The Boards, Thursday

[furnaceface]

Ah... that holiday was coming up, and Jono realized, perhaps a little belatedly, that perhaps it would be an excellent opportunity to do... something... with the Boards.

What, he wasn't quite sure. It was far too short notice to really organize some sort of dinner theatre, and he was still fairly certain that organizing a band on the island would be... fun. In that sort of way that suggested that he could think of a handful of talented musicians already, but their willingness to actually rehearse and perform was... not so great, necessarily. Which meant that today, mostly he was going to just thump his forehead against the desk in his office, trying to come up with options.

Valentine's concert?

Valentine's... improv night?

Valentine's burn the building down in a fit? No, he couldn't do that, he had tenants upstairs now. Bloody hell.

Valentine's schmalentine's.

[OOC: Open Boards! Jono... might need some brainstorming assistance on this one. Or just someone to save his poor forehead from bruising.]

Comments

[intraspective]

You know what was a nice break from pouring over her paperwork for the shop she owned?

Bugging Jono.

It helped that he was, quite literally, right downstairs. So Ino grabbed her latest cup of hot chocolate and went to join him.

“Stayin’ out of trouble?” she greeted. She surveyed his face-beating on the desk. “Or sufferin’ from it?”

Ino was already amused. Excellent.

[furnaceface]

//My life,// Jono muttered with a punctuating thump of face-to-desk, //will never,// thud, //have enough trouble.//

This was blatantly untrue. But right now, the only reason he was sticking with this Boards thing was because he was bored silly and he needed the distraction from how utterly useless he was, otherwise.

//Please remind me that spandex is bad for my health.//

[intraspective]

“I am the last one to tell someone to stay away from a career due to health and life expectancy,” she said cheerfully.

Well, it was true.

“Can’t do that, sorry. What’s up?”

[furnaceface]

//Trying to get this place going again,// Jono muttered, turning his head so that he could look her way without actually taking his head off the desk. //Had no luck with a showcase, decent luck with an open-mic just so long as I bribed people in with beer, and Valentine's Day is coming. My powers of creativity and innovation are taking a vacation, apparently. Mostly I just want to hit something until the problem goes away.//

Unfortunately, that kind of wasn't how business or theatre worked.

[intraspective]

“I don’t think that’s going to help a thing like this,” she said, wandering over to perch on the edge of his desk. Silly wandered out of her hair to peer at him from her shoulder.

“You ain’t tried getting a play going? Not, like, for Valentine’s Day, but before this?”

[furnaceface]

Jono gave his shoulders a shrug.

//Never had much luck getting them cast without resorting to what bloody near amounted to extortion,// he admitted, shaking his head. //Decided to go the showcase route, but nobody showed for the tryouts. And I, ah, had a bit of a technical difficulty midway.//

What with his sort-of-adopted-daughter's eldritch horror sister spending a couple of weeks working on melting his brains.

[intraspective]

Ino raised her eyebrows at him. "You let a technical difficulty stop you?"

[furnaceface]

Jono kind of rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck as he sat up again.

//Well, it's the sort of technical difficulty that had me in nosebleeds and headaches for a week,// he admitted. //It's not exactly an issue anymore.//

[intraspective]

"Oh," she said slowly, "that sort of technical difficulty."

Fine, fine, she'd give him a pass.

"What about something fun for Valentine's Day? Something like, I don't know," she hadn't actually thought about the holiday in, well, years, "couples' charades?"

[furnaceface]

//... Charades?// Jono blinked at that one. //Open the Boards up to have people in to play guessing games?//

Well. He would have to sit that one out. He was so tuned in to his own significant other, cheating would be far too easy.

[intraspective]

"Why not?" Ino asked, sipping at her hot chocolate. "You just got done saying you had nothing planned, it's in five days, including today, and guessing games like charades are half acting anyway. If you're bad at miming, you're going to have terrible trouble."

Which was hilarious.

[furnaceface]

... You tempted him so bloody much, Ino. So, so bloody much.

//What if... what if it was just a sort of... party thing, then? Not just charades. Other performance games. Or... ah... karaoke...//

That could be fun, too. And equally hilarious in different ways.

[intraspective]

Ino always had been a bit of an enabler, why yes.

"Karaoke would be fun," she mused. "Especially if there were booze involved to get people relaxed enough to get up there. I like the idea."

[furnaceface]

//Drunken performance games, then,// Jono replied, looking thoughtful. //Karaoke, charades... What other performance games are there? Are dancing games a thing?//

Maybe he shouldn't haul a DDR system in here.

[intraspective]

He should totally haul a DDR system in here! Totally.

"Ummm...," Ino contemplated her hot chocolate. "I think there's that thing where you have to dance to whatever's happening on a screen? It's been years, Jono, I ain't up on this world's games yet."

[furnaceface]

//... Lord, I haven't played that one since it was new,// Jono muttered, raising an eyebrow. //I mean, I was good at it, but where the hell would I even get my hands on something like that?//

It was called ebay, Jono.

//Guess I could lead a few of those theatresports. I bet people would enjoy them more while drunk.//

It was starting to look more and more like Jono's new business model here was 'alcohol.'

[intraspective]

"Puh-lease," Ino said, "there's plenty of ways to get things like that even if it's a few years out of date. And, like, you can't get it in this universe, haul up Portalocity and get it from a time period where it's all the rage still."

Or ebay. Ebay was probably easier.

... But not as fun.

"I'd show up," Ino promised. "I mean, not just for the drinks even."

Ino barely drank.

[furnaceface]

And Jono didn't drink at all.

//It'd definitely be an entertaining evening, if enough people showed up and started drinking,// he mused. //I'd try not to have it run too late; you can probably hear things going on down here upstairs, but it's never been an issue for me since I'm always involved in the performances myself.//

[intraspective]

Ino hitched one shoulder up in a half-shrug.

"Neither Zack nor I are particularly good at keepin' regular hours," Ino admitted. "A party downstairs probably isn't going to inconvenience us."

[furnaceface]

//If it does, let me know anyway,// Jono replied. //We'll move it further downstairs, into the basement. It's my building, sure, but it's your home, however long you need it. That counts for something, at least to me.//

[intraspective]

"And for that," Ino said loftily, though she smiled at him, "I'll even sing at your Valentine's Day party."

[furnaceface]

//Ask really nicely, and I'll even play guitar. I think I still remember how to play Sunflower.//

And just for you, Ino, Jono would revisit that hot mess of an old song that he'd written for you, too.

There was nothing the matter with it. It was just old. He could do better now.

[intraspective]

She laughed.

"I'm not sure I even remember all the words these days," she admitted. "I might have to see if I still have the lyrics somewhere."

Ino, no. It was a ridiculous song.

[furnaceface]

It was bubblegum. Jono would never, ever let himself live with the fact that for anybody, he'd written a bubblegum pop song.

Never mind that he'd written several.

Never mind that Sugar Kane had even recorded a few.

Shut up your face.

//I bet if I went digging, I'd find them. I'm sure they're probably even still floating around Groovy Tunes somewhere.//

[intraspective]

In another universe, some other Ino had gone on to be Midgar's most popular singer because of you, Jono.

"You should totally find them," Ino said, because she couldn't resist. "Or write new songs."