plate_builder | [Open Post]

There was something to be said of Tseng, of course. While he might not have had a fanclub like Sephiroth or Genesis or a few others, he definitely had a following. People who appreciated the looks of the Wutain. Reeve might have quietly been a member of that group. But Tseng was beautiful so it was just something like that.

The note, interesting. Reeve leaves it on the door and enters the building. Once he's inside he's quiet, frowning. Greeting Rufus, how should he do that? Call him sir, call his name? Nope that won't work. Instead he paused and stood there, frowning.

"Rufus, I'm here."

The fan clubs of ShinRa would have been quite a topic to bring up to Rufus, as it would have made him almost howl with laughter; almost. If it had been a few years prior, before he'd been taken into the Turks' custody, before the Weapons and his time dealing with the fallout of Meteor, including another bout of being held in someone else's custody, he might have even outright scoffed at the idea.

Fan clubs like those made for Sephiroth, Angeal and all the others? These were just pitiful excuses by the populace, nurtured by ShinRa, to bring about heroes they could believe in. A way to pretend ShinRa was on the way to creating a bright new future. To heap praise on beings they didn't understand, and who were set apart from them, because they couldn't fathom the depths of their misfortune and unknown slavery to the very thing that gave them life.

Useless things now, that served a purpose then, but which he still struggled to understand. Although, certainly, he would have agreed with Reeve's description of Tseng as quite a beautiful being; and then turned around and pointed out that Reno could also be quite attractive, when he kept his mouth shut, just to see the response.

Not that it's communicated, or matters to the current time or situation, a response coming to Reeve's call from the bedroom of the small lodge. "Then come this way. I'm not very mobile right now."

Reno was not attractive. Though if the fanclub thing had lasted until Rufus's return, he would have had one. And Reeve would not be the one to point that out.

The bedroom? Reeve sighs and straightens himself up before heading to said room. There was a deal to offer, and he wanted to do that, even if it meant being in an awkward position.

There is no intention to make the architect awkward, and it will be quite obvious this is so when he enters the bedroom, for even though Rufus is in bed, he's taken the time to fully dress and has concealed a now un-casted arm under bandages so the Stigma on his hand isn't visible to Reeve, sat up and obviously expecting the man, though he is covered from the waist down by blankets. He looks perhaps a bit pale, the medication Reeve gave him before on the dresser, along with a handful of bottled waters, some empty and some full, and his hair down like it was when he was younger.

His wheelchair has also been moved out of the way, settled to one side of the room, while another chair has been brought in for Reeve to sit on, an unopened bottle of water set on the seat. The chair has been placed in front of the bed for now, a position meant to mimic being in front of a desk, perhaps, though it is light enough it could be moved.

"Good morning." A normal, harmless, greeting is all the blond gives. "Please sit down if you'd like."

Didn't mean to make him feel awkward? Too bad it was working. Reeve hesitated before taking the chair, and he did hand over the folder. He had to keep himself composed right now. Too bad it didn't feel like this was a proper meeting. He didn't intend to ask, though, because it wasn't his business.

"I have a proposal for you, detailed herein. Edge needs a hospital, more than minor clinics."

Rufus doesn't look good, and it made Reeve uncomfortable. He shifted nervously in his seat, looking anywhere but at Rufus.

Their last meeting wasn't much better, though at least Rufus was mobile in most senses of the word. And honestly, he probably would have told Reeve to wait a day or two, if it hadn't been for the fact he didn't want the man to think he was lying about being accessible as soon as problems occurred. Which meant they got to meet in this position.

So while Reeve pretends he can't see what's going on, Rufus is taking the folder to sort through its contents, speaking as he did. "I don't see an issue with building a hospital, and I doubt you'd bring an idea like this to me unless you had some issue getting it built...?"

Reeve nods, looking at his hands folded carefully in his lap. This wasn't good, he couldn't handle this. He was never good with people who needed help and he couldn't help. How could he help? Sick, bedridden.

"I can't get funding. It's a good cause, better than good. If we don't have proper facilities we won't be able to lure back competent physicians. Which the city desperately needs. Some of the clinics we have are run by what is little more than someone with potions or skill with materia. Doctors, Rufus. A city needs doctors and they've moved to Junon and Costa and so many places. I need facilities. I have a full plan already made. The file contains blueprints, and I've got a number of companies willing to donate the electronics and beds and any other supplies. But I need money for the building itself."

