The Park, Tuesday Evening

[furnaceface]

Jonothon was just the tiniest bit jealous of the ducks. They certainly didn't seem to mind the cold, or the wet, while he was more than a little on the soggy side tonight. Sitting inside by the heat after getting back to his apartment from Hannibal's Lithuanian class didn't seem to do him any good, and toweling wasn't going to happen because apparently he didn't have any towels.

That was new.

So he'd given up. If he was going to be damp anyway, he might as well just be soaked to the bone, sitting in the rain, and having a little space to himself. It wasn't like he could catch a cold, and the ducks were happy, at least. They didn't really get wet in the first place, and he'd brought a bag of bread along for the occasion.

He had a lot to think about.


[OOC: Open for anyone else crazy enough to sit in the dark in the sticky, sticky rain!]

Comments

[trigons_child]

By chance, Raven was walking through the park, not at all avoiding returning to Glacia. She was instead debating going to the Devil's Nest again to escape the rain, or perhaps Caritas tonight.

She stopped short when she saw Jono, and for a split-second, the careful facade she'd built up slipped, and her breath caught in her throat. But she quickly replaced the mask she'd been wearing since waking up as herself once more in Glacia.

"Jonothon!" she said cheerfully. "How wonderful to see you. What are you doing out here in the rain?"

[furnaceface]

Jono glanced up and gave Raven a little nod in greeting, scooting over a little on the bench, in case she wanted to sit, and holding up his bag of bread.

//Feeding the ducks,// he shared. //Figured I was soaked through after Hannibal's Lithuanian class anyway, and... the island doesn't seem to be keen on the idea of me ever being dry again. Might as well just give in to it until it gets over whatever mood this is that it's in. And... yourself?//

This was his way of carefully noting that he was not the only one out in the rain right now. And Raven's cheerful tone wasn't entirely marrying up with Dinah's texts about how she'd fled Glacia after... whatever had happened there had ended.

[trigons_child]

"Merely attempting to decide what to do with my evening," Raven sighed, taking a seat beside Jono on the bench. "Any suggestions? It has been so long since I have spent much time on the island that it feels like I barely recognize it anymore."

[furnaceface]

//I've been back here for months now, and I barely recognize it,// Jono admitted, offering her a slice of bread. //But then, I never really did spend much time in the bars.//

For obvious reasons.

//There might be something playing at the cinema, though they might take exception to people slogging in dripping wet.// Imagine that. //Keep me company for a while? We've been out of touch for too bloody long, and I need help doling all of this out to the ducks.//

[trigons_child]

Raven bumped her shoulder against his. "You know I can never ignore someone in need," she said. "It would not be fair of me to leave you here alone at the mercy of hungry ducks. They might decide they have a taste for you."

She probably shouldn't joke about that. This was Fandom, after all.

[furnaceface]

//Carnivorous ducks would really be the crowning glory of my entire week,// Jonothon replied, shaking his head a little. //Probably deserve it, after chasing off the bloke that made reality go all pear-shaped in the first place.//

Jono had guilt issues again. Surprising nobody.

//I suppose they'd have a long way to go before beating that dinosaur that Hannibal and I stared down last week, mind.//

[trigons_child]

"Yes, I have gathered the island was a mess for some time," Raven said, tearing bits off the bread to toss at the ducks. "I am sorry I was not here to help. Who was responsible?"

[furnaceface]

//A man by the name of Booker,// Jono shared. //Came to the island a long while ago with his infant daughter. Then... something about a plague and a finger, and the weather machine. It was a bloody mess, holes in reality opening left and right.//

He tore off a few pieces of bread for the ducks as well.

//Turning him away from the island probably wouldn't have bothered me as much, I suppose, if not for the baby. They were looking for some sort of sanctuary, and instead they broke the multiverse. Just... I wish we'd had a chance to offer him some other option, I suppose.//

But then, he suspected that his own freakish appearance at the time had been no small part of Booker's decision to avoid the island, after all.

[trigons_child]

Raven frowned. "There was no other way? I am sorry you had to deal with that," she said.

"How are you feeling now? Is there anything I can do?"

