(no subject)

[x-pete.livejournal.com]

Monday night, Pete drags Jono out of the mansion for a chat.

Pete: Right then, sunshine. Get your coat, you've pulled.
Pete: I'm tired of sitting about here on my arse. Let's get out of here before I do something horrible to one of the kids.
Jono: Sounds like a lark.
Pete: There's got to be a bar around here somewhere that plays something fit for humans too listen to.
Pete: Any preferences?
Jono: I wouldn't know. Haven't been out of this blasted place since we got here.
Pete: Didn't I see you getting dragged to some kind of fun fair?
Pete: There was a "horsie" involved, I think.
Jono: Don't mention the horsie.
Pete: [Pete takes a car from the garage - doesn't bother to check whose it is.]
Pete: That bad?
Jono: Nice car.
Jono: I'd like to forget it ever happened.
Pete: OK. Well, horsies and pink cowboy hats aside, how's your first week been? Ghastly and traumatic?
Jono: Yeah. More or less. People kept wanting to hug me.
Pete: Sick and disgusting. Perverts, the lot of them.
Pete: Have you seen the dodgy leatherwear?
Jono: No. I'm probably happy about that too.
Pete: Well, I'll cop to having worn leather trousers in me misspent youth, but they weren't anything like these...
Pete: Anyhow...
Pete: This Pyro geezer.
Jono: Yeah. St. John, right.
Pete: Do I get the idea that you think he might have had the right idea, getting the hell out of the madhouse?
Jono: He might've.
Pete: Not working out like you thought?
Jono: These people are so.. clingy.
Jono: They want the world to accept them. Like that's going to happen.
Pete: They're American. They're not used to the idea that it's OK to be fucked off with everything sometimes.
Pete: And hey, stranger things have happened.
Jono: It's all good for the ones who can actually hide what they are.
Pete: Look, don't worry about getting the acceptance of the rest of the fucking planet, right now. That's for when you're a bit more sorted.
Jono: I don't want their fucking acceptance. They're going to spit on me no matter what. And, yeah, I'd join them if I wasn't me.
Pete: Point one: huggy, and unbearably American as they might be, this lot'll take care of you, no matter what. Look what they're like with St. John, for fuck's sake.
Pete: The rest of the planet can wait.
Pete: Point two: You're what, 17?
Jono: Yeah.
Pete: You've got bleeding years for the rest of the planet to wake up.
Pete: And y'know, your life isn't fucking over yet.
Jono: Might as well be, though. Being like this for the rest of my life..
Pete: I'll lay money that you won't be.
Jono: Oh, yeah. How much.
Pete: Get back to me in twenty years.
Jono: I'll visit your grave, sure.
Pete: Yeah, yeah, chuckles. I've hung around this long, I think I can manage twenty more.
Pete: [Pete pulls the car over by a likely looking bar]
Pete: I'm not saying that your chest will magically knit up.
Pete: But either it won't be a problem, or they'll have come up with something that actually will fix it.
Pete: And in the meantime - you know you don't actually look that bad?
Jono: Haha. I've looked in the mirror.
Pete: You're too close to it. You remember what you looked like before.
Jono: Sure do. Didn't have any glowing holes on me.
Pete: OK, here's a bet I really will make - within the next six months, on of the girls in this place will hit on you.
Pete: The school, I mean.
Pete: Hundred quid.
Jono: You're on.
Pete: Excellent.
Pete: You haven't magically learned to drink in the last week, have you?
Jono: No.
Pete: Have you tried?
Pete: Drinking anything - I dunno, just pouring it in there? Since it happened?
Jono: No. Not really. Unless showers count.
Pete: Showers might be a start - is there any sensation when you shower?
Pete: And out of curiosity, have any of the staff tried to have a conversation like this with you?
Pete: Essex doesn't count. That man's a cunt.
Jono: No one but him.
Jono: They're probably thinking I need time or whatever to get to grips about this before saying anything.
Pete: D'you think you need time?
Jono: This is not going to change with time.
Pete: Didn't think so.
Pete: Right. Well, for starters, try drinking this. I've no more idea that you do how you might go about it, so, y'know, make something up.
Pete: [sets a shot of Jack Daniels in front of you]
Jono: You might want to move farther in case something happens.
Pete: Point.