He keeps flipping through the schematics, almost seeming as if he would memorize them, or is looking for something. He idly even remembers doing this before, when the ShinRa building was being built, and his father called him a loser for suggesting an escape hatch; something the idiot had actually put in, and which had saved his ass after Meteor.

He also listens, and when Reeve finishes, he gives him a curious look. "Money is no issue. I may even be able to send out some feelers to locate good, licensed doctors... Not related to ShinRa in anyway, in case that worries you. What else do you need?"

"I don't care if they're related to ShinRa or not," Reeve admits immediately. "Provided they didn't work directly under Hojo, I will take anyone. Including doctors that worked with Shinra. I need doctors, and administrators for them. I can probably work to help find the later. There were people I worked with in my department who might be able to help."

Some of whom he was still trying to get into working with him now, but there was only so much he could do. But the assurance that he would have the funding allowed Reeve to sag a bit with his relief. So far he'd managed on a number of utilities, power and water and heat. He'd gotten sewage processing done and he was working on police stations, which was going better because there were former Soldiers who were willing to go into law enforcement and rescue services. People who loved Midgar and were willing to help others.

But this? This was the hard one. Everyone agreed it needed to happen, but didn't want to give the money. So Reeve smiled, genuinely smiled his relief.

"Thank you," he said after a moment, his voice soft. Yes, he was starting to believe it. That Rufus wanted to help. "I suppose that as a major financier, if you will be such, you would have a say in the name of the hospital."

Rufus seems honestly surprised that Reeve isn't concerned if the doctors come from prior ShinRa stock, what with the amount of stuff most of the science, and by extension medical, staff was allowed to get away with. Yet he does suppose the stipulation about working under Hojo solves some of the confusion; Reeve trusts the basic, "nameless" medics that ShinRa hired. Those who treated lower level staff and had no access to the above floors, but were still highly competent, hard-working individuals.

"I'll see if Tseng still has a list, or can get hold of one, of the medical staff we used to have. At the least, they would be a good starting point for such things, even if you have to put them inside of the clinics until a hospital is built."

However, he can't help himself when Reeve suggests he has a say in the name of the hospital, and an almost cruel little smirk rises to his lips. Oh, he could be such a horrible person, suggest something that make it obvious ShinRa was behind all this, but he wouldn't. He also could suggest something to make the creator of the world's weirdest mechanical amalgamation shudder (naming the hospital Scarlet came to mind), but he resisted this too, and after a moment shook his head with a chuckle.

"How about we just give it an appropriate name? Mercy, or something along those lines. Unless you want something with my usual over-the-top, rather lame, naming scheme, in which case I suggest 'Shining Hope.'"

Yes, he'd just admitted he didn't have a knack for names...

Edited 2017-10-31 02:47 (UTC)

"I was hoping to avoid the equivalent of 'Dark Nation'," Reeve admitted, a bit amused. Even he could be amused by such foolishness. But if need be he would take over the naming. Rufus was giving him something powerful here, a tool to help people with.

But his relief was beyond evident and he was glad to stand. He owed this man a lot, and he bowed respectfully to the former president.

"I thank you, Rufus. For living up to your word. For doing what you said you would. I'm sorry I didn't believe you before. Perhaps you would want to discuss the plans I've proposed?"

"Oh, I rather thought Dark Nation was one of my better names." Whether he's serious, or just carrying the joke, Reeve might have a little bit of trouble telling; though with the current setting, most likely it is the latter, and he waves his hand dismissively at the bow.

"Don't worry of it. Especially since I doubt you fully trust me, nor should you." The amused look fades from his face, and he reaches to stroke the bandages hiding his illness, as if trying to quell the pain or rub away the blackness. For a minute, it almost seems he won't speak, lost in some thought or memory, and his voice a bit quiet as he speaks. "I don't lie about wishing to help, but I do wish to rebuild ShinRa someday. Not in the way it was before, but as a different sort of company.

"If you are alright with such a thing, even if you have to keep a watch on me, then we can continue."

No, Reeve will not be okay with ShinRa returning down the line, and when that day comes he doesn't doubt he will act against the man, especially if he can get the support of anyone else. But the fact of the matter was that, in the mean time, he might be willing to make use of this man and his power. Reeve's dreams could finally be fulfilled by this man.

"Continue what?" Reeve asked, a bit confused. Something was weird here. What was Rufus asking? Watch him? watch him bring the power back of a corrupt company? Or something else?

