The Roof, Tuesday Evening

[intraspective]

Ino was not, precisely, on the roof. Rather, she was over it and practicing her dips and dives and spins on Staffy.

Yes, the broom-that-wasn’t-a-broom-because-it-was-a-staff had been named Staffy. Ino had never claimed to be creative at naming things.

Besides, who cared about naming things when you could fly? She dipped and rolled, concentrating on making the turns tighter and smoother, and laughed out loud as she came up out of it, darting up and into the clouds. And then back down, her feet nearly brushing the roof of the dorms, before swerving and then up again.

Anyone up on the roof tonight might not see her right at first, though they would eventually, but they’d hear her--and no way would Ino miss a chance to babble at anyone who did make it onto the roof.

[Open as a roof is!]

Comments

[withoutverona]

Romeo had just come up to smoke after his shift at work, honestly, and he was halfway through his first cigarette when he recognized the voice that seemed to be, somehow, coming from the clouds.

He stubbed out the cigarette and scrambled to his feet. "Ino?"

[intraspective]

He got a gleeful laugh in response as she guided Staffy out of the clouds and in a downwards spiral towards him.

"Isn't it awesome?" Came the ridiculously bright answer.

[withoutverona]

Romeo may have still been a little muzzyheaded from the ale, or else his answer wouldn't have been an incredulous. "You can fly now?"

[intraspective]

"I have the best big brother ever!"

Yes, that was her explanation.

[withoutverona]

It made sense, if Romeo put it in context. "Liir can do that?"

[intraspective]

"He's been working on it for months," she said, coming to a stop close to Romeo and lightly getting off Staffy. "So, like, it wasn't easy? I just got it on Sunday."

A beat.

"And it's totally awesome."

[withoutverona]

"It looks it," he told her, impressed. "Will it fly for anyone, or you only?"

[intraspective]

She grinned a bit impishly. "Just me, he said. Enough to carry me, and like, a package or something, but it's not enough for another human."

[withoutverona]

"And I hope you won't be insulted if I point out you're rather a small human," Romeo said. "But that's amazing. I shall congratulate Liir when I see him." Which reminded him, it had been a while.

He looked at the staff some more. "How far will it go?"

[intraspective]

"I can't help my size!" She laughed. "And it'll go as far as I want it to go. He's promised it won't break, or burn, or anything."

[withoutverona]

"I don't think you should change it!" Romeo said hastily. Any discussion of girls and weight was a bad idea. "You're lucky to have such a thing."

"How have you been, other than flying?"

[intraspective]

She shrugged a bit. "Been concentrating mostly on the flying," Ino admitted. "There was a... thing going on Friday and Saturday that pissed me off, so yeah."

[withoutverona]

"Is that what you were yelling about?" Romeo asked idly. "I was preoccupied, or I would have started throwing things at the wall again."

[intraspective]

"If you'd done that then I would've had to fling plants at the wall, and I managed not to do that this time."

She eyed him curiously. "Preoccupied?"

[withoutverona]

"You saved me the noise and yourself the work of repotting, so thank you," he said, and shrugged. "My wedding anniversary would have been last Wednesday. I was not very social last week."

[intraspective]

"Ah," Ino said, then, "...maybe you should've been the one throwing plants around then, yeah?"

[withoutverona]

A tiny, bitter smile graced Romeo's face. "Can your plants rewind time and bring back the dead?" he asked. "Or, failing that, make me happy to be content in this time and place?"

[intraspective]

...okay, yeah. Unless he moved he was totally getting an Ino-shaped hug.

"Do you honestly still want time to turn back?" Ino asked him. "Knowing now how your life continues on?"

[withoutverona]

"But that's the thing," Romeo admitted. "I am happier now than I was then. You shouldn't have liked me, then."

"If I could save lives, though, I would have to do it. Wouldn't you?"

[intraspective]

"No," she said honestly. "I wouldn't. You can't change the past--and even if you could, you wouldn't be able to say if that would be any better than the future. Dreaming of 'what ifs' is only more painful."

"People die," Ino told him. "And other people have to live without them. Even if you wanted to, even if you could, I don't think anyone should try changing that."

[withoutverona]

"But do people have to die in such stupid, painful ways?" Romeo wondered aloud, then shook his head. "It's no matter, I can no more turn back time then I could make that staff fly. But you know trying to change it was why I went to Italy, when we were in Paris."

[intraspective]

"I know you were," Ino admitted. "And I didn't get it then either. Even in the past nothing changed, did it?"

[withoutverona]

"I pissed off a pig farmer," Romeo said flippantly. "I learned to hustle pool to pay my fare back to Paris. But no, really." He closed his eyes. "And then we get into what Professor Atreides would say about fate and destiny, and I have had far too much ale today to have those thoughts."

[OOC: bedtime for me]

[intraspective]

"Smile instead then," she said. "Because you're still here."

[Sleep well!]

[withoutverona]

Romeo obligingly smiled, dropping the subject. "What were you upset about, anyhow?"

[intraspective]

"Brain-switching," Ino said, twirling Staffy in one hand.

[withoutverona]

"That thing from the posters?" Romeo asked. "I think my roommate did that. I wouldn't see why anyone would, myself."

[intraspective]

She shuddered. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," Ino said. "I, yeah, the poster-thing. I severely wasn't impressed with it."

[withoutverona]

"It seems harmless, though, or as harmless as anything on the island," Romeo noted. "I just wouldn't want to hand my body over to someone else, but if someone else does it has to be their choice."

... this was completely not dirty. Really.

[intraspective]

...Ino was just going to snicker over the phrasing of that, yeah.

"Playing with minds isn't ever safe," she said.

[withoutverona]

That wasn't a statement that left much room for argument, and Romeo wasn't in a mood to pursue such anyhow, even though he didn't think Ino was entirely right.

So he shrugged, putting the question back to the mysteries of fate. "Everyone seems to have made it through all right."

[intraspective]

She shrugged irritably. "I still don't like it," Ino said moodily. "It goes against everything my family knows about minds."