Sector 5 Church, Midgar, Gaia, Friday Late Night

[intraspective]

This time of night all the good boys and girls were in bed.

At least, they usually were in the stories. Ino knew far, far too much about how Midgar (and life in general) worked to think that being up late was any real indicator of good or badness.

She didn't have to be out tonight, patrolling, and she wasn't officially on the clock anyway (not that that meant much) but she'd been away for the last few weeks, out in Wutai since it was easy for her to pass as a native there, and so she wanted to reacquaint herself with her home.

Midgar was an ugly city, all dark metal, rust, and green smoke skies. She still thought it was beautiful, when she saw the flicker and glitter of mako lit streetlights and the old empty-eyed fallen trains. Beautiful in a lonely sort of way, which suited her mood completely.

There'd been no time, out in Wutai to celebrate her birthday (she was twenty-two now), and while the Turks had offered to take her out tonight, none of them had been surprised when she'd begged off. They could go drinking without her.

As she usually did, when she was in this sort of mood, her footsteps ghosted her to Aerith's church. This time of night, Aerith wasn't there. Aerith was (mostly) a good girl.

Letting the door slip shut behind her, Ino approached the flowers, somehow lit by the moon despite the plate overhead (she knew, she'd gone looking once and it still didn't make sense), and knelt down to touch them.

"Hey," she said, smiling slightly as her hair spilled over her shoulders to touch the flowers too. "How've you been? Being good for your mom?"

[OOC: Expecting one, but open for calls/texts, sure.]

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[intraspective]

She blinked, her gaze following the path of moonlight down to the flowers. It was getting cold enough that they'd probably sleep soon, to come back in the spring.

"New dreams, huh?"

Did she even have any?

"Remember how I told you I was workin' on Rosa to, you know, actually talk to Elena?" Which had taken years of nagging and shoving. "Well... it finally looks like it's working out! Elena's got a new job and they're talking about living together again."

[puppy_fair]

Living together! Oh! See? See, there was some good news! Even if it was all in his head, even if this was good news that he was making up himself, it was a bright side. The world needed more bright sides. Good for them. Maybe they'll get back to being sisters, instead of at one another's throats all the time, huh?

[intraspective]

"I hope so," she said, smiling slightly. "It would be nice if they did before everything goes wrong. Reno got your date wrong but I don't think he's got the rest of it wrong. You weren't family."

The Turks were. Reno wouldn't be wrong about what went wrong there.

And they were coming up to the date. Soon. She didn't have an exact time laid out neatly but Ino knew it was soon.

[puppy_fair]

Everything... Zack frowned faintly, mostly in thought, still entirely in his head. The fall of Midgar. Meteor?

He sounded faintly confused. What did that have to do with family? He thought Turks really didn't have family. Except for Rosalind and her sister, anyway. But siblings happened no matter what you were going to grow up to become.

[intraspective]

"No," she said, twirling one bit of hair around her fingers and studying it. She needed a trim. "The Turks are Reno's family. And before Midgar falls, and Meteor hits, the Turks all die, 'cept for Reno, Rude, and Tseng."

Hadn't she told him that before? She knew she hadn't told him that while he was alive, since Ino had thought he'd had enough on his plate, but dead... dead there wasn't much for him to do. Maybe knowing she'd be joining him sooner rather than later would be nice?

It was pretty hard to have dreams for the future when The End was coming up quickly and she never had learned from Reno what actually went wrong to cause that. She'd told Tseng of the possibility, but without further information... what could he do?

[puppy_fair]

That was perhaps not the excellent news that Ino might have hoped Zack would find it to be. Hell, the thought of it made him ill, made him writhe in his tank, fists thumping futilely against the glass.

Even before Meteor? And you don't know what it is? There... there has to be some way to prevent it...

[intraspective]

In contrast, Ino was pretty comfortable with the idea.

She'd known when she signed up for this gig that it had an expiration date. ANBU, the Turks, they all died young anyway.

"Before Meteor," she confirmed. "Don't got much of a clue 'bout what it is. Reno didn't like talkin' 'bout what killed his family and by the time I signed up, we weren't talkin' much anyway. Can't remember if I ever even told him."

Ino grinned slightly. "He'd be so mad at me, I think."

[puppy_fair]

Hell, Ino, even Zack wanted to shake you for this one!

He'd beat you with that stick of his, he agreed, fervently. Man oh man, Ino, c'mon! You never told me!

At least he sounded more exasperated than upset, himself. It was easy to not freak out too much after reminding himself that this was all in his head. His mind was being cruel again, that was all.

[intraspective]

"Of course I didn't!" she protested. "You had too much to worry about already!"

[puppy_fair]

Sure, but you're more important than all of that!

Even now. Especially now. Her memory was all he had. This figment.

[intraspective]

"Not to me," Ino said rebelliously. "It don't matter to me."

[puppy_fair]

Not even if you matter to me?

Zack's hand slid down the inside of the cold glass, exhausted and resigned.

I worry about you. I mean, of course I do. You're my world.

[intraspective]

Tears filled her eyes, hot and burning, but Ino refused to let them drop.

Not when she was talking to a ghost.

"You ain't here," she said quietly. "What am I supposed to do when I ain't got my world neither?"

[puppy_fair]

Live, Zack replied, softly. I'll be here when you come back.

Sometimes these daydreams were all that kept him from giving up entirely. Sometimes they were his last tether to sanity while he was being torn apart.

Live.

[intraspective]

"I am," she said, since... well, that was more than he'd managed. "But I ain't fussed if--"

[puppy_fair]

I know. And that made his heart ache so, so much. I know. And I wish so, so much that I could be there with you. I wish I wasn't so... stuck.

Stuck was a great word for it.

Maybe it lacked some gravitas, mind.

[intraspective]

"We didn't even get a chance to try," she said, sighing. "Thought we had more time to figure it out."

[puppy_fair]

It kind of came out of nowhere... I knew things were bad, but I didn't think Sephiroth would break like that...

There had been so... much... fire...

[intraspective]

"And you got stuck in the middle of it all," she said tiredly.

[puppy_fair]

Tell me about it...

Zack was tired, too. For different reasons, perhaps, but the overall effect was the same.

Is there ANYTHING you're looking forward to? Anything at all?

[intraspective]

"I..."

It was a sad thing, that she had to think about it.

"I got an email from the island," she said, after a bit. "Invitin' me to Homecoming."

[puppy_fair]

Homecoming, huh?

That was... actually kind of neat. Zack hadn't thought about the school in a while, really, unless he was remembering the people.

Are you going to go? You should, I think.

[intraspective]

"I don't know," she admitted. "I hadn't really thought of it. It's been a long time. Who knows if I'd even know anyone there?"

[puppy_fair]

You won't know if you don't go, Zack pointed out. And if you don't know anybody, introduce yourself to someone. Make some friends. Can't hurt, right? The island's cavalry is usually pretty good. And I should know.

...

Do they still have a reserves, do you think?

Priorities.

[intraspective]

"Maybe they do," she said, since it was easier than addressing anything else. "There's got to be people who can fight on the island still."