raspberryturk | Edge, Saturday Afternoon

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Edge, Saturday Afternoon

There were some things that were totally worth getting in trouble with the boss for, Reno decided. Being a grumpy son of a bitch was good for things like getting on Tseng's nerves, teaching the rookie how to run for cover, and also for getting sent on impromptu vacations to other worlds in order to visit the girlfriend.

It had totally been worth it. But, as such things tend to go, this vacation didn't last forever, and soon Reno was hopping another portal back to Edge.

The first thing he did upon getting home was reach for the Everclear that Romeo had sent him. Romeo was still the best buddy ever, and Reno was going to have to find some way to make it up to him. Maybe he'd ship him some porn or something. That was always excellent payback, right?

And then he checked the texts and voicemails that he'd missed lately. Which led to a lot of alternating between laughing and frowning. Killing beans and killing babies were two very different things indeed. But hey, verbal Twitters were amusing, at least.

It wasn't until he went to check on the beans to be certain that they were still alive (they were) and the ferret to make sure that he wasn't dead (he wasn't) that a chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling, hitting Reno solidly on the head and reminding him quite firmly that he wasn't in Spira anymore.

Sigh.

"Home sweet shithole."

[NFB for distance and all, but Reno's open for phone calls, text messages, random letters, and all of that good stuff.]

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"Poke him," Dinah said, then slightly anxiously, "It'll happen, you know. Crops are slow, that's all. Or, or, OR!" Idea, light bulb, look at that. "Ship in soil! Duh!"

Blink. Blink blink.

"Ship it in?"

That... made sense, actually.

"How you figure we do that?"

"From the countryside-- stuff's still growing out there, right? You can get it in trucks, or little flower beds and pots, or we can ship some from here! People always have stuff left over from building, you know? They have to strip off the top, and they sell it! At least they did back in Missouri, when they put in a new school." Dinah stopped burbling, and paused for breath. "Would that work?"

"Little pots might do it," Reno noted. "I mean, obviously people can't grow crops in somethin' that small, but at least it means some fresh green stuff now an' then, right? Trucks are kinda tricky. After Meteor hit Midgar, people have been kinda freaked out about usin' mako to run their vehicles, an' we ain't really gotten around to processin' oil well enough to get us by yet. There's coal, but that shit's archaic."

He drummed his fingers against his knee.

"I guess we could hitch carts up to chocobo, but they're gettin' burned out just shippin' food up here so that the survivors don't starve, zoto."

"No no, not coal, that is *so* bad for the air and the water," Dinah said anxiously. "So you need more fuel sources too, hunh? That blows." She shook her head, then said, "At least little pots would be easy to move, and you wouldn't have to worry about big space or anything. With the seeds and the soil, and some water-- it's at least a start." She frowned. "Maybe solar stuff? Do you guys get enough sunlight?"

"The sky's gettin' better day by day," Reno noted, leaning forward and squinting out the window. "It ain't black an' green all the time, anyhow."

Yeah. Midgar used to be pretty disgusting.

"But I don't think it's sunny enough most of the time to actually run anything, yo. I was thinkin' maybe wind, instead. The desert out there goes on for-friggin'-ever, an' it gets plenty of wind."

"Ew," Dinah said, making a face into the phone. "But yeah, wind would be better that way. And it's simpler. The parts are easier to get than for solar. You have to be careful of birds, but... do you guys have a lot of birds?" She was quiet a second, thinking. "The water's okay, right? Not too salty or anything?" This was really bringing back stuff from Missouri that she'd never thought she'd talk about again. So weird.

"The water's as good as it's probably ever gonna be," Reno replied, sighing. "There ain't too many birds out there, though. Except the monster kind. There's nothin' out there for birds to eat."

Well. The ravens were having the time of their lives a couple of years back. Plenty of bodies to pick at. But even they moved on when humanity didn't have the sense to.

Damn, people could take lessons from the birds.

"That's something, anyway. And pots would be easier to keep birds and mice away from then a new big crop in the city, too," Dinah realized aloud. "Otherwise, I'd say rooftop garden. Or a greenhouse."

"But would we be able to keep people fed and eatin' comfortably with just whatever can be grown in pots? What's that about greenhouses?"

That sounded intriguing!

"Greenhouse? You didn't see those while you were here? Oh! Um, they're little houses made out of glass, to concentrate the light, and keep the plants warm. And protect them from storms," Dinah added. "You need, umm, kind of greenish glass panes, I think? But it helps with plants that can't take the cold, or need more light than you're getting. So you could get more variety that way."

