11011/The Troubles of Leadership

The Troubles of Leadership
Date of Scene:	03 May 2022
Location:	Pezzini House
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Sara Pezzini, Johnny Blaze

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Sara Pezzini has posed:
Another beautiful day in the city, flowers were beginning to bloom, the trees were gaining their leaves, and the grass was growing in the lawns. None of this mattered or even went noticed by Sara, as a ton of bricks had landed on her head a few nights ago and she was attempting to unbury herself from it.

Leadership. What did it really mean? She's lead officers on ops with NYPD, but with the JLD it was something entirely different. It was herding Tasmanian devils who all believed themselves to be special little snowflakes, and trying to get them into a team that could work together. No sooner had she agreed to help take on that leadership, then she learned that Johnny had attacked Robbie, and that Robbie was now also a member of the JLD. It was a nightmare, a headache, and a pain in the ass all rolled into one.

At home, she sat at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and half an uneaten sandwich, staring off out the window at nothing, lost in her own thoughts.

Johnny Blaze has posed:
*VROOM!*

Johnny's bike comes to a stop in front of the home. Johnny's arm rested on the handlebar of his motorcycle as he takes that deep breath. Since the war with the angels, he's been.../off/. He's not been himself. He has no excuses for it. It's a bit late for a proper existential crisis. He dismounts his ride and opens the door into the house. He starts to walk, his boots not quite removed as a bag hangs from his hands.

He sees Sara looking like she just watched her dog get shot and turned into a steak in front of her eyes. What hell happened?

"You look like you've seen a ghost." Johnny tells Sara as he moves to the sink. Johnny had blood on the back of his neck, and parts of his clothes look like claws tried to take a chunk out of him.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The distinctive sound of Johnny's bike doesn't change the expression on Sara's face, nor does she move from the chair she's sitting in. He was back, that send a shiver of anger up her spine and through her body. She'd spent the last few days attempting to shove that anger down, not lock it up but keep the leash on it and it seems to have worked.

Picking up the cup of coffee she takes a drink of the cold mixture inside, then sets it back down. "No, not a ghost," she replies, then slowly turns her head to look at him. Her tone was calm, perhaps a little too calm, but there was no anger in it and that's what mattered. "More like a Ghost Rider."

Turning in the chair so she was facing him a little more, she tilts her head slightly. "Got called to a meeting with Jonathan Sims and Rien D'Arqueness. A decision was made, and the three of us are now the official leaders of the Justice League Dark," she explains. "Go me, right? Except the moment turned into the realization that we were herding cats, and it has to stop. We were having a really productive conversation when I hear something that nearly sends my fists through the table. Can you guess what it was?"

Johnny Blaze has posed:
Johnny keeps his back to Sara. He sets out some fresh milk and alcohol. She mentions that she hadn't seen a Ghost. More like a Ghost Rider. Johnny was /just/ about to set some canned tuna on the counter when his motion stops. He sets it down gently. She apparently gets to be one of the leaders of the Justice League Dark. This means Sara's going to be breathing down his neck far more than usual.

Great.

"Congrats." Johnny comments with silence. He doesn't look at Sara even still. She explains that the JLD is herding cats. "Lot of explosive personalities." but Sara asks him to guess what rose her to apparnetly table-breaking anger.

"Beats me."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Standing up, Sara crosses over to where Johnny is getting ready to prepare food. Instead of helping with that however, she takes the hand towel off the hook, gets it wet, and starts wiping away the blood.

"That you went hunting Robbie," she says calmly, rinsing the towel as needed. "Or rather, you went hunting Eli."

How it is that she's this calm must be crossing his mind, but she was. She'd let the anger work itself out, and locked up the parts that still wanted to do something. "So here's the thing. Because I'm your girlfriend, this situation between you and Robbie, in relation to the JLD, is not something I can address. Jonathan Sims will be speaking to you regarding it soon."

Getting the towel wet again, she finally looks up at his face. "But as your girlfriend, I need you to explain to me what the hell is going on with you. I need you to tell me what's wrong and why you would think that attacking a prospective member of your own team was a good idea."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
She takes a wet towel and presses it against the blood and Johnny winces. He jerks away from her instinctually, but the second touch gets a better response. Johnny looks away from her. She's personally involved, can't pass judgment on him. So their gonna send Sims. Johnny is slightly surprised that Sara is 'calm', but it doesn't dominate his mind. There's too much going on up there.

