502, Monday Evening

[withoutverona]

After class and a nice, long "pillow playdate" with Yurika, Romeo was finally back in his room for the first time since Friday morning.

He downloaded the radio podcasts and listened to them as he unpacked his suitcase, frowning a little. He wished even more that had been home to try to help, somehow. Yurika had been right that he wouldn't know what to do against a spirit, but he could have tried.

[OOC: Door open.]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

After Reno's flight session with Murdock, he was tempted to crawl up the stairs to his own room, find his way to his bed, flop over, and pretend he'd fallen into a coma until Wednesday.

A second thought had him overshoot his room by an entire floor. He'd really rather check to see if Romeo was back, anyhow. He'd sleep when he was dead. He needed someone to ramble at.

"Knock-knock," he said, peering through the doorway. "Anyone home?"

[withoutverona]

"I am," came a voice from under the bed on Romeo's side of the room.

A second later, Romeo emerged, only dust bunnies clinging to his t-shirt. "Unpacking ..." he half-explained as he brushed himself off, clearly pleased by the visit. "Good evening. Are you well? I listened to radio, but I've talked to no one, not really."

[raspberryturk]

"Yeah, well, as good as you can expect, after facin' off against a god down in hell," Reno replied, and yes, that was a smirk on his lips. It was entirely possible that Reno was slightly insane. "Few burns. Unexpected haircut. Crazy weekend, man. How was- Uh. That place you were at?"

[withoutverona]

"Your ponytail," Romeo said, stepping to the side to check Reno's hair. "Did it die nobly, at least? I cannot conceive of fighting a god."

He shrugged in response to the question. "Tokyo? Loud and bright and crowded and we spent most of the time trying to stay drunk and avoiding Yurika's parents. But it was excellent distraction."

[raspberryturk]

Reno shrugged back and grinned.

"Never been held up by my hair with a flaming hand gripped to it. And nobody got left behind, yo. I think it was a damn good way to go." A pause. A grin. "Sounds kinda like Midgar used to be. Hell of a place. But hey, distractions are good, right?"

[withoutverona]

"He picked you up by it?" Romeo said, impressed. "Jesu, you're lucky not to have lost more hair yet." Or, you know, a whole bunch of skin and blood. "Did you get in any blows?"

"Distractions were about the best we could do," he shrugged again. "I think you would like Tokyo. I did, even if it was not the best circumstances. Maybe the island will go there when it's bored of monkeys."

[raspberryturk]

"Spent a couple of minutes beatin' on him with my stun baton," Reno mused. "Therapy or somethin', didn't hurt him any, though."

He was kind of lucky to not be dead, really.

"Maybe I'm gonna have to visit the place sometime," he mused. "Tokyo. Not hell. Had my fill of Tartarus."

[withoutverona]

"You'd likely have to be a god to hurt a god," Romeo decided. "If it was therapeutic for you and annoyed him at all, that's something. And you made it out, even if all of your hair did not, which is more."

"I'm not planning on going to Hell until after I die," he added, then, with a slight grin: "Though it would be comfort that, from now on, if anyone tells you to go to Hell, you can say you've been."

[raspberryturk]

"Been there, done that, got the- well. There wasn't a t-shirt. But shouldn't be hard findin' somethin' like that on the internet, right?"

The internet was crazy like that.

"Still kinda weird. Somethin' huge like that, and everyone made it back alive. A little burned, sure, but, you know. Here."

[withoutverona]

"Shouldn't be. Did I ever show you the one I got for myself that says 'Sinner'?" Romeo wondered aloud.

He thought about Reno's observation. At home he'd seen so many people die for stupid reasons, in fights against much weaker opponents. A battle against a god with no casualties, that was freaky. "It is strange. This might sound mad, but ... can people die here? Do they, at least?"

[raspberryturk]

"Don't remember seein' it, but then again, I got thrown around like a ragdoll yesterday, too. Might've knocked a couple screws loose or something." Reno gave his shoulders another shrug. And then he chewed on the rest.

"That's the thing, man. Since we got here, there hasn't been anyone dead, anywhere, has there? No funerals, memorials, not even a freaking announcement tellin' us about casualties. Stone angels eat people, they all come back. The god of the underworld tries to take over, nobody dies and people manage to hurt him. I ain't never seen nothin' like it before."

[withoutverona]

He pulled the shirt in question from a dresser drawer and tossed it at Reno. "It was part of a shipment at the store, and I figured I earned it." Not that the shirt was important, but it gave him time to think about the rest of it.

