fh_trips | Kohala Coast, Hawaii | Morning & Afternoon | Tuesday

One of Jono's shoulders hitched upwards a little bit as his gaze continued studying the tabletop. He hadn't even been aware of the hand that he'd lifted, pressing softly against the bandages that covered where his mouth had been.

That there were people staring at such an exclamation about teeth, for once, he hadn't even noticed.

//I knew when I asked you to stay that I couldn't possibly take her down and make it through alive, Karla. I think you knew it, too. I wasn't expecting to be able to put myself together again out of all of th'nothing that was left.//

"I knew that it was likely you were going to die," Karla said, eyes dropping. "I thought that when we were done, I was going to have to pour as much Craft into you as I had when we were done, holding you onto life until Raven could Heal whatever was left. I had no idea how much power you could unleash. I...I almost had to stop shielding Rinoa, because I drained the Sapphire almost to the breaking point. I knew that you could unleash a lot. I didn't think you could unleash so much."

Her eyes dropped to his midsection as she took another long, slow sip of her beer.

"That you could carry that much."

Jono found himself squirming a bit more, as if writhing about in his seat a little would get her eyes off of his middle.

//Back in Massachusetts, they call me Chamber,// he noted, //on account of all of that. But after that...//

He wrapped his arms around himself. Yes, partly to obscure the view. //I don't know so much, anymore, if I'm what's carrying it, or if it's what carries me.//

Even someone who couldn't sense emotions could tell Jono was uncomfortable, so Karla brought her eyes up to meet his again. "I prefer Jonothon, myself," she said. "Chamber--you're more than that. You're more than that," she said with a nod down at his chest. "You're guitar songs and chewy beers and snarky commentary and words like 'plonker' and 'bollocks,' and a big giant softie when it comes to things like kittens and big eyes and little children. That's what I think, anyway."

She folded her arms over her chest. "And I'm a Queen, so disagreeing with me is not only rude, it's impolitic."

//Maybe I am all of those things. But then, th'last thing I'd want is to cause some sort of international incident,// Jono replied. //On the other hand, I always fancied myself a bit of an anarchist, too.//

Or, at least, a rebel. You almost had to be, if you wanted to be both a mutant, and still alive.

//I'm... er... sorry about th'teeth.//

And possibly the fragments of lower jaw. And rib. And lung. And so on.

Edited 2011-02-25 01:30 (UTC)

"I'd thought they were hers or something," Karla answered, waving that away. "I'm, umm, sorry for saying that loudly. It was just surprising."

A lot. As had been finding them originally.

"Wait--that doesn't make sense, though," she said after a moment's thought. "How were they..."

Speaking of impolitic, there was that question Karla was trying to ask.

"So just what did happen?" There. That seemed a safer alternative.

//Well, they wouldn't be in yer hair if it had happened while yer shield was still up,// Jonothon pointed out.

And then he squirmed a bit more.

//After I... burned myself out, I... managed to rebuild myself, somehow. I don't know how. I just know that it was cold, wherever I was, scattered all over, and so I came back, where it was warm again.// A pause. //In once piece. If coughing, somewhat.//

Jono-and-Adel ashes were not for breathing.

"I wasn't exactly at my deductive best," Karla pointed out wryly. "What with having Crafted myself into unconsciousness and all. I felt proud of myself for recognizing that they were teeth and that teeth didn't usually grow in hair."

//They don't. In fact, hair is generally not a great place for teeth, I've found.//

He would have much preferred them in his skull, where they belonged.

//I miss them already.//

Karla felt obscurely guilty for not having saved them, in that case. But what would she have done? Given them to him in a sack?

"So you came back whole? You just sort of...put yourself back together? After your body went the way of Adel's?"

She caught the waiters eye and pointed to the bottle of Carling. They were going to need a few more of these.

"But the same thing happened then that it did this past summer, didn't it? Hell's fire, Jono. That--" What? Sucks? Is awful? Duh. He knew that better than she did. "--I owe you more beers. You need to get drunk."

//Nobody owes me anything,// Jono protested, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

...

//That said, I wouldn't mind being a little out of my head, at least for a better part of th'day. Just so long as I'm sober for this evening.//

"You were an amazing friend to people for no other reason than because that's what you are," Karla said firmly. "Which means I need to be an equally amazing friend just to keep up. Ergo, I owe you more beers. Otherwise, I'm just going to assume that you are deliberately trying to sabotage my efforts at being a good friend."

