fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [ 09/19 ]

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Library, Wednesday [ 09/19 ]

There are seven ways for a foot to touch the ground, each with its own particular power. As she came into the library today, to open it up, to stay, to be expected to do nothing more than curl up and point others in the right direction when she herself was pointed so awkwardly, Adah was thinking about spreading ashes and how she used to watch things like that, if the dancer was interesting enough, but it hadn't done her much good in the long run. Still, she was thinking maybe she should start watching again.

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The small fortress of books came easier this time, although Adah did leave it a little more open this week than last.

Adah has moved on from studying the anatomy of the foot to studying the parts of the brain. She feels it necessary to try to connect the two in precisely twelve ways, if she can.

The functions of the brain and how they relate to the foot much be put off for Japanese now. Yukkuri hanashi te kudasai? Iie kekko desu! The intermingling of hard and soft jangled more than Kilanga. She liked it.

Adah was self-diagnosing herself as having a bit of a deficiency, as her sugar-dusted, fruit-speckled muffin was more appealing to her than the more nutritious and foremost sandwich.

Back to the brain. Ni arbeht otk cab!

And, finally, saving the best for last (the last shall be first!), Adah set aside her brain to read through the book that the Eel had given her backwards: Practice Legal of Psychology: the Mind and Law.

Will be gone from 4 pm to 10;30 pm, just as a heads up for inactivity.

Annette didn't have any classes today, but she wanted to do some research. She smiled slightly when she saw Adah; Annette's usual perkiness not so perky.

"Morning," she said pleasantly enough. "I'm needing to research prophecies. Would you happen to know where the section might be that holds such books?"

Adah looked up with almost dull eyes, staring at the girl for a moment before blinking slowly. Of course she knew which section the books she was looking for would be in; they were among the books Adah had figured she'd probably try to stay far, far away from. She could very easily just direct her that way, but then she wouldn't be being difficult. And, if she wasn't being difficult, she wasn't being Ada. She hadn't been Ada enough around here.

Besides, were the majority of the students who asked questions like that just lazy, or too used to modern conveniences that they couldn't use a card catalogue? Adah moved her head slowly toward where it was, nodding her head toward it, and then looking back to the girl expectantly. Any thing she'd want to know about where to find something should be there.

The card catalogue, of course. Annette wasn't thinking. She used to visit the library often - it was just that classes around here here didn't really justify her use of it anymore. She'd grown lazy.

"Thank you. I'm sorry if I bothered you," Annette said softly and turned, limping over to the card catalogue and started thumbing through it.

Her attention already drawn away, it was very difficult for Adah to not notice the limping, her head tilted and watching the girl as she slowly made her way over to the card catalgue. Clearly, the girl wasn't used to limping, but Adah still felt a slight bit of worried concern if she looked so awkward when she limped. She liked to think not; it was how she had always moved, so Adah liked to think she'd made it seem natural. Unlike this girl, so heavy and clunking and unfamiliar with the new way her body was moving. Adah started to wonder what had happened. Certainly nothing as tragic as her own condition, but intriguing none the less. Brain functions could wait right now; she was trying to pinpoint where the pain that caused the limp might be coming from. Lower leg, guessing by the lack of pressure and tension in that area...

Annette bent slightly, moving down two drawers... she took her time in searching; she's never had the need to look for such books before so she wrote down several references before she closed the drawer and lumbered off in the right direction, moving slower than before because she was without her crutches today. It was not as painful, but any quick jarring caused her to start and feel the hurt. She'd rather not do that so she limped slowly away, being careful.

Adah kept her eyes on the limping girl until she disappeared behind the rows of shelves, feeling much like the lion who was rumored to have stalked her once, and, like that lion, feeling not an ounce of guilt about it.

Once again River stopped by the library before class. She wondered if Adah would have the books she had mentioned there, but otherwise just sharing an apple was an option, is Adah wanted.

She quietly slipped through the door, trying to see if there was any chance of sneaking up on Adah.

River possessed a thing called grace and Adah possessed a book on brains. A more fitting question would be as to whether or not anyone could actually fail to sneak up on Adah. In fact, the lions of Africa knew already how easy it could be and, unfortunately for Adah, there were no baby bushbacks here to distract River from her initial prey.

River reached out a slender arm and attempted to poke Adah's shoulder. It amused her that the book was about brains, but it wasn't surprising.

The poke on the shoulder lead to much more of a twitch than a jump; Adah's body wasn't entirely capable of a jump, although it did feel like that was what her heart was trying to do, into her throat, past the esophagus, rolling along the red of her tongue and past her silent lips, plopping finally onto the open page with the diagram of the medulla oblongata, nervous system and circulatory system united in a tragically dysfunctional fashion.

