fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Sunday

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Groovy Tunes, Sunday

Jono's yesterday had been fairly fantastic, actually. There had been food, and... not food, which had been every bit as enjoyable as the food. And yes, he'd even enjoyed the shopping more than he'd ever care to admit. Even if he was probably never going to wear that dress again. Ever. Because honestly.

But today brought some vague sort of acceptance that he still had responsibilities even when he had temporary breasts, and so he was at the Groovy Tunes today doing paperwork, balancing budgets, and enthusiastically singing along with anything and everything that came on the radio. His voice as a woman wasn't really familiar to him, so it was a fun game trying to figure out what songs he could handle and which ones made him regret opening his mouth. But, so help him, he was singing.

He wasn't looking forward to this ending, almost as much as he was. But really, he rarely ever felt at home in his own skin, so this was less an inconvenience and more like a novelty. And there were worse people to bear a striking resemblance to than Joan Jett, anyway.

[Open! OCD-free! Lovin' Rock and Roll!]

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"You can have less face by blowing off your entire bottom jaw as an idiot teenager," Jono explained, shrugging his shoulders. As if it was really just that simple. "And I think we can probably find something for each of them to sing, though there isn't exactly much crossover between country and hip-hop, I'm afraid."

So a duet didn't seem too likely.

"He likes other stuff too. Jazz. Pop." Parker's mouth was on automatic as her brain tried to picture that. "I am trying to imagine how that happened, and how you would have a jaw now? Or why? Instead of being a woman without a jaw?" She paused, and frowned. "That was rude, right? Sorry."

There was a moment there while Jono contemplated Jazz.

Jazz, he could work with.

"Bit rude, but don't worry about it. It's actually more complicated than it sounds." He shrugged, and then waved for her to follow him over to the jazz music. "Best theory I have for the here and now is that the island figured it would be more fun to give me breasts, since I took most of my chest along with that jaw, and just sort of kept going from there. Really, I'm not complaining in the least, though."

See how not complaining he was? He was actually still in a decent mood, in spite of the conversation.

"The 'how' of me losing it is a bit more complicated."

"You don't have to tell me." Parker was curious, and rude, and nosy, but... Sophie had gotten some things to stick with her. "Unless you feel like it. Hardison and Eliot are having fun with their breasts, though. I wonder if I'd have as much fun with a penis?"

...sorry, Jonothan.

"Heh... maybe someday if you stay around here you'll even find out," Jono replied, shrugging and rifling through the CDs. "Breasts, I've found, are rather less messy, though."

Hey, he could jump right off the deep end into crazy conversation with the best of them.

"And I don't mind talking about the whole face thing, if people want to hear about it. It's life, really. Just something stupid that happened, and it really couldn't be helped. Most people wouldn't believe it unless they saw it, anyway."

Parker was snickering. "They are fun that way. Although Eliot was insisting he could just strap his down to stop the jiggling."

Yay crazy!

"So was it an accident?"

So help Jono, he was trying to figure out why anybody would want to just strap them down. They didn't belong there, but since they were, they were kind of fun.

Of course, he had a 'too much time without a chest at all' bias going on, somewhat.

"An accident, more or less," he agreed. "I'm one of those strange people on the island who has powers. My powers are just... somewhere on the horror-show side of the spectrum, is all."

"Ack." Parker frowned. "Sorry. And yay for having a face and breasts this weekend." She picked up one of the CD's and said, "So why music?"

"Why do I work in a music shop when I can't even sing, you mean?" Jono smiled faintly ~~as though he hadn't temporarily used his default icon back there oops~~ and shrugged his shoulders. "Before the accident, I was a musician. I'd sing for my supper on streetcorners in London, and perform in pubs for drinks. I was actually on the verge of making a name for myself, and then... well... boom."

'Boom' had been unpleasant.

"But I still play guitar. It's some of the only noise I generally can make. Forced silence is bloody deafening, you know."

He paused on one CD, considered it thoughtfully, and then pulled it out for Parker's perusal.

"You know, if either of them object to singing Ella Fitzgerald, there might be something wrong with the both of them. Want to give this a listen? It's about as 'meeting in the middle' as it gets, really."

"I wish there was some way to make that better," Parker said, face sober for once. "I mean. There's nobody to blame, no way to get that back... it blows."

Yeah. Parker grimaced, then nodded looking hopeful. "Please. And thanks for this. I'm not at all musical like the guys are. I just have to listen and tell them they're great. Which they are."

"It blows," Jono agreed, leaving out the obligatory 'very literally' that he was tempted to add to the end. "But on the plus side, it's much easier to figure out who your friends are when most people fear you as a monster."

That was a really shitty plus side, Jonothon.

"And really, it's no trouble at all. I'll try to find something a little more contemporary that hopefully you all can enjoy as well, if you like, but Ella is... she was class, that woman. And I suspect a lot of what they listen to now had their roots in the music she made then."

He started unwrapping the CD, making his way for his stereo system.

"That's a horrible plus side." Parker was really frowning now. "And how does having superpowers make you a monster? That mostly makes you a hero. At least according to Hardison's comic books." She followed Jonothan, still frowning. "Is this a social thing? I'm not good at those."

