[ ACTIVE / SEMI-OPEN ]

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Who: John Sheppard & various (& maybe you!)
What: Various Stages On The Grief Arc: An illustration of John Sheppard being a disaster
When: Mid to Late November & Early December maybe
Where: Olympia & Dranbu
Warning(s): Some arm injury gore in one thread!


1. OLYMPIA -- Mid November
John is pretty sure he looks a mess to anyone who knows him, but that's precisely why he's avoiding most people who know him.

He's called out of work to give himself a recovery buffer and is taking a walk with Seren, who is completely oblivious to his problems. Seren is still a puppy, and her excitement for everything in their surroundings and for him to play with her is a good distraction -- even if he wishes she understand the word 'chill' on occasion.

The little German Shepherd is starting to grow up quickly, though. She's smart, smart enough John suspects to know exactly when she's just ignoring John's instructions. Old enough to know better, young enough not to care. Off the leash, she's skipping ahead of him with her nose to the ground -- sniffing for traces of other dogs who might have come this way. At this time of day there aren't too many, mostly people, and although she mostly just runs up and down finding things then bringing them to John (or John to them) occasionally she gets curious and bounces toward another human. Either because they smell interesting or have something with them that smells interesting.

Seren shoots toward the new person and bounces curiously while John jogs to catch up, jacket loose and unzipped over his plaid shirt and jeans.

"Hey!" he prompts sharply, and the puppy stops and looks over at him. "We talked about this, manners!"

Apparently bouncing at people is not a good display of puppy manners.

2. DRANBU -- Late November/Early December (specify before or after people change back!)
After having pretty much been holed up in Olympia drowning his sorrows for most of the month, once he finally makes it out to Josa Forest (initially to help Ianto, but then staying to sate his curiosity about what's going on) John realises he does... feel better. He probably should have come out sooner to give himself something to do, instead of just skulking around avoiding everything, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that. At the time he hadn't felt like he wanted to do anything.

Once he's there, though, actually exploring Josa Forest again after his initial trip out with Phoenix helps take his mind off things. The tree villages are interesting, and John picks through them as much to satisfy his own curiosity as to give him a reason to be --

To be away from things that he's absolutely not avoiding but also, is avoiding.

The markets of Dranbu, he notices, are very animal-focused. So after a long moment picking through things he catches the attention of someone and hesitantly asked:

"Do you have anything for dogs...?"

They point him further a long and John lofts an eyebrow curiously, turning and padding in the direction he's been pointed -- bumping into someone near a different stand along the way and setting his good hand on them apologetically to steady them. The marketplace is busy and also, not designed with space in mind. He supposes that's what comes of not normally having this many visitors.

"Sorry," he says with a wince, and bends to try and pick up whatever it is he made them drop. "Here, let me --"

Comments

OLYMPIA: Eat Your Fill ( For Rodney )

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Since Ianto is gone anyway, doing... whatever it is he wants to do away from John, there's a whole void of activity that needs to be filled. It's possibly suspicious how absent Ianto in fact has been, but on the other hand this just means John is spending time with Rodney specifically where he's not talking about Ianto at all and they're doing things together!

So really, it's all good!

"It's a competition!" John is explaining enthusiastically, "and if we eat more than everyone else we get free food for a year."

A year of free food, Rodney! At a restaurant! Surely that's worth trying?

"Apparently they're trying a new menu or something, but think of the free food! I'm pretty sure it's worth a shot, this place is pretty much the best restaurant in Olympia."

What could go wrong with an eating competition? If it's really too much, they just pay up and give in!

DRANBU: For Ianto

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Now that Dranbu is what they want, and all they really want, the trip through Josa Forest isn't so bad.

John's arm hurts, and he's definitely got limited movement, but he refuses to stop anywhere for longer than it takes to give the bite a quick rinse while they might be in danger still. He can't really be sure he can protect them like this, after all. So, after a little longer walking and redirecting lots of topics to 'let's get to Dranbu first' they finally reach the edges of civilisation. John would personally say that, as forest dwellings go, he found Khalo to be a little cooler but Dranbu does have its own sort of grace. The size of some of the trees is impressive, and the natural way the villages spring up around them is interesting. John just has a particular affection for flying.

After arbitrarily opting to stay in Phares (since John likes the sun over the shade!) John waits until they're guided to a room to stay in and gently chattered at over places to eat, visit etc (within Phares especially which is the better alternative they assure them!). John paints on a pleasant smile and waits until they're left alone before letting it drop and setting down his pack heavily. He takes a slow breath and flexes his hand with a wince, looking down at his arm and frowning as he begins undoing his jacket.

"Well," he says lightly, "maybe we should have asked him if he knows what rabies is."

The wolves didn't look particularly rabid, but still.

( olympia )

[retrorsum]

River recognises the puppy from the video, finding herself a little surprised by its sudden appearance when it bounces over to her. She certainly hadn't been paying attention to what was around her, too caught up in trying to figure out something that she was reading, John's call being the first things she notices.

She looks across at him before looking down at the puppy, then back at him.

"I don't think we were introduced before."

OLYMPIA: HINIT TO WIN IT ( For Ianto )

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John has his arm in a sling, he's tired, and he can't believe he's hunting lizards for Olympia.

Sure, he's probably done weirder things in the long run, but hunting potentially dangerous lizards with one arm in a sling is probably something he will live to regret.

"Listen," he's saying, "if I just stun them then while they're stunned you can check if they're -- you know, a regular green lizard or one of those hinit things. If they are, we bag them. If not, we can... set them somewhere safe and they can go on their lizardy way once the stun wears off."

He squints, debating. Lysa had said she needed the glands, so she probably assumed they'd be killed before the things were brought in. John doesn't really know the best way to safely and carefully remove a poison gland, though, so he'd assume either they can show them how once they get enough or just hand over the lizards bodies.

"How do you feel about lizard execution?"