[OPEN] Tried on 13 different pairs of shoes

[businessorlibation]

Who: Johnny Summer and You
When: January
Where: Hurikane, Tommy Bahama
Summary: December's aftermath settles in hard. Johnny folds himself up, tucks himself away, finds distractions.
Warnings: Alcohol, maladaptive coping strategies, mental health

1. I am dented by the skies [Hurikane]
Sometimes, you just want to slot into old familiar routine, step back into what was work and just. Wear the customer service face, letting people tell you what they want of you and delivering that to the best of your ability. Johnny's behind the bar, mixing cocktails and hoping no one notices how mask-like his smile feels to him right now. Come on over, he'll just...make a drink happen for you. It's the best he can do for anyone in this moment.


2. They keep me up at night [Tommy Bahama]
And sometimes a man's feet get restless, when the end of day comes and lying down in bed feels impossible. There's no snow-covered wilderness to wander here, and that suits Johnny Summer fine. He's an indoor cat, after all, has been ever since...

...so he's at Tommy Bahama alone, taking advantage of its endlessness to go for a nice long walk to try to get the fog out of his mind. Maybe. Or maybe he'll run into a werecougar and have a fight, always possible. He does have his scissors.


3. It’s just a lack of air supply [Wildcard]
darkersolstice or darkersolstice #9463 to plot

Comments

[lightconductor]

He rubs his hand in small circles on Johnny's back, for a moment squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I want to try so hard to spare you from what I can, but it really isn't possible, is it?"

[businessorlibation]

"We don't really get that as an option, here, no." He sounds resigned to it, beaten down by everything. It's been a roller coaster few months, hasn't it?

[lightconductor]

"It seems to me, sometimes, that I am a fool who runs towards danger instead of away from it, and on this damned ship that makes things all the harder for you and César. I'm sorry for that."

This has been weighing on him. He ought to offer to try to change his ways, but he's not sure how to even begin that.

[businessorlibation]

"That wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for danger's habit of finding you and making use of the opportunity, love. I know you can't help it, when catastrophe strikes." Can't help himself with the need to respond or can't help it when it strikes him?

Yes.

[lightconductor]

Watson is quiet for a moment. He takes another sip of his drink, holding it in his mouth for a moment to savour it before swallowing. He's a healer, and he does not know how to mend this.

"I just hope I won't give you cause to regret marrying a doctor."

[businessorlibation]

"Regret?" He lets out a sound that's a sputter or a laugh or maybe both, shaking his head. "I know who you are and I love you. I know who César is and I love him. And the time we had at the resort before things got bad was a clear reminder of why I married both of you. It's just."

He sips at his own drink as he finds words. "The wedding wasn't an endpoint. I think I forgot that, somehow. There's no 'complete this and everything becomes fine'."

[lightconductor]

"Mm. I could have lived very happily in that suite with the pair of you for quite some time."

He's grateful for the laugh, of all the reactions that could have garnered. Watson laughs a little in return, more out of relief than anything else. "It's true. Romance stories always end with the proposal, or the wedding, but they're a beginning, not an end. Actually," he adds, with a peculiar shift in tone, "do you know what the Captain said to me? He said that at that point they become different stories, which is probably the most sensible, inarguable thing I've ever heard him say."

[businessorlibation]

"There was some discussion of that at the trial. Stories and their rules. The fact that he couldn't just kill Skulduggery, he had to do what was proper by the rules. What was it Erin's friend said? The tall one..."

He closes his eyes, trying to remember. "Something about how the rules define the Captain's realms. 'Trees grow up, but they don't have rings because that's not important...At summer camp, people wear shorts. It snows at a mountain resort.' Because that's what happens in stories."

[lightconductor]

"Mm." Watson thinks this over. He might be a doctor, but he's a writer, too. "He has a very strong sense of stories and how they are meant to work, doesn't he? I can't fault him for that."

He keeps rubbing Johnny's back in small circles as he thinks. "The more I learn about him, the more I think it was easier when he was some unseen, ominous thing who never left the bridge."

[businessorlibation]

"Instead of another person with agoraphobia, learning to fall in love, scared of everything around him?"

One eyebrow raises.

[lightconductor]

"Point taken," he says, mildly. "Do you find yourself sympathetic to him as well, then? I'm not sure we ought to be, but I certainly am, despite myself."

[businessorlibation]

"I think I'd have to have a heart of stone to not sympathize a little. I understand something of his everything, John. Not all, but. I can imagine what sort of world I'd build myself to feel secure in, if I had the power to."

He shakes his head, lifting his glass. "And I think Skulduggery is good for him."

[lightconductor]

"I think so, too." He shuts his eyes. "By the way, I am meant to tell you that you and César should feel free to confront Skulduggery, if you should feel so inclined. Do let me know in advance if you intend violence, at least."

[businessorlibation]

“I have no plan to act in violence toward him. Or even to confront him, honestly. Are you at peace, my love?”

[lightconductor]

"Mm. 'At peace' is a strong phrase for how I feel these days. The drink helps, as do you." He lifts his glass in demonstration. "Though I do think Skulduggery... expects anger, which I don't have for him. I did tut him over my poor cane."

[businessorlibation]

“Mmm. I could do anger at him, but I feel like that wouldn’t help anyone very much. Not me, not him, not the ship as a whole, not you. Just like getting angry at César wouldn’t do anyone good. He’s already angry enough at himself.”

Ah, now they’re getting into it.

[lightconductor]

There it is.

Watson sighs, a soft sound. "A very rational, sensible way of putting it, but these sorts of matters are rarely either rational or sensible. Love, what are we going to do?"

[businessorlibation]

"We'll work it out. We're a family, that's what we do." He's confident in that part. It may pass like a kidney stone, but this will pass.

[lightconductor]

"Your confidence is reassuring, at the least. Gives me some hope."

He does not intend to be part of both the first marriage and the first divorce on the ship. That's too dark a joke to say aloud, though. "Still, while we are working it out, there is a certain degree of pain alongside any healing we wish to do."