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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Centre, Wednesday

There were horsies on the rooftops and, well, if Ino was a tiny bit late because she'd been watching them, surely Cable-san wouldn't mind much?

And he wouldn't mind, right, if she was spending a good bit of the day out on the front step of the store either, right? She was all bundled up and the fresh air, while cold, was distracting and the horses amused her and, really, being outside made her feel less secluded than she'd have been inside and so Ino was quite willing to put up with freezing her Fire Country born and raised ass off.

... Though maybe she'd sneak off to buy a hot chocolate at some point...

Wellspring Arms is Open.

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As she sits on the stoop (on a blanket, for she is not insane) and, uh, stays out there.

Because she's possibly insane. Yes.

Ever since class yesterday, Karla had been thinking about Ino. Between the way she'd been moving her hands--oh, yes, she'd noticed--and that curious flatness about her visit to Gaia, Karla was pretty sure something had happened. And not a good something.

Class hadn't been the right place to bring it up, but Karla was pretty sure she could track Ino down today. And lo, here she was, standing outside Wellspring, holding two cups of cocoa in hand. There was a lot of whipped cream on both (though still probably not as much as Ino would have liked).

"So," she said, holding one out for Ino to take. "You can tell me to get lost and I will, but I'm here to ask what happened."

Ino's smile, brought on by the presence of company and hot beverage and the horses, froze a Karla's greeting.

"Such a hello," she said, glancing down at her hands before forcing her gaze away to take the drink. "Thank you," for the drink, Karla, for the drink, "I suppose here is more--appropriate than in class, yeah."

That wasn't a 'yes'. But it wasn't a 'get lost' either.

Karla shrugged a bit. "Figured it'd be fairer if I let you know up front why I was here." Which was also why she'd given Ino the drink immediately. So she'd know it was hers, free and clear, and not some kind of bribe to get her to share. "I'd be happy to chat and talk a bit if you'd prefer, but I didn't want you to think I was just here to socialize and then drop that on you later."

She turned that over in her head and nodded slowly, once.

"That's fair," a study of the cup, "and thank you for that. I prefer honesty."

Which was a fine sentiment from a ninja, but true.

"Care to join me on my blanket?" She could shift over some, sure, and did so. Or they could go inside...

It wasn't all that cold, not to Karla, so she didn't mind staying outside for a bit. Not with a blanket to sit on and horses to watch. So rather than answer, Karla just sat down next to Ino and took a sip of her cocoa.

"I generally try to be honest," Karla said. "Mostly because I suck at lying. Too blunt for it, I guess." Another sip. "Do you need Healing?"

Forgive her, Ino, but it was the question she was most worried about.

What was there to forgive? Ino shifted over a bit, absently.

The question made her blink, slowly. "If you mean physically," Ino replied, "then no. I was cleared as entirely healthy."

"There are more kinds of Healings than just physical," Karla said quietly. "Though that was what I'd meant most, yeah."

Because physical Healings took effect right away and were the easiest when it came right down to it.

"You were cleared?"

Her lips twitched before she sipped her hot chocolate. "Spent a few days in a hospital," she said, striving for some attempt at nonchalance. "Weren't let out 'till I was good as new."

And potions sped the healing process greatly.

Thank the Darkness for Healing potions.

"A few days?" Karla asked, also trying to sound casual. She was looking more at the horses than Ino, trying to give her some emotional space if she needed it. "Must've run into something pretty bad."

Especially since Karla knew that Zack's Midgar had a better supply of potions and things than, say, Reno's did.

Ino absently flexed her fingers as she studied her hot chocolate, gaze far far away. "What do you know 'bout what Zack's done there?"

"Very little," Karla admitted with a grimace. "I know what's going to happen in Reno's time and a bit about what Zack does before that, but I've tried not to ask too much about what goes on before. I figure the less I know, the less I can reveal to anyone, even by mistake. Or especially by mistake, I guess." She took another long sip of her cocoa, brooding a bit. "So, all I know is that Zack goes home and does SOLDIER stuff. I'm not even fully sure what that all entails, besides giant swords and squats and things."

"He fights," she said, which might sound obvious but-- "In wars. And kills people and monsters and keeps things safe. But that means... that he makes enemies too."

Again with the obvious, Ino?

Karla tried not to wince. "Enemies, huh? Not all enemies are content with just going after the people they think wronged them. If they see a chance to go after their target, they'll just take it, regardless of who he's with."

At least Karla hoped this was just a case of Ino getting caught between Zack and some angry folks. But it wouldn't be the first time she talked to someone where it wasn't.

The huff of a sigh there sounded almost sheepishly pained.

"There's a... country..." Ino said slowly. "That wants him dead. They're a very... honourable country..." don't mind her Karla, she was having to work to say those words without choking on them, "and don't touch civilians who've not wronged them."

All truth. And she was just going to simmer on it.

