The Causeway, Monday Evening

[raspberryturk]

Well. This was it. After a day of packing and a year and a half of a bloody island having its way with the contents of Reno's head, it was time to leave. Home. There was a chopper waiting on the other side of the walk across the Causeway, and Reno found himself dreading it.

Sure, it had taken some doing to cram the last of his stuff in there. They'd had to take apart the ferret cage, and there was no way all of the clothing Reno had picked up while he was here was going to fit. So he'd just tossed it out in front of some second-hand joint on the mainland in a garbage bag, and now he was wearing a cowboy hat and standing around with a ferret perched on one shoulder, a backpack filled with pink notebooks on his back, a cardboard box with two cactus plants in it under one arm, and a shiny yellow blanket stashed under the other.

It was totally a security blanket.

"So, Mako. If a fool is the kinda person who sacrifices himself for his job, what does that make me?"

The ferret simply blinked at Reno, once, honked, and then started chewing on the Turk's ear.

"That's what I thought, too."

[And that's that. Reno is on his merry way- Open for anyone who cares to wish him good luck, or for anyone else planning on leaving the island this evening.]

Comments

[bitchprince]

"Reno," Arthur called, as he made his arrival after scouting the island for some locations for the reserve.

He was always on the job. "Any last words?"

[ beyond x-treme sp omg *collapses* ]

[raspberryturk]

Reno considered for a moment, and then shot Arthur a wry grin.

"Yeah. Talk me outta this."

He was mostly joking, really. But the whole leaving thing kind of really sucked. A lot.

"An' call me, yo. As soon as you figure out that Blackberry of yours? Lemmie know how the reserves are goin', or I'm gonna go nuts."

[Sleeep, yay!]

[bitchprince]

"I find it very hard to believe you could actually go 'nuts'," said Arthur, dryly. See? Reno got a few of those italics for the occasion. ...

He hoped the colloquialism meant what he thought it did.

[raspberryturk]

"Man, you don't know me well enough. I'd find a way. Been crazy before, you know."

Kind of. Not really. He'd stopped caring about anything, ever. That was close, right?

[bitchprince]

"I've met the insane," Arthur said, "In fact, one of them works for me. You're not one of them."

After a pause, he offered his hand. "It's been not completely horrible."

[the_merriest]

This was a fidgety Rikku. One who kept staring at the Causeway like it was going to just ... start eating people.

It did. It ate people and then she never saw them again, and this time, it was her. And him. Both. And separate.

"I can't do this," she said softly, folding her arms around herself.

Petey was in a carrier at her feet, yowling. She probably shouldn't take him to Spira, but she couldn't give him up. He was her sunshine.

[raspberryturk]

"Ain't really home, is it?"

Reno walked over to her, taking a deep breath. He didn't want to leave yet, dammit.

"I keep thinkin' maybe I'll stand here long enough, an' someone'll jump outta the bushes goin', Surprise! Just jokin', you really flunked an' gotta stay another year, zoto."

[the_merriest]

"My home's a pile of ruins in the sand," she said, not looking up. "I watched it burn. We lived on an airship for a while, but that's not a home. Here was my home, but I can't stay. So I don't ... know that I even have one."

Staying another year sounded heavenly. But it only delayed the inevitable.

[raspberryturk]

"You an' me both," Reno noted, sighing and lifting the shoulder that wasn't balancing a ferret on it. "I get to hang out under the shadow of mine. And I helped cause that shit. So I don't even get to complain."

Awesome, between the two of them.

"Here's home. Kinda figures, we don't get to keep it."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie found Reno at the Causeway. A causeway he'd soon be crossing himself.

"I guess this is goodbye, isn't it Reno?" Jamie said. Wistfully.

[raspberryturk]

"Looks like it is, yeah," Reno agreed, frowning as he looked down the length of the Causeway yet again.

He didn't wanna.

"It's been good while it lasted, though. Can't say I regret comin' here, yo."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"There will be other times," Jamie replied. "At least for some. For others we may never cross paths again."

[raspberryturk]

"Damn," Reno mumbled under his breath, "an' I thought I was a pessimist."

He tilted his head, and then he shrugged again. "But there's always homecoming, for those of us who don't go an' get hit by a bus or whatever. Me, I'll do my damnedest to not get eaten by somethin', yo. After all, someone's gotta head back here to spike the punch at least once a year."

[withoutverona]

"... this is it, then," Romeo said, not bothering to hide how upset he was. It wasn't helpful, but Romeo's emotions tended to be more powerful than they were reasonable.

[raspberryturk]

Eh. Reasonable was freaking overrated, anyhow.

"This is it," Reno agreed. "I mean, until I hit up Tokyo to harass you an' your girl, or you swing by Gaia, or homecoming. Just 'cause that 'g' word sucks don't mean it's gotta be forever, right?"

Unless something ate him?

[withoutverona]

"It's not allowed to be forever," Romeo said firmly, thinking 'Gaia' was another to add to the list of g words that sucked. "I won't fall out of touch. We can't. And there's homecoming, and visits, and you'll do good work."

[raspberryturk]

"And you'll find a place for yourself," Reno added. Because that kind of seemed important, too. He had a bag full of notes that said that, at the very least, he was going to get people fed. And if that wasn't good enough, Sam and Max had embezzled enough money for him to be able to rebuild that overpass that he'd blown up. "And anyhow, it's like I was sayin' at the brunch, man. You're gonna get so many texts and phone calls from me, you'll be thankful every time I move outta Gaia's service areas."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Reno!" Edmund called and jogged up to meet him. "I didn't realise you were leaving so soon." Maybe if he paid better attention, or was actually in his room more, he would have noticed packing and whatnot sooner.

[raspberryturk]

"Hey, Ed!" Reno grinned faintly, nodding hello to Edmund. He would have waved, except... well. His arms were a little full. "The other Turks came to see me graduate, and I figured, hell, I didn't wanna make them come all this way twice, yo. Look at it like this, man. At least you got a room all to yourself, until they shove someone else in there with you, yo."

Reno smirked.

"And your underwear drawer's safer, now, too."

Mako honked! He liked Edmund's underwears!

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund grinned. "My underwear drawer is thankful for the reprieve. And my congratulations on graduating. The end of the semester came about very quickly, didn't it?"

[raspberryturk]

"Man, it came with a runnin' start. I couldn't have avoided graduation if I'd been wearin' sprint shoes and stuck on haste, yo."

Someday, Reno would make sense. Today clearly was not that day.

"It's kinda cool to be a graduate, though. Can honestly say I never thought I would be, you know?"

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

The dorms were a small place, and eventually Dōjima heard a rumor that there was a Reno at the Causeway.

"I'm tempted to sit on you," she announced. "Ino and I thought it out. You wouldn't be mean enough to shove me off."

[raspberryturk]

"Is that what the duct tape's been for all along?" Reno chuckled faintly. "You gotta get me to the ground, first. And then you're the one chasin' the weasel once he takes off, you know."

[dojima-hime.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'd break out the handcuffs, but your girlfriend might kill me," Dōjima quipped. "And the weasel is easy enough to catch, I just gotta dangle food."

[raspberryturk]

"Or shiny things. Or squeaky things. Or crinkly things," Reno agreed, glancing at Mako just long enough to earn a nip on the nose. "Maybe try danglin' breathmints, next time. I'm okay with Mako smellin' like Midgar, but his breath smells like somethin' died in there."

He was repressing again, wasn't he?