towerofanimus | Report I : Not Again

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Report I : Not Again

Characters: New Reno and YOU!
Setting: Starting out on Floor 2, and then elsewhere ~~on the boat~~ in the tower!
Format: Prose, but I'm cool with anything
Summary: The 'New Reno' takes a look around his newfound residence. Confusion and situational hilarity ensue.
Warnings: Language for sure,

[Floor 2]

Reno was not impressed, to say the least.

He'd skimmed the letters and simply rolled his eyes at the contents. He'd known Gaia was gone for months now, and he'd already been 'saved' once thankyouverymuch. On top of that the collar was quickly giving Redd a good number of points back; the same for having to share a room with people, not that he minded really but it was the principal of the thing.

He moved as swiftly as possible to dig through the trunk at the end of his bed, changing in to one of the oversized sweaters and pair of jeans. Bangle equipped the cure and thunder materia went on after and he shoved the pineapple in to the bag along with the coconut and a gun. Slinging it across his back he surveyed the contents for a silent moment before pulling the boots on. No idea what he'd be stepping in out there after all, it could be covered in exploded cardinals and red slime for all he knew. He grabbed the two pins as well, shoving them in to a pocket before heading out.

"...damnit, where'd my communicator go?" He muttered, stopping well down the hallway from the room. "I swear if I see The Captain..."

He continues on the prowl looking mighty annoyed and a bit tired.

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Whatever Reno had been expecting out of his doppelganger, that was not it. The way this man held himself, the way he talked was not quite right. Not for Reno, anyway, and Reno thought he knew himself pretty damned well.

"This is the Tower. There's a guy named Dax, one named Jason and some kid named Zo. No rules except show up to the infirmary when they call ya, and you can't leave the tower. Ya might want to head down to the cafeteria and eat some oatmeal before you eat anything else."

He wasn't even going to address the pineapple and coconut bit at all. "There's no bar," he added, rather annoyed. "Who the hell is Redd? What the hell are you talking about an island?"

No rules? Brilliant, people were probably killing each other left and right without a care in the world.

"Brilliant. Redd's the Captain of the Elegante, a ship that was doing pretty much the same thing as this tower only without the collars and they had a few bars. It sank, so it figures that whoever those people are would pick people up off of the island we wound up on. The Captain was nuts but he's already doing better than the three here."

He gestured for Reno to take the lead, "You know the place better than I do, and oatmeal's better than whatever the hell was in ponk I bet."

Before they went anywhere, there was one thing he needed to do. Reno was not going to show him around until that problem was addressed.

"Yeah, sure, but first, there's a few things ya need to do." Grabbing his arm he pulled the other him into his room, and over to his trunk. Opening it up, he pulled out some of his extra clothes and handed them over. "There's no way you're goin' around the tower in that."

Then he added a hairbrush on top of the folded clothing.

Reno didn't fight, but found himself raising an eyebrow at the offered clothes. "You can keep the pants y'know, I've got plenty."

Not that he really needed clothes, or saw anything wrong with what he was wearing to be honest. Then again, maybe sweaters meant something here and it'd get him shot. He wasn't going to turn away free clothes either, free stuff was free stuff as far as he cared and clothes might be hard to come by.

He took the bag from his back and set it at his feet before pulling the sweater off. There were probably a few scars missing and certainly a few completely different ones evident. Some of them very obviously healed recently with materia.

It was very strange watching himself, but he did take note of the difference in scars.

He sat on the bed and watched, frowning slightly and trying to get used to the idea of another him. It'd been different with Axel. Despite all the similarities it was still obvious they were different people. Still, different scars meant different battles.

"So, I'm guessin' we're from slightly different universes." It was hard saying that. After all his research and the theories that came up, he still didn't want to believe it was all possible. If it had been a simple case of clones, this Reno wouldn't seem so different. "And you wound up in a different place. It was pretty bad, huh?"

"Different universes?" Reno asked, pulling the offered shirt on and running a hand through his hair. "Maybe, or different points in time. I'd just dropped the plate when Redd grabbed me...little over seven months ago. Damn it's felt like longer, lot happened y'know?"

