Room 429, Monday Evening

[raspberryturk]

To Reno, today had been about as uneventful as a Monday without classes could possibly be.

Except for the sheep.

He never would have suspected that another day devoted to lazily surfing the internet for t-shirts with dirty slogans could possibly turn into an attack by a flock of tiny ruminants, swarming in around his ankles and attempting to graze on his socks.

With this unexpected invasion underway, Reno did the only thing he could think of.

He put a bowl on the floor, he filled it with the last of his rum, and he watched.

Who needed the internet when there was a room filled with tiny drunken sheep to watch?

He was silently hoping for a baaaaaar brawl to break out.

[The door is open, the post is open, I cannot promise sanity, as I have slept two hours in the past 48. Again. Hooray sheep!]

Comments

[the_merriest]

Rikku leaned in the doorway. "Hey. Did you --"

Blink.

"What's ... wrong with your sheep?"

[raspberryturk]

"Rum," Reno replied casually.

He and two of the more sober sheep had started a pot to see if the black sheep could take out the sheep in wolf's clothing.

He had his money on the black sheep. It had managed, somehow, to break the bottle and lift the thing.

"Want in on the pot?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku stared. "Okay. Fandom's weird, and you're insane, and somehow, the combination makes my head hurt, zoto."

[raspberryturk]

Reno grinned up at her and stuck out his tongue.

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? I'm all outta rum, though. These things drink more than the squirrels do, zoto."

He paused and made a bit of a face as he tried not to let the weirdness of that statement really get a chance to settle.

"How you doin', Rikku?"

[the_merriest]

"They seriously drank all your rum?" Rikku snickered. "I thought you would have had, like. An emergency stash hidden in the back."

[raspberryturk]

"Was runnin' low, and now I'm livin' on a pretty tight budget until the next paycheck," Reno explained with a shrug. "Gettin' the sheep drunk seemed somehow worth it at the time, yoto."

He eyed the one with the bottle-- it was getting tired, and was about to lose him fifty gil and a box of instant oatmeal. Dammit.

[the_merriest]

"I thought you got big money from your job," she smiled, but it was half-hearted. The whole job was ... sort of a sore subject right now. Right. "What's the over/under?"

[raspberryturk]

"Got docked four days worth of pay for bein' a mouthy idiot in a language Tseng won't never understand," Reno replied, then looked at the sheep. "The sheep don't seem too worried about odds. Toss somethin' involvin' oats into the bet, and they'll be good for it. Don't ask me where the sheep got gil from, yo."

The bottle-bearing sheep was down for the count. Reno was officially broke until Friday.

"Stupid freakin' sheep anyhow."

[the_merriest]

"You ... told off your boss?" Rikku pulled up the nearest chair, giving him an uncertain look. "Was he ... asking for more of those ... mission-things?"

The bad ones, the mass-slaughter ones. Please don't make her say it.

She looked at the sheep tableau again. "Man, you thought he'd make it? You deserve to lose that money, yoto."

[raspberryturk]

"Nah." Reno shook his head and stuck a hand into his pocket. "I was in a mood, zoto. And he went and pissed me off that Monday, and Rude was in shit, and... other things. So he got a sorry excuse for a report coupled with some bad web coding and then a bunch of shit he can't read."

He eyed the sheep.

"You're right about that sheep, yo. Figure I only bet on 'im because the little shit reminded me of Rude."

If it had been freshly sheared and was wearing shades, maybe.

[the_merriest]

"I don't think Rude would be less pissed at you if he knew you were calling him a sheep," she said.

She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and combed through it with her fingers. Such a mess. "Was this ... the whole, uh. After we ... had that fight?"

[raspberryturk]

"What Rude don't know won't hurt him," Reno replied with a bit of a shrug.

He'd been taking that very seriously this past little while.

"Yeah. It was kinda... that Thursday."

See Reno. See Reno shrug. See a small group of sheep try to cart off the box of instant oatmeal in the meantime.

[the_merriest]

Rikku grimaced. "Great. So ... I dumped you, you told off your boss, and now you're broke?"

She wasn't really in the mood for delicate wording, no. Nor had she noticed one of the very drunk sheep puking on her boots.

[raspberryturk]

"Shit happens." Reno lifted a shoulder dismissively. "Spent most of the week tellin' off my boss. I don't figure that'll be the last time it happens, but whatever. I'm used to rationing cheap food, zoto."

It was amazing the variety that could be achieved in one's daily diet simply by using instant ramen, soy sauce, and ketchup.

[the_merriest]

"Okay," she said, bouncing to her feet. "C'mon. We're going into town. Up, you. Move it."

[raspberryturk]

"Why, what's in town?" Reno raised an eyebrow as he signed over a check for his last fifty gil to a small sheep posse before pulling himself to his feet.

[the_merriest]

"Stores," Rikku said. "Ones that sell food. It's the craziest thing, you're never gonna believe it. Suja, suja, let's get the lead out, here."

She watched him write the check and shook her head. "How are they supposed to cash that, anyway?"

Wait, maybe that was the point. Nice one.

[raspberryturk]

He just smirked at her and shrugged.

"They'll figure it out, whatever. The hell does 'suja' mean?"

Context suggested that it was something like 'hurry the hell up,' but it never hurt to be sure.

[the_merriest]

"It means 'move'," she grinned. "As seen in context: bmayca suja ouin lrulupu-clynnat ycc yht cdub ycgehk sa xiacdeuhc pavuna E red oui.. Five points for each word you get out of that. It's like a game!"

She was already turning the door handle. Girl was impatient.

[raspberryturk]

Reno had to take a moment to mull that one over.

"Please move your something and stop something me something I something you?" He raised an eyebrow. "You in a hurry, there?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku ticked words off on her fingers. "Eight! You're up to forty points. Not bad, but the lightning round's gonna be tough. And I only included 'please' to see if you'd get it. Nice work!"

She opened the door and bounced into the hallway. "I'm sorry, did you have a busy schedule of paying sheep that I'm interrupting? And do you really want me going into town by myself like this? Can you even imagine the sorts of humiliating things I could get up to? I wonder if the photo place is open. I bet they could poster-size that picture I have of your tattoo."

[raspberryturk]

Reno might have gone a little pale at that. Well. A little more pale, anyhow.

"You know, I think I got better things to do than hang around here with the sheep anyhow, zoto. Uh." He grabbed for his jacket - hopefully Tseng would send one that was decidedly less pink shortly - and pulled it on, following her to the door.

[the_merriest]

"You don't have a clean suit?" she asked, giggling. "Can't you buy one in t-- ooooh, right, you're low on cash. C'mon. Something's gotta be open. I like your jacket, it's all festive."

And of course it was her fault the jacket was pink. Shhhh.

[raspberryturk]

"Festive's one word for it," Reno replied with a faint smirk, rolling his eyes. "You know, I'm good, right? Don't need to make any emergency runs to town or nothin', really, yo."

[the_merriest]

"I didn't say it was an emergency," Rikku said, rolling her eyes. "It's an adventure. And we're going now because I'm bored and you should entertain me before I decide to cause mayhem in my boredom. Also, because if you have liquor but not food all week, you're going to be drunk and obnoxious, and like hell I'm putting up with that."