Room 501, Friday Evening
So Reno's phone was ringing. A lot.
In fact, if Reno let it ring through to voice mail, or failed to answer in any other way, the phone would almost immediately start ringing again.
Oh, hey. Reno's phone was ringing. A lot.
He suspected that it was probably someone from back in Edge, considering that last week's report was all of a week late now, and he still had no inclination to start it.
Oh, hey. Reno's phone was ringing. Again.
He'd have to answer it eventually, he supposed.
"Yo. Reno."
"Yo."
It was Rude. And then there was silence. If he waited long enough, Reno might start making excuses for not having the report done.
Rude, it would seem, knew Reno very well.
"Look, man, if this is about that report, I can explain. But it involves squirrels and a class assignment to have commitment-free sex, and then there was the weekend. I wasn't even myself on the weekend, yo. Did you know they card people at bars here? Except Caritas, the place with the zombie band. I'm tryin' to work on the report, man. I am."
"Because commitment-free sex always keeps you from writing reports."
The rest of it? Rude was still processing. And now that Tseng had started riding his ass, he was going to drag as much amusement out of this phone call as he could.
"Shouldn't be that different from usual, yo?" This phone call sucked already. As good as it was to hear from Rude, Reno was not exactly in any rush to prove that he had possible sanity issues since arriving on this island. "The report would be easier to write up if this place wasn't so damn messed up."
"'Messed up.' Really. Oddly enough, I don't see that mentioned in your report."
Completely deadpan.
"The report I didn't write?" Reno had figured it out, at long last. Rude was an ass. This explained so very much. "I'm still smackin' my hands every time I go to start the damn thing with, 'no, really, I'm not drunk, but.'"
"So... It's probably because it's a transdimensional nexus. At least you have all the commitment-free sex?"
"The girls here think I'm teasin' them when I ask, yo." The girl. Singular. Rude did not have to know this. It wasn't a sore spot or anything. Really. "I nearly burned down the dorms on Saturday."
Entirely casual conversation, here.
"Were you trying to... bake cookies?"
"No, but that reminds me, I gotta make an omelet sometime." Reno had to take a moment here to dig through his drawer for the everclear. It was good stuff, dammit. "Wasn't me this weekend. I said that, yo. Keep up, man."
"It'd be easier to keep up if I had it in writing," Rude grunted.
"I'm covering for you. Tseng's riding me about it, now."
"He'll ride you more when he gets a report that says I'm bein' paid in rum by squirrels to read the news on Tuesday, too. Or when I mention that I was some sort of heartless pyrokenetic over the weekend. And I'm not gonna even mention the PM--nevermind, yo."
"Do you... normally lie on your reports?"
"No?" Rude had a point hiding in there somewhere. Reno was certain of that. "But this is special. My reports aren't usually on time anyhow. I lost two days, yo. Still thinkin' about it, here."
The point wasn't hiding, it was right there. Unfortunately, it required extra sentences.
"You're going to high school on an island that doesn't exist. It's supposed to be strange. And you don't lie on your reports. You write it, Tseng will believe it."
He paused. "It's a lot more than 'two days' late."
"Not countin' the two days where I was runnin' around callin' myself Axel, it's five. I'm even keeping track, here." Yeah, so Rude had a point. Reno could live with that. "Tell Tseng he'll have twice the report by the end of the weekend, and I'm usin' shorthand because there's a lot of crap to go through and I got detention on Saturday."
Yes, he did sound very amused at the notion that he'd have detention doled out to him, here.
"Detention. Why am I not surprised?" Rude was almost -- almost, mind you -- cracking a smile. Reno would always be Reno.
"Don't get detention next week."
"Sittin' in some stuffy detention hall is totally worth the lip I had to give the TA to earn it. Pussy fainted doin' his homework." There was a pause, here. A brief one. Too long never could pass between thoughts while talking to Rude, Reno figured. He might forget the topic and never hear a word about it again. "What's next week?"
"I thought maybe we could... go for a beer?"
"A beer?" Okay. Reno had to pause a moment yet again to let this absorb. "You gonna be in town? I'm kinda outta the way, here."
"Guess where MercCon is this year. You should probably 'hang out'."
"... You're shittin' me, man?"
Because if Rude was joking, he'd hitchhike to Edge and kick him in the nuts. Really.
"Do I sound like I'm shitting you?"
The better question would probably be if he'd sound any different if he were. But that's neither here nor there.
"Any good place on the island to park a chopper for the weekend?"
"Some kid with a ponytail said that some students park their spaceships in the junkyard, yo," Reno said, and immediately wanted to smack himself in the forehead for saying all that as if it was normal.
He then had a brainwave. It was glorious, his brainwave. He'd have to have them more often.
"You're givin' me the keys, by the way."
Ponytail. Spaceships. Junkyard. That was definitely going in his report, if it didn't end up in Reno's. Priceless.
And Reno's brainwave wasn't all that hard to follow. "You're not taking the chopper."
"I'm takin' the chopper," Reno insisted, "and bringin' it back in one piece, yo."
He was so taking the chopper, dammit.
"You break it and we're both stuck there."
The "and I'll hurt you" wasn't stated, but it was implied.
"And you'll hurt me," Reno agreed. Rude didn't have to say things for Reno to figure them out. "Haven't broken it before, have I?"
... Don't answer that.
"Not according to our official reports."
"See, nothin' to worry about, yo!"
Official reports were awesome.
"Yeah. Nothing." Rude shrugged, because that carried so well over the phone.
"Save some of the girls and the commitment-free sex for me."
"I'll try not to use 'em all up before you get here, yo."
Chopper for Reno! Chopper for Reno! Rude was the best partner ever and he was going to buy him drinks when he got here next weekend. MercCon! Freakin' awesome!
[Establishy, but open for all your Reno needs? Preplayed with sarcasm_guy, who is awesome, coded by the_merriest, who is awesome and was very bored.]