Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself

[mydarknation]

Who: Rufus, with phonecalls to at least Scarlet, probably Reeve
When: Day 46, evening
Location: Gongaga
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Summary: Done for the day, Rufus curls up with a bottle of whiskey and a cell phone.
Note: Working assumption that he is back from his visit with Red by evening and that he obtained Cosmo Canyon whiskey while he was

Comments

[gunnin_for_ya]

She blinked. And blinked again, for good measure. He sounded awfully surprised. Maybe he'd dialed the wrong number? She opened her mouth to razz him about screwing up when the second question came, and effectively silenced her.

For a moment she simply sat with her mouth slightly open, wondering at the words, but more so at the tone of his voice. Where was the dry sarcasm? Maybe, she thought, this was a shockingly inept attempt to cover an embarrassing misdial. Her jaw snapped shut and her eyes flicked to Reeve, then back to the diagram on the table. Eventually, a smirk tugged up a corner of her lips. She etched out a quick calculation in the margin of the sheet, and changed the design accordingly.

Play along, and let him squirm when he realizes he's being being extremely unsmooth? Yes please. Bonus points if I can confuse the hell out of R-- Tuesti in the process.

She turned away a bit, as though to field a private conversation, (though when she thought about it, just what the hell was turning away supposed to do?) but, keeping with the act, she made her voice sincere as she said, "Oh, I'm = fantastic, Sweet Heart. How about you?"

((ooc: Reebles, I guess you can pop in for some by-play...? I don't see posting order being too important, if you want to make a comment here and there XDDD))

[mydarknation]

He was almost enough out of it that he didn't notice the "Sweet Heart." Almost. He hadn't lost his sensibilities entirely.

"Scarlet. Nicknames. Stop, please." He fell into silence for a brief moment after that, having mostly forgotten that she had also asked him a question. He rolled onto his side and found himself staring at his glass of whiskey, though he didn't bother to reach for it.

"Cosmo Canyon whiskey is good, you know..." he trailed off, then added as an afterthought, "But if you want to try it you'll have to get your own."

[[OOC: Apparently we are going with random. XDDDD And yeah, I second the thought of Reeve popping in every now and then.]]

[gunnin_for_ya]

'Hadn't lost his sensibilities entirely' was highly debatable, as he had just called Scarlet whilst drunk. Scarlet, however, wouldn't be the one to debate it with him. As far as she was concerned, this was a completely sensible thing for him to do so, as it would no doubt provide her with all sorts of blackmail that she could keep in her bag of tricks for decades.

Cosmo Canyon whiskey is good, you know... She almost bought it there, when she realized what this was, what was wrong. It took the sort of self-control she normally didn't bother with not to drop right there and laugh until her mascara ran and she couldn't breathe. It was a good thing she wasn't facing Reeve, though, as the look on her face would have given away the depth of her amusement.

Biting her lip until she was sure she could speak without laughing, she finally managed, in a tight voice, to say, "I-- did know that, actually. I see you've... discovered it for yourself, hm, darling?" Probably best to stick to the nicknames, actually, given present company. Whether Rufus realized it was for his own good didn't really matter. She was feeling unusually charitable, and also it was amusing. "It's very mean of you to be off having fun without me," she told him, and her pout was audible.

[mydarknation]

It was probably to her benefit that she didn't explode laughing because in all likelihood he would have just hung up right then and there.

"Nick. Names." How many times did he have to remind the woman? But he didn't dwell on that for very long as the last of Scarlet's words caught his attention. "Why is it mean?" He wasn't too likely to spend much time around her on a good day, much less one where he was bored and stressed enough to get himself smashed. He wouldn't even be talking to her if it hadn't been completely random. He seemed to ponder that for a second, a brief pause before he spoke again.

"You know what, Scarlet?"

[gunnin_for_ya]

"Because here I am, working my hands to the bone," and she let melodrama seep into her voice and saturate it, "tireless and unyielding in my campaign to bring Gaia weapons to protect itself with in these turbulent and fearful times," and okay, so this was almost entirely for Tuesti's benefit, because making him sneer was another of her favorite past-times, as the past forty-five minutes attested to, "and here you are, calling me to talk about how you're off having fun. It's mean."

