Room 504, Monday Evening

[intraspective]

Paperwork was not Ino's very bestest friend ever, no.

Especially when she probably didn't know enough about the subject to fill in all the blanks. This was not stopping her from going through the pile and filling in anything she did know, mind, but it did mean she was gathering a list of questions that Ino was pretty sure the village only wanted so they could totally be insanely nosey.

Did it really matter if he had siblings, after all?

Ino was pretty sure he didn't, anyway, but that wasn't the point.

Once you'd ascertained that, oh hey, no they were not a threat to Konoha and yes were willing to swear on this, Ino was of the opinion that the rest of it was garbage.

This did not stop her from doing it, of course, but it did mean she was muttering to herself about utter idiots who needed a book written for a visitor as she steadily worked her way down the questions. Music was on, the door was half open and Ino was working on her bed.

[Open door, open post!

ETA: The phone call with Reno is chronologically last, plz. The content of the call is NFB!]

Comments

[raspberryturk]

"You want me to make some shit up, Ino, I can. Digital Muffin Wanker. I don't know, here."

... It would be very, very scary if Zack had a 'Digital Muffin Wanker' in his brain.

"Thing you gotta wonder ain't so much about the resolve of the guys that Genesis turned over, Rookie," and now Reno was really getting a feel for how close Ino had gotten to Zack, considering just what she knew, here, "it's how nasty Genesis had to be in order to take that many of 'em, and break 'em all."

[intraspective]

...yes, yes it would be.

She bit her lip, hard, for a moment then asked in a soft voice, "What if they ain't broken, really?"

[raspberryturk]

That made Reno frown a bit more, yes.

"The Sephiroth clones were," he attempted. "The Ravens weren't, though. They were trapped somewhere in their own heads, so far as I can tell. I'm just figurin' that since Genesis an' Sephiroth were so damn similar in some ways, it was probably the same story, there. Not trapped, so much as just not all there no more."

[intraspective]

You got anyone on that crazy planet of yours who can check for sure?

Ino ignored that thought.

"Genesis ones ain't that strong physically," she answered. "What 'bout the Sephiroth ones?"

[raspberryturk]

"Hard to say," Reno admitted. "For the most part, Sephiroth himself killed 'em off. They were sick, I think. Mako poisoning or worse."

He was not going to volunteer the fact that there was an exception to that, and that exception was the guy who thought he was Zack, no.

[intraspective]

"They going to be a while in coming?" she asked quickly. "Or soon? Ish?"

[raspberryturk]

"The Sephiroth clones?"

Zack would only ever meet one. And he'd drag the poor guy all over the planet, too. He'd never really understand what he was doing in the long run, would he?

"Zack'll never have to worry about 'em," Reno replied. "They're years down the road, yo. An' someone else deals with all that, like I been sayin'."

Thank you, Cloud, for being a convenient scapegoat so that Reno could tell little half-truths again.

[intraspective]

The wording of that made her frown. She filed it away for more thought.

Good enough, for now, to know that Zack wasn't going to fight them.

"Yes," she said sourly, "the guy who needs to believe he's Zack. Right."

[raspberryturk]

"Right," Reno agreed, and if there was anything in her tone that bothered him, he sure as heck wasn't letting it show in his own. It was back to that same constant, lazy drawl that he always used, interspersed with occasional pauses to take another puff from his cigarette. "I don't think there's even a way to explain all that so that it makes sense. Just, that's the way it's gotta be, because that guy's the only one who can take on Sephiroth an' make it stick."

Well. Mostly stick. It kinda un-stuck last year, and that had sucked, but then Cloud made it stick again. Thank you, Cloud.

Jerk.

[intraspective]

Ino's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, had been for quite some time, actually.

"Reno?" That was lilting, deliberately toying with the word. "Thanks."

And then she hung up on him.

[raspberryturk]

Reno raised an eyebrow and looked at his phone, frowning deeply and then giving his cigarette one last deep puff before throwing it to the ground.

There were monsters to kill.

There was a city to try to put together.

He'd worry about this conversation later. And maybe send Ino cranky text messages back, then, too.