The Park, Friday Afternoon

[furnaceface]

Jonothon had awoken from a nightmare this morning. That much... that was nothing new. Of course he'd awoken from a nightmare. He rarely slept for the nightmares. That had been a constant for nearly as far back as he could remember, several lifetimes over. It was just... that particular nightmare had seemed all too real, the faces of people that he'd wronged, lives he'd destroyed, and even upon blinking a few times in the morning he hadn't quite been able to clear his head of them.

Nightmares, it seemed, were the order of the morning. And while Jono's telepathic walls were generally pretty good, the general feeling of uncertainty that was wafting around the island was still enough to nag at him when the island was in one of her moods.

And so he'd done the one thing that never seemed to fail, when his head was in a fog this way. He'd grabbed a loaf of bread in the hopes that the ducks hadn't all taken off for the winter, and he made his way to the park, to sit on the bench by the duck pond.

Once he cleared his mind again, once he got those walls back up and managed to shake the feeling that something was lingering just a few steps away, waiting to step in and remind him of what he was, he'd head back home. Maybe play with the cat, or play his guitar, or try to figure out his Christmas shopping for the year, or... or something.

Something.

For now, though, he'd settle for feeding the ducks and ignoring the chill in the air.

[OOC: Jono hasn't had a moping post in a while. Open post is open! For passers-by or attacky things or whatever, I'm easy tonight.]

Comments

[nuclear_snide]

What was research without a bit of reconnaissance? (What was the point of not being stuck in a room if you just stayed in a room all the time?)

Bob dodged a couple...things...and mostly just wafted along until he spotted Jono.

Then materialised just behind him. "Well, don't you look cheery!"

[furnaceface]

Congratulations, Bob. You were getting a full slice of bread thrown through you by a mutant who was on the edge of his seat waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And then Jono was squinting at you.

//... I'm not required to be chipper on demand, Bob.//

Jono... really didn't do chipper.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob blinked, then waved back toward the bread. "I'm not picking that up, you know."

[furnaceface]

...

...

//Th'birds will,// Jono settled on, and then turned back toward the water. //S'what it's there for anyway, after all. Ducks.//

The few stragglers who were still around, at any rate.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob sighed. "Let me guess - bad dreams, possible hauntings by the past, and/or generally being annoyed by things attacking you?"

[furnaceface]

//The first,// Jono replied, giving Bob another side-eye. //There've been hauntings?//

A beat.

//And attacks?//

Look, Jono wasn't on the top of his game today, okay?

[rebelseekspizza]

The plan had been to make it to the dorms and figure shit out from there.

'Course, the plan had been ambushed by demons several times - some of them ones Dante didn't even recognize.

"Did we get hit by a fucking hive, or something," he growled-- not at Jono, really, but at the last of the Bathos that came tumbling down to Earth after he shot it. Just so happened it wasn't far from the guy, and he hadn't holstered his guns yet.

Coincidence.

Yeah, right.

[furnaceface]

See Jono. See Jono halfway to his feet with his hand reaching for the wrappings over his face at right about the same time the monster came crashing down to the ground nearby.

//What the bloody hell is--// He squinted at the dead thing. And then up at Dante. And then glanced down at his bag of bread, before emptying it out for the ducks. //Right, then. One of those days.//

[rebelseekspizza]

What the... Dante's focus whipped towards Jono instantly. "...Yeah, I never liked Fridays, either," he snarked, tucking Ebony and Ivory into their places at his belt.

[furnaceface]

//Fridays around here typically mean there's a good chance the day after is going to be much worse,// Jono noted, looking at the pair of weapons, and then raising an eyebrow. //Especially ones that start like this.//

You know. Typically.

[rebelseekspizza]

... Okay.

Dante shot him a Look. "You're shitting me," he said, wandering towards Jono.

It was quiet. For now. He'd take that.

[tigerundercover]

The grumbling would have reached Jono first, the likely familiar sound of an angry crowd just over the horizon, approaching faster than an angry mob had any right to move.

Then came the girl. Or sometimes boy. Raven sobbed as she ran, her shape fluctuating between her natural blue and any number of disguises she was too freaked out to hold onto. Behind her, the leaders of the mob, carrying flashlights and lamps and even actual torches along with their improvised weapons, approached like horror movie villains, appearing to walk but never losing ground as they chased her.

"You can't fool us anymore, demon!" the man at the front shouted. "We know your tricks!"