She shifted her weight onto one foot and leaned her hip against the table. Curiosity flooded her, and she lowered her voice a fraction, faux confidentiality.

"No, Dear. What?"

[animus_inspire]

...or I'll break your arms.

No matter how much Reeve wanted to ignore the situation he found himself in -45 minutes of yet more flaunting, pouting and sick twisted Scarlet behaviour- it was genuinely hard when the work was there, laid out in front of him. Strange. He was Commissioner now, not just an engineer, not head of Urban Development... yet still every single scratch of graphite on paper sucked him back in.

Things designed to kill he did not gladly pore over, but, after coordinating publicity campaigns and the requisite, but tough, humanitarian responses for disasters and tragedies done the only way possible - an effective shut down of Reeve Tuesti, the man - the logistics and calculations, the absolutes of the physical attributes of matter that in this bedlam actually made some damn sense to him, was quite irresistible. Besides that he, rather... the WRO, had made it quite clear to the witch that defensive weaponry was the order of the day.

Regardless she, the buxom blonde of hate, turned her back to him after her cell had rung. He ignored her for a time; red straps passing over shoulder blades no match for the criss cross of etched out lines. A few scribbles later in the margin and Reeve had to admit to being a little impressed, though he kept it neatly hidden... even adding his own annotation; scrawled angles next to languid arcs.

Little shudders and wincing at the pet names however could not be helped. Unfortunately for Reeve, though he perhaps knew better, Scarlet calling anyone darling was enough to set his teeth on edge, his toes curling and the hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end... and entirely not in a good way either. Really.

And, like a chocobo to greens, Reeve fell neatly into Scarlet's expectations as a sneer hijacked his frown at her following words. In fact a snort of annoyance might even have been issued. Unyielding? With that bad thoughts were starting to form in the Commissioner's mind, shunted quickly aside only to hear Scarlet croon more to this random piece of fluff on the other end of the phone.

...Poor bastard.

[mydarknation]

Rufus listened to her little speech in silence, rolling his eyes at one point. And here you are telling me about how you're doing something productive, he thought bitterly, but he didn't say it aloud, and the though passed quickly. The curiosity that rose in her voice as she responded to his lead-in inspired a smirk that was almost audible.

"I don't like talking to you."

The statement was followed by the click of the connection closing. He had hung up.

[gunnin_for_ya]

She managed to trap the outraged squawk in her throat, behind the portcullis of her teeth, so that it escaped instead as a furious hiss. "Go suck it," she snarled to the dead line, and snapped her phone shut. The little bastard wasn't getting away with that.

Whirling around, she saw that Reeve had made changes to the design despite her warning, and very nearly threw the cell phone at him. Dammit! What she really needed right now was someone to bitch to, not Reeve. And while wounded pride demanded she tell Reeve because it would humiliate the hell out of that miserable little brat, she wasn't an idiot.

Her nails dug painfully into her palms. All things considered, it was a good thing Reeve Tuesti didn't know what that was all about. It didn't keep her from growling at him.

[animus_inspire]

Reeve did not look up. He had prided himself on being more sensible than that. Unfortunately, that still did not stop a certain urge; one that was perhaps not the most sensible given Scarlet's evidently pissed off reaction. An eyebrow raised, though he was looking down. The menu for the local Wutai take out suddenly seeming rather interesting but... oh fer Shiva's sake...

"...Suck it?

Damn well hope that your darling has a sore throat and you are recommending lozenges, otherwise..."

He marked an "x" by menu items 4, 6 and 49.

[mydarknation]

Rufus stared at the phone for a long moment, frowning vaguely. That had been... something. Not what he was looking for, whatever that was. Not that he even knew. A good conversation that wasn't about work for once. Maybe. Dark Nation stirred in his place in the corner, adjusted his position, and went back to sleep. Rufus frowned at him, too.

