The Perk, Saturday Afternoon

[furnaceface]

Right. So, here Jono was, with a day off. And people-watching seemed to be The Thing To Do on his days off, having been a Saturday afternoon tradition for... all of a week, now. It counted.

So he made his way to the Perk, trying not to make faces at the abundance of children running around the streets today, and mostly wondering to himself if they were the locals, or if they belonged to the locals. Or would, someday, anyhow. Around here it was important to make those distinctions, after all.

When he arrived at the Perk and was pertly informed by the young lady at the counter that she wasn't allowed to pour the hot water without her mommy around, that question was answered, at least. And, after walking the little girl through how to tell apart nickels from quarters and giving her a shiny penny of her own for a job well done, Jono finally managed to place his order and found a free table to settle down at and people-watch.

With apple juice. Ah, Fandom.

[Open!]

Comments

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi stood in front of the pastry counter and tried to look pathetic, heaving a big sigh. And watching the strange man out of the corner of her eye. He might feel sorry for her and buy her some!

[furnaceface]

Really, now, it wasn't difficult to get Jono to feel sorry for little kids. He'd had a big, squishy soft spot for them since... just about forever ago. He was just usually somewhat good at hiding it.

"Are you lost, gel?"

Those were some pretty theatric sighs. And he knew better than to think that she had a mother around. Or even the knowhow to cook for herself back at the dorms, or her home in town, or wherever.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Lost, or not lost? Very quickly Kenzi decided, "Yes." She bit her lip. "And hungry. Mom's not here. Or Stepfather." And she'd only had a lollipop. That wasn't very filling.

[furnaceface]

Jono allowed himself a momentary, wry little smile.

"And you want something to eat, I imagine."

Hey, he knew the sad, hungry little kid routine pretty intimately. His parents had been ridiculously hands-off when he was little, and he'd managed to turn big sad eyes into an art form even before they'd been all he really had on his face to express with, later on.

"I'll tell you what. I'll let you pick something from that case and I'll get you a juice or a milk or something. Provided you pick one of those little salads or sandwiches or something, too. If you're hungry, pastries aren't going to be much more satisfying than that lolly you're wandering about with."

So help him, he was going to be all responsible-big-brother at all the little kids today.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. This guy was helpful. And the make-up meant he wasn't a normal person. You couldn't trust them. He looked more like a clown or something. And he wasn't stupid. "I like sandwiches!" Kenzi volunteered. "Salad, boring, bleah." She took the lollipop out of her mouth and looked at it. "It tastes really good though. I traded my doll for it."

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

The day was turning out pretty damn interesting, and Jon was really glad he'd been spared.

He grinned when he saw Jono. "I am so glad to see that I'm not the only one who got missed by the Fandom Crack Fairy."

[furnaceface]

"It's about bloody time it passes me by," Jono replied with a rather expressive roll of his eyes and a shake of his head. "Every time I visited this bloody island since my graduation, it seemed to take some sort of perverse pleasure into turning me into something or somebody else, it seems."

He was perfectly okay with waking up as himself-more-or-less, this morning.

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

"I don't envy any who got missed in the dorms." Because he really didn't. He actually felt a bit sorry for them.

"So, how creepy is it to go take blackmail photos of my former classemates?"

[furnaceface]

"For blackmail? Not all that much, I should think, so long as you don't go sticking them on the 'web' or whatever while they're still children."

Of course, Jonothon's own moral code was skewed a little sideways these days, so it was hard to tell, really.

"You know, I don't believe we've met." He twitched a bit of a wry smile at that, offering the other guy his hand. "I'm Jonothon. Jon or Jono if you prefer, I suppose. Lord knows, everybody else here calls me one or the other."

No, Jono. They just called you Jono. Jon was what you'd like to be called, because it didn't make you feel like a whiny goth-punk teenager that nobody took seriously.

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

The Jono bit ticked that little 'I think I remember this guy' switch in Jon's head, and he grinned as he shook the guy's hand.

"Jon O'Neill. I think we've met before."

[trigons_child]

All the playing children in the dorms was giving Raven a headache, so she teleported into town to find some peace. And since she was thirsty, she wandered into the Perk to get something to drink.

