It&#39;s a love story

"Most penguins like snowy spots, so you'll have go out on a glacier to find one," she teased, gesturing wildly. "Better take your winter suit!"

Explaining Craft. Okay. She had managed to explain it to Rikku, this shouldn't be too hard.

"Sometimes, in my world, people have power," Dōjima said slowly. "It's a rare talent passed down genetically, and we call it the Craft. Pyrokineisis, telekinesis, psychometry, all sorts of talents. People who use it for good are Craft users, and those who use it for evil are called Witches. There's never been an animal that could do any of that, though."

Edited Date: 2008-05-06 05:35 am (UTC)

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"Oh." Reno raised an eyebrow at at that. "So, people can just... use this stuff? On their own, without any help from anything else?"

Crazy.

"Where I'm from, there've only ever been a couple of people who didn't need some kinda outside item powerin' their magic, yo. For all I swear by my lightning-spells, I can't just wave my arms around and zap things, or whatever."

He lifted his shoulder and took another swig. Mmm. Licorice. "So, who decides the line between good and evil, there?"

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"If your powers manifest? Then yeah. You can just use it, although you run the risk of having your powers go out of control, or having it drive you insane or something cheerful like that." Dōjima shuddered slightly.

"The majority of the population is human, without powers of any kind. Even those with the right genetic combo can't just summon up magic, you have to Awaken, and there's no way to control that sort of thing," she said, tapping her finger against her glass. She needed more booze, damnit.

"As to the good and evil part, well, that's SOLOMON's job. They decide the line, and dispatch their Hunters to clean up the mess."

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You could almost hear the all-caps seeping into that organization name. Reno was well familiar with groups that insisted on all-caps. Some of 'em, he even got along with.

"That what I reminded you of? Those Hunters you're talkin' about?"

It was worth asking. "Get out there, make the hit, get the job done no matter what, that kinda thing?"

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"I don't know any Hunters," she said, shaking her head. 100% true, she didn't. All her contacts were in headquarters proper, for now.

"You just remind me of my father's security team. They tend to be, ah, proactive sometimes." Which was the nice way to put it. "I wouldn't be surprised, though. You hear...stories. When they send out a Hunter team, the target usually doesn't survive. 'Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live,' and all that jazz."

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Reno chewed on that one, albeit lightly, for a moment, and then snorted, grinned, leaned his chair back, and put his feet up on the table.

Nobody said he had to be polite around these parts anyhow, did they?

"Closest I ever heard to that one was a mantra that a terrorist group we Turks faced off against used to have. An' I swear, if I ever hear someone say 'Death to the ShinRa' again, I'm gonna freakin' puke."

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"SOLOMON isn't a terrorist group, but they're ruthless," Yurika admitted. "It's like a looming bogeyman. They're hard on the Craft users, but they even watch the Seeds like hawks, and most Seeds never show any sign of magic, it's all latent."

"Or as I like to call it, 'those of us too damn lazy to manifest'," Dōjima said, wiggling her fingers at him. "Boo."

Grinning wickedly, she mimicked his position and kicked her feet up. "New mantra," she declared, tossing back her hair and crooking her finger at the bartender. "More Booze!"

There. Enough serious, and hopefully she'd managed to explain away his suspicions for now.

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"More Booze," Reno crowed, "is the best damn mantra I ever heard! More booze! Make it extra licorice-y for when my man Romeo comes back outta the can!"

It was clear that Reno knew his priorities in life, here.

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"More Booze!" Dōjima cheered, batting her eyes at the waitress headed in their direction. "I swear, if he's fallen in and drowned, I'm leaving him here. I'll find other company for the evening."

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"Looks like there's plenty of company to be had," the redhead mused, glancing around the tavern. "Still, we better hope he didn't fall in. I ain't fishin' him out, either."

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"At least we'll get to mock him for it," she joked, placing a new order, and this time requesting food.

If they were going to keep drinking, she needed protein.

"Besides, the only company I'd be enjoying is my cat hogging the bed," Dōjima admitted, shrugging. "Wow. I feel so old and boring."

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"When did you become a cat lady, anyhow?" Reno raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Never figured you to be the type, yo."

