Library [09/04]

[furnaceface]

By the luck of the draw, it would seem, Jonothon had found himself drafted into a shift in the school library.

This being his first semblance of what most people would refer to as a 'real job,' Jono decided it was important to familiarize himself with the items he could locate in his new workspace. Hole punch, paper clips (the shiny metal kind, not the multicoloured cop-outs coated in plastic), those little gold star stickers...

And then, with that settled, he flopped himself down in a chair and proceeded to get right to work. Mostly, this involved finding out how many paper clips he could stick to the hole punch using only ingenuity and the shiny little gold stars. Hard worker, that Jono.

Comments

[living_endless]

"I could wrap my face up if you really wanted me to," Didi said thoughtfully. She could even make it a trend, if she really wanted to, but that would feel ... mocking, somehow. "Except I wouldn't be able to talk the way you do, so it might be a bad idea."

A pause. "It's still weird for you that people here are okay with it, huh?" She could do the Issues talk. She was having a couple along the same lines.

[furnaceface]

//I'd just as soon be the only one running around with my face hidden,// Jonothon replied, shrugging and shaking his head. //And it is strange, yes. Though there are people who haven't been fine with it, right up front. I'd thought I was going mad. It was almost a sodding relief when I finally met one.//

Almost. Except so, so very not.

[living_endless]

"No one here's told me I'm crazy yet," Didi said. "The guy I was in New York with, the day before I came here? Spent the whole day trying to convince me I had done way too many drugs and come unhinged."

Heh, Sexton. She'd have to look him up, she mused as she considered Jono's story. "What happened?"

[Sorry, I live to edit.]

[furnaceface]

//Should I tell yer I think yer crazy, luv? It might not be entirely believable, mind. I'd be likely to tell myself that I've lost my mind, first.//

He had his moments where he actually wondered on that. He wasn't in pieces with fire coming out of his face. He was in some hospital somewhere, and the meds weren't working. Anything but this.

//I stopped into town the other day. I've got fourteen years of music to catch up on, and I'll be damned if I don't have something to listen to while I'm in my room. The gel in the music store, she smelled fire. Panicked.//

[living_endless]

"I'm talking back to a voice in my head," Didi pointed out. "We'd both pass for totally loco."

As long as she had her ankh on, she knew who she was. But when she took it off -- showering, or sleeping -- she started to wonder. Just for seconds. But. It got fuzzier.

"Poor girl," she added. "Was she okay once you explained it was just you?"

[furnaceface]

They could be totally loco together. It would be a thing. They'd need the matching white jackets, of course. Those were important.

//I... think she was,// Jono replied, his tone wavering a little into the realm of uncertainty. //It was difficult to tell, with her. Everything was a bit upside-down. More I think on it, the more I'm certain my voice didn't help, any.// A pause. //I think she was cross with me, for apologizing and trying to leave. This island doesn't make any bloody sense, Didi.//

[living_endless]

Matching white jackets ... maybe they could carry around paper pill cups?

"Well, what did she want you to do?" Didi wondered. "Stay and keep freaking her out? That doesn't make sense."

[furnaceface]

//It doesn't.// Jonothon shook his head, and then peeled a few more stickers from the sticker sheet, mostly just for the sake of having something to do with his hands. //She showed me where the music I was looking for was kept, as though nothing had happened. We talked about Pearl Jam.//

[living_endless]

"What are they doing these days?" Didi wondered. Because that was clearly what was important. (Or, possibly, because it seemed like a different topic would be good for Jono.) "I liked the music, even if they were kind of angry."

[furnaceface]

//So far as I can tell, they got even more angry because people liked their music, and then they proceeded to attempt to sell people new, different music about how they hated that people bought their music. Presumably so that they could get angry about people liking that, as well.//

Jono had no idea what that was about. He did, however, now own every Pearl Jam CD to date, just because his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He was still uncertain as to whether or not he'd make an effort to dislike the new music. There was a bit of lopsided musician left in him that seemed able to appreciate that manner of thinking.

[living_endless]

"I don't understand that," Didi said thoughtfully. "If I made art, I'd be happy people wanted to see it or hear it or whatever, you know? But I'm so not the tortured genius type."

That was her brother.

[furnaceface]

//I always played in the hope that people would hear,// Jono agreed, considering the sticker on his fingertip, and then offering it to her to do with as she pleased. //Busking, small pubs. The idea was that I'd be noticed, not that people would hate it and refuse to listen.//

[living_endless]

"Yeah, if you really don't want people to listen" -- Didi took the sticker delicately, considered it and decided Jono needed an earring, then gestured to him -- "You can just play in your basement. And turn your head."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon did just that, tilting his head and looking the other way slightly.

//But if yer a garage band, luv, then how in the world are yer supposed to get upset that people like yer music?//

See, you totally needed to be in the public eye, if you wanted people to really understand just how much you hated being in the public eye.

[living_endless]

"See, you're expecting people to admit to wanting what they want." Didi carefully placed the sticker on his earlobe just so, grinning at herself as she did it, and stepped back to survey her work.

"There. Now you look like a rock star."

[furnaceface]

//Well, of course I do, luv. I'm a Starsmore.// Which meant absolutely nothing except that now Jono was obligated to put a hand on his hip and model his 'new look.'

He looked very much like a guy with a sticker on his ear, yes.

[living_endless]

He did, which made Didi giggle and bury her face in her hands.

"Now everyone in school is going to storm the library just to get a sticker all their own."

[furnaceface]

//Now, how in the world am I supposed to make a proper statement about my individuality and how nobody understands me if they go and do something like that? I'll have to do the unthinkable, and change my sticker to a silver star instead, or a blue one, because that's who I really am and nobody should dare to like that.//

This was all very, very nonexistant tongue in mutilated cheek for Jono, yes.

[living_endless]

"So you're really the kind of person who would change what color sticker you had on your ear because too many other people had stickers the same color?" Didi wondered. "And not the type to just be smug that you started a trend."

[furnaceface]

//It's entirely possible that I'm a walking contradiction, and I'd be secretly smug to have started a trend while at the same time telling the world to embrace individuality or some such thing. Appearances to keep up, gel. Very important.//

No, not so much.

[living_endless]

"Ah." Didi let that marinate in her mind for a moment. Jono had thought about this a lot more than she had; she never noticed Goth girls with her look beyond finding them vaguely sweet. "So you kind of get the best of all worlds, like Pearl Jam. Except with a sticker on your ear."

[furnaceface]

//The best of most worlds,// Jono settled on. //Really, it's the sticker that sweetens the whole thing.//

The sticker, and the company, and the rest of the 'best' of all worlds kind of sucked, so he was steadfastly ignoring that part right now.

[living_endless]

"And, see, that's why I came in today," Didi said. "I knew you needed a sticker earring."