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The Boards, Monday Morning

Photocopy machines were the devil.

Jonothon had made a list on Saturday after the welcome picnic of things that he needed to do now that he'd been relegated to island life again in order to heal and, apparently, teach. It had started with making copies of the fliers that Karla had requested, moved on into writing a syllabus for his class and finally settling on a script for the autumn production at the Boards, and somewhere in there he was planning on picking up his cat from April. After all, it was looking like he was going to be stuck here for a while, and there was no sense in making her petsit Joni for much longer if he was here anyway.

He'd gotten a little hung up on step one, though. For a start, it had been nigh impossible to find a place on the island that would make literally thousands of copies of something on zero notice on a long weekend. It was a small island. Options were somewhat limited in that regard, and making a trek into Baltimore was right out. He could have used the school's resources, but even he couldn't condone commandeering the photocopier for an entire weekend, and he wasn't in any shape to try to stare down an office moose anyway.

Which meant that he had to use the ancient thing at the Boards, that had previously been used to copy off music sheets and the like. It was old, it was slow, and sixty-three paper jams, fourteen toner cartridges, every last package of printer paper for sale on the island, a 'PC load letter' error message that took him hours to decipher, and nearly two full days later, Jono was finally finished his task and wishing that he was back in Glacia fighting in the war. It seemed far less likely to kill him, at this rate.

He would worry about the rest of the things on his list some other time. For now, he was going to just sleep. Right there on the floor of his office at the Boards. Surrounded by cases of fliers and dreaming about throwing office equipment out of windows.

[OOC: I had to. Open for visitors, though availability will be spotty through the day!]

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Food in hand, Dinah headed over to the Boards to see how Jono was doing.

"...okay, this is just sad."

"Ghnn...?"

Oh. Right. Humans. Those were a thing that existed, weren't they? Jono gave a fuzzy shake of his head, and then looked up, bleary-eyed, at the figure in the doorway.

"... S'not that sad. Look. I got work done."

He sat and waved a hand toward the boxes that were stacked up around him. See? Progress. Propaganda in Karla's favour, to be distributed freely among the citizens of Glacia. Not sad. Good. Right?

... Yes?

All of this eloquent waving really deserved a double-facepalm. So Dinah put the dish down and did just that.

"You're sleeping on the floor, when I know you have one upstairs, and you're still recovering!" She sighed. "Yay. Work. Karla will be so thrilled."

She would. And kinda appalled, too.

"Need help getting up?"

"I can get to my feet just fine, Dinah," Jono grumbled. "I'm not an invalid, you know."

He was just perfectly comfortable down here on the floor. It was precisely where he had intended to be. See? Good?

"Printing these off took longer than I expected, and I wanted to have them done before whenever you head back to Kaeleer," he explained, planting a hand on one of the boxes and slowly starting to work his way to standing. "I... I hate to say this, but I'll probably need a few more days... or so. Before I can head back there for any length of time."

He really, really hated to say it, and he wore that fact as plain as day in the expression on his face.

"Which is even longer there. Anything could happen between now and when I'm well enough to fight again."

Edited 2013-09-02 21:26 (UTC)

"Yeah, I know." Dinah stood a little closer. Didn't offer a hand. But she was there as a hand-hold if he needed it. Also, maybe that TK was on stand-by in case he slipped.

"It'll be almost a week back there tomorrow, That's when I'm going back, in the morning. I'll arrange to have them shipped with Portalocity. They're usually better with packages than people...Did you eat?"

She was betting on no. Especially since she didn't see Joni around to remind him that people did that kind of thing.

"... There were some near-expired crisps in the concession area," Jono ventured, motioning awkwardly toward a half-empty potato chip bag in the garbage by the door. "Though I can't imagine that counts, exactly."

Especially since he hadn't been able to finish it. Swallowing was easier now thanks to Yeul's potion, but eating still hurt.

