don't know what i want but i know how to get it; i wanna destroy the passerby

[heckblazer]

WHO: John Constantine, some bad children, various bad adults, maybe you?
WHERE: Roundabouts various cities
WHEN: Early to mid-February
WHAT: John's February Super Fun Wow Catch-All Extravaganza
WARNINGS: To be tagged as necessary



((Tags in comments below. HIT ME UP IF YOU WANNA PLOT! I'm open for almost anything and would love to throw John at most of y'all.))

Comments

INANNA;

[heckblazer]

[ In his assigned house in Heropa, John's bedroom is less an actual bedroom, with the way he treats it. It's more a ritual sanctum that he happens to keep a mattress in. He's..."customized" it a fair bit into something he's comfortable with.

He's long since ditched frills like pajamas, sheets, and blankets. Acclimatized as he was to the wet and chilly British airs, the Florida weather left him anxious to cool down most nights. At least, the nights he actually slept. Even then, he less fell asleep and more passed out thanks to his liquid habit. Not like anyone would care if it effected him, least of all himself.

He's in boxers overdue for a wash, sprawled across the mattress, both he and the bed in a mangled state. At some point during his stay in this world, he must have torn open the mat and yanked out stuffing to make it thinner, harder, not able to relax on something that soft. Must have been one of those things he did on the list of nights he couldn't rightly remember. He's not sure what time it is and any errands he had planned today are already gone from his memory. Instead, he decides it's a good day to be dead to the world.

He keeps meaning to reinforce the wards on the house, but he's too embittered with his stupid flatmates to be concerned for them.

Sighing, he paws for his trenchcoat and pulls it over himself like an improvised blanket and closes his eyes again. He prefers to use it for cover, relying on it less for maintaining body heat and more for the sense of security. ]

[purple_reign]

[Probably the last thing John wants to see is that goddamn stardust that always heralds Inanna's arrivals, so it's really a good thing that his eyes are closed when it happens. He won't have to watch the goddess take form in his..."""bedroom""" or groan at the concerned look they give the sad excuse of a room.]

Ah...I feel like I should be offering you an interior decorator. [Or a professional cleaning crew.]

[heckblazer]

[ Oh. It's them. It wouldn't have mattered if he had warded the house, then, considering that this lot just went where they wanted even when he did try to avoid them.

John furrows his brow and keeps his eyes shut, burying his face into the collar of his coat. ]

I've a system here. An aesthetic. Suits me fine.

[purple_reign]

[Unfortunately Inanna can't be banished by ignoring them.]

It's a mattress in a room. You could at least get a bed frame for it.

[heckblazer]

[ He winces. Somehow, the gentleness to their voice made John's head pound worse than if they'd showed up in a state. ]

Had one, if you'll recall. Wasn't my style.

[purple_reign]

I liked it.

[They sit down. Just right there, in the air. Bonuses of having the power of flight. And this way they don't need to sit down on the mattress John has ruined in the name of improvements.]

I came to apologize for vanishing earlier. I assume Persephone told you about that.

[heckblazer]

[ This one, honestly. Downright fuckin' frustating how determined they were to be nice. John groans audibly under the cover of his coat, still not quite prepared to actually face them. ]

S'not like it was your fault. Reckoned you weren't dead. Figured out that much from a divining spell. Girls took it a bit harder'n me. [ A beat. ] 'nless you're not just here to apologize.

[purple_reign]

[They laugh the short and awkward laugh of someone who's been found out.]

I thought...after that divination I did, that if I stayed away for too long you'd get the wrong idea about it.

[heckblazer]

[ There was plenty wrong with John's life and he'd done plenty more to deserve it. But he couldn't think of what he'd done to deserve this school-age faffing romance-movie nonsense.

He pulls himself out from under the coat, unconcerned with modesty. He stares blankly, too jaded to note Inanna's air-sitting trick. ]

Gettin' the "wrong idea" from you showing up, truth be told. Figured you'd want to be keeping a few miles between us indefinitely, for your own sake.

[purple_reign]

[As if Inanna is ever worried about modesty either. They sigh softly, wholly unsurprised that John expected them to want to keep distance between them.]

More like I thought you'd get the wrong idea about me staying away—exactly like that. I'm not afraid of you, John. I won't say it wasn't...hard to see all of that, but I still don't think you'd hurt me.

[heckblazer]

[ The pads of his hands press into his eye sockets hopelessly, trying pointlessly to will himself out of this conversation.

He exhales slowly and noisily, the whole sound being much more akin to a sad groan, and speaks after a painful, drawn-out silence. Someone who could know what he's done, damn near all of it, and actually come back around after tearfully bolting was not a possibility that John had considered. ]

...why go believe a silly thing like that?

