raspberryturk | Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Evening

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Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Evening

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.]

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Dinah looked up from ~~playing~~ examining her new Crime Scene kit, and reached over to grab her phone. "Lance Investigations, reasonable rates for an unreasonable world!"

"Which unreasonable world are we talkin' about?" Reno was grinning, there on the other end of the line. "I mean, it ain't like you don't have access to a freakin' million of 'em from there, yo."

No, he wasn't going to say who he was. He figured it was obvious.

"Reno!" Plus he probably figured she'd squeal it for him. "Hi hi hi! How are you? How is home? How is Mako?"

"Dinah!" Reno wasn't going to squeal, but he certainly seemed thrilled that the rookie had picked up. "I ain't bad. Been crashin' on a lumpy couch lately, though, which kinda sucks. Home's... got a lumpy couch. An' it's grey, but we're workin' on that. And Mako..."

Reno glanced over at Mako, who was putting forth a valiant attempt to lug one of Rude's shoes under the couch. The shoe was as big as the ferret was.

"Mako's as stupid as ever."

Dinah chortled, and looked over at Camille, who couldn't be called stupid, but could be called a fuzzy feline drama llama. "So it's good he's there to keep you company, woo. Oh! So you're staying with your friends? Did you find that work you were thinking about, or is it still all up in the air?"

"So-so," Reno replied. "Been takin' the odd job, chasin' monsters outta the city and takin' them down, but mostly I've just been growin' beans."

...

"They're real important beans. Honest."

"I believe it," Dinah said sincerely, because why else would Reno do it? Touching faith she had in him. "If you can get stuff to grow there, things will start getting better faster." She reached over to scratch Camille behind the ears. "I wish I knew more about plants. Maybe I should look something up when I work at the flower shop? They have to know stuff about fertilizer and water and all."

"I got a few people lookin' up stuff for me," Reno chuckled. "Ino sent me home with somethin' like sixteen notebooks on the stuff, but if anyone manages to get me more, I won't turn it down, yo. Maybe you'll find somethin' she missed, right?"

Reno mulled over that for a moment. "You know what'd be even better than the information? Seeds."

"Ooo!" Dinah immediately jumped on this idea, thrilled she could do something to help. "What kind? We've got little packets of vegetable seeds, as well as the flowers. Cucumbers and carrots, maybe? And peas? I can buy them for you with my discount."

"Veggies," Reno agreed, grinning faintly. "And maybe some kinda tree, if you can swing that. I dunno, somethin' that'll grow in sandy ground, with not so much nutrition in the dirt. Ghanima gave me a pair of cactus thingies before I left, so maybe somethin' like that? People need the green around here as bad as they need somethin' to eat, yo."

"Sure! Oh, maybe a baby palm tree? Or something like those aloe plants?" Dinah asked, sounding hopeful. "They have oil in them that's good for burns too, you know." She did a little sitting happy dance. "Now I know what I'm doing tomorrow after Superhero Fashion!"

"Ooh, good for burns is good," Reno practically sang, thrilled at the idea. "We got monsters that hang around here sometimes that'll throw off fireballs if you don't take 'em out before they get the chance. If you can hook me up with some veggie seeds and some aloe, you'd, like, make my freakin' month."

"Wooooo!" Dinah grinned hugely, wriggling with glee. "I will send them off as soon as I get off work, and- I have no idea when they'll get there," she realized. "How long do packages to Gaia take, anyway?" She sighed. "You're too far away. You and Chad. I talked to him last night. He's settled into New York City, he's applying for jobs there soon."

"The big guy, right?" Reno liked Chad. He was pretty cool, even if he had taken a while to register that Reno wasn't some dude called Renji. Huh. "You know, I got no clue how long packages here take, but I can't imagine it'd take too long. We don't really have customs holdin' things up. If you send 'em through Strife Delivery Service, with a note on the package to just hold onto 'em for Rude, I'll get my buddy here to pick 'em up next time he hits up the bar here in town," Reno decided.

It was convenient!

"Yup. Music school and modeling. In a teeny place not far from Peruvian musicians on the street. He likes it." Dinah nodded at these instructions and wrote them down, figuring that the Fandom post office would know how to direct it. "Got it. I'll make sure they can pack any seedlings so they arrive safe. Oh, and wow, are there a lot of newbies here. A lot a lot a lot a lot. I'm still meeting people who were here when I got here, Reno! They should wait until I know everyone else's names before they bring in more!"

"Too many rookies, huh? I been kinda hearin' that from other people I called up tonight, too. You make any new friends yet this term, Dinah?"

Rookies were sacred, dammit. Rookies making friends with rookies who were newer rookies kind of meant that they'd just gained some tenure. Dinah was growing out of rookie-status, so far as Reno saw it.

"I have a new Little Sib! Who is clinically insane, and I'm sorry he didn't get to meet Jamie before he left. And a new roomie, she's nice, Claire, we went shopping with Fiona, who's also cool, but wow, jumpy. Not used to a lot of people. And Gabrielle, who's a bard, and Karla who's a witch and is way glad to be here now I think, and some guys, George and Jon, in the category of jumpy and not-jumpy-at-all." Dinah paused, and said, "Oh oh oh, guess who else showed up? Oh, you won't guess. Arthur's foster sister! She's sharing a cabin with me. Arthur. Is just. Thrilled." Making it way clear he wasn't.

Edited 2009-05-14 03:18 (UTC)

"Hey, insane is good. I met a few of them while I was at Fandom, and they're some of the nicest people you'll ever know," Reno chuckled. "And really, Arthur's got a sister? Daaaaamn. Remind me to invite him to Edge for booze sometime, yo!"

"Get Arthur drunk, he probably needs it," Dinah said promptly, grinning. "Merlin disappeared for about two days and then came back with Morgana, and he's fighting with Leto, and there's new people who don't care he's a prince or in charge of stuff, and half of them are girls like me saying they want to fight him which just bothers him on about ten different levels. I'd feel sorry for him if I didn't want to nicely strangle him for being such a bear."

"Eeeh, toss 'Teddy' in front of that, and you're all set. He's all soft and squishy inside, I think. He's just good at hidin' it under that burlap exterior."

Reno almost kinda knew what he was talking about, even!

"He'll get used to it, or he'll die tryin', anyhow."

"Yeeeah. Let's hope there's no dying soon. Some of the new kids really couldn't handle it." Dinah took a breath, remembering the week before. "You missed an invasion. Mini-invasion. Shapeshifting kidnapper aliens."

That made Reno freeze for a moment. He was making a conscious effort not to freak, don't mind him.

"You know, I actually have experience with that?"

Freaking Jenova. Freaking shapeshifting aliens. Augh.

"Yeah?" Dinah asked, trying to keep her voice upbeat. "I didn't know that. Were yours green? And speaking another language?"

"She was kinda more of a dead... blue," Reno noted, frowning as he thought on it. "And didn't do no speakin' at all. Did a lot of buggerin' things up, though. The company I used to work for got their hands on her, did some messed up experiments mixin' her DNA with people, or monsters, or people in order to turn 'em into monsters."

The company Reno used to work for did a lot of things that he wasn't terribly proud of.

"Not pleasant stuff. Is everyone doin' okay after that?"

"Wow, that's creepy, sheesh." Dinah frowned, reaching out to pet Camille. "Yeah, we got everyone back. They grabbed Grace Winchester and the Mayor's little girl. Their parents were pissed. Well, like you'd expect. I guess the aliens wanted to convert us, or something, and thought we'd give in if they had hostages." She sighed. "And Tahiri took out their queen."

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