raspberryturk | Edge, Friday Evening

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Edge, Friday Evening

It was one of those rare nights that Reno had managed to score all to himself, off-duty, with not a single reason to worry about Tseng calling him in out of the blue to do some urgent mission or another. Why? Because Rude had the night off, too, and Tseng knew better than to try to call Reno in when Rude would do the job just as well, and without whining about it.

And so, there he was, sprawled backwards on the couch (and doing an admirable job of ignoring the busted springs in his back) and staring up at the ceiling, contemplating where in the world he was supposed to go from here and the obstacles on his way to wherever that turned out to be.

"Winter's coming, yo." He paused, and then, with a faint smirk on his lips, he added, "Fehdan'c lusehk."

At the very least, it wasn't as though he'd be making the trip alone.

[For that girl who speaks the funny language. And sure, open for phone calls or whatever, if you'd like.]

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It really didn't ring for long, of course. Reno had his phone on him, and while he was curious about the unfamiliar ringtone, it wasn't as though that was enough to stop him from answering.

"Yo!"

... Okay, he'd answered. Nobody ever said that his telephone greeting had to be terribly verbose, here.

"Ummm...hello?" Karla's dubious expression only deepened, as 'yo' was a completely unfamiliar term to her. "This is Karla...I got this number from Elena?"

This might have been a really bad idea.

"Oooooh." Reno grinned and sat up again, only to flop against the back of the couch, slinging his feet up onto the coffee table. "You're the Rookie's friend that she mentioned, huh? The one who talks to the dirt?"

Reno's understanding of the concept was... Somewhat shaky, at best, here. But at least he'd gathered that much.

"Talks to dirt?" Karla asked. "...Rookie?" It was like he spoke in code or something.

She figured it out a heartbeat or so later--a huge plate of leftovers made thinking hard--and laughed. "Is that how she described it? Talking to dirt? I guess it's accurate enough in its own way. Yeah, that's me. So she mentioned I might be calling?"

She felt a bit relieved to hear that, actually. Made her feel slightly less awkward.

"Yeah," Reno chuckled, and it was entirely possible that he derived a bit of pleasure out of confusing the poor girl on the other end of the phone.

She was kind of like a rookie herself, if she was confused already, he decided.

"Elena mentioned I might get a phone call from some classmate of hers, mostly lookin' to ask some questions." And about what, he was going to leave up to her to clarify, because he wasn't volunteering his background from the slums so easily, even if it was simple enough to guess at. "Also said that you had some kinda heal-the-earth talent, or somethin' like that, yo."

"Something like that, yeah. It's a...trait, kinda. One I was born with." Karla, unaware that Reno was enjoying her confusion had opted for the shortest, most concise explanation. One that didn't involve Queens, castes, or Kaeleer. She might revise that tactic later. "But, yeah, I was hoping you could answer some questions for me. I kinda grew up sheltered and that's not going to help me later on, when I have to back home."

Sorry! SP okay? guests showed up.

Reno's attitude sobered somewhat as Karla pushed the conversation along. He figured he had a pretty good idea of what to expect, here.

"Most people I know of who grew up sheltered don't give two shits about learnin' otherwise until there's already one hell of a mess that needs pickin' up," he noted, idly. "You got questions, ask 'em. I'm an open book, yoto."

Except where he wasn't, but that probably wouldn't be an issue.

[That's totally fine! We shall slowplay like the wind!]

Karla snorted. "Does it count if I'm predicting one hell of a mess that'll need picking up?" she asked wryly. "I know where things are now and I can only assume they'll get worse in the next four, five years. I'm just hoping that by learning what I can now, I'll have that time to figure out ways to fix everything. Or at least not come off like a slack-jawed ass when I get home and see what's happened."

Sighing, she raked her fingers through her hair. "I guess the best place to start is the beginning. Do you know how slums are created? I feel dumb just asking that, but...sheltered."

That wasn't entirely accurate. Glacia'd never actually had slums for Karla to be sheltered from.

"Sheltered, right," Reno sighed, nodding and rolling his eyes toward the ceiling, where they remained fixed for a while. "Midgar's slum was nasty long before I was born, yo. But I've seen enough of 'em poppin' up here an' there since. They start with neglect when they need attention the most. This area here ain't very desirable to the people with money, so the people who ain't got as much move in, because it's all they can afford. And then there ain't no jobs. An' then the education system sucks, an' whoever is in charge of that gives up on it, too. An' the local law enforcers stop thinkin' it's worth as much effort, so people who are that hungry, they steal to eat, an' people who ain't hungry, but ain't good people, they see an easy ride an' they grab it, doin' all the bad shit down there, because they can get away with it."

Reno sighed and shook his head.

"Problem is, once a mess is made, there ain't nobody who's willin' to step in an' clean it up. Especially if there ain't no money in it, zoto."

"That won't be a problem," Karla said firmly. "I may not be able to stop what's happening now, but I'll do whatever the hell I can to fix it later. I just need to know how."

