Clockin' Out (open)

[splink]

These days, Rude didn't get much time to himself-- and not just himself and Reno included, no. Just himself for once. Not that bad, really, once you get right down to it; a little overtime never hurt anyone. Gods knew how many extra hours he'd clocked in even when Veld was in charge. He'd been new back then... Regardless, the dusk air in Healin was fairly cool, with a slight breeze kicking up. Probably all the waterfalls, the water cooling it all off. Who knew? The grass was tall, the place was healthy, and pretty quiet actually. And the bald Turk found himself leaning on the railing of the walk outside. One arm against the metal, the other holding up one of the few cigarettes that Rude allowed himself-- kicking the habit wasn't as easy when you were normal, and even harder when you were a Turk.

The suit came with a price, and maybe there were better ways to kill yourself than with cigarettes, but damn it, Rude needed it right now.

Now the problem with this was that he'd gotten to thinking. Turks thought, they we smart, well-paid in order to be smart, and that was the bottom line. But lately? All his thoughts were going in the wrong direction.

Rufus was down with the Stigma. Stigma only came to the severely mako-touched. From what Rude knew, Rufus wasn't quite like that. So what the hell? Secondly, the whole 'gonna change Shinra's ways' bit. The world wasn't fine the way that it was, but it wasn't exactly that that bothered Rude. It was the whole "changing ways". Make things better by riding what the company had been before meant reworking everything. And what did Rufus have?

The Turks.

Who were as bad as they come. Not through any real fault, it's just the way things were, or maybe the way he'd looked at things. Sort of. Sometimes, Rude wasn't really sure what he was thinking so much as that it drew down to one thing: What about the Turks? When all was said and done, what about who was left? Funny, how that thought always just seemed to come to his mind. Not in a bad way. Hell, Rufus needed them more than they needed him. Anyone could work with the Turks. Granted, if they had the pockets deep enough. It was just sort of a serious thing, maybe, but it was just sort of a concern right now, especially with everything going on... Eh. Whatever. Wasn't part of the job, Tseng could deal with it, considering he was the Boss (and as much as he followed Rufus, Rude followed Tseng closer-- the Code and all that jazz, honestly).

So Rude just stood there, taking his break for what it was worth, leaning his large from enough to be on alert and look relaxed, with a long drag from his smoke and letting it out through his nose slowly. Huh. Funny... never noticed how the waterfalls looked this late in the evening...

((Note: Yeah. I used "Veld". That Katakana for "Verdot" generally sounds, from it's original canotations, as "Veld", considering how phonetic Japanese is. There aren't any Ls in that language, and Katakana is often mistranslated as it is. Or Vs for that matter.))

[darkfiredragon]

Erika had decided to take a break too.She walked out side and took off her helmet carrying it under her arm. "hello sir"Erika said as she noticed the turk standing there. She then sat down and watched the waterfalls.

Erika smiled at the sight"amazing are'nt they sir?"she asked Rude. she then looked at him properly and was shocked."your a turk! i thought avalanche killed all high ranks apart from the president"she said momenterily forgetting her place

[splink]

The "Hello, sir", for the most part, went, as per usual, rather to the wayside, to be picked up at a later date. A polite tone, though the 'sir' seemed a bit much. Rude never really liked that term, anyways.

But rank was rank.

It was the outburst that caught the Turk's attention.

Alright. So scratch that out-- not just the Turks. There was the occasional SOLDIER every now and then, though neither factions really saw much of each other. Not really. The most of any SOLDIER Rude had ever really had the privilege of seeing was, for the most part, Sephiroth and one Zack Fair. Maybe Genesis or Angeal if he was lucky (and not that he'd consider himself as such, when it came to SOLDIER anyways). And he looked at her, finally, just the turn of his head and a brow quirked slightly over the rim of his sunglasses.

Not that Rude had any real want to know her name, whoever she was, but the uniform was interesting at least. Not too many female SOLDIERs. Ever. They tended not to last, and there was always a level of absolute respect given to them, the ones that made it through the program. Mako and training wasn't exactly easy to survive, and anyone brave enough for that... well... kudos to them. And Rude took his time, not really sure what to say or do outside of the sense that he was on break and there stood something of a co-worker.

Having been on the last dregs of his cigarette, the Turk ground it under his shoe, one hand, bare, still on the railing, and ended up turning away, finding it a little odd to look the woman directly in the eye. Not that the blonde wasn't unsightly. Just un-used to it, really.

And shrugged one of his broad shoulders as response. It often lead to Reno, Reno being Reno of course, calling him "cool" when he wasn't up much for talking and tended to give non-answer answers, but it at least got the point across. Yeah, AVALANCHE and the Turks went way back, casualties on both sides, but as far as that went... well... so far, Tseng, Reno and himself were all that was left of the true ranks. Gods, they needed replenishing...

"Hm." Rude grunted non-commitally.

[darkfiredragon]

Erika heard Rude grunt and looked surprised for a second. She then shook her head and reched into her pocket. She pulled out a packet of cigarettes"need another?"she asked looking disgusted at the things.

She sighed as she realised rude was'nt going to say anything.damn turk she thought,while glaring at rude unintentionally just because he has a higher rank than me,he probably thinks im dirt or something.Erika couldnt think of anything that would make him say anything

[splink]

((Ah... Yup. Tends to make responding to Rude's posts hard... woops.))

