Rude's Apartment, Edge, Thursday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

Reno had a bit of a dilemma, and he had today off by some miracle. And so, on his day off, he was going to attempt to fix it.

His living space since he'd moved in to Rude's apartment had become a little on the cramped side. Sure, it was more space than he'd had while he was living in the dorms on Fandom Island. But while he was in school, he hadn't been trying to cultivate greens, either. Unless one counted the green fuzz that sometimes grew on whatever he'd left sitting around, but that was a different thing entirely. As it stood, Reno was staring in bewilderment at the contents of Rude's living room.

Rude had set off for work today with a clearly stated mission for Reno to handle before he got back. He didn't care how he did it, just so long as it was done.

The clutter... would have to go.

So much easier said than done, when you were used to stockpiling whatever you could get your hands on, and you had people sending you care packages from all over creation. Nevermind the assorted bits he'd managed to gather with full intent to toss together a makeshift greenhouse in he future.

"Mako," Reno sighed, plucking the ferret out of his beans for the umpteeth time this afternoon, "I think this couch-surfin' shit ain't all it's made out to be, yo."

[NFB for distance, naturally, but open for the usual riffraff to give their phone calls and what-have-you!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"They spit fire," Reno replied. "An' yeah, they do kill people. Not everyone's been trained up like I have, zoto. Most people don't stand a chance against 'em."

[intraspective]

The idea of a bouncing tub of lard that spit fire was...

Well. The mental images alone were weird.

"Guess people try to stick where it's safe then?" Ino asked. "And take chances where they've got to? Imagine that leaves a lot of room for the monsters."

[raspberryturk]

"It does. An' they're pretty thick in the ruins, especially by the reactors. I think they spawn in the mako leaks, or somethin'."

Reno didn't know. It was all sciencey shit, to him.

[intraspective]

"Isn't there a way to clean up the mako stuff?" Ino asked. "Since it's bad for people and stuff--maybe, I don't know, give it back to the planet?"

[raspberryturk]

"I bet that'd make what's left of AVALANCHE pretty happy," Reno mused. "Givin' it back is probably harder'n it sounds. The equipment to dig it up an' move it around runs on mako, too."

Messy. Messsssy. Dammit.

"I guess we're all kinda hopin' that The Planet'll just suck it up again on its own at this point."

[intraspective]

"Can't you guys use, like, gasoline or something?" Ino checked. "Like, instead of mako? Does mako hurt the ground? I know it hurts people and if it's breeding monsters then probably hurts animals too."

[raspberryturk]

"We ain't really ever worked with oil. I heard talk of some people startin' to drill for it, but actually processin' it and makin' use of it is somethin' else entirely." Reno pursed his lips. "I ain't sure what kinda effect mako has on the ground, though. I know if we suck it outta the ground, everything withers up an' dies. Maybe it'll work like ferilizer. But you gotta be stupid enough to gather it, first."

Reno had mako eyes. Reno, clearly, had been stupid enough to shower in it. So.

[intraspective]

"And it sends you to a coma, right, if you get--over loaded on it?" As Ino tried to parse what else he'd told her before into coherency.

She tugged at her hair.

"Volunteers maybe."

[raspberryturk]

"Really stupid volunteers," Reno snorted. "Yeah. Too much mako'll throw a person into a case of mako addiction. Coma. Death. Plenty of SOLDIER wannabes never survived the surgery, zoto."

Reno pursed his lips, thinking it over.

"I already got a dose, through ShinRa. Means I could probably make a run in and out without gettin' my idiot ass killed. But it ain't a risk I'm too keen on takin', either."

[intraspective]

"What's mako addiction like?" Ino asked curiously. "'Cause coma and death don't sound much like one of those to me."

She hummed slightly, thinking.

"Did you ever try the thing with the seeds?"

[raspberryturk]

"It's weakness, first. Sucks everything you got right outta you. Leaves you in a haze. Fucks with your mind." Reno frowned, looking out the window. Shitty view of Midgar. Oh, yes. "Maybe you're all there, at first. But you can't do nothin'. Just drool on yourself an' moan. They got a sayin', if it don't kill you, it'll make you stronger. You gotta add onto that, with mako. If it don't kill you, pray to the Gods it don't leave you with a case of mako poisoning, zoto."

A pause.

