Room 504, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino had whined at her dad until he'd sent her weapons catalogues, and getting a lengthy lecture on how she wasn't to take up anything that would have her neglect her other studies (ha, as if) and was sprawled out in her favourite jammies flipping idly through the magazines and pausing on a page that detailed some of the types of unbreakable wires they had.

Interesting, she admitted, making a note to go back and maybe get some more wire later, but really, she needed a weapon that was better for close range.

Humming idly along to Ikimono-gakari, she flipped the next page, and kicked her feet idly. It was totally a nice relaxing way to spend an evening. Dorky music and weapons—how better?

[Ooopen door and post, yes.]

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[intraspective]

She grinned at him, wriggling her fingers for him to come over and sit down or something.

So she could hug him. Shut up.

"Best sort of mission?" she laughed. "And for Gil. Gil is nice."

Gil meant she could buy shiny things!

[puppy_fair]

Zack was never going to turn down such an invitation! Such was the way of things! He ambled on over, plopping himself down on the edge of her bed and grinning.

"Gil is nice! And the great things about missions like this? Are that they're not going to really get snatched out from under my nose or anything! I mean, doing them is optional, more or less. If I don't do it, someone else will. But most members of SOLDIER are more interested in cleaning up the remnants of the Wutai War, and stuff like that. That's where all the prestige is."

But prestige wasn't nearly as much fun as killing monsters with cute girls. Zack won by default!

[intraspective]

And Ino was just going to wriggle over and attempt to snake her arms around him in a hug. Huuug. Best Zack ever!

"You don't care 'bout prestige?" Ino asked, resting her head against him and totally mussing up her hair but oh well. "Is there a lot to be done with the war still?"

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, I'm not too worried about prestige," Zack decided. Which was... kind of almost the truth, if you squinted. "The war is pretty much over. My raid on Tamblin saw to that. But there are still troops that have refused to fall back when their leader told them to. They don't want to roll over and give up all that easily."

That was understandable, Zack supposed. Even if it did complicate ShinRa's occupation of Wutai.

... Which he was currently not thinking about, because Ino was hugging him. Which meant that it was mandatory for him to kind of twist around so that he could half-hug her back!

[intraspective]

Hugs were awesome and snuggly and Ino was just going to totally enjoy the fact that this was truth.

"Don't worry 'bout prestige," she said, smiling at that. "You kill enough monsters 'round places and they'll notice you anyway, yeah?"

[puppy_fair]

"That's the plan!"

Yes. He'd thought about this. The actual plan consisted more or less of 'keep being awesome,' and went fuzzy from there. So killing monsters was actually a little more specific than what he'd had in mind.

"Anyhow, what matters so far as all of that? Is that I don't mess up now that Lazard is considering me for promotion. If I want people to sit up and notice, it'll be loads easier once I lose the purple."

[intraspective]

"I like the purple," she opined.

Because, well, Ino loved purple. It was a nice colour. Lots of her clothing was in it.

"But totally, for being a 1st, yeah? That's when you go to black?"

[puppy_fair]

"What's when I go to black," Zack agreed, nodding. "Some of the firsts even get to alter their uniforms, to something a little more them, you know? But I can't see me ever doing anything like that."

For one thing, he was terrible with a needle and thread.

"The uniform means too much as it is to go around cutting it and changing it around."

That too.

[intraspective]

"Totally makes sense to not change it then," she agreed, shifting so the hug was a bit more comfortable to maintain for a while. More like a lean, really. Shush. "Besides," Ino laughed, "the uniform'll look sharp if it's 'long the same lines of the purple."

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, sure it is! Really, it's a palette swap few different materials here and there, but in the end, it's practically the same uniform!"

It wasn't as perky as the purple. But Zack was okay with that. Maybe not looking as perky meant that people would take him more seriously at a glance?

And oh yes, he was totally leaning back.

[intraspective]

Leaning was awesome.

"Do you get paid more?" she asked, laughing. "Or is it all a reputation and badassery thing?"

[puppy_fair]

"There's a bit of a pay increase, I think," Zack replied, looking upward and thinking on that. "But mostly, it's a rank thing. As a 1st, I'd have access to things that I wouldn't, as a 2nd. And the missions are better! More challenging! Stuff like that!"

Aaaaand he'd get to boss new recruits around. Shiny fresh ones! That part was neat.

[intraspective]

"Restricted stuff?" Ino was curious. "Anything I can know 'bout or is it all a secret?"

If it was a secret, she totally understood.

"And better missions?" She pouted at him. "Does that mean they'd be too hard for me to come along on?"

