Room 504, Monday Morning

[intraspective]

A headache brought on by uncomfortable sleep—not nightmares, thank you very much, she didn’t have nightmares—meant that Ino was going to spend the morning with music on (cheerful bubbly pop), singing along while wondering idly if she ought to give Edward a call (it would be a distraction, he would terrify her in ways that had nothing to do with children’s eyes) and giving her plants an inspection that probably went a good bit beyond meticulous.

Reno would probably tell her that she ought to get her ass out of her room. She’d get there.

No, no studying this morning. Ino was pretty sure that it’d only make it harder to sleep when she crashed out later. After all—what was worse, dreams about what she’d done when the body she’d been in hadn’t known what was going on?

Or dreams where Kinjo still had thought, but just as little control, and she could imagine Kinjo's consciousness fluttering, struggling against her will like a broken butterfly? To Ino, it was no contest. Seriously no contest.

Forcing her mind away from that she sang along to the radio. Music. Plants. She could do this.

[Open door, open post.]

Comments

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela's measured footsteps proceeded her down the hallway. They weren't loud, and could easily be drowned out by the music.

She paused in the doorway then knocked on the frame. "Heya, Ino."

[intraspective]

The music wasn't super loud, but it had more been a sense of presence than footsteps that had pinged on her radar.

"Hey Triela," Ino said, glancing over her shoulder. "What's up?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Not too much." She grinned a bit. "I got a letter today," she sing-songed.

[intraspective]

"Oh?" Ino set her geraniums aside and twisted around to look. "You going to talk 'bout it?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I'm headed back to Rome in the morning." Triela looked quite pleased. "They've got a mission for me."

[intraspective]

Missions were not what she really wanted to think about right now, but--

"It's been a while, yeah?" she said, getting to her feet and wandering over to her bed. "Come on in. You're excited for it?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." Triela scowled. "I've been on the sidelines since the thing with Pinocchio." She stepped into the room and looked for somewhere to sit.

[intraspective]

There was a floor (hopefully, anyway, otherwise owww), her bed, and a desk chair. The other half of the room was, uh, pretty well swallowed up with Ino's plants.

Really, what were they thinking letting her have so many plants?

"Probably wanted to check if you were still able to do active duty," she replied neutrally. "After dealing with an issue, it's the smart thing to do. Wanted to have you recover if you were going to."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine," Triela half-scowled as she made her way over to the desk chair. "Though I suppose the extra training could be useful if I run into Pinocchio again."

[intraspective]

"Or if your mission is hard in another way," she prodded, keeping her tone light and conversational. "Not everyone is ever going to be bowled over by your prowess."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"It looks like they're calling in four fratellos for this one." Triela grinned in amusement. "No way whatever we run into is ready for that kind of firepower."

[intraspective]

"Sounds like fun," she said, almost honestly. "A real boom-town sort of operation."

Boom-town, Ino?

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Boom-town?" Triela asked in amusement. "But, yeah. They're even bringing in Angelica from what I hear..."

[intraspective]

"You know what I mean," she said, waving one hand dismissively.

A pause.

"...Angelica?"

Give her a minute. She was wracking her mental files for that name.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"She was the first girl the Agency picked up. She's the reason we know about so many of the... drawbacks of the Conditioning."

[intraspective]

"Oooooh."

Maybe she wasn't supposed to sound that interested in the side-effects part but she was anyway. What? It was interesting.

"She's still cleared for missions?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes. Apparently she's rated mission-ready at the moment. And Marco's been convinced to give his okay, too."

[intraspective]

"Marco's her handler, right?" Ino said, contemplating that. "Must be a bit complicated with that."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela looked sad for a moment. "He doesn't deal with it very well." None of the girls liked being reminded of what was waiting for them, but it was especially rough for him, watching the girl he'd basically raised forget all about him.

[intraspective]

"Well then," Ino said, leaning back and idly kicking one ankle. "I guess he's just--got to, yeah?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Triela nodded. "We all do what we have to."

[intraspective]

Ino tossed that over in her head and gave a shrug.

"Absolutely," she said airily. "What we do, right? Do the job, whatever it is."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Exactly."

[intraspective]

"You ever have any trouble with that?" Ino asked idly.

Or not so idly.

Whatever. She could totally pretend it was random curiosity.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela paused to consider that. Then she shook her head. "That's one of the things the Conditioning is for. No regrets. No hesitation."