Voicemail / Disclaimer

[apocalipped]

You've reached the phone of Jonothon Starsmore. If it was important enough for you to call, I suppose it's probably important enough for you to leave a message, too. I'll get to it sooner or later, probably.

BEEP.

In creating this journal, the author has assumed the identity of a fictional person for use in the role-playing game fandomhigh, for the sole

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Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

Amelia probably should be asleep, since it was really, really late, but she’d been reading and then there had been supper to make and dishes to do and a shower to take and now, after all of that, she wasn’t sleepy.

Normally, if she couldn’t sleep, Amelia would do something around the house. At home, there was always something to do, since Elena was a baby and Dad was busy. But the house she had been spending this weekend in was already clean and the bookstore was tidy and she didn’t really want to read now anyway, though that was an option.

She couldn’t even practice shooting, since all the guns lying about the place were toys. Ugh. Though it was bad manners anyway to practice with someone else's weapons

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

It would. It generally did when people saw it for the first time.

“I’m not scared!” she said defensively, since Amelia was pretty sure that was what overwhelmed meant. “Dad says only babies are scared.”

So she wasn’t scared. So there.

“Dad says that the rich people live on top of the plate,” Amelia continued, since Mr. Jono didn’t seem to know anything. “Everyone else lives under it, in the slums.”

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

Ah. Well, that put so much of Rosalind's personality into perspective. Her fierce independence, especially. And, though it was less obvious to those who didn't know her, her cautious approach to trust.

"I'm not a baby," he shared, "and I spend far more time scared than I would care to admit. It's not bad to be afraid. It's very... human."

Sometimes, the fear and the pain were all he had to remind him that, deep down, he was still human.

"But if you don't understand something, or you're not used to seeing it, I suppose 'cautious' works, too. My apologies, luv. I didn't mean to suggest that you were a baby at all."

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

“Dad said differently,” she said stubbornly, because Dad was always right. “Elena’s allowed to be scared but not me.”

Amelia considered that.

“He doesn’t like Elena being scared either, so I don’t tell him,” she shared, like it was a great secret. “She’s just a baby.”

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

"I won't tell," Jono solemnly swore. Mostly because he figured the odds of ever meeting Rosalind's father were slim to nil. "You must be very brave, then, to never be afraid. How do you do it?"

... He was half-serious. If there was some secret to not being afraid, he'd be happy to know it.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

“Because I’m a big girl,” Amelia said, then elaborated. “I can’t be. Dad’s busy and Elena’s a baby and if I’m scared to go to the market because of monsters, that means we don’t eat. If I’m scared and don’t want to go outside because there’s creepy people outside, then if Elena sneaks out, no one will look for her and she could get hurt and it would be my fault because she’s my responsibility. So when I go out, I have my gun, and I can’t be afraid because there’s no one else.”

That was probably not what Jono had wanted to hear.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

Jono was picturing a tiny child with a gun, yes, and frowning. But then, he was a mutant. Most of the students he'd worked with back in Westchester were the gun.

"So you learn to be brave," he said, carefully, "and independent, and strong, and you do what you need to do, because there's nobody to do it for you."

Damn it, Rosalind. Break his heart a little more.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

“That’s right,” she said quietly, but with pride. “And it makes Dad look less sad though, of course, I still have to improve.”

Amelia was never going to be good enough for her father.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

"There's something that'll be a constant for the rest of your life," Jono noted, though not unkindly. "Through anyone's life. Nobody's perfect, there'll always be room for improvement."

Why settle for 'good enough' when there was always a chance of being better?

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

“Yes, I know,” she replied matter-of-factly. “I have to be perfect.”

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

"Well, I wish you luck, then," Jono offered. "I suppose if anyone can accomplish 'perfect,' it'll be you."

She definitely seemed to want it more than most.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

She didn’t want it. She needed it. Though Amelia was lucky she was naturally very, very talented at... just about everything.

“Good,” Amelia said, mollified. “Who are you?”

Possibly, that question should have been asked earlier.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

Oh, Rosalind. Jono needed to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from just flat-out laughing. It was fortunate that she'd already done all of her growing up. It spared him having to feel obligated to point out that conversations with strangers probably wasn't the safest late-night pastime.

"I'm a teacher," he said, honestly. "Former military, but right now, I teach. I'm a friend of Rosalind's."

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

“So you’re like Dad,” she reasoned, unaware of how terrible an insult that was. “He was in the military and teaches now. Guns. At the Academy. What do you teach?”

Clearly it had to be something to do with the military, right?

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[apocalipped]

"I was teaching classes on surviving invasions, sometimes with monsters," Jono replied. "These days, the curriculum is a little more laid back. I take students out to see things they might not get to experience otherwise."

He was a glorified art teacher who didn't teach art. It was awesome, but he suspected Rosalind wouldn't appreciate it for what it was.

Re: Late Sunday / Super Early Monday

[give_areason]

Good call, Jono! Amelia definitely wouldn’t appreciate that.

“Do you do field trips?” she asked curiously. Amelia didn’t have anything against field trips, in general, though one where having fun was the whole point would stymie her badly. “Are there a lot of invasions here?”

If so, why were the guns here toys? Why?