Room 504, Saturday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Being back in Fandom was a peculiar… sort of disconnect.

Ino was curled up on hers and Zack’s pushed together beds and pretending to read. Which was rather futile because she knew it was pretence and so it would have been more productive to actually do something…

But she didn’t really feel like it. There were a lot of things she had to think on, but those thoughts felt almost like she was clinging to broken glass in her hands, and that hurt.

Like a toothache, however, she couldn’t quite stop poking at them. Even when doing so only hurt things more.

And, turn the page. Keeping up appearances, even just to herself, was important.

She was supposed to be reading. Would claim to be reading.

But her gaze wasn't on the book.

[Open door and post!]

Comments

[intraspective]

Ino wrinkled her nose at the idea of veggies in an envelope. Ewww.

"Maybe?" she said, looking down at Silly as Silly made her (his?) way across the bed.

To poke at Zack's leg with a chirp. It was either a hello or a war cry. Hard to tell the difference with Silly.

"It'd be simpler, though, but I don't want to make Silly sick if there's not everything she needs, you know?"

[puppy_fair]

"Well, you know your way around plants, right?" Zack grinned a bit, reaching a hand down to give Silly a gentle scratch on the head with one finger. "I bet we could totally get some nutritional information about Gaian greens if we knew where to ask, and then figure out what's just about the same from here?"

Zack totally had his money on radishes. Radishes had a funny name, so they had to be right.

[intraspective]

That was some interesting logic there...

"That's true," she mused, smiling as Silly all but beeped her happiness at the scritch. "I don't suppose a chocobo rancher would know?"

[puppy_fair]

"They might," Zack agreed, "or a botanist."

Zack pursed his lips a little, and then his face lit up, and he smacked the palm of one hand with the fist of the other.

"Aerith!"

If she could have conversations with flowers, she'd totally know if a radish was like a Gysahl green.

[intraspective]

Ino blinked at him.

Silly blinked at him.

"Who is that?"

[puppy_fair]

"Oh! She's great! She's this girl I met in the slums this one time? I, uh, sort of fell through her roof and nearly landed in the..."

... The...

"She can grow flowers in Midgar, I mean. In the soil. It's pretty neat."

He'd managed to sober up in there, along the way, yes. He wasn't going to specify that it was her church that they'd found his sword in. That just... didn't seem like a great plan, when talking happily about baby chocobos and veggies with strange names.

[intraspective]

Ino tilted her head a little--he'd changed, mid-way through his story, and she wasn't sure if she ought to ask or if she shouldn't...

"Did you land in her garden?" she asked, because that was the most logical conclusion she could wrest from... what he'd said.

[puppy_fair]

Zack twitched a little smile. Always with the twitchy little smiles.

"Yeah," he admitted. "I kinda did. And so she leaned over me and went, 'Hellooo?' And that's when I woke up."

It had been a weird day, when he'd met Aerith.

"She's neat, though. You two could probably learn a lot about plants from one another."

[intraspective]

"Bet I know more," she said, idly. Ino didn't really know if she did, but it seemed like the thing to say. "What's she like?"

[puppy_fair]

"She's quiet," Zack replied, tilting his head thoughtfully. "And gentle. Really, really gentle. And afraid of the sky."

That part had stuck with him. It was... kind of sad, in a way.

[intraspective]

Awww.

"Ain't never seen the sky?" Ino guessed, craning her neck to look at him. "I can't think someone raised with it would be."

[puppy_fair]

"She grew up under the plate," Zack agreed with a nod. "So she's used to looking up and seeing... you know, that big sheet of metal overhead."

He shrugged a little. "I'm not sure how she manages to get her flowers to grow in the dark, like that. But she does. In Midgar. It's the weirdest thing."

[intraspective]

"Bet it's nice for her."

Ino leaned forward to poke at Silly. Just because it was funny the way that Silly's feathers ruffled up indignantly. "Hey, you."

"I can't imagine growing up like that."

[puppy_fair]

Zack shook his head a little.

"Yeah... Me neither. There are a lot of things out there that a person should be afraid of, sure, but the sky..."

There had been sunshine hitting the flowers, in that other Gaia. Through the hole that he'd made in the roof.

Weird.

[intraspective]

"It just seems like something everyone ought to have," Ino said, glancing at her ceiling. "I wouldn't want to never see it."

And being afraid of it...

[puppy_fair]

"It was... kind of neat, when I first came here," Zack noted, totally not afraid to step into mild tangents, "and I was so used to looking up in Midgar. I mean, I grew up in Gongaga, but if you spend enough time somewhere, you get used to..."

He'd finish a thought eventually. Honest.

"I mean, when I first came here, it was like... rediscovering it."

The sky.

[intraspective]

Mild tangents were fabulous things after all.

"What's your favourite sky?" Ino asked curiously, laying back so that she was more comfortable.

[puppy_fair]

"Favorite? Ever?" Zack gave that one a moment's consideration. "Gongaga always will be, I think. I mean... It was pretty up in Modeo, all pinks and purples when the sun was going down. But..."

Little smile again, and then he was flopping back to look up at the ceiling, mindful of the chicobo.

"Gongaga. Right before the rain."

[intraspective]

"I'd like to see that," she murmured, reaching out to trace her fingers down his arm, just because she could. "It sounds--restful."

And rest was in short supply lately.

[puppy_fair]

"I'll take you," Zack decided, nodding a little. "I'll show you the way Gongaga is supposed to be. Introduce you to Mom and Dad..."

The ones who hadn't seen him in merely years, not well over a decade.

[intraspective]

"I'd like that," she said, smiling a bit--but genuinely, this time. "Even with your mom talkin' about weddings and stuff."

[puppy_fair]

Zack huffed a soft laugh, reaching his elbow over to give her hip a gentle nudge.

"It's the grandkids she's interested in," he decided. "We probably shouldn't tell her about Inori and Angeal."

He'd been fairly out of it when the kids had shown up on the island, before. But that didn't mean he remembered them any less fondly.

[intraspective]

She wriggled into the touch, even as Silly hopped up on her stomach and settled down.

"No?" Ino asked, teasing a little. "I have pictures."

[puppy_fair]

"She'd want to meet them," Zack pointed out, grinning a little. "As soon as possible, you know."

[intraspective]

"We're still in school," Ino said, flushing. "We can use that as an excuse. And then... busy with work... or something?"