fandomhigh | Library [08/22]

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Library [08/22]

Jonothon had been... a little lax on his library duties over the summer, he realized. He'd missed a couple of shifts here and there (the fact that Silent Hill was a factor in this meant little to him, no), and today he was looking to make up for lost time with a bit of a vengeance. By noon, he'd managed to shelve the books on the cart, and as the day pressed on, he was going to even pull out a rag and start dusting things.

Because he could, damn it. It didn't matter that it was technically break week, now. He had a bloody job to do.

Ah, productivity.

[Open!]

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"I think I freaked Madison out in class once," Didi said casually. "Probably shouldn't ask people how they died, but she was looking at me."

Hey, his first meeting with Jacob had almost been a fist fight. It was only fair.

That was met with a dismissive shrug, yes. Who was he to judge?

//If she was staring, she was pretty much inviting it,// Jono pointed out. //She learned, at any rate. There's plenty around here that's just as strange as being dead, really.//

"Not to mention I'm pretty sure there are a couple vampires around," Didi said. "She's dead in a different way, but still. Nice girl, though."

//She is. I haven't had any trouble with her, at any rate.//

Yes, that was totally how he gauged whether or not people were any trouble. It was such a telling thing!

"She's behaving herself?" Didi joked lightly, wandering off to glance around the library. "Oh, hey. You've been busy."

//I had a bit of lost time to make up for,// Jono explained, watching her for a moment before wandering along behind. //It's a wonder Mr. DeTamble hasn't read me th'riot act for all of th'shifts that I've missed over th' summer.//

Yes. This from the boy who had come in to work a few days after blowing another large, messy hole in himself, who missed a day of work a couple of weeks back because he'd been trying not to get murdered by zombie nurses and worse.

"I'm pretty sure you've been here more than I've been at the shop," Didi answered. "Besides, he seems pretty cool. Reminds me of my brother's librarian, a little."

//Yer brother has a librarian?//

... What? Jono didn't know these things. He sort of wanted a librarian of his own now, too. To keep his CDs organized.

Why not? A guy could dream, here.

"Dream has a librarian," Didi confirmed. "Lucien's got a lot more books than you do here, though. A lot more. He's been around a long time."

//That's...// Jono cast a look around the library, thoughtfully. //Impressive, actually. It sounds like th'sort of library most people can only imagine.//

To say the least, yes.

"A lot of the Dreaming is like that," Didi said. "If I ever got the chance, I'd show you. Pretty sure you'd have a book in there, too."

A statement like that required a bit of a tilt of the head, yes. What did that mean?

//I'd have a book?//

"Have you ever written one in your head?" Didi asked. "Why Eddie Vedder Rules, by Jono Starsmore? If you have, even if you got bored and didn't finish, it's in there, because you dreamed it."

If that was the case, Jono was taking up a decent portion of shelf space with ill-conceived horror stories and a few mutant rights manifestos that would never see the light of day.

Jono did a lot of that sort of thing, yes.

//... That's almost embarrassing,// he decided, after a moment to realize that those things were sitting where somebody could read them.

"Is it?" Didi asked. "Maybe. A little. Not if you think about it being in the middle of all the other books, al the other things people dream about writing. That's kind of ... comfortable, I think."

//I suppose how comforting it is depends more on th'standards you hold for yerself,// Jono suggested. //I write, but it's music, and even that I have a difficult time just being satisfied with. So far as books go... I'm hardly Vonnegut, or Gaiman. Hell, I'd have a difficult time keeping up with Seuss. Sitting next to the unwritten stories of so many people with potential, I think I'd feel a bit third-rate.//

Didi gave him a look that suggested he was totally insane. "You realize you're measuring yourself against the writers you think are the best ever," she pointed out. (Gaiman made her nervous -- he had an irritating habit of getting too close to things humans weren't supposed to know -- but that was a separate issue.) "Why not just be smug that the half-assed book you dreamed is probably still better than Dan Brown?"

//Yer goldfish could write better than Dan Brown, luv. It's not that much of an accomplishment.//

"Hey, it was a trick getting Wandsworth to hold the pen in his mouth," Didi cracked. "And I won't talk about Slim's spelling. He has issues."

//Well, that's what editors are for,// Jono pointed out, bemused. //My brain doesn't come with one of those. I'm apparently not paying the other telepaths enough to be dream-book beta readers.//

Slim and Wadsworth, meanwhile, would need betta readers.

~~groan~~

Didi laughed. "Don't ask Emma," she said. "Somehow I think she'd be a pretty harsh editor."

She squinted, studying him. "You don't usually call yourself a telepath, you know."

Jono took a moment to pause and pick apart what it was that he'd just said, there. And then he... shrugged, maybe a little.

//Not that I'm any good at it,// he allowed, //but I suppose I am, aren't I? There doesn't seem to be any point in denying that much, when it's fairly obvious...//

Obvious, at least, that he could only speak if it was directly into somebody else's mind, yes.

"Not really, but things get more real when you put names on them," Didi said. "And hey, making yourself heard is a pretty neat trick. I've gotten used to your voice in my mind."

//And for some people around here, this has been normal all along,// noted Jonothon, though his tone was... wary, almost. It was still a weird topic of conversation for him. //If they have a word for th'same thing, I might as well appropriate it. Having a word for it... doesn't really hurt anything.//

Even though about this time last year, the last thing he wanted was to be given yet another label that had anything to do with his powers, yes.

"It usually doesn't, as long as it's a polite word," Didi agreed. "Makes it easier to talk about, right?"

Even if it was a label.

Re: Talk to Jono!

furnaceface - 2010-08-23 16:56 (UTC) - Expand

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