Difference between revisions of "9612/Old Dog, New Tricks"

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{{Log Header
 
{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2022/01/11
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|Date of Scene=2022/01/10
 
|Location=Grand Central Station
 
|Location=Grand Central Station
 
|Synopsis=Sims and Johnny talk after the confrontation with Caitlin. It goes... more smoothly than one might have expected.
 
|Synopsis=Sims and Johnny talk after the confrontation with Caitlin. It goes... more smoothly than one might have expected.

Latest revision as of 10:17, 21 January 2022

Old Dog, New Tricks
Date of Scene: 10 January 2022
Location: Grand Central Station
Synopsis: Sims and Johnny talk after the confrontation with Caitlin. It goes... more smoothly than one might have expected.
Cast of Characters: Jonathan Sims, Johnny Blaze
Tinyplot: Path of Glory


Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon politely denies any attempts by Donna and Terry to offer to mediate between himself and the Ghost Rider. As much as /he/ may trust them, he can tell Blaze doesn't, so he decides to save his words for getting back to Grand Central Station. They're portaled right back, right near the small room Jon's been using as an office.

    He frowns at Johnny for a moment, then gestures to said room. "Can we talk for a moment?" He's modulating his emotions as well as he can, keeping his tone polite, but firm. And it doesn't really matter whether the Rider's gone or not; he'll ask the hellish demon to come into his office if that's what he has to do. It'll be a weird conversation, though.

Johnny Blaze has posed:
The Ghost Rider seems to take a similar stance to Jon if and/or when Titans attempt to get involved to mediate the discussion. Blaze doesn't know them, doesn't trust them. Jonathan may have all the pull and leeway in the world with them, but to Johnny? None of that. Johnny trusts very few people. He's not sure he trusts Sims.

Not sure he trusts anyone, really. Except probably Pezzini.

As soon as they are portaled into Grand Central Station, the Ghost Rider seems to huff, ashes leaving the creature's mouth as the creature turns its head slowly to Jon. It says nothing, but, with a simple act, the hellfire seems to douse until only a skeleton remains - makes one wonder how the hell its still standing.

Muscle tissue, nerves, and flesh regrow over Johnny's face over a course of seconds, until only the face of Johnny Blaze remains, as if he had never transformed at all. As nearly always, the Ghost Rider left it's mark on Johnny in more superficial ways. Like the killer headache. "Hnnnh..."

Johnny looks at Jon, but he says nothing, and simply walks into the office.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon's not as weirded out by that as he might be--but, then, he's a medical doctor, he's seen cadavers. He rather politely doesn't stare, though, much as he might like to, instead focusing on getting them into the small room. There's a few chairs around a table that holds little besides an ashtray--it's not like there's really anywhere outside to go smoke.

    He sits down and gestures to another of the chairs, and sighs. The whole time, he's been trying to think through what to say. What would Peggy do here? From what he knows of her--tamp down her frustration and try to get a handle on the situation first.

    So his tone is still even when he starts. "Alright, so... how did that happen, exactly? Did she just come on you in the street?" He raises a brow.

Johnny Blaze has posed:
Johnny looks at Jon then a moment, but indeed he does approach the chairs with a slow step. Pulling one out so he can sit down in it. He rests his hands on his thighs as he cracks his neck, lifting tired eyes to look at Jon directly. "Was on a rescue operation. Still folks dyin' behind enemy lines. Rather not let them get massacred by the angels from putting up a fight, then I sensed her presence."

He frowns then. "Caitlin. Knew her from church. Used to attend St. Patricks before all this insanity started happening. Saw my friend, sensed the presence. Sensed the...shadows in light's skin." Johnny frowned. Impossible. Couldn't refuse. Urge too powerful, needed to try and talk to her. See if I could get her to see. Should've known better."

He frowns. "You pretty much saw the aftermath."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon frowns thoughtfully at that. "I didn't know you knew her from before," he says slowly. "Alright, that changes things a bit. I thought you'd gone after her directly, trying to... I don't know..." He rubs at his face. "I've heard rumblings. Everyone bloody thinks they're going to be the one to make her see reason, as if the right /argument/ will win this. That's not how this sort of thing... works."