"Nooooo, it doesn't. Especially when I brought one of Priestly's yummy delicious soups. He might be stopping by in a while too." The guy did have a diner to run. Even if he had help. "If you sit, I'll scrounge up spoons and drinks." She sighed as she wandered off, still within voice range. "You didn't have to do it all in one weekend, you know!"

"The sooner it gets done, the sooner we can take measures to prevent it from happening again," Jono pointed out, about as loudly as he dared. "I watched what it did to people as they ran into the smoke, Dinah. If this is all I'll ever be able to do to avenge them..."

Really, he couldn't possibly have printed them fast enough.

Dinah came back in with a soup spoon and two glasses of water, setting them down and taking the lid off the dish. The delicious smell of soup was filling the room in seconds.

"I get it. I do. I just don't think they'd want you to break yourself in the attempt." She grimaced. "But. It's done now, so. I won't be mentioning this to Karla. Or Raven. Or... you know, anyone who would feel compelled to come back here." She paused. "As long as you sit down and eat this yummy soup."

Blackmail? .. .no, of course she wasn't above blackmail.

"At least you got some sleep." On the floor. Seriously, Jonothon.

He'd slept in far worse places over the course of his lifetime!

"... I suppose that isn't too tall a task," he sighed, flopping down in the seat at his desk, and then gesturing for Dinah to pull up another chair, if she wanted. "There's no need to narc me out to the Glacian Healer contingent, honestly."

Quite possibly because he wouldn't survive if she did.

"Yeah, yeah." Dinah didn't want to find herself so in sympathy with him on that. She knew she wasn't the best judge of when people were recovered enough not to need fussing, including herself right now. Maybe she should be more threatening herself? She took a sip of the water, watching him get settled. "It's good to be back here, though. Isn't it?" Even if it had made her unsettled in all sorts of ways.

"It's the closest to home I've had in years," Jon replied, looking thoughtfully at the soup. It would definitely go down more easily than the crisps had, at least. "So, so far as that goes, I suppose it is. It doesn't feel right, though. I've been in on this war since before the beginning. One bad case of smoker's lung later and I'm chased not only out of the territory, but out of the entire bloody reality."

And with some bad blood between himself and some of the people back there, too. That wasn't sitting well with him.

"Not for good," Dinah felt compelled to point out. "Just 'til you get better. And only because you need it. You're too compulsive to be there without doing anything, so." She shrugged, then gave the multitude of flyers a pointed look. "Just sayin', dude." She tilted her head, studying him. "What should I tell them, other than you got the job done, you're teaching, and you didn't sleep on the floor?"

"There's really not much else to say, except that I'm home, I'm still angry about that fact, but at least I can concede that all I am right now is a liability," Jono sighed, reaching for his spoon. "Tell Karla to call me the instant anything develops, though? I don't want to be left in the dark about what's going on there. I'm too bloody invested in this."

"I will if she doesn't." Dinah leaned back, putting her feet up on one pile of paper. "I get that. Invested. I don't want to go back, but I do, because I want to finish it. I want to see what happens with my own eyes..." She gave Jono an apologetic look. "But short of taking you back in a plastic bubble, I don't think they're gonna go for that."

"No," Jono conceded. "I suppose they're not."

Which broke his heart more than a little, but he wasn't going to let it show as anything more than a sort of heavy fatigue, creeping over his features.

"Where do you suppose we can find a plastic bubble large enough?"

He was only half joking.

"Amazon?" Dinah's lips quirked up. "Maybe? They have everything else... How's the soup?" Seriously delish, if she knew Priestly.

"It's..." He was going to have to actually get some of it into his mouth before he could answer that question, wasn't he? Jono frowned a moment and did just that.

... And then kind of closed his eyes and savoured it in his mouth for a moment. Because tasting it was something amazing. Swallowing it was going to be a whole different challenge.

In the meantime, she was getting a thumbs-up.

Dinah snickered, and returned the gesture, watching him eat for a minute.