She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. "Though I'll need to know how to do it on a budget, since I'm not sure how much money will be left." Last time she'd checked, her uncle had been going through Glacia's treasury like water on a hot day. Her family's personal funds and investments were untouchable, so she'd have something, but it wasn't entire to rescue a whole country.

"And I want to do it without looking like I'm coming in and saving everyone. Does that make sense?"

"Makes sense to me," Reno mused, looking from the roof off toward the window. Or, at least, as much of the window as he could actually see, around the beans. "People get pissed off if you look like you're gonna swan in an' try to be a hero about it. 'Oh, poor little slumdogs, sittin' around with not a hope in the world, an' I'm the one they need?'"

He made a snorting noise, somewhere in the back of his throat.

"They'd throw shit at you until you left, if you tried that." He pursed his lips, and then shrugged. "People need jobs. In a lotta cases, if they want outta there bad enough, what they need are the resources to do it themselves. They know where they wanna be when it's all said an' done, they'll do what it takes to get there, so long as they can. They'll want some way to crack down on the crime, naturally, but first they're gonna want ways to make people see that there are better ways to get by in the first place."

He tapped his boot against the floor a few times, and then flopped over onto the couch again and resumed his sprawl.

"Education, food, housing, health, yo. If they got a means to learn, then they'll use it to get the rest. Food, housing, people can do themselves, if they got the resources to make it with. Sometimes they don't. But what they do got is their hands an' their minds. So, they do some kinda labor to earn the means to do the rest, maybe. I dunno. I'm still tryin' to figure out what to do here."

Karla wasn't much for swanning anyways. She was their Queen, not their savior. "Good," she said fiercely. "I'd want them to toss me out on my ass if I came in there like that. Because if they acted like lapdogs, grateful for whatever scraps I deigned to throw to them...it would mean their spirits were broken and I don't think that's something I can actually fix."

Broken families, broken females, broken bodies, and broken minds. She would have to face all of these things when she went home. Adding broken souls to the mix was just a bit too damn much.

She still had questions for Reno, but those could wait a few minutes. "Elena told me some of what happened to your city," she said quietly. "I can't pretend to understand all of what she said, but she did leave the impression that your people need a lot of help." There was an awkward pause as Karla struggled to find the right words. "She said the land was so polluted that you were struggling to grow food. I'm not really sure how to put this--and I don't want to sound like I'm trying to waltz in and save everyone, really I don't--but I can help. I don't just talk to the land, I Heal it. If--if you wanted...I'd be happy to--well, not happy, of course...well, I mean..."

Karla had a lot of earnestness, but very little eloquence.

Reno gathered as much, yes.

"We'll trade, then," he decided, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Edge is damn near a slum on its own, because of the shit that came down in Midgar, an' then the 'stigma after that. I kinda got my doubts that you can make everything alright again, zoto. But any little bit helps."

He shrugged, even if it wasn't visible at all. That was just the perfect moment for a shrug, right there.

"Edge is a friggin' mess. But if you can do anything for it, I'll take you around, show you what's sufferin' the most, an' then tell you what people are doin' to try an' fix it. Shit, so long as you try, I ain't gonna turn down an opportunity to show the ropes to someone who wants to fix up her own home, too."

Good. Karla had been hoping for an offer like that, but hadn't wanted to ask. She didn't want Reno to think her offer to help had come with strings, for one, and she definitely didn't want to come across like a nosy tourist, coming to peer at the poor and unfortunate.

"It's a deal," she said immediately. "The only thing keeping me from going crazy when I think about spending the next four years here is knowing that I can use that time to prepare for what I'm facing when I get home. I'm doubting that a visit to Edge is going to be a romp through the park with puppies and unicorns, but I'm not going to turn down anything that helps me get ready for the future."

She also just really wanted to help, but she kept that bit to herself.

The puppies were all dead, and there had never been unicorns on Gaia in the first place, so Edge was probably going to be very unpleasant, indeed.

"Any sorta problems struck you as somethin' you might wanna tackle first, back where you're from? I can start plottin' out a route to follow now, pick out what'll be most useful to you, yo. If you had a month, you wouldn't be able to take in all of the worst of it all at once, yo."

"I'm not really sure," Karla said slowly. "I have no idea what to expect. I just know that things are bad and getting worse." She sighed, settling back and kicking her feet up, trying to figure out where and how to start. "Six years ago, there was a...regime change. The previous Queen and her Consort were murdered, as was the Queen's sister, depriving Glacia of the two most powerful females in the Territory. The murderer was smart and made it look like an accident, which meant no one protested overmuch when he took 'temporary control' of the government--especially since he also claimed guardianship over Glacia's future Territory Queen, who was only a child."

Funny how much easier it was to talk about when Karla pretended it happened to other people.

"Things seemed okay at first. No one really noticed anything, because the Territory was still in mourning. But he was busily working behind the scenes, bringing in a cadre of strong males loyal only to him, and giving them pretty much free reign over everything. He's robbing the treasury blind, using it to pay for his bullyboys and his lavish lifestyle. All the wine, drugs, and loose women he could ever want and more, while people go cold and hungry in the streets." Bitterness was creeping into her tone.

