intraspective | Wastelands Outside Edge, Gaia, Sunday Afternoon

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Wastelands Outside Edge, Gaia, Sunday Afternoon

So, Ino was pretty sure she was a bit daft because she thought that Edge was pretty awesome. Really, okay, so it was mostly awesome because it wasn't Fandom and wasn't home but there was a certain excitement to getting to explore a completely different world just for the sake of being there.

There was no mission to do, no reason for being there (besides the fact that she was… weak and that was on the list of things she Wasn't Thinking About Right Now, Thanks), she was totally a tourist. With violent tendencies and a certain level of gleefully horrified trauma at the sight of some of the monsters around here. What the hell.

Seriously awesome.

"The ruins were more interesting in an 'I will try and do my best to kill you' sort of way," she said, cheerfully making a face at him. They were in the wastelands where, well, it was pretty much how it sounded. Wasteland~y. Ino was awesome at describing stuff, shut up. "This view is totally going to be worth it, right?"

If it wasn't, Ino was totally just going to pout until they went and found monsters. That would utterly make it worth it anyway. She didn't have to think while killing monsters.

Not thinking was good.

[NFB due to distance. For the red-haired Turk!]

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"Aw, yeah," Reno replied, smirking as he rounded another large wall of stones. "You think I'd drag your ass all the way out here into the middle of nowhere if the view sucked?"

Actually, he probably would. He possibly had a slightly skewed notion of what comprised an awesome view, hailing from underneath the plates himself. "I ain't been there in a coupl'a years, but it should still be a damn good view of Midgar. It was the last time I was out this way, helpin' clean up after a little skirmish that happened out here, yo."

He had to hand it to Zack, the guy had picked a pretty scenic place to get put out of commission.

"Yes," she snarked, hopping a bit as she turned to look at him and stuck her tongue out at him. "You'd totally drag me out if it amused you, I know it."

Skirmishes were... skirmishes.

"You know," Ino added, "I can't imagine you as a wee boy."

Reno managed a bit of a snort, at that.

"Well, that came outta nowhere," he noted, sticking his tongue out right back. "I was the cutest little shit under the Sector Five plate, zoto. You must'a missed me when the school turned us all into little kids, huh?"

"Well," she shrugged, "not totally out of nowhere. I don't... think you're that much older than me, and then you're talking 'bout a few years ago and it snowballed that way."

A beat.

"And I was definitely cuter, and I seriously can't remember. I spent that weekend in a suger-excitement-running around high."

Reno laughed. Couldn't help it. Laughing was mandatory.

"Well, of course you were. The little girls are cuter by default. That don't even count." A beat. "An' I'm nineteen, now. I was sixteen last time I was here, yo. Wasn't all that little at the time, you know."

ShinRa hired 'em pretty young. So?

"Not that little," she agreed, seeing nothing wrong with that age. What? She'd graduated at twelve. Sixteen was practically ancient. "But seriously, you being super tiny is just odd. You're so--Reno."

"I think," Reno mused, "I'm gonna take that as a compliment. I ain't plannin' on repeatin' the age of five anytime soon, yoto."

He kicked at a stone, watched it skitter along ahead, and then frowned at the winding path ahead of them. It went on forever, damn it.

And then he glanced up. Rocks seemed solid enough, there. "How you feel about some rock climbin'?" It could be fuuuuuuun.

"Can I throw rocks at your head?" she asked brightly. Teasing. Mostly. It'd be funny to watch him dodge. "Let's go up then. Race you!"

She was going to cheat, though, and use chakra. Climbing without hands! Mwahaha.

Climbing without hands was totally cheating. But like that was going to slow Reno down? He was practically running up the side of the rock wall, after all, laughing as he went.

So sue him, he hadn't had the chance to just get out and dick around with friends from Fandom in a while.

"You throw rocks," he singsonged as he went, "I'm gonna take it as a challenge, yo!"

So, that meant, being Ino that she had to throw a rock at him.

And put on more speed as she continued to fling herself up the rock wall.

Best. Fun. Ever.

Reno grinned as he dodged the rock, right there on the side of the cliff, yes. And then he put on a burst of speed that was not even remotely natural to most members of mankind.

Fastest of the Turks and trained by Lady Ghanima. Oh, yeah, he could make people eat his dust but good.

"Meet you at the top, Rookie!" Where he would be, dropping rocks down on top of her, ssh.

Ino was pretty quick for a human, and able to use chakra to boost that speed, but no way could she match him in speed.

Seriously no way.

Not that this was going to stop her from trying though. Or shouting in outrage. MEAN. How dare he cheat?

Yes, she was too. Shut up.

Maybe... two rocks came tumbling down toward Ino once Reno reached the top. Oooh. Aaah. Clearly, Reno had gotten distracted by something shiny at the top. Or else he had really shitty aim.

One or the other.

"Your aim sucks!" Ino carolled up to him, avoiding them easily as she made it the rest of the way up and opened her mouth to continue berating him when she--

"Woah."

There were flowers. Little yellow flowers. Not many of them, no. They were pretty damn sparse, compared to the ones in the church back in Midgar.

