Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, sometime in the fall of 1999 (or, well, Saturday)

[trigons_child]

After returning to Fandom and having a good cry, Raven texted Jono, asking if he was busy and if she could come for a visit. When he let her know it was alright, she teleported to Xavier's school in his home dimension and waited outside the door to the mansion, sending him another message to let him know she'd arrived. After what her mother had said to her earlier that day, she didn't want to be alone.

One of these days she was going to be able to visit Jono without being ready to burst into tears, really.

Comments

[furnaceface]

Would anybody blame Jono if he'd practically run them over in the hallway in order to meet her at the door before anyone else could? Raven had shown up quickly, too quickly for him to make it across the entire bloody estate without breaking into a run, and he hadn't even managed to get his wrappings on before he'd gotten her text.

Not that he really bothered with them much, anymore. He didn't really see the point, when he was surrounded by people with tentacles and wings and tails and fish-faces. Even if they all seemed terrified by him.

Hypocrites.

In any case, he made it to the courtyard in record time, opening the door and then opening his arms to her without so much as a word. He didn't need to be psychic to know that she was going to need it.

[trigons_child]

Raven had been trying to steady herself so she didn't immediately burst into tears when he opened the door, but at the sight of him and his waiting arms she utterly failed in that attempt and instead flung herself into them.

She made a feeble attempt at trying to explain why she was so upset, but her words were too choked with sobs, so she gave up and just clung to him as she cried.

[furnaceface]

Two hugs in less than as many weeks. This was like some kind of record for Jono, this year.

... It really shouldn't have been. It had been entirely too long since he'd made time for anyone that didn't wear an X on their belt, it seemed.

In any case he held her close, careful to keep his chest as close to solid as he could manage. If she needed to cry, he could be patient and let her get it out. Really, with as long as he'd been away, it was the least he could do.

[trigons_child]

It would take several minutes for Raven to be able to talk, and by then Jono's shoulder was damp with her tears. "My mother," she said, breath still hitching. "She...she told me she wishes nothing to do with me anymore."

It shouldn't hurt this much. She barely knew her mother. She loved her, but it was an uncertain kind of love, uncertain but hopeful. Until today.

[furnaceface]

//Oh.//

Well. Bollocks.

//I'm sorry to hear that, luv,// he murmured, squeezing her a little tighter. He didn't care about the tears on his shoulder, didn't care if any curious students lingered nearby to stare. It wasn't like crying youths on their front step was something new, considering how many people here had been told the same by their own families. But the clinging to the broken-faced newest X-boy... //She has no idea what she's missing out on.//

[trigons_child]

"She said that I allowed myself to be controlled by my father and by Sebastian," Raven hiccuped. She didn't care if anyone saw them and stared, though it might be a relief to feel their emotions rather than her own grief.

She lifted her head from Jono's shoulder and looked at him, shaking her head. "That is not true. I did not wish either of them to control me, and they never shall do so again."

[furnaceface]

//I know, luv. I know you didn't. You're better than that. If she'd ever taken th'time to get to know you, she'd know better.//

Jono really wanted to find Arella and rearrange her face with his boot, now.

//Nobody asks to be controlled that way. Especially not you. You fought so hard...//

[trigons_child]

She should have fought harder, better, asked for help instead of trying to deal with it all herself. But that was in the past now, and Trigon was gone, and so was Sebastian. She'd learned, though her mother seemed to think she hadn't or couldn't. If those were the true reasons for pushing her away.

"I felt pain when she looked at me," Raven said, sniffling and rubbing her hand across her eyes as her tears lessened. "I think even now I remind her of my father."

[furnaceface]

//Then she knows you even less than anybody thought,// Jono replied, his eyebrows furrowing a little as he reached up to cradle her chin in his fingers. He couldn't shake the memory of Arella telling him how much she hurt, in the wake of Raven's death.

The woman didn't have any right. Not if this was how she was acting now. At least Jono had cared.

//You are not your father, Raven. You're beautiful. Vibrant. Anybody who can't see that isn't worth the tears.//

[trigons_child]

"I just wished to spend time with her, to learn to know her as I never could on Azarath," Raven said. The pain of the memory of that afternoon made her throat tighten, and she swallowed past it, trying not to start crying again.

"She said she was going away and not to try to find her. I do not know if I will ever see her again now."

[furnaceface]

Jono bit back the 'good riddance' that flitted through his mind. He hadn't had any love for Arella before. Now, even less.

Far less.

//It's her loss, then. Maybe she just hasn't ever known you well enough to realize that.// A beat. //Maybe she's afraid that she will get to know you, just to lose you again.//

[trigons_child]

"She never truly wanted me," Raven said softly. "The Cult of Blood tricked her, and my father seduced her in the form of a handsome man. Once she realized what he truly was and that she was pregnant, she tried to end her own life, and it was only Azar's intervention that saved her. I thought that perhaps now with all that behind us...."

She shook her head and wiped the side of her hand across her eyes again. "No," she said. "I do not wish to feel sorry for myself. I am happy with the family I have chosen. That is what is important."