"But even that is forgiveable." Karla swallowed hard and continued. "Glacia's had bad Queens before and survived. What makes him different is that he and the bastards who work for him are systematically culling anyone who might challenge him. They're spreading lies and rumors, inspiring fear so no one knows who to trust anymore. They're enslaving males who they can't control in other ways; males who are too strong and won't pledge their loyalty to Hobart. They're indoctrinating young females with lies to keep them subservient and breaking females too old or stubborn to believe the whispers."

She resolutely told herself that she wasn't going to cry on the phone with a strange male, pausing a moment to collect herself. "The worst part is, they don't even have to do much anymore. The rumors repeat themselves now. It's a vicious cycle I don't know how to break. Females are afraid of males, so they Ring them--enslave them-to protect themselves and their daughters. Males fear the Ring and distrust females and so try to break them younger and younger. And I'm left in the middle, trying to figure out how to piece together a society that's been shattered when I can't even put together a single shattered body."

Karla realized abruptly just how much she'd been talking--revealing, really--to a perfect stanger, and shut her mouth with an audible snap. "I--didn't mean to ramble like that," she said hastily. "Trying to figure out where to start is no excuse to just talk at you like that."

"Talk all you need to, yoto. Clearly, you ain't never met my girlfriend," Reno replied, dismissively.

And then, a heartbeat later, his tone was completely different. Serious. Almost as though there was a completely different person speaking, now.

"Really, it all sounds familiar. 'All evidence of misconduct must be destroyed.' It ain't an easy problem to fix, yo. For us, it took damn near the end of the world."

Karla blinked at the phone for a moment, not expecting the abrupt shift. But when she responded, there was no evidence of her surprise in her voice. "Well, if you have any ideas about how to do so without nearly ending the world, I'd be appreciative," she murmured wryly. "I don't think anyone will appreciate me devastating their Territories to fix my own."

"One thing I would like to do, though, while I'm there? If you know of anyone very ill or injured? I can Heal them, too. Not too many, because I'll probably be drained from Healing the land--" had Karla truly understood the magnitude of what happened, she would have used a better word than 'drained' "--but I should be able to Heal the very worst off." She paused, thinking furiously. "Could I use that? Could I say that in exchange for Healing them, they could help me somehow? So they don't feel like it was charity and we have some extra workers?" She tried not to sound over-excited, though she was more than a bit proud she'd thought of it herself.

Karla was very young sometimes.

Reno was nodding as he listened now, trying to keep any comments about that youthful pride to himself. His had been smashed to bits years ago, and he was just very, very good at covering that fact up, most of the time.

"I say you ask 'em to tell you what they can about their own efforts tryin' to pick up the pieces. My opinion is helpful so far as livin' in it goes. I'm kinda new to the 'puttin' it back together' bit, yo."

Karla nodded, briefly forgetting Reno couldn't see her. "I like that idea. I think the entire thing sounds really workable. Should I just wait for Elena to let me know a good time for me to come to Gaia? I don't think you want me just to show up."

Assuming she could even find the proper Portal there anyway.

"Thank you, Reno, for taking the time to talk to me today. I appreciate it."

"Hey, it ain't like I was doin' anything important, anyhow. You need to talk about anything else, you got my number," Reno replied, and then he was lapsing back into that 'doesn't give a damn,' casual tone he'd been using before. "An' yeah, maybe figure out a time that works good for you an' Elena both, an' I'll make time to make it work over here. I'm crashin' in Elena's apartment at the moment anyhow, so it ain't really like I can tell her no if she wants to swing by with company."

"Thanks. I just might do that." Inwardly, Karla was reminding herself that not all worlds worked like hers (Hell's fire, even her world wasn't working like hers right now) and she couldn't just automatically fall into familiar behavior patterns with random males. "And I'm generally a low-maintenance guest. Especially since Elena's already threatened me with chocobos and other random tattoos." He could probably hear her grinning over the line. "I've promised to be good."

Actually, that joke reminded her of another promise. One she should probably mention. "Elena warned me about timelines," she added, her voice also switching over to Srs Bizness mode. "I'm not saying anything to anyone. It isn't right to gamble with other peoples' lives. Not like that. So...yeah. I know how to keep a secret."

Reno was just working on some kind of 'there ain't nothin' the matter with chocobo tattoos' quip when Karla added the last part of that. And then all quipping was stomped on repeatedly, because Reno was going serious again.

"Could be the whole damn world that hurts for it," he said, just to make certain that this point was clear as crystal. "Elena tell you that, too?"

"Yes," Karla's voice was soft but firm. "She said that saving the world happened by the slimmest of margins and that even the slightest change might tip the balance. That's what I meant when I said I don't gamble with peoples' lives. Changing something might save them, sure--but it also might just as easily lead to their deaths. If two people from the world in question who are up to their necks dealing with the aftermath don't want to change anything, it isn't my place to go against them. I have enough on my conscience without adding the fate of an entire world that isn't even mine."

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Edge, Friday Evening

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