"Variety's good," Reno mused, smirking. "They probably got that kinda stuff on our world too, but I never paid attention to that kinda thing before even if we did."

A thoughtful pause.

"Think you could dig up information about that kinda thing for me? I'm sure we got enough scrap just sittin' around the ruins of Midgar to throw somethin' like that together."

"Sure! I'll e-mail you whatever I find tonight," Dinah promised. "I don't think they're really hard to build, either. You could put one on top of any building, and you'd be set." She grinned, thrilled again at being able to help, at least a little. "Yaaaay. Too bad we can't ship you the graduates who are working on the Sixth Floor for a weekend or two as well."

"I'm sure we'll be able to find plenty of willin' hands once I let the neighborhood know that we're tryin' to feed 'em," Reno laughed. "But hey, I ain't gonna turn down whatever help people have got, either. Just can't promise I can find room for people. Or food for 'em. Or..."

Snerk.

"The blueprints would be great, zoto."

"Yeeeah," Dinah said, amused. "They could bring their own Twinkies, though. Anyway! Now you won't have to offend peoples. Are you okay there? Aside from Rude and Tseng and Mako, do you have people to hang out with?"

"Rude an' Tseng an' Mako an' Elena," Reno grinned. "The other rookie. One of the other rookies. The not-from-Fandom rookie, yo. She ain't half bad, now that we don't hate each other's guts, zoto."

She hadn't been Reno's rookie. That made all of the difference in the world.

"But aside from the Turks an' the weasel, there ain't been much in the way of a social life. Your verbal Twitter was a highlight, yo."

"Awwwww." Dinah shook her head. "I'm glad you've got friends there, but I'm sorry everything at Midgard is so... messed up. There should be something more for people to have. Aside from flowers on Ancient sites or whatever."

Midgard, Midgar, close enough. Reno was getting used to that verbal slip from Fandomites anyhow.

"Eh, it's life. It ain't like the rest of Gaia is doin' much better. It's probably the worst here, but places like Junon caught hell, too." He reached for his bottle. Mm. Boozey. "So. Tell me, what does your SOLDIER buddy know about my here an' now? You know he's from my past, right?"

His brain was everywhere. Forgive him.

"We kind of figured that, because, um." She winced. "I tried to tell him that there were some natural disasters? And Zack didn't remember any, so we figured out that he's from your past. And he doesn't think ShinRa every does anything bad, and I just couldn't tell him more, Reno. He's so enthusiastic, and he wants to save people, so...." Dinah bit her lip. "Do you know how far in the past he's from? Or anything about him? He's fifteen, he just made SOLDIER second class."

"I didn't know him all that well," Reno noted. "He's still a second? Daaamn, then I ain't even met him yet. First time I saw him, he was a snotty little first class, tryin' to mess with Turk business in the streets of Sector Eight," he noted.

There was a kind of natural animosity between Turks and SOLDIER. Well. Most Turks. Most members of SOLDIER.

"If he's fifteen, it can't be too long before that, though. Maybe a year before that? An' that was..." He leaned his head back, thinking. "He's got a few years, anyhow." Wait! Uh. "Before he catches up, I mean."

Lying through the skin of his teeth. But Reno was a damn good liar when he had to be.

"Time travel makes my head hurt," Dinah complained, missing that entirely. "Sooo, he's still there in the city? Or did he move on out to fight monsters in the desert, when everything went boom?"

"He... spent a lot of time in the desert," Reno replied, vaguely. Very vaguely.

It was accurate. That's where the site was marked, overlooking Midgar.

"I don't think he ever made it to Midgar before Meteorfall, actually."

"Meteorfall," Dinah repeated, determined to pass that along to Zack. "Okay, nothing could stop that, I'm guessing, but maybe, maybe? He could get people more prepared? If I tell him and he goes back?" That couldn't be wrong, right?

Okay. Reno was now putting down the booze, because the last thing he needed was to work himself up and end up revisiting the Everclear. Guh.

"Meteorfall... is kinda somethin' that can't be prepared for," he replied, staring out the window. Damn, he hated that view. Midgar looked like shit. "It was supposed to end the world. Maybe..."

He couldn't believe he was asking Dinah to pass on this message.

"Just... tell him to stay loyal to his friends around here. That's the most important thing anyone could ever tell the kid. It saves the world someday."

"I will," Dinah said, determined, and a little bit elated. Zack helped save the world? Woo! And that meant he was right, if he tried hard enough, he could make a difference to the future that was coming. "I'll be sure he knows that, I swear."

Edge, Saturday Afternoon

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