raspberryturk | The Seventh Heaven Bar, Edge, Wednesday Night

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The Seventh Heaven Bar, Edge, Wednesday Night

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.]

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"I like random," she assured him. "And I’m not stupid either."

Please. Like she’d be asking all the Super Sensitive questions when he was in a public place. She had a picture of the bar he was in, after all. Besides, those were better asked when he was drunker, yes. Ino was not above taking advantage of him that way if he were dumb enough to get that way while she was around and being nosy.

Ino didn’t much like random, either, it should be noted. Not that she’d admit it.

"Anyway, since you’re so kind and awesome and playing Twenty Questions with me..." There was the sound of her flipping through a notebook if he was paying attention. Be afraid of that notebook, Reno. Hm, most of the questions were fairly sensitive ones. Hmmm.

Well, she could always improvise. "Where'd materia come from anyway? Zack said ShinRa makes it but that don't make sense if not all of the types can be bought from them."

Well, questions about materia seemed simple enough, at least. Safe, too. Reno could handle that, while being mildly terrified at the notebook sounds in the background.

"Materia? Comes from mako, from the Lifestream. He ever tell you about that, before?" Reno shrugged. Not that she could see. "ShinRa used to refine mako from the Lifestream, and sometimes materia would be a by-product of it. So he ain't lyin' or nothin', but that ain't the only way it's made."

"A little bit?" she said, a bit dubiously. "'Bout the Lifestream being where people return to when they die? And that's the stuff that--could be turned into mako and used to make electricity and magic and stuff."

Ino was clearly the best ever at summarizing things.

"How else is it made, though?"

She was totally being a good rookie. He could handle these questions no problems!

"Like I said, yo. Different ways. ShinRa used to be able to refine crystallized mako into materia, too. Mako stones, ever heard of 'em? An' sometimes, materia would form on its own, too. In nature, I mean. That's how monsters end up with it, now an' then, but it's rarer in nature than it is manufactured, zoto."

See? This topic? Totally safe.

"Zack has come back with a few mako stones," she admitted, hardly going to say that she'd been on a few missions where they'd gotten those stones and that she... still didn't get them. "But manufactured is different types from the natural?"

"So the better kinds are natural?"

Rare totally equalled better, right?

"Nah, not always. Higher-ranked SOLDIERs used to be able to make some damn sweet materia, too. I mean, nothin' like a kickass summon materia or anything like that, but... Let's just say, you don't go wanderin' around and just magically trip over a Hell Thundaga, most of the time, yo."

Mmmm, Hell Thundaga. Reno wanted one.

Reno would never get his hands on one.

Reno was pouting again.

"Hell Thundaga?"

... Higher-ranked SOLDIERS, hm? HMMM.

There was a scribbling noise as she wrote down notes on that.

There went Reno, flapping his yap. Go figure.

... Maybe if he was lucky, he'd get a Hell Thundaga for his birthday next year, or something.

"It's like Thundaga? Only more frickin' kickass. And it inflicts status ailments."

He wasn't purring as he said that. That was totally your imagination.

And that was totally an imaginary squeak of 'eeeee' from the other end of the line.

"Like what? Poison? Darkness? Hmmmm..."

It wasn't his birthday she was thinking of, no lie.

"Poison's one possibility," Reno agreed, grinning. "I seen 'em cast shit like Poison, Silence, Stop, and Death."

That last part? That part was shiiiiiny.

That was not shiny.

"That needs a Safety Bit to avoid it, yeah?"

... the fact that she knew that probably said that she and Zack had been talking a fair bit, yeah.

Reno narrowed one eye a little, squinting at... well, at the wall. But, yes, the sentiment was there.

"Yes. Yes it does, yo."

You could practically hear the squint, now.

"What?" Ino asked, all innocence. "Zack said he'd maybe consider taking me on a few treasure huntin' runs but that he had to run 'em first to make sure there was nothing that'd do that to me."

Or something like that. Besides, she wanted to see if the squint could get louder.

