Kalm, Planet Gaia, Tuesday Night

[raspberryturk]

And the travels of the two potion-wielding weirdos continued, with Reno and Rikku catching a portal after Reno's radio broadcast to a town called Kalm, complete with cheery little colonial houses that gave no indication of the horrible state of decay that Midgar was sitting in, somewhere not far to the Southwest.

"Nothin' like complete government collapse and mass death and disease to boost the economy for the little folk," Reno mused as he made his way along the street, looking up at the cozy rows of housing around them. "Wanna crash at the inn here tonight, or would you rather start the hike to the chocobo farm place, yoto? It'll be a bit of a hike, ain't nobody here gonna led us their chocobos, and we got no way to snag a car or somethin' from this neck of the woods, yo."


"Where are we?" Rikku asked, peering around at the comfortable houses lined up in rows.

It was crazy, but she had sort of thought maybe all of Gaia was as bleak as Edge. Weird.

"We can get started tonight. I don't know how far the walk is? We can always sleep out in the open, though, can't we?"

Wasn't like they hadn't been camping out for the past week, anyway.


"This place is Kalm. Pretty much any place that had a reactor at one point or another is strugglin' through hell right now, yo. Kalm got lucky. It got a shitload of the Midgar refugees, and none of the Meteorfall downtime. I can do without stayin' the night here, yo. Campin's fine by me, zoto."

Not all of Gaia looked like Midgar. Just most of Gaia. Like Junon, for example. Poor freaking Junon.

"It's a bitch of a hike. Probably best we start the walk now, yo. I only ever saw the place by air doin' chopper fly-bys, anyhow. Rude's a friggin' hero for settin' up the deal for us in the first place, zoto."


"Rude gets cookies," Rikku decided, taking his arm and following along. It'd be neat to see the open countryside. Maybe there was a lot more of Gaia that was still okay than the bits that weren't. "Is he gonna meet us there? I'll give him big squeezy hugs if he is. Does he think you're insane for getting them?"

Hey, Rude, I want to buy some chocobos. Blue! Help me out?


"Rude always thinks I'm freakin' insane," Reno pointed out with a grin as he led her toward the edge of town. "I can't see him stickin' around a chocobo ranch for too long, but you never know with that guy. He's got a soft spot for little cute things that's bigger'n the bald spot on his head."

That was to say, Reno didn't know.

[NFB for distance! For the_merriest, who helped write this and who rules like a ruling thing!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"You didn't do it," Reno pointed out. "So you're a hell of a lot better, yoto."

He gave her a little squeeze, turning his eyes upward.

Yeah, the sky here did kind of suck.

"Don't worry about it, anyhow. Some people are good guys. Some people ain't. Some people just do what they figure's gotta get done, no matter what side it puts 'em on. Between you and me, if there really is such a thing between 'good guy' and 'bad guy,' I wouldn't know it, yo."

[the_merriest]

"Maybe you're just a Turk," she said, trying for a reassuring smile. "Good guys, bad guys, the heck with all that mess. You do your job, and you do it damn well, and then you go grab a beer."

Rikku had the strangest feeling that she might, finally, be Getting It.

[raspberryturk]

"And then we go grab a beer," Reno agreed, a shadow of a smirk creeping over his lips again. "Don't make me nothin' but whatever I happen to be at the time, yo."

He looked back down at her, lifting an eyebrow.

"You do the job. Not because you're a good guy or a bad guy. You don't wanna rule the world, and you ain't really out to save it, either. You just do it 'cause it's gotta get done, zoto."

[the_merriest]

She nodded. "I'm not saying ... you know. That I think it's awesome and ... all of that."

She got it. She didn't necessarily approve, especially since it felt like he could switch his ethics off and line up with whatever side was passing out his orders, and okay, yes, that bothered her.

But she got it, maybe, and that was progress. Wasn't it?

"Did you ever ... I dunno." She shook her head. "I mean, it's not your job to worry about people, just ... if you could have said no more, would you have? Did you ever ..."

[raspberryturk]

"Put my foot down?" Reno was frowning thoughtfully at that question, pulling back a little and looking at the plains stretched out around them. They had quite the hike ahead of them, didn't they? "Say no?"

...It’s going to look weird if all the townspeople disappear at once. Can’t keep doing stuff like this, you know.

He grit his teeth a little. Gave his head a shake.

"I didn't. And if I did, it would'a been to cover my own ass, back then. Things change, zoto."

[the_merriest]

"I mean, you couldn't say no. Then." She shrugged, lightly, as she chewed her lower lip. "Which ... I get. I'm just wondering if ... you know. If you ever wanted to, even though you couldn't."

If he'd ever ... regretted it, wished he could do something else, wanted to stay his hand. Something. Anything.

[raspberryturk]

"There wasn't no room for second thoughts," Reno said, pressing onward as though he was going to settle for leaving it just at that.

Two or three steps along, he stopped, turned on his heel, and looked her square in the eye.

"Yeah, Rikku. Even I had second thoughts. Wanted to speak up, sometimes. For all my morals are worth anyhow, yo."

[the_merriest]

"They are worth something," she said loyally. "I was just ... you know. Worrying that ... I'm not sure what I was worrying. I'm sorry that you couldn't stop any of it. I think I'm just ... sorry that you were in that position, maybe."