[puppy_fair]

"Some... kinda might be," Zack admitted, frowning thoughtfully. "Things with monsters who have instant-death attacks, or ones that are practically impervious to physical and elemental damage."

And, of course, the stuff that involved going after other people. But that was a given.

"As for the restricted stuff... Well. It's restricted to the 1sts for a reason, you know? I'm just a 2nd." He gave her a little grin. "I wouldn't know it yet, either."

[intraspective]

"Oh sure," she laughed, "apply logic to it."

The given was a given for sure--Ino understood that, at least.

"Instant death?" she echoed, frowning slightly. "What 'bout you going up against them? And the super strong ones impervious to stuff?"

Clearly, to her mind, that meant she was just going to have to get stronger. Even if she'd never be as strong as Zack.

...That got a slightly sulky sigh as she rested her head against him.

[puppy_fair]

"Well, you can't really dodge a death spell," Zack replied, snuggling back against her as he noted the sulk. "But there are accessories that can protect against things like that. I just have to keep my eyes open for a Safety Bit, for that. And even the super strong ones, like some breeds of Dual Horn, have things that they're not quite protected against."

... Of course, Gil Toss could get very expensive. But the point was getting out alive, not getting out richer. Right?

[intraspective]

... Well, it really depended on why you were grinding; getting out richer might be the whole point.

Of course, getting out alive was probably supposed to be a higher priority. But.

Ino was still a bit sulky, despite the snuggling. "You’d better find one," she answered, fiddling with her hair. "As I don’t think three Phoenix Downs will get you far ‘gainst enemies like that—if they get you anywhere to start with against a spell that causes death."

It wasn’t like she knew, after all.

[puppy_fair]

"Oh, the phoenix downs would work," Zack assured her, and if she was going to fiddle with her hair... Well. He'd help. It was nice hair. And all... Right there and stuff.

And he'd always kinda wondered what having long hair would be like, but this was probably the closest he'd ever get to keeping it longer than he already did, he was fairly certain.

"Once. I'll definitely hunt down a Safety Bit before going out on missions like that, no worries."

He just had no idea where to start.

[intraspective]

Oh. Oh, that was nice. He could keep playing with her hair forever, really.

"Can you buy them?" she asked, relaxing against him. "We could go fight a whole lot to save up for them if that's the case."

Keeping Zack alive equalled a very good excuse to go and kill stuff.

[puppy_fair]

"I think you can," Zack mused, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully while his fingers twined through her hair some more. "In Rocket Town, or something like that. And that's probably not the only way to find one. I mean, there are chests out there, and stuff. You never know what you'll find!"

... Though, granted, if you were to guess "a potion," you'd be right at least half of the time.

[intraspective]

Ino really couldn't keep up a sulk for long when he was there, and playing with her hair, and nowhere near instant death spells that made her frown and scowl and worry.

She knew he could fight. But an instant death spell was... not something he could fight against. That wasn't fair. She didn't like it. (The fact that the world was not fair was being absolutely ignored.)

... Ino wondered idly if she could get Reno to find her a Safety Bit. If he would.

"Rocket Town," she voted. "To see the space ships and stuff that're in progress! That's where they are, right?"

[puppy_fair]

There was a very good chance that Reno would. If he didn't know that it was supposed to be for Zack. He was nice, that way.

"That's where they are," Zack agreed, grinning. "They look kind of neat, you know? Put a man into space, see what's out there... I mean, we know there's stuff out there. It's hard not to when you go to school here. But ShinRa doesn't know that."

[intraspective]

Ino could lie.

... She just needed to think up an excuse to need one for herself. Hmm.

"We know there's stuff out there here," she agreed, smiling up at him. "But it's different--seeing it going 'bout the process of happening for the first time. That's exciting."

Also, Ino could rattle off the information they'd had about the space program in the exhibit room off by heart. Ino had loooved that thing.

[puppy_fair]

It was all rocketshippy! That had been kinda neat!

... Zack's priorities were a smidgen different from Ino's on that matter, possibly.

"And there's always the whole different universes thing, right? So maybe what's out there past Gaia is completely different from anything that we've seen here in Fandom." He paused for a moment, and then he laughed. "If some ShinRa astronaut lands on Fandom Island sometime soon, claiming he's discovered another planet with intelligent life, I'm going to just laugh, I think."

A lot. Because he'd totally found it before they did.

[intraspective]

Quite possibly! But as long as they were both excited over it, it didn't really matter.

Ino laughed at that. "So you've claimed it in the name of ShinRa?"