fandomhigh | Library, [02/06]

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Library, [02/06]

Amorous. Books.

Jono narrowed his eyes at the sight that was presented to him when he came in for his library shift today.

Books. Books upon books upon books, all tucked away in little nooks and corners and crannies, wherever they thought that they could get a bit of privacy, and snuggling. And they weren't even romance novels, which Jono might have at least been able to get his head around. No, no, there was a Western, cuddled up against a Thai cookbook. A book on knock-knock jokes and a do-it-yourself carpentry book had claimed a nice little spot behind one of the doors, and when Jono made his way to the desk, he nearly sat on a carefree couple consisting of William Shatner's autobiography and an outdated Webster's Dictionary.

The romance novels, meanwhile, were quite well-behaved, sitting on the proper shelves and, if Jono was any judge of the character of books, all quite pleased with themselves for enabling such anarchy.

//Yer a week and a day too bloody early,// Jono grumped, tossing the dictionary and Up Till Now onto the book cart with a roll of his eyes. //Plonkers.//

[Open!]

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If you sing romantic ballads to the book of your choice, it might even come out to greet you.

Or maybe not. They're inanimate objects, right?

He doesn't have the heart to go around breaking up too many of the completely haphazard couples, really.

Although he's at least partway wondering what the heck the kids would look like.

Raven hadn't been hiding in her room for the past few days. She'd been working on something, really! And she had one-third of the results hidden in her hand when she stepped into the library Sunday morning. She was a little nervous because of, well, everything, though yesterday's radio had tweaked her anxiety just a touch. Still, she put on a smile to greet Jono.

"Good morning, Jono," she began, and then she had to stop and stare at the books as their amorous feelings battered against her shields. Oh dear, this could be awkward.

//Morning, luv,// Jono replied, glancing up from where he'd been giving dirty looks at a For Dummies book, and some fantasy novel with a poorly drawn dragon splayed out across the cover.

He wanted to suggest that they get a room, but he supposed the best that he could do would be to stuff them into a drawer.

//How've you been?//

"I have been well," she said, drawing closer and doing her best to block out the books. Inanimate objects weren't supposed to do that! "I believe I have caught up on my classes. I was fortunate to find people willing to lend me their notes so I might go over what I missed, and my teachers were all understanding.

"And how are you?" she asked.

Jono was trying to equate 'Kerrigan' with 'understanding,' and it wasn't quite making a connection in his brain somewhere. But he supposed he was probably just not giving the woman enough credit. This was Jono. That was always entirely possible.

//Not bad,// he decided. //I think my biggest complaint over th'past few days is that Joni's started shedding. Cat hair everywhere.//

Which he was certain Raven totally cared about.

"Pet hair on black clothing is a Very Serious Problem," Raven said solemnly, though she was still smiling. She'd had experiences with that plague in the past. And even black dogs or cats would somehow deliberately manage some lighter-colored fur to decorate their owners' belongings.

Joni was special, in that she was a black and white cat. It didn't matter what Jono might choose to wear, you'd be able to tell that he was a cat owner at a glance.

//It isn't so bad on th'leather,// he admitted, //but any day I think I might pull on a t-shirt, I find myself having second thoughts fairly quickly.//

[About to vanish for a short while. Dad's gotten it into his head that he has to move all of the furniture in the house, including the computer desk that the only computer with net access that I can get to is on. Sigh.]

"I think it is her way of marking you as hers," Raven said. Wasn't it a good thing girlfriends didn't shed?

"I have something I wish to give you, if you will accept it," she went on. She still had her hand closed around it, so he'd have no idea what she might be referring to.

[No worries -- orders are about to drop here and will require most of my attention for awhile. Good timing. ;) ]

Colour Jonothon intrigued, right then. He quirked an eyebrow up slightly in question at that. Something? A thing? For him?

... Not that he couldn't get his head around the idea of getting things, really, but this was Jono. He couldn't look a gift anything in the mouth.

//Some sort of occasion, luv?//

"Not exactly," Raven said, though Valentine's Day had been on her mind recently and what she should get Jono for it.

"It is more of a safety measure," she explained. "A contingency plan, if you will. Something that will set my mind at ease."

The fact that Jono's eye remained twitched upwards was probably an indication that she'd managed to snag some obscure corner of his curiosity, right about then.

//A... contingency plan?//

"In case something were to happen to me again," Raven said quietly.

"I have no intention of hiding anything from you as I did before," she clarified quickly. "But my father and Sebastian have amply demonstrated that my will is not always my own."

She opened up her hand and held it out to him, revealing a red crystal about half the size of her thumb. "This is a Ramat Stone," she said. "It contains a sliver of my soul. If I were to become lost again, it would aid you in finding me. And possibly restoring my mind and soul."

