TheAbsurdist

Yeah sorry about that, bring something up for peeps will @ you soon.

Jonah did a magnanimous 'after you' hand sweep movement, as he stepped aside to let Leon go first. Whatever was in his craw with the other boy didn't show. What he did show was his arms folding across his chest in way that wasn't put upon. The kid was big, and more than that it fit when he made such a gesture, even as his face showed minimal response.

Jonah was doing this for the exposure, to get out of his comfort, and well he didn't expect to be auditioning, really. It seemed informal, and ran by a student so... He glanced awkwardly and then he straightened his back and pulled his shoulders back as he queued up in the hopes someone would get it first. "I am probably better served with building stuff, or like, moving lights. But, ah, I did prepare something just in case..."

Perhaps Jonah's whole power being was being weed, because he already seemed bigger than the prior day. He ambled on inside, looming as he did. Not that he thought he'd be a good actor, given his voice has started to quaver and crack as it wanted to go to a sonorous depth, and that would make monologues just be grating. No, he expected to do some manual labor, or something. This wasnt his normal thing. But his allotted time in the simulator was limited and there weren't really a good mountain nearby. He came in with a uniform shirt that was a little on the short side, that he simply hadn't gotten a new one for yet. He gravitated towards Rosalinde, just for where she was, and he didn't know her. "You in charge?"

"Maybe." He was rocking, and wriggling in his seat not so much agitated as clearly just not able to sit still. While he was not frowning, his condor-esque wingspan was folded across his chest. "Sure. I guess. Lot of stuff depending on the good graces of someone who'd think that deal was something to offer. I mean, they probably got contingencies for someone like us. Right?" He snorted enough to jostle his body. "I mean, like, they might be nuts to enough to go back on their word. Which, ok, dumbest thing even. Because I will totally just go gaga over an alien overlord who lied to me and the nuked my family from orbit."

"Cool," came Jonah's curt reply to Paper Mache. His tone said he didn't care about Leon's excuses, or justifications, or whatever. The memory of getting called 'blue' by him immediately told him most everything he needed to know in the current framework. But, he wasnt open to having a discussion because he didnt see a point until he was pushed again. His overt attention immediately slid to Mastermind, as he received his first (and by his estimation unsettling) mental communication. But Leon, with his love of hearing himself talk, continued, and he rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, whatever man. Rather than saying 'Hey I've earned this rapport with these people,' you immediately turned it into a 'newb' insult. So, okay cool. Whatever." His attention was pointed to Mr. Hawke then, "You got any assigned reading or...?"

Jonah, would, under normal circumstances let it slide. Then...then Leon dug at Holly. For no reason, and he shifted a bit. And then Wilona left after his words. "Leon, if you have a point it's buried under you being an asshole? Or second thought just stop showing off how clever you think you are in front of other people, like friendly adversarial stuff is earned. You don't call strangers a dumbass as an intro because you can't get walk it back." Another shift as if he was uncomfortable physically with his words, or just unable to sit still, "Same as acting like team dad to people who don't really know you. But whatever... We're all dumb kids still in puberty. Or at least I am. Or able to admit it." He let out a huff, a short blast of frosty steam poured out, and he looked to the window, braced for detention, or something similar.

Jonah folded his arms across a broad chest and there was a transition from oblivious teen to menacing in a way that was natural. Not that he seemed to be trying, it was more 'Oh, he is big' creeping up. His expression moving to as close to pensive as a sixteen year old could muster, while the topic meandered past a point he could talk about well. "Like, I dunno, Leon. Who did thet take it from? Do they need it? But then, I mean, yeah, we are making decisions for who needs money more." He had no strong feelings regarding money, as he grew up comfortable, and he was blissfully free of angst.

Jonah pivoted from a look of chagrin at the two felones, to him blinking owlishly and den father. "Sure?" He seemed nonplussed at Ryder's efforts, there was a bunch of pre-existing dynamics he was sort of bounding in like a puppy and it was for the best if he just shut up. Which, good somethings didnt change, I guess, he thought, and being not great with a poker face, his heavy, sharp features dropped into a scowling frown. He half rose from the chair and shot the bottle like a basketball to the waste basket across the room from him.

At Carmen's outburst Jonah pulled out a little commercial spritz bottle. "Wait I got something!" And he spritz the contents into the air, a slight herb like smell on it, for those who say. "I knew I'd need to stock up on liquid catnip." He said it with such a deadpan voice that it was hard to read whether he was joking. "But, Owain? Like, I don't think so. A component of evil is totally the expectation of of people," he lifted his big hands and made finger quotes, "'beneath' you to owe you anything. I mean I don't think anyone owes anyone else anything, just like power isn't this whole responsibility thing, because well like read a history book, and that isn't true. Like I want to be like a park ranger and do mountain rescue, because I don't think I am a costume hero type. But, then before this happened I was in my old school's baseball team and I was probably use that to get a scholarship. So, I guess Lennon was right, and it's like more true for us, about plans, and stuff."

