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[john_ofdarkness]

The evening's unseasonably warm, the low, grim clouds folding over the Mansion like a thick quilt. John stands on the porch with his elbows on the rail; the wind cuts through his thin outer shirt on occasion, but for the most part he's comfortable, content.

He has a cigarette in his hand, as comfortably held as though he'd never gone without. Against the failing light, he breathes out smoke.

Comments

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

Alyosha is bringing in some laundry he'd hung to dry before the sun went, and he stops, seeing John, to smile and kiss his cheek. "Did someone share their cigarettes with you?"

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"Someone at a convenience store sold them to me, if that's what you mean." He picks through the laundry basket, half-amused. "Nothing ever gets properly dry in February."

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

"No, it never does," he agrees cheerfully enough. "It will be better once the daylight starts lasting a little longer ... but what's a convenience store?"

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"A place that sells necessary things. Like cigarettes." He pats the pack in his pocket. "All sold conveniently together."

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

"Ah, that is nice -- I didn't know we had a place like that."

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"On the outside, I mean--not here. It would be damned nice if we had one here."

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

"Outside ... ?"

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"Of the Mansion, its environs--the real world."

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Of course," he laughs. "I didn't expect that ... but I suppose there must be a way out, even if it's as strange as the way in. Where did you end up? What year was it?"

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"2000, in a dispiriting little suburb in New York. Wouldn't have been worth the visit, really, if it weren't for the cigarettes."

[tinylittleonion.livejournal.com]

"I would have liked to see it ... that's the distant future in a faraway land, for me," he laughs again, making fun of himself really, and he sets down the laundry so can lean comfortably at John. "It's around the area you lived before, isn't it?"

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

Slipping an arm about Alyosha's waist, he says, "Don't know, honestly. It could've been in New York properly, or it could've been out in the middle of upstate Hell; I didn't bother to ask for a map."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"You've been away," Mickle says, unconcerned evidently with the fact that she's been gone for about two months now.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

He turns to her, half-amused. "Just for an hour or so. Nothing like our vacation."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"What was it like? You actually got somewhere, didn't you?" She perches on the railing, cross-legged, her feet tucked improbably under her.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"Some damned depressing New York suburb in February," he answers. "But it had a convenience store, at least."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"You're being evasive."

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"I don't know where the fuck I was. It was cold, grim, bourgeois, and Buzz and James live there. I wasn't exactly interested in buying the real estate."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

Mickle hooks her knees over the railing and lets herself fall, her hair hanging down. "But your people were there."

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"One could say that." He tilts his head at her, smiling slow. "You'd best not land on your head, duck."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"Ducks never land on their heads. Well, I suppose it's really cats, but I'll throw in a vote for ducks."

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

"God bless folk wisdom," says John, a little snidely.

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"Umhm." She closes her eyes and hangs there.

[john-ofdarkness.livejournal.com]

He watches her for a moment, then crushes his cigarette beneath his shoe. "When I was a child, I thought standing on my head would make me smarter."

[queen-oracle.livejournal.com]

"Why?" she asks brightly.