raspberryturk | Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

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Junon, Gaia, Thursday Afternoon

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!]

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"JENOVA. Sephiroth--went insane," she sipped at her tea. Her cold... water, truly. Sigh. "And tried to destroy the world. The Planet didn't much like that. It fought back."

Tseng nodded faintly. More than he'd thought, then. He imagined Reno had told the girl a good deal of that before Zack had ever come into the picture.

"JENOVA is the root of the problem, in many ways. But it was ShinRa that made that the case. By the time of your Zack, it's far too late to do anything about the different results of the JENOVA project, however."

"Sephiroth has not yet gone insane." She didn't know what triggered it, truly, just that JENOVA was involved.

She hesitated, then added, "And your Turks remain alive."

Rub it in, Ino. Rub it in.

That was a dangerous glint in Teng's eye, there. It was the sort of glint that anybody who knew Tseng would recognize as his 'the decision I make in the next three seconds will directly influence whether or not you make it through the next four' face.

His fingers pressed tightly against the chipped ceramic of his empty teacup.

Five seconds passed, and he continued to speak.

"The loss of my Turks had nothing to do with Sephiroth, or JENOVA."

"AVALANCHE," she murmured, "and Ravens."

But she still didn't know about Zirconiade.

"They matter, nonetheless. Everyone who died matters. And with more people alive the simpler altering things would be."

She kept herself very still, however, and watched him carefully.

He... He couldn't... argue that.

He tried. Gods knew he tried. But in the end, it all boiled down to one thing.

Everybody he cared about died.

He didn't want them to.

"There were... circumstances that were beyond our control. There are many things that the Turks will do without hesitation. Killing our own is most certainly not one of those things."

"And if there was another way?" she asked, tilting her head and wondering if she ought to say--something else. Perhaps.

In a bit.

"Every day carries a risk," Ino continued, "but isn't it better to let those whose lives hang in the balance decide if they wish to take those risks?"

Than decide for them.

"The ones whose lives hang in the balance," Tseng noted, "aren't here to ask me what they ought to do."

Killing Verdot was not an option. It had never been an option. Not for the sake of saving themselves, and the Turks had known that when they'd refused.

If they'd gone ahead and done so, then they might have been able to ask for SOLDIER backup, fighting AVALANCHE's godsdamned summon.

Her smile then was almost sweet, a bit cynical.

"But they are," she said, studying him with almost serene blue eyes. "Or else I've willingly and knowingly signed my own death certificate."

Never mind that her Tseng was not aware she was in his employ as of yet.

"What?"

News to this Tseng, too, apparently.

Dear lord. Zack's timeline was so irreversibly tampered with, why was he even bothering to watch his words, at this point?

"You, a Turk?"

It wasn't incredulous, really, so much as it was... vaguely confused. Possibly a touch concerned.

"Indeed," she said, contemplating her cup and wondering if she ought to get another tea. "I'd like more hot water, I think. Would you care for more?"

Tseng was looking at Ino in quiet contemplation, now. Wondering if he could take the girl at her word.

"Please."

If nothing else, it would give him a moment to think.

"Sure," she said lightly, taking his cup and slipped out of her seat to head over to the counter.

Time to think was, at least, easily provided.

Tseng sighed, leaning back in his seat and furrowing his eyebrows at the traffic that passed him by in the street outside the window. It was odd, really, how in spite of the view of the ocean past the roadway, Junon felt so much more like Midgar than Edge, these days.

The girl claimed to be a Turk. Naturally, the thing to do would be to demand her identification card, to make her prove it.

She was close to Zack. She possibly had the means to save the lives of the Turks that he'd failed to keep alive.

His brow creased even further. The rock had been met with a hard place.

She took her time, demanding that the tea actually be steeped this time instead of... off-coloured water, and chatting to the barista as she waited patiently for it.

In a way, Ino was nervous to go back to her seat. She had no identification. She had nothing but a phone, truly, and that was from Reno.

Despite her worries, eventually she had to go back and when she did, she had not only her tea and his tea, but a plate of something she was fairly sure was shortbread. "I didn't know if what you liked," she said, setting his tea down and hopping back in her chair. "But you can have some if you'd like."

She'd just... felt like having some sugar.

"Thank you, Yamanaka-san."

He didn't reach for the item on the plate, simply curling his fingers around the teacup. They'd see how the conversation went. From there, he might consider helping himself to a small portion of the dessert.

"Tell me, how long have you been a Turk?"

Best to get this out of the way, first, watching her carefully all the while.

"Not long," she admitted, counting the time back in her head. "I was offered the position December 11th. Zack and I left Midgar the next day and have not been back to Gaia since."

Nonetheless. She was a Turk.

... Her Tseng would probably like to know that. Ino ignored that.

Tseng's expression was now torn, somewhere halfway between a frown and a tiny smile.

"Then you haven't had much in the way of experience with the job, just yet?"

Not only was he conversing about the fate of Gaia with a child, he was discussing it with a rookie.

She looked down.

"No, sir."

Which was... a bit embarrassing, but well...

True.

"What do you know about the way we lost our people?"

That was even, calm. Possibly almost pleasant, all things considered.

He could handle being called 'sir.' Heaven knew, the Turk who considered her his Rookie never bothered.

She peered at him, trying to evaluate that tone.

Either she was doomed and he was toying with her, or he was seriously considering giving her information.

... Ino was betting on 'doomed'.

"I know that AVALANCHE is involved," she said, carefully. "And that it was something that occurred in Midgar and that it took out the vast majority of the Turks in one go. Those who survived were not present."

"Reno, Rude, and myself," Tseng confirmed, nodding faintly.

He sipped at his tea - a vast improvement on his last cupful - and continued to look at Ino with those cool, evaluating eyes of his.

"Rare Materia," he noted, "time and again proves itself to be the bane of The Planet."

No details yet. Just that.

She broke a piece of shortbread with her fingers and nibbled on the smaller bit.

Funny how she was less hungry right now, in front of him.

"Was it ShinRa who wanted the materia for their own greed," she asked, "or was it to protect itself that they wished no one else to have it?"

Tseng's lips actually twisted slightly, into the shadow of a smile.

"Neither."

In the case of Zirconiade, it had been the Turks and AVALANCHE, racing to get their hands on the summon materia, and ShinRa's whims had little do to with the materia's fate. In the case of Meteor, ShinRa hadn't stood a shadow's chance. He'd almost been trapped inside the temple, when it had changed to the black materia, and it had gone from Cloud's hands to Sephiroth's without ShinRa ever having a real chance at it.

She tilted her head, puzzled, as she studied him and that faint faint smile of his.

"No?"

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