The Park, Sunday Afternoon

[furnaceface]

There was nothing quite like a couple of days of reinforced muteness to get Jono feeling a bit introspective. The new artistic talents were fine and well, but he'd take the ability to communicate over being handy with an aerosol can any day of the week.

How that led to him sitting at a park bench with his flames in full view (all the better for getting across that he obviously wasn't going to be the most talkative person on the island) and a bag of bread in hand was anybody's best guess. Obviously he hadn't bought it for himself, no. There was just something... therapeutic about feeding the ducks around here. And if after a while that happened to turn into some quiet sketching on the little notepad he sometimes carried around with writing music in mind? The ducks were interesting artistic subjects, he supposed. And the person who was feeding them in the sketch...

Well, she was nobody that most people around here would recognize these days, anyway.

[OOC: All kinds of open, though Jono's obviously not going to be big on conversation today.]

Comments

[voiceoverdue]

After finally eventually managing to wake up a bit, Cecil - looking and feeling a bit more rumpled than usual - made his way to the park so Foucault could stretch his still-growing legs. He was pink and almost Cecil's height now.

It took Cecil a moment to see the flames, then a moment longer to realize what they were, then a moment longer than that to realize who they were. Shut up, he was tired.

Once he did, though, he hurried over to sit next to Jono. "Hi! Um. I guess you can't talk. Do you know what to do about..." he flapped his hand around as if catching the words, "this?" He pulled his knees up and huddled over them, half in exhaustion and half because it was still cold. "I think I kind of got your talking, but I'll give it back if you know how!"

[furnaceface]

Oh, Cecil. If Jonothon had the answer to your question...

... Well, he still wouldn't be able to give it to you very easily, would he? He glanced down at his notebook, gave his shoulder a shrug, and then flipped to the next page, putting pencil to paper to write, rather than draw.

Keeping you awake, is it?

Jono knew exhaustion quite well when he saw it, thank you.

[voiceoverdue]

"Maybe? I don't know...is that it? It's like," he screwed up his face trying to think of a good way to put it. "Noisy," he finally finished weakly.

[furnaceface]

Well, that got a slight raise of Jono's eyebrows. Not because of what Cecil said. He knew quite well just how 'noisy' all of the ambient thought around the island could get, particularly in the dorms. More because it had come out in a somewhat awkward, if succinct sort of way.

Noisy, he agreed with a nod. It'll probably fix itself before long. In the meantime, have you ever done any meditation, Cecil?

[voiceoverdue]

"Um...sort of. A couple times. Does that help?"

He sighed. "I hope it gets fixed, though! I feel mean." //I took your only way of talking! I didn't mean to, but still!//

Oops.

"I...um...said that, didn't I? I didn't mean to! Sorry." Hey, at least this time he'd realized he was doing it.

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked up at Cecil's voice drifting through his head, raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged his shoulders again. He was hardly going to blame the lad for using that power. After all, he'd had it for, what, a day and a half? The control it had taken Jon just to keep from accidentally yelling into people's brains and making their bloody ears bleed had taken him months to learn.

Going to think loudly at you. See if you can hear. Willing to give that a try?

It seemed less awkward than wasting all of his notebook paper, anyhow.

[voiceoverdue]

"Um. Sure!" Cecil nodded. And stared at the side of Jono's head like that would help. Hey, it might!

[furnaceface]

... Eh, whatever made the boy happy.

'Test, one, two? Can you hear this, mate?'

He wasn't quite yelling his thoughts, no, but he was definitely thinking them firmly, with Cecil as a focus. He had no damn clue whether it would work or not. But it was always worth a try.

[voiceoverdue]

"Oo!" Cecil blinked. "I heard that! You're good and loud." And focusing on Jono helped the other noise fade a bit, which was awfully nice.

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded, thankful, at least, that there was that much. He closed his notebook again and tucked it away into his pocket.