Sims is gonna speak to him about it soon. Johnny doesn't reply to it. He hears Robbie is going to be a teammate and Johnny actually starts to laugh grimly. "I don't give a damn about Robbie. It's /Eli/. His soul *reeks* with the blood of innocents. That's no Ghost Rider. That's an abomination." Johnny's hardheaded.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Once the blood is wiped away, Sara drops the towel in the sink. The bracelet on her right hand wraps a few small tendrils of metal up around her fingers, a fancy series of rings connect by chains is what it looks like, but it's by no means the sort of thing she would attack with. Instead, it is enough of Witchblade that she can lay her hand over the wound and start healing him.

"You know I love you," she states as she looks back up at his eyes, a smile playing on her lips. "But you are, by far, the most /stubborn/ son of a bitch I have ever known. Sometimes, I love you more for it, other times, I want to smack you side the head."

A soft but quick chuckle, then she reaches with her left hand to caress his cheek. "Eli is a monster, I can whole heartedly agree with you there, but Robbie does keep him in check, and Rien D'Arqueness keeps him even more in check. The element here that you are forgetting is Robbie. Do you remember when the Rider first came to you? Do you remember all those years of being along with Zarathos, feeling that you deserved it?"

A soft sigh escapes her. "The additional problem /is/ that you don't give a damn about Robbie. You've turned cold, and you keep trying to push everyone away from you, everyone but me... but you /can't/ stay alone Johnny. This fight, against all the things out there, isn't yours alone and there are beings powerful enough to destroy Zarathos and kill you. I don't want that, and I don't want you pissing those beings off."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
Johnny frowns. "I heal faster on my own." Another, another, and another. He's a lone wolf by near dictionary definition. If there's a word for extreme solo artist, Johnny's picture would be on it. She draws his attention enough to look into his eyes. The shreds of hope look like they've gone elsewhere. Like he has little to live for. Little to hope for. "Most people fall on the latter." Johnny adds.

She tries to caress his cheek. She knows about Eli. But she tries to use the Rider and his circumstance as an example. "We are not the same. The Rider first came to me because I sold my soul to save somebody's life. I made a choice and I bear that shame forever. When I die, Heaven isn't an option. I'm going straight down." Johnny tells her with rage in his eyes and in his voice.

"I've always been alone. It's all I know. You'reh ere with me. For how long? Certainly not forever. I won't live long enough. If you lose me, you have others." Johnny has coldness in his heart because he's in pain. "It's the job." Johnny almost...welcomes death. "I don't trust him." Johnny ultimately declares.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The expression of pain that crosses Sara's face at what she finds in his eyes, and the words he throws at her, is extreme. He could have punched her in the gut and it would have hurt less. He was once again trying to push her away, using words as a weapon to do it, but she knew that game. It still hurt, knowing didn't change that.

"I don't know how Eli became attached to Robbie," she says first, starting to shove down the pain in her chest. "All I know is that fighting him, trying to judge him, isn't an option."

Refusing to accept the cold shoulder, or that all hope is lost, she caresses his cheek again. "You aren't going to hell Johnny," she states very matter-a-factly. "Satan can try to take your soul, but he's only an angel compared to the powers that will keep you from him."

Reaching up now with her right hand, she holds his face gentle and places a soft kiss on his lips. "I am /never/ leaving you. You are not alone. You can continue to wonder all you want, but those two things will remain true no matter what else happens. This," she moves one hand to press to his chest. "I take very seriously how hard it is for you to love me, but that love is precious and I will /never/ hurt you."

Now she wraps her arms around him, laying her head against his chest, pressing herself into him and just hold him for a time in silence. He was fighting against the thing he believed to be his nature, that he was alone and meant to be that way. She had no idea what it would take to make him realize that wasn't true, that come hell or high water, she'd be there and if he died... his soul would be protected from hell.

"I don't trust Eli either," she finally says quietly. "But stop trying to push me away, it's not going to work."