fandomhigh | Library [07.25]

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Library [07.25]

//No, Strat. We don't try to smash th'books of sheet music against the shelving. I don't care what ideas you got from Dandelion.//

Jonothon's Fender Stratocaster had spent the better part of the day giving him woeful looks every time he got a scolding. They might have been difficult looks to decipher from behind Strat's freakish leather mask thing, but Jono liked to think that he was a bit of an expert when it came to expressions that were limited to only small portions of a face.

//And get away from th'door to Special Collections!//

Today was going to be a very busy day.

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Jono, who is busy alternating between giving his guitar the stinkeye and cleaning up after him, and Strat, who is wondering if cookbooks are at all edible...

Edited 2010-07-25 12:01 (UTC)

Rinoa was having a bad day. This meant she needed to go to the library and get books and pester Jono, who was totally ~~tolerant of her presence~~ one of her new BFFs.

Jono ... was not the strange guy with bright red hair. She was going to tilt her head at him strangely.

"Are you new here?" she asked.

She didn't know everyone at this school, but she probably would have remembered seeing him around.

Strat was going to just tilt his head the other way, giving Rinoa what was presumably a pleasant grin from behind his mask... thing.

"Not a chance," he replied. "I've been around longer than you have!"

//Strat!// Jono peered out from the stacks, where he was attempting to reorganize what was once a very neatly arranged section filled with books about the most successful rock bands of the 1990's. //Stop patronizing th'patrons!//

"There you are," Rinoa said, waving to Jono with considerably less than her usual enthusiasm. "New friend of yours?"

She wasn't going to ask why Jono hung out with a strange guy who wore a mask on his face. She was just going to hope this wasn't some kind of kink thing.

//He's my guitar,// Jonothon deadpanned. //When this weekend is through, I'm investing in an acoustic.//

Strat gave Jonothon was what presumably a very hurt look, and then turned around to sulk at the newest issue of Guitar World, every now and again making snide comments about an ESP, or making throaty, appreciative noises at any particularly attractive looking Gibson.

Jonothon just projected a long-suffering sigh.

//To what do I owe th'pleasure, luv?//

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh," Rinoa said, feeling silly for not having guessed it earlier. "That's right, people's stuff seems to be walking around lately. It didn't happen to me."

Mostly because Angelo was already alive.

"I just ... you know. Wanted some books. There are books here, right? And to say hi and how are you. How are you?"

Okay, that wasn't entirely true.

//Aside from th'fact that my guitar is reading one of my favourite magazines in lieu of pornography, you mean?//

Strat looked up at them and winked. Rowr.

//I've been worse.//

There were things on his mind, yes, but nothing that he felt terribly inclined to share at the moment.

//Don't you work here? Are you really asking me if we have books in th'library?//

"He's not really ... using it like that, is he?" she giggled, glancing over at Strat and his ... appreciation for Guitar World.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. She was never going to look at the music section the same way again.

"I was being sarcastic," she said, waving a hand. "Or rhetorical, or whatever it is when you ask questions and don't want the answers. It's not important. I came for books. And maybe to bother you. If you don't mind me bothering you. I broke up with Squall."

That last part wasn't supposed to come out. Uh. Oops.

Jono had been about to say something about how everybody bothered him, of course, and so why should she be any different. And then that last part came out.

//Ah.//

And now he was attempting to look sympathetic, really. And he managed to look about as sympathetic as a man with half a face possibly could while in the background his guitar was pulling his muzzle off so that he could lick a magazine.

//I hadn't been aware that you two were actually dating,// he hedged, after a moment.

There was a self-conscious sort of fidget to go with that.

"We ... weren't, exactly," she allowed. "Not technically. But it was at least sort of dating, and now we're not even that."

If he didn't want to be dating her, he'd say that he didn't want to be dating her, and not just give vague sort of 'Whatever' comments. So that counted as almost dating. More or less.

Jono just kind of eyed her, a little sideways, for a moment. And then he finally emerged from the stacks, two-dozen shuffled paperbacks gathered up in his arms.

//So... He never explicitly said that he was yer boyfriend.//

He was just making certain there was no confusion about this.

"No," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. Not at Jono -- at her not-really-ex-who-was-never-really-a-boyfriend. "Squall's not ... he'd never say that, anyway. If anybody else claimed to be his girlfriend, he'd say 'you're not, and stop saying it.' Whenever I'd say it, he'd shrug and say 'whatever.' I mean, I know he wasn't entirely my boyfriend, but we were kind of ... something, anyway. Except I ended it, so now we're not anything at all."

//So you broke up.// Jono could have left that statement at that, yes. But he was Jono. //From yer relation that was a relationship because you made the assumption that there was a relationship. And now yer... Upset.//

A beat.

//Because he won't have any more opportunity to shrug and look like he doesn't care. Because you called off yer vague and more or less undefined romantic whatever-you-will.//

This? This was a particularly dirty look she was giving him.

