Room 429, Post-Radio

[raspberryturk]

Reno had survived the day, from his training with Ghanima to making plans with Ino, on to Romeo's birthday party and then to do the radio broadcast.

His day wasn't over yet. Oh no.

Smoochy had to die.

[For one!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

He was going to give Smoochy a kick in the shin.

For good measure.

"Last job I went on for the Turks was the last one I'm gonna go on for the Turks. I'm kinda in the market, I guess you'd say."

He was supposed to be doing freelance for Tseng, but, as one could imagine, there weren't many people around Edge and area who could afford to hire ShinRa's former elite to do their dirty work.

[intraspective]

"Freelance?" she asked, with a tilt of her head. "Harder to make a living out of."

A beat.

"You goin' beat up on the Rhino more, or ought we stash him 'til we're feeling like giving Mom it back."

[raspberryturk]

"Damn hard to make a livin' outta," Reno agreed, and then shrugged dismissively and bent over to pick up Smoochy's head to inspect their handiwork. "I think it's safe to say our dirty work's done here, Ino. Figure we could probably give him back around the same way we got him, while we know Mom's gonna be occupied elsewhere?"

[intraspective]

"Maybe next Monday?" she suggested, stepping over to consider the cards stuck in the tree and deciding that, whatever, she'd just leave them. "Maybe we show up a few minutes late, but Mom'll be there for sure so it's a perfect chance."

[raspberryturk]

Reno flashed a grin and gave Ino a thumbs-up with his free hand at that suggestion.

"Read my mind," he mused. "Back into my closet with Smoochy's brutalized corpse, then?"

[intraspective]

"May he rest in pieces," she chirped, while lifting Smoochy's body off the ground. "And, well, the mind is something of a speciality of mine."

[raspberryturk]

"That so?" Reno chuckled, tucking the head under his armpit as he turned to head back for the dorms. "Fixin' it, or tearin' it apart?"

[intraspective]

"Tearin' it apart is closer," she mused, keeping pace with him. "Though I'd call it more 'using it against people'."

[raspberryturk]

"The useful sorta mind games, huh?" Reno glanced sideways at her, curious, and then turned his attention back to the path ahead of them. "Sometimes, the best weapon you got against someone is what's inside their own head. Takes a real artist to be able to pick that apart and make it useful, yo."

[intraspective]

That got an impish smile directed at his back.

"In a way," Ino said, thinking through what he'd said and contemplating ways to explain that wouldn't leave him with the wrong grasp of what she did. "Bit more literal than most people do it."

[raspberryturk]

"Literally?" Reno paused for a moment, stopping to turn to face her. "Okay, now you know I gotta ask you how literal, and what happens when you do it, right?"

Curiosity killed the...

[intraspective]

Ino shrugged, staring at him.

"Technically," she said, "there's several people 'round here who'd really hate me telling people 'bout what I'm good for."

A bland smile. "Sometimes I get really sick of not talking 'bout stuff though, so I figure, what the hell. Literally, as in literally if I wanted to be in your head I would be in your head. You wouldn't have control of your body, your thoughts, and when I left you'd have no memory of what the hell I did while I was there. That's what my family does. It's a shit skill in full speed battle, but freakin' fantastic for spies."

[raspberryturk]

The edge of Reno's lip quirked, just a little. And he nodded.

"I ain't a stranger to people who can do stuff like that," he replied evenly as he started walking again. "Though, where I come from, if someone gets you that way, you're damn lucky if you ever get free again. And in one piece? Even better."

[intraspective]

"Takes chakra," she said quietly. "Can't keep it up forever, or you get stuck. But a lot of people who get taken don't exactly come back 'cause the mission said 'have them die, and make it suicide'."

[raspberryturk]

"Science did it, where I'm from." A pause while Reno took a breath. Another while he shrugged his shoulders. "I see plenty not come back just 'cause the rule is, 'All evidence of misconduct must be destroyed.' That ain't nothin' new. Seein' armies of guys who don't have control over themselves no more, that's really somethin'."

[intraspective]

"Can't do armies," she said, back straight and pace steady. "But I don't much think I'd want to either."

[raspberryturk]

"You don't," Reno agreed. "Bunch'a brainwashed murderers, all followin' the command of the guy in charge. Messy business. Pain in the ass for the people on the receivin' end. We get to look at 'em and wonder, 'Hey, did I know that guy? It don't matter, 'cause now him and ten other shits are tryin' to cut off my head.'"