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"Just in the last week. She used to be my big sibling's," she said, taking a long drink of water. "There was a rescue mission, and death, and then not-death, and now she can't have the cat at her new home. So, I inherited Alea."

"I have a fluffy, affectionate, very zen cat." Dōjima looked at Reno and grinned. "I'm just full of surprises."

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Romeo's attempts to find the men's room had taken him to the kitchen, the rooftop garden, the small courtyard with a dumpster in it (beside which a scraggly man spent five minutes trying to sell him cheap cocaine), and the ladies' room before he reached his destination.

It was possible the staff was having fun giving bad directions to the drunk American.

Finally he made it back to the table. "You are," he told Yurika, coming up behind her to nuzzle her neck. "Have I missed any plans for world domination?"

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Yurika squeaked in surprise as he startled her, then giggled and tilted her head to allow him easier access. "Yes. World domination via flaming hedgehogs that are not-edible. The revolution will be televised."

"That took ages, did you fall asleep? I'm not carrying you back to the dorms."

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Oooh, more neck. It needed to be kissed before he slid back onto his seat.

"I think I found every room in this place except the one I wanted," Romeo confessed. "And if either of you wants any sort of pharmaceutical from someone who looks like he hasn't bathed this year, there's a chap who set up shop beside the dumpster out back."

"Flaming hedgehogs sound like remarkable TV, actually." He leaned forward in his seat, clearly curious about this turn of things.

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She pouted slightly as he took his seat, but was quickly distracted by the arriving drinks and food. Foooood. "I'm not buying anything from the man at the dumpster," she announced, grabbing a kotopita. "I'd like to remember Greece, thank you."

"We were comparing differences between animals," Dōjima explained. "His hedgehogs are large and light things on fire. Please tell me your world does not have giant flaming spikies? The idea of animals with powers is absolutely terrifying."

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Food was an excellent thing. Romeo took a piece of mint-scented lamb before answering.

"Animals don't have powers at home any more than people do, and hedgehogs are the size of my hand and cute," he declared. "How would they light something on fire, and why? Reno's world is terrifying."

Edited Date: 2008-05-06 02:04 pm (UTC)

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"See? That's what I said!" Dōjima said, sticking her tongue out at Reno. "Straaaaaaange world. Don't ask me, my hedgehogs are wee and cute and not pyrokinetic."

"Oh, and we have to find Red here a penguin."

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"Never said my world wasn't nasty, did I? Hedgehog pies ain't even the nastiest shit we got out there. They're pretty tame, compared to most of the crap runnin' around nowadays, yo. And as for the penguin..." Reno gave a drunken shrug of his shoulders, "Rude'd love a little Turk-bird of his very own."

He had himself a good laugh, then, smirking and knocking back the bottle for another good swig of delicious licorice-y nastiness.

Which, all things considered, wasn't a wise move with his feet on the table and the chair leaned backward like that, and a good deal of the rest of the contents of the bottle were lost in the subsequent cartwheeling of his arms needed to keep him from toppling over backwards, chair and all.

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Romeo got a bad case of the giggles at that, though he at least had the decency to try to put a steadying hand on Reno's back.

"Is it time to cut you off?" he asked. "Or did the floor try to rise up to grab you?"

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Dōjima had no decency, and just whipped out her cellphone to take a picture of the flailing as she cracked up. "Alcohol-abuse! Quit spilling!"

She had priorities.

Edited Date: 2008-05-06 05:32 pm (UTC)

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Okay. Reno's feet were going to be going on the floor now, and he was going to clutch the bottle to his chest and catch his breath, wide-eyed.

"What a waste of some damn fine booze, yo."

The poor, poor ouzo.

"I'm good, I'm good to keep goin'! Cut-off ain't for a long while from now, trust me."

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"Licorice-flavored. It deserved it," Romeo said, shaking his head.

Then, as he drained the last of his glass, he added. "Though it might be growing on me."

He signaled the waitress for another bottle -- no sense in bothering with mixers at this point. "A pet penguin would be awesome." Not that he had the first clue what to do with one, but it would be.

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