Room 504, Sunday Late Evening

[intraspective]

She'd spent the afternoon in the fourth floor common room, spending her time keeping other people calm and gaining a potential Rookie of her very own. Ino was humming as she flung her window wide open and dug through her notebooks to pick and choose what she'd be able to actually teach Chloe.

After all, Ino wasn't going to try teaching her anything to do with chakra until she'd gotten a better idea of where Chloe's strengths and weaknesses lay.

Ino paused long enough in her reviewing to send a few texts out assuring people that things were back to normal on Fandom before going back to her information hunting.

And humming. Ino was doing a lot of humming. It was a good night.

[Door and post are open, yes!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Zack was full of cheeseburger and victory when he came thumping up the stairs to Ino's room, grinning like an idiot.

"We DID it!"

Yes, this was totally a 'hello.'

[intraspective]

She laughed, having heard him coming.

"I guessed! How did it happen? Are you hurt at all?"

Ino guessed not, from the way he was grinning like, well, a dorkface (not, it should be noted, a Dorky Face) but still. She had to ask and bounce up to inspect him.

... Okay. Maybe hug him. Shut up. That totally counted as inspecting.

[puppy_fair]

"It was a..." Zack wrinkled his nose a little, trying to remember what Momoko had called it. Not a beachplug... "A giant squiggle!"

Actually, Zack, Bobby had called it Squiggles. That wasn't the same.

"That came up out of the water and dragged the big dragon thing under after we totally weakened it a whole bunch to make it easy for it."

There was hugging afoot, which suited Zack juuuuust fine. "And I'm okay!"

[intraspective]

...

... Ino made a note to listen to radio for sure. Because Zack's rendition of it all was... well. Uh.

She grinned up at him. "So you proved to the dragon thing that you weren't to be messed with?"

[puppy_fair]

"Well, of course!" Zack grinned right back. "A dragon's a dragon, you know?"

This one was just massive and nearly indestructible.

[intraspective]

"I don't know," she laughed, shoving lightly at him and dancing out of his reach. "I ain't never fought a dragon!"

[puppy_fair]

"Maybe someday," Zack decided, and now he was totally dancing along after her. "It isn't like there's any shortage of them, back home!"

[intraspective]

Ino flopped down on her bed and smiled up at him.

"Yeah? Where've you been hiding them, then? We ain't seen any in Midgar but Midgar can't have anywhere near all the monsters."

For one, he'd be a lot busier.

[puppy_fair]

"They're all over," Zack replied, matter-of-factly. "You'll totally get to see me summon Bahamut someday. And there are places where they just wander around in the countryside, and stuff!"

... But no, not so much, in Midgar.

[intraspective]

"Sit," she insisted, "unless you're desperate to stand and loom over me! Is Bahamut like Ifrit?"

Scary fire dude who needed pants, geez.

[puppy_fair]

"Kiiiinda," Zack replied, tilting his head thoughtfully to one side. "I mean, he's a summon too, you know? And crazy powerful? But that's about the end of it. Bahamut is a dragon, and Ifrit is... not."

Scary fire dude who needed pants, yep.

[intraspective]

She grinned. "But he's still another god in your pocket."

That was never going to stop being amusing to her.

"Do you have any others?" Look, if the slot machine in his head was going to randomly use them on poor Fly Eyes and the like then she wanted to know beforehand.

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave his head a small shake at that, grinning sheepishly.

"Nah, not yet. I might find more out there, someday, but for the time being, just Ifrit and Bahamut." He rocked on his heels, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Do you want me to maybe warn you, if I ever find any more?"

He was remembering the look she gave him when he'd busted out Ifrit that one time, yes.

[intraspective]

That poor monster totally hadn't deserved Ifrit's fury!

"Warn me?" Ino wrinkled her nose. "That makes it sound like I'm scared of them."

Which she would be if they were ever aimed in her direction, oh yes. But that absolutely wasn't the point right now.

"Can't you just brag that you got another shiny summon materia?"

... Which, yes, did accomplish the same thing. Shut up.

[puppy_fair]

Zack's hands went to his hips and he laughed. He couldn't help it, it was pretty much a requirement after a statement at that.

"You mean you actually want me to brag at you?"

[intraspective]

Ino lightly kicked out at him, sticking her tongue out as she did so.

"Why not?" Ino said, raising her eyebrows. "If you brag too much I'll just have to think of some way to shut you up."

[puppy_fair]

Oh-ho-ho! She was going to stick her tongue out at him? Reeeeally?

This meant, of course, that Zack was going to have to kinda tackle her in an attempt to pick her up and scoop her over his shoulder, she must have realized, right?

"And how were you planning on doing that?"

[intraspective]

"Hey!" she yelped, giggling, as she found herself over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

Ino tried to make that sound threatening. It was hard when she kept giggling as she contemplated the fact that, really, it was totally unfair that he didn't even have to put effort into picking her up.

She was just going to poke his back a whole lot. Tickling was out thanks to his uniform. "I'd think of a way," Ino added.

Superiorly. Really.

[puppy_fair]

"You don't suppose you can find a way from here, can you?"

To hang her upside-down from her middle, or not to hang her upside-down from her middle... That was the question!

Did he really have to think on that?

[intraspective]

“You take great pleasure in flaunting your strength, don’t you?” she grumped at him half-heartedly and contemplated ways to Make Him Pay from her current angle.

“Maybe I’ll just make you hold me for hours like this.”

She could... admire the view or something.

[puppy_fair]

"I could do it," Zack laughed, peering over his shoulder at her. How was the view of his butt, anyhow? "If I was flaunting my strength, you'd be sitting on the bed while I lifted that, or something."

True fact.

[intraspective]

It was a very nice butt, she had to admit. If he left her down here long enough she was liable to poke at it just to make him flail.

Really. Just for the flailing.

Ino twisted, trying to look up at him even though the only way that was really possible would've been if she'd snapped her spine or something. "Could you really do that?"

She was intrigued!

[puppy_fair]

"I don't see why not? You weigh less than my sword, and my sword weighs hardly anything..."

Yeah, Zack didn't have any idea just how much he could lift. He'd never thought to find out, really.

There was a bit of weight-shifting, and then she was back up and draped over her shoulder, and he was grinning her way. "Wanna find out?"

[intraspective]

Hardly anything? That was sooo unfair.

"Put me down!" she insisted, wriggling earnestly in his grasp now. "I wanna see if you can!"

[puppy_fair]

"Hopefully without breaking the bed?"

There he went, plopping her down unceremoniously on the mattress with a grin. "I can totally handle that."