plate_builder | [Open Post]

"Got no reason to worry bout those random people, either, but he does. Honest, he's not the same person as before. Hasn't been for a while now. Or maybe it's better said he's got some real-world experience now and so can empathize a little easier than before."

"Cooping him up here like this hardly counts as real world experience. All his life people have kept him pinned in. Is it really all that surprising that when he got out in the world he did it with far too many grand gestures?"

With that he sighs and puts his empty glass down. "I do not apologize for what I hold him responsible for. Were it not for his actions, much would be different now. There is a chance my mother would be alive. And the project that brought me joy would not have been weaponized. You can tell him that. But..."

Again Reeve pauses, shaking his head. How to put it?

"But let him know I'm trying. Which is why I am pleased to have an old friend coming to Edge. To help me. To make sure I take care of myself. So he doesn't need to be concerned with me."

Oh, the things Reno could say. Thankfully, he's not an idiot, and Rude would be there to stop him if he tried, so instead Reeve just gets a dismissive wave from the red-head. "Yeah, yeah... He's gonna worry anyway, so get used to it.

"Nowwww..." He grins, sitting forward. "We've got some stronger stuff than this wine downstairs. Want to join us?"

"I am not fond of growing too inebriated," Reeve answers. He knows what he's like when he's tipsy. And frankly, he doesn't need to find himself presented with Tseng and saying something stupid. Or lacking that, appreciating Rude out loud. It's best he doesn't. "And I didn't bring stronger stuff because I believe you're on duty."

"Boring." He may seem like he's pouting. Maybe. But it's Reno, so it's not to be trusted. "Well, whatever. Just quit giving the boss a hard time so much? For me?"

"Why would I do that for you?" Reeve asks Reno. Because frankly, Reno is the member of the Turks Reeve likes the least. Tseng is his favorite 'modern' Turk, then Rude, then Elena. Reno is a distant last due to messing with him so much.

But he does get to smile a bit at how Rude huffs a breath of amusement.

"What are the chances he's going to make another appearance?" Reeve asks, looking at his watch. He'd allotted a lot more time for this, but... well, he could go now.

"Not high." Rude remarks simply.

"Yeah," Reno sits back a bit, leaning on his hands. "Rufus in a mood is never a good thing. So..." He tilts his head to look at Rude. "Guess you should take Mr. Boring here home for the day."

"Seems a good idea," Reeve agrees, rising to his feet. "By all means, see me out. I have a lot of work to do."

And possibly a lot of moping. Throwing himself into his work to avoid the pain of today, because yeah, this has hurt a touch. His concern now is licking his wounds.

Reno stands, lifting up the cups they were drinking from and nodding at Reeve. "Well, see ya next time. I'll go make sure the boss doesn't need anything, and hope I don't get a gun in my face."

"Good luck with that," Reeve dismisses as he stands. He nods to Rude, knowing it would be that one in particular to ferry him back to the waiting arms of his own team. Which brought something to mind.

"Would you be willing to pass a message on to your superiors after you return?" Reeve asks the man as he lets himself be guided outside. "I was asked to relay it myself, but given how things played out, I hardly seek to return to speak to Rufus at this time."

A simple piece of paper that he produces from his pocket to pass over to Rude. Perhaps the man will find the writing on it familiar, as it belonged to the man who was his superior before Tseng became the head of the Turks. Just an old retired man, pulling strings in the background, just like Rufus was prone to. Sometimes Reeve had to wonder if he was a puppet dancing to their tunes, or unfortunately trained by all of the double dealing that had occupied the world they had worked in. Either way it was clear that Reeve, meaning to or not, was starting to follow in some of their footsteps.

Once that is handed over, and frankly he doesn't care if it gets passed along or not, Reeve heads out of the lodge himself. No need to specifically wait for Rude to pass that on to Tseng or Rufus, if he even chooses to now. What Veld wished to relay is hardly his concern. Handing the information over was something that he owed the man given his support in the work of Edge, the WRO, and most recently with his security force. Privacy mattered to Veld and Reeve respected that. Besides, his thoughts for now are entirely upon the process of returning home. There is always much and more work to do.

Ultimately the work takes quite a bit of time up, enough that Reeve can pretend to himself that he isn't avoiding his primary sponsor. Granted there is a lot to be done once his old friend reaches Edge, and on a number of different fronts. So it is that it takes a bit more than a month, well into the crisp chill of autumn that Reeve reaches out for another contact with Rufus. But this time he carries with him a different title. Not a 'former Shinra'. No, instead it's the new commissioner of the WRO who reaches out to Rufus Shinra. And with a new title comes a new resolve for the man, and a new approach to old situations.

