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.)]

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[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."

[intraspective]

Ino twirled a bit of hair around one finger cutely. Her eyes didn't even narrow at him despite her urge to do so.

"I like ShinRa," Ino said, sounding a bit whimsical. "At least they're honest."

[puppy_fair]

The man stopped in his tracks, then, and looked over his shoulder at her, his face positively twisted in a mask of disbelief and outrage.

"Which part of ShinRa is honest? The false government that they put in place in Midgar to appease the masses? Their promises of 'city development' while over half the population of the city wastes away in the dark, in the slums?"

If he knew half of ShinRa's other offences, he would have been able to add 'major government cover-ups of the accidental destruction of entire towns' to his list. And the ever popular phrase, 'All evidence of misconduct must be erased.'

Zack could help you out with that one, Ino. This particular gentleman had decided that he wanted nothing more to do with you, and he was angrily stalking away.

[intraspective]

"I never said they were good," she murmured, the little vacant girl, looking lost.

It was a lie, of course.

"But they are honest. ShinRa does what's best for ShinRa very honestly indeed."

She hummed a bit, then with a shrug, tossed her milkshake in the recycling.