#just the aftermath of his too-slow escape (at the top of 39). slow presumably bc he grabbed the tape recorder but

[hecticcheer]

A compromise on canon compliance I am willing to accept for the sake of projection: cane-user Jon who... can technically run a short distance though it’s not exactly graceful, and won’t unless he fears for his life. Who for anything less dire will--eyeroll, sigh through his nostrils--“power-walk,” and still run out of breath real fast. (It speeds his heart rate up so much that its beats sound like button-mashing on a controller, and, of course, it hurts. So much more so than his habitual amble it serves to remind him that the to-him-negligible amount of pain he thinks himself such a whiner for using a cane over is something he’s won through change of habit—and that a more starry-eyed person might tell him to take pride in the victory.) He feels ridiculous, like his bitten lips and frantic blinking must make him look even more paranoid than he is. But at some point while Melanie’s got her Slaughter bullet she informs him, only half laughing, that the first time she saw him do it, before (with a vague gesture to her own leg), she actually found it a bit intimidating? It takes a lot of coordination, which most people don’t really expect from someone with screwy mobility. Probably not supposed to need one long enough to learn to use it properly. (Idly whacking some bushes with her own.) Whatever--point is, when you step that quickly, it looks kind of impressive. Why does everyone act like that’s so hard, he privately wonders. Manages not to say so, but his just standing there looking perplexed in response to this comment is barely an improvement.

#nonsearchable tma tag #at the end of 38 he implores sasha to run but we don't witness HIM running? #just the aftermath of his too-slow escape (at the top of 39). slow presumably bc he grabbed the tape recorder but #maybe that wouldn't have taken as much extra time as it did if he weren't also bad at running? #whatever; i don't require him to use a cane before the prentiss incident anyway. just let me have it for s2 thru 4 #(in 5... pppprobably not? from what jon says about the burning building. and how he reacts when daisy wounds him. #(i get the sense that in the apocalypse pain is like outside-world pain felt in a dream. where your actions can't aggravate it #(so weight-bearing would hurt no more than sitting down and a mobility aid would be kinda useless for that purpose? so. #(it probably languishes unused in one of their backpacks. neither one remembers which.) #also n.b. my standards for canon compliance are ABSURDly strict i'm. the kind of person who double-checks to make sure his read on jon's #opinion of coffee matches 74 and 98 and 140 before continuing to write a scene where martin brings him coffee. #and i am 100% in favor of anyone other than me breaking these rules. #in the meantime please enjoy my fantasy where jon's habits of body are more self-respectful than his habits of mind #does that conform to the spirit of canon? not even remotely. but it complies with the letter god damn it