Rude takes the note, glancing at it briefly, before placing it into the inside pocket of his coat with an affirmation that it will get to Rufus as soon as they return. He sees no reason to bring it to Rufus at this specific moment in time.

Rufus himself doesn't reach our during that month or so, either due to left over anger or the fact he's promised to leave Reeve be is for the man to guess if he so desires.

Either way, if he expects much difference from Rufus over the title, he won't get it. Even if the man will congratulate him as he arrives, Rufus remains what he always is; somewhat aloof and somewhat arrogant.

Difference from Rufus over a title? No. Instead it's difference is in how Reeve views himself, how he treats himself. In fact, it's a difference in how he carries himself. Oh. And the coat. A nice new one that covers quite a bit of him and no doubt takes some effort to get off. But Reeve liked it and it struck him that a single nice coat can cover a lot and mean he doesn't have to deal as much with pressing shirts and the like. Maybe he picked that up from Rufus.

"Good afternoon," Reeve greets. He's already apologized to Rude and Reno for the gear that had to be carried in. And bags that are lighter he waves away from where Rufus is set to receive him. "Thank you, Rufus. There is a lot to cover today. I've got progress reports, a few organizational level questions, and I need to teach you how to operate a Cait unit."

Rufus doesn't generally press his own shirts anyway, although he's fully capable of doing so. Between Elena and Tseng, his stuff is always ready for him. More so now that he has the Stigma, and all four Turks seem to keep an eye on his activity.

He observes the bags, but seems more intent on observing Reeve; the new outfit and the way he's holding himself. A definite change since last time they had met; though admittedly, last time Rufus had been scolding Reeve and vice versa.

"Is this all for the Cait unit?" He finally asks, indicating a chair if Reeve wants it.

"No," Reeve answers, and he's not answering other questions at that. There are clearly bags here that contain electronics from how thick they are, and no doubt how padded. "They are not. Would you like to start with Cait? I've set up a specific unit just for your use. It's currently in my apartment so while you are learning the controls you will have a space to practice in. I've even gotten items hidden around the place for you to look for. A scavenger hunt if you so desire it. It's the best way to learn fine commands for them. Trust me on that fact to. I have a lot of practice at it."

After all, he's done a lot to improve this tech.

As for the other bags, he smiles as he looks at them, waiting near the couch. He had resolved to himself to do better at this whole situation. Including being kinder to Rufus. For all that he hated to admit it, neither Reno nor Elena had been wrong, and Rufus less so. They were working together, he had to accept the fact that Rufus might have some care for him. It was time he learned the same, but he had to approach that through his own methods.

There's a hint of amusement when Reeve mentions the unit being in the man's own apartment, but he doesn't vocalize what it is, especially since he's positive the cat won't be operational after Reeve leaves and probably is truly set not to allow spying.

So instead he just lets Reeve move at his own pace, still curious about the bags. "We can if it's not a hassle to set up."

Rufus might be surprised at how much he might let Rufus get away with to allow him someone to talk with. But for now he doesn't comment on the spark of amusement, because he knows where it likely comes from, and he is willing to allow this. If it teaches Rufus to properly use the expensive equipment, he's going to let Rufus pry.

"It's only a touch of a hassle," Reeve admits. "There's a signal booster I need to set up. It should take me less than five minutes. I can show you the basic controls while I'm doing it."

It would probably be a bad idea to give Rufus an inch with his personality, but it would be Reeve's funeral if he did.

For now, he just nods a bit. "Alright. Show me."

Yes, Reeve has locked away the important things in a safe, so he'll allow the mile. For a time.

With the allowance, though, he nods and moves to one of the electronics bags. Sure enough it's a quick matter to get the thing plugged in. He chooses an out of the way corner and a small corner. Once that's done he goes into another bag and pulls out a headset and small computer with joystick.

"The headset is for ease of conversation. He has live linguistic adaption, and you'd get used to how he speaks if you want to. Otherwise the program will handle it. The joystick is mostly for walking. There are a lot of other controls for how to use hands. Let's get him booted up."

He walks Rufus through a boot-up sequence and he leans in close to whisper the password to Rufus.

"If you tell Reno it, I will ruin you."

There's a steel in his voice that can't be denied. Clearly he's learning. Once the program gets up and running there is an intro screen. Reeve types in the login credentials and within moments the screen comes to life with the view of a window at the end of a bed.

"I started him somewhere easy. Take the controls. We'll get you started with just getting him walking around."

Valuables should not be the only concern Reeve has, since there is much that can be gleaned by watching a person, seeing how he attends to business, and other such things. Giving Rufus something like this in the past would have been dangerous, but for entirely different reasons than it might be now.

