Hotel Room in Kalm, Early Friday Morning [NFB]
Reno
"What a friggin' night," Reno mumbled to himself as he rolled over and crawled to his feet. Tseng had been good enough to arrange for transportation to Kalm yesterday, and he had even agreed to foot the bill for the room at the inn (which Reno would probably see deducted from his next pay anyhow). One room, two beds, three of them crashing meant that their would-be savior got one, and Reno insisted that Elena get the other.
Who the hell knew who else slept in those beds before they got there, right?
"Everyone breathin'?"
Yeah, sharing a room with Reno meant that nobody would be sleeping in until he ascertained that they weren't dead, yet. Sorry, guys.
Karla
"Mmmrf," Karla muttered, trying to hide her head under the pillow. "Wishuzz."
That last was sleepy!Karla for "Wish I was." She was too exhausted for proper grammar.
And sore. Very, very sore. And now that Reno had woken her up, her body was letting her know just how sore she was. Which was very.
"Owwww...."
Reno
Reno couldn't help but twitch a little smirk at that. Yeah, that hadn't gone so well at all, had it?
"I can toss you another Ether or let you choke down a Potion if you figure it'll help you feel better, yo. Either way, I'm thinkin'... Probably enough of that for the time bein'."
Look, there was no kind way to say it, really.
"You probably ain't gonna get around to feelin' much better so long as you're on The Planet, yo. It ain't all as bad as Midgar, but it ain't a hell of a lot better, either. You about ready to pack it in and head back to the island?"
Elena
Elena had to remind herself that it was thoroughly unprofessional to throw a pillow at Reno's head and whine that she needed more sleep.
He was just as tired as she was, if not more so, and he'd even slept on the floor. Okay. Acting like a Turk in 3 ... 2 ...
"This place serve breakfast?"
That was a complete sentence. Good job, Elena! And breakfast would give them time to see how Karla was faring before risking a trip back to Midgar. If she kept some food down, so much the better.
If Reno asked, she was totally going to claim that that was her intent behind asking, and not the fact that she desperately needed coffee. Really.
Karla
Karla peeked out from under her pillow. "Leave? But there's so much more work to--owww." She felt like she'd been run over by several rickshaws, each of them carrying elephants. "--do?"
Not that she was going to let that stop her. That would be the smart decision.
Reno
"Yep," Reno agreed, with a sort of false cheer that would have made Tseng stop in his tracks and think far, far more carefully than usual about the next words that were going to leave his mouth. "Plenty to do. Just like there's been for over three years since Meteorfall now, an' just like there's been for a hell of a lot longer'n that, too. World ain't gonna fall apart while you work on not dyin', Rookie."
Oh yeah. He'd busted out the 'R' word.
"So!" Eerily chipper, there. "Breakfast, Edge, Portalocity, in that order, and we ain't stoppin' to hit the Church on the way, yo."
Elena
Elena choked down the urge to be territorial. Karla was her Rookie, dammit. But Reno had a better track record of keeping rookies alive, so.
He got a nasty glare for it, anyway, though it was entirely possible he would have no idea what the intention was behind that.
"We can't stay," Elena said. "Too much I need to do before graduation. We'll come back sometime, chip away at it. Field trips."
That was absolutely not going to happen. Shiva only knew what that much mako exposure might do to Karla. Elena's sister had spent a couple of years in a coma from getting too close to that shit. And she hadn't been -- cutting her blood and -- doing whatever the hell Karla had been doing.
Karla
Karla was oblivious to any glaring. She might not fully understand the extensive Rookie network back at Fandom, but she knew that being called Rookie meant something. Something like acceptance and approval and maybe even respect and friendship.
It warmed her to her very toes.
Though that wasn't going to stop her from arguing, at least a little bit. "But we really ought to stop by the Church," Karla objected. "I should say goodbye at the very least. Unless Aerith lives closer to where we are now?" She pushed herself up so she was at least talking to them from a sitting position. "Where does she live? Her mental voice sounded like it was coming from kind of far away."
Reno
"Uh."
And there went Reno's all-too-happy demeanor, melting away into something that seemed... very nearly awkward, if you knew Reno exceptionally well. Rude would be able to figure it out.
Rude also wasn't here.
"Funny thing, about the An-- about Aerith." Huh. "You wouldn't be able to get there, yo. Gotta take a few extra steps to get there, an' if you do, you ain't comin' back again."
Unless you were Sephiroth. Stupid Sephiroth.
"She ain't goin' nowhere anytime soon. Don't worry about her too much, zoto."
Elena
Oh, shit. How had she not seen that coming? On the upside, she wouldn't need coffee, because the sudden slap in the face was doing plenty to wake her up.
"Aerith is sort of with the planet, now," Elena said carefully. "It makes it easier for her to talk to it and do ... whatever it is she does."
