I'll drink to that -- whatever that is! Cheers! [open]

[encourage]

Sakura had scoped out the Drunken Dragon before, if she'd never spent time in the tavern, even with Kang making a point of letting it be known alcohol wasn't the only thing offered at the tavern. Sakura hadn't been too inclined toward fruit juices in the last few whatever units of time since she glooped out of a pod and got felt up in the cleaning chamber. In fact, the ship as a whole made her relationship to odd (and familiar) viscous liquids rather chancy altogether.

None of this was on her mind tonight. This morning. This afternoon. No, whatever actual time this was, the Melting Clock was destroyed, the last few missions that had been chancy for crew were over and no casualties were reported to depress everyone, the Ohm weren't currently about to be directly engaged, Sakura and most of MedBay staff that could afford to be off shift were off shift (if Henderson didn't show himself, she'd be sad, and by all means Rory better be here after his last few "weeks"), and most importantly?

She would never have to talk or hear from Analog again.

"Here's to surviving the last few," she trailed off, "Last few crises, and whatever else is coming! Cheers!" She held up her clay mug to anyone in the general vicinity, tacking on a silent, Wish you were here, everyone. And I hope you cough up a cog or two, Analog!

[ ooc: Please, thread-jack with vigorous energy and wild abandon! ]

Comments

[governorkang]

Kang stopped over at Sakura's spot and quirked an eyebrow ridge, "You sure you don't want alcohol, Sakura? You look like you could really use some."

[encourage]

Sakura eyed her mug of juice, deliberating. It took all of a few seconds before she asked, "What're you offering?"

Tsunade would either be proud or narrowing her eyes. (Or both, if she was drunk herself.)

[governorkang]

"Ale, beer, hard cider, and mead. If you want something stronger, I can bring out the liquor," Kang grinned.

[encourage]

"After dealing with Analog again?" She paused for a beat. "Please and thank you."

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

One little red-head turned his attention from the cup in front of him when Sakura spoke. Jr. raised an eyebrow when he took a good enough look at the mug she was drinking from.

"Isn't that juice?"

[encourage]

Sakura looked into her mug. "Yeah? Did you want some?"

[carrieswar.livejournal.com]

"Nah, I'm good with what I've got." A quick motion to the cup of mead that sat in front of him. "I just don't see too many people here who stick just to the non-alcoholic stuff."

With a small shrug and a smile, he reached to grip the handle of his drink. "But, whatever. I can still drink to that!"

[encourage]

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "It's the thought that counts, right?" Not to mention, one couldn't drink only alcohol over the course of one night. "Cheers!" she repeated with a nod. To survival!

To no more time dragons, and mostly correctly placed time!

[aaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee]

"Sakura!" Miranda cried happily, coming over to the ninja was a mug of wine in her own arm. She slid into a chair next to Sakura, before taking a sip from her mug and giggling. Today, it seemed, Miranda was happily buzzed.

"Do you know that I'm drinking from a mug made of wood?" she said, holding out the cup to Sakura to show her with another giggle. "It's very strange! I always thought wine was for glasses..."

[[ooc: If anyone wants to threadjack, go ahead!]]

[encourage]

"Miranda!" Looking at the cup Miranda offered for her perusal, Sakura bit back a giggle of her own. Drinking? Yeah, drinking's great. In moderation, of course! "Really? For what wine? Rice wine," she said, holding up her clay mug to demonstrate, "You drink from a clay cup!"

[aaaiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee]

"Oh, how exotic!" Miranda exclaimed, looking at Sakura's cup in fascination. She giggled. "We both have strange cups!" she said, whispering as if this were a secret. "And mine is red wine!"

[encourage]

"I have," Sakura started, trailing off as she tried remembering. Was she back on juice? "Ale. I don't really like ale," she confessed, leaning a little closer to Miranda. "When I can taste it." She could now, sort of. Not like earlier. Not like the whiskey!

Which was not so pleasant, but Kang had been right. After a while? She just didn't care anymore.

[windyellow]

"That's not alcohol, right? Just juice?" Dustin had also never really shown up much at the tavern even though it was perfectly legal for him to drink. "You look like you had a heck of a fight."

[encourage]

Sakura was tempted to peer into her mug again just in case it had changed (Dustin, she'd had the alcohol earlier!), though it hadn't. With a nod, she flashed him a smile. "Yes!" She drew out the s, trying to remember what kind of fruit juice. "Just juice in here." She straightened up, hoking a leg better under the bench as support. "I look that bad, huh?"