He wouldn't blame Reeve, or anyone else for that matter, if they tried to stop ShinRa's rebuilding. The company began by his father, taken over by him, had very little in the form of a good reputation, and with good reason. Human experiments, sapping the world of Mako, dropping plates on entire sections of cities, and those were only the most counted ones by those in the know. It wasn't exactly a company one would wish to see flourish again.

But he intended to rebuild it, either way. ShinRa was his home in some ways, and even more, it was the Turks' home. Without it, none of them felt truly secure, or at least he thought this was how they all felt. For all his bravado of the time before, about the Turks' loyalty to him, there was always the little voice inside which doubted they would stay if ShinRa was not rebuilt, if the money were to dry up. After all, what use was he beyond money and power?

Indeed, he knew in many waves that Reeve considered him as such. He'd apologized a moment before, but there was no way his opinion of his former boss would have changed so easily, so it meant that he was using his resources. Something Rufus was fine with. Let the man do what he must, let him use the fallen Shinra; Rufus was fine so long as he could stay near to the closest thing he had to family, so long as he could attempt to actually help in some small way. Let him always doubt.

"Continue discussions for the rebuilding, I mean." He tried to smirk as he focused on Reeve, but it was a hollow gesture, something he didn't really feel. "I'd like to see what else you are thinking of doing."

"This... is all I brought today," Reeve says, blinking at Rufus in shock. Then he tries to recover by composing himself. "You can't seriously tell me that when they invade my home you don't have your Turks taking pictures of my plans."

It would make sense that he did, and they sure didn't respect his privacy before this.

"They came in once, a while ago." Obviously he won't deny it, as he'd certainly had the Turks do some recon the first Reeve was here in Healin, they'd even kept an eye on the man in case he had any trouble, but they had left his place alone since that time. "I want to see what else you've done."

Reeve was not a man who sputtered in incredulity, but right now he looked about ready for it. How did Rufus not get this part? Hadn't he... No, he hadn't been involved in the operation of Shinra long enough to know just how much work went into this stuff. The paperwork. The planning. The PLANS that covered just about every bit of space in his apartment except for his bed and the oven.

"I can't show you, Rufus. I don't have the papers."

Rufus knew enough about it, had kept up with a lot of the going-ons in ShinRa even when he was held by the Turks. Sure, he didn't know everything, only had glimpses of the people who ended up working under him, but he did know how planning worked. Even knew Reeve was a wreck over this whole thing.

What he didn't know is how Reeve's thoughts might have changed as the work proceeded, what other things he might find were needed, or should be subtracted.

And what Reeve didn't know was that Rufus was trying to fight over twenty years of living, almost programming, that kept crying at him to use all the money which was left in ShinRa coffers to rebuild the company, and run it just as before. He'd even promised the Turks he'd erect an object in the middle of the rebuilding to lay ShinRa's claim to the place.

In a way, he still intended to do so, but there was a little more. Things neither the Turks or Reeve knew, things which had occurred, but in his stigma-laced blackouts, haunted him as a nightmare might. Things he was intent on using to change.

Perhaps that is why he smiles at Reeve now, with avosultely nothing hidden in it. "Then bring them, or even mail me your ideas."

"It would be easier to mail you to them," Reeve says, bewildered that Rufus would even ask such things. It almost... it almost felt like the man wants oversight, and no one gets oversight. Not without being a partner in the project. A real partner. And he can't trust Rufus with that just yet.

Bring them? He can't do it right now. But he supposes he can on the next trip. "The next time I call on you I could arrange a minor selection of some of my work. Things that were already completed."

What does Rufus want of him? Reeve really doesn't understand.

"That's fine." He won't push his luck, knows he can learn much with whatever Tuesti will give him. "What else can I do for the time being, since it will take some time for the hospital to be built."

And now Reeve was gaping for real. "I don't... I don't have anything."

All he had prepared was this one need. This one desire. He had prepared a several hour argument and pitch for it. Rufus had really gotten him off guard with the 'okay' coming so quickly.

"I have a number of smaller projects, but little ready to actually, well, present."

Even if he had been unaware of the confusion before, there would be no way to deny it now, which begged the question of how exactly he was to react to Reeve's obvious confusion over the entire situation. He had several different things he could do, including being a complete asshole or just continue to ignore the reaction altogether. The latter really didn't suit him, unfortunately, so even with the fact he wanted Reeve to trust him, he couldn't resist a jab.