Which made it sound like she had gone there intentionally, as a career choice, and not like she'd been stabbed from behind while praying.
"What Reno means is that we can tell her, the next time someone goes to the church. Pass the message along."
Karla
Even dead tired and in pain, Karla could tell the emotional tenor of the room had changed. "With the planet? What does that mean? Is that some kind of power you guys have, like a Material or something."
Wasn't that what the little round magic globes that Zack used were called. "She kind of felt like a Queen. She understood what I was doing."
Reno
"It's kinda like that..." Reno shrugged his shoulders. Now he was looking a little more tired than before. "It's all about Ancients and the Lifestream, yo. Materia an' Aerith, I mean."
Yep. Ancients and the Lifestream.
"When Midgar came crashin' down, she's the one that stopped it, yo. She understands the planet on a level that nobody else around ever will."
Elena
"Aerith ... is a Cetra," Elena said, and she only barely caught herself from saying 'was' instead. "The last of her kind. They were an ancient race that could talk to the planet, move the Lifestream around to heal it, things like that."
She braved a glance over at Reno, then back to Karla again.
"That's why we wanted to take you to her church," she added. "She used to live there, so we figured it might help."
Karla
"Oh, it did," Karla said, nodding. "Once I figured out what the Lifestream was, we were able to use it to help what I was doing. It's now in the warp and weft of my spell, so the majority of what's Healing the planet comes from the planet. I'm impressed that Aerith was able to help me from so far away. She's very powerful."
Reno
"You got no idea," Reno sighed. And then he was all smiles all over again. "So, who was up for breakfast?"
Nice recovery, Reno.
Elena
"Me," Elena said, pushing the covers back and willing herself out of bed. "Give me five minutes to splash some water on my face, then let's get out of here. I'm starving. Did breakfast come with the room, or is there an extra charge?"
Mmm, she desperately wanted food! And not a new topic! That was a coincidence. Really.
Karla
Clearly the conversation was over. Karla still wasn't sure what exactly it was that had set them on edge, but also decided that she didn't need to. If they were keeping secrets, there was probably a good reason--like whatever was the reason behind why Elena had made her promise not to breathe a word of anything to Zack.
"I'm...surprisingly hungry," Karla said, blinking a bit. Usually at this point, she was far too exhausted to eat, her body turning in on itself for energy--something she hadn't mentioned to either Turk, other than the admonition to make sure she ate, no matter how much she protested. Looking at herself, she realized that she'd lost some weight, but nowhere near as much as she'd expected. Probably barely even noticeable. "What was in that awful drink you gave me?" she asked in tones of wonder.
Reno
"What, the Ether?" Reno smirked a little. See, conversation was back to normal, smirking could ensue once again. "I ain't got no friggin' clue. I picked it offa some worm that was tryin' to take out a bar on the edge of Edge last week, yo."
Mmm. Scavenged health items.
"Which is normal around here," he added quickly. "We take 'em when we use too much magic, yo. Kinda a bit of a picker-upper when you can't cast no more."
Elena
"If it helped, we can get more," Elena offered, as she staggered into the bathroom. Leaving the door open so she could stay involved in the conversation. "Or the healing ones, but Reno said you were doing that all by yourself."
Karla
"A decent breakfast and I should be fine," Karla said, not wanting to deplete their stores further. "Usually, when I use that much Craft, I have to replenish the power reserves myself," lalala we'll just elide over how that usually worked, "but the Ether just did that for me. It's amazing. You could make a fortune on that in Kaeleer. I'd be in a lot worse shape if I hadn't drunk all that."
In fact, Karla was already thinking of the things she could barter for a few more bottles.
"Though does it really have to taste that way?"
Reno
"If you got time to mix it with sugar when you really need one of these," Reno mused, cramming his hands into his pockets, "then you don't really need one as bad as you think, yo."
Really. When there was something large and toothy bearing down on top of you, the last thing on your mind was the turpentine aftertaste.
"They ain't hard to come by, around here. Most shops used to stock 'em, but since not many people use materia anymore, they been havin' a hell of a time gettin' rid of 'em." He shrugged. "Could probably get Ethers by the crate, if you had the gil to pay for 'em."
Elena
Money solved plenty of things. Unless you were dying of Geostigma, in which case having several million gil stashed away wasn't going to do shit.
Elena rinsed her mouth out with water, then ran wet fingers through the front of her hair in an attempt to make it lie down flat. Fuck it.
"Ready when you guys are," she said, popping back out of the bathroom. "We shouldn't keep breakfast waiting."
(OOC: once again, preplayed with the faboo raspberryturk and glacial_witch. Part 4 of Edge-plot, with one more coming. Elena and Karla will be back in Fandom by midday. NFI, NFB, but OOC is love!)