fandomtownies | The Boards, Saturday, All Day

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The Boards, Saturday, All Day

Jonothon was tired clear through to the bone today as he slogged down to the Boards office to sort through papers and to try to figure out what in the name of hell he was going to do with the rest of the season. The Drama class at the school was most likely to be making use of the facility in December, which meant that this season wasn't a total wash, but losing the manager and actual director of their projected Autumn show had hurt the theatre season in ways that were only now becoming clear as he looked at the backlog of paperwork.

By some miracle, at least, he'd been able to arrange his finances so that he was working on paying off the building himself. As for the actual upkeep and the creative pursuits of the business itself... Well, between working here, at the school, doing radio broadcasts on Tuesdays, and running back to New York between all of that in order to run around like a costumed idiot...

"I really need to hire some sort of assistant manager."

Jono was going to spend the rest of his day trying to draft up half-decent want-ads while not falling asleep face-first in his coffee. As for the rest of the season... he supposed he was going to have to try making ends meet by really promoting the recording studio and extra rental space in the building's basement.

[Open Boards, OCD-free!]

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Kenzi had a mocha, and a cappuchino in hand when she wandered into Jonothon's office. "Hey, dude. Chocolate or caramel today?"

"Caramel," Jono decided, peering at his paperwork for a moment longer before looking up toward Kenzi with a little smile. "And thank you, luv. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company today?"

"Bored," Kenzi freely admitted, handing over the cappuchino. "Wondering what the next project is. Wasn't crazy last weekend, so I got good pix." She grinned. "Were you all melodramatic and crazy-cakes?"

"I was a priest," Jonothon deadpanned, breaking the stoicism only a moment later in order to smirk. "And the Boards were temporarily converted into an orphanage. You don't even want to know how many children I had to make pancakes for on Monday morning."

Hint: It was many.

Kenzi chortled and slurped her drink, highly entertained. "Were there cheerful orphans singing about housework? Were there cartoon birdies? Tell me there were dance numbers."

"No dance numbers," Jono sighed, shaking his head sadly. "It was all very tragic. Except for the way all of the kids had constant fidgets, like perhaps they'd done this a dozen times before and just wanted to go for a break or something."

Low-budget child actors.

"That's what happens when you promise them a cookie to behave," Kenzi said sagely. "You live to regret it. At least you didn't get married? Nobody came by to corrupt you as a priest, did they?"

Cough. No reason. Although she did owe Seifer and e-mail....

Oh, the last time Jono had seen Seifer on one of those weekends had been the first time he'd ever slept with a man.

Also, the last time. He was clinging to that fact.

"Corrupt, not entirely," he replied. "I did have a long chat with Cade about the perils of a life of sushi and temptation. And I was extorted out of my coffee beans by some girl, likely a student, who could make fire with her hands."

So there had definitely been some corruption involved, somewhere in there!

"Sushi? Suuuushi." Hmm, now she knew where she was gonna get her next take-out order from. "Why don't I ever get superpowers for a weekend? I swear, it's fun to be the only grown-up, or sane person, but I'd like to have super-strength or be able to fly without being a pony just once, you know?"

"Careful what you wish for," Jono replied, eyebrow raising a little. "The first superpowers I ever had cost me half my body."

And now he made do with pretty toys that simulated superpowers. Which were also good.

Kenzi grimaced in apology for that; and no tasting things for ages too. That would suck. "Okay, I take ti back..." Hear that, Fandom?

Fandom declined to comment.

"But I'm gonna miss the crazy of this place... Unless I figure out how to stay here after Graduation." Possible? Maybe? Would Bo kick her out if she moved into her tub?

"You're a senior this year, aren't you?" Jono frowned a little at the thought. "I don't imagine it would be too difficult to set up a place in town and keep a job around here, luv. But even I went back to my world for a while before coming back."

Going home had been a mistake, in retrospect. But it had happened.

"Well, yeah. And visit my aunts and cousins, maybe. Some of the old crew." Hey, this would mean her record in Canada would be sealed, wouldn't it? That had been the deal, school instead of juvie. Woo!

"I got the Caritas job, and the 'Dite's job. And I could find somewhere to crash. Toby's still here for another couple years...." She slurped her mocha, licked a foam mustache off her lip. "What did you do when you went back to your world?"

"Back to my world?" Oh, wow, that was a complicated answer to try to piece together. "I went back to school for a bit, then found my way to London. Ran around with a pop star for a few weeks, and when that fell through I took a job doing teaching aide work at the sister school to the one I went to in Massachusetts."

All technically true!

"And then I got a soul-sucking government job that haunts me to this day, and decided after that was through and my sick leave was up that I'd probably be better off here."

He'd gone to one school to become a better soldier, ran away from the heroing business but was used and abused by a pop star in order to further her career with the scandal that being seen around a mutant would cause. He joined the X-Men for a bit and helped teach a few classes there, and then he was mind-wiped and used as a hit-man by Weapon X until M-Day left him literally hollowed-out and on life support for months.

Jono was a creative truth-teller, sometimes.

"Pop star? But it didn't work out? Suuuck," Kenzi commiserated, knowing how much he cared about music. "Never, ever work for the government. Never ever ever. But yay, back here and teaching and managing and stuff." She toasted him with her drink, considering. "So hey, you never finished college? That's encouraging."

Jono gave Kenzi a wry smile at that, even as he shook his head.

"I went to university for about a week," he shared. "I was shot six times point-blank in the chest and by the time I left, I'd managed to accidentally convince the Empire State University to stop allowing mutants to attend classes there. It would probably be for the best to not take too much encouragement from the likes of me in that regard."

