raspberryturk | Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

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Room 504, The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening

Damn, it was good to be on the island.

Daaaaaaaamn, it was so good to be on the island. And sure, the room he'd grabbed at The Arms wasn't his dorm room, but he had a real, honest-to-gods bed here, instead of the lumpy couch Reno had been sleeping on for the past little while, and that alone made the whole trip worth it.

Well, the bed and the minibar. He was going to have to coordinate some kind of drinking outing with the guys before he took off again, maybe. In the meantime, he'd pick up his cellphone and leave some ~~handwavey~~ messages telling his buddies on the island where he could be found.

And then? Then he was going to flop backward on that amazing friggin' bed and just sprawl.

Oh, hell yeah.

[Door's open, and if you figure you'd get a call, you totally did. Mmmm, feels like home.]

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Reno attempted to pick through where he'd be on that list. Jounin, maybe? Or he would have been, before the Turks left ShinRa. Now it felt far more like he was the paperwork guy.

Damn, he hated being the paperwork guy.

"Sounds like it'd be a good place for you, yo. Lots of opportunity. You'll take that exam an' kick ass."

"And pass, if I'm lucky," she said, her lips twisting slightly. "I mean, I know I'm good, and Asuma-sensei said if my fight I tied on last time had been in the finals it would've been even-odds that I'd have been promoted then," two years ago, "but it wasn't, so I didn't, and then here. But the big problem will be the fact that if there's any really heavy hitters and I get put up against them, my options are fairly limited."

"You wanna take that spar on Sunday an' turn it into some training, instead?"

Hey, Reno had been trained by Ghanima. He could take a beating, and he could dish one out, and if there was anything in the middle that had to be done, he could probably figure that out, too.

"You can use whatever you want, if you think you gotta exercise it some, yo."

"I'll never say no to training," she said, beaming up at him.

She was totally one of his Rookies. She would totally deny it vehemently.

"Mostly it's a problem with my skill set," Ino admitted, "Dad had the same issue, but he was, you know, a boy and so bigger 'n stronger than me at my age. I've got the skill at taijutsu, but I'm not strong enough. My whole training is pretty much centered around being a distraction, or sneaking around. Unfortunately, the finals are one-on-one fights in front of an audience."

"So sneakin' and distractin' don't do no good. Unless you find a way to distract your opponent from yourself," Reno mused.

Now, there would be something interesting to try to puzzle out. Now he was going to have to challenge her to do just that. It was the least he could do for a rookie, dammit.

"And deal with the fact that there's a good chance that I'll be fighting someone who knows my skills inside and out," she added, making a face. "I can do smoke bombs, and illusions, but all shinobi can. Which means I've got to manage to distract them and then be quick enough to get close enough to do damage to them."

Ino contemplated that.

"I could use some of the explosives Rikku gave me. They wouldn't recognize that." Or even a potion, just for the confusion...

Hm.

"You could," Reno agreed, smirking. "Rikku's bombs are pretty kickass, that way. Or, hell, I could set you up with some status-affectin' items, too. Poison's handy. I can give you the remedy, too, so you don't go killin' nobody. Or, hell, I could probably hook you up with some armor, if you want. But that'd probably defeat the purpose of testin' you, instead of the equipment, huh?"

"No armour," she said, making a face at him. "Armour is so samurai." Ewwww.

Unless it was a flak jacket, and she didn't have the rank for that.

"And, no, I don't want to... cheat. If that makes sense." There was cheating, and then there was cheating.

"Samurai? You figure?" Reno raised an eyebrow, and then he rolled up his sleeve to reveal the armband that he wore. The one that Rikku had made for him. "That's samurai, huh? Damn. An' here I've been usin' the wrong weapon all along, yo."

Smirk. Shrug.

"But I get it. Distractions are one thing. Poisons are another. It ain't a battle of skill if you're throwin' status items at 'em. It's just a test to see whose toys are the prettiest."

"Poisons and stuff in moderation are okay," Ino admitted, as she glanced at the armband. "We're allowed any weapon we want. But if you win all your fights the exact same way, you actually hurt your odds of getting promoted 'cause you're not showing versatility. They're not looking for a bruiser, they're looking for people who can think and adapt. You can be promoted even if you lose so long as you impressed them with your attempt."

A beat.

