Edge, Saturday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

It was a good thing that Bat Eyes were so damn easy to take down, Reno mused, as he wiped some bloody monster sludge off of his baton and onto his pant leg. Things had been busy in Edge over the past few days. A few monsters had wandered into the outskirts of the town out of the ruins of what used to be the Midgar slums, and they were having their hungry ways with the locals.

Which suited Reno just fine. He got the pleasure of being hired on by the WRO in order to take care of the threat while they continued working on setting up their military, and on top of the pay that they were giving him to deal with the job, he got to keep whatever the monsters dropped when he took them down, too. Mostly ethers and bubblegum money, but he could live with that.

He finished rummaging through what was left of the corpse of the last one as it faded away to join the lifestream, or whatever it was that dead monsters did, and then he took a seat on the nearest bench, sprawling out, looking up at the bluish-gray haze of sky above him, pulling out his phone, and turning it on.

Sometimes, rebuilding wasn't really so bad after all.

[For anybody who wants to phone or be phoned! NFB for distance, of course! Zack-related spoilers throughout the threads. Read at your own risk, yo.]

Comments

[bitchprince]

It was a bare few minutes when the phone in question rang. Loudly.

[raspberryturk]

The phone, it was ringing! In a demanding, almost pushy sort of way.

Reno had himself a good chuckle as he checked the caller ID before answering.

"Yo, Arthur! You startin' to master the Blackberry already, huh? Fast learner!"

[bitchprince]

"I've only been trying for ten minutes!" Arthur told him, like it was something to be proud of. "So I'd say I'm settling well. Reno. Afternoon."

[raspberryturk]

"It is afternoon," Reno agreed, smirking upward at the sky. It even almost looked like daytime up there, too. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this afternoon phone call, yo?"

[bitchprince]

"I wanted to speak with you about a new arrival to our island," said Arthur, who apparently didn't understand 'brevity in phone calls' just yet.

[raspberryturk]

Reno had faith that he'd catch on. At least he wasn't shouting random words at him, anymore.

"You got some kinda problem with one of the newbies or somethin', Arthur? That ain't nothin' a good kick in the seat of the pants'll usually fix, you know."

[bitchprince]

"Not a problem," Arthur said, somewhat briskly (for his standards). "Leto and I have decided to bring in an apprentice to the leadership position in the reserve."

Which was political-ese for I'm trying to get some third sucker to show up to run these things so things will remain pleasant between me and my roommate and no one will have to be tossed off a cliff into the ocean at any point.

"One of our candidates claims to be a countryman of yours."

[future_sandworm]

Dianh had told him how to use the phone, so Leto thought it was only right to call Reno and let him know.

[raspberryturk]

Right off the bad, Reno was damn glad to hear that Arthur and Leto were planning on finding someone else to play referee. It was pretty much impossible for Reno to play sane middle ground when he couldn't stand directly between the two of them to keep them from clawing out one another's eyeballs.

"You found yourselves somebody from Midgar, huh? What's he like?"

[bitchprince]

"Very, very, very..."

Arthur trailed off a little.

"Cheerful," he settled on. "And dedicated. And not too shabby in a fight."

Someone was drawing little hearts in their diary. Except not really.

[raspberryturk]

Reno had gotten so immersed in the haze of sky above him that he damn near jumped out of his pants when it rang yet again. Popular Turk was popular, today!

"Reno speakin'!"

You know, in case whoever was phoning him didn't already know. Or something.

[raspberryturk]

Reno could practically hear the puppy-love through the phone.

Aww!

"The sorta person who you want havin' your back when monsters are tryin' to eat the island again, huh?"

[future_sandworm]

"Hello Reno, this is Leto." He spoke clearly, not sure how well the sound was transferred. "Arthur gave me the phone you sent."

[bitchprince]

"Perhaps," said Arthur, who was still not the best in the world at heaping on praise. "It's possible. But I'm-- 'calling' to see if you've heard anything of him. His name is Zack Fair."

[raspberryturk]

"And you figured out how to use it," Reno noted. Daaamn, he felt proud. He was corrupting little non-technological minds left and right! "Good goin', Leto!"

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, yeah, Za-" Whoa. Wait. Hold the phone.

Reno was going to be needing a moment to assimilate that information.

Just a moment, really. He'd be with Arthur in a second or two.

"Smiles a lot? Eyes blue enough to rival Leto's? Probably wearin' some kinda funky military getup?"

After all, there could totally be some other Zack Fair out there, right? It sounded like one of those common names.

Right.

[bitchprince]

"I did for a moment wonder if he was Fremen," Arthur said, thoughtfully, then shook it off. "You know him, then."

[raspberryturk]

"Met him once," Reno agreed. "Don't really know him. He was a close friend of my boss and one of the lady Turks I used to work with."

It was hard for Reno to know Zack Fair, all things considered.

"I can tell you right up front, whatever Zack you got is from the past. At least three years before where I'm sittin' now. Maybe more. Is he a 1st class yet?" This was possibly the strangest conversation Reno had participated in over the past few weeks, yes.

[bitchprince]

Arthur shook his head. Because Reno could hear that over the phone, Arthur. "He introduces himself as a SOLDIER second class," he said, "We were wondering about the rank as it was."

[future_sandworm]

"Dinah taught me," Leto confessed. He might not be quite comfortable with the amount of technology in Fandom, but he wasn't going to let Reno know. "She also taught me to send photographs and music," he added.

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, wow. He's from way back, then. Five, six, seven years. Somethin' like that. I wasn't payin' attention so much." Reno took a moment to get his brain working again. Huh. "Second class ain't bad, actually. SOLDIER was ShinRa's elite military, back in the day. There are three levels to 'em, 1st bein' the best of the best, 2nd bein' pretty damn good, and 3rd bein' the rookies, who can still kick the asses of ShinRa's normal infantry. Zack'll make 1st someday, if that means anything to you."

[bitchprince]

"It does," Arthur assured him, thoughtfully. "That's what I needed to know."

There was a moment of silence. "How's your beans holding up?"

[raspberryturk]

"Heeey! Blackmail!" Reno was grinning. Could Leto hear the grin in his voice? "You figured out how to use the camera on that thing, then?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno was suddenly insanely thankful for the change of subject. There was more, there, right on the tip of his tongue. Something else about Zack that he was dying to get off of his chest.

And he didn't know if he even should.

"The beans ain't doin' too bad," he replied, instead. Best to leave the old topic behind, in the dust. He'd write a eulogy for it later, maybe. Yeah. "I got some leaves startin' to happen on one of 'em. Tried another one in some of the local dirt, which ain't doin' too bad, but that's just because I'm waterin' it with that miracle water that bubbled up outta the floor of the church a while back."

[bitchprince]

If Reno hadn't been in another dimension, and his entire tie to Arthur hadn't been a small electronic device, Arthur may have noticed the subtext of all of that. Since none of that was happening, though, he didn't, and simply ploughed straight along. "The church does bring wonders," he said. It sounded like he was coughing up something that had been squished in there at a young age. "It has to be; it's a miracle they've survived you. How's it looking? The rest of it?"