Rikku's Hut, Besaid, Thursday Fandom-Time (NFB-distance)

[the_merriest]

Rikku was in her hut, in Besaid, playing with Petey. Because Petey was awesome, and she could totally work on arrangements for the conference, from here, which meant it outranked traveling around like a crazy person.

It was really nice, she had to admit, staying in one place for a while. Maybe once all of this was over, she'd settle in somewhere, at least for a month or two. Maybe she'd go to Gaia, bug Reno. Something.

For now? For now, she was going to go pester her favorite Yunie, who lived just a couple of huts down, and ask her if there was more paperwork to work on. Because she was helpful and useful like that. Knock knock!


"Who is it?" a soft voice came from inside. Which was a sign of how distracted Yuna was. Normally she'd just invite whoever it was in. But at the moment she was frowning down at a single piece of paper resting in her hands.


"Yunie?" Rikku frowned, leaning against the flap. "It's me. Is everything okay?"

The arrangements were stressful, sure, but she was trying to keep it from getting too bad for her cousin. Maybe she wasn't doing so hot of a job?


Rikku was doing an awesome job. Yuna would have run screaming weeks ago if it weren't for Rikku reminding her that this really was the best chance they had. "I... don't know," she said quietly. "I just got a letter from Tromell. He... says the Guado aren't coming to the conference." They were just going to stay in the woods and die.


And this would be Rikku stomping into the hut, ready to kill things. With her hands. "What?!" She snatched the letter right out of Yuna's hands -- which was totally kind of rude, and she'd apologize later, when she realized that -- and scanned it. "They what!?"

The Guado had been led by Seymour, and had, under his orders, done terrible things. Included in those terrible things were "frame Yuna and her guardians for murder" and two separate counts of attempted genocide. The Guado had wiped out the majority of the Al Bhed and the Ronso. Keeping those two groups from throwing things at the Guado ambassador was going to be a major security concern. Unless -- well. Unless the Guado totally wimped out. What the --


"They're not coming," Yuna repeated, even though Rikku had just read that. "They said we can decide whatever." And Rikku knew what that meant: they'd probably die off all the sooner. No one was going to argue the Guado's side in anything.


"They've gone out to the woods to die," she repeated. Staring at the paper like it was going to somehow rearrange itself into words that made some sort of fucking sense. "They've given up, everyone hates them, boo-hoo, they're going to the woods to die, hey, can someone forward their mail? Is this a joke?"

The Al Bhed had every fucking right to hate them. So did the Ronso. The Ronso had been making noises about going to Guadosalam and wiping out the Guado, in return for what the Guado had done to them. "Talking the Ronso out of mass-killing" had been a late addition to the list of conference topics.


"You know Tromell. He doesn't really tell many jokes." But, yeah, Rikku knew that too. "What... should I do?" Yuna thought she had to do everything. But at least she was asking for advice this time?


Rikku crumpled the letter. It made a satisfying noise. "Nothing," she said, not bothering to hide the edges of her temper seething out. "I'll take care of this. I'm going to Macalania."

Now was a good time to have a little chat with the Guado. One that was long overdue.

(OOC: preplayed with the awesome summoninghope. Establishy, but also open for calls, with the caveat that the Al Bhed girl is having a tremendously shitty day.)

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[raspberryturk]

Booooring day. Boring days were shitty days, and shitty days meant that Reno probably had paperwork to do.

Which he did. Shitloads of it, piled up on his desk, which his feet were currently propped up on. His pen was sticking out the corner of his mouth, because they were made for absently chewing on, not for paperwork. Who the hell used pens for paperwork anyhow?

And, since there weren't one-hits trying to take chunks out of his ankles, Reno was going to make a phone call. There were better ways to alleviate boredom than by doing paperwork, after all.

[the_merriest]

Rikku had marched back to her hut, to pack. Except she wasn't so much "packing" as "throwing things and swearing, a lot, and scaring the crap out of Petey."

She caught the end of her phone's ring and dove for it. "Yeah?" she said, before realizing whose ring that was, and that that was absolutely no way to greet her favorite person ever, who totally wasn't responsible for her having a shitty day. "Hey, you. Uh. What's up?"

[raspberryturk]

Huh. That wasn't how he'd expected to hear Rikku's voice when she came around to picking up. Well. At least he wasn't bored anymore.

"Same ol' bunch'a nothin'," he replied, shifting his weight to plant his feet on the floor. "What's new over there?"

The tone that he said it in suggested very much that yeah, he'd figured that there was something new over there, and he was all ears if she needed them.