[furnaceface]

//What... what in the name of...?//

Jono's eyes went wide when the grumbling gave way into a visual, when the sound of an angry mob presented itself in the form of human bigots, and--

//Raven! Raven, get behind me, luv!//

He was already shooting to his feet, ripping off his wrappings in the same motion. They wanted a demon, Jonothon Starsmore would bloody well show them one.

[tigerundercover]

Raven changed direction so quickly she fell, skidding on the grass and ending up scrambling on all fours for a moment before she shifted into a rabbit and bounded around to sit, trembling, behind Jono.

"Move aside," the mob leader said, too focused on Raven -- and too much a part of Raven's terrified memories -- to notice anything odd about Jono yet. "We will cleanse this earth of evil!"

[furnaceface]

Well... that was... odd. Jono squinted a little, and then shifted his weight a bit, planting himself firmly between Raven and the crowd.

//You'll need to go through me to get to her, mate. I don't see any evil here but the rat-bastards who are chasing a terrified girl around with torches and bloody pitchforks.//

He tensed, looking perfectly ready to pick Raven up himself and bolt if it came down to it.

[tigerundercover]

"He who harbors demons --" intoned the leader.

"Look at his chest, Zeb!" whispered the man just behind him.

"Another demon!" Zeb shouted. "Do not be afraid, brothers, our righteousness shall prevail!"

The mob shouted its assent, raising pipes and bats, ice tongs and crowbars and yes, pitchforks, and charged forward again.

Rabbit!Raven let out a scream and bolted, making it only a few leaps before she lost hold of her form and found herself scrabbling in the grass again.

[glacial_queen]

After the mob was dispersed, Karla made her way to Raven's side. "Hi," she said softly, holding Kayla on her hip. Sorry, Raven, if Jono hadn't had everything well in hand, she would have offered assistance, but having a toddler--and no Craft--meant she was much less inclined to pick fights. "You okay, darling?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded shakily, still not quite having managed to calm down. She was going to be useless when it came to shapeshifting for probably the rest of the night. "I'm fast, they didn't --" She attempted to mimic some clothes at least, a simple white dress that wouldn't clash with her scales. "Y-you're a teacher, right?"

[glacial_queen]

"Not anymore," Karla said, wincing a bit as she called in a dress of her own to offer. White lambswool, finely made, and far less froofy than most of her clothes. "Might be again, depending on how things go. I'm Karla, class of...2012? 2013? Bloody Hell, what year is it here again?"

[tigerundercover]

"2015," Raven said, smiling faintly as she accepted the dress and pulled it on. She was okay being naked, but she still tried to be dressed in front of strangers. "For another couple weeks, anyway. I'm Raven."

[glacial_queen]

There was perhaps one thing that might perk Jono's mood up? And that was the little colorful sunburst that was being sent to him on a proto-psychic thread.

[furnaceface]

That was exactly the thing Jono needed at right about that moment. The day had started bad and had gotten horrid pretty quickly, and so a quick breath of sunshine in the back of his mind...

//Sunshine? Kayla, Sunshine!//

He'd know that little sunburst anywhere, and was sending back a burst of psionic music in blues and purples and the smell of fresh laundry in return.

Or... how he imagined what fresh laundry smelled like. It had been a while, but it was a warm and comfortable smell all the same.

[glacial_queen]

After a few minutes of cheerful baby-babble, Karla and Kayla came into view, and with that, the gentle brush of Karla's mind against his in greeting. Karla carried Kayla in her arms, though the toddler was squirming to get down and run to her uncle. Strapped to Karla's back were her bladed sticks, polished and sharp.

[furnaceface]

It was Kayla that drew Jono's eyes first. Nothing personal, Karla, but the little girl was basically his whole entire world when she was nearby, and he'd missed that unconditional burst of affection from her terribly, lately.

He was already on his feet and making his way over to greet them both when the second thing to catch his eye gave him a moment's pause.

//Carrying your sticks around today, luv?//

Uh-oh.

[glacial_queen]

"According to Hannibal, there are some ugly-looking things about," Karla said, voice deliberately light. "I thought it might help to have something handy to keep anything like that at bay. At least until we can figure out a way to get home."

By this point, Karla doubted that was possible, but she was going to keep trying. She and Raven hadn't brought children to the island to deliberately expose them to danger.

Kayla didn't care about any of that. Kayla was leaning out of her mother's arms, hands outstretched towards Jono. "Up! Up!" she demanded. "Want up!"