It was the loudest squint ever. Seriously.

"Yeah. Well. No freaking insta-death missions for my Rookies until they get the right equipment," Reno decided. Because he'd already pretty much come to terms with the fact that he couldn't tie the girl down and keep her out of Zack's life.

Much as he wanted to.

"I might be able to dig up a Safety Bit somewhere, yo. They ain't really frowned at like materia is, nowadays."

Bratty Rookies were better than dead ones, shut up.

And he was the bestest Reno ever, really.

She was awwwing and her ceiling and grinning a bit. "I been doing good," she reminded him, "I've been sending heating pads like promised. And I ain't gone on no missions yet," liar, "but he said he wouldn't anyway 'till he was sure I'd be safe. He don't want me dead either."

But Zack's method was more sink or swim than Reno's way of protecting first.

"I won't say no, though, to one?"

"Well, I'll keep an eye out. It's probably only a matter of time before I beat some dumb shit down for one, yo."

... Or before he won one off of a very broke Barrett or Cid because they weren't about to back down without winning a game against Reno. There was a thought...

"Best Reno ever," she informed him brightly. "I like living, you know?"

He could probably guess.

Ino chewed on her lip and debated between questions and... news. Hm.

"Training's getting ramped up at home," Ino said, deciding that questions could be on hold for the second. "Ain't getting the rank, but getting the clearance and access to training the rank'd give."

"Eh, rank ain't everything," Reno replied. And, hell, he believed it. What he wouldn't give to step down from his position as Tseng's second, without stepping down from the Turks as a whole.

But then it wold be on Rude's shoulders, and he wouldn't wish that on Rude. Or on anybody, really.

"You're gettin' the training, at least. That's pretty kickass, zoto."

Ino glanced at her phone.

"Training's fine," she said, finally. "Don't change the fact I'd have liked the chance to try for the rank as well."

"Eh, it's just another stripe on your shoulder or whatever," Reno pointed out. "Maybe some better work, but you ain't back in your own world to be able to put all your focus on work anyhow. An' besides, if rank means bein' in command of people under you, how're you supposed to do that from Fandom?"

See again, Reno wishing that he was there, where all of his Rookies were, so that he could feel as though he was actually doing his freaking job.

Ino sighed because, oh sure, he was applying logic to it. Logic didn't have that much to do with her feelings, after all.

"Rank don't always mean bein' in command," she said, knowing she was just nitpicking. "But yeah, I know. I ain't sayin' it's a bad thing, exactly, just..."

She shrugged, knowing he couldn't see it.

"It just kinda sucks too. My teammates are both Chuunin and I've got the skills to be one," had had them since she'd been fourteen, even, "so it's not very fun to get a call sayin' you're forbidden to try, yeah?"

"It's a matter of pride," Reno replied, picking his words carefully. "I get that, Rookie. Ain't no fun bein' left behind when your class is movin' on without you, yo."

See, he could slap some sympathy in there whenever he damn well pleased.

Ino chewed her lip at that.

"Guess it's--fair, though?" Ino said fair like it was a dirty word. "I mean, I ain't been there. But it don't mean I haven't been training or working hard or nothing so it's kinda like a--you aren't good enough, anyway. Even though my clearance is going up like it would with the rank, you know?"

She had words, they maybe made sense.

"Slap in the face," Reno sighed. "Shit, Rookie, I'm sorry they're puttin' it off that way."

A beat.

"You bein' in school gettin' in the way of you doin' your job at all? That why they're holdin' you back?"

"Dad said something 'bout it being 'cause of the exam length," she explained. "Chuunin exam is a month an' a half in total--counting time between the last two to scope out the competition. It ain't something that'll be scheduled 'round the needs of a hopeful either. It's an international exam."

A substitute for war and a chance to see what sort of talent other villages had in case it came to war.

Ino gave it a little more consideration. "School might be a factor. I know I'd have more missions if I were home--but they ain't going to pay portal fare to drag me back and forth for every mission I could do, you know? Not at my level."

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