It didn't, though; it just stayed neatly in place, with a slight racking against her lungs that made her breath catch. Her head jerked around...too fast, pain pulling the muscle of her neck, retracting it back to where it was. But not too quickly that she hadn't seen who it was, and her body relaxed as much as it would allow. River....not fair... But Adah was grateful that that was who it was.

There was a pang of guilt. "Didn't mean to hurt you," River said quietly, taking a step back and withdrawing her hand. Adah both had a strength and something vulnerable that made River unsure sometimes about how fast she could move next to her.

The ticking of a clock, Adah thought as she turned her head a little and then slowly dragged her eyes behind her to find River, looking up at her, was painful to her on any given day, so River should not worry about something like that. Adah was used to it; she had just been a little caught off guard, that was all. The nerves had settled again; the lungs had forgiven the heart for the jumping trespass against them. Everything was fine. She gave River a faint smile. Since it had been River, everything was fine. She was wondering if she might stop in today...

River replied to Adah's thoughts with a warm smile, reflecting what River felt herself. She jumped up on the desk and took a seat next to Adah, dangling her bare legs.

"I remember one of my brother's books about the brain, from when he went to medical school. Beautiful holographic illustration. Tried to map out the different connections." She dug an apple out of one pocket and a fruit knife out of the other. "Share this?"

Adah blinked at the glint of light against the knife as River took it to the apple, a sharp contrast of brief pain with the hopefulness of another shared apple. Tricky lighting here, unnatural; she tilted her head to better see the blade bite into the flesh of the forbidden fruit. Presumably, anyway; very few translations actually bother to identify it as an apple, and considering the geography, that it was actually an apple is highly unlikely. Most likely a pomegranate, or a kiwi.

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. The Bible had much to say about knives, most of them visceral, dark, painful. She much preferred what the poets had to say, speaking of how utilitarian and useful they were, and she was content in watching how River used hers, to cleave the apple. She tried to not be too critical if the cleaving was not done evenly, although she ached a bit for it to be that way. Yawt aht, that way.

River's eyes widened a little at Adah's thoughts of Biblical knives, and she couldn't help wondering what Adah would think of her if she knew of all the other things River could do with a knife. There was a wall in her room full of knive trophies, after all, brought back by River and Buffy from Miranda. She had saved lives then, but that still hadn't meant Blair could accept it.

She had won prizes for her apple sculptures as a child, and although this wasn't a sculpture River could still prove she knew how to use a knife. She peeled the fruit, creating one long spiralling strip of apple peel, then cut it in half, offering one part to Adah.

Leaning her head backwards she let the strip of peel circle down on her tongue.

Adah gingerly took the apple half from River, her head lowered slightly out of a stab of annoyance at herself for wishing she'd sliced it into smaller, easier pieces. She should know better than to want something more than what was offered when the offering was done so kindly. She lifted her eyes and, Adah, ever the watchful, ever the observant, caught the length of River's neck as her head tilted back, and the previous thoughts drifted away as she followed he vein toward River's face, watched as the peel dropped, refusing to fall in anything but a graceful spiral, to the open, waiting mouth. It was hard...no, impossible for Adah not to become fixated on it; the reverse of the desired path of her heart moments ago, instead of sliding up, slithering down, down...

Adah had to close her eyes for a moment at the rush building up into the red across her cheeks. As if that would stop herself from knowing that River was probably aware of every tiny fixation.

The image of herself through Adah's eyes came vividly to her mind. River didn't blush, but she held back a smile, pleased that Adah found her fascinating. Her head upright again, she held out a strip of peel towards Adah, holding it above her head like she had done for herself.

S'driby bab. Adah's mind jumped instantly to baby birds as her eyes slowly opened, head still tilted up to perfectly catch the spiral of peel held there. A mother bird would either dangle a worm or, if there were no worms, produce her own regurgitation to feed the eager, flightless, twisted little things without their feathers. The red increased quickly on Adah's cheeks; her mind rivalled between which was worse, the sense of helplessness that the association fostered, or the sense of intimacy. But her body seemed to decide something before she could, as usual, left arm darting up to quickly just take the peel from River's hands, eliminating the problem all together. The movement, so out of her control, so out of line with the direction of her thoughts, embarrassed her more than the thoughts themselves, and she drew away, closing herself off again in frustration.

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Library, Wednesday [ 09/19 ]

First Period -- 09/19

Second Period -- 09/19

Third Period -- 09/19

Lunch -- 09/19

Fourth Period -- 09/19

Fifth Period -- 09/19

OOC -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Second Period -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19

Re: Lunch -- 09/19