#jonathan mackenzie pretend to have a single human emotion challenge!!

[perfectoffering]

𝙹𝙴𝙼𝙸𝙼𝙰 𝚂𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽 ⤐ @praedictas ( 𝙹𝙾𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽 𝙼𝙰𝙲𝙺𝙴𝙽𝚉𝙸𝙴 )

✧ . 𝚂𝙷𝙴 𝙰𝙻𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝚈 𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝚂 𝚆𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝚃𝙾 𝙴𝚇𝙿𝙴𝙲𝚃 𝙱𝚈 𝙽𝙾𝚆.  she  has  memories  of  jonathan  reprimanding  her  going  back  almost  as  far  as  she  can  remember.  or,  what  was  maybe  worse,   moments  like  these.   where  she  tried  so  hard  and  got  absolutely  NOTHING  in  return.  she's  sure  it's  apparent  to  most  people  who  know  her,  particularly  who  have  been  witness  to  any  lengthy  interaction  with  jon,  that  she  may  as  well  have  a  neon  sign  over  her  head  with  the  words  'daddy  issues.'  and  she's  not  an  idiot.  she  can  recognize  the  patterns.   if  anything,  she's  too  self-aware.   but  even  the  mental  fortitude  to  recognize  her  actions  isn't  enough  to  actually  stop  them.  every  day,  she  wakes  up  and  every  day,  the  loop  repeats.  𝙹𝙾𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙹𝙴𝙼𝙸𝙼𝙰 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜. 𝙸𝚗 𝚊𝚗 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚒𝚖 — 𝚒𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚠. if  it  were  a  scene  in  a  play,  no  one  would  ever  deliver  the  lines  better  than  their  originating  actors.  every  other  performance  would  always  pale  in  comparison.  at  least,  in  jemima's  mind,  that's  the  case.  the  real  truth  is  that  she's  barely  even  a  blip  on  his  radar.  her  father  raised  her  always  at  arm's  length,   always  one  room  away  and  now  she  doesn't  know  how  to  be  close  to  the  people  who  want  to  be  close  to  her.  "please,  i  know  i'm  always  the  first  to  find out."  she  rolls  her  eyes  and  tries  to  play  it  off  as  an  easy  joke.  "i  just  thought   —   y'know.  i'm  probably  enough  of  an  adult  now  that  we  can  hang  out  and  it  wouldn't  be  weird."   bad.  bad  move.  that  was  too  far,  too  fast.  awkward  too-wide  smile  stays  fixed  in  place,  but  she's  only  a  good  actress  with  some  preparation.

all he craved was a day of peace. a day to push aside the stress of his job and the bullshit with his daughter. of course, the festival was the last place he'd be looking for such a thing, and if he were being honest, he had no interest in the event in the slightest. but alas, attending was the best way to keep up appearances — to remind everyone of what a salient member of society he was. plus, it gave him an opportunity to network, and expanding his outreach had always been his utmost priority.

jemima was far from peaceful. in fact, the sight of the young performer was enough to send a sharpness radiating through his temples. he'd seen dylan hanging around the kid and assumes jemima is the supposed friend his daughter had spoken of. he wonders if jemima knew more than she was letting on, but knowing dylan ( and jemima, frankly ) it didn't seem likely. it was just her luck that she'd come to call the one person who kissed up to him more than anyone her best friend. perhaps dylan didn't even know, and if she did, he wondered just how she was coping.

he groans at the sound of jemima's voice creeping up behind him, taking a moment to compose himself before turning to view the familiar face. " skip the small talk, stern. " they both knew exactly why she had cornered him. same reason she had done so many times before now. " i haven't picked the spring musical yet. you'll know as soon as everyone else does. "