towerofanimus | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Characters: Reno,
Setting: dorm, cafeteria, the brand new tavern/bar/something floor
Format: either
Summary: After a brief moment back home, Reno has a whole lotta stuff to catch up on
Warnings: tbd

Dorm

His bed felt strange, kind of lumpy. This pillow wasn't where he remembered it, either. Well, he'd worry about that later. He gave a yawn and just rolled over, thinking about going back to sleep. After going back again to a world ruined, he didn't really want to be conscious just yet.

Cafeteria

The food this month wasn't appealing in any sort of sense. The candy made things taste, well, let's face it, like shit. It was a horrible mishmash of sweet and other kind of flavors and he wan't enjoying his meal at all. Even the ingredients had these candy hearts in them. Picking them out did nothing to keep the taste from his tongue. That was when he thought about going hunting just to get something that didn't taste of sugary sick sweetness.

He was quiet, sitting in the corner and just watching the people and drones move about the cafeteria. Things seemed different, a different kind of feeling. There must be some sort of event going on.

Bar Floor

Exploring the new floors was an adventure and a half. Just climbing the stairs gave him a new appreciation for the sheer lunacy Riki had in making up the floors of the Tower. When he got to the natural terrain floors, he just shook his head. That is, until he stepped through one floor and suddenly he was in space. He nearly had a heart attack.

All that exploring, however, was worth it when he discovered this jewel of a floor. It was perfect! He no longer had to have his things on the now-overcrowded floor 38. He could set up his bar here, and it had everything. Chairs, tables, games...

That was what occupied his time in the afternoon. Reno had stored his stock and leftover equipment in the storage floor, but it didn't take a determined Turk long to find things and move them.

So there he was, setting up his back-up still, the first one he had made, behind the counter. His hand made cupboards where there, too, little locks on the front of the cabinets.

It felt sort of good, having a place that reminded him a little of the seedy bars at home.

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[It was time to refuel, meaning that Elena had returned to the cafeteria once more to obtain the much needed substance that quite possibly was replacing the blood in her veins. It was the only thing she drank now, and in copious amounts, to keep awake through the many hours in the day. And it was evident she'd been on this self-induced insomniatic state given the size of the dark circles under her eyes. But despite the obvious signs of exhaustion, she's more than able to keep the sounds of her footsteps to a minimum as she enters, scanning the room before moving onward.

If she had been holding her favorite ceramic mug that she'd bought back in Junon many years back, it would have clattered to the ground and splintered into a million pieces. Seeing the mop of red, the way shoulders sat and long frame lounged in the seat, recognition was instantaneous.]

....Oh thank the Summons....

[Turk speed is fast, and add onto that the extra umph of a worried wife, and its only a matter of seconds before she's nearly crushing him, arms thrown around his neck in a desperate hug.]

Sweet Carbuncle, I thought you'd disappeared for good too....

[Suddenly he was being choked and squeezed. Not that he minded, too much, but it was getting hard to breathe in there.]

Grrrk... Elena, can't breathe...

[He hadn't been gone that long. Only, what, a week? Two? He'd been gone longer. Still, he was really glad to see Elena have that time alone. It seemed like they all had to pay for that moderately successful ceremony...]

Long as my name's on the door, babe.

[His plea falls on deaf ears, or perhaps just ignored through selective hearing, for several moments more before finally releasing him from her death-trap of a hug.]

....Sorry.

[Grabbing a nearby chair, she pulled it towards him, aligning her chair to ensure her back was to the corner, and slipped into the seat. Her eyes moved to the food in front of him, giving it a disgusted look, before looking back to him.]

I know that, but....I couldn't find you anywhere. [Hands curled into little fists in her lap.] Call me paranoid, but I just had this feeling that something horrible had happened to you when I couldn't find you. That Ruana or Jason had you hidden somewhere and were doing things...

[He gave her an odd look.]

I've disappeared before, babe, you never freaked out like this. You just gettin' gushy in your old age?

[And he ducked, sporting a mischievous smirk. It was a dumb time to be teasing, but that was the only way he could think of to reassure her he was fine.

But her, on the other hand. The tension in her body had him on alert.]

What about you? Everything all right? Did somethin' happen while I was gone?

....'M not old... [Lips pursed before making an audible 'harmpuh' noise, one of the balled hands flattening as she moved to smack him upside his head only to hit air. The man was smart and knew to duck at just the right moment.] And you know me better than that - I don't really do gushy. At least, not where people can see.