Pete: [Steps back a bit]
Jono: [throws the shot back]
Jono: ...
Pete: Anything?
Jono: I think it vapourized.
Pete: Any taste?
Pete: Or whatever?
Jono: No. I don't think this thing comes with tastebuds.
Pete: Arse. It was worth a go.
Pete: Well, you get to sit here and watch me drink, then. First, however, we must beat the jukebox into submission.
Jono: I just really have nothing to live for anymore. Can't even become an alcoholic at my old age.
Pete: Shut up with the nothing to live for nonsense.
Pete: You've got tomorrow.
Pete: Fuck knows what it's going to do.,
Pete: And christ, you've got me sounding like one of those nasty American teenagers.
Pete: If I say anything like that again, hit me.
Jono: If tomorrow's going to give me more pink stuff, I think I better go kill myself now.
Pete: If you say anything about "nothing to live for" I'll hit you.
Pete: This seems like a fair deal to me. Yes?
Jono: I don't see how it's fair, but fine.
Pete: Mostly, it'll stop you from going on.
Pete: Now then.
Pete: Tell me about the staff then.
Jono: The staff. What about them.
Pete: Who d'you think's actually worth talking to?
Pete: Fuck, include the kids, too.
Pete: I'm a nosy sod.
Jono: The younger kids are all a hassle.
Jono: Guthrie's okay. So's Rasputin, even if he's a bit goody-goody.
Jono: Drake still gets on my nerves.
Pete: Yeah, Guthrie seems OK. Can't decide if Rasputin's a bit dim, or it's just his English.
Pete: Drake's another one in bad need of a slap.
Jono: I'll hold him down if you'll slap him.
Pete: Don't tempt me.
Pete: He seems to be slowing developing a personality again, and I don't want to render him catatonic just yet.
Pete: Fuck it, you did the kids. I'll do the staff.
Jono: Works for me.
Pete: Xavier's OK, but he's got this grand vision. He a hippy at heart, and I don't know if his hopes will ever get there.
Pete: Munroe's bought into his whole line a bit too well. So's Summers.
Pete: Emma's one to listen to.
Jono: I had her psychic defence classes.
Pete: She's a bitch, and she can be manipulative, but she knows what she's doing.
Pete: And she won't cut you any slack.
Pete: How'd the class go?
Jono: I noticed.
Jono: Pretty easy, really.
Pete: I noticed you were one of the few people not complaining of a broken brain the next day.
Pete: Logan, I haven't got clue one about.
Pete: I think he's probably another one to listen to.
Pete: He's certainly good at what he does.
Pete: Essex, as I said, is a cunt.
Jono: He had some very interesting points.
Pete: McCoy's OK - completely incomprehensible, most of the time, but OK.
Pete: What did he say?
Jono: Blathered about psionics and bio-electrics mostly.
Pete: Did you understand any of it?
Jono: Said he thought it was interesting that the of the world's most powerful psions couldn't fix me.
Pete: One of the world's most powerful psions hasn't bloody tried, has he?
Pete: And besides, that's the other porblem with Charlie - he's really keen on letting people find their own solutions...
Jono: That's really helpful of him.
Pete: Yeah, I know.
Pete: His right about 50% of the time.
Pete: But the other fifty, it's a bit of a bastard.
Pete: OK, enough of cathartic bitching.
Jono: I was enjoying it.
Pete: Yeah, but I have to look at these people with a straight face tomorrow.
Jono: ..At least I don't have that problem.
Pete: I knew you were going to say that.
Jono: It's bloody obvious, isn't it.
Pete: Y'know, you could get serious mileage out of guilt-tripping everyone.
Pete: Not me, obviously.
Pete: Because I do not feel guilt.
Pete: But the rest of them would fall over themsevles to be sympathetic.
Pete: Well, not Emma. She'd see right through you.
Jono: It's annoying. I don't need their pity.
Pete: You'd get less of it if you stopped moping around the whole bloody time.
Pete: You don't have to Mr Sunshine, but y'know, instigate something.
Pete: You used to be good at that, didn't you?
Jono: I think it's enough that I wore a pink cowboy hat.
Pete: For now.
Pete: Fuck, bully some of the others into starting a band.
Jono: There is that duel thing next weekend.
Pete: Bingo. If you get on with your life, then they'll stop thinking you need to be helped to get on with you life.
Pete: And yeah, it's not the life you wanted. Suck it up.

[Conversation continues in the bar, but real life got in the way - Pete and Jono return by cab later that night]