"And that's... really not armour, as it's considered in my world." No.

Lopsided grin time.

"Rikku made this armband for me," he noted. "It's kinda pimped out. Gives me an extra boost of speed if I'm gettin' my ass kicked and I need somethin' last minute so I don't, you know... Die or some stupid shit, yo. Mostly, it kicks in when I'm in dire straits. But it protects me from thunder spells, too."

He could stick a finger in an electrical socket right now and fry the living crap out of himself, and he'd feel better for having done so.

Nice, nice armour that way.

"You ever sparred against a guy trained by a Fremen woman? You want a challenge, I can really give you one, yo. But you gotta be able to catch me, first."

"I'm fast for my rank," she said, with a sideways glance. "But you're so far above me it's a joke."

Not that it'd stop her from trying.

"Yeah, armour is more... substantial in my world."

Reno had a bit of a laugh, at that.

"Armor's whatever you wear that gives you a little extra edge in battle, where I'm from. Accessories, too. I ain't got the same access to that kinda crap that I used to, but SOLDIER boy can probably get his hands on some decent stuff. Earrings that boost your ability to tap into magic, rings for damn near anything. That sorta junk."

Edited 2009-06-27 03:47 (UTC)

"SOLDIER boy creeps me out," Ino said, shrugging a bit. "And he spends a lot of time with Dinah. I ain't that sunshine~y."

Dinah kind of grated on Ino's nerves.

"'sides," she said slowly, "while I wouldn't mind, I'd have to explain it to Hokage-sama and I know exactly how long I'd be allowed to keep it back home." Try oh maybe three seconds. "They'd want to take it apart and see if they can make it work and make more. When I go I'm not even taking my gun with me. Our world doesn't need that."

Hey, SOLDIER boy creeped Reno out, too. For totally different reasons, but still.

"Fair enough," Reno agreed. "Some things, some worlds just ain't ready for. Better to stick with them bombs, then. They blow up once, they're gone an' there ain't no more. Seems like a good bet for you, then."

"I don't mind if they get the potions," she confessed. "I've got a fair bit of them and it'd take all of half a wibble to get them out of Zack."

Well, it was true.

"And, honestly, with the ones I've got, we've got better healing options in our world already. They'd just be a curiosity factor. Bombs and that, I can sneak past." Ino shrugged a bit. "Guns... I don't like them, even though I can use one pretty well by now. They're too easy."

The statement about Zack earned a bit of a snort. Oh yeah. That sounded like the kid that Tseng had them scouring the wastelands for, alright.

"Guns are too easy," Reno decided. "S'why I use my baton, yo. I can smack shit around with it before ever thinkin' to bust out the materia I got in there. An' there are better potions out there, in a big way, but you gotta find 'em first. Takes a few of the basic ones to do any good, if you take enough damage."

Reno had been chugging those things for a week after that thing with the plate. He didn't want to. But he had been.

She wriggled her fingers at him impishly.

"I'd be using them just to save my own strength," Ino said, adding proudly, "I can heal basic broken bones now."

A beat.

"But, yeah, it just seems pointless if anyone can use a gun, you know?"

"Anyone can use it, but some ain't as good as others, like anything," Reno noted, rolling one shoulder absently. "The boss is a perfect shot with his. An' it takes a lotta skill for me to call anyone perfect, zoto. I think the real difference is that it tips the playin' field too much. Bringin' a gun to a knifefight is an easy way to win if you're decent at it, 'cause the other guy can't get close enough to start. There's a time an' place."

Ino thought about that.

"Maybe," she said, a bit dubiously. "That sounds a bit silly put that way though."

"You got the right opponent, bullets can be dodged or parried, just like anything else," Reno pointed out.

Look, physics didn't have any place where he was from. Not really. Bullets could totally be dodged and parried.

"Yeaaah," Ino said, "but I ain't going to want to be the one to volunteer for that bit of training."

Yeah, no.

And that? That earned a laugh.

Possibly a much-needed one, considering life lately.

"What, you don't wanna get shot at?"

... Reno was weird. He kind of enjoyed the thrill of it.

"Not 'til I'm faster anyway," she mused. "And that'd suck getting hit."

"Usually does," Reno agreed, still downright chipper, considering the conversation. "Hurts like a sonofabitch!"

Really. Way too chipper. What the hell, Reno?

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