15 . JOHNUARY

[necrolord]

Who: John Gaius and company.
What: All around him, John's friends and loved ones begin to shed their skins. Also: Riteoir.
When: January
Where: Gaze and the new city.

Content Warnings: Tagged in headers as needed. Note all the usual warnings of this character.

Comments

[strongroots]

[ Looking back at that smile, Robby wonders if John will do anything. People think about doing things all the time, and he can't help it: he doubts in subpar parents. He also doubts in having any particular sway, and why should he believe in having any in John?

A guy who looks like he should be sleeping with the dead than raising them.

But the guy saved him once, so call this an effort in repaying that. ]

Yep. [ Robby's expression doesn't shift on the re-direct, though he looks down once. ] I don't know what he thinks being a family is. I don't think even he knows.

[ 'I don't know, but I'll try' are words his dad likes to say. And he falls for them every time, waiting for a different result.

(He's really, really waiting.) ]

I'll let you know if I find out, [ he offers, nonchalant. ]

[necrolord]

Well, I have some sympathy for that. It's never been crystal clear to me, either.

[ Robby lets him get away with the shift, and John doesn't press the issue. In moments like this the whole thing feels too absurd to bother with, but hey: it's not like he has many competing priorities, here. The weight of an unsteady empire has been shelved indefinitely. They have nothing but time. ]

Same to you. Thanks for the pep talk. I'll try to put it to good use.

[strongroots]

Mm, [ he says, and while he could leave the subject at that- they have a whole city around them that's rather important- Robby can't help but ask... ]

One thing I don't get, though...if you're her dad, how come she barely knows what My Chemical Romance is, but you know what Jumanji is?

[ Clearly, the two are comparable. ]

[necrolord]

[ It's unfair that he feels caught off-guard every time someone thinks to ask. John is silent a moment. ]

Like I said, she didn't grow up with me. [ His expression is wry because he knows that isn't the crux of it, but it's very nearly a good lie. ] Different cultural contexts, you know? Different worlds.

[ And his world has been dead a long time. ]

[strongroots]

[ Ah- there was that other guy, wasn't there. It fits, though it's bizarre, but a lot of realities are bizarre in ways that Robby can't understand, so it's easy enough to go, ] Oh, [ in a way where he doesn't get it, but is pretending to.

Oh. Okay. ]

Real different worlds, [ is how he'll leave it, since--he's doesn't particularly want to pry. He gets that enough from other people with him and his dad. ]

--You got any feelings about this whole place? [ A safer topic, and he'll nod his head in direction of, well, the city in its entirety. ] Abandoned, doesn't look like there was a takeover. 'Cept the plants.

[ Are those the things people care to note when they wander into empty cities? ]

[necrolord]

[ Robby lets it go, and he can see the kindness of that; it's an unexpected moment of relief in a world that seems to love grilling him. John tips his head in acknowledgment of the safer topic, the ease of a common enemy in the landscape itself. ]

If there was a takeover, [ he says, mild as a man remarking on the weather, ] I'm sure it was very spooky. Pthumerian infighting, probably.

[ He tips a hand to the mushrooms, and Robby here retrieving them. ]

The kind of thing they send us to deal with.