The Boards, Tuesday, All Day

[furnaceface]

Work. Jonothon had found work here at the Boards, and a place to stay, both of which he was going to count as a win. And, while yesterday was Halloween and he could very well have just dug through the costumes rack for something to wear in an attempt to enjoy his favourite holiday, he'd opted to mostly just sit low. Take some time to himself. Get his bearings again.

Sitting low hadn't really done much for him, and so today he was going to attempt his other tried-and-true coping method, burying himself in busy work so that there wasn't really much of a chance to think about things. There were floor plans to be drawn out, for the sound booth, for the recording booth. There was so much rewiring to do through the entire building that he barely knew where to start. There were catalogues to rifle through, picking out the best equipment at the most reasonable prices, Troy's generous rich friend back home be damned. Jono wanted to work in a place that could set a budget and stick with it, thank you. If he had his say in the matter, the Boards would be self-sufficient as soon as possible.

He'd be busy for a while.

The front door was open a little, Jonothon had done epic battle with the office computer in order to get it to play on the building's existing speaker system, and a Pearl Jam playlist was playing from Youtube at a point on the decibel scale that was probably detrimental to human hearing. Because some things never changed.

[Open!]

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[life_inshadow]

Some things never changed, and the music selection told Tara that Jono was around even before she was all the way through the door. In a way, the familiarity was a relief: It meant no matter what he'd been through -- and Raven had been a little vague on that -- he wasn't a totally different person.

"Jono?" she called, a hint of her nervous stammer in her voice as she walked into the theater. "Hi, it's ... Tara. R-raven told me you were back."

[furnaceface]

It took a few moments before Jono had been really certain that there was someone calling after him, the music was so loud. But he figured the least he could do was turn down the volume some and investigate, peering out from the office cautiously.

And then vanishing back into it for another few seconds in order to kill the music entirely before stepping out into the foyer, clad, today, in blue jeans and a light grey turtleneck, managing to keep from flipping the neck of his shirt up over the bottom of his face.

"Tara." He looked about as nervous as she had sounded, a cautious little smile on his lips as he jammed his hands into his pockets. "Sorry, I wasn't sure I'd heard... th'volume was... I mean, I wasn't really expecting... H'lo, luv."

[life_inshadow]

Jono's aura used to be completely overwhelming to Tara, to the point where it took her months to work around it enough to talk to him for very long. It wasn't quite the same thing anymore; the aura was a bit less potent, but there was something ... foreign in it now.

Tara registered that before she fully saw that he was, as Raven had warned, whole but grey.

"Oh. She sent a message out to some of us," she said, a bit awkwardly as she reminded herself that staring was rude. "Raven did, I mean. And I talked to her for a while, and ... I just wanted to tell you I'm glad you're back. I can go if you're busy."

[furnaceface]

That slight shift of weight from one foot to another wasn't quite a squirm, really. Even if Jono was guessing at just what might be going through Tara's head at the moment, he was trying not to get too fidgety about it, all the same.

"I would hardly turn you away at th'door even if I was," he decided. "It's... good to be back. I was going to start trying to get in touch with people again, actually. Soon."

Ish. Probably. Once he'd nerved himself up to it. In a year or two. That counted as soon, blast it.

"... How're you?"

[life_inshadow]

Tara noticed the fidget and fidgeted herself, managing not to apologize only because it seemed like that would call attention to the whole ... thing.

"Good," she said. "I mean, about the same as I was last time you saw me. Not a lot's going on here. Um ... I was a butterfly for Halloween." Stupid thing to share.

She took a few steps toward him and sat in a chair in the audience facing him. "So ... Raven said it's been a lot longer than a week for you?" He seemed older, though it was hard to tell how much because he looked so different.

[furnaceface]

"About a year since Homecoming," Jono agreed, lifting a shoulder before grabbing a seat of his own. "Things had been going quickly before, but it was more like a month or two a week. A full year... Never saw that one coming."

... More or less.

"You didn't end up actually turning into a butterfly or anything, this year, I hope. I didn't hear anything going on out there last night, but then, I didn't listen to th'radio this morning, either."

[life_inshadow]

"Nope, it was your totally normal high school Halloween party," Tara said, thinking it over. "Except they had black punch, but, uh, that was just food coloring. I think."

She ran a hand over her hair. "Did it feel to you like the year was going all crazy fast?"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

At some point, Squall walked in and sat down in the back row of the theater. He'd wave when Jono appeared, but for the moment he was just going to sit, stare at the stage, and listen to the music.

[furnaceface]

It took a while. Maybe about twenty minutes before Jono wandered out of the office in search of where the hell he'd left the measuring tape. But he noticed the figure in the back row almost immediately, and kind of froze in spot, staring.

Good day for meeting old friends again, apparently.

"... Squall." He ran a hand down the front of his shirt, smoothing out a wrinkle that wasn't actually there. "I hope you weren't sitting there long, mate?"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall shrugged and gave Jono half a smile. "Whatever. I didn't want to interrupt. It's good to see you again."

He wasn't sure what else to say, even more so than usual, because Raven had said Jono needed love and support. Squall wasn't much good with things like that, so he was starting with just being present and working up from there.

[furnaceface]

Being present... was actually a good start. Jono knew how Squall was about most social graces. He appreciated that he'd done this much.

