Hannibal's house and totally not Jono's, Thursday evening

[sharp_as_knives]

Since they'd returned to their actual home (Hannibal somewhat amused at Jono's embarrassment over calling it that), Hannibal had done quite a bit of cooking, and resting, and working out, and catching up on things, and being sat upon and/or glared at by cats. Jono had been doing much the same, but with less cooking and far more brooding.

Today, he seemed to have spent most of the day in the basement level, working off his mood by alternately focusing furiously on billiards and beating the hell out of the heavy bag. Hannibal was frankly surprised that neither the bag nor a billiard ball had been put through the wall yet.

And while the focus and working off energy were good in theory, neither of them seemed to be helping him much. So, Hannibal would simply have to intervene.

When he came downstairs, he brought a good-sized mug of coffee and a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. He did, after all, know his audience.

Comments

[furnaceface]

//I would've attempted to at least try and get a feel for how many people were left on the ship,// Jono decided. //See if there were any wounded, that sort of thing... Everyone made it out, but we were all unarmed and naked against armed troops on their own playing field. It's nothing short of a miracle we didn't lose anybody.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "What do you think stopped you? The disorientation of having your powers suddenly returned and your body changed again? Your anger at our captors?"

[furnaceface]

//Little of all of it, perhaps,// Jono admitted, running his hand through his flames again. //They got into our heads. Maybe I would've stuck around to play hero some more, but I have a very short fuse when it comes to what they do inside my mind.//

There was a note in that statement, though, that didn't sound completely convinced that it was quite so simple as all that.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Understandable," Hannibal noted. "But you worry that it says more about you as a person. That perhaps you aren't as altruistic as you believed?"

[furnaceface]

//Well, I never pretended to be a saint,// Jono pointed out. //But at the very least, I always cared about my students. That much... that was one of the very few givens I had to hold on to.//

And that weekend, he had very much not cared about anything but getting Hannibal and blowing up as many of the Zin as he possibly could along the way.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I have no doubt that you do care for them," Hannibal said. "Nor do I believe they have any doubts, either. One decision, particularly one heavily influenced by past trauma, need not define you."

[furnaceface]

//Mm. But between that and the stagnant feeling, it's a difficult decision to just brush off.// Jono leaned sideways slightly, gingerly, to be a bit closer to Hannibal. //Doesn't have to necessarily be true to gnaw at those little nooks and crannies that don't like to let go of errant thoughts.//

The sharks.

//Wanting revenge shouldn't ever come before them. I need to work on that, at the very least.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was rather fond of revenge, personally, but he did try not to let it get in the way of other things. "There is a time for every thing?" he suggested. He reached out to run his free hand through Jono's hair. "But your instinct isn't matching your priorities."

[furnaceface]

//My instinct has had a rough go of things,// Jono allowed, giving a slow shake of his head. //And when it kicks in while the rest of my head is elsewhere, apparently a lot of things end up burning.//

He wished he could say that was a shame in the least. Honestly.

//... You said you brought something for the burns...?//

Lookit him, Hannibal. Even if he didn't actually care, sometimes he could be sensible, at least.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I did." Hannibal smiled and pulled out the cream. "Although if you'd like a strawberry before my hands are coated in this?"

It wasn't really a question, so he was reaching for one already.

[furnaceface]

//... I'm guessing the cream doesn't go terribly well with strawberry,// Jono noted, watching Hannibal make that reach. He really did know his audience, Jonothon couldn't even deny it. //Lord, you came in here ready for war, didn't you?//

Strawberries and coffee. Dangerous weapons in this case, okay?

[sharp_as_knives]

Chocolate-dipped strawberries, even. Hannibal ate one slowly and attentively before answering. "I wasn't certain if you'd stop of your own accord."

He put a hand on Jono's shoulder as he leaned in to take stock of the burns. "Should I ask which is hurting the most, or simply assume that they all are?"

