towerofanimus | With a thousand lies and a good disguise

Characters: Reno, and any and open!
Setting: Beginning in 1-04 ROOMIES BOTHER HIM, Cafeteria, then the Meadow
Format: Honestly whatever you prefer.
Summary: Reno has been gone six months. The entire Tower has changed. Also, he is wearing the jumpsuit and a bedsheet because SOMEONE TOOK HIS CLOTHES, so characters may not recognize him.
Warnings: Well there might be some cursing... some tearful reunions...

1-04
Coming to consciousness was a sudden affair, sitting up so suddenly it almost cracked his back. No... Not here again, not again...

Not wearing this ridiculous jumpsuit again.

That was when he noticed the orientation of the room and his bed was all wrong... wait, what the hell? This wasn't 2-12. And he was wearing the jumpsuit... muffling a curse, he slammed his fist into the bed, cursing his luck that he'd gotten free of Hell Tower only to get pulled back.

He'd escaped... no horrors, no having to watch the people you care about being tortured... maybe it was selfish, but he didn't think he could take being here again. Especially if... no, they would be here. Had to be here.

Quickly, he jumped off the bed and checked his trunk, only to find it- empty? Empty. Cursing again, he yanked the blanket off his bed and pulled the sheet off to wrap himself in it, leaving an ample hood around his face. The last thing he wanted right now was someone to recognize him and know he was back in the Tower while he was scouting out for clothes.

There was no knowing who else was still in the Tower, after all.
---

Cafeteria

It was a hooded figure dressed in white that snuck out of the elevator, and was it just his imagination or did it take a lot longer than it used to? He would explore later, right now it was probably a good idea to get that damn oatmeal and find some place to hide and think before he faced the Tower again.

Grumbling under his breath, he grabbed a bowl of the stuff and started to head for the staircase again. Then he paused, and went back. Was that beer?

---

Meadow

Still no sign of clothing he could steal, but it seemed to get less important the longer he was here. It wasn't hard trudging up the staircase to the Meadow. He'd done it many times before, and was well versed in avoiding the hazards along the way, even on auto-pilot.

There was this overwhelming, smothering feeling that the Tower had shifted somehow while he was gone. Things looked right, but they didn't feel right, if anything could feel right.

He sat down in the flowers here, holding some wine he had taken from the Cafeteria, wondering when they had started serving alcohol there.

Being in the meadow reminded him... oh, Shiva. Elena... Elena. How long had it been? Weeks? Years? She'd been all alone... Would she even be here?

Somewhere along the way, he had stopped thinking, started forgetting. The wedding; Ruana, and Zo...
Ganondorf's party crashing, the way Elena looked walking along the aisle, Axel, Shion, and Xion.

He needed that drink more than ever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dodging around, he avoided the flower crown and stood up. There was a time and place for everything, and flower crowns didn't have a place on his head.

"I'd hate to find out what you'd do for a good person." He muttered, trying to back away from the girl. There had to be an escape around here somewhere... "Hey, hey, stop a sec. I don't need that stuff."

There! The staircase! If only he could avoid her and make a dash for it...

Sadly, Yotsuba thought they did, so she looked a little crestfallen and irritated when the man avoided the crown and stood up. As he spoke and glanced around, looking for the stairs, Yotsuba spoke up, a thought popping into her brain.

"Why not?! You're sad, and flowers make people happy, so you can have this! And..did you lie and say you were a bad person to make me go away?"

If Reno started running, Yotsuba would take off after him, and despite her size, she was a rather fast little girl.

"Maybe." Still inching away from her, he tried to slip away without her realizing it.

The kid was cute, all right, he admitted that much, but this was getting annoying. And far, far too smart for her size.

How could he put this delicately..? "But I'm allergic to flowers." And he was a lying liar pants on fire. "And milk. Yeah, and stories, too." Forget the wine bottle he left on the ground! He was making a break for it, dashing to the stairs. Let her try to follow.

Sadly, Yotsuba couldn't forget about the bottle, even if she didn't know that it was filled with wine, so she picked it up with her free hand and did her best to catch up with Roen. She was a fast little girl and usually had no problem keeping up with or running away from adults, but the wine was slowing her down, and the time spent getting the bottle in the first place had bought him some feet.

"But you forgot your bottle! And how can you be allergic to stories?! And what is allergic?"

At least she knew that this wasn't a bad person. A liar, but not a horrible guy. Not like the people who had murdered her.

Slowing down, he stopped just as he got to the staircase, made a sound that was suspiciously groan-like, and turned around. He was a jerk but he wasn't the kind of jerk that would just leave the bottle and get her in trouble with it.

Instead, he waited for her and held out a hand for the bottle. "Yeah, yeah... Allergic is when you have a bad reaction to something you can't help."

As Yotsuba handed the man his forgotten bottle, she gave him another puzzled look.

"Oh! Okay then! But the meadow was full of flowers and you didn't react! You're a really bad liar, Roen! You should stop!"

Seriously. Yotsuba was a naive little girl, but she wasn't stupid.

Out of the mouth of babes. "Really?" That kinda hurt, he thought he was a pretty good liar. It was part of the job sometimes, after all.

"Listen, kiddo, you look like a big girl. Cheering someone up ain't easy. Sometimes when someone is down, it's better leaving them alone, or cheering 'em up some other way."

Reno wasn't a wholly bad liar here-after all, Yotsuba was convinced that his name was Roen right now. She was just seeing through a few obvious cracks in his story.

"Really! And Luci said that giving hugs and pats on the head and holding hands and things like that could cheer a person up more than words sometimes! I'm the best at giving hugs..but what other ways are there? And no lying!"

Frowning, Reno tried to think over something that might possibly be a good answer and get her off his case. "I dunno... Letting them think for a while. Throwin' a surprise party. Giving them b- banana pancakes. Sometimes all it takes is sittin' next to someone and letting 'em know you're there."

Yotsuba did her best to remember all of those things as she nodded, thinking about banana pancakes. She knew what banana's were and what pancakes were, but she never had pancakes with banana's on them. Those could be pretty tasty. She'd have to remember it later, if she could.

"Oh! Okay then! So you just needed to think for awhile! Yotsuba will remember that! But please take this! It's fasanable!"

With that, Yotsuba would hold up the flower crown for him to take again. She didn't actually know if it was fashionable or not, but she did know that people seemed to be cheered up by it.

Okay, he could humor her that much. He gave her a tiny smile and took the crown. She wasn't really a bad kid, just really... determined.

"Thanks... guess you did cheer me up a bit." Certainly got him moving, anyway. Moving sometimes helped.

And Yotsuba would just return Reno's tiny smile with a much bigger one of her own as he took the flower crown.

"You're welcome! It's good that you were cheered up! But what's in the bottle?"

Sorry, Reno. She was just curious and could probably be thrown off by another lie.

With a thousand lies and a good disguise

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