Sakura looked at her arms, like this would further demonstrate to her how she looked like she'd been through much of anything. "I haven't even been sparring hard lately." Morose at the fact, she sighed. She wanted to be sparring hard. The trade-off in going up against heavy hitters was a constant striving to improve. She'd had plenty of that over the months, but right now it boiled down to the fact that she'd seriously been lacking in her friendly fighting quota.

[windyellow]

"Pretty much, yeah. But considering what a lot of people went through recently, I can't really blame you." Dustin said looking at Sakura. "I was one of the luckier ones. I just had a broken arm and leg from bear-Rachel to deal with. You want to talk about it?" He asked in downright friendly tone.

[encourage]

Mention of Rachel brought her attention to focus on Dustin properly. "I thought that was you," she said mildly. "Rachel divided was something else, wasn't she? Not exactly the most reasonable half of a person."

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae made her way to the dragon. She had only visited it once after she popped, never being much of a drinker herself considering her very low tolerance for alcohol much to the teasing of her siblings.

She wanted to see that everyone was enjoying themselves, something about seeing others happy made her feel much better about everything they had just gone through. It was then that she spotted a familiar face... A face she had grown fond of recently, both before and during the melting clock.

Taking a breath to steady her nerves, she approached timidly,
"H-hey Sakura~"

[encourage]

Sakura had something to share with Ronnae. Something deeply important. Something... like a low tolerance for alcohol, and shots of whiskey with Kang earlier. Then ale. Then wine. Not juice.

All which was secondary to her recognizing Ronnae's voice, turning her head toward her and beaming up at her. "Ronnae! I'm so glad to see you!" She set down her juice, patting the table (she'd meant to pat the bench, but life was difficult to coordinate sometimes) afterward. "Are you feeling okay? Time came back all right? Nothing missing, not too much?"

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae shook her head, blushing slightly, "N-no I'm fine, everything came back alright I think? I don't think I'd notice right away considering my breed lives long, so any changes in appearances would be minor." she said calmly, moving over to Sakura.

It took a moment, her thoughts racing to how nice Sakura had been to her during the whole ordeal. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and then there it was, a very warm and thankful embrace as she hugged Sakura.

"T-thanks... for everything."

[encourage]

Sakura nodded, slowly so the room wouldn't spin, if she still frowned. "If you do..." she began, trailing off as Ronnae invaded her personal space. She would have been more tense, without the alcohol in her system. Not that she would have thrown Ronnae off, either way, but she wouldn't have been so inclined to relax and return the embrace. "You're welcome," she said warmly. "I'm glad to have you back. Really, I am."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

No more children. Finally. No more sticky fingerprints on her keyboard, no more running off with her papers, and no more nightmares about tiny, biting mouths.

Anwei waved back to Sakura with her own mug. She was allowing herself a rare alcoholic drink - rare because she had no head for them. But if she made this hard cider last, it shouldn't hit her too hard.

[encourage]

Sakura tilted her mug to Anwei, taking a sip of juice before deciding that Anwei? Anwei looked like she could use company. It was equally possibly that Sakura felt the intense need to move for no concrete, coherent reason, but the end product was the same regardless of the motivation.

Turns out Sakura can't hold alcohol worth anything, and she'd had quite a bit already. The juice was a break. A long break. A breather. "How long do you think Medical will stay," she made a wishy-washy gesture with her unladen hand, "Calm? Calmer."

[8wings.livejournal.com]

"I want it calm as long as possible," Anwei said, raising her own glass in a sort of toast/offering gesture. "Long enough for me to find every toy hidden under the cabinets, and in the beds, and around the equipment...And long enough for everyone to settle," she waves her mug again, "just settle down, and get caught up."

The cider might be hitting her a little hard too.

[teethofneedles.livejournal.com]

A grumpy looking zombie - well, familiar enough to Sakura at this point probably - slumped down near the other end of the bar, sullenly nursing something alcholic. She lifted her mug in a lazy motion.

"Yay."

[encourage]

That was exactly the kind of enthusiasm Sakura was looking for!

Not. Sakura tipped her juice mug to Karis, belatedly amending her statement. "Enduring. I mean enduring the last few crises."