homophonic: jonas

[camena]

Comments

[westedge]

Yeah...I get why it's an important image for him. He told me a little more about his music on Saturday and stuff. [ a pause. ] And some other things that've happened to him. It'd be nice to see him get back and try to keep achieving those dreams.

[camena]

I... don't really know anything about what he's been through. We always just end up talking about whatever.

[ sometimes you don't talk about yourself so hard that you also don't talk about the other person either? nailed it. ]

Oh, but I know about the offer he got to join a band on a, like, trial period or something. So that's pretty cool.

[westedge]

That's probably better. I think he's...kind of like Rin and Haru? They need to keep things as normal as possible right now and not think about how they got here. [ i.e. not think about how they died. ]

He told me that, too. I haven't heard him play much outside of anything he's doing in the warehouse, but that has to mean he's pretty decent.

[camena]

Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right.

[ she's curious, but she does respect people's privacy... when she's not Simply So Excited that she's actively asking questions. ]

Right—I bet he's good. And even if he wasn't, I was telling him it'd be, like, really good on-the-job training.

[westedge]

[ he says this, but he also thinks maybe it wouldn't be the worse for people to talk about stuff even if he hasn't, really, so what does he know. it's fine. he latches onto the other subject instead. ]

Like what, some kind of rock and roll internship? That's probably a good point, too. It's still bragging rights that he was even asked.

[camena]

He's not the type to want bragging rights. I think.

[westedge]

He wants to be taken seriously as a musician. Sooo probably not. But that doesn't stop it from being cool anyway.

[camena]

... And then there's Ren.

[ thinking about him making his friend play his stupid band on the radio just to go "haha cool" about it. ]

[westedge]

Seriously, did he come up with the band name himself? I have a lot of questions about that. [ they are at least walking on the road portion of the district and jonas is eyeing the area to see what's around. ]

[camena]

God, I don't even know. I can't handle hanging out with his whole band so I wasn't exactly there for the decision.

[ it's ren at his most ren... and all of ren's other friends... and that can be a little too much... but yes, ooh and ahh etc at the scenery. alex is definitely peering around as they walk, enjoying taking things in. ]

[westedge]

Yeeah that sounds kind of terrible, actually. [ he can only guess what a couple of guys who agree to be called the redheaded bedwetters are actually like. ]

I'm still not sure how you handle him sometimes.

[camena]

It's—you met him on a rough night, okay? He's usually a lot more... easy-going about things. And usually him being a little irresponsible is funnier than it is annoying.

It's just, like, we've been together through thick and thin, you know?

[westedge]

We all had a rough night that night. [ it's not really an argument so much as pointing it out. but he can at least acknowledge what she's saying about it. ]

...but sure, I get it. Those kinds of friendships always mean more than people can probably actually explain, I guess.

[ he will simply still just have opinions. ]

[camena]

Yeah, and maybe not all of us were equipped to handle it that well. [ she does not even bother to say that kindly. she's still kind of annoyed about it, even if she also feels a little bad.

she remembers jonas saying there wasn't much to miss when she'd asked him if he missed his friends, but that had been a pretty quick answer. and like, now she's known him longer than twenty minutes. ]

... Just "you guess"?

[westedge]

[ he hears the tone and decides it's not worth hashing it out again. alex already knows his feelings on everything about that particular argument, so...whatever.

but. yeah. ]

Just "I guess." [ walking along...he can think of like sixteen ways to actually continue that and explain, or offer information, but he decides they all sound stupid so he does not. ] You don't think so?

[camena]

[ that doesn't really give her any of the kind of information she was after, but she's not going to pry into it. ]

... No, I think I agree. I'd never really thought about it very much. Never had to.

[ their friendship had only ever faced very minor hurdles until that night. ]

[westedge]

Yeah, I didn't think so. [ which probably sounds unkind even if it's not. it's just jonas going "yeah, you always had ren so why would you need to think of it?" luckily for alex, jonas is the type of person that if you wait long enough, he will probably explain on his own. ]

The kind of friends I had were...fine for hanging out. Like the type of people you go to parties with or smoke with or hang out on the weekend because there's nothing better to do, but it wasn't like...best friend type of stuff. I didn't really need that.

[ probably. ]

And after I got out not all of them wanted to talk to me again anyway so...no big loss.

[camena]

[ it's not like she doesn't have friends like that, too, so she gets it in theory... but she can't quite imagine not having a best friend on top of that.

... hm... ]

It is a big loss. It's just their loss. [ jonas is a good guy! ]

[westedge]

[ he's sorely tempted to roll his eyes, but he does not. mostly because he knows what she's saying and why. ]

You don't have to try to convince me, you know. I'm not...upset about it or anything.

[ sometimes your entire life just slowly crumbles around you that you look at your shambles of a support system and don't even care anymore, actually. ]

[camena]

I'm not. I know.

[ okay, obviously she is, but—only because she means it? ]

I'm just saying.

[westedge]

[ normally he doesn't challenge her on stuff like this, but admittedly he's curious. ]

What are you just saying?

[camena]

[ honestly... saying this is easier now than it was the first time. it's less tense. they're not fresh out of an argument with her best friend or on a short timer for being possessed. ]

I told you before—you're a good guy. So it like... sucks for them to miss out on that.

And I could tell that when we'd just met, so think how confident I get to be about it now. [ after two weeks hanging out instead of one night. ]

[westedge]

[ it's kind of hard to be annoyed about it. he's not entirely sure how to feel, but he's not annoyed like he thought he might be. he hesitates on his words again, like he wants to address part of it but maybe it's not all that important to address. are they there? are they back on that level of having these kinds of conversations? it's been about two weeks. ]

Wow. A whole two weeks later. Look at you go.

[camena]

[ they are constantly having these kinds of conversations - she just maybe is not always as delicate as she could be about some things. which means she should not get huffy when she gets push back... and yet. ]

Why're you saying it like that? Two weeks is a long time.

[westedge]

What? No that's not what I--yes, two weeks is probably a long time for us considering some stuff. [ it also is taking stuff jonas has zero clue about into consideration, but it's fine. ]

...to be fair to us, the night on the island felt a lot longer than just those hours.