The Preserve, Late Monday Night

[intraspective]

The preserve, really, ought to have been fully dark considering how late it was, but Ino had brought a few portable lanterns and set them up around the perimeter of the clearing. She wore short sleeves despite the cold, and had her cards on her. Getting the kunai from the locker would’ve been too much hassle with everything else.

In her hands was a scroll and she was idly tossing it from one hand to the other as she waited for Reno. Because that was totally the way you treated quality literature. Of course.

The knapsack she had slung over one low hanging branch contained two other scrolls and she left them where they were for now.

[For the partner-in-crime, please!]

Comments

[intraspective]

She nodded.

"Hey, Reno," Ino asked. "Do you think this place has made you stronger, or weaker?"

[raspberryturk]

That was a question that caught his attention pretty quickly.

"Stronger or weaker how?"

It also seemed like the sort of question that was up for interpretation.

[intraspective]

"Just...," she searched for the words, "for being able to do your job. Even though, I guess, your job description's changed. But if it hadn't..."

[raspberryturk]

He heaved a sigh at that, gave a little nod of his head, and decided that now was as good a time as any to make himself comfortable, taking a seat on the ground.

"I'd do it, if I had to. It's what I do. A job's a job, yo." A beat. "And I could do it, too. Went back to Gaia a few months back and took a bomb to an overpass I was standin' by. No time to think about the consequences. You get the job done."

That was the important part.

"I think I'd feel it more after, though, if I had to do it again. I'm just startin' to be able to square my shoulders up again."

[intraspective]

She sat down where she was, scroll in her lap, and sighed.

"Found out I'm back on active duty," she told him. "So I guess I'll be finding out soon."

[raspberryturk]

"You worried you're gettin' soft in the head, or that you're gettin' rusty?"

This was a very important distinction to make. It meant the solution was going to be far more difficult.

[intraspective]

"Both, I guess," she admitted. "Found out I was rusty last time I went home. Been working harder, so I know I've improved since then, but I don't know how it'll compare at home. And as for in the head... I don't know. It depends on the missions I get. Some wouldn't cause anyone issues--stuff like playing courier and defending ourselves if we got attacked, but others..."

[raspberryturk]

"Say no more," Reno replied, holding up one hand. "I think I know what you're gettin' at, there."

He drummed his fingers against his lap, mulling it over for a moment. And then he grinned.

"Clearly, this means we gotta duke it out sometime. That helps with the first part, anyhow. The rest..." He shrugged. "My way of dealin' with that don't work for everyone."

[intraspective]

"Give me a few missions to try and knocks some kinks out first," she said dryly. "And straight on fighting isn't my strongest point anyway--not strong enough for it."

"And, I know," Ino admitted, "that your way might not work for me, but at least you get what I'm talking about. And that helps too."

[raspberryturk]

Reno nodded, leaning back against the tree and reaching for a stick. Something to do with his hands. Snap. Time for a new stick.

"Sometimes, just gettin' it off your chest helps," he agreed. "I got an open ear, if it does ever get to your head, okay?"

[intraspective]

"Okay," she said, ducking her head. "At least you don't go off 'bout my questionable morals and ethics. Even that helps. Most people here do at least a bit."

[raspberryturk]

"I got a feelin' that my morals and ethics are a little bit more questionable than yours, zoto." Snap. Next stick. "Don't worry about it too much. Someone else has an issue with you, you ask 'em how long they'd last on your world while bein' the nice guy, yo."

[intraspective]

"Not very long," she laughed. "And I don't know how my morals match up to yours. You've got more experience in not having them, I've just been taught not to have them."

[raspberryturk]

Reno eyed her for a while, and another stick died a terrible, horrible death.

"You do the job. No matter what." A pause. "Because you're Turks, zoto. Ain't nothin' else matters. Not the people you're roundin' up. Not what happens to 'em after. Don't matter if they live or if they wish they died. You do the fuckin' job."

Reno's morals, in a nutshell.

[intraspective]

Those poor sticks.

"Yeah," Ino said, leaning so far back that she was more laying then sitting on the ground. "Like that. Only--you guys don't start out as Turks, right? Not from the cradle."

[raspberryturk]

"Not most of us. None of us who are still alive, anyhow," Reno agreed, shrugging. "You gotta kinda dig to figure out what you're still doin' it for, sometimes. For me, it was easy enough. But for some of the others, I think it took a little more doin', zoto."

[intraspective]

"Do you regret doing what you do?" Ino wondered, staring up at the sky.

[raspberryturk]

And, at that question, Reno offered a bit of a tired smile.

"If I ever let myself regret it, Ino, I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror. Or sleep at night. Or breathe without feelin' bad about it."

[intraspective]

Enough questions then," she said. "So you don't gotta think 'bout any of it."

[raspberryturk]

"I appreciate it, yo." A pause. "Thanks again. I mean, for all the work you been doin' with these scrolls. They're gonna mean a lot, I think, to the people back on Gaia. We just gotta make it work. Make 'em more portable, or user-friendly, or somethin'."

Something.

[intraspective]

"They're not used for things like this back home," she said. "Just weapons and in the middle of battle. Tenten can whip these things out and aim the weapons in them while she's releasing them so that they'll hit the enemy. I can't do that, and I'm not sure she'd have ideas 'bout user friendly--to her, they are, you know?"