"It's good to be here again," he noted, after a moment's pause. "Here, I'll turn down th'music a bit."

He ducked away into the office for a second, and not long after, the volume had gone from obscene down to something a fair bit more tolerable. He stepped out of the office again and made his way to the back row, sliding into a seat a couple down from Squall's.

"Though I suppose it hasn't been all that long for you as it's been for me. How've you been?"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

The music had been fine where it was... but this did make it easier to talk, anyway. Squall shrugged. "Good, I guess. Better than you've been, anyway. Raven said you'd been through a lot."

He looked around at the place a little curiously. "Are you going to be directing, now?"

[furnaceface]

Ah. Raven had been talking to people, then. That was... fine. If nothing else, it meant that he'd have less explaining to do himself. Maybe. Probably.

"I'm not really th'director type. I think that's more Troy's area of expertise," he noted, shrugging. "Right now, I'm mostly just helping with renovations. If this works out... musical direction, perhaps. But I'm not looking that far ahead just yet."

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

Radio said something about Jono being back. So George was going to ... see what that was about. On her lunch break or something.

Wow. Sweet music system. She should hang out here more often. Especially if Jono was going to crank grunge through the speakers.

It was that Yellow Ledbetter song, so she was just going to jam out to it and wait for Jono to show, because she hadn't seen him yet. She'd sing along, but ... er. Did anyone actually know the words to that? Because she sure as fuck didn't.

Being dead did not give you psychic powers.

[furnaceface]

Nearly dying and then being pumped full of the blood of a deranged would-be god didn't, either. At least, it hadn't yet. Jono would get back to people later if it did.

In the meantime, he'd be content with wandering around the Boards, misplacing things and occasionally leaving the office in order to retrieve them. It wasn't as though there was anybody in at the moment to-- Shite.

"George!"

...

"Enjoying th'music?"

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

So George's first impulse was to apologize and ask where Jono was, except --

"Holy fuck."

No, see, that was -- he was kind of fucking a different fucking color and he had weird robot lines on his face and he was actually talking and not in her head, probably because he had a mouth, but that was definitely fucking Jono, which she should have guessed from the Pearl Jam, okay, but she was used to Jono a little more 'on fire' and a little less 'overgrown meta for Smurf.'

"You're blue now?!"

Oh, wow, that was really fucking classy, George.

[furnaceface]

"Yes, George. Thank you. I might not have noticed."

George would be George, Jono supposed, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning a little. No sense in getting angry because the way he looked was a shock to the system.

It was a shock to the system.

"Wonderful to see you too, luv."

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," George said. "I didn't ... know that you were back. Or that you were blue. Or ... that ... you grew a face."

There was room in her mouth for both feet, apparently. Maybe more of her legs!

"I like it!" she insisted, because that sounded more tactful (maybe? please?). "The whole -- blue and -- having a face. That's ... a really ... cool direction to go in and that's ... hey, I mean, way to ... be an ... individual and ... you ... have a voice again. That's a bonus, right?"

Could she quit while she was ahead even behind really, really far behind?

"I ... i-it's good to see you, too," she said. "I'm ... shutting up now."

She was.

"Honest."

After that.

[furnaceface]

"You sure about that?"

Even Jono, who was now on the verge of wanting to smack his face against the wall, couldn't help but twist a wry smile on those messed-up lips of his.

"The face was somebody else's idea. But thank you, I suppose." What else do you say to that, right? "It's definitely... something."

[trigons_child]

Late that afternoon, Raven came down to the Boards herself. She wanted to see for herself how Jono was settling in, and she wanted to make certain he wasn't hiding himself away. The music was a good sign.

"Jono?" she called, trying to be heard over the music as she slipped inside.

[furnaceface]

One might think that Jono would have given up hope of having a super quiet first shift at the Boards. But, at least, this time he turned the music down before stepping out of the office, looking tired and a little frazzled, with grey pencil smudges up the side of one hand from all of the messy little lists and floor plans he'd been trying to draft up today between visits.

"Hey, Sunshine."

[trigons_child]

Raven moved toward him, arms open for a hug.

"I am sorry if I am disturbing you," she said. "I wished to see how you were doing. There is an apartment here where you will be staying?"

Yes, she wanted to make certain he hadn't settled on a hole in the wall to stay.

[furnaceface]

"It's upstairs," he agreed, nodding faintly. "A decent sized one, actually. Th'last person to own the place stayed there, and he was a bit of a diva, so it's not really a bad apartment at all."

... It needed a lot of furnishing. But if they were renovating it so that Troy could have a room, there didn't seem to be much of a point to moving too many things in there.

[trigons_child]

Raven let her arms fall but kept her smile. "Good," she said. "I am pleased you were able to find something so quickly. Is there anything I can do to help you settle in?"

[furnaceface]

"Th'furniture that the last owner left is sorely lacking in animal hair," he offered, because that seemed sort of important. Kind of. He watched her arms fall, frowned a little at himself, but pressed on. "But other than that... I really don't have anything to move in, or anything like that. I need to go clothes shopping sooner or later. I'm dipping into th'costume rack for what I'm wearing now."

Though he was kind of loathe to admit it. It didn't count if he was just borrowing it. Temporarily. Right?