    He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a pack of cigarettes, Silk Cut menthols, and pulls one out. Offers the pack to Johnny, and then regardless of whether the man takes a cigarette, lights his own with a golden Zippo bearing a spiderweb pattern. "Nobody is going to talk Caitlin out of this except Caitlin. It's good for her to know people want to be friendly. It's good for her to know there's somewhere else to go. But Michael's going to have to mis-step, somehow, to show her that he's not what she thinks he is." He gives Johnny a sympathetic look. "You friend is in a cult, with close proximity to the leader. That power, that attention... it's intoxicating, particularly if you /believe/. And she does."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"Yeah."

Johnny frowns a moment then. "She's a pure soul. Never met anyone like her in my life, a light in...hell, a lifetime of evil." Johnny lowers his eyes then, closing them tightly. Though, he nods. "Yeah, I noticed. Whatever has a grip on her mind, Michael's work, has so firm a grip that she doesn't even hear anything outside of it. It's fanatical." Johnny's frown turns into a grimace.

Yet, what he doesn't expect, is Jon offering Blaze a cigarette. He accepts one and puts it into the corner of his mouth. Rather than use a lighter, he seems to snap his fingers, where a small flame appears as if its hovering over his thumb, which he uses to light the cigarette, then shakes his head swiftly enough to put out the flame from overabundance of oxygen.

He takes a deep inhale of the cigarette, careful not to exhale it anywhere near Jon. "Then we're going to have to hope that she notices. If she doesn't..." He doesn't say it. But it's not going to be hard for Jon to finish the sentence. It shows in Johnny's eyes.

He doesn't want to kill her.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "She will," Jon says quietly. "I did, and I had a lot fewer friends. I was lonely, isolated... and the man who drew me in drew my friends in, as well. And I'm not half so good a person as Caitlin Fairchild." He sighs. "She has somewhere to go home to. She doesn't have to cling to Michael, to fear what happens if she leaves the fold. I have faith in her."

    A pause, as he takes a drag on the cigarette. "I swore, to Troia and Sarah Rainmaker, that I would ensure she lives through this. Swore on my very soul. Caitlin Fairchild is /going/ to survive this, even if it means I die."

    He levels his gaze at Johnny. "That is what my judgement is for. Not vengeance, nor punishment. The Archivist was created to /protect/ mortals from the powers that were swarming the world in the wake of the Exodus by the survivors of the destruction of Atlantis. To cast down those who would use their power to hurt others. Not to protect the innocent, per se--there are many who have done wrong, and can earn a second chance. To stand up to power. And in the end, that's what is going on with Caitlin--someone with power is abusing that power, and she's the victim here."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"Me too."

Had fewer friends anyway, but still somehow got on the right side of the field...if you can call anything that Johnny does the 'right side' of the moral line between good and evil. "When I saw her in the church...long before Michael came down from Heaven, she had a cult following among the people. Practically called me a heretic. She -really- doesn't like you. Supposedly." Johnny huffs out some smoke.

"Yeah, well...I intend to make sure she gets through this somehow. Even if she forces my hand." He frowns, though he looks at Jon then. "My job is to deal out vengeance for the forsaken. To avenge the innocent, and protect them from harm. Some earn a second chance, if they can be redeemed at all. Most don't, or can't. In that way, we're different. But the goal is the same. We have to get Caitlin, even if I have to make Michael burn for eternity."

He frowns though. "That's what I'm worried about, Jon. That this is gonna get you killed."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "It is."

    Jon says that... quite simply. A statement of fact, and one he's mostly accepted. He takes a drag on his cigarette after, taps it on the ashtray.

    "That's part of what being Gaea's Champion means, evidently. I'm going to die. Martyring myself, I would presume. I've been told by multiple people who can read fate, and it's inescapable--I am /going/ to die in this battle. The thing I'm trying to work out is how to come back from that--because I know plenty of people who have, and not necessarily as undead. In my own religion, Ra himself travels to the Underworld and returns every day. There's an answer; I just need to find it."