[furnaceface]

//Yes...?// Sorry, Hannibal. Distracting him before asking him questions was exactly the wrong order to do this in if you were hoping for an immediately coherent answer. //Er. That is. There's one... left shoulderblade... cleanest shot they took, I think. Feels th'worst, anyway...//

It looked the worst, too, truthfully. And his day of punching things probably hadn't helped that much.

[sharp_as_knives]

Probably not, but as it wouldn't actually do him further damage, if the punching helped, it was all to the good. Hannibal looked that burn over carefully, layering the salve on it. "I'll put a bandage on this before you sleep, to keep the medication on it."

He ran his fingers over the other burns with just enough pressure to both examine their healing and remind Jono of their presence.

Both instincts and priorities could be adjusted, and he took a moment to contemplate either path before offering. "If your instinct is causing you do things you regret, the way to override it is to rewrite it. To make what you want to do, habit."

[furnaceface]

//... Make playing hero a habit?// Jono closed his eyes, taking in the sensation of Hannibal's fingers moving over his wounds.

Just enough pain to remind him that he was still alive.

//That is what I want to do, after all.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal grimaced. "If that's what you want to do. We have worlds to choose from; I'm certain you can find enough work to keep you busy."

[furnaceface]

//I can practically hear the pained expression on your face right now,// Jono observed, leaning his head back a little, eyes still closed. //But there's the trouble, at any rate. Throwing on a bloody costume and running around playing vigilante hero isn't exactly my style. Even when it was something I did regularly, it wasn't my style. Searching out supervillains and looking for trouble... Maybe that's not quite what I want to be, either.//

Even if he really did enjoy punching things. That part still worked for him just fine.

[sharp_as_knives]

"That is something of a relief, anyway," Hannibal said. "I have nothing against you helping others, but I do have a decided preference for you remaining alive and - as much as possible, and increasingly possible - in one piece."

He wiped his hands clean and reached for his coffee again. "Might I suggest an alternative?"

[furnaceface]

//An alternative to looking for trouble?//

Jono wasn't touching the 'in one piece' part with a ten-foot pole just yet. He was already fairly certain he'd burned away a lot of the progress he'd made repairing himself during his flaming rampage around the ship, and he was trying not to think too hard about that so long as he didn't need to.

Give it a few more days. Maybe in a few more days, he'd even feel up for trying again.

[sharp_as_knives]

In a few more days, if he didn't Hannibal might bully him into it anyway.

"An alternative to looking for that sort of trouble," he corrected. "There are many things you can do to help people that don't involve outright fighting. Search and rescue, disaster assistance, cleanup and recovery after." He eyed Jono over his coffee cup. "There would be a lesser degree of danger, and you would be more directly helping."

Instead of blowing up cities trying to stop the bad guy, X-Men.

[furnaceface]

//... I suppose I don't have to actually be officially employed by any of those groups in order to be helpful that way,// he allowed. //Back home, it's difficult enough to find a search and rescue crew that'll have me. We've had people tell us to leave them to die because we're visibly mutant, before.//

Which... well. If those were their priorities while they were drowning at sea...

[sharp_as_knives]

If they were that rude, they deserved it, yes.

"So, we look in other worlds. Ones that don't despise mutants, or ones that don't have them." Hannibal smirked a little. "You would cause quite a stir in worlds like mine before they decided it was all hallucinations or tricks."

[furnaceface]

//Or before somebody attempted to have me trussed up and dissected to see what makes me tick?//

Mutants hadn't always been commonplace in Jono's reality, and there was no shortage of stories of the horrors visited upon them once they began to manifest. Hell, it wasn't exactly like that had ever really stopped, up to and even beyond M-Day...

//Inquiring minds and all that.// He shrugged a little. //Though there's likely to be some reality where that isn't as likely to happen, I suppose.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"There are likely to be a number of them," Hannibal answered. "and a bit of subtlety wouldn't hurt. And I'll book your portals," he added.

[furnaceface]

//I appreciate that. If I'm ever going to actually get where I'm going, I'll need it,// Jono replied, wryly. //Especially if I want to get there in time to be of any use to anyone.//

... He was considering this. He was actually seriously considering this.