Apartment Above Pick Your Poison, Sunday

[intraspective]

In the end, Ino hadn't bothered to go to the Parents' Weekend… thing…

She'd felt that it'd be pointless, all things considered, given her lack of visitors. It was nice, though, to feel the extra buzzing in the back of her mind that indicated more people on the island. Made it livelier. Reminded her a little of Midgar, though there were far more people in one block there than in the entire island here.

Usually she'd pay more attention to what was going on outside, but this weekend was making her feel weird and nostalgic and even a little envious (which was damn stupid, but there you go) and so she'd headed over to her shop and, rather than putter around in the front end, she'd locked the door behind her and headed into the apartment upstairs.

The back room on the ground floor was used for mixing most of her soaps, lotions, teas, and things like that. Things she sold to the average person without worrying about it.

Her upstairs apartment, however, was where she worked with the dangerous things.

Ino braided her hair back tightly, coiling it around and around her head like a crown, pulled her safety goggles on (it would be really fucking stupid to get poison in her eyes) and gloves on, and settled in to work on things most people would never get a chance to buy.

It was funny how this sort of thing relaxed her.

[Backdated due to internet issues. For one.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

Reno caught that flinch and checked himself, taking a moment to dial it back. Compose himself again.

Mind his mouth.

"... AVALANCHE would still be a problem," he noted, more sedately. "They'd still need to be taken care of. But you'd basically neuter 'em if you can put that materia somewhere they can't get it. Then all you'd have to deal with are the Ravens, the AVALANCHE crazies themselves, and ShinRa's hard-on for takin' out Verdot."

He paused.

"... An' Sephiroth, later. But with a full pack of Turks, what the hell, right?"

[intraspective]

Ino drew in a breath. Then another.

She felt... she didn't know how to she felt. Hollow. Sad. It was stupid, wasn't it? There was a way to fix things--or not even that, to change them, and she had it right there in her hands.

"I'll get rid of it," Ino said. "I got a few ideas 'bout how."

If nothing else, she was pretty sure Jono could destroy it.

"What you're sayin' now, though, it's a total tune different than before."

Before she'd left, before Zack hadn't died, before she'd... something. Changed.

[raspberryturk]

"Had a lot of time to think since before," Reno replied. "Spend a decade or so pickin' up the pieces from a ruined world, you start to stop givin' a shit."

He shrugged a bit.

"Tseng'll probably kill me. Fuck'im, yo. It ain't his world and it ain't mine. You made it yours. You get to call the shots, now."

[intraspective]

It wasn't the sort of thing that should be decided lightly. Or quickly. Or impulsively.

She knew good and well she should take the time to stop, think about how they were going to do it, before doing anything.

"Then, yeah," Ino said, "I want that. It'll be somethin' you ain't seen before. There won't be no guarantee it'll turn out better than your world did. But it'll be different. It's worth a shot."

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, if it kills me, at least I died tryin'," Reno replied, a wry twist to his smile as he leaned back against the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest. "And the only way it can be worse than back home is if it actually does end. Right now you got a fightin' chance, at least. You know it's comin'."

There was a pause, and then he tilted his head, lips parting in that lupine grin of his.

"You gonna let 'em know I'm comin', or should I come knockin' on the door an' confuse the shit outta Tseng, first?"

[intraspective]

Ino pursed her lips.

She should really let them know he was coming.

"Ain't no secret from when I started that I were--that I knew another Reno," she said, changing her mind about saying that she were another Reno's Rookie to something a little less... painful. "And I ain't very happy with the lot of 'em either right now."

She loved them fiercely. She hated them all more than a little these days too.

"Do what you want to do in that regard. Just let me know."

[raspberryturk]

They would try to kill him. Reno had no doubt in his mind that they would try to kill him. But considering he could run laps around his younger counterpart, thank you Lady Ghanima, he was fine with the attempt.

Shit, it could be fun.

"It's settled, then," he decided. "I gotta take a bit of time to tie up loose ends back in Junon, let Rude get all his teary goodbyes outta his system and all..." Yeah, okay, that part would be hard on Reno, too. Maybe he could talk Rude into tagging along? "But I'll let you know when I make the trip. Maybe I'll even knock on Tseng's door before saunterin' into his office to introduce myself."

But probably not.

[intraspective]

"I look forward to you and Rude 'causin' a ruckus," Ino said mildly.

Yeah, she caught that thought. She didn't mind.

"I look forward to hearin' how it's goin'."

[raspberryturk]

Look, Reno just did everything better with his partner in crime along for the journey.

Tseng would hate it. Elena, who had basically been Rude's rookie, would hate it even more.

"I'll keep you informed," Reno drawled. "Hell, odds are you'll hear from one or both Tsengs before I even have a chance to draft a report, yo."

[intraspective]

"Just what I needed," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Lectures and bitchin' from more than one Tseng."

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, you an' me both, right?" Reno smiled easily; it didn't entirely mask just how done he was feeling just then, but shit, that was basically his life. Had been since Zirconaide, at least. This seemed like a good step to take. Something headed in the right direction, instead of just spinning his wheels.

It seemed good.

"Odds are, the lectures'll mostly be for me anyway, zoto."