[the_merriest]

"Sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't realize it was you. I mean, I should have, I just didn't hear it ringing because I was slamming things and then my brain didn't catch up with my mouth? And now I'm being all weird and I don't mean to, I swear."

She flopped down on her bed and rubbed her eyes. "It's ... bad. Kinda. No, that's stupid, that makes it sound like people are shooting each other again, and they're not. It's nothing like that. The conference is still on, I mean, so far, anyway, so everything's fine, you know, it's just ..."

She was talking in circles and she was so fucking sick and tired of Spira, suddenly.

"It's the Guado."

[raspberryturk]

Reno didn't much like that word. Guado. It was something of a curse-word in his head.

They were the people who did to Rikku's people what people like Reno did to Midgar, after all.

"They need their heads knocked in at all?"

That was in its own roundabout way, Reno's subtle offer to try to help them stop whatever it was they were doing, however was necessary.

[the_merriest]

"Oh, no need for that," Rikku said bitterly. "They've got it taken care of. They're passing up the conference to go out into the woods and die, but they hope we have a really nice conference, and all that. And, hey, if anyone wants to come and kill them, it's totally okay. They deserve it, anyway, so ... don't mind them. They're just gonna be over here. Dying."

[raspberryturk]

"What the fuckin' shit?" Eloquent, Reno. "They stirred up all that shit, an' they're gonna just sit there an' let themselves rot the fuck away when there's a whole godsdamned world to pick up that they helped break the fuck down?"

He was kind of seething a little, somewhere under the surface. Things were going to get thrown after this conversation.

"That ain't how it fuckin' works!"

And he should know.

[the_merriest]

"I guess it's easier to give up and fucking go die in the woods," Rikku seethed. "Rebuilding, gosh, that's hard. Coming to the conference? People might be mad at them. Never mind the fact that the fucking Ronso have sworn vengeance on them, and I'm trying to keep all out war from breaking out. And why the fuck do I have to go talk them down, anyway!?"

She was shouting, suddenly, without entirely realizing that she was. "Maybe they do deserve it! Maybe I should help! I shouldn't have to go beg them not to die! What the fuck?!"

[raspberryturk]

Reno made a scoffing sound, at that.

"Don't beg 'em not to run off and die, babe. Tell 'em they're friggin' idiots and fuckin' cowards, and if they're gonna choose to sit and rot instead of actually work to undo the damage they caused, then they deserve to live forever with that guilt an' you hope they live real long, miserable lives."

[the_merriest]

Rikku shook her head. "I'm not going to beg them," she said. "I'm not. I can't. I'm just -- I'm going to tell them that this is bullshit. That if I could suck it up and invite them, then they don't get to -- just -- you know, forgiveness, it's earned, yeah? And if they're really that worthless, then they should go ahead and die, not because they did bad things, but because they don't even care that they did bad things. They just don't like how it makes them feel. It's not the same thing."

She flopped down on the floor, this time, looking for her shoes. Dammit. How did shoes go missing in a hut this size?

"I just ... resent the shit out of this. Having to go at all. Considering ..."

Considering what they had done to her, and her own. All those bodies. Home, gone. Considering all of that.

[raspberryturk]

"Considering," Reno agreed. He didn't need any other words to sum that up. He knew, and so that one word held it all. "You need anything?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku hugged her knees up against her chest. When her voice came again, it was softer.

"I don't know if I can do this," she admitted. "Go and ... talk to them. Even if the conference is at stake, even if Spira's at stake, I ..."

[raspberryturk]

"Rikku," Reno's tone was gentle, but firm. He was half-Turk, half-boyfriend right then, and it was showing. "You're a guardian, babe. You sucked it up an' you saved the whole damn world once already. It's what you do, zoto. An' you get the job done."

No matter what? It was a weird line to toe, poking at the similarities between Turk pride and what the Guardians had.

"Because Yuna needs you to. I'm right here if you need me, zoto. Just a phone call away."

[the_merriest]

"I do," she said. "I do need you. I'm ... gonna be a wreck, if I pull this off. Keep your phone handy?"

She was so exposed today. None of her usual tapdancing around, claiming to be fine. He didn't need her to be fine. That was one of the awesome things about him.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm ... sorry that I'm so ... you know. I can do this. I just ... ugh. Need to bitch and moan first, I guess."

[raspberryturk]

"I been doin' a lot of bitchin' and moanin' at you, lately," Reno pointed out. "I got all the time in the world to listen to what you got to say, Rikku."

