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

[raspberryturk]

"Rude's still Rude, Mako's still retarded, Gaia's still a piece of shit, and I miss you, too."

It was nice to share all of the important stuff like that.

"Save a few of them teeth for me, huh? I had fun bustin' 'em all outta his head the day I met him, yo!"

[the_merriest]

"You could always break his toes," Rikku volunteered. "If I knock out all his teeth before you get to it, I mean. He thinks he knows better than everybody. Including me. The one who got this to work last time. I miss Mako. Petey's still retarded, too. Although I haven't seen him in a couple of days. He's back on Besaid with Wakka. 'Cause I didn't think it was cool to just drag him around everywhere, but I miss him, and now I have to try to fall asleep without him chewing on my hair or you snuggling, and do you know how much that sucks?"

Now seemed like a good time to stop for breath.

[raspberryturk]

"I think I can manage a guess," Reno replied, smiling faintly. Damn, it was nice to just hear her voice again. "I won't be in Edge forever, anyhow. I gotta hunt down a gut about plans for an airship, and did I mention my bean? It's got a leaf on it, now!"

This was a big deal.

[the_merriest]

"You said!" Rikku bounced. "A leaf! You're really growing beans! Check you out! Oh! I've been drilling people here for information and I have to send some of that to you. Like. How we had the system set up, at home? Your system is probably awesome already, but I mean, there might be little bits we figured out that helped. And airship plans? Really? Pops needs to stop being so stubborn, zoto."

[raspberryturk]

Reno eyed his bean-growing system. Squinted at it. Frowned a little.

"My awesome system is a plastic cup with wet paper towel in it," Reno shared. "I ain't gonna get a whole city fed outta that. If you got better, I'll take it, yo."

Ino's notes had been thorough, and they were what had gotten Reno this far, but he was at that point where he could really use another set of eyes, more than anything else. Dammit.

"And airship plans, yeah. If I can hunt down Cid an' get a conversation outta him without him tryin' to bust my face. He an' ShinRa go way back like that."

[the_merriest]

"Your awesome system grew a bean," Rikku noted. "One with a leaf. It's working. That's pretty kickass."

She didn't want him to think she was insulting his bean, here, if she sent a pile of notes and blueprints. And getting the bean growing meant the system was sound. Now it was just a matter of expanding it, to more beans.

"If airships are his thing, he might be too interested in mechanical stuff to bother with any face-busting," she suggested. "Maybe start with that? Or could you ask someone else that isn't ShinRa for help, like those people who helped us kill Bahamut?"

[raspberryturk]

"He's one of them people who helped kill Bahamut," Reno sighed, poking at his bean a few more times. If it up and died on him, he'd be a very unhappy Reno. "That was AVALANCHE, yo. Or, kinda AVALANCHE. AVALANCHE lite, maybe. Diet AVALANCHE. All AVALANCHE, half the psychopathic brainwashing mutant-making destroyin' the world chocobo shit, yo."

Which meant that he didn't hate this AVALANCHE as badly.

"I'll ask Rude to talk to Tifa for me, maybe."

[the_merriest]

"Tifa seemed nice," Rikku said. "I mean, when we asked her for directions and all? And it's for a good cause. She'll want to help with a good cause. She seems like the type."

Except for the bit about being an eco-terrorist, but that was with Diet AVALANCHE and everyone made mistakes.

"So what have you been doing? Besides being a bean-farmer. I never pictured you as the bean-farmer type. Do you have a straw hat and some wheat to chew on?"

[raspberryturk]

"I got that Chuck Norris cowboy hat," Reno noted, grinning. "An' I kept the boots, I think. But I'm fresh outta straw. It's kinda like a luxury item around here, yo."

Yes. Dead grass was a luxury item in Midgar-area.

"Mostly, I been settlin' down. Checkin' with Tseng to see if there's any work I can do for the WRO. Mostly, it's just been chasin' monsters outta residential zones an' back into the desert, where I can kill 'em without tearin' down the joint, yo."