Another brief cursory glance at Erika... Funny... she was a smoker too, huh? Not with that look on her face... But... well... hm... He wasn't out exactly. Had two more... but it was hard to get out of this place and buy cigarettes these days. Took forever and a lot of bribing to get Reno to do it, considering how often he tended to be off on scouting missions or whatever it was that Rufus had him up to; Rude wasn't always briefed and wasn't always his business to know.

Regardless of being the resident Reno Finder™.

His large hand took the pack from her, nodding his thanks, despite the glare. He was used to that sort of thing. But of course the Turk never said much. Trying to get Rude to talk was like trying to tell a brick wall that it was sticks-- didn't always work that way. Just turned he pack, thwaking it against the base of his palm before opening it and plucking one out part of the way, offering it towards the SOLDIER. Nothing against SOLDIERs. Turks were just paid more than them; was why they never really got along, the misunderstandings between the factions. Not that it mattered.

Just seemed polite to offer, seeing as she was making an odd face. Funny... looked like an angry face. What was she so upset for? Hell if Rude knew...

[darkfiredragon]

"oh no thanks sir"Erika said still feeling slighly annoyed partly because of the day she has been having"i dont actually smoke ,but everyone else does so i carry a pack for when someone wants one"

"being a turk must be tough. Lots of paperwork i expect"Erika said trying to get Rude to talk.She looked at him to see if he was going to say something.however she was'nt going to hold her breath. Erika only met him a few minutes ago but she got the sence thet he either cant talk or just wont unless he is with another turk

[splink]

No? Huh... alright. Well, that was a first. Save the exception of Tseng, maybe, Rude had never exactly known anyone who didn't smoke. Was a bit of an odd thing... But, hey, that was just life for you. So Rude just pulled the pack back, debated another smoke, and shrugged mostly to himself as he closed it and pocketed the pack on the inside breast of his dark blazer.

Tough...

She didn't know the meaning of the word.

But, then again, Rude wasn't sure if it was difficult being a Turk, either. Paperwork was a pain, sure. Part of the job. But was it really all that bad? Hm. Paid hitman verses pencil-pusher. Hard to decide which aspect was the worst part. The boredom that happened, or the missions. Considering Turks did work that not even SOLDIER would touch when paid a hundred gil and given a ten-foot pole. Could be worse though. Could've all been Hojo's test subjects. Now that was probably the worst.

Rude eyed Erika again, face still rather neutral, save for the slight press of his lips to indicate a slight frown. "...'Supose," came the mutter. Funny thing-- everyone got the impression he was a mute. Rude almost wished it were true. Was kind of getting a little uncomfortable and was debating cutting the last ten minutes he had left of break.

[darkfiredragon]

Erika heard rude reply with a noncommital"suppose". She looked at him wondering why he seemed nervous. Feeling that things might get bad she decided to give the turk some space and moved to a spot 10 meters away.

She sighed looking out at the water"damn turk"she mumbled to herself"thinks he's so good that a SOLDIER is'nt worth talking to. i should learn to control that,it makes me look undisiplied.but i hate when people dont talk Erika thought to herself in an attempt to calm herself before she got annoyed

[splink]

...Oooookay... That was... huh. Sure.

Now, usually, this sort of thing didn't bother Rude; people goaded, he ignored, they goaded more, he broke in their kneecaps, and then they cut it out. Although he and Reno didn't follow the same philosophy, there was still the general idea that it was always a good idea to speak to the redhead before going off and irritating Baldy-locks in the corner other there...

Shiva, Rude needed a drink, if only just to kill the headache he was having.

Well, if Erika wanted space, she could have it.

Rude went for a second cigarette, deciding that the lack of nicotine was what was making him so irritable, going back to watching the sun die out.

[darkfiredragon]

Erika looked at her watch and saw that her shift was over. She decided to give Rude one more oppertunity to reform her thoughts about the turks."im going for a drink wanna come sir?"She asked wondering if he would bother or not. She then went back inside and waited by her motorcycle

[splink]

Was this chick a mind-reader or something? Geez.

Ah, but that was... See, now Rude never really thought much of SOLDIER. Not until Cessnei had jabbered about Zack for a while; then again, Cessnei wasn't really around anymore; but it'd changed a lot of things. Shinra was still scrabbling for bearings, the stigma was causing a riot of problem, and... hell, there hadn't been any survivors yet, really...

Funny, the things you get to thinking about when you get migraines.

Hm. Well... It was a bit of an oddity. SOLDIERs didn't extend niceties to the Turks and the Turks just weren't much of ones for going about mingling with others... but... The invite was nice enough. Rude thought on it for a moment, watching Erika out of the corner or his eye. If she wanted a reform of the idea of the Turks, he wasn't exactly the best one to go about getting the idea, and maybe... nah.

Rude could use the space. Hmph. And secretly blamed Reno's influence for even entertaining the thought.

Running a bare hand over his scalp, the Turk shrugged to himself and followed, shoving his sunglasses back up the bridge of his now. Were SOLDIER and the Turks that different? Probably not. Maybe... hm...

"Any place in mind?" the Turk muttered flatly. Healin didn't exactly have one of the usual bars he once frequented, much less anywhere close. His shift still had a ten more minutes, though mostly just break comprising it, but maybe a little bit of slacking wasn't so bad. Two birds with one stone; both killing his headache and getting a breather. Might as well as clock out a bit early.

[darkfiredragon]

"ive been hearing good things about a place called 7th heaven. run by a member of avalanche i think"Erika said while climbing onto her bike planning to go even if her turned her offer down. She revved it before seeing if rude was going to follow or if he knew any better places . She put her helmet on and waited for his answer