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The Boards, Thursday

Just do the thing. Raven had told him to just go do the thing, instead of sitting and fretting over how it would work, or even if it would work. And he'd sat on that for the better part of a week, and now here Jonothon was, at the Boards, making posters to put up around town.

Just doing the thing. He wasn't even certain to what end he was doing it, but to hell with it, it was something he'd wanted to put together since he was a student on this bloody island, and the school didn't seem to do clubs these days anyway, so why the hell not?

Posters. To just do the thing.

Try Out For the Band!
Do you sing or play an instrument?
Do you not, but you'd like to learn?
Looking for a group of people to play with?
Need rehearsal space?
Then join us at The Boards
Sunday Afternoon
All skill levels and musical styles welcome!

No, he hadn't really given thought as to what he'd do if he managed to successfully assemble a band of any persuasion. He figured he'd kind of just wait and see who showed up and what they wanted to do, and go from there. Best case scenario, maybe they'd do a gig or two. Or, hell, actually put that recording studio in the basement to use for the first time since... ever.

He took a walk around town sometime around noon to hang the posters, and then returned to the Boards to spend the rest of his day playing guitar in the lobby, mostly to keep from freaking out about it. Just do the thing. There you go, Raven. Jono was bad at spontaneity when it was something he wanted to do for his own enjoyment, but he was giving it a go. Just this once.

[OOC: Open!]

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The only way Dante would usually even think about stepping into the Board was if Starsmore was offering free booze again.

But, funny thing - the posters actually left him kinda curious.

"So you're starting a band," he said, kicking the door shut behind him. "Glad you're finding a hobby, old man."

//Everybody's got to have something,// Jono noted, glancing up from his guitar and giving Dante a nod hello. //I decided I'd try something a little different from running out and punching things, at least from time to time.//

And it certainly beat sitting around with a headache, trying to figure out what to do with his time otherwise.

"I don't know if that's the best call," Dante said easily. "Running and punching things's underrated."

He stuck his hands in the pockets of his duster, walking up to Starsmore's little lobby-corner of brood.

//Hey,// Jono held up one hand in surrender, the other still holding his guitar. //I didn't say I was giving up on punching things entirely. But a person's got to have things to do when they aren't punching, generally. At least some of the time. Besides, the island only sometimes has things to punch.//

"Plenty of shit to punch where I come from," Dante said idly. "You just can't see most of it."

Not that he was trying to figure out if he trusted Starsmore enough to tell him shit, or anything.

//No?// Jono tilted his head a little at that. //Well, that'd definitely make it a challenge, I suppose. Me flailing around, swinging at things I can't even see...//

It'd be hilarious until it became horrible, basically.

"Not sure that would help," Dante said, prying idly at something on the wall that had caught his eye.

... a little more plaster came off than he'd intended. Last week's power upgrade was still fucking with him.

"Y'know. Demons."

Jono squinted one eye a little at the damage to the wall, but didn't say anything about it otherwise. He'd just re-spackle that... later. It'd pass the time.

//Ah,// he said, remembering the first time they'd met, and Dante's less than flattering reaction to his flames. He nodded his head, just slightly. //There, but on a different... plane, then?//

Out of the view of the average human, he left out.

"Pretty much. Nice place called Limbo," Dante said.

He dropped his hand away from the wall. It was safer that way.

//Doesn't sound as charming as all that,// Jono noted, raising his eyebrows slightly.

He was familiar enough with the concept of Limbo. He'd read his - ha - Dante, after all.

//Been a lot of places in my life. Can fairly safely say, there's not one of them.//

"Yeah, well, you gotta be part demon to get there," Dante said.

He gave a light shrug. "Disappointment, right?" he joked.

//I'll manage,// Jono decided, shrugging lightly right back. //'Being of the astral plane wandering around wearing his own mutilated corpse' is plenty, as it is.//

He tilted his head a little at Dante, at that. Not judging by any means. Just... considering.

//You didn't know, before?//

Educated guess, all things considered.

"Had my memory wiped when I was seven," Dante said, casually shifting his gaze away from Starsmore to the damage he'd done on the wall. "So nope."

//Ah,// Jono replied, looking toward the wall, himself. //That would do it.//

Memory wipes. He had his own experience with those. He frowned, brow furrowing slightly.

//Know who did it to you?//

"My dad," Dante said, reaching out to tap the bit of stone behind the plaster. "But only because a bunch of asshole demons were trying to kill us, so I guess that makes sense, right?"

Jono squinted one eye a tiny bit.

//I mean, would've made more sense to erase the demons' memories,// Jono noted. //One would think taking yours away would just mean you don't know you've got demons trying to kill you, or why.//

Jonothon Starsmore, sharing all his super astute observations using things like 'common sense.' Fear.

"That'd work if they hadn't like, taken over the world," Dante offered, stepping away from the wall.

Fine, he'd tell Starsmore most of it. Fuck it. The guy hadn't screwed him over yet.

//Complicates matters somewhat, yes,// Jono allowed, leaning over to set his guitar down on its stand. //Feels like an idiotic question just asking it, but did taking your memories actually help anything?//

Better to see where Dante stood on the matter than sit here getting irritated on his behalf.

... Okay, he was still irritated on Dante's behalf.

Dante shrugged.

"Kept my brother safe," he said. "They didn't know there were two of us, and neither did I."

//So he was safe, but you, not so much,// Jono surmised, giving a little nod. That furrowed-eyebrow frown of his deepened all the more.