It had... really not been one of his prouder moments.

"Holy shit," Kenzi boggled. Then blinked. "Just because you were blue!?" What the fuck, stupid people???

"Well, more because I was on fire from the lower jaw down to my belt, at the time." But the basic idea was about the same, at least. "I'd gone undercover, trying to find out what really happened to some mutant students who had been killed at what more or less amounted to a clubhouse meeting for a human-mutant alliance. As it turns out, some people don't like mysteries like that one being solved."

In retrospect, it had turned out so much less poorly than some of the things he'd done since.

Kenzi double-face-palmed. Through her fingers, she said, "Dude. The people going undercover should not be people just like the ones that got killed... And I am really glad you're okay now and holy crap your world sounds even weirder than mine."

Jono wasn't going to be the one to point out that the reason he was going undercover was because the people who were investigating, all baseline humans, weren't inclined to actually care what had happened.

"For what it's worth, my world sounds weirder than a lot of other realities out there," he offered. "Perhaps someday I'll tell you about the time I rode around on the back of a headless T-Rex at the behest of a chain-smoking giant weasel in a leather jacket."

He couldn't make this up if he tried.

"I wanna do that!"

Jonothon, why do you taunt her with possibilities?

"Well, first you have to be more or less kidnapped by a Pooka..."

Which he'd always thought was a giant invisible bunny, thanks to a movie that had come out when he was younger. But apparently he'd been mistaken.

"I was hit by a train that same day, so it wasn't exactly the greatest of experiences I've ever had."

"Awwwww... how do you have this life? Shootings, trains, T-Rexes." Yes. She was jealous. Glad she wasn't the one getting hurt. But jealous all the same. "Wait, pooka, I know this one! Horses that drown you! We had a class on that, thank you, Trick."

"Horses that drown you," Jono echoed, bemused. "Probably, somewhere. The giant talking weasel said that he was one, but I'm fairly certain he was halfway mad, too."

Not shocking, exactly.

"You wouldn't believe half the places I've been. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps that's for the best."

Kenzi cocked her head. "So you came back here, to the place that turns you into a priest looking after orphans... No, that does make perfect sense. You can count on the crazy ending eventually, here."

"So far as I'm aware, nobody here has ever died of the insanity," Jonothon agreed. "At least... not without coming back. I'm fairly certain half the population of the island died last weekend at least two or three times."

Fandom.

"I should've gotten into the funeral business," Kenzi mourned. "Think how much I could've gotten from people hiding bodies that were going to come back anyway."

"Really, that's quite the job security," Jono mused. "Just imagine how many funerals would have happened list weekend."

"See? Maybe I should go into the mortuary business." It had to be an easy way to grave-rob. Especially in Fandom. "Naaah. Although, putting make-up on dead bodies could be fun." And look, she was already Goth enough for it!

"You wouldn't have to worry about them blinking while you try to pretty up their eyes," Jono mused, because why not take a turn for the morbid?

And then he blinked, himself.

"Though might I recommend running if they do?"

"True!... um. Yeah. That would be a cause for screaming and running to hide behind Bo." Kenzi grinned and hopped off his desk. "Meanwhiles. Anything I can do around here for the next awesome star-studded production?"

"If and when we ever have one of those again?" Jono glanced down at his half-written want-ads, and then shook his head. He was looking to hire an adult for the assistant manager position, preferably. One who wasn't juggling school and two jobs already.

He decided to not mention any of that.

"We probably won't be putting on a proper production here until the spring," he shared. "I've still got the script floating around this mess somewhere, but it calls for a fairly straightforward set and costumes are something we can piece together from what we've already got in the back room. How are you at stage make-up, though? And perhaps props-wrangling? It'll be a moot point until next year, granted, but I can't exactly juggle everything on my own."

Smart. Because Kenzi would've made puppy-dog eyes at him for the job, if for no other reason than the caramel cappuchino she'd handed over.

"Oh please." She buffed her nails on her shirt, looking smug. "I am aces at that stuff. I can make anyone look good. Or at least not bad. And I can find props anywhere!"

She might even ask first!

"I'll be wanting receipts for the props, of course," Jonothon noted. "So that I can reimburse you for the cost of them."

And because he'd met her, and all.

"I am shocked, just shocked... no, I'm not," Kenzi admitted, cheerful. "Fiiiine. But I'm gonna remind you of that if I can find something cheaper somewhere without receipts."

Jono raised his eyebrow at her at that, yes.

"I suppose that would depend on where that somewhere is," he decided, finally. "If you can find the same thing cheaper and they don't offer receipts, just let me know where and I'll pick it up myself. I can't reimburse you without a receipt, after all."

A beat.

"Or pay you for your time."

Yes, this was Jonothon attempting to bribe Kenzi into not breaking the law for the sake of The Consequence of Being Frank.

"...works," Kenzi decided, bouncing for the door. "You text me the list, I'll get started in the new year. When it's, you know, time." She toasted him with her cup. "Anything else?"

"You're the one who stopped in to visit me," Jono pointed out, smirking a little. "I think I ought to be the one asking you that, hm?"

Which was to say, he really didn't have anything else to say off the top of his head, no.

"Byyyyyyyye!"

That answered that non-question, hunh.

Kenzi popped her head back in for a second. "Laters. With chai."

"Have a good day, Kenzi," Jonothon replied, raising his coffee in a sort of toast-turned-salute before having himself a mouthful of it.

And now he'd just need a minute. Lord, that caramel was good.

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The Boards, Saturday, All Day

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