On the way to the bar Ace had noticed the stares from people in the streets. None of them said a word, but their eyes spoke more than enough. They were strangers here, and people weren't sure what to think of them. At least no one had flung any bricks at him like the people did in a certain medieval world he had visited. 

He didn't particularly care what the people thought anyhow, and at the moment he was more focused on Lin. She was likely completely unaware of it, but the girl was a charmer. Her honest smile, her self-less attitude, the warm touch of her hand, it was genuinely enticing, and comforting. Ace let out a nervous cough. "Right, if anything comes up you'll be the first to know." He said.

James announced their arrival to the tavern, a rather busy establishment if the noise and crowd were anything to go by. It reminded him of a night club, an archaic and simple night club, that is. James got the attention of everyone inside by whistling, the music and merriment stopped, and they turned towards him. He told them he needed the place, so they had to stop enjoying themselves and leave. Apparently the idea of finally getting rid of the empire was enough to have them cheer, and then exit without issue. If there was any doubt before, this showed that James at least had considerable respect here. 

Only a few people were left in the building now, and then fewer still when James sent some off for preparations. These few remaining men looked like they could handle themselves in a fight, the one with the scarred chest in particular looked formidable. At first it appeared that Rika didn't recognize the taller man, but she suddenly rushed up to give him a hug, and then the bearded man once he asked for one. It was amusing seeing this side to Rika, she seemed to try quite hard to remain ambivalent towards the rebels on a personal level.

After they had exchanged some words of friendly banter James sent the men off and requested they follow him upstairs, where they could discuss things further. Sitting down in a chair Ace listened as James explained to them the way things worked on this world, and the way things were now that the empire had invaded. "Piracy and chaos you say, the empire is great at ruining parties, aren't they?" Ace said. 

Lin asked for clarification as to what a pirate was, he was curious as to what James would say in response to this. However, Rika answered instead, fair enough, he thought. Hearing what she had to say, Ace tapped his foot a few times on the wooden flooring, shoving down the urge to say something he knew James wouldn't like. This wasn't the place to be getting on a soap box anyway. At least James wasn't a heartless murderer like some were.

With that out of the way, James began explaining his plans. They were going to attack an empire base commanded by a cowardly ex-pirate. James questioned why such a man would be chosen to command so many men. "I don't think the Empire's standards are very high, in the last world we visited one of the empire's generals bombarded their own palace just to get to a few of us." He said. "The empire only cares about spreading their sick dogma, the cruel rule over the weak, kindness is weakness, yadda yadda."

Lin then asked if they would have to kill anyone, honestly Ace believed that was a given, but James left it as a final option. He wasn't exactly in the business of trying to talk down empire scum, and he didn't want to start now.

Rika asked what became of the pirates that resisted the empire, and the answer was as grime as he had expected. He was familiar with how the empire treated those that tried to fight back. Before the rebels were organized properly there were countless accounts of brutality handed out to would be 'heroes.' Ace shook his head, and listened for the next topic.

"That woman wants us to prove ourselves? Fine, whatever." Ace let out a sigh and slumped back in his chair. "Wait..." He leaned back forward. "We're going to just attack the base head on?" He slapped his knee and let out a chuckle. "Alright old man, lead the way then. I need to have a talk with that woman later, you think this is real funny, don't you!?" Ace said, looking up, though he had the feeling he was looking in the wrong direction if he wanted to speak to where she was from.