Room 504, Friday Evening

[intraspective]

After talking to Hurley, Ino was glad to wander back to the room she shared with Zack—that was still weird to her, that she couldn’t say it was just her room anymore—and collapse on her bed.

Yay. A week gone by and she hadn’t—been weird and issuey at people other than... well, Bod had gotten a bit, but he hadn’t seemed to care and Ino just... wasn’t going to push that. All right, fine, and so on. She was fine.

Repression was probably bad, yes. Ino closed her eyes briefly, then sat up and stared at the open door. She should shut it. But that seemed like far too much work and instead she fumbled for one of her notebooks. A pen.

If she was thinking, she didn’t have to think.

It made sense to her.

[Open door, open post.]

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[withoutverona]

Somewhere far across the sea, Romeo was done with classes at last, and more than a bit at loose ends. He'd watched all the Japanese TV one man could take (a heroic effort); now he was dialing people in Fandom. He'd been thinking about a vacation, anyhow.

Ring, ring

[intraspective]

Phone! Ino brightened for one moment as she scrambled for it before pausing and making sure to check the number before she actually answered it.

... Not home then, okay! And even better, someone she hadn't heard from in a while!

"Yo!" she said, with a fair approximation of 'normal-Ino'. "Romeo!"

[withoutverona]

"Ino!" Romeo answered lightly. "Hello! What odd happenings have I missed by not being in Fandom?"

[intraspective]

She snickered and sprawled out on her bed, notebook falling to the side. "It's Fandom," she said, trying to think of things. "Though I think it's been fairly quiet lately, which probably isn't a good sign, you know? 'Cause it always seems to 'wake up' with a vengeance."

[withoutverona]

"It does," Romeo agreed. "I hear nothing, and then the next month 'tis evil mutant frogs who spit acid." A beat. "I just cursed you, didn't I?"

[intraspective]

"That's okay," she said generously. "I'll hide behind Zack as he goes and gets rid of them."

Which was a total lie, of course, as Ino would be right in there fighting.

"Spitting acid would make dodging an excellent skill to have!" Sorry Romeo, Ino was thinking about this now. "But would it go through things like walls? Trees? Shields? 'Cause that'd suck, don't you think?"

[withoutverona]

"I don't" -- romeo hadn't actually thought about this before he spouted off, no. "If you couldn't control what it went through," he finally decided, "it'd be useless, wouldn't it? You'd just burn your mouth to shreds before you could hurt anyone or anything else."

[intraspective]

"True..." she said slowly. "And this is only going to give the island more ideas! If it happens, I'm blaming you and wonderin' how the island tapped my call."

That was how you said that, right? Ino wasn't quite sure. She didn't really care either, but whatever.

"I've got to admit I've been pretty bad at listenin' to radio lately," she confessed. "So if there's been a spat of weird, I haven't really noticed."

[withoutverona]

"What have you been doing instead?" Romeo asked, though he was never the type to pore over radio unless he knew the broadcaster, himself. "I doubt you'd miss an overlarge spate of weird, anyhow."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Yo, Ino," Triela called, poking her head into the room. She frowned thoughtfully. The place looked different. You know, like someone else had their stuff in there...

[intraspective]

"Yo," she said, smiling slightly and raising an eyebrow at the frown. "Somethin' the matter?"

Because, yes, pretending her room was the same as always would totally work.

Really.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"You redecorated."

Yeah. That was totally what Triela thought was going on here.

[intraspective]

Ino cast a glance at some of Zack's things innocently.

"Maybe a bit."

Brat brat brat!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"With someone else's things," Triela added.

[intraspective]

"You know," she said thoughtfully. "I think you might be right."

Bravo, Triela!

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

She looked around for a moment, then turned to Ino.

"Whose things?"

[intraspective]

Ino closed her notebook and propped her chin in one hand.

"Guess."

It was a challenge!

[puppy_fair]

Incoming, smelling vaguely like dirty socks after a Friday spent being entirely unproductive but fairly active around the island? One boy who was completely unaware that he had the brightest smile in the world.

"Maaan," he announced after making it a whole step in through the door, "am I beat."

This was not going to stop him from doing a few squats before starting to work on kicking his boots off, no.

[intraspective]

Ino's smile, already there because she'd talked to people and that had helped a bit, in a weird way, even while hurt lingered in ways that ached if she glanced at them, went a bit brighter.

"Generally," she drawled, from where she was studying. "People stop moving when they're tired."

[puppy_fair]

"Well, yeah," Zack admitted, laughing and stretching his arms out. "But where would the fun be in that?"

Honestly, now. In order to pick out the sense that Zack's brain made, one would first have to get inside the head of a puppy. A puppy who had been pumped with otherworldly genetic steroids before being given large, large doses of sugar.

"Anyhow, after I've worn down is when it's most important for me to keep going. How else am I going to work up my stamina, right?"

His already insanely superhuman stamina, yes.

[intraspective]

"Sex," she said, with a straight face. Not even looking at him. Ino? Was mostly saying it to see what his reaction would be.

She hadn't and wasn't really in the mood to do a whole lot more than snuggle and cling without a fair bit of snuggling and clinging happening first. Lying to Zack about how she was was a lot harder than it was around most people.

[puppy_fair]

And now it was time for the very important blink-and-blush combo. That would be where Zack blinked. And then blushed.

It was an important distinction to make. It had a very different impact from those times where he blushed first and then blinked.

"Well, yes. There's that, too." He eyed her for a moment, and then shrugged a little. "How has your day been?"

Zack could talk about a good many things. Just outright speaking about sex, however, apparently turned his brain to Jell-o.

[intraspective]

"It wasn't bad," she said, the smile falling a bit flat. "I've been talkin' to people 'bout--everything, a bit."

Pieces here, pieces there. She didn't know if it was helping.

"And told three people 'bout us."

Which actually was shiny and happy and rainbow coloured.

[puppy_fair]

Shiny and happy and rainbow-colored with sparkles, even! But Zack was filing that information away for the time being, making his way over toward the bed while he idly unclasped armor bits and worked his way out of gear that was entirely not conducive to cuddling in the least.

"Has the talking been helping, at all?"

There went his armor, falling to the floor with a clatter. He'd worry about putting it away later, maybe. Or else he'd just put it back on again in the morning. He took a seat on the edge of the bed, careful to not disturb the notebooks that she had out.

[intraspective]

She carefully stacked her notebooks to the side as he sat. All the better to let him actually sit by her instead of half a bed away.

"I don't know," she admitted slowly. "It's hard talking about it. But at the same time... I lied all week and just felt worse. Today was kind of... a relief that way. Just saying it flat out."

She owed Reno a conversation. He deserved to hear her problems.

"But it doesn't--fix anything. Nothing can be fixed in this situation."