So, Dante had family out there that he didn't remember, he'd been left to the tender mercies of a world full of demons who meant to kill him, and he hadn't known why.

He was right back to being angry on his behalf, then.

//Shite,// he muttered. //People who get into your head and take things away...//

So, technically he could do that. And hell, in a few extreme circumstances, he had. He still hated it, though. He was still living with the fallout of it, himself. Always would be.

"It's weird, right?" Dante said. He tilted his head at Starsmore.

"It happen to you?"

... and in full Dante fashion, sideswerved talking about himself to talk about someone else.

//Twice,// Jono muttered, nodding and bunching his shoulders up slightly in a shrug that didn't quite relax again. //Replaced 'em with something else, uglier things.//

Jono didn't mind, terribly. He knew better by now than to push too hard once Dante started ducking.

"Shitting hell, man," Dante said, frowning. "That fucking sucks. What happened?"

//First time, I was investigating people who had been going missing... mutants, like me. Families snatched from their beds at night without a trace. I went undercover, playing double agent an infiltrating the most likely suspect.// My, but that hole in the plaster was fascinating, wasn't it? //I was so bloody close to blowing them out into the open that I could feel their victims screaming in my bloody head, and I made a bad call. Got caught. They wiped me clean and reprogrammed me into the perfect loyal murderer within the hour, then put me to work, hiding the evidence with extreme prejudice.//

Killing people. Cleaning out the mutant concentration camp and filling up the mass graves.

Dante blinked a few times.

"That's fucked up," he said. "Man. You've got all the hardcore stories, don't you?"

//And people wonder why I get so antsy when nothing is going to hell around me,// Jono said, just a touch wryly. //I have my reasons to be paranoid.//

"I can see that," Dante said. Long pause. "I think my dad was just trying to make sure I could hide among the humans."

//Well...// Jono sat there quietly for a few moments, thinking on that. //You are here.//

So, at least somewhat, it had worked.

//Still processing? Seems like a lot to take in.//

Yes.

Dante shrugged. "Going fine," he said. "Especially once we take out the asshole who killed our parents."

//Another demon?//

Given the direction this conversation was going, that seemed like a safe guess. Jono was still processing the rest, himself. He wasn't completely certain if he should offer condolences, or... help, somehow. Though if that asshole in particular also happened to exist in Limbo, that would be harder to do than he'd like.

"Mundus," Dante said. "Hiding out on Earth pretending to be a banker."

~~Three guesses when his canon was developed.~~

~~Hmmmmmm...~~

Jono's eyebrow twitched up a little bit at that.

//A banker.//

That seemed like an oddly fitting profession for a murderous demon, he supposed.

"He and my dad used to be buddies until my dad hooked up with my mom," Dante said. "Verg and me are the only ones who can take him down."

Stop telling everyone about Vergil, Dante.

//Your brother,// Jono guessed. And then he nodded a little. //Always seems to be the way of it, doesn't it?//

It's okay, Dante. Jono wasn't terribly concerned one way or the other about your brother, except for how it meant you weren't alone in the world. That was... nice. If things weren't so horrible otherwise, he'd be happy for you.

Just so long as Vergil wasn't like, say, Raven's siblings, with the being deadly sins and doing horrible things to people, then hey. Nifty.

"Yeah, well," Dante said. He sighed. "Demon dad, angel mom. Not really what I expected."

Okay, Jono had met plenty of half demons. The angel mom bit was new. He didn't react, really, beyond a little nod of his head, but... hell, that had to be more than a little bit to process, right there.

//Seems like a bit of an adjustment,// he offered, //if you didn't remember any of that at all.//

A bit.

//Is it better, knowing? Or just more complicated?//

"It's better," Dante said, after a moment. "It kinda gets... I dunno. Drags on you, not knowing."

Good. Good, then. Jonothon nodded. There had never really been a time when he didn't at least think he knew what he was all about.

//This lets you move forward, instead of constantly wondering what came before, then.//

That made sense. Jono approached it from a similar angle, even with all of the memories he had. There was so much going on in there sometimes that he had to stop to pick himself out of the background noise, to figure out if the choices he made were really his own.

"Well, I know what to do next," Dante said brightly. Sort of brightly. "That's new."

He shrugged. "Anyway," he said, "Band night, huh?"

Ah, to know what to do next...

//Band night,// Jono agreed, nodding a little. //Figure it's something the island doesn't have already, and it's something I've been meaning to do for years. Since I haven't really seen much in the way of extracurriculars lately... hell, maybe somebody will take an interest in showing up and making some noise from time to time.//

"Sounds like a good idea for a change," Dante said, shoving his hands back into his pockets. "You think anybody on the island knows how to play the drums?"

Jono considered for a moment.

//Pinkie-- the new, human-shaped Pinkie-- did come into the shop once looking to buy a drum kit,// he offered. //Not sure if there's anybody else besides, but that's what the posters are for. Couldn't hurt to scrounge up a bassist, either, though I wouldn't be opposed to picking one up myself, if it came to that.//

"Maybe just put out a bunch of instruments and booze outside the place and see if anyone touches them," Dante said.

He was mostly kidding, as one could tell by the smirking.

//I mean, if nobody shows up, that'll be Plan B,// Jono replied, sounding vaguely amused, himself. //The 'I dunno, just give them alcohol' marketing strategy seems to be working better than audition calls and putting up announcements on the marquee.//

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The Boards, Thursday

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