[the_merriest]

"I miss your cowboy hat," Rikku sighed. "And your boots, and your tattoos, and your hair, and your neck, and your hands, and ... this could take a while, if I have to list it off. Are you getting neat drops from the monster-kills?"

[raspberryturk]

"Mostly just gil an' potions," Reno replied, and the shrug that went with that was nearly audible. "The weapons they drop around here ain't all that great, if they drop anything at all. And I couldn't sell the materia they drop if I wanted to. I got, like, ten Fires, an' no clue what the shit to do with 'em, yo."

[the_merriest]

"Right, no one's using those any more," she mused. "Can you melt them down into anything interesting? Toss them back into the Lifestream? There has to be some use for them, you'd think. And do you guys need potions? I mean, I don't know if your suppliers are still there, since Midgar's kinda non-functional, and Rin's always happy to rip someone off."

He was. He made Turtle look like a Communist.

[raspberryturk]

"Damn near anything outta Midgar that can be bumped off'll drop a potion," Reno mused. "They ain't an issue, really. I can one-hit most of those buggers and loot enough of them fast enough to keep a whole city block stocked up through another Bahamut attack, I think. The materia... I might have to hang onto. I dunno. They're just Fire, but that's more'n enough if anyone decides they want to use 'em just to keep their family safe so the WRO don't gotta."

[the_merriest]

"You still need to send me the WRO's address," Rikku added. "I have money for them, if they want it. I can't imagine them turning it down, but yo never know with people. And ... I think I agree with you. I mean, people are worried that the Materia is doing bad stuff, right? But ... it's not like you're making it. You're finding it, and giving it to people who might be in an emergency. It's a trade-off, yeah?"

[raspberryturk]

"That's right. Whatever they do with it from there ain't my problem. They wanna bury it or somethin', they can go right ahead." It was good logic, anyhow. "I don't think the WRO would turn it down. You should'a heard Reeve's reaction to the call I placed, yo. They need all the dough they can get, zoto."

The money that Sam and Max had embezzled from the American government was going to go to good work, repairing Edge's infrastructure.

American tax dollars at work!

[the_merriest]

"I ... kind of have a lot," Rikku admitted. "I mean, if our gil matches your gil and all. We ... we had that whole, save-the-world fund going? So we could keep upgrading our weapons and all that. Then hey, world's saved, and there's just money. And no one wants it, and it's just sitting there. I was going to make Pops take some of it to rebuild Home, but he's being stubborn." Which was where she'd gotten it from, yes. "But if I got it to them, then ... I mean. A save-the-world fund ought to go to helping people, yeah?"

[raspberryturk]

"That's typically what those are for," Reno agreed, a little more seriously. "You don't gotta, Rikku. I mean, if you did, I'd appreciate it. Edge would appreciate it. But if there is somethin' on Spira that comes up, I'd hate for it to be without, yoto."

[the_merriest]

"I'll keep some of it," Rikku decided. "But we don't need money the way you guys do. The Youth League already rebuilt the Kilika docks. We have what we need, we just ... can't decide how to move forward, and need to get our technology up to speed. Nobody on Spira is starving. We need to rebuild Home, but ... Pops is fighting that anyway. And I could be helping people right now. That's way more important."

[raspberryturk]

"Well, I ain't gonna say no," Reno decided. "I mean, it ain't my place to decide. Not when there are still too damn many people without a roof over their heads and food to eat, yo. You want Reeve's contact info, you got it, babe. I'll text it to you as soon as we're done talkin', okay?"

[the_merriest]

"Sounds awesome," Rikku nodded. "And you should see the Kilika docks. They look amazing. The Youth League just hopped in there and rebuilt like crazy. Which made all the temple people upset, 'cause Yevon never got around to helping anybody, but most of the people of Kilika don't care. Did I mention everyone is being stupid? Because they are and I am so sick of it I could puke."