fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Thursday

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Groovy Tunes, Thursday

Jono was in a mood today. He'd felt the onset of it yesterday, manifesting itself in a way he barely noticed; that creeping, bleak, choking feeling that he was all too used to already. To Jonothon, feeling nervous and anxious and altogether useless was really just another Wednesday.

But today, something had snapped and twisted that around, and while he couldn't put a finger on what exactly that something was, he was feeling good and riled about it. Wrapping his bandages had taken too much time and effort this morning, and really, why the hell should he wrap his face? For the comfort of others? It was a part of what he was, and fifteen minutes taken out of his day to bind himself up like a mummy so that someone else could feel a little better about themselves was, frankly, stupid.

And then he realized that today was his day to work, and for the love of-- He had better bloody things to do. But he also had to pay bills, and he presumably cared about whether or not his employees got a paycheque, so here. He was at work, placing orders and doing paperwork and tallying people's hours and listening to a lot of very loud, very work-inappropriate music today.

Really, there was probably no excuse for the Cannibal Corpse that was blaring loudly enough to make the walls rattle, but it was keeping Jonothon from burning the building down, which was good, since people lived here. So that was probably a win. Somehow.

Rrgh.

[Open! OCD-free! And I didn't actually link to any of their music, but even the song names on the Wikipedia page are graphic and horribly offensive, click at your own risk.]

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Raven totally wasn't coming to Fandom for a possible booty call. Really. She just felt like taking a break to visit the island for a few days, and naturally wandered in the direction of Groovy Tunes to see what Jono was up to.

The music she heard coming from inside gave her pause, however. It wasn't the loudness or the tempo -- it was the lyrics, so dark and violent. And the anger she felt accompanying it really made her frown. It was Jono-flavored, but at the same time not.

Confused, she stepped inside the store, though she put on a cheery face. The music was loud enough that calling out to Jono was a waste of time, so she made her presence known by sending him the feeling of nails scratching down his back.

Well, that was one way of getting his attention, yes. Jono's eyes widened a little at the sensation, the hair on the back of his neck prickling and his flames sparking white-hot for a moment.

//The hell-- ah.// He turned to face Raven, one eyebrow cocked upwards. //There's one way to say hello, I suppose.//

He was going to be grumpy about it, but he was actually reaching to turn the volume down on the stereo. These were the sacrifices he made for you, Raven. Such hardship.

"Well, it was not as if you would hear me come in," Raven said, keeping her smile despite her concern about the anger she still sensed. And to be honest, there were other ways she could have gotten his attention, but that way was a lot more fun.

"Interesting music," she went on, cocking her head at the stereo. "Is something wrong?"

//No,// Jono snapped, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. Yes, he was aware that Raven hadn't actually done anything to earn his ire, but he was just... so... bloody...

Rrrgh.

//No, there's nothing wrong. It's just one of those days.//

Hence the fire and the loud and the lyrics that talked bluntly about doing rather unspeakable things to people's... unspeakable things... just because.

"I see," Raven said, brow furrowing for a moment as she tried to get a better grasp on his anger. She could feel emotions but not the reason behind them, but this just felt unnatural to her, like it wasn't truly coming from within him.

She gave him a flirtatious smile. "Anything I can do to make the day better?"

The flirtatiousness in her smile wasn't lost on Jono, either, and he found himself balling his hands into fists at his sides, counting to ten.

An offer to do something he actually enjoyed wasn't supposed to piss him off so much. Even he could grasp that.

//Why? Did you have any ideas?//

Maybe he could work some of this frustration off. He doubted it. But hey.

Raven didn't miss that reaction, and she abandoned the flirting for concern now.

"Something is wrong," she said, frowning. "This is not you. It does not feel right."

Oh, that did manage to get Jono's hackles up.

//What's that supposed to mean, 'not me?' I've been not me enough bloody times by now, I should think I'd know the difference.//

... Never mind that he was well aware that he was maybe just a touch more touchy than normal, today.

Raven shook her head. "This anger is not you," she said. "It is coming from you, but at the same time it is not. I think something or someone is influencing you."

A sudden panic seized her. One of her brothers, Jared, controlled Wrath. They hadn't troubled her in some time, but she knew they'd never give up trying to make her join them. And of course they'd go after those she cared for most.

The panic wasn't really helping Jono's mood, either.

//Bloody wonderful. And to what end do you suppose it's doing that? The hell would anybody or anything get out of me sitting here listening to loud music, exactly?//

Ignoring the fact that he was essentially a walking nuclear weapon who could rip powerful beings apart at a subatomic level, and all...

"My brothers," Raven said simply. If they were smart, they wouldn't come at her directly. They go through her friends.

Whether it was them or not, she wasn't going to let this unnatural rage remain. "Let me draw it from you," she said, lifting her hand. "We should dispel its influence first and then figure out who and why."

