Groovy Tunes, Sunday

[furnaceface]

Jono was in a fairly pleasant mood today, poking through some music he might not have otherwise experimented with, if not for his dancing date with Hannibal last Wednesday. Today's musical excursion? Electro swing, which seemed worth poking through if only to contemplate further dance possibilities.

He was enjoying The Correspondents a fair bit, actually. This album was probably going to end up coming home with him today.

And if he was dancing a little whenever he thought nobody was looking, well, who could blame him?

[OOC: Open, OCD-free!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

Unfortunately for Jono, even needing to work wasn't going to exempt him from party planning. Hannibal would take care of most of it, but the invitees he needed Jono's help with. So he had packed up his laptop, paper and pen, and anything else he might need and headed over to the store.

He stepped in, listened for a moment, and grinned. "I am sensing a theme."

[furnaceface]

See Jono. See Jono look up at Hannibal with a blink, and then an amused look of his own.

//It's gotten into my head,// he admitted, shrugging his shoulders. //Catchy stuff, isn't it?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"It is," Hannibal agreed. "By design, I think. Although I'd no idea so many different modern bands were still writing new music."

[furnaceface]

//If it's got a good sound to it and it inspires people, they're going to keep on drawing from it,// Jono replied, amused. //People still compose symphonies, too, and that's drawing from a far older style of music, generally, isn't it?//

He snapped his fingers a few times, finding the beat again.

//Whatever moves them to create, I suppose. Swing isn't even really that old, all things considered. Not even a full century, yet.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"It's far from a complaint," Hannibal assured him. "And anything that puts you in a good mood isn't to be sneered at." He set his laptop on the counter, put the pen and paper next to it facing Jono, and prompted, "You can start on an invitation list. I'll start on the invitations."

He opened the computer and his word processor and started typing. "Sunset on Wednesday is just before eight thirty, and there's no rain expected. If we start the party around seven, everyone should start arriving around seven thirty, putting it in full swing around sundown." He made a note to invest in a good pest-control method before then and looked to Jono for his input.

[furnaceface]

Jono stared at the paper for a moment as though it was going to jump up and bite him, and then tentatively reached for the pen.

//That sounds doable,// he agreed, nodding a little. //Around the back, so people only have to deal with flamingos on the way in?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course," Hannibal answered, nodding. "We can hold it for the most part downstairs; the media room and porch, along with the lawn. That way if Dracula or Ms Lee attend, they won't have to worry about the sunlight. And I imagine most of your friends will be more comfortable in the media room, in any event." He smirked a little. "Emma and I can stay up in the grand salon."

They wouldn't.

[furnaceface]

//Above and away from we the rabble?// Jono looked amused at that, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the countertop. //You know, I never thought I'd have to help plan out my own birthday party while taking into consideration the best ways to not have the guests spontaneously light on fire in the sunlight.//

Because until very recently, he held pretty low opinions of vampires, granted.

[sharp_as_knives]

"And I never thought I would be having a birthday party in a bowling alley," Hannibal answered, grinning wider. "Consider this my revenge."

Because he was evil.

[furnaceface]

... Jono couldn't even argue with that.

//I suppose there's a first for everything.// And then he was staring down at his guest list thus far. It was... still empty. He was clearly great at this. //That party wasn't all bad, though, was it?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"It was quite enjoyable, apart from the venue," Hannibal assured him. "And certainly something I could never have predicted, which is always refreshing."

He looked at his own notes. Place and time they had, food and drink he would have well in hand. "Normally the year of your birthday would also go on these," he pointed out.

[furnaceface]

//Ehm.// Jono stared at Hannibal for a minute before relenting. //Hell if I even know how old I am these days, but if you want the year I was born? '77. Not that it has a hell of a lot of bearing on much of anything between my being here on the island and all of the other nonsense in realities running at different speeds that I've seen.//

A pause.

//I suppose we could make something up.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal shrugged. "Given everything else that's happened to age or youthen you over the years, thirty-eight seems as good a number as any." And it was a better predictor of him culturally in relation to others.

He nodded at the screen. "I'll have these printed, then. As soon as you tell me how many I'll need." He eyed Jono's blank paper pointedly.

[whenshewasnice]

Someone was looking. Hey, it wasn't Natalie' fault that she moved quietly! Maybe that'd change once she switched exclusively into wearing heels. Not so much with her flat sneakers.

She looked amused.

[furnaceface]

It took Jono a few more moments of dancing before he realized he had an audience, which, mostly, was the result of a fortuitous twirl that ended with him facing the door.

And blinking a few times.

And then straightening up a little and looking decidedly embarrassed.

//Natalie! Enjoy the show, luv?//

Admittedly, he was a pretty good dancer, even if it wasn't all strictly swing.

[whenshewasnice]

"Better than what we get at home," Natalie replied, with one of her ghost-of-a-smirks. Of course, she lived with Peter, so dancing wasn't really on the menu ever. "Hey, Jono."

[furnaceface]

//Well, I'm always glad to entertain,// Jono replied, dusting off one sleeve that really didn't need it in an attempt to gather his dignity back. //It's been a while, luv. Been keeping busy out in your neck of the woods these days, I'm guessing?//

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm juggling two different woods." So, that was confirmation on being busy, even if she didn't quite say as much. "Still in Brazil with Peter, but I'm also in my second year of political sciences at the University of Toronto."

There was some time fuckery involved.

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked. There would have to be, for her to not be swamped completely by one or the other, never mind both.

//You,// he settled on, //are far more ambitious than I am. How are those working out for you?//

[whenshewasnice]

"Good." Wait, did she need to elaborate on that. She probably should. "Takes some planning, but it's all rewarding."

She had something else, too, but she'd... get to that in a second.

"How have things been with you?"

[furnaceface]

//Quiet,// Jono replied, after a moment taken to consider his reply. Things had been very not quiet, and then sort of terrible, but that was months back. This? This now? It was probably the most solid footing he'd had in a while.

... Which said a lot, considering the person he was currently dating, and all.

//Mostly I've just been hanging around here, running this place, teaching at the school from time to time. I'd be bored to bloody tears at this rate if I let myself stay still too long.//

[whenshewasnice]

"Bored?" Natalie deadpanned. "On Fandom?"

She was only half joking.

"The island managed to screw me over for several weeks, a while back, and I don't even live here anymore."

[furnaceface]

//Bored on Fandom,// Jono agreed, shrugging his shoulders. //Compared to where I come from, the occasional bout of weirdness in between periods of relative calm is positively sedate. But it does follow people home, granted. Which was it that you got stuck with?//

[whenshewasnice]

"We came back for the reunion," she said, with only the barest hint of a scrunched-up nose. "There was some stupidity afterwards."

Very, very stupid.

[furnaceface]

Jono gave his own nose a bit of a scrunch at that.

//Leftover stupidity from the reunion itself, was it?//

Jono himself had been a bit out of it that weekend, himself, but...