"Like, Ryder, dude, bruh, like yeah. We can all do things others can't, right Wilona? Like..." He frowned as he searched, not trying to thread a needle, but rather seeing the issue. Then he thought he got it, "Everyone has abilities they can do better than others. I was good at sports before, Ryder has a gang gang of little robot bugs, Wilona, uhhh, I guess you like fire? Sorry we haven't really hung out." "Anyway, like, a good coach is not one who just praises your abilities, even if they are exceptional, they give you honest critical feedback. Like, if you're getting just praise from people, then they're at best just bad at making you better, trying to sell you something, or at worst they are just bad." He drew in a deep breath, and he pursed his lips. "I mean, I had to do this.. and its difficult. But I am not better. And I am pretty sure that even if I do right then I won't do it right. Rather just hike and climb mountains and rescue people back there."

Jonah managed to shrink a bit at the grin from the teacher. "Probably gonna be bad, my writing is a solid C. At best. But I'll try." He then shrugged, knowing he'd back himself into a corner, and reminding why he didnt have surges of bravado, but, well here he was. His expression was a mix of bemusement and contrition. He blinked at the question, and he shrugged a bit. "Another one where I'd know more, like if a friend just sort of became a supremacist with nothing leading up that kinda says... Mind control or some sort of influence, which, I guess punch the guy responsible for it, if that'll work. As for like a progression into it that's natural, I'd like to think I could stop it, but I dont think I am very convincing... And it's really hard to convince people they're wrong, let alone they've been conned." He drew in a deep breath, his eyes flicking back and forth as he was thinking, and organizing it. "I guess it's less my friend, and more who their new bros are. But if my friend is hurting people, then I have to stop them."

Jonah had settled, as the teacher explained, sort of. It was a little aggravating, but he abruptly fell into laughs at the comment of of jail being cold and hell being hot. His chest shakinging and his voice a rumble that seemingly dropped several octaves. "'Kay. Ya. That's pretty good Mr. Hawke. I mean, like, bring up religion and talk of consequence in way that's built around something to be afraid is, I don't think, a good thing to do. Gonna show us the slides for STIs in health class next? Like, your question cannor ever place us in the place to be able to answer the question, except as like an exercise, and this discussion wont have bearing on how we act, right? Like, we can armchair quarterback from here till the rest of you are..." And he snorted and shook his head, rolling his eyes at realizing he was making a pun, "Blue in the face, but, like... Okay, let me ask you all this, you are free climbing a sheer cliff, with no rope, or anything, and your grip slips. What do you do?" Unfolding his hands he held them bladed and gesturing with them to the table, at the point he was driving at. "Now answer that question again five years from now, a decade, so on. The answer changes. Because circumstances might be different, and you definitely should be different. Even that's a trick. Because the situation presented might seem to have all these options, but there is a very few actual responses: let go or grab at the cliff. And one response is definitively the right one, at least in the view of the asker." His attention went back to the teacher, "So, I don't know, I will never know. I'll just do my best in that moment. Because I am not better than anyone, and I am gonna do my best to not be ruled by fear as the reason for my decisions, because it's liks the Mind Killer and stuff."

Jonah took the clap to his shoulders with a meaty thud, and it made him look up to Ryder, for a moment, nodding at what he said. The boy wasn't judgemental "Like..." He drew in a measure breath, "I say that not in the moment of it happening. I don't know if my loved ones could handle what's happening. I just don't know," Jonah added emphasis to the last sentence. His heroics had been a rescue thus far and he'd yet to be in a real fight, so this question was supposing a lot. But tended to not like hypotheticals 'cause they dropped all the context that'd come up with a situation. He bobbed his knee, a little agitated, as he let out a slow exhale, and then another, his breath coming out in a foggy steam as the temperature started started to dip, his skin and hair changed to a more chilly countenance. Then Jonah grew still, and he turned his head to look at the teacher, his heavy brows knitting down into a scowl that made his eye sockets look cadaverous, "Why? Like, why the question, Mr. Hawke? Or this a Kobayashi Meru? Or, like, I dunno the guy bought like 42 watermelons." He said, name dropping the one pop culture reference his mom had successfully instilled in him, and rounding out with a reviled math problem.

Jonah blinked, as he settled in his chair. The tall, lanky boy had started to fill out, which showed nore as he folded his arms across hos chest and he set his jaw while he wrinkled his nose, which in turn curled up his upper, showing off his distaste for the question. He was still in his human normal looking guise which is where he tended to be. He really only had one loved one, and she was... Well he didn't know what his mother was capable of, as she kept that part hidden still, given there was minimal conversations since the revelation of his father. And... Yeah go after his dad, that'd be funny. After a moment he made a noise, in his throat. "I don't know. Like, really. I don't know what I'd do. Its a hypothetical, ya? So, so this includes future stuff, right? Which begs the question would there be a responsibility for people like us to add loved ones who cannot take care of themselves to some degree? And even if they can, there isn't... Like, Centurion died, and we don't know. Feels like a bad math problem where we're solving for X, but there's at least a Y, and probably the rest of the alphabet coming for us." He turned his head and looked at a spot on the wall, his mind rolling around the idea, looking for all the angles and prospects that might come. "Feel the moral response, for me, is to let them go, because it's the immediate harm. But the smart move is to like bug or something to track the villain. But, like, it's a bad question, because how we react to loved ones isn't the same as strangers. And... Ya." His frown as large as he was, scowling, as he looked back at the rest of the teens.