raspberryturk | A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

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A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

Okay. It had been... a week. To say the least. It was only Tuesday and Reno already wanted it to be over, already.

But that wasn't going to stop him from making an ass of himself in public. After all, so far as public outings went, some things were practically sacred.

"Think they'll let me take home a penguin if I ask real nice?"

[For the partner in crime! NFB for being all mainlandy and stuff, woo!]

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"Eh, we'll see. What kinda booze do they sell at the zoo, anyhow? Might take a few pints, zoto."

Poor Reno. He was going to have to muster up a waddle and some quacking without help, alas.

Dōjima stared.

"They do not sell booze at the zoo," she said slowly, watching him warily. "There are kids here and stuff."

Reno mused on that for a moment. And then grinned and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small flask.

"Well then, good thing I brought my own, yo."

... What?

Dōjima groaned and swatted at him. "Put that away," she hissed, "before you get us tossed out! You couldn't have put it in a water bottle or something like a sane person?"

Reno gave his shoulders a shrug and pocketed it again.

"How was I supposed to know? Drinkin' laws on the mainland are different from the ones on the island, and the ones on the island ain't nothin' like the ones on Gaia, yo."

Drinking laws? On Gaia? That would be the day.

"There better be somethin' around here good to drink, then, 'cause it's been a shitty week, I need it, yo."

... Yes, he'd even settle for soda.

"We'll get some sodas and pour whatever-the-hell you have into it, how's that sound?" she asked, glossing over the 'shitty week' part for the moment. When he wanted to tell her, he'd tell her.

Or she'd get tired of him dancing around the subject and hit him. One of the two.

"Besides, you didn't think my water bottle was full of water, did you?" she teased. "Really, Red, I'm hurt."

"Aw, man. Next time, I'll go with vodka," Reno pouted, shoving his hands in his pockets. "See, you gotta warn me about these things, Doji. I suck at followin' the rules."

Heeey. That thing was making a face at him. Hi, stupid little cute thing!

Reno was maybe a wee bit attention-deficit today.

Just a wee bit.

He could be ADD all he wanted today, that was the entire reason Dōjima had brought him to the zoo - so he could make faces at all the animals.

"Even if I warned you, you wouldn't follow the rules," she pointed out, leaning on the fence to read the little infoboard-thing. "You'd just break them a different way."

"Well, where's the fun in havin' rules in the first place if you're gonna just follow 'em?" Reno was now climbing up the fence himself to get a better look. They were like... elephant pig ugly-nose things!

He wanted one!

"You fall in there and that thing eats you, I'm gonna laugh," Dōjima threatened.

Yeah, so, the sign said they were vegetarians. Reno didn't need to know that.

Reno offered her a wry sort of grin over his shoulder.

"Yeah, well, I need the exercise," he decided. "The only thing that's come close to kickin' my ass in the longest time is the snow that hit the island today. And some flyin' spinny sharp shit, but that's normal."

Well, it was.

"Think they'd put up a decent fight?"

"I'll kick your ass in a game of Scrabble, but only because I'd cheat and use Japanese," Dōjima announced, looking between the tapir and Reno. Hrm.

"I think you could take it, but it might bite off your hair, first."

"Hey, if you wanna cheat and use that wacky-assed Wutai babble of yours, then I'm allowed to spell things however it is I think they sound right," Reno decided, reaching forward with one arm to wave it at the tapir.

The tapir, who clearly dealt with idiots like Reno on a daily basis, snorted and resumed snuffling about in the dirt. Bah. Humans.

"Wrestle starts with an 'r,' right?"

"With a 'w', like 'Wutai' and 'Woo I'm gonna kick your ass,'" she said cheerfully. "You know, I think it's laughing at you."

"I'd love to see it do any better," Reno pouted, jumping back down off the fence. "At least I got a high school education goin' for me, here."

More or less, anyhow.

"Talkin' about- how are you doin' on your magical journey to grad? Any plans afterward?"

No reason.

Dōjima was many things; stupid did not make that list.

"Same way it was going when I started here," she answered, keeping her tone light. Hi, little tapir. "I'm hoping I score a job as a TA or somewhere in town so I can stay for at least part of the summer, and then I'm off to the STN-J. I'll have to head to Japan a few times between now and then; evaluations, apartment hunting, that sort of thing, unless something comes up that Juliano wants me to do."

Reno nodded. Totally casual, sober sort of nod. Cool. Cool.

See? Totally cool.

"Always good to have a plan, yo," he replied, reaching into his pocket and fingering at a mostly-blank business card that had been handed to him a while back. He couldn't help chewing over the notion that passing it on might get in the way of those nice, polished plans. Maybe he'd hang onto it. At least until they talked some more. "Sounds like you got it mostly figured out, huh?"

"Well, it's not like I have anything else to do with my time," she joked. "It's all set up, all I have to do is my job!"

"Besides, what else would I do?" Dōjima grinned at him faintly. "Be a shop girl? I'd get fired in the first week."

"Hey, if I can handle doin' secretary work for a dog and a bunny, I think you can handle doin' a little shop work," Reno noted, and then shrugged. "Ain't all I been doin' lately," he tentatively added. "Been takin' a few odd jobs on the side. Might not be able to keep it up after grad. But I hear she's lookin' for the sorta person who can put up a believable front and handle a gun. And it's good for not gettin' rusty in the meantime, yo."

Such casual conversation. Heeey. What was that weird-ass thing in the pen behind them? Don't mind Reno, he had to go investigate.

"You're working for an insane rabbit and a dog in a suit. That's totally not the same as being a secretary," Dōjima answered.

Really, it wasn't. Most secretaries didn't have to deal with the man in the closet quite so literally.

The comment about 'odd jobs' however had her giving him a sideways glance, and Dōjima waited for a moment before meandering after him.

"What is it with you and the strange ones?" she asked, making a face at the creature. "And do I even want to know what sort of job you'd term 'odd'?"

It had to be clarified. He could either mean 'random' or, well, Fandom-style 'odd'.

"You know. Occasional work. Government stuff. Mostly clean, I'm pretty sure, if that matters at all." He lifted a shoulder and pretended to be very interested in the little informational plaque. And he wondered idly what this little guy did to deserve only seven bands when his cousin had nine. Jerk.

"Normal. 'Cause that kinda matters around where we're goin' to school, too."

Yurika leaned back against the fence to watch him, abandoning all pretense of looking at the animal inside.

"Are you telling me this because you think I need the practice, think I want the action, or because you're trying to talk me out of SOLOMON?" she asked bluntly. "Did Romeo put you up to this?"

"Romeo knows nothin' about it," Reno said, looking away from the cage and fixing her with a tired sort of look. "Probably for the best Romeo don't find out, either. I'm tellin' you this because the lady I'm doin' the jobs for needs another hand. What you do with the information is up to you, zoto. You wanna use it as training, or to keep busy or whatever, go for it. You wanna forget I said anything, do that, too. I would'a thought you'd know me better by now than to think I'd suggest you leave your cause entirely, though."

Yurika nodded in apology. "Someone seems to think he's coming to Japan with me," she said by way of explanation. "There have been... disagreements."

Knowing how Romeo felt about her job, you couldn't blame a girl for thinking perhaps her boyfriend had gone running to his BFF to try and find her a way out.

Reno nodded, frowning, and then pulled the card out of his pocket- blank, except for a phone number, eyeing it as he spoke.

"I know real well about after-grad disagreements. Gonna keep doin' this work in the meantime, anyhow. I'd be some kinda piss-poor Turk if I took off for some different world entirely and left Gaia to rot, zoto."

He held the card out toward her.

"It's somethin' to think about, at least."

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