[raspberryturk]

"I chose that position. It was my meal ticket." Reno shrugged. Started walking again. "Like I said, though. Shit changes. I'm not in that position no more. I get to say no if I wanna."

[the_merriest]

"Lots of things have changed," she agreed, carefully. "You've changed. But I think ... I mean, you don't think you're a good guy, but ... I think you lean a bit more that way than the other. Don't you?"

[raspberryturk]

He was stopping again. Turning around to face her again, and mulling that over. Carefully.

"Just 'cause I wanna fix what I helped mess up don't mean nothin'. What happened back in Edge doesn't tip the scales or anything. Just means I get to say I did somethin' right for a change." A pause. "I know the difference between right and wrong. I just... don't think a few right things make for right people, is all."

In the face of the things he'd done in the past, he didn't get to be a good guy.

[the_merriest]

"That's not what I mean," she said with a gentle smile. "I mean ... you have good intentions. More of the time than not, yeah? You did bad things, but not because you really like death and suffering and evil. Just because it was your job. But you've done good things just because you think they should be done, not for a job at all. Haven't you? Doesn't that count for something?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno was chewing at the inside of his cheek, now, closing his eyes and working his way through all of it. Motives and actions and morals, the whole lot of it never did seem to measure up in his head. If you turned in an innocent man to live a life of hell as a test subject for a madman, what difference did it make if you were doing it because you were getting paid for it, or if you were doing it because you wanted to?

"I don't know," he said at length, falling a little more deeply into his usual slouch. "Maybe it does. Just to me and nobody else in the world, though. They wouldn't know any different anyhow."

[the_merriest]

"And me," she said, reaching for his hand again. "It makes a lot of difference to me, zoto."

It was the difference between him being a bad person and a person who did bad things. And when you loved someone, that was an important distinction.

[raspberryturk]

He stood there for a moment in the darkness, no sky worth looking at, finding her eyes instead and trying to lose himself in them, there in the night.

Such small, clean hands...

"That's all the difference that really matters, then, ain't it?"

He gave her hand a squeeze and attempted a small smile. It was something. And acknowleding that it was... That was everything he hadn't been able to do, before.

[the_merriest]

It was something. It was huge. It meant she had to wrap her arms around him and stand here, for a long time, listening to the night air and holding him close.

Then there was traveling further down the road, and setting up camp for the night, and she tried to insist there should be ghost stories of some variety, because what sort of campfire was there without ghost stories?

In the morning, they were on the road again.

"Okay, so ..." She glanced around. "Where is the farm, anyway? I mean, you know where we're going, right?"

Gaia had lots of GPS stuff. Problem was, most of it seemed to be offline.

[raspberryturk]

Reno's, for example, was not only offline, but making cranky sounds at him.

His PHS hadn't been charged in a week, now, after all.

"Should be just up ahead, like, a little way. Kinda around the bend, yo."

He squinted and looked ahead of them, frowning. Okay. They had to be- "Ah!"

It was an ugly-ass barn thing, with a huge yellow chocobo painted on the front of it. Really, it was a mystery how they could have missed it at all.

"Race you, zoto!" And he was running before the sentence was out of his mouth. It was entirely possible that he was just as excited to meet his baby bird as she was.

But he'd never admit it.

[the_merriest]

"Cheater!" she giggled, not wasting a second in giving chase. He was still faster than her, but the adrenaline rush of seeing her baby chocho was certainly helping her cause.

Eeeeeeeeeeee, she really really had a baby chocho. Hers. So cool. He was officially the best boyfriend ever. Seriously.

[raspberryturk]

Totally not the best ever. Possibly the biggest dork, though. And Reno could live with that. He'd spent a long while perfecting the art of being a dork.

Run! Run! Run! Leap over the Mandragora who cared about friggin' Mandragora anyhow and keep running!

It wasn't like the grasslands monsters were worth stopping for when there was an epic race to the baby chocobos happening, here, anyhow.

[the_merriest]

Run! Run! Run! Jump over the -- ooooh, what was that!? Maybe it would have interesting stuff to steal! She would have to drag him back out here afterwards! After because right now it was baby chocho time! Baby chochos! Tiny blue ones! WARK!

She was going to pick hers up and snuzzle and cuddle and love it and refuse to ever, ever, ever let it go. He knew that, right?

[raspberryturk]

Reno had his suspicions, yes!

Reno's brakes apparently also didn't work so well today, as his foot hit a slick patch of fresh chocobo turd and he went skidding into the front door of the barn. Thing.

Ow.

"I win," he muttered against the wall. Because, technically, he did.

[the_merriest]

"You did win," Rikku said, crouching down next to him. "And your grand prize might be a concussion. Or the consolation prize of a goose egg kinda bump and some chocobo-doo on your shoes."

[raspberryturk]

"I think I'll settle for the consolation prize," Reno decided as he dusted himself off and then rubbed at his forehead. "And maybe leave the runnin' around this place to the birds, zoto."

[the_merriest]

"They're probably better at it," she chirped. "You win, but I'm the one who didn't thwack my head, so I'd call that a draw, anyway. C'mon, let's go inside and see our chochos."