The Seventh Heaven Bar, Edge, Wednesday Night

[raspberryturk]

Admittedly, a Wednesday night was a pretty shitty night to go to any bar that didn't actually have something going on. And, in a place like Edge, it wasn't just Wednesday nights that were like that, even at the most popular stop for alcoholic swill in town. It wasn't as though people were going to get together and sing karaoke. Name that tune was pretty much a thing of the past, too. Trivia night? Not so much. But if you got Cid Highwind drunk enough, he'd tell you all about that time he spent about five minutes stuck outside of Gaia's atmosphere.

Word to the wise: Don't get Cid Highwind drunk enough to tell you all about that time he spent about five minutes stuck outside of Gaia's atmosphere.

Fortunately, Reno didn't come to the bar unprepared. He was a Turk. He came prepared for anything, thank you very much. There was a stun baton hidden up his sleeve, extra money for booze tucked away in one pocket, and a deck of cards in one hand. Tifa even tolerated his presence here because he was more or less good business, and he tended to handle her cutting him off when she'd decided that he'd had enough with... minimal leering. Which made him significantly less obnoxious than some of the folks that stopped in for drinks.

And anyhow, kicking the asses of the bar's other regulars at poker? Totally made hitting this place up on his evening off worth any unpleasant aftertaste that his allotted few servings of Corel Ale left behind.

Hey, it wasn't Reno's fault that Barrett was shit at calling bluffs.

[Open for anyone who might want to give Reno a phone call, or what-have-you. He'll probably gloat at you relentlessly, just to rile up the big guy some more.]

Comments

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

And that was Reno's phone, ringing. From a bored rookie who was sick of staring at paperwork for one night.

Although, she had to admit, his handwriting was much better. Amazing what a little lesbian porn could do.

[raspberryturk]

Lesbian porn worked miracles, didn't it?

"Yo," Reno carolled as he answered the phone. Barrett had just folded his hand, and Cid had decided that he was going to need a break in order to go take a piss. The Rookie's phone call had come at a good time. "How's my favorite supplier of smutty videos of naked chicks rubbin' their tits on one another tonight?"

Tifa was going to give Reno one of those looks from across the bar that was intended to remind him to not crow about lesbian pornography too loudly while Marlene was still helping her run drinks around to the patrons.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Your favorite?" Elena laughed. "I'm flattered. I figured you have a web of hot girls that all send you pornography."

Sure, he could order it, but maybe having hot girls actually mail it to him was an added thrill. Also, you know, she was paying for it, so.

"You know, reports go so much faster when you use actual words, and not just scrawls and dashes? It's unreal."

Not that she'd increased her weekly turnout any. Tseng would have gotten suspicious, and besides, she liked her free time.

[raspberryturk]

"For lesbian porn an' booze that ain't made outta potatoes an' rotten carrots, I'll even use punctuation," Reno offered, grinning into the phone.

Really, money wasn't an issue so long as there were monster runs to be made and he was working under Tseng and kicking ass at poker at the bar on a semi-regular basis. But importing decent porn and booze from another universe was so much more awesome when it was on the Rookie's gil, wasn't it?

"You gotta work your way up to paragraph breaks, though."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"I'm not really sure how to upgrade from that," Elena admitted with a laugh. "Hookers? Maybe I draw smiley faces on my tits and take pictures."

Okay, so she was bored.

[raspberryturk]

"Don't give me ideas," Reno replied, smirking and kicking his feet up onto the table as he leaned back into his chair. "I might take up photography, yo. What do you think? Should I go into the postcard business?"

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"You could call it 'Faces of Tseng,'" Elena giggled. "Your first masterpiece, I mean. Just a huge mosaic of Tseng giving you the deathglare, over and over again. And then right in the middle, a random picture of your ballsack."

[withoutverona]

Ring, Ring, Ring

Romeo didn't even have a special reason to call Reno -- it had just been a few weeks and felt like time to check in.

[raspberryturk]

Reno was totally going to pause in mid-shuffle in order to reach for his phone right now. Barrett and Cid had to realize this, right?

"Yo!"

Because, whether they liked it or not, anybody who had Reno's phone number was inevitably a hell of a lot more interesting than they were. And was probably better at poker, too.