    He sighs. "I'm not exactly making that public knowledge yet, though, because I need to figure out how to tell those I haven't. Because I don't need people running around busying themselves trying to 'save' me from an inescapable fate. I would rather enjoy the time I can, save the people I can, and focus on coming back. And if I can't... then I can't, and I died for a good cause. Which is what I signed up for, when I joined SHIELD--to give my life to the defense of Earth."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
Soon as he says that, Johnny's expression seems to return to a serious one. He doesn't question the times of fate and chance that they all seem to be living in. He listens, carefully, to what being a Champion of Gaea means. Its shit like this that makes Johnny dislike the deities at work in the world, but...it's out of his hands. Out of his capability...but out of Ghost Rider's?

Who knows.

"There are many ways to return from the grave, Sims." Blaze suggests, and the reiteration of the reason why he joined SHIELD makes JOhnny nod. "Yeah. Only thing that's a shame is when you can't retire in peace one of these days." Johnny says in grim humor. But that doesn't change the situation. "Who knows. The spirit has many ways to return to physical form. It's just a matter of finding the right one." Blaze suggests. Hope you're making your peace with everything - and everyone - you care about."

He sighs. "No stranger to 'fate' myself. Shitty business. But if its required, then..."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I am," Jon says. "I've told my husband, and I'm working my way through my friends. I need to tell Zatanna and Phoebe, I just..." He sighs, mutters, "I don't want Phoebe to think she doomed me." He shakes his head and seems to wave it off. "The current plan is to flip Anubis the bird and run off and hitch a ride on Ra's barge out of the Duat. I know people who've /been/ there, it's quite a real place. But I'm working on a more... solid plan."

    He frowns. "If nothing else, I'll point out that me dying makes the next Archivist /thirteen/. They can't want /that/."

    He shrugs. "At any rate... I'm going to order people to just... avoid Caitlin. I don't want anyone doing something they're going to regret." He eyes the man. "I get the feeling you're not entirely happy about my... position. Don't like that I'm stuck in it, or don't think I can handle it?"

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"Hnnh."

Johnny replies, though the question of whether or not he likes that Jon is in the position or doesn't think he can handle it, Johnny shakes his head. "Not sure. Still figuring that part out. Don't like that people are..." He sighs. "Nevermind." He exhales some smoke once more. "If you ask me, I'm leaning more towards that you're stuck in it. Do you have a say, or were you chosen?"

Johnny clearly seems to be more...adapted to free will. Much the same, he seems to nod at the order to avoid Fairchild. "Good move." He avoids telling Jon what to do, though he's certainly not above complimenting his decisions. Much the same, he doesn't appear to be too knowledgeable about Egyptian techniques or methods. "No clue. But if Anubis is unwilling to accept being given the bird, some back up plans should be in order. Particularly, search for people who can travel the dimensions and have some...leeway with higher powers."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I was chosen, but... I think if She'd asked, I'd have said yes. And from what I've seen of Her... that would probably be a requirement for any She'd choose. That they'd agree, if She could ask them." Jon smiles, faintly. "Perhaps that isn't good enough for you, but it is for me. I left the Anglican church and went looking for religions of the Goddess long ago. A... youthful mistake, perhaps. Mary and many of the female saints have much to offer. But I have honored Neith and Isis and Hathor for too long to say I wouldn't come when Gaea called."

    His raises his brows, tapping some ash into the ashtray and then taking a last drag on his cigarette before snuffing it out entirely. "What I'm getting at, though, is... do you have a problem with me? Or with the setup here?" He waves a hand. "SHIELD running the operations here, that sort of thing. You don't seem like the type who takes orders too well." There's no judgement in his tone; it's a statement of fact.

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"Hm."

Johnny takes yet another drag of the cigarette as he holds it between two fingers, pointer and middle, and he holds it off to the side. "Fair enough. I don't know much about Gaea. Don't know her enough, maybe I don't care enough, I don't know. Maybe if I end up meeting her, that'll change. You never know." He shrugs his shoulders.

But the million dollar question is asked, and Johnny seems to ponder.

