fandomhigh | Library [08/29]

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Library [08/29]

Jonothon had been in desperate need of the familiar today, and waking up this morning to realize that the person who was sleeping in Jak's bed was most definitely not Jak had been jolt enough to spur him into actually getting to his feet of his own accord, pulling on his cleanest dirty clothing, and making his way down to the library today for his shift.

That he was now moving through the stacks like a man possessed, looking over the course calendar for the semester and setting out displays of books that he thought other students might find topical to each and every class... That was something else. Now that he'd immersed himself in the familiar, he was hell-bent on not letting himself think too hard about why he'd needed it so badly.

The library was open, and was possibly almost too ready to face students new and old.

[The library, it is open.]

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Dolf's eyes darted past Jono, looking for anything: a speaking aid, or loudspeakers, or something like it. He thought about addressing it - you seem to be speaking out of thin air, that's not possible, but he kept getting stuck on possible - mogelijk? Some form of it? Möglich -- no, that was German.

So he'd have to try and ignore the mystery, for now, and answer the question instead. "I need an book," he started. "English?"

Ah, there was a language barrier at work, here, wasn't there? Jonothon nodded faintly, noting also that his voice was still causing him at least some level of... possibly distress. It was difficult to say for sure, as his own head wasn't quite as focused on people's reactions to him today as it otherwise might be.

What he did have was sympathy for the boy. If he was having trouble speaking, Jono would have trouble explaining, and so he, too, decided to table the topic for the time being.

//You need help with English?// He tilted his head a little, trying momentarily to place the accent. And failing. He was too tired for that much, unfortunately. //What do you speak?//

Being straightforward was the better bet, here.

"I'm from Holland," said Dolf, a phrase that had protected and explained him to many, so far. He'd gotten into the habit of using it, and it seemed to work here as well as anywhere. "Hollands?" No, no, that was wrong: "Dutch."

He smiled as placatingly as he could. And wondered if someone was burning books - the smell of the library seemed to hint at it, but he couldn't see any fire.

"I speak... some English."

Jonothon slumped forward slightly in barely-veiled relief. Dutch, he could work with. Not that he knew a word of it, but it certainly seemed more likely to be sitting around in a high-school library than, say, Tengwar.

Far more likely than Tengwar.

//I can help,// he decided, straightening up a little and nodding toward the stacks. //C'mon. We'll find you a Dutch-to-English dictionary and maybe some English language lessons, if we have them.//

Dolf nodded, battling down a random, irrational terror that Dietsch had forever cast English from his memory. He still had no idea how to deal with the strange quality of Jono's voice, which seemed not to come from his mouth at all; surely, someone like Mariecke or Nicholas would have accused this boy of being the devil's servant, had they been here.

He mulled that over quietly as he set off in the direction Jono had pointed him to.

Then again, Nicholas had once called him that, too.

"I'm Dolf," he said, after he realised he'd been silent too long. "From two-thousand six. Via--" was via an English word? He wasn't sure. It sounded right. "--twelve twelve."

Dammit, he just wanted to talk!

//Twelve-twelve and two-thousand six,// Jono repeated, glancing at Dolf to make certain he hadn't misheard. After a moment of that, he shook his head and gave his shoulders a shrug. The boy was lost, definitely, but he didn't seem insane or anything but sincere. That was good enough for him. //I'm Jonothon. From nineteen-ninety-five.//

He came to a stop first in front of what probably looked like a bit of a wall of other-language dictionaries, and started poking through them for what they were looking for. D for Dutch, and... Victory. He held the dictionary out to Dolf with a nod.

//This might help, some.//

Edited 2010-08-29 15:17 (UTC)

"Thanks."

He did mean that sincerely, weirded out as he still was. Dolf took the book, and ran his hands over the cover, and then flicked it open.

And flicked. And flicked. Looking for--

"Time travel," he said, though he'd known that one already. "I timetravelled. Gone a bit wrong."

Jonothon nodded faintly, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the shelf.

//You... missed?//

He knew better by now than to ask how he'd achieved time travel at all. Between Fandom and home, the concept was something of a novelty, but certainly not impossible.

It was a little bit of a novelty to Dolf, that he could just say time travel and people didn't look at him oddly - it had been hard enough to explain away back in 1212.

"Doctor Simiak missed," he corrected, as he idly leafed through the dictionary, looking for another word. The memory of his arrival in the 13th century came, unbidden; turning up outside of Speyers rather than Montgivray, the shock when he realised he wasn't where he was supposed to be. "Two times."

Edited 2010-08-29 15:32 (UTC)

//Ouch.//

Jonothon kind of found himself hoping that that one was universal.

//I suppose four years off isn't so bad as a thousand, but...// He shrugged faintly. //If there's anything you need...?//

For a moment, Dolf was silent - but that was only because he'd found the page he'd been looking for. "Why are you not speaking out loud?" he asked, his accent hobbling over the words a little bit. Luckily, Dutch was a coherent kind of accent.

This time, Jono managed to keep from wincing. It was like a step in the right direction, really.

//Bad accident,// he settled on. //I can't.//

Which was... sort of the start of it, at least. And it certainly seemed less traumatizing than trying to explain that a large portion of his body was a perpetual inferno of psionic flame.

Baby steps were probably a good thing, here; a few weeks from now, Dolf might have confirmed he was feeling a little too twelve-twelve at the moment to have an adequate reaction to I'm on fire.

Instead he nodded, vaguely confused. "Device?" he attempted, tapping his neck.

There was going to be a lot of hesitation from Jono during this conversation, and he knew it.

Finally, he just gave up and shook his head.

//No device. Just me.// He tapped the side of his head with one finger. //I speak with thoughts.//

Once again, Dolf looked dubious. This was the third time in two days that people had told him something as ridiculous as that, and he wasn't sure what to make of it anymore.

"Okay," he said. If Jono didn't want to tell him, then fine.

//You don't believe me.// Jonothon really couldn't say that he blamed the boy, but all the same... //As though travelling through time is more reasonable.//

There were far stranger things on Fandom Island than a touch of telepathy, really.

//... Perhaps it is.//

And all the same, he didn't want to push.

"It was a device," Dolf said, stubbornly. He didn't remember much of it; at the time he'd seen it, he'd been more interested in it as a source of an interesting afternoon than anything else.

But technology seemed more reasonable, and, if he'd taken the time to think it through, an easier way to get a grip on being back in the twenty-first century.

//A radio, then,// Jonothon replied, giving in to the boy's need to cling to something that made sense. //This is like a radio.//

It seemed... safer, somehow, to put it like that. A radio, anybody who was familiar with them would understand, only works one way.

As much as he didn't want to lie to the boy, he didn't want to have to explain the implications of his telepathy to someone who hardly spoke the language, either.

//You hear what I want to say. Just like a radio.//

He nodded sharply. Okay, that was better. That, that made sense. "Useful," Dolf said, and he didn't even need to leaf through the dictionary for that. His English was improving with leaps and bounds already, and the dictionary was going to help a lot.

And then, maybe, he'd be able to figure out what was going on, and finally-- finally call his mom. He bit down on his lip. "Thanks," he added, shoving the dictionary under his arm.

Jono nodded a little, awkwardly toying with the bandages at the back of his neck. It was a bit of a nervous habit, but he figured that today, he was entitled to it.

//Yer welcome,// he replied. //If you need anything else, Dolf, just ask.//

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Library [08/29]

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