Jono half-stepped backwards as she lifted her hand, narrowing his eyes at her. It took a moment of trying to reason with himself before rolling his shoulder a little - it had been uncomfortable since he'd woken up yesterday, though he was too anxious then to want to look for the source of the problem, and he was just too angry today to care - and relenting.

Or, really, staying still. Which was as close to relenting as she was going to get from him today.

//Fine,// he replied, his psionic voice a menacing growl. No sudden moves, Raven. //Dispel all you bloody well like.//

Raven moved closer, laying her hand on his arm. She would've preferred to touch his face, but seeing how he didn't have his wrappings on and with his current aggravated mood, she wasn't going to try that.

Closing her eyes, she bent her head and concentrated. Anger was always tricky for her to take in, but if Jono was under the influence of her brother, she had to take the risk. It took her a moment to find the source; emotions usually came from the mind or the heart -- and shut up, Jono, he had one metaphorically -- but this was coming from his...shoulder? She frowned a little, latching on to it to start to draw it into herself. It definitely was a foreign influence, but it didn't feel Trigony, for lack of a better word.

As she tugged the rage into herself, whatever it was rushed back in to fill the void she left behind. It was putting up a fight, and Raven, stubborn as she could be at times, refused to give up. She wasn't going to let it beat her, except by the time she realized it had, she'd taken too much anger into herself. She jerked her hand away and took an uneven step back, lifting her head to glare at Jono with glowing red eyes.

Jonothon's own eyes flickered to red to match.

//Didn't work.//

Oh, he'd felt something, a pressure that had been briefly lifted only to fill in again, like seawater rushing into a hole in the sand. He lifted his head a little to look at her darkly, and then reached for her wrist.

//Looks to me as though it didn't work at all.//

Raven yanked her wrist from his grasp with a snarl. "I did not give you permission to touch me," she snapped. "Attempt to do so again and you will not like the results."

She was fighting to dispel the rage, but she'd taken too much too fast.

//That so? I don't recall giving you permission when you came in here and ran your bloody empath fingernails down my back,// Jono shot back, eyes sparking. //You get a free bloody pass for that, do you?//

... Never mind that he very much enjoyed when someone ran their nails down his back.

Raven laughed hollowly. Part of her was still struggling to dispel the anger, but some of it was being released the old-fashioned way. At least whatever was fueling Jono's temper wasn't continuing to feed into her.

"I did not realize you were only pretending to enjoy it," she said. "How remarkable that you can fool an empath. Do not bother to do so for my behalf. I can easily find someone else much more enthusiastic than you."

//And you only enjoy touching me from a distance, do you?// Jonothon rolled his shoulders a little, narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, getting right up into her face.

But hey, he wasn't touching.

//Could've fooled me. You come here just for the easy fuck, Raven? S'a hell of a way to get somebody's attention otherwise, innit?//

What were they even fighting about?

"No, distance is what you do best," Raven hissed. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides, talons sprouting from her fingertips, and it was all she could do not to lash out at him.

"If it is anything other than an 'easy fuck,' you cannot run fast enough."

//That so? And is there some reason why I should be the one running?//

Because apparently Jono's sense of self-preservation had fled right along with his patience, tact, and easygoing demeanour.

//I'm hardly the only one here who has experience with doing that. Particularly when I'm 'just stressed.'//

Low snipe, Jon. Low snipe.

Oh, Jono, it was on.

The demon part of her was reveling in the rage and doing all it could to hang on to it, and Raven bared her fangs with an angry growl as that barb hit home. She swiped at him with her talons, but the psionic flames made it difficult for her to get a good shot on anything vital, fortunately for Jono.

"You would run if you knew what was good for you," she said.

//Run from you, here? In my own bloody home?// Jono took a half-step back, even as Raven's claws found nothing across his chest to get a good purchase on. And then, a moment later, he was stepping forward again, reaching his hands for both her wrists. Let her claw at him again like that? Ha, no. //Not terribly likely, Sunshine.//

Well. This was going well.

She didn't need her hands free to hurt him, and she was prepared to do just that. But as she gathered an emotional dagger of pain and terror to drive into him, she finally caught a hold of herself. The thought of losing control and harming her friends, the nightmares that filled her head nearly every night since Balmia had become Glacia once more, was enough to give her the strength to shunt the anger aside. It still clawed at her, though, and her knees felt weak as she struggled to regain control, caught in Jono's grasp.

Well... at least she wasn't terribly likely to fall over, this way?

//Nothing to say in return, Raven? I would've thought you'd have some sort of comment on that.// He re-positioned his hands, putting them firmly on her shoulders and leaning forward to look her in the eye. //I. Won't. Run. Do your bloody worst. Go on.//

Raven squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to strengthen her shields. The anger was still all around her, tempting her to feed on it, amplify it, and send it back at Jono and everyone unfortunate enough to be nearby, just because she could.

"Stop," she panted. "Please. This is not you, Jono."

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