'Good. Keep your mind trained on this, then. I'm going to try to walk you through a few exercises I was taught to help keep some of the extra patter out of your head, if you're up for it.'

[voiceoverdue]

"I'll try. I'm pretty tired. But if I can't, I'll be more tired tomorrow! Um. Unless it...goes away. Or whatever."

[furnaceface]

'Wouldn't mind too much if it came back my way,' Jono noted, shrugging. 'Here, we'll start you off with an easy one. Close your eyes and clear your mind, mate. Just focus on my thoughts, and doing what I'm telling you to. Picture yourself in a white space.'

Walking through mindscapes with Emma and Cable and very occasionally Karla was hopefully going to pay off. Not that he'd doubted it would, but he really hadn't thought he'd be talking someone else through this, either.

[voiceoverdue]

"Me, neither!" Cecil answered decisively. He didn't really like telepathy much. "It's...kind of a lot. Plus, I can talk anyway. Um, usually." He rolled his eyes at himself before closing them.

"Can I make it gray? White is awfully bright."

[furnaceface]

... Sure. Why not? Jono really couldn't think of any reason why grey would be less effective than white, so he shrugged.

'Sure. Picture yourself in a grey space, then. Whatever you're most comfortable in, just so long as it's empty otherwise.'

This was going to be one of those things, wasn't it?

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil immediately pictured the radio booth back home. "No furniture or anything?" he asked reluctantly.

[furnaceface]

'Cecil.'

Jono was going to beat his forehead against a nearby tree, at this rate.

'Fine. What are you picturing, then?'

[voiceoverdue]

//My booth back home. At the radio station. With my mike and soundboard and all,// Cecil confessed. //But I can do void! Void, and then brighter.// He nodded.

[furnaceface]

For the first time in over a day, Jono actually managed a sigh that at least somebody could hear.

'Picture yourself wherever you're most comfortable,' he settled on. 'Doesn't make that much difference. You've got doors and things in there, I take it? Soundproofed radio booth?'

Telling somebody to reinforce their mindspace with soundproofed walls was trickier when the walls in their mindspace already didn't let noise in. Jono would work with it anyway.

[voiceoverdue]

//Yep!// Cecil grinned, relieved. //Well, mostly. People don't always pay attention to the ON AIR sign. I mean, can't they read? But otherwise.//

Cecil would've apologized for passing on his headache if he'd known, but hey - that was where he was most comfortable!

[furnaceface]

'That'll do, then. Picture yourself sitting in your radio booth. The ON AIR sign's off and there's nothing to broadcast. Not yet. You're just setting in for the start of your day. Cup of coffee, whatever you need to just get yourself in that place.'

He hoped. Please?

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil nodded. He could do that! He possibly hummed a little to himself as he pictured it, relaxing.

[furnaceface]

Oh, Cecil. Jonothon gave his head a little shake. Who was he to argue with whatever made the lad happy?

'Nice and calm in there, right? Nice and quiet? I want you to focus on that quiet, Cecil. Reinforce it in your mind. No sound gets into that room unless you open the door and let it. Lock the door to keep it out if you need to. It's just you, in your booth, and the world and all of the noise it brings is out there, on the other side of the walls.'

[voiceoverdue]

Cecil nodded and did his best. He made sure all the soundproofing was intact, and he locked the door, and he closed the curtain to the section outside where the interns sat. And he...well, it was his head, right? So Station Management was in a really good mood and being perfectly quiet.

He hoped they never found out he'd done that.

//Okay.//

[furnaceface]

'Okay. Now just sit and listen. Aside from me, what do you hear inside that booth of yours?'

Come oooon, mental soundproofing.

[voiceoverdue]

//Equipment humming and the blood rushing through my ears,// Cecil answered promptly. //Oh, um.// He took a deep breath and mentally turned everything off. It was...a little unnerving for it to be dark and quiet, but he reminded himself he could turn it right back on if he needed to! //Just the blood now.//