"It's sort of a 'my face is usually on fire' thing," Jono said, a touch awkwardly. "Great for fighting crime. Not generally all that wonderful for fitting in at parties."

He pulled the disk from its case, and took a moment to set aside the new Muse album that he'd had playing earlier in the day.

"Around here, it's not that big a deal. But then, I mostly keep it covered up. Even Fandomites get weird about things like that. Especially the newer ones."

Parker was kind of stuck on 'on fire'. "Can't you put it out? That sounds incredibly painful." She hopped up on the nearest counter, legs swinging. "So you fight crime too?"

"It mostly just feels cold," Jono admitted, shrugging his shoulders a little. "And... I used to fight crime. Less, these days."

It took every ounce of self-control to keep from asking her to get off his counter. She didn't mean any harm by it, and it was sturdy enough, he figured.

"There was this whole... brainwashing... thing. Sort of a put-off."

Though, to be clear, he'd kept on fighting crime even after that, up until the second brainwashing thing. And then even more after that in Glacia. Jono was bad at retiring from that sort of thing.

"Ohhhh." Parker could kind of understand that. "So you burnt out?" She paused, then snickered. "Just not literally!" She started listening to the music. "We had a friend who did that. He left me his job... I like this song."

"I burned out," Jono agreed, smiling wryly. "Very much that. Lost a job because of it and everything."

Okay, Karla had told him to take some time off until he stopped pushing himself to the brink of mental and emotional collapse, but that sort of felt like the same thing, to Jono. He took his responsibilities very seriously.

"Here, this one might be good for the both of them too," he added, changing over to Blue Skies. "Higher tempo, a vocal challenge to sing. Classic Jazz and it was covered and made big again by a classic country artist as well. Possibly a little something for both of them to sing?"

Again with the disclaimer that he didn't really know either of them all that well, and all.

Edited 2015-06-07 23:31 (UTC)

Parker bounced, then hopped off the counter, beaming. "Yes! If we make it a challenge, Eliot's that much more likely to try it... so that's how you wound up at a record store, hunh?" She cocked her head. "We just followed Eliot here to make sure he wasn't going to get hurt. And he still keeps getting hurt." Her voice was a little lost on that. "It's very annoying."

"That's more or less how I wound up at a record shop, yes," Jono agreed, shrugging. The timeline had worked a little differently, but it was accurate enough to pass muster, he supposed. "And he keeps scaring you, does he?"

He sympathized with that lost tone in her voice. He'd lost far too many people that he loved to be able to completely ignore it.

"He knows that's why you came, I'm guessing?"

"He does now," Parker said, humming a little. "And I like it here. There are pink ponies and weird days and the students are fun and Hardison and I have a nice place. And Eliot has a dog." Yes, that all went together in her mind. "He just doesn't listen sometimes." She frowned. "Eliot. Not Megabyte. She listens just fine."

"Good dogs generally do," Jono replied. "I'm more a cat person, myself. But I can appreciate the appeal."

What? The dog was worth mention, Jono was going to give her at least a little attention before moving on to the actual conversation at hand.

"It's good that you and Hardison are happy here," he added, once the dog talk was out of the way. "It's a start, right? But Eliot..." He tilted his head. "He's the stubborn sort? Doesn't see much reason to stop doing things the way he's always done them, because, so far as he's concerned, that's the way it needs to be done, perhaps?"

"Yes, that. And it's part of his job and I don't mind when it's on the job, or even so much in class most of the time, but when it's not on the job he's going to wind up with a bad leg and a cane and I've seen the future and it's hot but it's also ouchy!"

Breathe, Parker.

"The futures the island shows are sometimes more like suggestions," Jono offered, though he looked sympathetic. "Let it stand as a warning, more than a solid truth, luv. Time is a surprisingly fluid thing, and the slightest change can divert what you think is coming next."

He paused for a moment, and then added, "It's difficult to get people like that to calm down and stop throwing themselves into danger, though. I can't speak for him, of course, but I know in my case, some of it ties into just... who and what we are. If we can't save the bloody day, if we can't survive the impossible, what good are we?" He shrugged. "Which is bloody gobshite, and we know that deep down, but that doesn't mean it's easy to walk away from."

"He's Eliot." Parker said, calming down a little. "He's an amazing good and a great teacher and wonderful not-really-a-boyfriend and a terrific singer and ..." She bit her lip. "He doesn't have to prove anything, we've known him for years. And years." She slumped a little and then said, "I keep thinking I'm saying it wrong. But what you're saying is, I could say it all day every day and it still wouldn't sink in?"

"It might not be you he feels he needs to prove it to," Jono replied, gently. "And hearing it doesn't hurt, you know. Sometimes it's all there is to ground you between the next thing that needs to be done, and the last thing you left burning behind you."

This was getting... kind of painfully personal, now. Jono frowned a little, and then shrugged and hopped up to sit on the counter beside her.

"It's hard to get out of that mind, once you're living in it. Like I said, I can't speak for him, luv, but when I get that way, the person I need to prove my worth to the most is me."

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