Groovy Tunes, Saturday

[furnaceface]

Jono was in a fairly mellow mood today as he settled in at the Groovy Tunes for his shift. Joni had come along with him again, less because he was in dire need of a therapy kitten and more because he was fairly certain that Beethoven was going to destroy her if he let her gnaw at the older cat's ears any longer. The stereo had settled on a station

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[tigerundercover]

Raven had moved back into the apartment again. Her current plan if Kathy showed up was to tell her Raven got to have a home and if Kathy didn't like it, she could find another place to live.

Whether she would actually be able to do that when facing Kathy was . . . not super likely. But the thought counted for something, right?

She swung back by the music store again, and almost walked right past when she heard that it still wasn't playing grunge. But she spotted a glimpse of fire when she went past the door, so she turned around and went back.

"Hey."

[furnaceface]

//Raven, luv,// Jono greeted, glancing up from his guitar. //Out and about today?//

Jono knew 'out and about' intimately. He was a restless person himself; he couldn't start a day without doing at least a full lap around the island, first. He gave her a little nod and waved for her to come on in as Joni plodded across the floor to say hello.

[tigerundercover]

"Most days," Raven said. She crouched down and offered Joni her fingers. "I was actually kind of looking for you, though."

[furnaceface]

//Oh?//

Jono lowered his guitar, setting it to the side and watching as Joni sniffed for a moment, then bonked her little kitty head affectionately against the offered fingers.

//Is there something I can help you with?//

[tigerundercover]

"Maybe." Raven sat down on the floor and set about petting the kitten's head with great focus. "You've . . . done stuff."

[furnaceface]

You know, Raven, coming from anybody else, that would be a very broad sort of statement.

But, at least in this case, Jonothon figured he could puzzle it out.

He picked himself up from the chair, walking across the floor so that he could sit down again, nearby.

//I have,// he agreed. //I've done a good many things. Sometimes because it was absolutely necessary to survive. Others... less so.//

Surrounded by chanting cultists and a handful of traumatized students, Raven included, he'd taken that extra moment to send a man walking back to his death. He'd mentioned it to nobody as they left.

He still didn't regret it.

[tigerundercover]

That same event was the first time Raven had ever killed anyone. It seemed like such a long time ago now.

"I thought so. Some of the things I did last year have been . . . coming up."

[furnaceface]

//Things have an unfortunate way of doing that,// Jono allowed, his tone gentle. //Nightmares? Or conversations?//

Both were their own special sort of torture.

[tigerundercover]

"Conversation." Her nightmares had little to do with what she'd actually done. "Kathy finally got around to asking about some things that happened after she died."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon managed, for the most part, to keep himself from wincing.

//I take it she didn't care much for your answers?//

The people with clean hands generally didn't.

[tigerundercover]

Whoever said Kathy's hands were clean?

"Well, they included killing her mom and dad. So . . . no. Not so much."

[furnaceface]

Well, if they weren't, she wouldn't have had much room to--

Ah.

//Killing her parents?// Well. That was not exactly the confession he'd been expecting. But then, these things never really were, were they? //I...//

He furrowed his brow a little, and then tilted his head at her. It was hard to forget that last message, and the images of a fresh hell that the explanation of the exes had conjured.

//Did you kill them, Raven, or were they already dead?//

[tigerundercover]

"Her mom wasn't." And even if she were, Raven knew how to kill an ex cleanly. Bashing them repeatedly over the head wasn't it.

[furnaceface]

Jono sat silently for a moment, considering that.

//Would she have been?//

[tigerundercover]

"Yeah," Raven admitted. "But she called me a monster, so I sped her along her way." She looked up from petting Joni to meet Jono's eyes. "I'm not looking for justification. Right or wrong -- it doesn't even enter into it. And it's not like she was the last living person I killed." That honor went to the man in Harpers Ferry. You know, so far. "How do you deal with it when people look at you differently?"

[furnaceface]

Jono held up his hands a little. Even if she had been looking for forgiveness of some sort, it wasn't his place to give it. He was almost relieved when instead of looking for justification, she asked her question instead.

//Depends who,// he admitted, meeting her eyes with his own, trying not to look so... bloody... tired. //Depends if they're people who matter to you.//

Which, he was guessing, Kathy was. Of course she was. Raven had gone through hell for her, after all.

//And it depends how differently, they're looking at you,// he added, gently. //Is she a danger to you, or to herself? Or is this more a concern that something you had before is broken?//