xp_logs | Angelo and Jono, backdated

Angelo goes to tell Jono the news of Paige's return. It doesn't go down too well.

"Who dares to enter the lair of the-"

There was an abrupt pause in the mindspeak as Angelo stopped in the doorway, hand still on the handle. There seemed to be something different about the resident energy being, more of a shape than before.

"The lair of the glowing magic eight-ball," Jono continued then, after some thought, with a less of a pompous tone. "Never let it be said I can't laugh at myself. Hey, Espinosa."

"Hey, Starsmore." Angelo blinked again at the glowing form in front of him, trying to decide if he was just imagining the change. "How goes it?"

"I can't remember how the chorus goes in Disposable Heroes. Soldier boy, made of clay, something something." Jono's voice went a little distant, as if he was mumbling the lyrics under his breath. "I feel like a deficient nuclear plant, how do you think it goes?"

Angelo eyed him, frowning. "Last time, you said you felt peaceful. Has, uh... has anyone been to see you in the last couple of days?"

"Peaceful? Oh yeah. I got bored." The shape of the glow seemed to gain more definition for a moment, vaguely resembling something like human. "What's going on then? I doubt you're asking that out of the goodness of your heart."

A hesitation, then, "Somethin's wrong with Paige."

Their conversation seemed to be made half out of pauses and silences. It took a while for Jono to reply, as if he wasn't sure what to say. "How wrong?"

"They're not lettin' anyone see her, except the doctors. Seems that's the way she wants it, for now. No one's sayin' anythin' about what happened, 'cept that she's hurt but she wasn't attacked."

"So what the fuck does that mean? That's the vaguest account of anything you could possibly give me." The glow had turned slightly redder, and it appeared that anger was a source of focus for Jono because the human shape within the light became briefly even more pronounced.

"I'm tellin' you what I know, Jono", Angelo retorted, voice sharpening. "She left, I know for damn sure she made it to Harvard because Amanda did a location spell, an' the next thing I know she's bein' brought back here an' kept in isolation, an' the doctors won't say a word beyond that about what happened to her."

"You're friends with the whole bloody school and that's all you know? You've got mutants who can walk through walls all around you and you've not found out more?" Frustration was clear under the anger in Jono's words. "What's the point of waiting around if no one trusts you enough to tell you what's going on?"

Angelo's eyes and voice went flat, hearing that. "She's here, she's safe, they say she's recoverin'. You take it up with McCoy next time he comes down here if you wanna know more than that, 'cause no one's tellin' me."

"Yeah, I think I will take it up. Right now." For the first time since Angelo had been down there, and probably for the first time in some weeks, Jono willed himself to move, the glow fluctuating between yellows and reds.

Angelo stepped back, warily. "You're goin' to the medlab?"

"Who's stopping me?" A shrug was implied in the tone of Jono's voice.

"No one. Just don't know if now'll be a good time t'bother McCoy. Dani's havin' her baby right about now, he'll be busy."

"Who?" Jono stopped to reconsider, then shook the thought from his head. "Fuck it, then I'll just go see Paige."

Angelo shrugged and stepped back, towards the door. "Go right ahead, if you can get in. She's s'posed to be in isolation, but I guess the walls won't stop you. Unless they're psi-shielded."

Jono didn't let that stop him, though in this place the walls very well might be. He'd lose nothing by trying, would he, except time and that he had seemingly in endless amounts.