A moment later and he was back to phonebook roulette. Stupid? Yes. Childish? Yes. The sound of the phone ringing being an oddly nice sound? Also yes. Maybe he just liked being stupid on rare occasion.

Even drunk, Rufus ShinRa was not one to admit to being lonely.

Who had he called this time? It better not be Scarlet again. And he still would prefer it not be Tseng either. After all, he wouldn't want him to take back that statement he made about Rufus not being a child.

[[OOC: Cue Reeve's phone ringing.]]

[animus_inspire]

Reeve was just about to ring the phone number handily flashing over the menu (modern communications were so fascinating, but some may say obtrusive) when the device sprang into life hurtling out a tinny sounding rendition of something that brought into mind chasing scenes and a whole lot of giggling.

Swallowing in a fashion that could be called guilty or at least embarrassed Reeve flipped up the phone and the brown haired man answered how he always did, polite and fairly even toned "Hello, Reeve here."

[gunnin_for_ya]

Cue Reeve's phone ringing.

No.

Rufus ShinRa is not the only man on Gaia with Reeve Tuesti's personal cell phone number. Why, it could be one of his AVALANCHE cronies. Or the Director of the Hugs and Cuddles for Bears Association.

For a moment all she could do was stand perfectly still and hold her breath.

Because I'm no where near that fucking lucky.

[animus_inspire]

Reeve was a bit perturbed by the lack of snark back in his direction by Scarlet. In fact she was almost statuesque in her silence. If statues looked like they were about to salivate. Hmm. Ok, so she looked like a Marlboro about to spew which had been hit with Stop...

Huh. Nothing good can come of this...

With no dial tone ringing in his ear, so at least it was not some pathetic attempt at petty harassment from the blonde, the Commissioner waited patiently... and somewhat apprehensively for a response.

[mydarknation]

Rufus did not realize in the slightest that Scarlet was listening to the phone ringing with baited breath. Of course, he didn't quite realize that Reeve and Scarlet were in the same room at that moment. He didn't even know he was talking to Reeve until he heard the typical greeting.

"Good," he replied on his first impulse, "You're not Scarlet." Not Tseng, either. Not necessarily who he wanted to be talking to, either, but if he had someone in mind, he wouldn't have been picking numbers at random, would he? He was silent for a moment, seeming to ponder something.

"But you don't get any whiskey, either."

[animus_inspire]

There was a pause before Reeve pulled the handset from it's position at his ear and stared at it as if it had just grown legs.

...Not Scarlet, huh?

Slowly as the technology was placed where it was designed to sit, so simultaneously the moments of the last few minutes slotted into place.

It was Rufus. Clear, and not slurred... but this was not Rufus under normal circumstance. The comments about Scarlet and whiskey making him realise with a jolt that the young man was inebriated, and had just been on the line to this damn broad in front of him. He had a way of reading signals. Especially when said signals were about as subtle as Don Corneo's furnishings.

Closing his eyes temporarily, conveniently sweeping to the side his own drunken call to Veld, Reeve... still, somewhat remarkably, did not think in terms of upper hands. In all fairness, the situation was flabbergasting him to the point of chuckling. "...Last I checked, I was not a woman" Particularly not one with breasts and a bad attitude the size of meteor he added to himself "...and, really now... that's no way to treat a friend, Rufus."

Oh. Ok. Upper hands were not immediately on the agenda, but Reeve was still somewhat intrigued to know how a drunken Shinra would respond to such words.

[mydarknation]

"I imagine a woman would look strange with your beard," Rufus commented blandly, the mental image not quite settling yet. Whenever it did, he would probably either laugh or have nightmares. Possibly both.

The latter comment he met with a long moment of silence. Friend? Rufus didn't have friends, just employees and convenient acquaintances. He used the word on occasion, but he had long since learned it had a somewhat different meaning for him than it did for anyone else. By other people's definition, Dark Nation qualified. Potentially. Maybe some of the Turks, at a stretch. That was about it. In truth, his thoughts were nowhere near as coherent as this paragraph, but it did manage to strike him as curious.

"Do you consider me a friend, Reeve?" he finally asked, his voice devoid of any particular emotion.