[At his question, shoulders curled inward fractionally, the hand she'd moved to bat at him brushing several strands of blonde back behind her ear. Her attention moved back to the doorway as a drone passed - it was a good excuse to move her eyes away from him. She would tell him, not that she had no intention to not. It didn't mean it wouldn't be uncomfortable doing so.]

....Yeah. Something happened. Something always happens in the Tower, Reno. Things that make no fucking sense. Things that make you question if you're actually even good enough to take care of yourself, much less others.

[He sighed. Not more of this PSTD-based withdrawal inside thing. What could he do when she did that? It was almost impossible knowing what to do for her when she did that. Blaming himself for things he hadn't done yet didn't help much, and talking her through it wasn't going to help much either. Maybe it was because of his own hangups, the ones he never figured out coping with, that he couldn't help.]

Better tell the whole thing, Elena.

[Taking her hand, he held it in his, warming it, just being a comforting presence.]

[The additional warmth around her hand startled her, eyes moving down to find familiar fingers and palm circling around her own smaller digits. Honey-colored eyes moved upward to hold his, the touch earning a little apologetic smile.]

I'm doing it again, aren't I? [The silence. The quiet retreat into her head to try and cope with things well beyond her capability. For now, at least. If he'd managed to get past things - like the dropping of the plate - then she could overcome hers.] ...I'm working on it.

[Pressing her free hand against his, she gave the skin a little affectionate rub. Feeling the rough callouses of is fingers were grounding, telling stories of battles fought - some won, some lost - and the power behind them.]

Lets start with how much of an idiot I am. Tell me, if you saw tape recorders laying everywhere would you be the one idiot to pick it up and play it? No, probably not. [At this her head shook.] But, oh no, I had to be curious. Had to know what they were about. So I listened to the recording. A few times, really. It wasn't half bad music, but that got me to wondering why would the Admins leave tapes lying around the facility with music?

[At this point she paused, giving another audible frustrated noise.] To make what could be a long story short, the tapes made people who listened to them do weird things. Very weird. And I had the...unfortunate luck of running into Sephiroth, who also heard the same tape I was listening to. The effect of the tape was that we... [Her hand goes to her face, fingers stretching across her eyes in utter mortification]...were acting like we were completely obsessed with each other and couldn't stand being apart.

Then something happened, I can't remember...we were somewhere near the 45th floor and...[Her body gave an involuntary shiver.]....I felt this heat coming up my spine and then blackness...

Edited 2013-02-21 19:35 (UTC)

[There were a thousand outcomes that he could think of at that point, but he pushed back the horrible ideas crowding into his mind and sighed.]

What'd he do? What's the deal with the tapes?

[It was taking a bit of an effort not to go off on a hot headed rampage right then.]

That's kind of a loaded question. All in all, it was harmless - but the creepiness factor was there. The man....petted my gun like it was a kitten. He rummaged through my trunk too, like he was looking for something...

[Here she paused, as if trying to remember something, but shook her head.]

As the time progressed, it was almost suffocating how he wouldn't let me out of his sight. Granted, because of the tapes I was behaving the same way. It was like...I was a woman possessed by this - this desire to have him all to myself. Once I blacked out, the tape lost its hold, so when I awoke I remembered everything, but the effects were gone.

[And here she frowned, fingers tightening around his. This was a slow and terrible torture, having to talk about this induced and obviously unwanted affection that had escalated very quickly to a level of warped obsession. Her tightened grip served as a dual purpose, holding him steady while she talked and to also hold him still, in case that red-hot temper of his flared up.]

Now that I've got a clear head, I think its safe to say that the tapes caused some sort of change in the brain, made people react based on the music they heard. It was as if some sort of switch just turned on and - poof! - nothing else mattered but that other person.

I will say, though, that there is a positive take-away. I got quite a bit of information out of him that we might not have otherwise. About where he remembers and, most importantly, what he doesn't.

[Reno was smart enough to read between the lines, but he listened carefully to what she said. As she finished her story, though, he was frowning deeply.

What happened between the two? Why the hell would they even look at each other?]

He... petted your gun? Desire? Elena, what do you mean by "desire?!" Do ya mean you... you... you know? With Sephiroth?

[So far he wasn't getting angry, but the way he spoke suggested he was two seconds away from going off.

There's no way. No way.

His head felt strangely light headed even with all those thoughts swirling in his head.]

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