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.]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Deal with all the other stuff, I guess? I mean, the war is over, but there'll always be threats against ShinRa, even if they aren't monsters, right?

Not that Zack was feeling particularly charitable towards ShinRa these days, really. But... he wanted Ino to have a place she felt she belonged in, especially since he couldn't be there for her.

There's always a use for a Turk. It's SOLDIER who should be worried. No war and no monsters makes us redundant.

Overkill, Zack. It made you overkill.

[intraspective]

"We could always loan you out," she said, a bit impishly. "SOLDIER for hire, to deal with all those dangerous things the ordinary person can't handle on their own."

It wasn't really something she'd have said while he was alive, but he wasn't, so it didn't matter.

[puppy_fair]

Oh, hey, I bet I could do birthday parties!

Hey, if they were joking about it...

[intraspective]

"You'd be a real hit," she agreed. "Though I think you ought to stay away from pinata games."

[puppy_fair]

Wait, it isn't normal to send the pinata flying clear into the next sector? I thought they were just impressed by how much distance that thing got...

Zack could totally handle a pinata.

When he wasn't in a tube.

[intraspective]

Or when he wasn't being the pinata...

"Definitely not normal," she said. "I mean, not everyone finds hunting down the insides of it in the next sector fun."

[puppy_fair]

Well, you couldn't win 'em all...

But then it becomes a scavenger hunt! And if the monsters were gone, it isn't like it would be as dangerous as it could be, right?

[intraspective]

"There'd still be wild animals! And people!" she protested, laughing. "I wouldn't mind, but imagine trying to run a kids party that way?"

[puppy_fair]

You're right... those inner city Midgar squirrels are VICIOUS, Zack teased. But, yeah, I guess I see your point. Maybe no birthday parties after all.

Really, if he ever managed to get out of here, looking at him would probably just make the birthday kid cry, wouldn't it?

[intraspective]

"You can do that at my birthday party," she said generously. "Though I'm going to be sad if the no monsters thing means no hell houses. Can we keep those?"

They were still the best monster.

... Ino probably held some sort of record for most brutally murdered Hell Houses.

[puppy_fair]

Okay, Ino, Zack replied warmly, remembering just how thrilled she'd been the first time he'd taken her hunting for them in Midgar's slums, I guess we can keep the hell houses, for you.

And maybe someday they'd be able to go hunting for them again. If Ino was still alive when he escaped.

If he ever escaped...

[intraspective]

"Then that's the important thing," she said softly.

Then she tilted her head, swiveling around to look at the doors. She hadn't been paying enough attention...

"Reno's pretty much just outside," she said. "Guess he got a few drinks in him and decided to play mama bear."

It was what Reno did, really.

"He--I don't think--I should go."

Reno would really, really not like it if she was sitting here talking to dead people.

[puppy_fair]

Sigh, Reno. You even had to step in to ruin Zack's daydreams, didn't you? Why did you hate him so much anyway?

Zack heaved a sigh - Man oh man - and shook his head there in his mind's eye. But he didn't protest. He understood that when Ino said it was time to go, there wasn't much he could say to keep her there. And once she went, there would come the overwhelming quiet, and he really did need a quiet night. Hojo had been pushing them hard, and there had been a few times there when Zack had almost, almost stopped fighting to hang on.

You should go, then, he replied softly. Go do the Turk thing. Think about going to Homecoming. I'll still be here when it's all said and done.

And if he wasn't, the only person he was really lying to right now was himself, after all.

[intraspective]

"I know," she said, since the dead didn't move around much. "I love you."

Then she got up and left the church, her footsteps silent against the hard, dark wood of the floors. Behind her, the flowers rustled in a soft breeze.

[puppy_fair]

I love you, too, Zack thought back, though she was already gone, leaving him alone with the green, mind-strangling glow of mako, and the silence, and the pain.