A.N. – If you still remember Nighttime Sortie/Stoplight Events, and you didn't think that they were absolute rubbish… well, the universe kinda wanted to expand itself a little. And got plot bunnies. But while I could try to amuse you with that, it probably wouldn't work…
Anyways, context is trying to build the backstory up a little. And maybe get some sense of time in, or just some more antics of the group. Whichever happens to get written here. These will mostly be peripheral one-shots, or some mini-arcs set in the same 'verse, and I'll give you some rough context, so that it has a shot at making sense.
Now the bit in legalese, about all the characters not being originally mine (they're Square-Enix's and Disney's wherever it is due), sincere apologies about possible OoC-ness and the usual.
Hope you enjoy, and here we go!
Oh, and yeah… I'm probably not making individual chapters too long. Or anything too long. That's mostly stylistic (since I can't hold a long piece coherently, let alone interesting, if my life was on it)- but if you want to change that, just drop me a note or something. 'kay?
And, before I forget, this one is set way before either Stoplight or Nighttime. And is kinda tangential too- that small bit when I call Axel Reno. But I swear that once I get more stuff up it will begin to make some sense, I promise!
Isa didn't have to be quite so blunt about dissolving Reno back into the illusions. It would've allowed Lea- who was still a year-and-a-bit short of legal age, whatever that was at the moment- some leeway for getting into the 'good' gangs. Or at least a large one- he's heard that they even have dental. It hadn't stopped him from trying though, and the higher-ups probably wouldn't care, but still. Lea had gotten into one too many minor run-ins with the law already. And escapes were a hassle.
So Lea did the obvious thing. He dragged Isa- protests and all falling on nearly-deaf ears- all the way into the one cinema still showing the Shin-Ra movie. Why exactly, he had tried to debate- and not made too concrete a point of it, to Isa's displeasure. And, just to be accurate enough to annoy his new companion into compliance, Lea dragged the both of them all the way to the nearest ice-cream parlor (for sea-salt, and Isa earned some points for admitting it was the flavor), and then to the Dalmasca theatre. He still had a discount there, if he was correct-
"Lea- no, I'm not calling you Reno-"
"Come on Ashe, help a pal? And I at least look like him-"
"If I turn down the lights way down and let Penelo loose on you. But she made Vaan look like a genuine pirate, she could make you look like-"
"See? So you'd let Reno in to watch a movie-"
"Lea, you have failed to sweet-talk yourself into a cinema. When you're paying. We've been here for, what? Ten-"
"He's asking for a reduced fee and we don't-"
The girl behind the counter doesn't exactly quiet immediately at Isa's glare. She quiets after one of her companions calls out something to her and she calls back something surprisingly not obscene. And a string of muttering about them being clients.
"I am aware of the high piracy rates, but we're here and willing to pay for a pair of tickets, no additional commodities. I'll even offer this poor excuse for a stunt double for you to get increased clientele-"
"Isa, you're even less of a help!"
Lea doesn't shut up either, continuing his small tirade to the end and even having the nerve to punctuate it with a pout. And this would have annoyed Isa- to no end, and the neutral expression on his face be damned and written down as practice- had the girl behind the counter not leant a bit forward with a contemplative look.
"As you said, he does look passably like Reno- or would, if he had some aesthetic help. And since you're still playing the Shin-Ra movie…"
"Hmph. Could, but…"
She grins, and it's how neither of them expects girls to grin. They expect ruthless or lusty or insane- mischievous, if the movie is one for kids. But not the calculating smile that has so many promises of ridicule pinned to the corners and still manages to look weirdly appealing.
"Fran? What's your opinion?"
"Two for two tickets. And unpaid-"
"Hey! I helped out with your theatre when those guys-"
The glare from the other girl- Fran- does quiet Lea. And Isa, and makes Ashe look dangerous. Makes anyone working look like they will seriously consider shouting at Lea- but not in anger. It feels more like resentment, or like he's pulled a jinx. The sole guy working the other ticket till rolls his eyes, and mouths something to Fran- to Ashe.
