Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Rude's couch was lumpy and hard to sleep on.

Rude's couch was lumpy and hard to sleep on, Rude's booze was running low, and the lighting in Rude's living room sucked.

All that, and Reno had more reading material than he could have ever hoped for. And a bean sprout in a plastic cup sitting in some wet paper towel. And a pair of cacti that he hadn't managed to kill yet. And an anxious ferret, attempting to help him either with the booze, or with the reading, whichever Mako happened to be able to reach more easily at the time.

As such things went, after a week and a half back in Edge with no outlet to the real world, it was time for Reno to take a break. He'd written a letter earlier in the week in reply to one that he'd gotten last week Thursday, which was all well and good... but dammit, he needed to hear a voice that didn't belong to a Turk, a member of the WRO, or some random person living on the street corners in Edge.

Spare Gil for the homeless, they'd beg, and he'd toss them a few, just because he had a few to spare. But not without a mumble and a frown.

Yeah. You an' everyone else, yo.

He needed to make some freaking phone calls, or he was going to go out of his mind, damn it.

[NFB for distance, open to anyone who thinks that Reno would have a reason to call them! Or, heck, open to anyone. He's bored, he'll probably just hit buttons until he hears familiar voices, at this point.]

Comments

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

Murdock was munching on cookies and watching TV when his phone rang.

"House of the mad, what's your poison?"

[raspberryturk]

"Everclear's gonna be what does me in eventually, zoto!" Reno grinned, thankful that he'd caught someone he at least knew. It was crazy what random buttonmashing could do, sometimes. "How you doin', man?"

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Yo Reno!" he grinned. "I'm good. I got a new housemate too. She makes awesome cookies!"

"How's things out there?"

[raspberryturk]

"Heeey, can't complain if there are cookies involved, right?"

Note to self: Find cookies. Ones that aren't diseased or something.

"Things ain't so bad out here. It's Edge, so I ain't expectin' a fanfare or anything like it. I ain't been shot yet, I found a place to crash, so all-in-all, it's been goin' damn good so far."

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Well that's good." Especially about the not being shot part. "You gotten in any flight time yet?"

[raspberryturk]

"Nah, not beyond the flight out here. I threatened to punch the boss in the face if he decided I wasn't gonna at least fly the chopper on the way back to Edge," Reno chuckled. "Been too busy readin' up on how to grow beans."

It was far more important work than it sounded like, damn it.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

There was a hearty chuckle. "Good for you dude! Pilots always gotta have a chance to fly otherwise they get twitchy."

What? It was totally valid.

"Beans eh? That's cool. Had to do that myself back when I was at my granparents."

Hmmm... maybe he should start a garden in the back yard?

[raspberryturk]

"I got a sprout," Reno bragged. Because in Edge, achieving a sprout was something akin to striking gold. "In a plastic cup. Now I gotta work on not killin' it, yo. Any advice for that kinda thing?"

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Water and sunlight?" That was pretty standard for plants. "An' maybe some fertilizer if ya got it. Don't drown the thing either," he added.

Hey, he'd asked.

[raspberryturk]

Hey, it was better than what Reno had known before he'd left for Fandom in the first place. It was pretty standard now, but better than nothing.

"Don't drown it, huh? I'm gonna be givin' hydroponics a shot in a while, so we'll see how I manage that, yo."

He'd need all the luck he could get.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"That'll be cool. Should grow pretty quickly like that."

Murdock was making a mental note to email Reno articles on hydroponics.

"Oh dude, you ain't gonna believe the number of folk we got here now. Biggest batch of students I've seen yet for one semester."

[raspberryturk]

"Crapload of rookies, huh? How are they takin' to the place so far? Any big weirdness hit 'em, yet?"

Reno missed the weirdness already, dangit.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"No weirdness yet, probably why I ain't heard any tales of anyone goin' insane."

You know, besides himself.

"But you know this place, something will crop up sooner or later."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, give it time," Reno agreed. "I got my money on it's less than a week before there are little ostriches in people's food, or everyone's phone calls get all buggered up, or somethin' like that, yo. Fandom ain't Fandom unless somethin' like that happens."

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Penguins, dude. Penguins. And wee flyin' ponies. I miss the ponies." More like he missed being one.

[raspberryturk]

"Eh, I can get by in life without the ponies. I was an action figure that day."

That had kind of sucked, okay?

"But penguins, I approve of. If those ever hit the island again, you gotta try an' snag one for me, yo!"

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Oh yah." Murdock remembered action-figure Reno. It was quite something.

"You got it dude! One of them little buggers pop up, I'll get it for ya."

No idea how he'd get it to Reno, but why bother with the details now?

"Any other special requests?"

[raspberryturk]

"Booze?"

Reno was not a problem alcoholic. He simply repressed as a hobby. Using booze. Totally different.

Riiiight.

"Growin' beans in plastic cups is thirsty work," Reno intoned, seriously.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Thirsty for you or the beans?" Murdock snickered. "Though I doubt booze will help your little bean sprout grow."

"I'll... see what I can do. Gotta figure out logistics of shippin' an' all that."

Truthfully, some part of him still figured Reno as a kid and was a bit resistent to the idea, but then again... Reno wasn't a student anymore and he knew that Reno's home wasn't exactly a chipper place.

So yah, he could do booze.

[raspberryturk]

Heck, Reno did booze before he'd even considered that he might ever be a student. And he'd stopped thinking of himself as a kid before he'd even become a teenager.

Which didn't make the booze thing okay, really, but Reno was also the sort to simply not care.

"You're the best, man. I owe you one."

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Nah, just helpin' out a friend. You don't owe me a thing. Maybe you could send me a picture or two of your bean plant. You gonna name it?"

So what if he had a thing for naming plants? It was totatlly normally.

[raspberryturk]

"Name it?" Reno raised an eyebrow, and then looked at his plant, considering.

Well, it was green, and kind of tiny. And completely unexpected in that 'totally sprouted' kind of way.

"Gremlin."

Gremlin the bean. Yes. That would do.

He was not homesick for Fandom, shut up.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Gremlin, I like it. Fits somehow. So you send me pictures of Gremlin, and I'll send you booze. Everclear, right?"

See? Sometimes his memory does work.

[raspberryturk]

"Everclear," Reno agreed, sounding for all the world like he was talking to his new hero, or something. "For all the pictures of Gremlin the Bean that I can manage, yo. I'll make a photojournal or somethin'. The Life Of Gremlin. Everythin' from now until the day I either manage to kill it or I'm pickin' beans offa it, all done up pretty-like in a book, yo."

Reno. Scrapbooking. The world may never be the same.

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Ooh, I like that," he chuckled. "You could turn it into a novel. Maybe even get movie rights."

"So... I reckon I'll yack at ya when next I yack at ya. Right dude?"