"I've spent the last two days with Priestly coddling me. Food and sleep and junk TV. He's been seriously great about it. Even let me do his nails." Priestly usually liked to do his own nails! "I feel just about human enough to go back and hang on now." And a touch guilty for even doing that much, when she wasn't the one that got hurt.

Jono glanced up from his soup, which he was eating, slowly but surely, now.

"I'd trade you if I could," he noted. "I'm the soldier out of the two of us. Seems... wrong, somehow, that I'm the one sitting here while you and Momoko are throwing yourselves into this war. You're heroes, there's no doubt about that, but this... this is something different."

"I know you would," Dinah said, humor gone. "But I knew what could..." No, she hadn't really. Dinah leaned forward, her hair in her face. "I knew it would get ugly," she offered. "I just didn't know what kind of ugly." She shook her head, pushed her hair back. "What's a hero, anyway? I don't think I know any more. They're all heroes. Momoko and I don't get out of it because we're not soldiers." Dinah huffed. "I'm so bad at words. But all those people, the citizens that live there; they don't get out of it either. Some of them are just better at realizing it."

She patted his arm. "Here's hoping the Xerox Plan of Overkill works, that's all."

"Honestly," Jonothon murmured, "for all I want to fly back there and storm Sidra personally, for all of the horrible things I've been thinking of doing to Hobart for what he's done to those people..." He swallowed, and then hitched a shoulder. "I'm about ready for something to end peacefully, for a change. It would be... I mean..."

He looked around at the boxes, bit his lip, and then slumped forward a little in his seat.

"I'm not holding my breath for this to work," he admitted, quietly. "It's the pessimist in me, I know. Maybe this'll sweep across Glacia and win Karla the war. But even if and when it does, I'll always be waiting for that other shoe to drop. It always does. It always has, at least, for me."

Dinah put an arm around his shoulder. "Tell you a secret?... me too." She made a face. "Maybe not as much of a pessimist. Because I hope, I hope I hope I hope, that people will wake up and..." Smell the witchblood? Right. "Realize. That things have to change. But I am so tired of the fighting. And so many are dead already." She let out a breath. "But then I think of all the futures we've seen where Karla is Queen. Even if things don't go perfectly." Half of them with her unable to walk; half with her able to... "I get that there has to be a future out there where she's not Queen. But I think there's still reason to believe."

"After all we've been through, what a sorry bloody joke it would be if this was that one universe where we lost the war," Jono scoffed, staring down into his soup bowl. "I don't think even I can entertain that thought for long. We'll win. Even if this propaganda campaign doesn't do it. We'll keep going, so long as we're alive to do so."

A moment's pause, and then he was slumping again.

"So long as we're alive, and actually in Kaeleer to do this," he amended.

Dinah gave him a kiss on the cheek, and leaned against him. "Eat your soup."

After a minute, she said, "If the war lasts long enough for you to get better, we'll really, really need you to come back then. And if it doesn't, the Healers will still let you go back, and see how everything gets resolved. You won't be left out of that." She'd try to make sure of that much, at least.

"Your soldiers will want to see you, when they get to muster out."

It was nice, to comfort someone else, after a weekend of being comforted.

Which reminded her.... "Do you know the kid that works at Demon Marcus on Sundays?"

Jono blinked up at her curiously at the topic change.

"The fancy clothing store in town? I'm afraid not. I've never been in there. Not exactly a big fan of expensive suits and the like. Why do you ask?"

Dinah swallowed, but at least she could keep her voice steady. She hadn't managed that when she told Priestly. "I went in to get something to cheer me up. Or a present for the others. And scared the hell out of the poor clerk. Vampire Me killed him in the dungeons, months ago. I think... he's someone that could use a hug. Or some help."

Jono listened, frowning thoughtfully as she spoke.

"I'll ask around," he settled on. "See if anybody knows the lad. I have my doubts that anyone in that situation wants a hug from a hulking blue stranger, but if I can find one of his friends, I'll let them know what went on. Get them to check up on him."