"You made a beautiful deal of bargaining Lea. And Balthier dragged you in-"
"Out when about ten jumped me-"
"So you didn't make that up? Fancy that- I could've sworn... Still, you're getting two tickets. I think they'll do, Ashe."
Debacle with the tickets aside, Lea's still thrilled. It's not that he hasn't been to the cinema- hell, he's seen this movie legally already, when the thing with the Dalmasca had happened and they'd agreed to throw a party of sorts and premiere a movie just for the ragtag bunch of misfits and employees who'd retaken the theatre from the weird occultist mob. The guys with a weird insignia marking them everywhere, who claimed the building and left it surprisingly empty of everything, but mayorly unscathed.
Freaky as all hells. And that is exactly why Lea's thrilled that he's here with the frisbees shoved under his shirt instead of ready-to-use in the style of an old movie.
He's thrilled he's doing something so carefree and so numbingly regular. He should be in, what, finishing senior- he's not doing it, no way in hells- but he's in a cinema. With a friend, if he stretches the word enough, and it's like before, where he'd fight for fun and then fix up the bruises over a couple of old Mc Duck's sea-salt popsicles. And the movie has explosions and action and a couple hot girls or so- it's surely formulaic enough to teach, but Lea likes the damn thing.
Isa doesn't. Or not externally- he doesn't even let out with an admiring expletive when the spy chick in a suit makes her entrance guns akimbo, but he does roll his eyes quite too much when she offers a trip to… whatever. Sounds like a beach.
"You really not into this, right?"
"I much prefer the use of art or media to transmit something worthwhile or with any significance-"
"We're not studying. And if someone wants us to report on this, we just say, er... stuff gets blown up. Relax!"
"As if we were studying once we got out of here- we should be in HQ by now-"
"Look. Rule number one about Fight Club-"
"You do not speak about Fight Club. It is irrelevant."
"Then you haven't watched enough spy-and-action movies, my friend." The last is beginning to fit, if nothing else because of the casual banter, or because if he's seen Lea then Lea is going to keep him near at all costs.
"And you too many."
At this, he grins. It's pointless in the dark projection room- Lea can barely see the top of his sneakers, and he's propped them up on the headrest of the empty seat in front- but he's sure Isa saw it.
When he gets popcorn lobbed at him, Lea knows he was correct. And by the way Isa snorts- 'sheesh, so you can be less dignified'- he isn't too amused by the trick of catching it mid-air.
Then the whole thing turns back to the epic escape out from the lab of evil- some minor sarcasm from Isa who really doesn't think science is evil aside from being a pain to study (when they both did, once upon a time, or so they've agreed)- and Lea really isn't going to focus on their near buddy banter anymore. He's busy cheering on the guy and his unconscious best friend, and snarling incoherently at some girls that sound like they're slashing them together. Or are really enjoying the fact that one is catatonic. Or, as Isa points out after the second-and-a-half barrage of Lea's annoyed mumbling, just are attracted to the characters.
"Probably answered in kind when you went and wolf-whistled at the female spy with the guns and the circle-daggers."
"I had a point, she's a wonder-"
"And I'd be hard-pressed to say that any of the leads doesn't adhere to the modern standards of-"
Lea had begun to drift off, and was hauled off from la-la-land by a wasted handful of popcorn and another round of giggles and squeals.
"Since you can't handle anything deeper than stuff blowing up-" Lea half-squawks something, before being silenced by someone else- "just enjoy the movie. If you can focus on it, that is."
"I can multitask- I just choose to not do so. Heh, told you you'd like it."
Isa doesn't let his eyes stray from the screen as he answers- it's not because it was particularly interesting, he'll say later while Lea nearly chokes himself sniggering. It's not because he really did see why Lea insisted on swaggering inside the HQ as Reno of all non-people- although it possibly had ended up being accidental, just on appearance.
It's not because he's having fun, dammit, but if he's in a movie theatre for the first time in ages he's enjoying it.
"What gives you the impression I do?"
This time, he gets some popcorn lobbed at his face, along with a 'no fair!' after he does catch the little overly-sweet things in his first try.