#b ackstory revamp!

[reno2ndgun]

Rewritten Character History

i rewrote Reno’s character history entirely. It now includes Rude from a young age instead of Ruluf and alas, the origin story with Fifi and Andrea Rhodea is no more.

the usual warnings apply. child abuse and gang violence.

Rookie Reno would be any time before the game “Before Crisis”, so 15-20 range

Before Crisis: 22 and already 3'rd ranking Turk after Tseng and Veld

Crisis Core: 26

Final Fantasy 7 Remake : 28

Advent Children: 30

His early childhood was dogshit. His parents were always violently fighting until his father left when he was five and his mother turned her anger towards him instead. His mother got hooked on drugs and When Reno refused to go visit her drug dealer anymore to pick them up for her, he was thrown out at 9 years old.  (he wanted her to quit and get better. He had been trying to be supportive.)

Reno was far too reclusive at that age to open up to people or he likely would have just been adopted. He blamed himself for a long time and had thought about going to the orphanage but decided against it. At the time he wasn’t wise enough to know that everything that had happened up to that point wasn’t his fault and felt that if his mom and dad didn’t want him no one else would either. So to earn money to eat, he went to his mother’s drug dealer and asked for a job. He was shown how to use a gun and lo and behold the start of his Drug cartel career!

Naturally, no one is the nice sort and Reno becomes easily agitated by touch and avoids people as much as he can. He doesn’t trust people to be nice unless they want something from him and he’s thrown full tilt into the world of gang violence.

Reno meets Veld on accident when he’s 10 and shoots the man twice, mistaking him for someone trying to steal the drugs he was carrying somewhere because Veld had been following him through two whole sectors. Truth be told Veld had seen Reno outrun three guard hounds without the aid of materia and had been impressed at Reno’s ability to think fast on his feet. There was no way a 10-year-old was fast enough to outrun guard hounds, but Reno’s wit alone had saved him. Lo and behold the start of a change in Reno’s future.

You make a Turk bleed, you’re either an enemy or a new Turk. For the Next five years, the Turks pursued Reno as a candidate for recruitment by slowly eliminating those higher in the pecking order of the Red Tail Cartels. This hadn’t been their first plan to get him. Eliminating the Cartel one by one to put pressure on Reno and stress him into making a mistake was plan B, it also fell in line with the mission to hunt down someone within the Red Tail Cartel who was embezzling money from ShinRa.

Plan A failed simply because Reno had proven too clever to catch and just pluck up off the streets. They tried for MONTHS and every time Reno would get away by the skin of his teeth using nothing but his wits, even with three Turks on his ass and traps laid out. At one point he stole Tseng’s AND Veld’s Lightning materia right off of them in a blatant mockery. The senior Turks had taken to calling him “Cactuar kid” at work.

At 12 years old, he meets Leslie and Rude. His first friends. Both of them are messenger boys for Don Corneo and they get a Hold of Reno to tell him the Don wants a cut out of the business or the Red Tails have to leave Wall Market. Reno convinced the Cartel boss it’s good money to stay in Wall Market because everyone comes for pleasure and there’s always lots of foot traffic. The Cartel boss agrees and sends Reno back with a message for Corneo of the agreement to share some of the revenue. As a token of friendship, Reno gives Rude a lightning materia and Leslie receives a Fire materia.

The three are fast friends and become close. Rude and Reno hang out the most and start doing drug runs together. The two of them become Notorious for their inventive use of lightning materia and become known as “the Dual Shocks” among many of the Cartel’s running in the slums.

By the time Reno is 13 he runs the Red Tail Cartel, and Rude is his right hand. The Turks had either arrested or gunned down everyone above Reno by then and the boys were making good enough money to hold some real sway within Wall Market back streets. Corneo, being greedy and wanting no competition, arranged for them both to be killed later in the year. Rude was promoted to bodyguard so Corneo could keep a closer eye on him, as well as use Rude’s reputation as one of the deadly Dual Shocks to extort his way into lucrative business deals until the time was right to off him.

Nearing the end of the year, Don Corneo hired seven people from another street gang to find and kill Reno and Rude.The lads were in major trouble from staying out a bit too late on a delivery run.  They had taken a detour to deliver some stolen medicine to Leslie. Reno and Rude were in rival cartel territory and the hired thugs had recognized them and cornered the boys knowing they ran the Red Tail Cartel. They separated the two of them and beat Reno to hell and Reno fought back until his knuckles were bloody. It took two adults tackling him to actually take Reno down and even then He didn’t stop fighting and lashing out. Neither had Rude, even with broken ribs and a fractured arm he refused to go down even against 3 men twice his size.

((Note: Barker is an OC Veteran Turk and close friend to Veld who has been with the Turks Since Veld founded them. Bear of a man, salt and pepper beard and hair, long ponytail and a bright smile. He’s a mixed martial artist and uses fighting gloves augmented with materia.))

It was Barker, working undercover on a long term assignment that found the boys and rescued them. He took the both of them in and mended them. Back at his undercover job working the Blues bar “Folk Blues”, both of the boys learned to refine their fighting skills, bar tend, as well as play an instrument. Reno took up Piano, and Rude chose Saxophone.

When Reno was about 14, Rude had saved up enough gil and gained enough influence that he could ditch Corneo without immediate backlash. This enraged Corneo who knew that if the boys were allowed to continue the way they were he’d be deposed as the highest influence in Wall Market. Rude had gotten Sick of Don Corneo’s ways and life as Corneo’s Bodyguard no longer appealed to him despite the money it put in his pocket. Rude also took up Shelter under Barker's roof to Avoid Corneo.  

Right around this time, Trouble struck for the "Folk Blues" and Don Corneo threatened to burn the place to the ground if Barker didn’t hand over Rude and Reno. Reno was willing to take on Corneo alone out of loyalty to Rude, but Barker talked Reno out of that idea as it potentially brought harm to the bars other employees.  The Folk Blues Bar didn’t quite have enough influence to hold off Corneo at the time and was in quite the bind as the owner wasn’t willing to give up Rude so easily either but also saw no way out of the mess Corneo had started. Veld caught wind of this through Barker and moved fast to take advantage of the situation and recruit the boys.

 Considering how sly and resourceful Reno had proven to be over the years in evading capture, and Rude had proven himself just as skilled and resilient, Veld asked Barker to set up a meeting. He planned to offer Reno and Rude a job with the Turks and Thus a way out from under Corneo’s thumb as well as keep the Folk Blues Bar safe. Veld gave Reno Gil to give up the names of the rest of his cartel along with the job offer and offered the same amount to Rude to give The ShinRa Company all the names of Corneo’s spies.  Reno took the cash and the job at 15 years old and Rude joined the same day at 16 years old.  Most of the money Reno left with the owner of the Folk Blues Bar as repayment for helping him out.  He’s been a Turk ever since.

Rude took the money and opened a bar on the Upper plate. The rest he gave to Leslie.  It’s become a popular watering hole for the Turks. The bar was named “Dual Shock” as a nod to the bond He and Reno had formed on the streets and their notoriety for using lightning materia. Reno and Rude have been roughing it up as Turks ever since. Barker put his name down for the property of the Dual Shock Bar, but he let the boys run it.