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Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

Today, there was no lanky Turk standing in front of the class room. Just a weirdly dressed blonde girl that some of you might have taken classes with, a couple of years ago. She was holding a small bright red baby bird cradled in her hands.

"Hi, guys," she said. "I'm Rikku. I'm a friend of Reno's. He can't teach today, so it looks like your final is up to me."

Don't worry. She'd explain Reno's absence in a minute.

"First of all! We had an invasion last week, and all of you made it through. Good job! Maybe you were one of the people who went and fought goblins. Maybe you did research and found something important. Maybe you stayed in the dorms and held down the fort while everyone else went off to be heroes. What matters here is that the invasion's over, and everybody's still in one piece. So if you want to talk about what you did, or what you didn't do, we can totally do that. But you guys aren't going to have a final, because you already passed it. Just by getting back to class safe and sound."

The chocobo chose that moment to nod emphatically and blow a raspberry. Pbbbbbbthhhhhhht!

"See? Reno agrees," she laughed. "That's the second thing. Your teacher is currently an adorable little baby chocobo, and has been for almost a week now. But I'm sure he still wants to hear about how you guys did. Or how cute his little chin-chin is. Or wave a wing for pictures, if any of you need some blackmail material ..."

If she had to teach his class, she was, at least, going to amuse herself doing it.

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"I wasn't here," she said, a bit flatly. "What all went down?"

She knew what the nurses had told her, but hearing it from other people... gave her something to think about.

"A bunch of us got kidnapped by some goblins and a guy with spikier hair than Zack," Karla said, a little flatly herself. "A crazy labyrinth sprung up all around the island and absorbed a bunch of buildings and negated everyone's magic. Then I guess he showed up to give everyone twenty-four hours to get the abducted students back, and two teams came in to find us. He tried to cheat, our people cheated better, and everyone got out."

"Good old Fandom," she muttered, "goin' to hell at least twice a year. Any injuries?"

Better this, truly, than her own week. Ugh.

"Nothing physical beyond some bumps and bruises, I hear," Karla said. "There was something about a minotaur and some crazy gravity, but everyone seems to have gotten away mostly unscathed."

She figured Ino would probably pick up on the 'physically' part, but it wasn't her place to talk about any emotional baggage people might have picked up this weekend.

"How about you? Did you get stuck somewhere when the island got cut off?"

Edited 2010-12-14 19:08 (UTC)

Her lips tightened at the question.

"Zack and I were out in Midgar," she said, "portals went down, the week passed, we're back."

... That was possibly the fastest she'd summarized anything ever.

Blink blink. Karla would have to give her hourglass pendant back if she didn't notice that something had gone on during that week. Had they fought? Had something happened with Gaia and Midgar?

"I'm sure you would have been just devastated to have missed finals," she said, more to have something to say that actually paying attention to the words. Still between the choices of utter inanity or trying to bring up what was likely a sensitive topic during class, Karla was going to go with inane.

"Glad to be back?" she asked, a bit delicately.

Well, the inanity hadn't sunk to the level of 'my, what wonderful weather we're having!' which was something to be mildly grateful for. So far.

"Yeees?" And that wasn't supposed to be a question, but it sorta was because Ino was, at the moment, feeling the best solely when Zack was about. However, she refused to cling to him like a leech and so… discomfort. By choice.

Ish.

It definitely had to be an 'ish'. "Some of it was fun," she volunteered, grasping at straws to say something positive. "Zack can't sing."

Well, he could. Painfully, badly, and loudly.

Give it time, Ino. Give it time.

"He can't?" Karla said, grasping onto a topic that didn't seem at all sensitive or fraught with meaning. "Like, he can't and it's hilarious to see him try? Or he can't and there should be laws to that effect?"

[Sorry! Things got hectic around here. My evening RP was pretty much limited to 'I can list my canons in a meme!']

"He can't at all," she said, looking like a wet weekend. "And I was supposed to sing the song to gauge how people liked it and I couldn't 'cause he was--"

Ruining it. Woe!

"Laws," she said, with a nod. "Definitely."

Even if it had been hilarious at the same time.

[:D That was about my brain level last night anyway--s'all good!]

"This is going to be something I have to see for myself," Karla declared, without concern for her own eardrums. "So, you two were singing together? Like karaoke, or...?"

"There was no singing from me," Ino said, very dryly. "And no, karaoke would've been fine, this was in what's basically a tiny museum and he decided that our conversation had gotten--weird or something," ignore the pink in her cheeks there, Karla, "and he just burst out with it. In the museum. Very very loudly."

Oh, there would be no ignoring of those cheeks, Ino. Karla would say she was sorry, but she wouldn't mean it much.

"Oh?" That was a curious eyebrow being raised in your direction. "Just what about your conversation had gotten weird, pray tell?"

That pink was just going to deepen.

"Nothing that's your concern," she said with a fair imitation of loftiness.

Oh, like that would stop her, Ino.

Not on her life.

"Maybe not, but that's hardly going to stop me from wanting to know. In fact, quite the opposite." Karla beamed at Ino. "Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare. Or I'll start guessing."

Which would be worse, Ino?

"Guess then," because apparently her week hadn't 'cured' her of her recklessness. "Let's see if you can get anywhere close."

"Oh, Ino, I'm so happy for you both!" Karla said loudly, eyes wide. "Engaged? At the museum? How exciting!"

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

The worst worst part about it all was that it had come up as a topic of discussion and so Ino's flush crawled up her face even worse.

"Shut it," she hissed, face flaming. "Karla!"

"You told me to guess!" Karla protested, dropping her voice. Slightly. "This is all your fault! You could have just said!"

Though wasn't that reaction interesting?

"Why?" she asked, still grinning. "Am I right?"

"Nooo," she said, sinking down in her chair a bit. "We didn't get engaged."

This would teach Ino to let Karla guess. It was a learning experience.

"But the topic came up?" Karla pressed. "Or should I guess again?"

"No," Ino said hastily, "no, you're not allowed to guess again."

She toyed with her hair and mumbled, "Itcameup."

If Karla couldn't understand her, then that wasn't Ino's fault.

Oooh, Karla had been listening far to closely for Ino's mumble plan to succeed. "It did, did it?" she asked.

Obviously, it hadn't been a full question, since they still weren't engaged--and Ino wasn't acting like the answer had been no--so Karla felt safe enough to tease, "Zack still playing hard to get?"

Edited 2010-12-16 18:53 (UTC)

Ino very narrowly resisted the urge to bury her head in her hands. "Nooo," she said, a bit plaintively. "We were talking 'bout his--parents."

"He hasn't seen then in awhile, has he?" Karla asked, remembering an early conversation with Zack. "Not since he joined up, right?"

"Mmhmmm," she replied, "but he started writin' them a bit ago."

Because Ino had pretty much forced him into it. Soul of a bully, this one. Soul of a bully.

"They wanna see him and he's--worried, I guess, 'bout them bein' angry?"

Unconventional Tactics, Tuesday, Period 2

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