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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Vincent continued to glower at Reno for that.

Reno took that opportunity to throw another beer nut at Vincent.

Reno was possibly not long for this world.

"Eh, ain't bad, I guess. If you like that kinda shit."

Don't ask, Ino, don't ask.

"He single?" she chirped.

Mostly not meaning it.

...Maybe.

Look, he was hot. And she was single. Mostly.

"I dunno," Reno replied, rolling his eyes. "Yuffie still go to your school? Better ask her?"

Yep. Reno was totally not long for this world. Especially when he stage-whispered into the phone, "He likes 'em young."

"I'm only sixteen," she said merrily. "And I can look younger."

Which, she could. But she was kidding. Mostly.

"Yuffie left a while ago," Ino added. "And try not to die while you're on the phone. That'd be rude."

"Naaah, I can run faster scared than he can mad."

A beat.

"I think."

Vincent eyed Reno for a moment more, and then got back to kicking Barret and Cid's respective asses at poker. He had priorities, here.

"Sounds exciting," she decided, grinning up at her ceiling. "Or like you're bored out of your skull too."

"Might be," Reno laughed. "Miiight be. I already made pretty good gil beatin' this guy's friends at poker, yo. Now I'm just hangin' back. Good night for phone calls."

"Lucky you that you got people to call you, yeah?"

Please. His number was in her speed dial.

"Don't suppose company you're with'd have no problems with you answering questions 'bout Gaia, hm?"

It was entertainment! Of a sort!

"Questions about Gaia?" Reno wrinkled his nose a little, but shrugged it off. "Seems a little random. Ain't like there's much to know. But if you got somethin' interestin' to ask, then I probably even got answers for you, yo."

This, of course, did not mean that he was too drunk to carefully screen the words that came out of his mouth. He was well aware that Ino was getting closer to Zack as a friend.

... And anyhow, he was in the middle of a bar. ShinRa stuff was more or less made of eggshells to be walked over very carefully.

"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...

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