[withoutverona]

"Reno," Romeo crowed, sounding pleased with himself. "Would you be my valentine?"

... he didn't know.

[raspberryturk]

Reno was going to have to take a moment to mull over that. And to remind himself that a Valentine was, in fact, not the broody guy in the red cloak who was sitting over on the other side of the bar ignoring the universe at large.

"That depends," he replied, laughing and shoving the deck of cards toward the two men he was playing against, making vague motions that they should play the next couple of rounds without him. "Does it mean I get chocolate, man?"

[withoutverona]

"Well," Romeo asked as if deep in thought, "what would you give me in exchange? I don't give chocolate to just anyone."

[raspberryturk]

"For my Valentine?" Reno smirked as he carefully aimed and bounced a beer nut off the back of the cloaked guy's head. "Anything, man."

Well. Anything that he could get in Edge. Which pretty much amounted to dirt that nothing would grow in, chunks of wreckage, and whatever he could pick off of the monster-of-the-day.

Generally, potions.

"Any special requests, babe?"

Yes, Reno had been drinking. Why?

[intraspective]

Bored bored bored and with a list of questions that was nearly an entire notebook worth by now.

Of course she was going to resort to seeing if he was anywhere she could pry things out of him.

Come on, geez.

Oh lookit! His phone was ringing!

[raspberryturk]

He was drunk! Prying would be remotely easier today than it might have been at any other point in time!

Especially since he was drunk and he'd just managed to weasel the better part of a thousand gil out of Barrett and Cid combined. Enough beer nuts tossed at Vincent's head later, and he'd gotten the emo to join the game, too.

So far, Reno had actually lost ten gil to Vincent. Stupid freaking dead guy.

And so now seemed like as good a time as any to take a break and let Valentine kick the asses of the other two in his stead. He had a phone to answer!

"Yo!"

[intraspective]

"Entertain me?" Ino asked wheedlingly. "I'm bored and there's snow outside."

A beat.

"Hiii."

[raspberryturk]

"Rookie! Snow? Shiiit, that sucks." Did he sound slightly drunk? He was! How exciting!

And new, right?

"Help me come up with ways to make a sixty-year-old dead emo former Turk motherfucker break his poker face?"

[intraspective]

Oh, totally new. Like blue sky in Fandom new.

Uh.

Ino blinked at her phone. "...how is someone who is dead still alive?" Walking around? "Um."

"Grope him!" Way too cheerful at that, really.

[raspberryturk]

"I ain't gropin' Vincent fuckin' Valentine," Reno insisted, a touch too loudly.

And now everyone in the bar, Vincent included, was staring at him, yes.

"I mean, unless it'll help my game," Reno amended.

The patrons of the bar got back to what they were doing.

[bitchprince]

And hello, Reno's phone ringing. Again.

[raspberryturk]

It was kind of a shame that Reno wasn't as popular with the other patrons of the bar as he was with people who had his phone number!

He'd pretty much given up on poker by this point. Vincent had managed to get a hundred Gil from him, and even Reno knew when he was beat. So he was sitting around with a glass of Corel Ale in one hand, leering at the local girls when his phone rang. Leering could totally wait.

"Yo!"

[bitchprince]

"Reno," Arthur greeted, jovially. "How are things?" He'd been in the 21st century for too long. Somewhere, Uther was cringing.

[raspberryturk]

"Things ain't bad!" Reno wasn't cringing! Reno was on top of the world!

Ooh, that chick's bra strap was showing!

... Also, it was Tifa, who was now fixing him with a dirty look. Reno smiled the smile of a man with absolutely no shame, and even waved a merry little hello before returning to the conversation.

"I mean, all things considered. Just made a small fortune in Gil playin' a game of poker, yo."

[bitchprince]

Ah, people and their gambling. "Sounds like your world is on a swing up," Arthur said, infusing his voice with some dry humor and something upbeat at the same time. Hush.

[raspberryturk]

"Nah, not really," Reno replied. "But I ain't got no issues winnin' every last coin that some people got to their names. I like to think of it as a neat little swap-off for the scars, yo."

Reno? Hold a grudge?

... Well, yes. With a passion. Why?