"I called it off for a reason," she said. "Not because he doesn't care. He does care. He just likes pretending he doesn't. And it really doesn't matter now, because I found out some things and it all got too weird and I had to break it off. Just because we weren't official doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

... Girls.

//What was so important that it had you calling off yer-// obsession, //wahtever-it-was all out of th'blue like that?//

Sometimes, Jono had to ask these things. One day, Jono would regret asking these things. Today, he'd settle for thumping the books down onto the desk for sorting.

Rinoa shrugged, awkwardly.

"My mom dated his dad," she said. "Not just dated, I mean -- it was this big epic tragic love-thing where he died in the war and she never really got over it. Except he didn't. He just skipped out on her. The song she wrote -- the one I sang for you? It was for him, and for them. And all that time, he wasn't dead. He just left town and hooked up with someone else."

Squall's mother, in fact. Who seemed nice enough. But the whole thing was ... messy, and complicated, and really left a sour taste in her mouth.

Many things could be said about Jono. That he was a bastard, that he had attitude problems, yes. That he was a bad friend who didn't care about the problems of his friends, even when he had things weighing on him, as well?

No. Not often.

And so he listened. And he considered what she was telling him, carefully.

And when he spoke, it was with the slow, careful sort of tone of somebody who was actually taking this conversation at least somewhat seriously.

//And so... yer taking out the actions of Squall's father on Squall? Like-father-like-son?//

Rinoa ... opened her mouth, frowned, and closed it again. Wait. Phrased like that, it seemed ... well. Stupid.

"I ... didn't think of it like that," she admitted, one hand curled protectively around her mother's ring. "I thought ... it felt disloyal, somehow. And sort of weird. Everything's interconnected in too many ways, and his dad dating my mom is just ... another piece of the puzzle."

One she didn't know how to place properly.

Jono nodded a little, tapping his fingers thoughtfully against the top book on the stack.

//Well, how much like his father do you suppose he is?//

"I don't know," Rinoa said, lifting her shoulders. "I've never met his father. I'm not sure he has, either."

Laguna seemed to make skipping town into a hobby.

"Do you think it's ... disloyal?" she asked. "To mom? That she'd mind, if she knew?"

She liked her mom. She didn't want to upset her, dead or no.

The best that Jono could do, at just that moment, was shrug.

//I don't know,// he admitted. //I haven't had much family experience, myself. But do you suppose yer mother would want you holdin' a grudge against an innocent person on her behalf? Over something that his father did? One he might not have ever known?//

He was a bit of a stickler for letting the blame rest on the shoulders of the people who had actually earned it. Especially considering his own family tree.

"Probably not," Rinoa sighed. "I just wish it wasn't all so complicated. He's this guy I met at a dance. Then I find out he's some weird friend-enemy-rival of my ex. Now, my mom dated his dad, and his orphanage's matron was the woman who gave me my powers. It's all feeling sort of ... circular?"

Jono squinted one eye slightly while he took all of that in, added it to the pile of other things he was still absorbing, and then pulled out a chair and rolled it Rinoa's way.

Rolling chairs were therapeutic.

//It's a small world,// he offered. //Most worlds are, at least. I don't presume t'know yers, luv. But I can see how it might leave you wanting a bit of a ... breather.//

"It just hit me weird," she said, shuddering at the thought of it. "And then he was acting like a jerk, so we both yelled, and ... I'm not sure what happens now."

Squall was very bad at relationships. Rinoa was better, but that wasn't saying much.

Normally, Jono might have taken 'acting like a jerk' at face value, especially where Squall was involved. But, there was always that extenuating circumstance, wasn't there? Like Rinoa. She was an extenuating circumstance, all on her own.

"An apology would be a good place to start," he replied, in a tone that was perhaps surprisingly gentle, even if you did know that Jono wasn't as nasty on the inside as he wanted people to think, judging by the out.

"You might be right," Rinoa said, sighing a bit to herself.

Dammit. She hated it when people were right, especially about things that meant she needed to apologize to someone else.

"I shouldn't be bothering you about all this," she said, a bit belatedly. "I mean, I came here to bother you, but not about this."

//Well, by all means, luv, bother me about whatever you want to.//

Strat made another very appreciative coo from where he was looking at the magazines. Jonothon threw a stapler at the back of his head.

//He had that coming to him.//

"Ten points if you hit the magazine next time," Rinoa offered.

What? He'd totally had it coming to him.

In case you think it might be safer to avoid the weird masked boys in leather.

When he tags in, naturally.

Henry noticed there were two boys in leather in the library today and, perhaps wisely, decided there were some questions he was better off not asking. Just as long as the new boy didn't break anything -- and Jono seemed to be keeping him in check.

He sequestered himself in his office with some budgets he had to go through. Mmmmm, spreadsheets.

I just Rickrolled myself.

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Library [07.25]

Talk to Jono or Strat!

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Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Re: Talk to Jono or Strat!

Mod Your Library!

Talk To The Librarian!

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OOC!