"Your mouth is open, Reeve. Shall I get a screwdriver for you to fix the hinge?"

That made the man's mouth snap closed and he looked away, a bit ashamed. Dressed down by a younger man who didn't even understand why his questions were so... confusing. He had assumed that Rufus's desires to help Edge were more a 'throw money at it and take credit later' sort of thing. Not that he'd invest this much care.

"I..." Reeve shook his head. He should try. If the man was going to let himself be used, Reeve owed him something. An idea. A picture. Something to show what he bought with his money. "Do you have paper and a pencil? It won't be much but I think better in pencil."

He could sketch out his plans, in a rough form.

To be truthful, a great tactician would play this angle, just as Reeve would probably question. After all, wasn't it easier to take over without hostility? Pretend to be friendly, and then strike? It was something that logically could be done, but it wasn't Rufus, or ShinRa.

The company had always presented a kind face, but even Reeve had to know about the carpet bombing of villages which had become a risk, the elimination, classed as 'missing persons' or 'killed in action', of people and ShinRa personnel when their purpose was served, or needed to be served where light would not reach. This was the method his father had used, and the method Rufus had used as well.

When he recalled such things, how easy it would be to start it all over, part of him desired to conform to such desires, where another part, an almost conscience, would ask him what did all that get you? and the answer... Well, that was an interesting one.

He shifts on the bed, moving in a way that he can lean over and open the drawer on the dresser beside him, pulling out a notebook with a pen on top, and throwing it to the end of the bed for Reeve. There may be nothing visible on the pad, but it is obvious Rufus has been using it, several pages torn away from the seam.

"I'm afraid I don't have any pencils."

"I'll survive," Reeve assures the man. He does reach out and liberate a piece of paper from his file to Rufus. He preferred a real straight edge, but he needed something, and notebook paper wasn't going to suffice. With practiced motions he folded the printer paper precisely down the middle and sharpened the edge. Then he shifted so he could put the pad comfortably in his lap. Then he set to work.

He was good at his work. Reeve always knew that on an intellectual level. ShinRa would not have hired him over other men if he wasn't good. There was no way he wouldn't have scaled the ranks if he wasn't good. And even if Rufus's father had been an idiot, Reeve never would have led an entire department if he wasn't good. What Reeve didn't know was that in some ways, he was impressive. He drew a nearly perfect circle free hand in the middle of the paper and from memory alone drew a pretty good approximation of the city of Edge as it currently stood, right down to the road level. The folded piece of paper served as his straight edge, and his eye for lengths covered as a passable ruler. At one point he made sure the lines for his buildings and roads were double thick.

"Everything inside this boarder represents the current limits of Edge. Some of the spaces are empty lots, or projects I've got in progress. Others are almost finished. Some are complete."

Around the circle he began with the next progression of the city, a square laid out on a regular grid outside of the city center. Even this seemed to be divided into sections. The areas closer to the ruins of Midgar had larger sections between the clearly planned out roads, perhaps an industrial area. Beside those were some smaller areas that might serve as lower income residential areas. Not everyone would ever be able to get high income housing. There were regions clearly meant for commercial use, others smaller areas for residences and apartments and even condos. His vision was expansive. Once he had the general format of the city he hoped to foster formed, he then changed his paper, angling it. Paths were made, some with a series of dots to symbolize underground transit he intended to have happen. Others were dashed lines above ground, meant to stand for raised car transit, not to mention trucks. After that the labeling started. At a rather predictable pattern he laid down symbols to show approximately where he intended police and fire stations to go. Places he wanted to get set up for health care. Public spaces like parks and the like, spaces for the arts, spaces for everything and anything he could imagine. Not that he was a fool who believed his exact vision would be carried out. But if he could guide it to something even remotely resembling this, he'd be happy.

And he was happy as he worked, Reeve wearing his first genuine smile that he'd had around Rufus. It was almost like he was ignoring Rufus, except he was talking out loud, clearly addressing him. In truth Reeve was used to talking to himself as he worked so it was more the usual for him. Smiles and quips about layouts and his pen scratching lines that a pencil could do. After a long time his smile softened to a look of fondness as he regarded his approximation of his plans, and he handed the full notepad over to Rufus.

"It's a poor imitation of my actual plans, but this, one day, could be Edge."

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Wish I had a smile icon

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