He would beat Tseng to the floor if the boss thought for a second that he was going to send Reno somewhere that didn't have mobile phone coverage. Seriously. A lot.

[the_merriest]

"Thanks," she said, again. Okay, she was nuzzling the phone a little. She was allowed. "How is everything going, with you? How are your beans, and how's your boss, and how's Edge? I kinda suck at that part of it, today, just 'hey, I love you, I miss you' and normal actual conversation."

Pause.

"I love you. I miss you."

Those deserved their own emphasis.

[raspberryturk]

"E muja oui. E secc oui," Reno replied, not missing a beat. Putting a smile into it in spite of how worried he was. "I got nothin' to complain about over here. Paperwork. The WRO's startin' to look half-organized, so I got plenty of time for the beans this week, especially since the Rookie took off with half the paperwork, too."

He owed Elena his freakin' soul for that one.

"Been takin' what I pick down to the streets, lately. Givin' it to whoever looks hungriest."

[the_merriest]

"That's ... incredible," she said softly. "I mean, think about it, you're sitting by the side of the road, hungry, not sure where your next meal is coming from, and boom. Some guy hands you some beans. That's gotta seem like some kind of ... I dunno. Miracle."

[raspberryturk]

"That's exactly what it feels like," Reno replied, his own voice going soft in turn.

He knew about this sort of thing. Bit of an expert, and all.

"What gets me is when it's like, a big sister an' her kid brother or whatever. An' I don't know there's two, an' she's all ready to just give 'em all up for the kid, yoto."

... He'd told them both to stay put, when that had happened. And then he'd come back with a shopping bag full of veggies. Which had kind of decimated his own fresh food supplies, but fuck it. He could afford potatoes, and he had plenty of ramen.

[the_merriest]

Oh, that just made her heart ache.

"That's ... what families are like," she said, very very gently. "My brother -- we don't even get along, most of the time, but ... if we were starving and some Yevonite came by with food? He'd swear up and down he wasn't hungry."

Reno ... hadn't had much by way of family. At least, not until he'd found the Turks.

[raspberryturk]

"It was weird," Reno admitted, biting his lip a little. "But... I'm startin' to get it. Why people do it, zoto. I got Rude bringin' food to 'em now on days I can't."

They were cute and hungry and they reminded him of him. So it was kind of important.

[the_merriest]

"If it was you and Rude going hungry, you'd do the same thing," she said.

Sometimes, family wasn't just about blood.

"Is there ... can I help, somehow? With ... I don't know. Any of it."

[raspberryturk]

"If you didn't have your own world to save, I'd suggest comin' to hang out in Edge for a bit. There are still pieces that gotta get picked up, yo. The WRO is hurtin' for people who know how to handle the monsters an' junk on the edges, to train up the kids they shoved guns at, yo."

Reno sighed and gave his head a shake, tapping the pen against the top of his desk a few times before giving up on paperwork entirely.

[the_merriest]

"Once the conference is over, I'm taking a long vacation," Rikku said. "Like, long. I might come crash with you, if you've got room and don't mind the company."

Because, clearly, Reno might object at having her around.

"I could ... do you think your WRO would want my help? I'm not from there or anything, but I know how to kill monsters, and make armor and so on."

[raspberryturk]

"I don't got much room, but all the room I got is waitin' for you to come fill it, zoto."

He meant that. Please. Come fill the room? Mako's lonely. Looooonely. And you don't want to make a poor little ninja-weasel-goose suffer like that, do you? Really?

"An' Rikku? If anyone would be a valuable asset to the WRO, that'd be you. You'd be doin' a lot of the same cleanup stuff we're doin', with the added bonus of the whole world not wantin' to kill you for it, and a hefty budget for supplies, yo."

Unlike most of ShinRa's military branches, the WRO seemed to think that supplying their troops with the accessories they needed to get a job finished with was somehow a good idea. Novel, that!

[the_merriest]

"Soon," she said. "Soon, and I'll come and I'll do whatever I can. I'll bring weapons, if I can swing it. Do you know what kind of armor they're using? They might need more oomph, I can see what I can get."

Still a Guardian. Still right back to making notes on the next world to save.

[raspberryturk]

"They can always use more 'oomph,'" Reno mused, and now he was picking up his pen and scrawling across the nearest piece of available paper, 'find out what armor the WRO has.' He tapped the pen against the top of the paper a couple of times, thinking for a moment. And then he grinned.

"How's the airship runnin'? Never did get to check up on that, yo."