[purple_reign]

[Welcome to life with a love goddess. Full of patience, forgiveness, and okay yes some war and destruction, but that doesn't really apply here. So far.

They lean back in the chair that doesn't actually exist, glancing skyward.]

Well...because I don't think you'd be trying to chase me off if you didn't actually care. A lot. You're worried about me, John.

[heckblazer]

Interesting take.

[ The kid seemed to underestimate the self-fellating nature of John's guilt and selfishness. Do dumb magic bullshit, get self and others in grave peril, use others to get out of peril, feel like absolute rubbish for a day or two, then rinse and repeat. He rubs an imaginary sore spot on the back of his neck since it gives him an excuse to keep his head down. ]

Still done worse to folks closer to me, y'know.

[purple_reign]

[They knew. They'd seen it. But all those people... Honestly, in some cases Inanna felt the stars were being unfair to put the blame on John. In others, he probably deserved a fair deal more than he'd gotten. But ultimately...it all still fell short of Ananke as far as they were concerned. John didn't hide who he was—not for as long or as thoroughly as she had, anyway. It was practically a comfort.]

And I've had something awful done to me by someone closer than you. At least now I know exactly what I'm getting into. ...I'm okay with taking my chances here.

[heckblazer]

Some kinda weird cosmic stalemate, innit?

[ His head tilts upwards a tad, addressing Inanna's shoes rather than the floorboards. There will be no making this easy, even in the face of a Goddess calling his bluff. ]

An' what do we mean by "here"? I just work for you little bastards, remember?

[purple_reign]

You work for Persephone. I don't pay you for anything, John. [They shift, leaning forward over their knees to try to look him in the eyes, a move they can't really manage at this angle.] You and I are just friends.

[heckblazer]

Right. As if anyone ever gained anything from being a friend of stupid rockstar Johnny's.

[ Might as well be ensnaring a feral cat, with the kind of effort John is putting into undermining whatever bloody moment Inanna had hoped to have.

He rolls over to face the wall, absent-mindedly tracing some sigils he scraped out of the paint. He didn't believe he could get any better, and they didn't believe he could get any worse. It was a hideous impasse to be at, especially since they'd already endured his trump card of "traumatic flashback bombardment". ]

Why so determined to try plucking me soul from the jaws of Hell, anyway? Odd pet project, that.

[purple_reign]

[Inanna sighs and sits back upright, watching John's back with no small amount of concern. This is really about how they'd expected the encounter to go after all of his other attempts to chase them off.]

Why? ...How many times are you going to make me say it's because I like you, John? [And, frankly speaking, they really believed he was capable of doing better—being better. It was too early to say so to his face, but they weren't about to walk away and leave him sulking and miserable in the pit like this.]

[heckblazer]

M'not making you do a damn thing.

[ There's that dull deadness to his tone again that suggests he's given up, even if his words are of protest. It's the same flat, tired voice he used the night of the concert that worked so well to push them away. A pity it didn't work now. ]

[purple_reign]

You keep asking me questions with the same answer. You're my friend, John. You care about me. You care about my friend. You're trying to take care of me...in your own way.

[They drift a little closer, leaning towards him again. They'd love to just put a hand in his hair or touch his arm—offer some measure of comfort—but Inanna knows that could be pushing too much now.]

Do you know how many people in my life have really tried to do that? Really tried?

[heckblazer]

No, suppose I don't.

[ His shoulders relax from their uncomfortable, hunched-up position on his side. For a moment, it seems like he might fold, but then... ]

But I do know that people in my life have a bad habit of seeing better in me what's really there.

[purple_reign]

I think I know just how awful you can be by now, but that doesn't mean I can't see how kind you can be too.

[Maybe it was that duality that drew them in, that liminality of being kind and horrible all at once.]

You make three, by the way. Maybe four.

[heckblazer]

[ Was the play to John's ego deliberate? Because it works spectacularly.

Easing up just noticeably, he rolls onto his back, eyeing Inanna suspiciously. ]

Don't tell me Luci's on that list too.

[purple_reign]

[They laugh, only just managing the decency to look a little sheepish.]

She's the maybe.

[heckblazer]

Well. S'what you call a conundrum, innit? Can't let Lucifer upstage me, but doing so in this case would undermine me whole style.

[ Not that he's instantly feeling better. It's a little joke to cover up how much he's still dead rubbish inside, but then they can probably tell. He maintains his cagey eyeballing of Inanna all the same: ]

It don't bother you then, that what you want outta me goes against what I'm owed to her and her domain? Not gonna fight over the table scraps that constitute my soul, are yeh? Maybe y'can work out some sorta time share.