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

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...

"Well, it's a good thing I have these beers then," Karla teased. "Usually, I only have varying states of hungry!"

Jono was very nearly smiling again.

//What a pair th'waiters must think we are,// he noted. //One bottomless pit, and one bloke who hasn't even ordered a complimentary water, yet.//

"It would be wrong to challenge people to an eating or drinking contest while we're here, wouldn't it?" Karla asked, glancing around with mischief. "Unfair advantages and all that. But I bet we could sucker them in for a lot. And I'd put the money to good use, I really would!"

Buying more alcohol, probably.

//Mmm, I don't doubt that you would,// Jono replied with that hint of a smirk lingering in his eyes. //Someday, you'll meet yer match, luv. And then what?//

Some terrible part of him actually wanted to see this happen.

That same terrible part of him was also trying to figure out if meals would be served via dump-truck.

"We would join forces and descend upon the countryside like a horde of ravening locusts," Karla said solemnly. "The destruction would be catastrophic and a great wailing would be heard across the land as we devoured the last of everything tasty."

She chuckled a bit. "Incidentally, that's how I referred to all seven of my children at every meal last weekend."

//As locusts? My two weren't so bad, really. Vedder was fairly self-sufficient, and Elizabeth... mostly just wanted pancakes.//

Even Jono, who hadn't prepared a meal in years, could handle pancakes.

...Karla hadn't been allowed to try. Both her children and their other parents--and any other adult in the room--had forbidden it.

"I think the part I liked best about last weekend was seeing the children who were already friends. Elizabeth and Kayla. Nommy and Henry. It made them seem more real almost. Real little people with their own ideas and relationships. Made them feel less like phantoms conjured up by Fandom for a weekend, you know?"

It had also made Della and Rook's situations seem more real. And frightening.

//I think I know what you mean,// Jono replied, with a small nod of his head. //Th'weekends are so short, you barely get to know who they are before they're off again. Some of them never t'be seen again.//

He didn't entirely know how be felt about that.

//They're no less real for it, but... timelines, and all. They had to come from somewhere. We just might never see those places, ourselves.//

"Just some of those timelines seem so impossible, it's like trying to imagine a fairy tale is real or something," Karla said. "Like Bobina, my iron-handed daughter with Bobby--who, by the way, was the one who carried her for nine months. I know that that future is real for her, but it's never going to be mine. She was like a dream brought to life for a few days. But then others seem so real it's hard to remember than they're still only possibilities."

She rested her chin on her hand and looked at Jono. *What did you think about the futures you got to see?* she sent.

//Well, I didn't see many,// Jono noted, thoughtfully. //Vedder is my daughter with George, of all people. And in Vedder's timeline, I'm apparently th'worst father ever.//

No. Really. He had somehow managed to be a more negligent parent than his own, who had managed to forget to send him even socks for Christmas this year.

//Elizabeth's, though...// He had no idea where to start, in regards to that one. //She's a good gel. I wouldn't mind a future with her in it. Though there were some things she said about it that were a bit...//

He waved a hand around a little. There wasn't really a word for the way he felt about potentially losing his powers, somehow surviving, but only thanks to Akkaba, who somehow turned him into a freakish Junior Apocalypse.

It was difficult to file Elizabeth into the 'probably never happening' pile, but... Honestly. Blue?

"Oh, you heard about giving the guitars a bath then?" Karla teased gently. "The girls assured me they were sorry."

She had heard the girls talking about Jono being 'in disguise' here and blue at home, but she knew full well she wasn't understanding everything. But she was more than willing to listen, if he wanted to talk.

And, if not, there was always teasing to be done. Obviously.

//It's th'fact that they said guitars, plural, that hurts th'most,// Jono replied. //If I ever do become a parent, I think th'first thing I'm going to have to do is find a trustworthy, child-less guitar-sitter. I've had conversations with that Stratocaster.//

Giving Strat a bath was kind of like attempted murder, in that light. Oh Fandom, you and your weird weekends.

//That didn't seem like such a terrible future for you and yours, though. But what sort of a name is 'Nommy?'//

Karla sputtered on her beer, laughing as she mopped at her face with a napkin. "Not his real name!" she protested. "He wouldn't tell us what his real name was! But...come on. You saw those cheeks of his. He comes by the nickname honestly."

That sputter totally had Jono smirking at Karla from across the table. Victory.

//He certainly does. I should be thankful that Elizabeth's only real resemblance to her father is visible only when she lets her soul-self come out.//

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