Edge, Tuesday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

"Back to work, back to work."

Work for Reno, it should be noted, mostly consisted of him putting his feet on his desk and pretending to be busy. There were reports to be filed. He didn't wanna. That required effort.

Taking jobs that involved him chasing down monsters or beating terrorists to a messy pulp or, dare he say it, the jobs that required making hits? That wasn't work. That was play.

Reno? Reno was working. So hard at work. Staring at paper. Paperwork would be less boring if maybe it came in crossword format. Or word search. Or if it was written out in code that replaced each letter of the alphabet with a different picture of a naked chick. If it did that, maybe it wouldn't be so much work!

Yes, he was totally spending his time hard at work trying to will the phone to ring with his brain. Ugh, work.

[For phonecalls, of course. Reno is, as usual, boooored.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Maaaaybe a few," Dinah said pending permission of parties puckering up. "You'll see when you come visit! And he's not a trained killer-- well." She paused. "He fights monsters? Back at his home? Called lurkers. They kind of look like a cross between a gorilla and a frog." Dinah tilted her head. "Maybe it's too soon to say for sure, though. It was just one kiss? But. It was really nice." She'd gotten enough used to the idea that she wasn't bibbling it at a high-speed whisper now, though. "His name's Jak. Just Jak. From Sandover. Oh! And a giant robot!"

[raspberryturk]

There was Reno's head, kinda twitching a little as he tried to piece that together.

"I mean, I'm the trained killer. An' you kissed him and a giant robot?"

Look, it had been a long day at work.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah and her mun might've had a little too much caffiene today.

"Right! I knew that." Dinah turned red, then grinned. "And no! Just him! He took out a giant robot, though." She paused, then the rest settled into her brain and she had to say, "Awwww. You'd threaten him for me! That's so nice! And violent! But nice!"

[raspberryturk]

"I'm nicely violent!" And yes, Reno sounded entirely too proud of himself, at that!

"And pfft, who ain't taken out a giant robot, nowadays? That ain't all that big a deal, yo."

It was entirely possible that Reno's world was kinda really, really weird.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" Dinah was staring at the phone now, and demanding, "Why didn't I hear this story? How did you do it?"

[raspberryturk]

"Bah, it's easy, yo. Robots an' electricity don't get along so well. Buggers up their circuits and junk. And in Midgar? Craploads of big robots. There was this day when all of ShinRa's security droids went friggin' insane, and we had to beat 'em down through all of Sector Eight."

Reno missed Sector Eight. And beating up robots. And such.

"Good times, Rookie. Good times."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Dude," Dinah said mournfully, and taking mental notes on how to deal with giant robots if they ever came to New Gotham. Or Fandom. "I kinda think that's how Jak did it too, yellow eco, it's this energy stuff they have there-- anyway. I'm training and training and it's been almost a month and the only invasion we have to worry about it parents this weekend. Oh, and the little blue guys who were stealing underwear." She paused. "Not mine!"

[raspberryturk]

"Blue guys stealin' underwear."

Reno needed a moment.

"Damn, sometimes I think I'm gonna go nuts if I don't get back to Fandom sometime soon. An' then someone says somethin' like that, and I wonder why the hell I miss it!"

And yes, he was laughing as he said that.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"You love it," Dinah accused him, grinning. "Plus you missed maple syrup rain... How are things going there? Aside from slinkies and superballs? Did you ever get those water treatment thingies to work?"

[raspberryturk]

"They work," Reno assured her. "I mean, I drank outta one of 'em, and I ain't dead yet. But then, I grew up on slum water, so that probably ain't any indication either."

He laughed a little, shaking his head.

"Had a few folks in the streets set up some of 'em, an' wrote a letter to the head of the WRO tellin' him he ought to be doin' the same. Last I saw, there were some decent ones poppin' up here an' there, too."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Awesome," Dinah said, pleased. "I'm glad, I know big ones can't be easy to make. But maybe that'll help people out." She grinned and bounced on her bed. "How're the beans doing? Still yellow?" She snickered. "And hey! Would you want an ice cream maker? Do you guys have milk?"

[raspberryturk]

"Sure we have milk!"

Don't ask Reno what in the world they milked to get the milk. It was entirely possible that cows didn't exist on Gaia.

"We got ice, too, when I can keep the freezer runnin'. And the beans are fiiiine. I been takin' 'em down to the kids below. I got a few regulars down on the street. Kinda got half a mind to just invite 'em to move in, but that wouldn't be safe for 'em, either."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Then I'll send you the fixings," Dinah decided, since hey, kids who liked superballs would probably like ice cream as well as Reno. "They could make enchiladas? Maybe some tortillas or something." Which was Dinah's idea of how you ate beans, as part of the spiciest Mexican food you could make. "Why wouldn't it be safe? Structurally, or something else, and why are you there then?" she asked, worried.

