raspberryturk | Edge, Saturday Afternoon

Entry tags:

Edge, Saturday Afternoon

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.]

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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."

"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."

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?"

"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.

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?"

"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."

"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.

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

"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.

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."

"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."

"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?"

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."

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?"

It kind of was a miracle that the beans had survived Reno. He wasn't even going to argue against that point.

"The rest of it is lookin'... Kinda better, yo. They're gettin' a crew together to rebuild the road that came down a few months back. There are still monsters, though. There are always gonna be monsters. But that's fine. Keeps me busy, zoto."

Busy was better than staring out the window in a daze. He'd take busy. He'd also take his package of smokes out of his pocket. He needed one, right about now.

"If there weren't always monsters, we'd be unnecessary," Arthur said, not unkindly. "But now, Reno. 'Kinda better' almost sounds vaguely optimistic."

"That's me all over. A ragin' optimist," Reno snorted, fumbling about for his lighter, too. Stupid suits with stupid pockets. He didn't need so many, dammit. "It's just good to be seein' people finally start to really be able to focus on pickin' up the pieces again, now that they ain't worried about the stigma gettin' to 'em before they make their mark in the world, yo."

"Don't let that optimism grow ten sizes now," Arthur said, sardonically. "Your big enough and might just get stuck in it." Yeah, like he could resist. "Any more beans sprouting?"

"I got one, yeah," Reno replied, finally locating his lighter and managing to get his cigarette lit. Okay, life was officially ten times better, now. "The light ain't so good for growin' things, here, so they're kinda... yellow."

They weren't brown yet. That was the important part.

"I need to get some kinda lamp or somethin' for that, I think."

"Yellow is heading somewhere," Arthur said, leaning his head back onto his pillow in the alcove. "Light a candle, or something." Beat. "We're almost out of the cabins."

With that statement, Reno had, apparently, officially been branded an actual friend. Not that Arthur would mention why, or how, or why it even mattered.

"Oh, man. I remember the cabins." Reno smirked faintly, shutting his eyes. If he ignored the smell of rust and smog in the air, he could almost pretend he was back on Fandom this way. "I ain't usually a guy who really values havin' personal space, but daaamn, the cabins sucked."

He'd been a few months out of Edge by that point, and he was damn paranoid that people were going to make off with his stuff if he turned his back. He couldn't lock his door, after all. He'd had a curtain.

"Lookin' forward to bein' down to one roomie again?"

"You have no idea," Arthur said, with a snort. "Spending my days locked in a room with Leto is starting to look like heaven in comparison."

Which was as good as any way to communicate that he and Leto were Okay for the moment.

That sounded very much as though they weren't killing one another again! Reno was going to take that as a good sign!

"Good to hear," he decided, letting a wry smile creep over his lips. "There are worse fates than Leto, after all, yo."

"A few of them," Arthur said, after a moment, "But I wouldn't want to talk them up."

"If you did, Leto might have to try and live up to 'em, huh?"

Which was actually something Reno kind of wanted to see now. On film. From a safe distance.

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