Shut up. That totally made sense and you know it, Jono. Or he would after she got a few more beers into him.

"And I'll just cut the link later on," she promised. "One immediately sober Jono coming up." She glanced longingly at her bright yellow drink and then again over at the waiter who was heading their way with more beer. "You mind if I intersperse a few fruity drinks in with the Carlings?"

//Of course not,// he replied, shaking his head a little. //My masculinity might be on th'line, but really, for as often as I get to appreciate anything like this...//

Well, beggars and hollowed-out mutants with no mouths can't be choosers.

//You could be drinking chocolate milk all evening, and if you'd decided that you were going to share, I'd be quite alright with that, luv.//

Edited 2011-02-25 02:53 (UTC)

*You know you can poke me anytime we're together and I'll share, right?* Karla checked, using a psychic thread because she was too busy drinking her sunshiny goodness. The bartenders had caught on to her impressive metabolism by now and were making her drinks much stronger. So it was alcohol-infused sunshiny goodness. *You don't have to wait for me to offer. The invitation is always open to you.*

Jono's reply to that, at first, was simply a shrug and a reach for the nearby salt shaker, which he was going to just fidget with for the next little while.

//I feel stupid, asking,// he admitted. //But... thank you, at any rate.//

"Why?" Karla asked, finally coming up for air. Already, the alcohol was making her feel flushed. "Especially if you know I'm going to say yes?"

//Well...// Jono watched her for a moment, and then continued with his fidget. And if his fidget involved upending the salt shaker and then tracing one finger through the grains on the tabletop, what of it? //Suppose there was something that everybody in th'world could do... something they all took for granted, and you couldn't. No way at all that you could, but you could... fake yer way through, if you had help. But getting help meant admitting that... you couldn't...//

Because you were half-there.

Because for all the destruction that you were capable of causing, you still couldn't sing, or breathe, or taste, or kiss...

It took a moment for Karla to sort through all of that, followed by a small "Oooooooh." Hello, light of dawning comprehension.

"I think...I think I understand," she said slowly. "It's one thing if the people you care about remember on their own, but something all together different if you have to remind them that you're...only faking,"

Jono nodded. Something like that, at least.

//And it isn't even something important, really. Th'world will keep turning if I never taste a beer again. It'd be easier to ask for help if it was... life and death, perhaps. Otherwise, it's just me pointing out that I can't.//

Which he tended to do on a more or less regular basis already. But with more moping, and less asking for lager.

"Yeah, but...not everything had to be about life or death situations," Karla pointed out quietly. "It's the little things in between that make us happy and content and sane. The life and death stuff is necessary for survival. The little, unimportant things, like the taste of beer or being pleasantly tipsy...that's what our lives are. Hanging out with you isn't what keeps me alive, Jono," she said, drawing lines in the melting frost on her cup. "But it makes me happy. Makes my life better. It's not about whether or not the world keeps turning, I think. But more whether or not we care."

//And in a few months, when I've graduated and gone?// Jonothon's eyebrows had furrowed now, and he brushed his hand through the salt, evening it out on the tabletop. //It's all nice in th'meantime, I suppose. But I really shouldn't get used to it, either.//

To being able to experience taste. To being able to rely on others. To not being a human weapon at least part of the time. Pick one.

His fingers trailed in the salt once again, drawing a circle, first. And then drawing an X inside of it.

Karla's face fell at the reminder that Jono would be going soon and she bit back her instinctive question of whether he had to go. He knew as well as she did that he had a music store in town; if he hadn't already thought about it as a possibility for his post-high school career, then there probably was a good reason for it.

"I don't disagree with you, entirely," she said instead. "Just saying that your friends, wherever they are, probably won't begrudge you help, even if it isn't some kind of life or death emergency." Grabbing one of the new bottles of Carling, she toasted him with it before drinking. *You're worth it.*

It was a sense of duty, of course, that had him convinced that he had to go back.

Or, possibly, a sense of guilt.

//Even if you feel as though you have t'chew?//

Guilt, duty, or otherwise, there was something to be said for the occasional lighthearted remark. Even from Jono.

"Even though I have to chew," Karla said, grinning. "And though I'm more worried about getting full than getting drunk. The sacrifices I make for friendship, really."

//They don't go unappreciated,// Jonothon replied, almost managing to sound a bit solemn about that. //And, truth be told, I wouldn't mind a reminder as to what it's like to feel full, either.//

The things that he missed...

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