fandomtownies | The Boards, Saturday, All Day

Entry tags:

The Boards, Saturday, All Day

This morning when Jono had woken up, after the inevitable falling flat on his face that he'd done in an attempt to get out of bed on two legs, and after that his attempt to run a coffee maker without benefit of opposable thumbs, he'd let out a stream of curse words that would have made a sailor blush. Or possibly Wolverine.

Look, without coffee in his system, the realization had taken a while to sink in, okay?

It had taken a bit of effort, but he eventually did manage to make it downstairs. It involved backing up slowly down the steps, because, no, there was no way in hell he was going to attempt to take them headfirst today. And he even managed the doorknob, though it was more than a touch frustrating, and he found himself telling himself before noon that he was going to start going to bed with his sonic collar on, too. This was, after all, a bit absurd.

His shift at the Boards today was going to be spent glowering at the paperwork he couldn't do, and at the music equipment he couldn't set up, and... There were posters he should finally hang, but there was no way in hell he was going to put thumbtacks into his mouth. Sigh.

The Boards were open, only a little late while Jono figured out how the hell to unlock the front door. And that was going to have to do.

[And OCD-free! Whee!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm a pony again!" Why had Deadpool decided to tell Jono this? The world may never know. But there he was. "And awwww, you still have your clown lips!"

Edited 2012-05-19 14:44 (UTC)

Deadpool, your hair was glorious. Simply glorious. Jono needed to take a moment to kind of stare while he assimilated that information, before managing a bit of a wry smile.

"I still have my clown lips," he agreed, because... He couldn't deny it. There they were, stupid and blue and... stupid. "And Akkaba's brand on my arse. I'm trying to decide if that's better or worse than having it splayed across my chest, mate."

Did Jono say something? Deadpool was busy prancing. He loved being a pony soooooo much.

"Oh, you. Still as surly as ever."

And now you were getting the side-eye, Deadpool.

"... Shouldn't I be?"

He was a pony!

He missed his thumbs!

[I need to flee for a little while in order to get some storage bins so I can do something about the wall of boxes in my room! I'll be back as soon as I can, sorry!]

"Not when you can be an awesome pony like me." A beat. "Wait, I see the flaw in that logic. No one is as awesome as me. No, not even Robert Downey Jr. So, don't even bring him up."

[[No worries!]]

"Though you have to admit, his career is certainly taking off on him," Jono noted, thoughtfully. "That last movie he was in was one hell of a success, or so I've heard."

Deadpool, stop bounding. It was weird. "Yeah, sounds awesome. Look at how fluffy I am!"

"You are a very fluffy pony, Deadpool." Jono fluttered a little, because apparently the wings he'd picked up overnight were not about to be outdone by Deadpool and his fluffiness. "You know, you keep doing that, and all I can think about is how much I wish there was a nice open meadow to gallop in."

... So help him.

"I now, right?!"

"... There's always the Park."

Why. Whyyyyy did he want to do this?

Deadpool stopped in his tracks.

"...why didn't I think of that?"

And Jono shrugged, for as well as a horse possibly could shrug.

"Distracted by your overwhelming fluffiness?"

"Damn right. To the park!"

A beat.

"I should pick up the kid first. She wants to braid everyone's manes."

"I don't have all that much mane to braid, and I don't think I'd be comfortable letting her anywhere near the other end. But I might join you for a while, if it's all the same?"

He was getting nothing done around here. Nothing at all. And while it was fairly obvious who he was at a glance and while he didn't exactly want to parade around in public with Akkaba's brand on his rear, it still seemed better than glowering at things in frustration today.

"I imagine she'll be wanting pony rides."

"Huge duh, Starsmore!"

...

"You stopped by just to try to entice me into frolicking, didn't you?"

"I do it because I looooo~ove," Deadpool sang, prancing away. Oh, how he loved to prance.

Jonothon sighed and gave his head a shake before trotting along after him.

"I'd ask for a moment so that I can lock the door behind me, but the show I'd put on just trying would be ridiculous."

And it wasn't like most of the population of the island was capable of opening doors this weekend, anyhow.

Sometime before Jono left (because after would be silly) Emma stuck her head in the door.

"Oh, good. I'm not the only one suffering the indignity."

"My indignity comes complete with a cult symbol on my arse," Jono informed Emma. Because that made his indignity all the more... undignified. And him, by extension, all the more indignant. "But it is good to know that I'm not alone in this. And this time around, I'm not a horse on fire."

That had been fun to try to explain to people, the last time around.

"... Actually, I'm no stranger than anybody else, this time around. Fitting in is strange, Emma, I'm not certain what to do with it."

"Congratulations, Jono. You are officially part of The System in your conformity," Emma deadpanned. "How does it feel?"

"Mostly? Like I miss having thumbs."

Or at least wearing his collar, so that he could make some sort of solid-light construct that had thumbs for him. He was actually getting good enough with it now to create some fairly complex shapes.

"I haven't decided yet if the wings make up for that or not, mind."

"I didn't get wings." Don't sulk, Emma, you're a damned unicorn. "How does that normally-pink pony survive without thumbs? I had to have someone at the Perk pour coffee into a bowl for me."

