Midgar, Gaia -- Saturday

[intraspective]

Ino had felt—good, stable, all the way out of Fandom, off the island, and into Midgar, which was her own home now (and that was something she still had to remind herself of), even while they stopped to let her change into her uniform.

It was only as Zack pressed a kiss to her cheek, in the lobby of the ShinRa building and headed off for his own orders, that Ino felt the clawing uncertainty come back.

Talk to the receptionist, she’d been told. Ino could do that, though she despised walking into a situation blind. It was a comfort, at the least, that she already had her uniform, her I.D. , and that she was supposed to be here, so far as anyone was concerned.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous, still, underneath the cool demeanour. This was her first time, after all, on the job, in this capacity. Her hair was down, flowing in careful waves down her back and her shoulders were straight as she approached the mission--reception desk.

“Excuse me?”

And Ino ignored the creeping panic that reminded her she had no idea of what else to say.

[NFB, please! For them that're in the building.]

Comments

[intraspective]

"He'll be good," she snapped, "when you're not hitting where he sleeps."

Ino was very good at being a properly respectful Rookie, truly. Just... not to Reno.

She scooped her chicobo out of the air and it warbled at her. "Shhhh," she murmured, "be good, okay?"

That got an agreeable chirp. Ino eyed Silly for a moment, who seemed content enough to settle in her hands, and then lifted the ridiculous little bird back to her shoulder, where it could hide.

[raspberryturk]

This Reno was not the Reno that she knew, and the raised eyebrow and the seriously annoyed look on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest and tapped one foot against the cobbles probably attested to that one well enough.

"You wanna run that one by me again, rookie?"

Lowercase 'r.' She'd just taken a half-step back on the road to Reno's respect.

He'd never lost a rookie. He wasn't about to start now just because somebody couldn't keep her chicken quiet on an assignment.

[intraspective]

Ino gave him a look that was pure stubbornness.

"He'll be quiet," she repeated, politer. And resisting the urge to tell him that the only person who cared even a little about them right that second was a girl in the second storey of the building behind them who looked only because she was waiting for her boyfriend and he was late. "Sir."

Politer, we note. Not politely.

[raspberryturk]

"He better be," Reno replied, shaking his head and rolling his eyes as he started walking again. "The turkey decides to beak off at me again, and it'll be goin' into the report I file for Verdot on your introductory assignment as a nuisance and a liability."

Apparently, once upon a time, Reno actually knew what the word 'liability' meant.

It helped, perhaps, that AVALANCHE had been keeping the Turks on pins and needles for over a year, now, and he had damn good reason to be more jumpy than the older, more tired Reno on the island was.

This Reno was doing the job.

[intraspective]

Apparently so!

Ino set her chin and nodded.

"He'll be good," she replied, a touch crisper that time. Refusing to show that she was worried that, already, she'd screwed up massively, as she followed him matching his pace. "I wouldn't have brought him if I didn't think he could be."

But, after all, Silly was a rookie too. Ino wisely kept her mouth shut on that one.

[raspberryturk]

Yeah, Reno would have been less inclined to take on the chocobo as a protege on this mission, really.

"He's not impressing me so far," Reno noted, shaking his head and sighing. He'd given her as much of a lecture as he was willing to, considering there was still a job to be done. "This is the Turks, rookie. Not some kinda grade-school pet fair. C'mon. We're almost to our startin' point, we can do a sweep around here and then start headin' back along the side-streets, yoto."

[intraspective]

She also, wisely, did not point out that Zack ran missions with a gerbil in his pockets.

Ino was pretty sure that'd get her a snippy comment about the differences between SOLDIERs and Turks. Instead, she followed.

After a few minutes, sorry Reno, she was bad at shutting up. "You never did answer my question," she said, keeping her voice light. "'Bout what else causes issues 'round here."

[raspberryturk]

"I'd be all day givin' you a list," Reno replied, rolling his eyes. "Monsters, mobsters, political dissidents. You know about the first assignment and you know we do the job, I'm surprised you even gotta ask."

No, really, he kind of was. If there was another Reno in the picture, why hadn't he taught her all of this shit? It was leaving big, confusing gaps in her story, that made him wonder what kind of loser this other Reno even was.

[intraspective]

Ino shrugged, lifting her shoulders.

"Ain't got much information on Midgar and the Turks in the day-to-day," she replied with a sidelong glance his way. "Bit too borin' I guess, to tell someone."

Boring, she thought, was likely not the word for it. But...

[raspberryturk]

That earned a snort out of Reno.

"You expectin' borin', here?"

Because, Ino, he would take that deliberate turn down that particular alley right there toward a place where there was usually trouble, just for you, if that was the case.

He was nice like that.

[intraspective]

"I ain't," she muttered, folloing him. "But he might've thought it borin' after the day in and out of it."

[raspberryturk]

Reno just snorted and gave his head a shake.

"Remind me not to get knocked on the head as much as he's been," he mumbled, winding through the alleyways.

The way he was letting his EMR slide from his sleeve into his hand was probably an indication that he was anticipating trouble from down this way. And, really, it probably suggested that he went this way for the trouble. Possibly frequently.

[intraspective]

And Ino was definitely paying attention to what he was doing. Her eyes brightened--yes, yes fighting was bad whatever--and a kunai slipped into her hand, though she held it so it wasn't immediately noticable.

She also? Kept her mouth shut.

Bouncy though, for all that she moved silently.

[raspberryturk]

And as they moved down the alleyway, there came the sound of voices, hollowed out and distant, from somewhere farther along. Indoors, somewhere, if the muffled quality to them was any indication.

The grin that made its way over Reno's lips as he heard them was positively predatory.