[furnaceface]

//Th'family that you've chosen is very happy with you,// Jono replied, reaching for her hand. //And a few of us know what it's like to be told to go away, luv. You're most certainly not alone in that.//

Which was supposed to somehow make her feel better, but in retrospect, there wasn't much that was terribly comforting about knowing that some of the people she cared for were unwanted sons, themselves.

[trigons_child]

Raven squeeze Jono's hand. "Anyone who tells you that is as foolish as my mother," she said fiercely, pushing her sorrow aside. "You are a wonderful person, and it is their loss if they do not take the time to realize that."

She sighed, trying to let go of the last of her tension as she dropped her head back against his shoulder. "I hope that you have been well here. Joni misses you. I kept her safe in my room while the recent infection was affecting Fandom so that she would not become ill."

Way to segue into that topic, Raven.

[furnaceface]

The Three Steps to Fandom Invasion Acceptance according to Jono:

Step one: Idle agreement.

//I appreciate that. Thank you again for agreeing to take her for me, luv, I-//

Step two: Slow realization.

//... Infection? People were getting sick?//

Step three: Flailing.

//Why did I not know about this!?//

This has been The Three Steps to Fandom Invasion Acceptance. Thank you for watching. Tune in next week for What To Do When Your Old Teacher Becomes a Mind-Controlling Psychotic Government Agent Who Keeps Evil Telepaths in Giant Tubes.

[trigons_child]

Raven bit at her lip. "I am sorry," she said. "I did not wish you to worry, and I was so tired from attempting to heal people that I did not think to send you a message. The island shifted its location again, and somehow a strange rock appeared in the campsite. It began to affect and transform the land, and then the animals in the Preserve, and then the people as well."

She gave him a guilty little smile. "But everyone is all right now," she said. "There is still some minor healing to be done, I think, but the island is healthy and people are back to as they were." See? No reason to worry!

[furnaceface]

Jono was going to start frantically patting you down anyhow, Raven. Even if he knew full well that you could heal, and all.

//You're okay? Nothing happened to you, did it?//

Doting boyfriend mode: Go.

He didn't get to slip into this mode very often. He had to do it whenever the opportunity arose.

[trigons_child]

"I am fine, I promise," Raven said, squirming just a little bit because the patting tickled. "My Soul-Self protects me from such things. I was extremely tired once it was over but Karla made me rest and eat." There had actually been mutual insisting there.

"I spent much of my time in the clinic trying to heal those who were infected," she explained. "Their skin turned grey and their bodies began to change. I could only slow it down, not heal it completely, for the island itself was infected and we could not truly cure anyone until the source of it was removed. And now Fandom has been cleansed and relocated to Europe again, though this time it is Disneyland, not London."

[furnaceface]

//That's...// Jono blinked, trying to catch up with all of that while he stopped the patting-down and just let his hands rest on her shoulders. //Disney? Really? After all that?//

Not that he was speaking from experience or anything, but... //Is the island trying to make up for something by flinging you all at a giant amusement park?//

... And more importantly, could he go?

[trigons_child]

"Perhaps so," Raven said, tilting her head to the left to press her cheek against his hand on her shoulder. "Are not the Disney parks called the happiest places on Earth? That is quite a contrast from the illness and fear." And Azar knew she could use that kind of thing especially after today.

"I have not gone there yet. I think it would be more enjoyable to go with someone rather than alone." Hint, hint.

[furnaceface]

Jono hesitated, running his thumb over her cheek.

In his room, there was a broken animatronic parrot from one of the Disney parks in America. He'd... rescued it from cruel imprisonment in the Tiki Room attraction, when he'd taken Didi there for her birthday.

But then, that was a different park, wasn't it?

//You know, I think it's almost time I make a trip to the island anyhow, innit? Visit Joni for a few days. Take my girlfriend to Disneyland.//

Make certain that this infection she was talking about was really as cleared up as she was saying.

[trigons_child]

"I would certainly be pleased if you could visit, and so would Joni," Raven said. She closed her eyes for a moment, just savoring his touch.

"We are back in Fandom for a time, though I do not know when we intend to return to Kaeleer," she said. "Warren convinced Karla to take a break, and then we had to deal with the infection spreading, and now they are both away helping their friend Katniss, who had been feared dead but is thankfully not."

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked a little at that news. He remembered Katniss, vaguely. They'd met after Silent Hill. She'd remembered him as the one running around on fire, and hadn't really been bothered by it.

That was kind of one of those things worth remembering.

//That's good to hear, at least,// he offered. //With any luck, things will calm down for th'lot of them, hm?//

[trigons_child]

"I hope so, for everyone, including you," Raven said.

She lifted one hand to his face, cupping his cheek. "You were not wrapped the last time I saw you, nor are you now," she said. "You are more comfortable this way now?"

She found that thought pleasing.

[furnaceface]

//I'm...// Jono shrugged one shoulder a little. //I'm not surrounded by humans here, Sunshine. It's never comfortable, wrapping myself up so tightly that my ribs grind.//

Especially since there wasn't really much left of them.

//But nobody's going to throw stones about it, here.//