It was weird, there was no denying that. He'd seen Vincent as him, walking and talking and it had been a bit surreal but there was a distinct difference in the way the two of them moved on a fundamental level.

"Or we're dead, and this is the lifestream. That's always a distinct possibility."

The plate? That might be possible. Others in the tower talked about different timelines, too. He gave himself a look.

"That was a while ago for me. Months ago, and I get what ya mean, there's a lot happened since then, but it was all back home. But I don't think we're dead, this place hurts too damn much for that."

There some hair products in the open trunk, if Reno took a peek inside.

"Oh, yeah. Before you go off, I've been keeping a low profile here. Nobody knows I'm a turk, except Shion."

"Don't worry, I know what happens back home. Sephiroth, Meteor, Holy. Chocobo headed not-SOLDIER's saving the world." He laughed at the dead thing though, something slightly hollow about it despite the mirth. "Oh, I'm pretty familiar with how death feels."

He frowned at the lack of knowing about the turks his other self had set up, but... it was a pretty sound tactic really.

"Good. We should keep it that way until more people from home show up, or people from the boat. They'll know who you, Veld and Vincent are, as well as Sephiroth without being from our world." He frowned, debating on bringing himself with him or coming back later. "You got a cover story 'bout how you know stuff?"

"Cover story?" He'd been following along for the most part, even understanding that death might have been not-permanent where this Reno had been, until he mentioned that. "For what? Nobody here knows a damned thing about Gaia except pretty generic stuff, and nobody else here is from Gaia. Plus, tons of people know how to fight or are from some sort of military. People don't question things like that."

Hesitating a moment, he gave a glance over at Shion's bed. "The only reason Shion knows is because the kid doesn't know a damned bit about fighting, but he was smart enough to get into my report book. I think Axel suspects I've got a history, but he's a special case. When you meet him you'll understand."

"Turks aren't exactly normal military." Reno sighed, stating what should be completely obvious. "Eh, no big deal really. It's not like ShinRa's around to come after us one way or the other, or that I'd listen to 'em if a Director other than Tseng or Veld showed up."

He frowned at the empty bed, swinging his back across his back again. "Then again, if any of 'em try to pull some sort of bullshit with me I've got no problems telling them my contract's technically void on two counts."

Shion, despite his best efforts to stay calm was quietly panicking and had been for days, ever since he had received the note telling him he had been selected for an experiment that would start tomorrow if his mental calendar was correct.

The last time he had got such a note, for a game not an experiment it had ended in him being killed by teddy bears after one of the most terrifying nights of his life. So he was jumpy, more so than usual and hadn't slept properly.

So he jumped when he pushed the door open and saw that Axel was in the room with Reno, he didn't know the other very well at all but he had seen him around.

Except wasn't his hair shorter? Shion blinked taking in the small differences. "Reno?"

Oh, this wasn't good. Standing up, Reno clapped a hand to his forehead when Shion called his name.

"Shion, what're you doing here? I mean I thought you were out for the day."

Like being in the library or being a space case somewhere else. Times like this Reno really wished he had a room to himself.

"Now's not a good time."

"Yeah?" Reno turned at the call of his name, moving out of habit more than anything.

He gave the kid a quick once-over. He sure didn't look like much, but... clever could get you farther than pure brute force. Hell, he was a perfectly good example of that one.

"Oh, right. You." He blinked, "Sorry."

He moved to the nearest closed trunk and sat on it. He wasn't planning on going anywhere.

"Oh..." Shion blinked because dealing with one Reno and his bruskness but two was a little overwhelming. Though he told himself that it was just another case of multiple versions of people.

"A different universe then?" Wait... he had said it wasn't a good time. He should leave, but curiosity prevented him.

"In a probably round about way, yeah." Reno cut in, leaning foreward to rest his arms on his knees. "I got picked up by the Elegante when our world was destroyed, it may have messed with whatever systems your tower here has in place for 'saving' people. It grabbed me from a slightly further point in time and then when the boat sank it kicked in and grabbed me."

It was a good enough explanation for the moment anyway, and certainly seemed logical enough.

"It's a theory anyway, I've been wrong on them before."