It wasn't progress toward winning the war, but it was something to focus on. Something productive to do. Jono needed that, desperately.

Two birds. One stone. A winner was Dinah. If only she felt like it.

"Thanks," she said, still somewhat subdued. "I told him I'd be gone after tomorrow. And my name. So. Maybe he won't be hiding in the dorm under his bed by then. Or trying to crawl through a wall. And... yeah. I dunno."

Of course, if Dinah had known there was someone with her face wandering around, this optimistic assessment would've been much less so.

Yeah, Tamsin was probably not going to be good for Sparkle's sense of security here on the island. At all.

"If nothing else... The actual damage was done months ago, and people who stick around here after those things are surprisingly resilient. You might've started him, luv. Maybe even terrified him. But if he's still around here, he'll recover. Especially if what happened is as bad as I imagine it was."

Dinah gave a sad little snort. "Bad. Yeah." She stared at his soup, and said, "Karla and Priestly ran into her there too. Priestly killed her. Which was fair, since she killed him four years ago." She shook her head. "I told the kid that too. Maybe it helped. I hope it did... I just wish, just once, that I could run into her. Not anyone else. When I'm not in her body."

Because if the bitch had to come back, it was only fair that Dinah take her down without any banter or any kind of discussion. Just dead. Whomp.

Edited 2013-09-03 00:22 (UTC)

Jono made a small scoffing sound, and then made a gesture to match with his spoon.

"Keep visiting this place, and you might very well get your chance, someday," he noted. "Stranger things have happened."

And more horrible ones.

"Point." Dinah nudged his shoulder. "I'm not going to stop visiting, though." She sobered again. "I know in my head I didn't hurt that kid. So why do I still feel bad about it? And still want to kill her?"

"Because," Jono replied, a little more softly than before, "he looked at your face and he saw the monster that hurt him. Doesn't matter how innocent you are, how completely unlike you what he did really was. You're that murderer's opposite, luv, and you feel like you have to atone for the hurt that was committed in your name. Especially when it reaches back and causes people to recoil from you in fear."

Voice of experience, Jonothon Evan Starsmore.

"Yeeeeah." Dinah hugged him again, voice tight.

"...kinda hopeless, isn't it." She closed her eyes, let herself relax a little. It made her think of Glacia. "Just like killing Hobart won't undo all of the war. I hope we get to put him on trial. Hope we get to put people's nightmares in a box, a prison cell or a coffin, I don't care as much which. But it won't bring back Yllestad." She was silent again, thinking of Denys, the girls who died in Arundal, the people in their army who'd died, those empty villages.... "Nothing can."

Edited 2013-09-03 00:43 (UTC)

Jono leaned against her slightly. He was feeling a little more human now that he had food in him, but he wasn't quite up to returning a hug yet.

"Nothing can," he agreed. "But we can do all in our power to make damn sure that nothing like these atrocities ever happen again."

"Works," Dinah decided. "Including Xeroxes and millions and skillions of copies." A thoughtful pause. "Did you Xerox your face in there anywhere?"

"... There might be one or two. I think I fell asleep on the copier, once."

A beat.

"Managed to resist the urge to throw in a few candid copies of my arse, for what it's worth."

Barely.

"Karla's gonna be so disappointed. And Raven." Dinah dimpled at him. "Not too late to include some!"

"You really want me to drop trou right here and now to provide? I'm not even finished my soup, you know."

And Karla probably didn't want to see his behind.

Even if it was a fantastic behind.

"Eat your soup. I can always come back for those later."

Yes she was kidding.

Mostly.

He might feel better if he mooned Karla long-distance, though.

Karla and Raven both. He understood why he was here, but that didn't mean he was required to be thrilled about it.

"I'll make extra copies," he decided, and then paused for another spoonful of soup before continuing. "If the pamphlets you've got don't work, you can just pass pictures of my bottom around and then ask people if they really want to remain on the bad side of a bloke with such shapely glutes."

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The Boards, Monday Morning

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