But the fact remained, they were flowers, growing in the wastes.

"Plants."

Pardon Reno for not being terribly eloquent. He was kind of still standing in them, staring at them, working on getting his brain to reboot.

Ino knelt down to gently inspect them. She had to. Little plants in the middle of nowhere.

"Why are these here?" she wondered, looking out at area. "There's nothing else."

Understatement, Ino.

"I... dunno." Reno took a deep breath. Shook the cobwebs out of his head. Flowers. "They shouldn't be. No lifestream. Nothin' for 'em to live on."

Except the life of some upstart SOLDIER kid who was gone months and months before Midgar ever fell.

These were Zack's flowers?

Ridiculous.

She glanced sideways at him.

"Somehow they've managed though," Ino's hands were very gentle as she inspected the flowers. "They look pretty healthy too."

Don't even suggest it, Reno. You're going to Hell just for thinking it. Don't even suggest it.

...

"Think food would grow in this dirt, too?"

Yes, very good. Dig up the miracle flowers on some hero guy's grave to plant radishes.

A real hero would be all for it if it meant feeding starving people. Honestly. Not that Ino knew that this was a grave.

Ino blinked at him, then at the flowers. She silently considered that, inspecting the dirt. "I... think so," she said, "you'd have to check on them at first, just in case. It might be that these flowers have adapted."

Which made them important in a different way.

If Zack had been aware that Reno was second-guessing the notion at all, he'd have been appalled. Dig 'em up, Reno!

Reno eyed them for a moment more.

"Could be," he agreed. "More the plants than the dirt, huh? I got plenty of sprouts started, back in Edge. Wouldn't take much for me to bring one of 'em up here an' stick it in the dirt. See if it makes it..."

See? Not even digging everything up, yet! Just adding to the flower bed. Really, that was totally different.

"It might be the plants," she allowed, "but it might be the dirt too. That's probably a good idea, doing a test run."

Ino considered the area. Poked the dirt with one hand.

"I would like to know what caused this though." Hm.

There really wasn't any way to say, 'Oh, probably that annoying SOLDIER boy. He dated the Ancient who made magical earth-mother-flower-shit grow in a church with no sun.'

And so, instead, Reno shrugged.

"Trace elements of lifestream in the soil, maybe."

Trace elements of Zack in the soil, maybe.

"Maybe," she answered easily because that sounded utterly reasonable to her. "It's just--interesting. I wonder if, in growing things here, the area would spread?"

... Now, there was a thought, too.

"The Ancient who was growin' flowers in the church had a whole shitload of 'em planter around her house, too. I dunno if anyone else could grow the same things, yo. But... I mean, if flowers'll spread? They might fix the dirt somehow, too? I mean, lifestream ain't nitrogen and they ain't clover," yes, he'd been reading the books that she'd written for him, "but it might be worth a shot, tryin' to see if these things'll spread out, if I can get somethin' else to grow here, yo."

Ino chewed on her lower lip.

"The flowers would have to be transplanted to the edges of this area to really see," she said slowly. "Because I doubt the church has much room for expansion, right? So it always stays about the same. What happened to the flowers she was growing? Were they killed when Midgar went?"

Reno shrugged.

"The ones in the church are as good as they ever were. I dunno about the ones around her house. I think most of that area was trashed in Meteorfall, yeah."

Momentary grumpyface.

"You think we can figure out a good place to try an' plant one of these that ain't right here, then?"

"Two of them," she said firmly, "one in one of the planters you've got back at your place, and one..."

Hm.

"Can you think of another spot that's got 'bout the same conditions as this one? Minus the other flowers, of course?"

Reno considered that for a second, and then shrugged and pointed at the husk of Midgar, with the teeny settlement of Edge poking up around one side of it.

"Anywhere between here an' there, yo."

Ino resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Okay," she said, "a spot where there's not going to be much traffic, whether it be monster or civilian."

Or Turk for that matter.

"These ones don't seem much affected or bothered by monsters, but that might be something 'bout the ground."

"Maybe," Reno agreed, looking down at them again before finally kneeling over and prodding at one bloom experimentally with a finger. "Monsters don't seem to interested in this kinda thing, though. There ain't no meat on 'em."

He leaned over to peer off the edge of the cliff they were sitting on. "Maybe down there an' along the wall a ways, then. It'd get the cover of the rocks that way, yo."

"Wouldn't want to put these still anywhere near where monsters like to come 'round. If they uprooted them by accident or something that would suck."

Ino followed his gaze. "And wouldn't be immediately noticeable to anyone walking 'round this way," she noted approvingly.

"Anything we should be gettin' before we go diggin' one of these things up, do you think?"

A spade? Water? Something?

"A spade," she said, echoing the narrative all unknowingly. "Some water--two of your seedlings? We can put them where the ones were taking out are."

Oh, she was good.

"Well, I guess we're headin' back to Edge, then," Reno mused, taking a moment to dust the sand from his knees as he looked down at the flowers.

Flowers.

She gently patted one flower then stood.

"Come on," Ino said lightly. "They'll be here when we get back."

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Wastelands Outside Edge, Gaia, Sunday Afternoon

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