Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

Junon, Reno supposed, wasn't half bad. Sure as hell better than Edge, which he couldn't wait to get the hell out of, especially after that weird-assed argument in Tseng's kitchen.

Tseng's ex-kitchen, Reno supposed.

He was sitting in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on one of the city's lower levels, the world's crappiest coffee slowly dissolving a coffee mug in one hand, waiting for somebody in particular. He'd left Edge a little early, dragged a few of the boxes of paperwork along with him so that Rude wouldn't have to haul it all here, and then he'd started to poke around.

Yeah, Junon had suffered a bit since WEAPON's attack. But then, where the hell hadn't?

... Besides Kalm. Lucky, lucky-assed Kalm.

[Open for anyone who might want to call, or who has reason to be in Junon!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"So did I, a year and a half ago," Reno pointed out. And... shit, had it really been that long already? "Took me a year, but I found a place to have again. Just had to be patient about it, zoto."

[intraspective]

"I ain't always patient," she said, with a sigh. "I don't know. I can't--I can't even go back now, if I wanted to."

[raspberryturk]

"You know," Reno noted, "my offer still stands. Line of work's changed, but now that they're settin' up in Junon, you never know what'll come from it, zoto."

Because this was a totally healthy, happy place to settle down. Yes.

It was also sorely lacking in Puppy.

[intraspective]

"Your offer," she echoed, frowning slightly. "But what 'bout Tseng?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno just shrugged.

"He ain't never been disappointed with Turks I hand him in the past, yo."

And there had been a few, yes. Like the spike-haired punk that was trying to steal ShinRa motorbikes, that one time.

"Ain't his second for nothin', Rookie."

Well... when they were getting along, at least.

[intraspective]

Ino bit her lip. Part of her considering it...

Part of her considering a different offer she'd received.

"Is he hiring?" she asked, a bit dubiously. "He weren't, before."

[raspberryturk]

"Nah, he wasn't before," Reno agreed. "But half the reason Elena and I pushed for a move to Junon was because Edge just ain't no place for Turks, zoto. Nobody would'a taken the job anyhow, if he was offerin' out there. Junon's different. Junon's only got WEAPON to blame for the state they're in, yo."

He shrugged, and then finished off the last bit of his coffee, noticing with a sort of morbid smirk that it was about twice as thick at the bottom as it had been when he'd started the mug.

"Here's the place to be, to start rebuildin' the Turks, yo. He can't deny that either, zoto."

[intraspective]

She glanced at him, then at her hands.

"Do--Do you think he'd want to talk to me 'bout the possibility?"

[raspberryturk]

"Don't see why the hell not," Reno replied, shrugging his shoulders casually. "Tseng's got his hangups, sure, but at least he knows potential when he sees it."

Just because he was on the outs with Reno more often than not lately did not mean he was above admitting when he could put a person's skills to adequate use.

[intraspective]

"I don't know if I want to take the job," she said, eyes big. "But... but it's an option. And maybe talking to him might... help?"

[raspberryturk]

"Can't hurt," Reno agreed with a wave of his hand. He wanted more sludge in his mug, damn it. "And shit, there ain't nothin' the matter with keepin' your options open, yo."

Just look at Reno! He'd had options! Like going back to Edge, or maybe continuing to work for a dog in a suit and a homicidal lagomorph...

... Which he wasn't going to point out, because really, those choices made him sound either insane, or desperate.

[intraspective]

"Everyone says that," she murmured, "about keeping your options open. But they ain't really. Every day that goes by is one more day that you gotta make a decision 'bout."

[raspberryturk]

"Everything's decisions, Rookie," Reno noted, peering into his coffee mug. He was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be bubbling like that, when the mug was only lukewarm. "You get outta bed in the morning, that's a decision. You figure out what shirt to wear, that's one too. If you don't got practise makin' decisions by now, there ain't nobody out there that'll be able to make 'em for you."

... Unless you became a Turk, theoretically.

"You wanna hear what I think you should do? Flat-out, honest-like?"

[intraspective]

She was silent for a moment, then two. Giving that honest thought. Deciding her life didn't sound much like picking out a shirt.

But they were both decisions.

"Yes."

That, too, was a decision.

[raspberryturk]

"You got one semester to make the most of the time you got on the island," replied Reno, strategically deciding that a second cup of coffee was not in the cards for today, after all. "Maybe a little longer if you decide to stick around through the summer."

So he was going to reach into his pocket and pull out his smokes, instead.

"Enjoy the good you got, while you got it. Worry about the rest when you catch up to it, yo. And if somethin' comes up between now an' then that you think works for you? Then grab it. We all get options, zoto. But it's the good ones that don't come up for us every day."

[intraspective]

"What if I don't know where I'm going come the end of it all?" Ino asked, frowning at him. "That ain't a good place to be at all."

[raspberryturk]

"You ask around," Reno suggested, rummaging for his lighter, "ask the rest of your graduatin' class if they got plans for after the semester or not. See how many of 'em are in the same state of affairs you are, yo."

Really, if her graduating class was anything like his was, they'd all be entirely freaking clueless.

Or, at least, most of them would be.

[intraspective]

"Is it stupid to admit that I don't really know who all is graduating with me?" she wondered.

Of course, part of that was that she was dead exhausted and in no condition to be making serious plans or even thinking, but.

"It all just--blends. It don't matter what grade you're in 'til suddenly you're graduating."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah," Reno sighed. "I know how that feels, too."

Really, Ino had been just another fellow student, while he was one. And then senior year had happened, and everything started to shimmy about while he'd prepared himself to leave, and then after graduation, it was like taking a weird step away from it all, alongside a handful of fellow crazies all selected at random.

And now, he was teaching some of the leftover crazies, and a bunch of people that he would never have met, if he hadn't come back.

School was friggin' weird, that way.

"Your puppy grads at the same time as you, though, right?"

[intraspective]

"Yes," she admitted, "and that--that worries me too. 'Cause he'll be goin' back to work and I don't have nothing planned and..."

And it was a great empty gap, right there.

[raspberryturk]

Dilly dally, shilly shally, Ino.

Reno would never say that, because he thought it was kinda friggin' ridiculous when Tifa had used it on chocobo-hair. But, really now.

"You got better things to do than worry," Reno replied, sighing. "Spend too much time thinkin' about it, you'll end up not spendin' any time actin' on it."

[intraspective]

"What should I act on now, then?" she asked, just sounding tired.

[raspberryturk]

Reno didn't even have to stop to think about that one.

"Makin' it to see tomorrow."

Everything else would come when it would come.

And some of it would come when he really, really wished it wouldn't.

[intraspective]

"Right," she said, with a sigh. "I guess--I don't know. This is totally ridiculous."

Ino was tired and cranky and not best helpful.

... Sorry Reno.

[raspberryturk]

Reno shrugged.

"So, I'm ridiculous," he replied, easily. "Ain't like I never did this before, right?"

He had. 'End of the world' was kind of getting to be old hat, and he'd even graduated once in there for good measure.

"C'mon, Rookie. I'll walk you back to the hotel. Your boyfriend's company'd probably do you good, right about now."