//Yer soul?// Jono eyed the crystal, with his eyebrow lowering now, taking the other along with it as he squinted at the stone. //How does it work?//

He didn't quite reach for it yet, no, though one of his hands did raise slightly, kind of inching in that direction.

"You know I am skilled in separating my soul from my body," Raven explained, keeping her hand out for him. "I merely left a fragment of it behind and bound it to this gem. It is small enough that I will not feel its loss, but large enough that it will still be connected to me. You have but to hold it and think of me, and it will guide you to me." At least that was how it was supposed to work in theory, but in practice she'd never seen one used before.

"If you have any other questions you must ask them now," she said. "For I will be erasing the creation of these stones and giving one to you from my memory as a precaution, and you must never speak to me of it." Because if she turned evil again and knew of them, she'd destroy them.

Well, at least that seemed... fairly self-explanatory, more or less.

//I can't... accidentally break this, or anything, can I?//

Or burn it. Burning Raven's body had been bad enough. Doing something to her soul...

His hand hesitated, a few inches from hers. Okay. Okay, he could... take the stone, already. Out of her hand. Just... pick it up, like so, so quickly that even if he did have to touch her in order to manage it, there wasn't much that could really happen in that moment. Stone. Stone in hand.

Sorry, Raven. Your boyfriend is kind of neurotic. He's working on that.

"You cannot harm me unless you were to use it as a focus to dark magics," Raven said reassuringly. Somehow she didn't see Jono doing that. "It will not break, and it would take a great deal of conscious effort to destroy it due to the magics protecting it. But it should be kept safe so it will not be lost or used against me."

She recognized the neuroticness -- Azar, Jono! -- and did her best not to inflame it further, keeping her hand still and flat to make it easier for him to take the stone. But she was relieved he had accepted it.

Yeah, Jono and magic, dark or otherwise, probably didn't belong in the same paragraph, generally.

//I'm fairly certain that I can manage that,// Jono replied, now directing his attention to the stone, turning it over and inspecting it. It was an interesting little rock, he had to give it that. It had a bit of a... maybe a hum was the best way to relate it to his psionic senses. Something extra, beyond the physical feeling of the stone itself, that was very recognizably Raven.

... Because it was Raven.

He closed his hand around it, and then gave his shoulders a shrug. //I'll find someplace safe for it, then.//

"Thank you," Raven said with a relived smile. "It will do much to put me at ease to know that it is in your possession. I pray its need will never be required, but just in case...."

She didn't know if he was going to go for the next thing she threw at him, however. "There is also something else I wish to show you, though I am not certain if you would be comfortable with it yet. You have been inside my soul before, and I wish to show you what it is like now. It will be perfectly safe, I promise you."

You can't set it on fire, Jono. Stop thinking that.

... Stop reading his mind!

//... Perfectly safe?// Was anything perfectly safe, really? //I suppose... I haven't taken a break in a while. I could probably go now. Briefly. I mean. I am at work.//

Yes. And he didn't take lunch breaks, for obvious reasons. Really. He could spare a few minutes.

"It will only take but a moment, just long enough for you to see," Raven promised.

She debated asking if she could take his hand, but seeing how hesitant he'd been to touch her when he'd taken the Ramat Stone, she decided not to. But she did summon up her Soul-Self to take advantage of the "now" he'd just given her, not giving him a chance to change his mind before taking them both inside herself ~~not dirty dammit~~.

It was still cool inside the netherverse, though not nearly as cold as it had been in the past. The harsh blues had been replaced with warmer reds and purples, and a soft gold glowed all around them. "Is it not beautiful?" Raven said happily.

Edited 2011-02-06 17:42 (UTC)

It took Jono a moment to get his bearings. He'd been edging into 'second thoughts' territory right about the time that Raven's Soul-Self swept over him, and then he'd found himself suddenly just... standing and blinking at their surroundings.

//Cor...//

He would have been gaping, if he'd had a lower jaw to let hang open.

//It's... brilliant, luv.//

"I am still very much afraid of what I am -- or what I can become," Raven murmured. "But this, this does much to give me hope. I feel so much lighter than I did before."

But not without the weight of a great deal of guilt.

//Not as... cold?// Jono cast his gaze around for a moment more, and then turned back to look at her, clearly impressed. //Must be some sort of relief, yes.//

"Perhaps it is you who warms me," Raven ventured softly. She wasn't moving closer, at least not at the moment, since she didn't want to spook him. But with the lines? Oh yeah, she was smooth.

Oh, yeah. She had a mouth on her like a Hallmark card. Which was possibly why Jono was giving her a somewhat bemused look, now.