[furnaceface]

//Now...?// Jono shrugged. //You missed the worst of it, I think. I lost my head back there.//

A pause.

//Er... literally.//

It seemed sort of important to clarify that.

//It got better.//

[trigons_child]

That was a very confused look Raven was giving him now. "Lost your head? How...?"

[furnaceface]

Jono met that look with a raised eyebrow, something like a wry look in his eye.

//Do you want the alternate reality answer, or the 'how it carried over to me here on the island' answer?//

[trigons_child]

"Whatever it was, I am pleased to see the effects did not last," Raven said.

She had some idea how it might work, since she was very familiar with how the psionic energies kept him alive. And she definitely could imagine how distressing it had to have been.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

It was cold, and it was wet. It sucked. And yet... Jono was really not okay.

Squall had followed him to the park -- at a discrete distance, of course -- and waited a while, so that it would seem like completely random chance when he sat down.

"Hey."

[furnaceface]

//Hey,// Jono replied, sparing Squall a glance, and a nod, and offering him the bag of bread. He wasn't going to call Squall out on conveniently being out for a walk in the pouring rain. Not if he was going to go through the trouble of hanging back in it for so long. //Fabulous weather, innit?//

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall took some bread from the bag, but managed to let it turn into a soggy clump before he tossed it to the ducks. Hopefully they wouldn't mind.

"No, it's not," he replied. "Still better than it was last week, though."

[furnaceface]

//I'll take stubborn rain over harpies and dinosaurs pretty much any day of the week,// Jono agreed, watching the ducks try to figure out what to do with Squall's piece of bread. They seemed to be figuring it out, at least. Ducks rarely cared, when food was involved. //Miserable as it is.//

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall shrugged. "I was disappointed that they didn't drop anything when they died, but they were still fun. That's not what I meant."

[furnaceface]

//Hannibal got some steaks out of a dinosaur I took down. I think that's really all I expected them to drop,// Jono mused.

Skirt around Squall's point? Only for a minute.

//This week... and things being back to normal... is definitely an improvement, though.//

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall nodded... and then something occurred to him. "This... you... you're not being weird about what happened with Rinoa, are you? Don't be stupid."

Not that Squall was okay with it... yet... but he'd berate himself until his actual feelings fell in line with what he'd decided to feel about it.

"You don't have to talk about the rest, either," he added. "Unless you want to."

The other Squall had had a somewhat more healthy childhood but never learned how to have friends. The other Jono... Squall didn't even know where to begin speculating. And the week when Jono was transitioning from one to the other... Squall didn't like thinking about it.

So, basically, the shrug that Squall gave Jono while he was staring at the grass carried the whole weight of "please don't be broken".

[furnaceface]

It was a very eloquent shrug. Jono appreciated it for what it was. Nodded a little. Threw a bit more bread at the ducks.

//It's... partly Rinoa,// Jono allowed. //Partly... a lot of things. There are implications to the whole mess of it that I don't want to really consider too thoroughly. But...//

Well, it was hard not to.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Implications...

Jono had mentioned, before, that he was worried about the nature of what he was -- whether he was even human, whether he could die, whether he was dead already... From Squall's perspective, none of that mattered. But, then, he didn't have to live with it.

Maybe it helped Jono, to have someone who didn't care what he was, or what he turned into?

"You're hard to kill," Squall said. "We knew that already."

[furnaceface]

//I suppose completely vaporizing myself and then getting better was a fairly decent first clue,// Jono allowed, nodding a little. //It's still unsettling, to think that I spent years like that. In the dark and the quiet, wearing a mask where my face was meant to be.//

It was bad enough not having a jaw. A head?

//I suppose, on the one hand... I can afford to be a little more fearless. On the other hand, I have to live with the fallout, if I am.//

That week of adjustment, of being one and the other and both and neither, was a pretty solid indication that he didn't catch on to how to function that way overnight.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"And you have to live with the memories."

Squall stared at the ground some more, and then looked over at Jono. "Don't get too reckless," he cautioned. "I'd rather you have a head."

[furnaceface]

//Believe me,// Jono replied, //there isn't a person in the world who wants me to have a head more than I do.//

Seriously. He'd missed having one. A lot.