Room 509, Monday Afternoon

[trigons_child]

Raven had decided not to go to the Halloween party since she wasn't in a very festive mood. She was too concerned about what had happened to Jono and how she could help him, and at the same time worried about being too smothering. She knew she had a tendency to be pushy, yet she didn't want to further injure his pride.

She made a few handwavey calls, to Karla and people she knew were good friends with Jono, asking them to come by her room when they had the chance. Then she sat down on her bed, back against the wall, snuggling with Joni and trying to figure out what best to do.


[ooc: Post and door are open, but the flowers may make me slow from time to time, la. If you think you got a phone call you probably did. :) Details of conversations are NFB BITE ME SHANIE.]

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[life_inshadow]

Tara stopped by the room on her way to the mixer; she was all in black, but she hadn't put on her butterfly wings or antenna yet.

"Hey," she said, tapping on the doorframe. "Something's up with Jono?"

[trigons_child]

"Tara, please come in," Raven said, giving her a warm smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Jono has been through a great deal since Homecoming," she said, trying to be careful with details that weren't hers to give. "It has been only a week for us, but a longer time for him, and it has changed him a great deal. Do you remember seeing him when we were transformed into our future selves earlier this year?"

She frowned a little. No, she couldn't remember Tara being there, could she?

[life_inshadow]

Tara shook her head uneasily. "Sorry. Kennedy and I both sort of ... slept all weekend or something," she said. "Why, had something happened to him?"

[trigons_child]

"His appearance has changed," Raven said softly. "His face is restored, but his skin is grey now, and his lips are blue and the lines of them continue up his cheeks." She drew an imaginary line on her own face to give Tara some idea.

"His time away from us has been very difficult," she went on, hand falling back to her lap to fuss with Joni. "He is in sore need of his friends. I thought it best that I tell them of his change so they will know it is him right away."

[life_inshadow]

Unfortunately, Tara's mind was still stuck on that description. "...um. His skin is grey and he has a mouth like meta the Joker? Is he ... kind of okay with it?"

[trigons_child]

Raven shook her head. "It is not something he asked for. He was not given a choice in how this was done to him. I am grateful that he is alive and back here with those who truly care for him, but the path that brought him here was a dark one, and he still bears those scars. I fear it will take some time for him to heal."

Her expression darkened for a moment. "And those who were his teammates in his world abandoned him. I will not forgive them for that. I cannot."

[life_inshadow]

"Abandoned him?" Tara repeated, blinking rapidly in shock. "But -- but -- that's kind of the opposite of what being a teammate means. Isn't it?"

"Anyhow," she added, "just -- tell me what you think he needs, and I'll do it, promise."

[trigons_child]

"That is what I would believe," Raven said, more than just a touch bitter. "And I do not know their side of the story, but from what Jono has told me, I do not know how their behavior can be justified. He was very badly injured, and they know his friends are healers, yet they did not call for us. And when he was missing for a time, only one of them searched for him."

Maybe they couldn't figure out how to get in touch with her or Karla. She could allow that, perhaps. But for him to be missing and them to not try to find him was inexcusable.

She shook her head, trying to push the anger away. It wasn't productive at all. "I wish I knew exactly what to do. I want to help him, but I do not wish to further injure his pride. I think what is best is that he knows his friends are there for him for whatever he needs."

[life_inshadow]

"Maybe the different time thing made it hard for them to find you," Tara defended, a touch feebly. She didn't really believe what she was saying. "But I like to try to think the best of people, you know?"

She rolled up a strand of hair, twisted it. "What is he doing in town? Is he staying? I ... could maybe stop by and say hi."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

When Squall got the message, he rushed to Raven's room. "What's wrong?!" he demanded worriedly.

[trigons_child]

Raven looked up at Squall as he burst in. He was there among their future selves, wasn't he? Yes, she had fuzzy memories of speaking to him at Caritas.

"Hello, Squall," she said. "I do not know if you listened to the radio at all this morning, but Jono has returned to Fandom, and I fear he is in grave need of his friends."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"I missed the radio today," Squall explained, angry with himself. "What happened? Where is he? Who do we need to attack?"

[trigons_child]

"No one," Raven said, shaking her head. Yet. She still had feelings about the X-Men.

"Do you remember when we were our future selves at all?" she said carefully. "How Jono had changed?"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall nodded. The details were fuzzy, but he remembered. "At the reunion," he said, just to verify that was what she meant. "He... had his face fixed, but wasn't happy about it for some reason." The details were very fuzzy, apparently.

[trigons_child]

"It was not his choice," Raven confirmed. "Neither then nor now. He has been changed, and he has been through a great deal of unpleasant experiences. But he is back among friends now, and he is in sore need of our friendship."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

That... was a lot better than he was expecting it to be. Emo was a lot harder to defeat than monsters or enemies, but it was at least less dangerous.

Squall nodded. "Where is he staying?"

[trigons_child]

"The Boards," Raven told him. "He will be staying and working there."

She picked up her pillow and hugged it to herself. "Squall. . .we almost lost him."

[glacial_queen]

Karla wasn't in her costume yet; she figured Warren could handle her being a little late to the party. Talking to Raven was far more important.

"Kiss kiss," she called softly from the doorway. "Got your message. What's up?"

Though she wasn't waiting for an answer before heading inside and wrapping Raven in a tight hug.

[trigons_child]

"Jono," Raven said. "He...."

And then her face was pressed to Karla's shoulder as she hugged her tightly, her breath hitching as she struggled not to burst into tears.

[glacial_queen]

"Shhh, shhh," Karla said, petting Raven's hair. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'm here. Let it all out."

Karla wasn't sure what was going on, but if Jono was being stupid, Karla was going to let Raven cry it out on her shoulder, then go punch sense into him.

[trigons_child]

"They abandoned him, Karla," Raven said, losing the fight to her tears. She knew Karla would know who she meant. "He was lost and they did not try to find him, and then he was hurt and they did not call for you or me to heal him. He could have died and they never would have told us!"

[glacial_queen]

'Him' was obviously Jono. Which meant the 'them' was the X-men, people who wouldn't even raise their voice to defend him from getting insulted in the same room as the Healers he'd brought to save their lives.

"Darkness have mercy," she said, guiding Raven over to the bed. "Abandoned him to who? To what? Hurt how badly?"

[trigons_child]

"How much do you remember of the reunion earlier this year, when many of us became our future selves?" Raven sniffled. Her own memories were fuzzy at best, but she did remember how Jono had changed, and how she'd let her Pride put a chasm between them. She'd vowed she'd never let that happen.

[glacial_queen]

"Barely anything," Karla said glumly. "I remember Ben looking like an idiot and being mad at Ender for some reason--" though guessing that reason wasn't so hard "--but thinking about Jono just makes me taste whiskey. That's all."

[trigons_child]

"He had been changed, though not by his own will," Raven said, pulling back a little and dropping her gaze to her lap. "And it seems that has happened now in this reality." While the reunion was fuzzy, she clearly remembered what Elizabeth had told them at least, so she had some idea of M-Day even if Jono hadn't mentioned it yet.

"He was on a mission for the X-Men, and it went...badly," she went on. Again, she was reluctant to share too many details that weren't hers to give. "By the end of it he was gravely injured. He has been healed, though not of his own volition, and it had a price. His face has been restored and the fire is gone, but his skin is grey now. But he is still Jono -- though he is suffering so much from what he has gone through."