Midgar, Gaia -- Sunday Afternoon

[intraspective]

It was—not funny, not really, how things were back to normal and yet not back to normal and even though she had fun on the missions she still felt…

Weird.

Was that unfair of her? Maybe it was. It wasn't fair at all to expect him to break confidentiality to her.

And it wasn't fair, either, to think she'd be able to help without all the information, right?

That sounded right, to her. But who knew?

Ino kicked her feet, making the movement look harmlessly adorable even while she wished she could lash out, and sipped at her milkshake. Of course, Zack showing her around missions had only lasted so long. They'd wanted to—talk to him, or something: she didn't really know. He'd looked apologetic, she'd acted dumb, and off he'd went.

Hmm. She didn't really want this milkshake any more. This wasn't exactly going great, so far as weekends went.

[NFB, NFI except for the one she doesn't know about. (And the boy. Always the boy.)]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

"The cup is recyclable," the young man said, nodding around a corner. "When you're living in a city as wasteful as Midgar, you really have to be more conscientious of these things. The Planet is in enough trouble as it is, without us helping it along."

[intraspective]

She stared a bit at him. Conscien--what?

"In trouble?" Ino asked, eyes wide as she skipped and bounced her way to peek around the corner. Cautiously! If caution wore a bright pink dress, strappy heels, and had bell earrings on. Tinkle tinkle tinkle! So not cautious at all. Ah ha! Was that a recycling bin? "But The Planet seems okay to me? What's wrong with Midgar?"

See spoilt, wide-eyed shopaholic. Ino clearly looked like someone who considered such things.

[puppy_fair]

Oh, clearly. This man could tell.

He was giving her a long, thoughtful look, before he picked a direction, any direction would do around here, and nodded toward one of the reactors, one of the massive pillars that spewed smoke and noxious waste into the air.

"Th reactors," he said, simply. "All around The Planet, the ShinRa have these monstrosities set up, poisoning the air we breathe, destroying the soil we grow food in, draining the life force from The Planet itself. That is what mako is, you know. Refined lifestream. Refined life."

[intraspective]

Ino chewed on her lower lip, sticking it out to look a bit pouty and confused while her mind raced. How was she supposed to answer that?

"But they give us light," she pointed out airily. "And cars and flying things!"

Clearly that made up for it all! "And it's only a little smoke, right?"

Yup.

[puppy_fair]

"If you think that the sky is supposed to be boiled spinach green, then you've been living on top of the plate too long, sister," the man replied, crossing his arms and making a 'tsk' sound as he shook his head. "ShinRa sympathizers, you're all the same. Too comfortable with your electricity to want to open your eyes wide enough to see the real problem at work, here."

[intraspective]

That all sounded very unpleasant and she blinked at him dubiously and cutely over her milkshake cup. All she'd wanted to do was throw it out, really!

She brightened at the word 'ShinRa'. "My boyfriend works with ShinRa," Ino shared, like the man should totally find that awesome. "But I don't."

She was too cute to work, see? What with her giggle.

[puppy_fair]

The man let out a low 'tch' sound, shaking his head.

"I'm almost afraid to ask what he does," he replied. "City so-called 'development?' Maybe Midgar's esteemed Security Department?"

[intraspective]

"Nuh huh!" she said, bouncing a bit on her feet and holding out one hand triumphantly. "He's a SOLDIER. He's a hero."

[puppy_fair]

"Some hero," the man scoffed, seeming entirely unperturbed by that revelation, though a careful observer might notice the almost anxious way his weight shifted from one foot to another. "Doing ShinRa's dirty work. Winning their wars so that they can harvest mako from nations that were doing well enough without. If you want my advice, sister, lose the SOLDIER. They're nothing but trouble. The real heroes are AVALANCHE."

[intraspective]

"You're awfully confused," she said, like she was concerned and worried about him. "Are you alright? Do you watch the news? The news doesn't lie you know. AVALANCHE is bad news--everyone knows."

All of it said with as much artful innocence as she could muster.

"And my boyfriend would never do anything bad," she said loyally.

[puppy_fair]

"I'm certain he's never come home with blood on his hands, or cleared monsters out of an area so that ShinRa engineers can set up more reactors, more ways of killing our planet." He frowned then, deeply, angrily. "If you really believe that, you're as much a lost cause as he is. You'll get what's coming to you, one way or another."

Death to the Shinra.

[intraspective]

Her eyes went, scarily enough, even wider and her lower lip trembled.

"But the monsters hurt people!"

[puppy_fair]

"And you have ShinRa to thank for all too many of them, too," scoffed the man. "It's too bad. A girl with a boyfriend in SOLDIER like you, you could do a lot of good for AVALANCHE. We need somebody who knows the inside. Somebody who can tell us where the ShinRa is planning to move next. And it'll be too damn late for The Planet before anybody who is actually comfortable living in this mess catches on."

[intraspective]

Ino looked like she was trying to think! Really hard! Like thinking was new and unusual!

"What does AVALANCHE do?"

Was it a game? She liked games!

[puppy_fair]

"AVALANCHE is going to be what saves the planet someday."

So, you know, mostly they lectured strangers on the street about recycling. And also they killed people.

[intraspective]

Ino tilted her head artlessly. Blue eyes almost serene.

"How?"

[puppy_fair]

"In order to treat a patient, first you have to remove the illness," the man replied, patient in the sea of obvious idiocy that he was being faced with. "ShinRa is obviously the illness."

[intraspective]

"You think so?" she wondered, tilting her head up at the clouds.

[puppy_fair]

"If you'd ever been far enough outside of Midgar to draw in a breath of fresh air without your lungs burning, you'd know so," he scoffed, shaking his head. "The planet is dying. The ShinRa are murdering it."

[intraspective]

Ino was hardly going to enlighten him that the air back home in a bad area was cleaner than the cleanest air on this planet. She was hardly impressed with that, though none of her disdain showed.

"And AVALANCHE wants to stop the ShinRa?" she parroted back, like she might have vaguely grasped what he was saying. "But how?"

[puppy_fair]

"How else do you rid yourself of a disease?" And then he was smiling, just barely. A proud sort of grin that twisted at his mouth, as though he knew just vaguely that there were plans, things that were too big for even him to be let in on. "You kill it."

[intraspective]

She should--probably gasp or something, right? Dim little girl, and all of that...

Instead, Ino kept her empty empty eyes on him.

"Doesn't," she laughed a little, alarmingly vapid, "doesn't that just mean you're replacing one disease with another?"

[puppy_fair]

"Not if you're removing the symptom along with the cause," he replied, in that cryptic sort of way that suggested that those really big plans were really big plans that meant business. "If there was no ShinRa, then The Planet could heal itself again. Someday, those wastelands could be arable soil again. At the rate ShinRa is going, there won't be anything left to heal. And what good is a dead planet to any of us?"

[intraspective]

"But a lot of people need ShinRa," she said, a little breathy. "For... for..."

Like she had to struggle to come up with reasons.

"For their medicine."

Ah ha!

[puppy_fair]

The man just scoffed and shook his head. Honestly, was that the best that she could come up with?

"The Planet provides us with all of the medicine that we need. Destroying it is a sorry way of thanking her for it." His brow creased, and he turned to face the other direction. "But I can see now that you're just like the rest of them. Too wrapped up in convenience to see what's right in front of you. But mark my words, ShinRa will fall, and the Planet will heal, with or without your help."