fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [ 01/30 ]

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Library, Wednesday [ 01/30 ]

Last night, Adah dreamed of a springbok in a fire, dancing around chaotically until the moment it burst forth with a powerful leap. She was the arrow shot from her sister's bow, the straightest she would ever be, flying sure until penetrating into the soft hide of the animal. It crumpled to the ground, fountains of blood, and a white-suited nurse dressed its wounds. Anatole sighed as he ruffled her sister's short hair. "A bu, Benee, he lamented, "A bu."

It was food for thought, to be sure, as Adah opened the library today; she never remembered having such vibrant, substantial dreams before. Still, she was in a good mood. At least, she would be until probably second or third period. So she might actually be somewhat helpful this morning.

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Adah was realizing the regularity of her days here at the library now, as she didn't even think twice about getting an immediate start on making neat, ordered piles of the books to be reshelved the moment she'd squared the chair she was sitting in.

See? She's in the shelves with the books this period, and actually putting them, free of any fake threats of doom or plague, into the right places today. Good mood.

The work she's mostly capable of doing without a problem done, Adah might be trying to distract herself with some studying on some African viruses; those were, after all, her favorites.

Open to just other aides and Bob, although Adah takes her lunch at her desk, anyway.

Adah stayed the course on African viruses; she contemplated switching to STDs, but decided that that was more of a February thing.

River broke the pattern and arrived after lunch. There had been spaceships to visit in junkyards, but she hoped Adah wouldn't be upset. She approached quietly, then placed a bag with an apple muffin from the Perk on the desk.

The break of the pattern, for Adah and all her concerns regarding an order to things, had not gone unnoticed, of course, but the fact that it had been delayed instead of completely called off threw a wrench in the gearworks of what Adah was considering were the reasons. She glanced at the bag, carefully drawing her eyes along the folds, and then looked back toward River, deliberately filling her head with the heavy Latin names of the viruses she'd been studying, to block the flow of other thoughts, but of course it didn't work. She was never this guarded toward him after time with her....but that was obvious. He couldn't read mind, and Adah was terrible at restraining hers.

For a second River's eyes darkened, and the familiar stab of jealousy cut through her. But that wasn't fair, was pointless and she nudged the bag closer to Adah, taking a seat next to the bag on the desk.

"Went to visit a spaceship," River said. It explained the breaking of the pattern, but some part of her wished that the information would give Adah a similar feeling to what she was experiencing.

Adah's shoulder rolled slightly to straighten her back, and she blinked. That was a fairly simple response for what Adah had been dully been expecting since the passing of the day's first period. Perhaps River was just doing particularly well at guarding her reaction; perhaps Adah was doing particularly well at guarding her thoughts, but she highly doubted that, because she knew that, no matter what she tried to read, or what she'd dreamed of in the time between (no matter how haunting Anatole's rumbling mutter of hopelessness seemed to be ringing), yesterday kept nudging its way to the foreground, in a dream-like sort of perfe--

Adah let out a breath. She'd read a story once, where mind readers were given helmets to block thoughts. Impossible to work in any sort of practical sense, but River needed one of those helmet. She crept her hand forward across the desk for the back. To visit a spaceship and the coffee shop, too, and Adah was dully thinking that she didn't need to be a mind reader or even have a good sense of smell to know that it probably involved apples.

Wincing slightly, River stared down into her lap. Perfection? "Better than...?" She spoke the words before she could stop herself, not sure if she wanted to know. Her shoulders drew upwards a little. Mentioning the spaceship had not caused the reaction she wanted.

Edited 2008-01-30 16:12 (UTC)

Adah's brain answered before Adah herself even realized what River was talking about, with a quiet maybe before she blinked, caught up to speed and amended that with a very firm different. There was no argument that could go into that, and then she continued on that it didn't matter, because it wasn't a fair question to ask. If River really wanted to know, well, then she could just march right up to his room and find out for herself. In the dull afterwake of her defensive sarcasm, she threw her focus into carefully pulling the bag to its side so the she could sneak her hands inside to extricate the food from inside.

