Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

[raspberryturk]

Junon, Reno supposed, wasn't half bad. Sure as hell better than Edge, which he couldn't wait to get the hell out of, especially after that weird-assed argument in Tseng's kitchen.

Tseng's ex-kitchen, Reno supposed.

He was sitting in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on one of the city's lower levels, the world's crappiest coffee slowly dissolving a coffee mug in one hand, waiting for somebody in particular. He'd left Edge a little early, dragged a few of the boxes of paperwork along with him so that Rude wouldn't have to haul it all here, and then he'd started to poke around.

Yeah, Junon had suffered a bit since WEAPON's attack. But then, where the hell hadn't?

... Besides Kalm. Lucky, lucky-assed Kalm.

[Open for anyone who might want to call, or who has reason to be in Junon!]

Comments

[intraspective]

"It would have, had he been alone."

Did that sound egotistical to say? She wondered if it did and then wondered if she cared.

[turk_mailman]

Maybe it would have, if they had been talking about anybody who wasn't Zack.

"I suppose that's true enough."

Considering the way Zack had dragged Cloud around... The boy needed somebody with him.

[intraspective]

She was, at least, more reliable than a comatose friend. Thanks.

"You didn't want him to know anything."

That was safe enough, she thought. None of the Turks had.

[turk_mailman]

It was. And, given the state of affairs around here, could she blame them?

... Much?

"There are risks," Tseng replied, honestly enough. "For The Planet, certainly. But at this point I'd be more inclined to worry about Zack's own psyche. This is a lot to take in, all at once."

He frowned, curling his fingers around his teacup again.

"Has he seen Midgar?"

[intraspective]

"No."

That was next on the list.

[turk_mailman]

Yes. Tseng was going to throttle Reno, next opportunity he got.

"I'd prefer he not," Tseng admitted. There was no sense dancing around that much. It should be obvious, really. "Have you seen Midgar?"

And if she had, it should be obvious why.

[intraspective]

Ino lifted her chin slightly.

"With and without Reno's knowledge."

... Sorry, Reno.

[turk_mailman]

Reno was a dead man. Again. Some more. Tseng would kill him, and then use a phoenix down so that he could do so again.

"Looking for something?"

It was a sensible enough accusation, when, like Tseng, you knew that there was something of interest in Midgar to be found.

[intraspective]

"I'm curious by nature," she replied, eyes glinting. "And take having secrets kept from me badly. Call it a quirk of my previous profession, that distaste of not knowing."

[turk_mailman]

Ninja. Really, Tseng knew what they were like, well enough.

"Does it count as a secret, do you suppose, if you never would have known about it but for a quirk of fate that led you do another reality entirely?"

[intraspective]

"It did not," Ino said, sipping at her lukewarm... water. "Not until I asked questions and found the answers kept from me."

[turk_mailman]

That earned the slightest upward twitch of one of Tseng's eyebrows, yes. Part of him contemplated, for a briefest hint of an instant, if simply putting a bullet between this girl's eyes would give The Planet half a chance.

The rest of him realized that, should Zack realize it was a Turk who did such a thing, The Planet would have a good deal to worry about, as well.

A rock and a hard place, as always.

Tseng hated that damned island.

"Which questions might those be?"

[intraspective]

She studied him for a long while.

"Can you not guess?"

[turk_mailman]

And there, that was the faintest twitch of a smile.

"Sometimes, providing a question is just as good as handing a person the answer."

Which meant, no, he wasn't going to hand her hints in the way of questions he thought she might be asking.

[intraspective]

Ino gave him a blue-eyed stare back, thoughtfully.

"And yet," she mused, "they get so angry when you go looking for those answers."

[turk_mailman]

"Particularly," Tseng mused, "when they've seen first-hand just what it is that they're risking."

That came with a pointed eyebrow raise, yes.

[intraspective]

"And yet, being paralysed with fear does no world any good. The lessons learnt here can save another Gaia."

And Ino really, truly, believed that.

[turk_mailman]

And the kicker was, Tseng could tell.

"When you show him Midgar, do you suppose he'll be in any mind to learn from it?"

Tseng was not naive enough to assume that they would stop at Junon, when she'd already admitted to sneaking into Midgar without Reno's knowing before, and to showing Zack other parts of Gaia on this trip already.

[intraspective]

Ino didn't even have the grace to blush.

"Maybe not right then," Ino said slowly. "He will need time to handle it. But I will learn and I will remember and when he is ready--yes, he'll learn."

[turk_mailman]

"And what, do you suppose, he'll learn?"

Besides what absolute desolation felt like.

[intraspective]

"What will happen if we do nothing but let history repeat itself."

Was that not obvious?

[turk_mailman]

"You don't think that it's changed already?"

Tseng took another careful sip of his... cold water.

Cold, brownish water.

"You didn't figure into his life, here."

[intraspective]

"I know.

Ino's eyes narrowed slightly. Something about that phrasing...

"But I doubt that my mere presence will be enough to stop all of this. I make things easier for Zack. That's my worth at the moment."

[turk_mailman]

"From the sound of it, your Zack has a fair bit more to contend with than ours ever did."

Tseng sighed. The Zack that he knew didn't know what tomorrow would bring. And for a moment he wondered if perhaps that was all the better for him.

Knowing would be almost like torture. Waiting.

"He'll need you."

But then, who did that leave for Aerith?

... He refused to let his brain wander to the possibility that there was a shadow's chance, for some other Tseng...

[intraspective]

"And yet," her voice was a bit sad, "that is all you'll say."

Was it not?