Edge, Friday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

Distress calls from Rookies, left, right, and center. That was what Reno came home to, after over a week without phone reception out in the wastes. And now it was the countdown, before one Rookie would get here, with Ifrit only knew what kind of trauma fresh in her head.

Pick up the phone. Dial numbers. He had well over an hour, between the time Ino's portal would arrive to pick her up, and the time it would actually make it into Edge, after all.

"The boss sends me on one mission in the middle of nowhere, Mako, an' the whole universe goes to Hell without me, zoto."

[NFB for distance, as usual. Open for anyone who needs a Reno call or who wants to give one, all calls will sit chronologically before a certain Ninja visitor, yo.]

Comments

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"It wouldn't have helped," she sighed. "Tseng warned me about not taking the job. I didn't listen to him, either."

Wasn't the slums, wasn't living under her father's roof. She didn't give a damn what anyone said, she wanted the job.

"But if there's something else you want me to pass along, let me know. Good chocobos to bet on? You could make a fortune."

[raspberryturk]

Reno laughed and gave his head a shake.

"Hyperion, yo. I knew it then, an' I still know it now. Can't go wrong when you're bettin' on Joe, zoto."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Always bet on black?" she laughed. "I heard there were a couple of gold ones now and then, but I doubt any of the jockeys looked that good."

Man in a black hat. Suave as hell.

"Reno? Did anyone ... warn you? When you were recruited."

[raspberryturk]

"I didn't give 'em the chance."

No, he didn't have to think long and hard to come up with that reply.

"You know what Sector Five looked like, Elena. They mentioned a way out, an' I would'a gone with 'em if the job consisted of shovelin' chocobo shit for the rest of my life. Fuck, I got to choose, SOLDIER an' the Turks. Uniform looked better, here."

It was difficult to tell sometimes, with Reno, whether or not his ramble had crossed some vague line from earnest right on over to bullshit.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"I cannot picture you in SOLDIER," Elena giggled. "They have to follow orders. And wear the suits properly. I wouldn't be surprised if the lower ranks have curfew."

Elena had gone to the Academy. The military loved telling you what to do.

"I wonder if anyone's ever turned it down," she mused.

[raspberryturk]

"Wouldn't surprise me none," Reno mused. "I figure there were enough people who knew enough about us back in the day that one or two people probably knew better, yoto."

Typically people who had been burned by ShinRa before. Who managed, by some miracle, to still be alive.

Or whatever.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Do people get to turn it down?" Elena asked. "I mean ... if I had said no ... they just smile and wave and move on to the next target? No hard feelings?"

That seemed a little saccharine, for ShinRa. But Tseng had seemed sincere, when he had given her the choice. Maybe the offer had been under the table.

[raspberryturk]

Reno lifted a shoulder.

"Might depend on the situation," he noted. "Remember, we're the guys who'd press-gang unwilling bastards into SOLDIER. I figure if the company decided that they really fuckin' wanted us, they'd get us. But, then again..."

He pursed his lips, looking at the ceiling.

"It's a shitload more important that the Turks are loyal to the company than damn near anyone else. We learn the dirty shit. If we don't wanna be here from the get-go, we ain't what ShinRa's lookin' for. Cut the loss, move along. Nobody knows nothin' about what we do until after we say yes, anyhow."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Maybe it's not a straight black-or-white," Elena said thoughtfully, as she inspected her own ceiling. "Maybe they try to persuade you, talk you around into wanting to join. I can't imagine them investing the energy to identify a candidate and then let that go without a peep."

[raspberryturk]

"Well, yeah, they're gonna talk you into wantin' to join," Reno replied. "I think at the same time, they ain't gonna ask unless they already figure you're fuckin' idiot enough to agree to do it, yo."

Which was a fair assumption, wasn't it?

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Better than life under that plate," Elena said simply.

Half the slums hated ShinRa, but no one turned down a chance to get out. Not even if it meant selling yourself to that same damned company.