"Always rode alone, Jon. Neverh ad a friend. Never a hero to help save my soul, never someone who gave me a kind word. I don't play well with others, and you've seen why." Being a skeleton on fire is typically a bad first impression. "Maybe it's that I'm sharing a soul with a beyond ancient demon, who often doesn't listen to me." He frowns then. "As for the moment, I don't have a problem with you. SHIELD, I don't trust. Rather stay far from them until or unless I have to get close. The setup..." He hums. "Not even gonna get into that, honestly. I'm no leader. Can't tell you military strategy. I -can- keep people motivated, but you're the poor doomed soul who's doing better in that department than me, I think." He likely says the words 'poor doomed soul' in regards to their earlier topics of 'destined for death'.

With that, Johnny snuffs out his cigarette. "Suppose the answer is, I don't know how to be in a team. Never had to be part of one before."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon nods slowly. "Well... never too late to learn. You offered to help train and arm the civilian militia we're putting together; perhaps that's a place to start. And maybe you'll never be a team player, but it's probably good to at least be able to work with others."

    He considers the man for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear you've ridden alone for so long. I know what that's like. It doesn't... it /shouldn't/ be that way. The point of what we're doing here, it's... unity. Compassion. I try not to judge on looks, or affiliation, but actions."

    He sighs. "You came to work with the Justice League Dark, at least. There, at least, you'll find... well, perhaps not always a kind word, but people to fight by your side, to offer help if you need it. We should be extending a hand in friendship, to help others. It's..." He chuckles. "It's what Gaea would want, I think."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"Never too late to learn, no. People like Sara help me figure this shit out." Johnny crosses his arms. "But from who I've met and who I've worked with...it's ap retty good team. They cover each other's backs." Johnny lifts his shoulders in a shrug. "I think an old dog can learn new tricks. Just might take me a bit longer than others." He's pretty set in his ways, after all.

He shakes his head then. "It's fine. Wasn't my choice, but we learn to live with the situation." Though Johnny seems to look down a little bit at the 'judge by actions'. He doesn't know how Jon feels about burning the souls of the guilty with the fires of hell...but, one of the things you just kinda take in stride.

One step at a time, right?

"Maybe friends is enough. But, I'll try and be patient with this setting. I dunno how it'll all work out. But hopefully we'll be able to keep it all together. It's insurmountable odds. But I never liked odds much anyway."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon chuckles. "Honestly I rather look forward to going back to being 'Agent Sims' instead of 'Field Commander Sims' with SHIELD, and 'Doctor Sims' everywhere else. I /did/ sign up for this, I'll grant you, but not quite so... publicly." He shrugs. "Honestly I've heard of crazier things asked of my fellow agents, though." Like the time Sam Wilson wielded the Lance of Longinus to save the world from a Nazi alternate reality, for instance. Or all the business with the gods of death. SHIELD does weird stuff.

    "Well, there's food and cots around if you need any of that. I need to check in on some people, see to a couple of things I intended to do after the meeting. I'm glad nobody got badly injured tonight, or died. I... I'd rather nobody died, if we can help it."

Johnny Blaze has posed:
"We get it, you have cool names." Johnny tells Sims with a bit of a smirk touching his lips. Of course, Johnny Blaze was nowhere near a SHIELD agent. He could maybe sign up, but he's not Sims. He was picked for a specific reason, or maybe he took the job. Johnny wasn't there, so who knows. "Yeah, thought SHIELD was supposed to be a bit on the down-low. Been pretty loud lately, haven't they?" He chuckles.

"Sounds good. Get back to work, then, I'll catch you if I feel like I have a good idea." Johnny proceeds to stand up from his chair then as he gives Jon a nod. "Call me if you need me. Which, I imagine, will be when you need some angels asses kicked." He gives him a two-finger salute. "Yeah, me too. Let's keep it that way for as long as we can. I'd rather play good cop than bad cop." Bad cop being the Rider.

"Try and take care of yourself, Jon. If it were up to me, you'd stay alive. Sometimes you're better off stickin' around than hitting the trails. Just my opinion, you do what you gotta do. Take care." and with that, Johnny will make his way out of the office, unless he's stopped.