Middle of Nowhere, Gaia, Saturday Night Fandom Time

[raspberryturk]

Reno stared at the little sphere in his hand, squinting hard at it. It had almost killed him to get this damn thing, this stupid fucking piece of doomsday that AVALANCHE - the real AVALANCHE - had been so hell-bent on getting their mitts on. And he hadn't told Tseng yet. Hadn't really told anybody but the Rookie.

He had a little piece of the end of the world, the beginning of the end of the Turks, right there in his hand. Shit, he was still bleeding on the damn thing. Or maybe that blood belonged to the Ravens he'd taken down to get it.

AVALANCHE would notice it was missing before long. They'd send someone to investigate and they'd find blood and footprints and the telltale smoke and ozone smell of thundaga in the air. And he'd be long gone by the time that happened. He looked down at the corpse of the Raven on the ground. He spat on it as the body began to fade.

And then he picked up his phone and placed two calls. One to Portalocity, telling them to send a portal to a location that was a good ten minutes away on foot, if he ran like hell. And, as he was running like hell, he placed a second call.

Now the mission was out of his hands and over to Iris.

[OOC: For one!]

Comments

[intraspective]

"You're gonna have to do up the top button," she said, heading for town. "Brush your hair. Get the blood out of your uniform... it's top-notch, this place. The kind with fireworks every night."

[raspberryturk]

Reno paused at that, and then laughed a little before following along.

"Shit," he said, "I ain't been somewhere that fancy since..."

He squinted.

"I ain't been somewhere that fancy. Good thing Turk uniforms clean up good."

They kind of had to.

[intraspective]

"They're useful for that," she said, smiling more. "Zack'll be confused at seein' you but he's already confused. Just ignore him."

Ino. Ino, that was not a thing you were supposed to say.

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave a little snort of a laugh.

"I ignore Slick like a champ, yo. I think I can manage that."

Zack was going to be so sad that the hot date was an older Reno. So sad.

[intraspective]

He could suck it up and deal. Ino was in work mode now.

"Good, but don't take too much time. We're on a schedule." She grinned over her shoulder at him. "Ain't so bad, this schedule though. Much better than yours."

[raspberryturk]

"So long as your schedule includes time for some sightseeing, I'm game, yo." Reno wasn't difficult to please, no. "I'll be ready in... twenty minutes. How undercover are we goin', here?"

Just fancy, or did he want to put some cover-up on those facial tattoos and maybe run some brown through his hair?

[intraspective]

"We're goin' pretty undercover," she said, after a moment's thought.

See, Ino knew whose mission they were crashing. She was going to be so, so double dead.

"I've even got contacts in to give me pupils."

Since most people had those.

[raspberryturk]

"Huh. That'll be a sight once we get in outta the dark," Reno drawled. "Okay. So, top button, lose the goggles, put on a tie... mind if I borrow your make-up? You got temporary hair color anywhere?"

He knew he stood out. He kind of banked on that, most days. But this was one of those 'stopping the end of the world' deals. Blending was important, too.

[intraspective]

"I'm so blonde my hair glows in the right light," she noted, "of course I've got temporary colours around. Take your pick when we get to my place and yeah, use my make-up."

Turks as a whole tended to stand out. Even Tseng, who'd claim he did no such thing.

[raspberryturk]

Tseng might not stand out as much if he wasn't so damn pretty all the time. Honestly, now.

"Thanks," Reno replied, nodding. "Don't worry, I clean up quick."

He moved faster than the water did when he had a mind to. So mostly he managed to clean up at the speed of shower.

[intraspective]

And that voice of his alone...

The Boards were a comforting thing to Ino, even though she wasn't staying there long as she unlocked the door and headed up towards the apartment.

"You're lucky this is tonight," she noted, "I think Zack'll have taken all the dogs back by now. We were overrun for the last few days."

[raspberryturk]

"Oh yeah?" Reno grinned faintly at the thought. "How do you end up overrun by dogs exactly?"

Not that he didn't know full well what Zack was currently doing for a living. Still seemed like a good idea to ask.

[intraspective]

"It was cold out," Ino explained, climbing the stairs.

Wait, that didn't explain anything.

"Zack took Girl--that's our dog--with him to work one day and I complained 'cause I were freezing my ass off and he took my heater. So I demanded all the dogs and he delivered."

Because he was the best boy.

She got the door opened and, as she stepped into her apartment, flicked on the light.

"Come on, you said twenty minutes to get ready, right?"

[raspberryturk]

"That's right," Reno agreed, smiling and shaking his head as he stepped inside. "Shouldn't take too lo-- whoa."

Okay. No. It might take twenty-five, now.

[intraspective]

Ino looked at him in her impossible hair, gorgeous dress, and perfect shoes.

"I told you," she said, smiling. "It's top class."

[raspberryturk]

"Shit," Reno replied, still kind of blinking, but walking a good lap around her just to take in the details. "You just raised the bar, Rookie. Make that twenty minutes half an hour, yo."

He was going to have to style his hair instead of just brushing it. Or, shit, maybe lose the ponytail.

[intraspective]

"That's high praise, comin' from you," she said, honestly delighted. "We can do half an hour."

[raspberryturk]

"Good, yo," Reno replied, looking a little relieved. And still a whole lot impressed. "Bathroom's that way?"

He mostly just picked a direction and pointed. He wasn't wrong, but it wasn't as though he actually knew.

[intraspective]

"You got it," she said, suppressing a giggle. "On the left. My room's across from it, feel free to use that too."

[raspberryturk]

"We'll see what I end up needin'," Reno replied, smirking as he managed to slip back into his giving-no-shits casual demeanor. He set off toward the bathroom to get himself ready, pausing one more time to wolf-whistle at Ino from the bathroom doorway.

What? He had himself a hot date for tonight and he hadn't slept in days. He was allowed to be a nib.

[intraspective]

Ino's laughter rang out.

Hey, she wasn't going to mind a whistle when she'd worked damn hard for it.

While he was busy cleaning himself out, Ino wandered out to the living room, to take a careful seat on the couch there.

[raspberryturk]

And Reno was going to end up taking every minute of that half an hour. He had to clean up his suit, too, after all. There was blood and there were burn marks, and then he had to figure out where the hell he'd put that necktie he never wore, and it was a whole goddamn ordeal...

When he came out of the bathroom, though, he was not only cleaner. He'd lost the goggles, covered up the tattoos, put in hazel contacts to hide away the extra blue in his eyes, and had run enough hair color through his hair that he was leaning away from shock-red and into dark auburn territory.

"Hey, you got an extra pair of hands I can borrow?"

[intraspective]

"I do indeed," she said cheerfully, getting up from where she'd been reviewing some of her notes from her lab. "What do you need help with?"

[raspberryturk]

"The hair," Reno replied, gesturing vaguely behind himself. "I can tuck it away or cut it off, but there ain't nothin' I can do with it on my own that's gonna be half as fancy as it's gotta be, I'm thinkin'."

[intraspective]

Ino tsked.

"Don' you dare cut it," she said sternly. "Get back in that bathroom and let me see what I can do."