Either way, for now, he seems to be inspecting the equipment he was handed and listening to Reeve, only chuckling when there's a threat if he reveals the password, and with Reeve that close, he probably gets a very good look at the mischief in Rufus' blue eyes as he responds.

"Am I allowed to tell him the password is 'reno is an idiot who should leave this alone'? Just to see if he tries?"

Then, as he waits for a response, he slides the headset on so it's out of the way and very carefully messes with the controls, just testing them and waiting for any instruction he might need to be given.

If Rufus finds his toys, well, Reeve will shrug it off. As for the rest, it's not like Rufus hadn't had a chance to glean that all before. It was already dangerous, given Shinra no doubt had a lot of cameras to watch the employees. For now, he'll cross that bridge when it comes.

Mischief, well, Reeve approves of that. Cait is a bit about mischief.

"You are welcome to do that," Reeve chuckles. "Just don't leave it to him for long periods of time if he has any real skill at cracking. Now, hands on the joysticks. Here and here."

And when Rufus doesn't grip it just right, Reeve reaches out to guide his hands into proper positions.

"Alright, to stand we do this..." Reeve says, directing Rufus through a motion. Yes, he will do this with his hands on Rufus's if he has to. The point is to help him learn the basics sooner so he can take his time learning the rest.

The answer seems to please Rufus, at least, showing just how fond he is of picking on the red-head. After all, Reno gives the best responses, and is one of the few Turks that's not afraid to jest back. Reeve may have had many tricks played on him by Reno in the past, but Rufus was hardly part of any of that.

Such things were, with or without saying, off limits to him; an eye on the company, on building it up and making himself more useful, smarter, and as perfect as he could be was all that he had been doing since he was a child. Which meant Reeve had been right when he told Reno that tucking him away from the world was not the best thing when it came to Rufus understanding the outside world; it and ShinRa were completely different beasts.

Perhaps that fact, mixed with everything else over the last several years, was why Rufus enjoyed Reno's antics more than Reeve. Why sometimes, like now as he learned the controls to the cat, an almost childish side slipped out from behind his "perfect" mask.

Given what Cait is, how Cait acts, a childish side isn't bad. And when Reeve catches a look of some pleasure of working on this, well... he does smile softly at that. Who knew?

"Keep going," Reeve coaxes, and he likes this, showing Rufus how to do this. But, of course, the man is a bit better at it from the start than Reeve had anticipated. He does stay close, though, intending to help walk Rufus through it as needed. "He walks rather smoothly on his own, I've made sure his balance is good. If he's not doing anything, his arms will move smoothly to balance him as well. The tail does a lot of the work actually. If you feel you're ready, you can head toward the edge of the bed. He can detect falls and knows how to land on his feet like a real cat."

Rufus spent a long while playing with cameras and other things that sometimes required a stable hand and fine motions to get exactly what was needed. It doesn't mean he won't have issues with the unit, but the basics should be at least something he can handle.

He guides the unit over to the edge carefully, speaking as he does. "I imagine he has some other way down than relying on fall detection. Climbing or sliding like a kid, maybe?"

"Indeed, he can climb. Usually I have things set up so he can easily climb to where he needs to get. He also jumps pretty well. Not as well as a real cat, of course, but he makes to. The gloves have a nice micro-texture to them to improve grip," Reeve smiles at that bit. He was very proud of thinking of that one. It had been a problem for many years until he mentioned it in an offhand matter to a materials scientist at a conference and there you go.

Still, at this point he's almost watching Rufus more than he is the monitor. The joy this man is getting from Cait actually makes Reeve smile.

"Typically, though, Cait has a way that he acts. He's a child's friend. A toy in many eyes, no matter the intention behind him. The secret, of course, is that he's meant to fall. It's cute, it's silly. It's ridiculous. But he can climb, he can jump, and when the circumstances permit, slide."

Interesting. Slapstick robot cat. Reno would be having a field day with that. Rufus can't help but find it amusing himself, and he carefully moves Cait to see if he falls or does something else to get off the bed.

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I am learning enough about Drunk Reeve to know it's a bad idea here

lol Reno would just whine at being on bottom - then ask Reeve where Rufus sits I bet

Reeve would point out Rufus isn't a Turk

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I wonder how many peopel would shoot me for giving Rufus a childish side

Nah, Rufus made his ENTRANCE on a fucking helicopter and leaves the same way. Childish is true.

Sure that wasn't phallic?

No, his weapon is phallic. The chopper was childish and showy

At least he's reasonable... Sephiroth overdid it