//Is that how it works, Sunshine?//

Warm wasn't really the word he could have chosen for himself.

Edited 2011-02-06 19:13 (UTC)

"I have told you before that you make me feel warm," Raven reminded him. "When we were in Vail."

True, she'd been unwittingly drunk on cocoa and peppermint schnapps at the time, but that was entirely beside the point!

//... Does Vail count?//

Yes, Jono totally remembered the schnapps. He'd been drunk-by-proxy at the time, himself, after all.

Raven laughed lightly, nodding. "I know I was intoxicated," she said. "It made me looser with my tongue than I intended. But I did not lie."

Thinking about Jono had long made her warm and tingly.

"And that has not changed," she added.

Jono glanced around once again, taking in the light gold glow surrounding them, and then nodded, faintly.

But then, he'd been around her when it had been terrifyingly cold in here, too. Closer than he'd been, since. He really sincerely doubted that he was the important link in the change that had come about, here.

//That's... good to hear,// he answered, regardless. Because that much was true enough.

She wasn't trying to imply he was the sole reason. She was just sayin'.

She hesitated for a moment, then said quietly, "Before we go back -- may I take your hand again? It is all right if you are not comfortable, but you do not need to fear harming me here. You cannot, I promise."

She wasn't entirely certain of that, given the nature of his powers, psionic as opposed to ordinary fire, but she was convinced enough that he couldn't.

//Raven...// A note of apology drifted into his voice, then. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but the moment the request had been given, it felt like his flames were lurching up in some freak psi-equivalent of a terrified pressure, grabbing at his chest.

It was one hell of a toss-up. On the one hand, she'd said that he couldn't hurt her, here. On the other hand, the entire situation had an unfortunate air about it, in that there was a vast expanse of space around them, and yet there still wasn't anywhere for him to retreat to, if he felt the need to.

He balled his hands for a moment, staring down at them quietly. She'd been back for a week. A week and a day. There were still too many fresh wounds, seething too near to the surface.

//Next time?//

"I understand," Raven said, ducking her head to hide any disappointment that might have reached her eyes. She really had no idea if she should not make these requests or continue to try, and it was hard not to when she ached so much to be with him. But she didn't want to cause him any additional distress with her own neediness.

She willed them back to Fandom then, and they appeared right where they'd been standing when she'd taken him into herself. The books didn't appear to have noticed or cared about their absence.

Edited 2011-02-06 20:39 (UTC)

Well, the books had been occupied. Really, the children's section of the library was woefully underpopulated, wasn't it?

He needed space. He'd been up-front about that, and he was trying. He'd warm up to contact again in his own time. It wasn't just Raven that he'd been shying away from, after all.

//Thank you, luv.//

"You are welcome," she said, taking a step away.

She glanced about, seeking out a different topic. "How was the rest of your week?" she asked. "I saw you in class Wednesday but I did not have a chance to talk to you then."

Edited 2011-02-06 21:48 (UTC)

//Not too bad,// Jono settled on. //Wednesday's class was... a nice change of pace, I think. And th'rest has been pleasantly... quiet.//

No rescue missions, nobody getting hurt, minimal panic attacks. Jonothon was totally going to consider that a win.

"I have been attempting to get back into a routine," Raven said, grateful for the same had she known what Jono was thinking. "I did drop one of my classes, however, and I must speak to Lady Aphrodite soon."

//Oh? About yer job?//

It kind of seemed like the logical follow-up to her mentioning that she'd pulled from a class.

Raven nodded. "But more so because she is my friend," she said. "She has been away from the island, so I have not had a chance to speak to her since I returned."

She wasn't sure if Karla had passed on word to her either.

Jonothon nodded a little bit. Yes, he supposed that was as good a reason as any, to want to track somebody down.

... Jono was still a little bit of a beginner all over again, when it came to getting the hang of this 'friendship' thing.

//I hope that works out well for you, then, luv. I'm certain she'll be thankful to know that yer doing alright again.//

When he pings in!

Henry would have taken the day off to be with Alba, but there was a pile of new book orders waiting and how hard could it be to amuse a two-year-old in a library?

It seemed like a recipe for disaster, but Alba had inherited his bookworm tendencies. She was fine looking at a coffee table book of theaterical costumes while Henry got some work done.

At least, she'd be fine for a little bit.

My bird is currently singing "Ode To Shannon's Foot" at 100 decibels.

I have got to have the only cockatiel in the world with a foot-fetish.

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Library, [02/06]

Mod your library!

Talk to Jono!

Re: Talk to Jono!

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Re: Talk to Jono!

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

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Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

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Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Re: Talk to Jono! - NFB, plz

Talk to the Librarian!

Re: Talk to the Librarian!

OOC!