"And no, I ain't been crazy enough to get in that close yet. I gotta get a lot more drunk to get in there an' risk gettin' mako sick again, yo."

[intraspective]

"Throw them in," she reminded him patiently. "Or find some sort of gun that can shoot out seeds. You just need to see if they'll grow. Don't need to get that close."

As Ino contemplated the rest of it.

"Wait," she said, "so like, if it doesn't kill you, you might end up fine? But if not, you get poisoning and wind up coma-ing and dying?"

[raspberryturk]

"If you can fight it off, you might be stronger," Reno corrected. "Like Zack. He could handle the mako treatment."

There was a bitter kind of pause in there, before Reno grudgingly added. "I couldn't."

Why else did anyone think he looked like a sunken-faced crackwhore when he was still new to the school? He hadn't exactly been healthy, after all.

[intraspective]

Ino blinked at that.

"You couldn't?"

[raspberryturk]

Siiiigh.

"It ain't even necessarily a matter of strong an' weak. It's a matter of, can your body handle it. Maybe mako reacts different to different people, I dunno. I just know that your chances of makin' it past the screening into SOLDIER were damn low, back in the day, because if ShinRa had to bury that many potentials, there would'a been riots in the fuckin' streets."

Which was a nice, roundabout way of Reno agreeing that no, he couldn't.

[intraspective]

"How do the Turks fit in then?" Ino asked interestedly. "And was SOLDIER, like, super popular then?"

[raspberryturk]

"SOLDIER were the pretty faces," Reno replied. "The heroes. The guys that ShinRa would throw out in the public eye to win wars an' kill monsters an' kiss babies for the newspapers. They got the enhancements, 'cause you just can't kill some of that shit if you're human. Can't be done."

Reno had run like hell from Bahamut Sin. If Zack had still been alive and anywhere near as strong as he'd been when the infantry had put him down, he would have hacked it to little pieces, giggled, and kept the materia so he could keep the dragon as some kind of pet or something.

"The Turks don't usually get them treatments. We're your typical thugs and fuckups, put in pretty suits an' told to do the dirty shit. Scoutin' for SOLDIER potentials, whether they wanna be or not. Killin', kidnappin', torturin', stealin', diggin' up bodies. All that shit you don't want on the evening news."

[intraspective]

"Your eyes are bluer," she said, "does that mean you tried as a SOLDIER?"

Ino could... not fathom that. It kind of broke her brain.

"And... couldn't make it...?" That was even weirder.

"Only guys could do it?" Ino wondered. "Were there any girls in SOLDIER?"

[raspberryturk]

"I wanted to be in SOLDIER for a bit, there," Reno noted. "Pay ain't near as good, but I can live on shit, an' you don't never get bored. They got to see all the action on the field that the Turks didn't."

He laughed a little, remembering him bitching to Rude one day about how bored he'd been, having to sit back and wait for the fights to come to him instead of going out to chase them down like the guys in SOLDIER did.

"Don't remember ever seein' any women in SOLDIER, nah. We got plenty of 'em in the Turks, though. Some of the best Turks we had were chicks."

[intraspective]

"That's weird," she commented. "You'd think that girls would want to fight too, don't you think? Least there were girls in where you ended up--otherwise that'd be totally unfair."

Girls could be utterly badass too, geez.

"You think, maybe, it's a mako thing? That they can't handle it?"

If so, Ino was going to sulk a bit. How dare a planet decide that?!

[raspberryturk]

"I don't think it's a mako thing, nah. I think it's a ShinRa thing." You could hear the smirk over the phone, yes. "Guys wore the uniforms better, or somethin'."

[intraspective]

Ino sniffed.

"That's 'cause girls would totally insist on prettier uniforms," she informed him. "Even if Zack makes it look pretty good."

But then Zack was pretty damn easy on the eyes, really.

[raspberryturk]

"Turks uniform is hotter," Reno sniffed right back. "An' you should see the way a chick can fill it out, yoto. Mroooowr."

[intraspective]

Ino actually laughed. "Too bad I can't see that," she drawled.

[raspberryturk]

"Well, you do got a female Turk on campus," Reno noted. "But if Elena ain't wearin' her uniform, that makes things harder."

A beat.

"Guess we're gonna have to wait an' see if Fandom ever decides to give me tits again by proxy, yo."