This Reno was very much not the one that Ino knew from Fandom, in that moment. He was a different creature entirely, on the prowl, black on black in the shadows in the alleyway, stalking his chosen prey, skulking toward the door and lingering there. Listening.

If the chicobo made a peep right now, Reno would be having it stuffed.

[intraspective]

The chicobo was silent, Ino knew that better than anyone, given her proximity to it, and she was... quietly, but entirely, exhilarated.

She glanced at him, waiting for instructions, waiting for some indication of why they were hunting whoever was inside.

Part of her didn't care, not really, so long as there was a fight.

[raspberryturk]

The voices on the other side of the door gave way to yelling. Gil this, insurance that. And Reno stood, waited, smirked to himself.

Behind the door, gunshots.

Reno didn't so much as twitch. Welcome to Midgar, Iris.

And then, all at once, the door flew open and a man came barrelling out of there like a bat out of hell, white as a sheet and splattered with blood.

Reno simply held out one foot and let the dumbfuck trip over it, stumbling a few feet and smacking into the wall.

"Keep him there," he said, calmly, and raised his baton. Clearly, the man who was fleeing wasn't the one that he was after, here.

[intraspective]

"Sir," Ino said, and her voice was practically a chirp.

It was a bit disappointing, truly, that she wasn't going to be allowed to do more.

But--this was a job, and she was happy to do this much.

Ino smiled sharply at the man. "You're goin' to be a good boy, aren't you?" she purred.

[raspberryturk]

The man on the ground nodded, and he nodded fiercely, staring up at Ino with wide, somewhat horrified eyes. He'd be the best boy ever! Just keep him safe!

Reno, continued to wait. One second. Two. Three.

And then he brought his baton down, hard, right over the skull of another man as he stepped through the door, with a crack sound that was loud enough to linger in his ears for a few seconds after.

Like music, a little, wasn't it?

"Man," Reno said, as the target of his little assault crumpled to the ground, the gun that he was holding skittering over the cobbles. "What kinda shit are you gettin' into now?"

The man made a feeble grab for his gun, and Reno made a very not feeble stomp onto his hand. The sound that made was far less pleasant than the sound the man's head had made.

"Iris, you wanna pick that little toy up and give it a look-over? We wouldn't want him to be playin' with no Materia that ain't been approved for use in city limits, would we?"

It was probably worth noting that there was no such thing. Materia was materia. Unless you were in Wutai. And then materia was ShinRa's. Period.

[intraspective]

This was, she guessed, several different tests all rolled into one.

She didn't know if there were or weren't Materia approved in the city limits. She didn't know who these people were, or why Reno had gone after them, and now wasn't the time to ask.

Now was the time to listen, but listen in just the right way and then act like she knew what was going on.

Ino--Iris, she supposed--smiled an impish smile at the man staring at her. Then held up one finger--one moment, right right? he'd stay right there for one moment?--and with a grin that made her eyes sparkle took two steps bouncy steps over to the gun.

She'd scooped it up before she'd even properly gotten over there.

"Hmm," Ino said, her voice almost a sing-song, studying the gun with wide eyes as she kept an eye on it, on Reno, on the man she was supposed to watch. "I think we've got a very bad boy on our hand. Tsk tsk."

Really, all she knew was that the materia wasn't one that Zack had shown her before. But lying, well, came easily.

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave his head a shake, clicking his tongue.

"Better confiscate that, yo. Wouldn't want that shit to fall into the wrong hands, would we?"

The man with the hand crushed under Reno's foot made a little whimpering sound. So, naturally, Reno gave his heel a heavy twist.

"See, way I see it, we got two options. This here loser has been warned, again and again, he shouldn't be dealin' his wares in Turks' Jurisdiction, yo." He gave his head a slow shake, deep and condescending. "S'what the slums are for, and he's got less to worry about from dealin' on Corneo's turf than he'll ever have to worry about from us. So. We can bring him in, make him regret bein' the idiot that he is, causin' shit and spillin' blood on my turf. Or, we can send him down to the slums with a warning, yo. We catch his sorry ass up here again, we don't even bother bringin' him in."

Down in the slums, he could be the Security Department's problem.

Or, of course, the Don's.

[intraspective]

Was this a test, she mused.

Of course it was--everything was a test today.

"I don't know," she said, pocketing the materia and twirling the gun in one hand. "If he ain't listened to warnin' before then I don't see why he'd listen now."

You know?

[raspberryturk]

Oh, Reno knew. The lazy grin that settled on his mouth indicated that he knew quite well. He smirked over at Ino.

"You wanna check an' see if his buddy is still alive in there, or do you wanna babysit both of 'em and let me play?"

After all, there had been gunshots, and there was blood. Neither of these two were bleeding. Or, at least, they hadn't been until Reno had gotten to them, so...

[intraspective]

"A good rookie ought to bow to her superior," she said, with a playful drawl. "I don't think I get a choice in stayin' out here."

Which was sad, but alright.

She could handle these two losers.

[raspberryturk]

Reno gave her an appreciative grin, and then was laughing as he made his way into the building.

Really, nothing terribly exciting went on in there, and the two who were outside with her were too busy cowering to cause any trouble. Reno came out of the building with his PHS in hand, calling HQ to report a body.

"We're gonna have to escort these two back to the cells," he said, as he flipped the phone shut. "Lucky, Rookie, you get to see where he keep all the special losers on your very first day, yo."

[intraspective]

Ino nudged the one with the busted hand.

"You heard him," she said, "get up."

As he scrambled up, Ino cast a glance at the other man. "You too."

It was a peculiar sort of power, she thought, watching two men get to their feet, scared to death of her suit and what that meant. She thought she might like it.