Hannibal's house, Friday evening (with hints of the past)

[sharp_as_knives]

The day had been decidedly long, and Hannibal was glad to finally make his way, avoiding any untoward encounters, back home. And, since Jono wasn't home yet, have a leisurely dinner of the sort he wasn't sharing with anyone these days.

[OOC: For the guy who can't duck a pitchfork!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded and picked up the needle. "You shouldn't feel the needle, or the edges of the wound, but concentrate on what you can - feeling the skin pull towards the center as it joins together." He started stitching. "Think of replicating that on the other side of the wound."

[furnaceface]

Jono nodded, closing his eyes and trying to focus. Not on the way parts of his back had gone numb, a prevailing feeling of practically nothing that vaguely echoed his missing chest. Not on anything he could really feel at all. Just on the way it should have been, and trying to play out the process of returning his back as it was now to how it had been before.

//Pulling together,// he echoed. //Just putting things as they were...//

[sharp_as_knives]

"That's right," Hannibal encouraged as he worked. "The edges moving toward each other, joining together, filling in the hole."

[furnaceface]

//Stitching themselves back into what they were meant to be,// Jono murmured, even as a ghostly voice laughed back at him from across the room.

"I was like you, once. Young... Handsome... Had the whole world in front of me. Then my mutant powers surfaced and I blew my face off. Over the years I got more and more powerful, and ran out of skin to burn. Welcome to your future, kid."

Ugh, yes. Thank you, Fever Pitch.

Jono wrinkled his nose, but didn't bother looking up to watch that particular tidbit of his past play out. He knew full well what a human skeleton on fire looked like. Figured the reason he was being shown this one was because of just how much time he'd spent, being terrified that he would end up the same.

In any case, it had been only a moment, a flicker of a memory.

//Get stuffed, ya skinny prat,// Jono muttered, and then the vision was gone. He waited a moment, finally cracking open one eye to make certain it was over with, and wryly added, //So, where were we?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Ignoring idiots," Hannibal answered. "And stitching you up, inside and out." He thought for a moment longer. "Let's try this."

He concentrated on what he was doing, sharing the look of the skin drawing together, the feel of it shifting under his fingers as he worked.

[furnaceface]

That was... unique, in and of itself. Jono hadn't really anticipated that sudden focus on all of the details, but he let himself tune in to them all the same, experiencing his body from within and without at the same time.

//All the better to try stitching myself up from the inside?//

It actually did help, was the thing.

[sharp_as_knives]

"If I remember Emma's discussions, visualizing something is important to working with it." Hannibal stitched slowly and carefully, keeping his focus there.

[furnaceface]

//That's true enough,// Jono agreed, letting his mind's eye play and re-play the images he was getting through Hannibal's eyes. Not the most flattering view he'd ever had of himself, but it wasn't as though he couldn't handle the sight of injuries, so he'd cope. //And she'd be the first one to hop on board the 'Jonothon, learn how to heal yourself, blast it,' train along with you. She'd probably approve of your methods.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"That's because she's a woman of very good taste." Hannibal finished one hole, tied the thread off neatly, and started on the next.

[furnaceface]

//And she's at least as relentless as you are,// Jono lamented. //How the world doesn't just curl in on itself and give up when you're both in the same room is beyond me.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"What gives you the impression that it hasn't?" Hannibal asked. "We have gotten you dressed up, and healing yourself, and even occasionally - dare I suggest happy?"

[furnaceface]

Jono was wrinkling his nose over his shoulder at you, Hannibal. How dare you be correct like that?

//Start bragging too much, and I might stop doing any one of those things just to be contrary,// he cautioned, teasingly. //But yes. You're both a force of nature apart. It's absurd what happens when you're both on the same page about something.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Then you're doing well to have our help, aren't you?"

Another hole was finished and Hannibal moved on to the next. "Speaking of doing well, how is the healing on the inside coming? I'm halfway done here." There was a definite hint of challenge in that.

[furnaceface]

//Slower,// Jono replied, and if there was a hint of a sigh in that, well... //You get the benefit of a needle and thread. I'm trying to build new muscle tissue out of thin air with my brain. Preferably without knocking myself out for the next week. There's... I'm making progress, but I still need to knit it together once it's where it's meant to be.//

It was interesting, the odd acrobatics his flames were doing inside his chest in order to accommodate pulling the tissues together as they were meant to be. That control on its own was tiring.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled. After they were done, he might remind Jono how unthinkable this might have been for him a year or two ago, but right now he was pleased there was progress.

"Remember what works for the first one, and repeat it," he suggested. "Hopefully it will get easier. Will it help if I pause so we're working together?"

[furnaceface]

//It might help me set a better pace for myself,// Jono admitted. //And it's difficult to focus on what's going on in one place if you're over there stitching up another.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "Where are you?"

[furnaceface]

//The one you started on...// But he'd been actually working on it! And making progress! That was something, right? //S'about... half-done, I think. Might settle for three-quarters of the way before starting on th'next. I'd rather have progress on most instead of one or two completely out of th'way and nothing on the rest.//

Pacing himself. Pacing himself. Because if he didn't, and the island tried to do something especially sneaky tomorrow and he wasn't at the top of his game...

Like, oh, say, island-wide empathy. Being completely shattered and then being exposed to every emotion on the island would be rough. You know. Hypothetically.

[sharp_as_knives]

Halfway done was certainly progress. Hannibal paused in his work and turned back to the first hole, framing it with his fingers, pressing lightly to help Jono focus on the area. "Here."

[furnaceface]

//Thank you,// Jono replied, pulling his focus back to that particular wound. //Give me time and maybe I'll be able to take care of these things without even the stitching, but... I'm not there yet. And I'm not exactly at top form tonight, either.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"You've been doing remarkably well so far." Hannibal stroked the skin toward the stitches as if encouraging it together. "Practice will make perfect." Hopefully practice without further past intrusions.

[furnaceface]

//Between you and me, I'd much rather have less cause to get that practice in,// Jono murmured, though his tone was drifting a little, getting distracted by the effort of building cells out of nothing. //Fewer holes would be a good start.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"It would," Hannibal agreed. "But you'll have plenty of practice repeating this in large scale."

Because you were rebuilding yourself, Jono.

[furnaceface]

//Suppose I will,// Jono allowed. There wasn't much point in arguing; Hannibal had made up his mind, and Jono couldn't deny that at least having a face again would be nice. //Eventually.//

He tilted his head faintly, and then added, //Maybe we move to the next one. This one's come along a fair bit, but I want to still have enough in me to get to the rest.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "The next one, then." He framed that one as he had the last one, focusing on it.