"I killed a few of their own," she muttered, finally. "A while back. Because they were plotting to kill Zack and I overheard them."

And Ino had been not impressed with their plans. And, well, temper. It was an issue of hers.

"Made me fair game to them."

"An entire country wants Zack dead?" Karla asked, trying to wrap her mind around that concept. "How?! Why?!"

She just couldn't picture it. She knew he was a good fighter, but still. It was Zack! He was a puppy.

Though that really wasn't the important part, was it? "They came after you," Karla said flatly. "Didn't kill you outright, which meant they wanted you for a reason. Hostage or punishment?"

She really wished she didn't understand how that worked.

"Hostage," her voice was flat, flat, flaaat. "They wanted Zack. I'm his weakest point."

Karla recognized that tone. She'd talked to a lot of trauma victims in her day. "The kind of hostage that ends up in a hospital in a world that had potions and elixirs," she noted quietly.

She hitched a shoulder up. "Weren't like they were goin' to treat me kindly."

"There's a difference between just general rough treatment and whatever they did to damage you so badly a few potions couldn't fix you right up," Karla said. "Hurt you so badly, you have to check to make sure your fingers still work."

From where Karla had been sitting, Ino's flexing had looked less like someone checking the status of a Healing and more like a reassurance that her fingers worked.

Ino stared down at her hands, absently flexing the one that wasn't holding the hot drink. "They wanted information," she said, still in that flat, almost brittle voice. "I declined to accommodate them."

In a way, that was almost good. If they wanted something from her, they had a reason to keep her alive, rather than just hurting her for amusement's sake.

Karla had seen more of the latter than the former, truth be told.

"And then Zack came for you?" she asked. "Or did you get free another way?"

If ever a laugh had managed to be more self-loathing...

"No," she said, not looking up. "No, I did absolutely nothing."

"You didn't break," Karla said, her voice low and urgent. "You didn't give up, didn't tell them what they wanted, didn't just give in and let them turn you into a victim. No, maybe you couldn't escape or kill them all or whatever you thought you should have been able to do. But you didn't let them break you, Ino. They couldn't touch the core of you whatever they did to your body. I don't think you understand how important that is."

Her eyes flickered over to Karla, then away.

"That's stupid," she said, voice low. "It ain't important at all. I got out of it 'cause of someone else and I didn't do nothing."

"No, it's not," Karla said mildly. "It's fact. You think you're the first person I've seen after something like this? How do you think I recognized it? Trust me when I say I know what's harder to fix."

"Because you've seen and done and know everything?" Ino asked, temper flaring, rather unfairly, at Karla. "So you know perfectly what I'm thinkin' even though I'm from a totally different culture and world from yours?"

No, Ino. This issue was not your culture.

"When it comes to seeing all the nasty things people can do to one another?" Karla asked. "Then, yeah, I've seen a whole Hell of a lot of it. This is what I was trained to do, Ino. So I'm pretty confident I have a good idea of what you've gone through and I'm not going to apologize for it."

She was giving Ino a taste of temper back, mostly because she was pretty sure Ino would respond to that much better than to soothing or coddling.

"I'm not going to force my help on you if you don't want it. That's not why I'm here. But I am going to tell you that you didn't let them win--you didn't let them make you into something less than you are. And that's far more important than whether or not you managed to badass your way out of that situation you found yourself in."

"Trained?" she scoffed. "By torturing people until they might as well have been dead just so you could put them back together? Or by wandering from tortured person to tortured person to fix them so you could pat yourself on the back 'cause you're a good little healer, well done, go you?"

The rest, Ino was ignoring. Or trying to. It felt wrong.

Karla was just going to roll her eyes at Ino. "Pretending to be dense doesn't suit you," she said. "You can be snide if you want, but I know you can do so without sounding stupid."

Ino's eyes glinted.

"Too much effort."

"You should put some of that effort into believing me when I say that what you managed to do wasn't pointless, then," Karla retorted.

Then, a little more gently she said, "Once, just a few months before I came, I sang myself hoarse trying to knit together enough flesh to make the woman I was Healing recognizable again. By the time I was done, I discovered that she had fled so far into the Twisted Kingdom there was no mind to sing back into that body I Healed. Forgive me for being glad that didn't happen to you."

Ino's fingers clenched. "Doesn't matter," she said, "I'd have been dead either way if..."

If Zack hadn't come when he had. It hadn't mattered how strong she was, there was only so much damage her body could withstand.

"And so somehow that negates everything else you did?" Karla pointed out. "That you're not some kind of super soldier? Who are you comparing yourself to that could pull off this amazing feat?"

Mod your zen, or ask Ino to come inside and help you.

Only with permission!

... I just wanted to use this icon today. I dunget to use it much ICly.

WOE.

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Wellspring Arms & Meditation Centre, Wednesday

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Meditation Room

Shooting Range

OOC