She of course paused when she saw Jono there. "You look different," she said. She recognized his emotional signature, but his face had definitely changed from the last time she'd seen him.

[furnaceface]

Aw, it was tiny, kind of creepy Raven, who had asked all of those unfortunate questions in the library so many years ago.

Tiny-kind-of-creepy-Raven certainly did not mince words. Jono smiled regardless.

"I do," he agreed, softly. "Sometimes people change."

Sometimes, they changed a lot.

"How are you doing, luv?"

[trigons_child]

She wasn't creepy! She was just...deeply serious.

OK, and creepy.

"I am thirsty," Raven said. "I require water or juice of some sort. Why do you look different?"

[furnaceface]

Jono kind of choked on a reply for that. Nothing like small children to leave him completely at a loss for what to say, here.

"I... It..." Bloody hell. "Would you like some apple juice, Raven? Or orange juice, perhaps? Or... red?"

Whatever the hell the red was. He hadn't really looked when he'd ordered one for Kenzi, earlier.

"The red one is popular, I hear."

There! Awkward subject avoided smashingly! Something like a large object falling from a cliff onto the rocks below.

[trigons_child]

"There is no such fruit or vegetable called 'red,'" Raven said. "What plant is it the juice of?"

And because she was an annoying empath that way, she said, "My previous question has made you uncomfortable. That was not my intention."

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer knew he shouldn't have left the dorms, but there were just so many other kids there, and he didn't know any of them. So he left the dorms and went to explore the town he'd seen.

Except, he'd gotten lost. And hungry. And thirsty. And scared. And then he wandered into The Perk.

At the moment, he was just staring around in awe. It was a lot different than the shop that Matron went to for groceries.

[furnaceface]

Oh, this one looked all lost and wide-eyed and tiny and adorable.

And Jono's big brotherly tendencies were showing already as he stood, took a couple of steps, and then crouched down nearby so that he'd be talking to the boy at eye-level.

"Are you lost, mate?"

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer looked at Jono and blinked, having the sudden urge to hide. Strangers were kind of scary when Matron and the other kids weren't around.

He nodded and the ducked his head. "Matron says not to talk to strangers," he said, trying not to sound like a crybaby.

[furnaceface]

Aw, tiny child. Jono offered him a brief hint of a smile and nodded.

"I understand. Would I still be a stranger if I introduced myself?"

It was... kind of underhanded, and he felt dirty even just making that suggestion, but considering the state of the island and the fact that this boy was highly unlikely to find anyone that wasn't a stranger today, he kind of felt obligated to keep the little guy safe and sound. If he had to draw him a map back to the dorms on a napkin and paper-plane it across the room at him, so help him, he'd do it.

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

The blond boy cocked his head and then smiled. "No, you wouldn't. I'm Seifer!" Yes, meet Seifer from before, when he was still a naive ophanage kid from a sheltered beach.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall was happy to see Jono, but peered at him confusedly. "You're all blue!" he complained. "Why are you blue?!" He wasn't a big fan of change.

[furnaceface]

"Dreadful accident involving a blueberry juicer," Jono stated, not missing a beat. "Very tragic, really."

He was... pretty sure he knew this kid. Probably. It had been a while, and demandy little boys weren't quite as distinct as eerie little empath girls with pale skin and red chakra.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"Whatever." Squall knew a lie when he heard one. ...But then he gasped. "You have a FACE!!! Jono, you have a face!" He rushed forward to try to hug his friend.

[furnaceface]

Okay, the 'whatever' totally gave it away.

The hugging set Jono back about ten mental paces, and he had to take a moment in order to recalibrate his brain to the fact that there was now a little kid kind of wrapped around him.

"Er... Yes. As a matter of fact, I do."

Okay. What to do about a hugging Squall? Maybe... pat him on the head. Yes. Just like that. Pat pat. Pat pat. There there?

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Patting was nice. Not as nice as hugs from Sis, but still pretty nice. "Did it hurt?" he asked cautiously. "Getting your face hurt hurts a lot."