But River never heard the second answer, because when the first reached her mind all her walls came up and all the doors slammed close. She drew a sharp breath, then quickly got to her feet, and conciously moving faster than Adah would find comfortable, reached out to snatch the bag from her grasp.

To say it was too fast for Adah was a slightly understatement. It left her fairly stunned, conscious thoughts about anything completely halting for a moment as synapses scrambled around, like sailors in a struck submarine, desperate to right the vehicle at the upending of simple things, like compensating for the fact that something that was there a second ago, should still be there. It was the same sort of reaction out of a child, just awakening to his sensory reception, parents taunting it with an object and then pulling it away, hide and seek, the natural impulse being confusion before the reason of intelligence settled in. Once it did, though, Adah still stared, hand halted in its progress.

In truth, she didn't know what to think. She did, however, know what to feel, and that was annoyance, as her wide eyes slid toward River as if demanding to know exactly why River was getting irrational about getting an honest answer to a question that she not only asked, but also knew that Adah would be unable to answer dishonestly even if she tried.

River didn't hear that, still keeping her mind walled off. She might have noticed the look in Adah's eyes and got the message, but she kept her head turned away as she rushed out of the library. The bag with the apple muffin was flung with some force against one of the shelves, causing pieces of it to litter the floor.

Adah sucked in a slow breath; she released it, just as slowly, but this time with her shoulders sagging, deflating, staring after the mess she'd have to get up and eventually clean up and she wasn't just thinking about the apple muffin. Well, that was more or less the scenario she had expected while sitting through virology earlier today, wasn't it? Self-fulfilling prophecy, betrayed by the very same mind that thought of it, decided that it cared nothing for Adah's sensibilities and trudged on forward to do what it could to make imagination reality. She sighed again, slumping forward into the palm of her hand....

Adah may have expected this, but that didn't exactly prepare her. Shoot the springbok, and the family could eat, but the village will still accuse you of something to turn it around. A bu, Benee, A bu....

Edited 2008-01-30 17:07 (UTC)

Adah had thought to switch to a book of fiction or poetry for the last hour, as a sort of way to conclude the day with a bit of fun over work, but she found herself back on virology for finding it much, much more interesting.

There were muffins on the floor of his library.

The Librarian was most confused. "Miss Price?"

There were some muffins on the floor. Adah had made an attempt to clean up the most of it, but River had a strong throw and a good portion of the crumbs seemed too stubborn, even for her. What could be salvaged, malformed muffin chunks still safe in the bag, was now sitting on the desk, being idly picked at. Adah sighed heavily, giving Bob a tired sort of expression that told him that he probably didn't want to know, but she did pick up a clump and offered it to him, if he wanted. She certainly wasn't about to let good food go to waste, after all. There were starving missionary's children in Africa.

He eyed the muffins and then her for a moment.

"I do, in fact, wish to know, Miss Price."

It didn't take a telepath to read people.

Adah kept her eyes steadily on Bob. as if she was waiting and as if she hadn't at all heard what he'd said, still holding out the offering of muffin.

Well...she sighed, shaking her head, and settled back in the chair. She supposed if he didn't want it, she'd have it, popped the piece into her mouth and reclined comfortably the chew it, eyes distinctly off lazily, tiredly, uncooperatively toward a corner of the desk.

"Miss Price," He repeated dryly, but calmly. Very little could annoy him.

My, he seemed rather concerned about just a bit of muffins, didn't he? Adah shrugged a shoulder; it halted in the raised position before it fell again, and her hand lifted in its place, making a sort of errant gesture with her hand, either to symbolize a sort of burst of chaos, or a to dismissively disregard the incident, or both.

"I see," He said, picking up some of the errant crumbs.

"Try not to let this happen again."

Oh, well, damn. Now Adah'd have to go and reschedule her whole weekend. She stared at a moment at him, popped another crumb into her mouth before smiling around it, contritely, with a nod of her head.

With one last appraising look, he turned and head back for his office, depositing the crumbs in the waste bin on his way.

Around~!

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Library, Wednesday [ 01/30 ]

First Period -- 01/30

Second Period -- 01/30

Third Period -- 01/30

Lunch -- 01/30

Fourth Period -- 01/30

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OOC -- 01/30