Reno's Room, 29 Chimera Court, Thursday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Call it whatever you wanted, Reno was in a state tonight. Repeated attempts to appeal to Tseng's better judgment hadn't quite gotten him the 'yeah, come back here and we'll actually fix that' results he had been hoping for. While he enjoyed the island as much as anybody possibly could, what he was actually accomplishing here, besides babysitting a Rookie who was really only in any real danger back in Midgar - and wouldn't be in that danger unless a certain silver-haired mama's boy reared his head - wasn't nearly enough. The Gaia that Ino, that Iris, called home now had become a godsdamned wildcard, and for all that they'd sorted out the AVALANCHE mess that had ruined the Turks in his own timeline, with Zack and Cloud out of the game, they'd unleashed a whole new sort of beast on the Planet.

There were a lot of things Reno could do. Sneak back to Gaia, try to put Rude up to doing something stupid, send Tseng a few more completely inappropriate care packages from Dite's, just accept his lot in life... but these past few weeks, with a direct order from Baby Boss to keep his chocobo-tattooed ass on the island and babysitting the Rookie, the most productive thing he could manage was just thinking.

A lot.

Into a bottle.

Fuck this shit. The world had ended once on his watch, if it was going to happen again, he intended to at least be drunk for it.

[OOC: Cut for your typical end of the world reminiscing and a Turk exercising an old drinking habit. For one!]

Comments

[intraspective]

“You ain’t never mentioned really what happened last time,” Ino said, crossing her arms over her chest, leaning back against the bed.

She was glad the darkness hid most of her flinch.

[raspberryturk]

"You're right," Reno agreed. "I didn't."

And it was going to take him a minute to get to that, too. First he needed to re-claim his hand from the ferret. He was getting twitchy.

"Long story short, AVALANCHE got all their pretty little marbles, yo."

Short story was going to be made long. But he needed time to circle back around to it.

[intraspective]

And she’d give him that time, now that he were talking.

“Summoned whatever’s in those marbles, huh?”

Turks were good but they weren’t literal gods.

[raspberryturk]

"Summoned what was in the marbles," Reno confirmed. And he was quiet for a long moment before he added, "Rude, Tseng an' me, we weren't there with 'em to see it happen."

[intraspective]

Oh.

“So… so you just… they were just gone.”

That was… that hurt, even just imagining it. She didn't want to imagine it, knowing Cissnei, and Rod, and Adrian and all the rest were just... gone.

[raspberryturk]

"They were gone."

It hurt just acknowledging it, this thing that he and Rude and Tseng had all wordlessly agreed to never touch on. And then he'd dropped the plate and the Turks had been functionally filed down to two, and he'd come back to Rosalind Jr.

He'd never really had the time to process it all. And here he was, staring it down from a little bit to the left.

He was sucking at it.

[intraspective]

He was sucking at it a lot.

“And now…?” she prodded.

Sure, she could read between the lines, but that weren’t the same as him saying it.

[raspberryturk]

Reno was quiet for a long while.

"I dunno, Rookie," he said, finally. "I ain't got no clue where we're goin' from here."

[intraspective]

“And you ain’t never really figured out how to pick up the pieces?”

She knew Reno, after all.

[raspberryturk]

"Ain't never had a chance to try."

Because after the plate, it was Sephiroth. And then Meteor. And then Geostigma. And then the triplets. And then. And then. And then.

[intraspective]

And then it had been easier to put off than to deal with.

“’Cept now you’re staring it in the face again.”

[raspberryturk]

Reno made a little 'tch' sound between his teeth, and then flopped backward on his bed again to glower up at the ceiling.

"Yeah," he muttered. "That ain't how that shit is supposed to go."

[intraspective]

Oh, good.

Ino wriggled around to flop her head on his chest. He could shove her off if he wanted, but she was there, a physical presence, a Rookie who’d never disappeared like the rest of them.

“We already got rid of some of the marbles,” she said. “That’s the first step. They ain’t all just gonna be gone when you ain’t lookin’ this time.”

[raspberryturk]

Reno sighed. It was something tired and frustrated and a little bit grateful, all rolled into itself. She was welcome to stay right where she was.

"Those ones ain't my rookies," he said, finally. "They're close, but they ain't. An' now there's this Sephiroth shit, we don't got no game plan for that, but he's gonna come back."

And there was a chance that he'd kill the one Turk he had left who was his Rookie.

[intraspective]

“I know they ain’t yours,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to sound like they were.”

Just like she knew the fact that she were still alive and a Rookie of his didn’t make up in any way for all of those who weren’t alive and who he missed.

“We don’t know where Sephiroth is right now… do we?”

[raspberryturk]

Reno shook his head.

"If I got my timeline right, he should'a surfaced by now," he muttered. "Ain't got no clue where he's at, but his first hit was at the President, for us."

[intraspective]

Ino thought about that, listening to Reno’s heartbeat.

"So… why don’t we go find him?"

It was the only thing she could think of to suggest, the only thing that made sense, in the darkness of the room.

[raspberryturk]

Reno glanced down at her.

"Don't you gotta dogsit or whatever?"

It wasn't really a protest. But there was some baggage here on the island, and all.

[intraspective]

Ino rolled her eyes but couldn’t help huffing a laugh at the same time.

“Tseng’s orders,” she agreed. “But Zack ain’t the same risk he were back when those were first given and I bet if we hacked Portalocity, we could slap down a no travel order on ‘im. That’d be ‘bout the same thing.”

She hesitated.

“And, it’s important, what we’d be doin’. More important than teachin’ here or playing at runnin’ a shop.”

[raspberryturk]

"Way more important," Reno agreed, after a long pause. "This you just spitballin', or sayin' it should be done?"

[intraspective]

Well, Ino was just going to let that silence sit there a little bit.

There was a lot of think about and how Zack was going to feel about it was no small consideration. She didn’t just want to up and leave on him, but she weren’t sure bringing him were a good idea neither.

“Both,” she said, finally. “I ain’t sayin’ we ought to pack up and go right now. I think we ought to try and figure out plans and a path to start lookin’ down beforehand. But I weren’t just sayin’ shit to say it. I think we ought to go, once all is decided. Though… if we find him, I ain’t sayin’ we ought to try and take him out either.”

[raspberryturk]

Reno listened to all of that, and then huffed slightly. It was almost a laugh, if you squinted.

"All that effort to find him just to get our asses killed for nothin'? Yeah, pass."

[intraspective]

Ino smiled slightly.

“Not my idea of a fun time either,” she agreed. “But… finding him, yeah, I’m down for that.”

[raspberryturk]

Reno was quiet again.

"So," he said, eventually, "that sounds like the start of some kinda game plan."

Which was good. It was more than they'd had before.

[intraspective]

“Yeah,” she said, “we do."

Ino considered the ceiling, and the ferret, and Reno.

“It ain’t savin’ the ones you lost, but it’s somethin’ that ought to help the ones that ain’t lost. That help?”