towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Reno, recruitment candidates!, Elena, Shion
Setting: Floor 82, Tower Exploring, Dorm Floor 5 empty room
Format: Whatever you're comfortable with.
Summary: The Turks have been busy, and it's time to recruit members for Operation Last Resort.

Warnings: To be yet announced!

Floor 82: Masquerade Ball

Reno had set up camp on the Masquerade floor today, his own mask firmly planted on his face. He had business here, and it was time to start putting plans in motion.

To those he had spoken to previously, people he had gotten to know a little and tested, letters and notes had gone to each one of them, to meet him here at specific times. The anonymousness of the black mask suited him, and he didn't dare take it off while he was on the floor- he'd found out the effects the hard way.

It was recruiting day, and he knew just the kinds of questions to ask the candidates when he unmasked them. Sure, it wasn't the regular method of recruitment, just having an interview, but it was short and sweet; they didn't have the time for lengthy handshakes anymore. It seemed fairly reliable, too, and Reno figured he'd just have to learn how to trust a bit more.

---

Exploring with Shion

It's been a while since Reno really got to explore the Tower. So far, he had come across some pretty interesting floors, and barely remembered whizzing pass others. This time, he took Shion with him, leaving it up to the kid whether or not to take the note. They needed to spend some "quality" time together, and he was taking it easy with him, knowing he still had some healing up to do. Man, healing up the long way sucked, and Reno didn't blame Shion for not wanting to stay in bed. The Turk wasn't the best of influences.

---

Dorm 5, empty room

Reno was laying on one of the best relaxed, most of his uniform dropped by the side the second he'd gone into the room. One arm rested on his stomach, the other draped haphazardly across his forehead, and he stared up at the ceiling. His hair still felt pretty weird so short, but he could live with it. There were a lot of things he had to live with these days, like not being able to spend as much time with Elena out in the open as he liked.

Elena, Xion, and Shion. They were bright spots in the Tower these days. The ones he wanted to keep close and protect as fiercely as he had wanted to protect the other Turks back home; maybe even more so. Being in the Tower... it had a way of changing people, and that thought led one to another. Rude had said once that Reno had changed, though he had denied it at the time. He had been still too young, too unready to really see what life would dish out to them all.

Slowly, he raised the arm that partially covered his vision, and looked at his hand closely. They seemed the same... but they were a lot more bloody than they used to be, even if the blood was invisible.

"Heh... Rude was right." He spoke quietly, after a long period of silence, flexing each finger one at a time but not really focusing on them. "I've changed."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, I know. I used to take his lessons." The revelation was a little unexpected, but it had been in his file that he'd attended the Academy before being recruited for the Turks, though he's pretty sure Elena didn't know that unless Future Self had told her. The hell they'd gone through during Meteor and just after, and everything Cloud, Siira, and Elena told him had pretty much confirmed it hadn't let up any time soon, so chance was really low. They never really got to talk about things like that, even back when the Turks had been in Shinra's good graces.

"I admit, I kinda found her a bit too serious for me. She was a complete straight man, teasing her never really got anywhere until ya had to tell her the whole joke, and that just ruined it. But I didn't really wanna hear about her, I wanted stories of Lil' El." He lifted her chin up with a finger, grinning at her with an impish twist to his mouth. "Ever set your house on fire?"

"Did you really? I don't remember him complaining about a rowdy redhead..."

Because, really, her father hadn't mentioned what she was sure was the accurate depiction of what Reno had to be as a student. Granted, seeing Reno as a student was enough of a challenge, but she managed it. She would have done a proper briefing and review of each of her teammate's files if, when she had been brought on, shit hadn't been so crazy she didn't have a chance to.

"Yea, she was a hard-ass." And its all she was going to say on the matter of her sister, ending the statement with an audible harumph. That was a shadow she would be happy to stay away from. Long fingers lifted her chin, earning a curious look that burst into laughter.

"'Lil' El'?" Another snicker. "No, I didn't. Caused a fire in the home ec room when I was a freshman in high school, but I'm sure it was sabotage. I don't burn cakes." Oh, but if he wanted personal revelations, she had a good one that she's kept very close to the chest. "Here's something you might not know about me. When I was five my mother signed me up for ballet and I continued with it right until I joined the Turks. I would have kept up with it if we weren't always on the move."

"Yeah... well, I went in knowing I'd have to keep my head on in that class. It was required for some bullshit reason for what I was goin' for. I took my studies seriously, y'know, just... not anything else." This was an uncomfortable discussion for him. The time he spent in the Academy wasn't filled with happy memories, and it had eventually led to the method in which he had recruited into the Turks. He didn't have many regrets, but a lot of them were back there. "I had a ton of elite emblems when I was done with school, but y'know, I don't think the Dean liked me too much, because I never got to be in the elites."

Reno reached up and brushed some hair out of his face that had fallen into his face, tickling his nose and making it wiggle. "So, you can bake, you're just horrible at fire extinguishers? Remind me not to ask ya for any cookies." Mostly teasing.

"You dance?" The question had a happy grin to go with it, and surprise as well, since he didn't think anyone else on the team danced. One of his deepest, darkest secrets about fighting was the beat he held in his head, and that beat was based on the dances he used to learn in school. "I used to dance... still do, kinda. Aww, c'mon you should have told me that ages ago. I could have taught ya all sorts of moves knowing that. Remember that time before we got married, when I kinda dropped ya to the mat? How d'ya think I got so fast, babe? Next time we train, show me some. We can figure out how to give ya a special flair."

Shifting underneath her, he spread his legs out but kept her cradling against him. The man was always restless, even when he was comfortable and had to keep from being still for too long. He was enjoying her weight on top of him too much to roll over or anything. Besides, her chocobo squeak was adorable and he promised himself to cause her to make it as much as possible.

"Sorry, Reno. I just...you as a student? I can't see you being the good student. Don't tell me you made straight A's." Granted, most of the Turks graduated from the Academy - at least so she supposed. Reno and Gun did. So did she. It'd make sense, after all, to pull them right after they got all the best training ShinRa could provide. At the mention of elite emblems, she made a bit of a sour face. "Tons? Shit, you make my measly five sound so pathetic."

She doesn't even bat an eye at his joke, though she does give him a short raspberry. She was a damn decent baker, not that she ever had the opportunity - back on Gaia or here - to make anything. There'd been that one time they could have made a bake for Rude for his birthday but then Rufus got sick with the Geostigma and the idea was sacked.

"Y-Yeah, I do... I didn't think to bring it up..." Because she had honestly thought she was the only one who had. She's got her hands flat on the mattress at his sides, lifting her entire body up in a plank position. "Are you shitting me? In what style? I thought there was something I recognized, but I couldn't put my finger on it."

Giving an audible huff she's lowering herself back down against his chest, legs pressed together between his, mindful to keep any uncomfortable pressure of any...vitals. Fingers jab at his side in a mock-angry attack, mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Shiva's tits, man, if I had known I would've said something. And who says I don't have flair?? Huh???"

The poke tickled, causing him to laugh and wiggle away from her fingers, forgetting to respond. It seemed she had discovered one of his deepest, darkest secrets. His ticklish spot. Which might be somewhat to his disadvantage in her current position...

"I studied a lot of 'em, ball room, swing, y'know, the flashy ones. And I said. You still got Academy style written all over ya. You should relax more, just do what comes naturally, don't focus so much on what you're supposed to do. I think you'd really open up if ya tried somethin' like that."

Arms wrapped around her waist, a knowing grin on his face. Like he knew some sort of secret that she didn't yet.