"No deaths we heard of. Was Hades killed, even?" he ventured. "Not only no funerals, but church is usually empty, no proper priest save Karal, it's ..." He couldn't think of a word besides weird.

"My best friend at home fell to a piece of glass," he said finally. "If one of the odd things about this island is things like that don't happen here, it cannot be bad, can it?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno inspected the shirt only halfheartedly, his mind on the conversation at hand far more than it was on the novelty of a piece of clothing.

"Even Hades was sent off alive, I think," Reno bit at his lip for a moment, then shrugged a shoulder. "Dyin' is just a part of livin'. I mean, I go home, back to doin' what I do, and I'll do it well until somethin' gets the better of me. That's how it works. And here, there's just... Nothin'. Everyone's a fighter, and we all get reasons to fight, and then we sit down and drink freaking lemonade after like it was nothin'." He tossed the shirt back to Romeo. "Kinda gets to the point where graduating is somethin' to worry about, because you can't stay behind. Might lose that security. And when you stop callin' your girlfriend four months later, she'll know you're dead, and that's life, too."

Reno and Rikku had been involved in a pretty intense conversation last night, apparently.

...

"Sorry 'bout your friend, man. At least bein' here is better than livin' with all the dying all the time, right?"

[intraspective]

"People suck," Ino informed him from the door. "Not, like, you though. Just some people."

A beat.

"How're you anyway?"

[withoutverona]

"Trying to decide if I'm hungover or just have the portal version of jetlag," Romeo said honestly. "Good evening, Ino. Did you get to fight a demon this weekend? And who sucks?"

[intraspective]

"Did you want tea?" Ino offered. "I can make some, if you'd like. And Liir's the moron 'cause he went off to rescue people without telling me and I'm going to kill him because he could've died." Yes. "And I did! I have no idea what it was though."

[withoutverona]

"Tea would be wonderful," Romeo decided. "I was in Japan -- Dojima's version -- and we had so much, and yet I'm not sick of it. Thank you."

He blinked a little at Ino's creative logic. "Is he all right? And I wouldn't know what it was if you told me, so the name's no matter. You weren't hurt?"

[intraspective]

Ino's logic made total sense to her. Honest. "He was in class today, when I went to give Deadpool-san cake," she said, "so he's w-well enough to be up and moving."

She grinned and did a little spin. "Not hurt, promise. It had six really ugly heads and lived in the water. It tried to smell my kunai--they're a sort of blade we use--and I slashed at it, and then it got scared of my gun even though the bullets weren't hurting it. I totally won."

A beat.

"I'll be right back with tea!" Ino informed him, heading for the door. "Stay there."

[withoutverona]

"I shall," Romeo called after her, and stood right there, trying not to pout.

If all the creatures were afraid of guns, he could have been the most useful person on campus.

[intraspective]

Ino was back a minutes later, having nipped down to the common room (with an even quicker stop by her room first, to grab the proper sort of tea) for the hot water.

She carried the tray holding the cups, and the teapot, and had even brought some cake she'd made earlier. "I don't know if you like peanut butter and chocolate," she said, "but that's what Deadpool-san wanted, so that's what I've got if you'd like to try it."

A beat.

"...are you pouting?" Amusement there, oh yes.

[withoutverona]

"No."

Yes.

"Yurika wouldn't let me even bring my gun to Tokyo," he explained. "Not legal. And it sounds as though it would have been of use here, where it spent a thrilling weekend in the weapons locker."

"And peanut butter and chocolate sounds wonderful."

[intraspective]

"Pfffft, legal." Yeah, like Ino paid attention to stuff like that. "And you so totally are. Have chocolate, it'll make you feel better."

A beat.

"It was probably pretty lonely in the weapons locker," Ino admitted, "it was definitely a fighty weekend."

[withoutverona]

He stuck a forkful of cake in his mouth and chewed meditatively. "It's helping a little," he admitted. "I know, legal. But we were visiting her kin, so I abided by her wishes."

"And now I know my gun has abandonment issues. I'll have to go shooting this week and make it happier."

[intraspective]

Ino spent a moment setting out and pouring the tea properly, before grinning at him. "Ah, yeah, I guess that might make a difference? Even if only a bit. Were you armed at all?"

What? It was important.

"If you'd like a shooting partner, I could come," she said, "if you'd like of course."

[withoutverona]

"I only carry the gun," Romeo said. "So yes, unarmed. But her world is safe."

Safe enough unless they thought you had powers, anyhow, but that wasn't his tale to tell.

He gave a smile. "I would like," he said. "I miss gun club. Thursday, perhaps? I don't have classes."