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, no, the building is fine, Rookie. That ain't it." Reno sighed, shifting his weight a little and looking at the ceiling. "People get the idea that a Turk is gettin' soft on the neighbourhood kids, though, they're gonna do what it takes to get to the Turk."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Dinah processed that, then said, "Oh." Not safe for the kids. Right. "Gotcha." A moment of silence, then a bit more soberly, "Anyone thinking you're a good target lately? I really hope not."

[raspberryturk]

"Nobody we ain't been able to deal with," Reno replied dismissively, snorting a bit somewhere in that statement. "It ain't nothin' new. Someone gets wind of the guys in suits who used to work for ShinRa, tries somethin' dumb, an' a few hours later we're handin' 'em off gift-wrapped to the WRO so they can figure out what to do with 'em without any real legal system set up."

A pause.

"Shit, do we ever need some kinda prison system."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"The WRO, they're the ones taking care of people mostly, right?" Dinah checked, trying to remember. She was quiet a minute, thinking about prisons. "They're always a pain. Keep people out, keep people in..." She sighed, remembering Al Hawke. "Too bad you can't put an ankle bracelet and a tracker on them. I'm guessing that wouldn't be enough."

[raspberryturk]

"It ain't never enough. But right now, we are the law. Us and the WRO. World Regenesis Organization. They're rebuildin'. Kinda got the beginnings of an army happenin' there, but their progress is slow. They're hirin' kids offa the streets, just so long as they're old enough to hold a gun. That ain't an army. That's a buncha people who threw away their pride because they were hungry."

Reno could relate. But at least he found something to be proud of in the Turks when he'd done it.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah sighed, frowning and pacing. "You gotta get some due process, too. If only to keep track of them, Reno. I mean, I don't know if the WRO is letting them go or... doing other stuff. But secrets are weapons to everybody else." She got that much. She paced a little farther, and then asked, "Is there anyone that almost everyone trusts to be fair? Or any code, or authority, or... I don't know. Even religion, that they'd all be good with? If not making the rules, then arbitrating them?"

[raspberryturk]

"People trust Cloud an' Tifa an' them," Reno said, sighing and shaking his head. "Because they all stabbed the big bad more'n once until he stopped movin'. Thing is, they ain't exactly the best role models, either. I wouldn't let 'em dole out justice at their say so, no matter how thankful I am that they saved the world."

A beat.

"Twice."

Shut up.

"Before they got their world savin' schtick on, they were runnin' around, detonating bombs in the mako reactors around Midgar. They ain't heroes any more'n I am."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that's... going to blow, until someone sane and smart without an axe to grind steps up," Dinah said, guessing that the last one would be the hardest to find. "And you wouldn't want to bring in anyone from outside. Nobody would trust them." She shook her head, thinking. "And elections could get rigged, especially with everyone all upset and no one paying attention, and that might not get the best person making rules either." She frowned. "Maybe Arthur has some ideas? This is his thing, kinda."

[raspberryturk]

"Don't get me wrong, I got all the respect in the world for Arthur. Good buddy of mine an' everything. But I think askin' a guy who grew up with a life of privilege what the best way to build a government on the outskirts of the ruins of what used to be called home is... Might be a little much to dump on the guy's shoulders. He's still rollin' his eyes at me for blowin' up the overpass, yo."

... In all fairness, the overpass kinda had to go. Even if it was really really really important.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, point." Dinah winced, thinking. "Do you want books, or are you all booked out? Especially for something like this, I just..." She sighed. "Wish I could help." She thought of Jim Gordon in New Gotham, and shook her head. "You need one person who's not getting anything out of it, and nobody especially hates, who'll make the tough calls. But heck if I know where you could find them." She paused. "No, you need a system first, maybe?"

[raspberryturk]

"We need a system first," Reno agreed. "And if I gotta do any more readin', I'm gonna stab myself in the eyes with a fork."

That came out sounding a lot more tired than he had intended it to.

"The people ain't gonna listen to someone like me if I come bearin' ideas, anyhow. That's for Reeve and his WRO to figure out. The only one around here with any vague idea about how to govern people is Rufus Shinra. And most people figure Rufus is dead. Almost a shame he ain't, really."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"...wait. I thought he was the bad guy. And I thought he was dead?" Dinah said, voice going up in a question. "Or is this a different Shinra?" There could be more than one. She felt like she needed to make a flow chart.