Again, palm met face and he just sort of slumped a bit. The kid wasn't going to let this go, was he? And so much for hoping Shion would just think it was Axel.

"Yeah, what he said. I got no idea what any of this shit really means." He could go through the library until he was blue in the face, and he would still probably never understand it. "Why're you up here, anyway?"

"So you are from two different points in time..." But the same universe, or ones so similar that they hadn't managed to find differences in them. That was weird, none of this made sense at all but one thing the other Reno had said made his eyes widen. "You were somewhere else before here that wasn't your world?" And he believed the world had ended? So it was true? He began to tremble a little, trying to continue to focus.

He blinked at Reno, the Reno he knew, "I..." Why had he come up here, except that he was done with work and his room was safe...

"I was finished in the library."

Reno stared at the kid, as if confused that something quite that... obvious had come out of someone's mouth.

"That's what I said. It was a cruise ship. Called the Elegante. We actually fought and killed the... thing that was eating worlds, or at least one of them. If you see something that looks like a completely red galaxy in the sky, or red tentacles, or cardinals you tell me. Do not get near them. Do not touch them." He sent a hard look at his other self as he said it. "They will kill you and I'm not sure if you'd come back."

His other self was going to freak the roommate out. They could deal with the world eating thing in a minute. Shion looked like he was going to pass out. Getting up, Reno moved across the room to grab his roommate by the elbow. "Focus, Shion. Don't get lost, now." The turk snapped, accompanying it with a whap upside the head, knowing he was losing it already.

"I haven't seen anything like that around here at all. Nothing red or tentacle like at all." He repeated for the boy's benefit, and glanced back over his shoulder to his other self, giving him a "play along" face and jerking his head at Shion. "Maybe these people really did do us a favor by bringin' us here."

Red galaxies? Tentacles? Those sounded pretty damn horrifying. If that was what his other self had faced, no wonder he wasn't acting like himself

Shion was about to pass out. A thing that ate universes, was that why the worlds had ended. Was it true then, if this wasn't the only place to be saving people. He jumped when his elbow was grabbed and he was hit. "I wont..." He didn't sound too sure about that but he tried to focus, tried to remember to breath.

Reno was right there was nothing like that here, perhaps here was out of it's reach. Hidden, maybe that's what the fog was for...

But if the world really was gone... Shion trembled more, this was really all there was left...

Reno sighed, he'd forgotten how freaked out people could get over things.

"Of course, we did fight it and kick it's ass." He smiled, "So, there's probably absolutely nothing to worry about Kiddo. Besides, if you'd never come here you never would've met anyone here or learned everything you have."

"Shion?" The other Reno shook his head, giving him another light smack.

Giving it up for now, he pulled the boy over to his bed and set him down. "I give up. He does this every time something weird or freaky happens. I've been trying to train him a bit. Just doesn't seem to work."

He guessed that... was right... it was a little like going to the West Town. But still... he would rather be there than here...

He was trembling even more but blinked as Reno smacked him again and pulled him over to the bed, he sat numbly trying to think, or not think, or concentrate or whatever it was Reno wanted him to do.

"Sorry..."

"How long've you two been here?" Reno asked, frowning a little.

Not everyone was cut out to be a full Turk, and even those that were sometimes had loyalties that laid elsewhere. "Do either of you know who the people who've been here the longest are?"

"Shiva's tits..." Cussing softly, Reno shook his head, clapping his hands to Shion's face to get him to snap out of it. He wasn't exactly being gentle about it, either.

"I got here two months ago. Shion's been here six. I think the longest I really know for sure anyone's been here is ten months, and I'd have to check my notes who it was."

That wasn't counting the posts on the network. The timestamps on those could have been changed, or something else weird happened to them.

Suddenly, he gave his other self a look. "Why? What's important about it?"

Shion blinked again when Reno hit his face, "Eleven... it's almost May I think..." He had been keeping track of days as best he could but when there were days that the sun didn't even rise... It was difficult.

"I'm not sure if the network can be trusted but the earliest are from June of last year, I am not sure if any of those people are still in the tower, people disappear apparently. No one knows where they have gone." Now that they were talking about something he had knowledge of, something he could control he began to calm down.

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Report I : Not Again

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