"I haven't the foggiest," Jono replied. "You don't want to know half the bullshit I had to go through just to get out of my apartment and down the stairs, luv. But I imagine the pink pony gets by because she's always been one."

"I think she's also categorically insane, which probably helps," Emma pointed out. "Stairs...should be fine with practice, right? I mean, I woke up on the couch this way, thank goodness, but cats and dogs and other animals manage stairs just fine."

"I am not going to try and sleep standing up. At all. That is not going to happen."

"Apparently horses only lay themselves down when they're dying," Jono shared, "but I'm beyond caring. Provided I can make my way back up the stairs tonight without breaking a leg or something, I'm absolutely planning to get back into my bed to sleep."

Or as close to sleep as he ever managed. Which wasn't generally anything resembling restful.

"So help me, I will zap you just so you can get a decent night sleep."

Still a telepath as a unicorn-pony? Oh yes. Diamond, however, did not seem to be working properly, probably because her mutation had decided that being a unicorn was close enough for this weekend.

And that was the most sour look that a fluttery pony could possibly muster, right there. And the hell of it was, Jono wasn't sure if that was because he didn't like having his head poked around in, or if it was the insinuation that he needed to be zapped in the first place.

Maybe both? Both seemed fair.

"That won't be necessary, Emma," he settled on, pawing almost anxiously at the floor with one hoof. "I get sleep now and again. Otherwise, I'm used to being up."

Unicorns, however, we shockingly good at Looks.

"I'm not digging, Jono," she informed him haughtily. "I just haven't gotten out of the habit of not needing to shield around you. You still feel the same to me," and since she couldn't tap her head, she tossed her mane, "-- and I was never concerned about you taking anything you picked up with your own telepathic talents and using it to hurt me. That's not who you are."

"If it will make you feel better if I ignore your surface thoughts, I will. But I don't like treating you differently."

Jono eyed her for a moment, and then huffed a sigh, looking down at the floor.

"No, there's no need," he decided, and he meant that. He trusted her, trusted that she wasn't going to go burrowing in more deeply than whatever he left sitting out in the open like dirty laundry. "I've just been a little..."

He frowned. Couldn't quite put a word to it without unleashing a jumble that made no sense at all.

"They moved into my brain, Emma. Moved in, cleaned house, and kept what they figured was useful. It's difficult to make the distinction, sometimes, even when it's somebody I trust."

"The Clinic pumped me so full of drugs it turned my brain inside-out and against me until I went utterly mad, and I still can't separate out fact from hallucination from nightmare," Emma shared, taking a half-step closer to him. "Or what things in my head belonged to other people. And they didn't even mean to do it."

"...Well, they DID mean to do it, they just had no idea that they were doing it to a telepath. So I get it, a bit. That doesn't mean I have to like it, or not want to fix it."

"If it was as easy as just flipping a few switches, Emma, I'd almost be happy to let you."

Almost. Almost. But between the false memories that had been forced into him before, and the crawling, leering feeling of Apocalypse in his guts, it would probably be more than a quick in-and-out operation. Even if his own stubbornness meant that he was convinced that this was his own personal hurdle to jump.

"I can try to bite it back a bit. Make it less surface thoughts, while you're nearby..."

"Please, I'm putting Hank's utterly shattered brain back together bit-by-bit, I know this sort of thing isn't easy. If it was, every two-bit psychic wannabe would be offering 'healing' or whatever," Emma sniffed. "Tell you what, think of me as optional camomile tea. Around if you want a nudge towards dreamland, but nice and natural."

"As to the rest, don't bother. I'll just ignore your running narrative unless you're screaming for help." Beat. "I'll try to remember to ignore you."

How in the world did a pony manage a wry grin? Either way, Jono did, along with a small, grateful sort of nod.

"I... don't scream as often as I used to, for what it's worth," he offered, after a moment. "I'm not as likely to be the cause of an inordinate number of headaches in the future."

He hoped. Mostly, these days, the lack of screaming was a result of a lot of carefully practised, tamping down, especially after taking Karla on the guided tour of the moment he'd really lost himself. He didn't scream, because screaming hadn't been an option.

"I might take you up on that offer for sleep yet," he added. "At least... just a nudge."

"Mostly-harmless Emma, that's me," she agreed cheerfully, tossing her mane. "Well, sometimes."

"Although have you tried good-screaming lately? It would be one way to tire yourself out that isn't running laps or self-punishment."

"I suppose I do at least have the lungs for it," Jono noted, tilting his head a little bit in thought. "Just for taking a breath and really letting loose. I suppose it just... hadn't really occurred to me, before."

A lot of things had occurred to him as things that he could do with a whole body, now that he had one. Strangely, screaming like a lunatic hadn't been on the list.

... Screaming while wearing his collar was a different story entirely.

That wasn't the sort of screaming Emma had meant, but hey, whatever worked.

"You have lungs," she agreed instead. "And a throat, mouth, and taste-buds. Which means self-medication by way of alcohol is occasionally acceptable as well, so long as we have good company and someone to bail us out of jail."

Jono didn't like letting himself scream that other way. He was worried that if he got started, he'd just fail to stop.

"And that last bit would be the really important one," he noted, smiling just the slightest amount. "Knowing us, we'd last maybe a couple of hours before really needing it, too."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Boards, Saturday, All Day

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject