifying that you had feelings for your captain of all people wasn't a smart idea.
"Guess it would be even more difficult for ya, wouldn't it..." Sighing, Toja also took another chug of his drink. Being a woman and also being into women? That really limited your potential lovers, didn't it? Not that he'd understand much about it, and he didn't exactly want to make assumptions. And hell, it even sounded as if her situation wasn't entirely unlike his own... Because Toja could not imagine Kaminari being in his reach at all as anything more than a friend. He wouldn't even be surprised if she had a boyfriend already, since the two of them didn't exactly have time to chat casually so far - only one of the many negatives that came from migraines caused by evil spirits.

But now it was onto him. What would he do? Heck, he had no idea. Sitting around moping about it wasn't exactly a good idea, no...
"I want to tell her. But... I can't." shaking his head, Toja sighed. "I'm not gonna endanger our friendship, you know? Too risky. Makes everything awkward, and such. I gotta chose. Friends, or possibly nothing? Yeah, I'd rather keep being friends... As long as she's happy, that's fine." Looking over to Sascha, Toja mustered a small smile. "And hell, I'm too much trouble anyway. I've got trouble followin' me around, 'specially lately. She's already helpin' me with it. So if... that's one big if... something were between her and me, I'd get even more dangerous. The enemy might use that against us, y'know? It's all one big mess."

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:35 am

"Guess it would be even more difficult for ya, wouldn't it..." Looks like he shared her sentiments on that matter. With a sigh and another sip of alcohol, Sascha leaned on the bar and looked over at him. He seemed to take quite some time to get himself together to tell her, so she chose to wait for as long as it took him. She had time, and it seemed difficult for him to say. Maybe she'd explain her own situation with Kaminari if things got through enough here. Right now, however, she would simply allow herself to listen for a bit. She could possibly even glean some information of her own. "I want to tell her. But... I can't. I'm not gonna endanger our friendship, you know? Too risky. Makes everything awkward, and such. I gotta chose. Friends, or possibly nothing? Yeah, I'd rather keep being friends... As long as she's happy, that's fine." She frowned a little bit, getting down off of her barstool and stretching her body out. "Izzat so?" She looked at him as he looked back, giving her a small smile. "And hell, I'm too much trouble anyway. I've got trouble followin' me around, 'specially lately. She's already helpin' me with it. So if... that's one big if... something were between her and me, I'd get even more dangerous. The enemy might use that against us, y'know? It's all one big mess." She sighed softly and walked up to him, reaching out her right hand and slapping him across the face.

It wasn't a particularly hard slap. It was loud, but really only stung a little bit. When the moment passed, Sascha looked at Toja with a sneer, "Where was th' big talk y'had involvin' bein' able t'old y'er alcoho' and shit? Just now y'er gonna go and tell me this bullcrap? C'mon, man," the sneer faded, but Sascha wasn't quite done yet, "I don't see th'problem. Y'like her. She might like ya. Who knows? Ain't no way outta it, y'er just gonna have t'grab y'erself by th'balls and dive in 'eadfirst! C'mon, I'll work on it with ya." She chuckled softly, brushing some hair away from her face, "So, this lil' lady got a name, or am I just gonna 'ave to give you a generic one to work with?" She grinned up at him, continuing to attempt to pep him up.

Posts : 293 Join date : 2012-11-27

[Toja Hagiwara]

At first, Toja looked absolutely dumbfounded after the slap - not angry, just completely surprised. And then, he couldn't help but laugh - first a light chuckle, then a full on laugh. A laugh that sounded incredibly cute, higher pitched and unfitting for someone who talked with a gruff voice with a no-nonense facial expression. In other words, said laugh showed his true fun-loving side from within, as his drunken mind realized it took a complete stranger to shake him out of his incredible worries about his love-life. Really, was Kaminari shallow enough to drop any connection to him just because he revealed his deeper interest if she didn't share it? Of course not!

"Oh, damn it all to HELL!" downing another full glass in one go, Toja looked at Sascha with a huge grin on his face. "You know what you are, missy? You're goddamn right, that's what you are. Biggest and baddest Kidō-slinger in the entire Gotei, and I'm scared of some fucking words? Bah, I'm not that weak!" Ordering another drink with a wave of his hand, he leaned in - he didn't want the entire bar to hear who he was interested in, anyway.
"The one I'm interested in... is Kaminari Hatakeyama. Captain of the fifth squad, kind and beautiful leader... and my boss. Third Seat of the Squad, and such." With the cat out of the bag, Toja's grin turned into a slight grimace.

"So yeah, not the easiest. But hell, once I get myself into the shape I want to be in... And get my rebellious Zanpakutō under control... Damn it, I'll tell her. So what about YOU, Sascha? Who are you after that gives you a headache?" Now, after spilling the beans and making up his mind, he was entirely ready to get down to the root of HER problems. Just who did this hard-drinking woman fall for that was such a trouble to talk to?

Subject: Re: Wodka, double. No ice. [private] Fri Aug 29, 2014 6:47 pm

He laughed. She slapped him, and he laughed! Hell yes! She chuckled to herself, watching him with a grin. That's right--grow a pair, become the man you want to be! "Oh, damn it all to HELL! You know what you are, missy? You're goddamn right, that's what you are. Biggest and baddest Kidō-slinger in the entire Gotei, and I'm scared of some fucking words? Bah, I'm not that weak!" Good! That's what Sascha had wanted to hear! Now then, it was time to hear exactly what he wanted to talk about, right? She sat back down, looked over at him and watched as he leaned in to whisper something in her ear. When he did so, her entire face went white. "The one I'm interested in... is Kaminari Hatakeyama." The rest of his words became a regular buzzing, Sascha looking over at him with a soft expression. Immediately, several scenarios went through her mind. She could quite easily attempt to sabotage this--but what good would that do? It would not make it into a fair competition, and would more than likely drive a rift in between herself and Kaminari. But at the same time, if she let it happen, or even helped? What could she expect bar loss? She held in a sigh and looked back, the color returning to her cheeks as he finished his sentences, "So yeah, not the easiest. But hell, once I get myself into the shape I want to be in... And get my rebellious Zanpakutō under control... Damn it, I'll tell her. So what about YOU, Sascha? Who are you after that gives you a headache?" She let out the held-in sigh and placed her hands on the bar, looking at her drink and shaking her head.

"I..." She looked back and leaned in, swallowing her worries away--she'd just told him to buck up, so why the hell was she having such goddamn difficulty?! "Th'woman I 'ave my eye set on... Is Kaminari Hatakeyama, Cap'n of the Fifth Division." She laughed nervously, shaking her head, "Wha' a tangled web we weave, eh? Guess it makes life interestin'. What makes it worse izzat I'm also a Cap'n, so it ain't... yeah." She let out another sigh, returning to her drink and knocking another back--with a little less gusto than before.

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