fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday (3/16)

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Library, Wednesday (3/16)

Gabrielle, let's be fair, didn't look like someone who'd been washed up on a beach more than once in fairly recent hours by the time she made it into the library, a tiny bit later than she usually did. Yes, her hair was still damp, but she'd showered and changed clothes (into an outfit that was identical to her usual one, although the top might have shrunk a little). It wasn't the washing up on a beach in Greece and then, shortly afterward, the one in Fandom that was noticeable; the return to her customary good cheer, on the other hand, was.

Someone had made up with her best friend, yes. It had involved falling off a cliff and then being pulled out of a river, and a lot of singing and bizarrely staged recreations of recent events, but it had happened. That was the important part.

. . . so yes, it had been an eventful visit home, but that was always the case, and if it was one of the most bizarre ones she'd ever had -- she was learning to take those very well in stride, too.

She was sitting at the desk and reading through stacks of books on musical theater and tarot card symbolism, but still taking it in stride.

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It was very much worth it and it was infectious as he returned the smile easily. "I have many stories to tell, but I believe you still owe me one so why don't you get start?"

Gabrielle chuckled softly -- it felt good to laugh so readily again, without feeling guilty for it -- and gestured toward a nearby chair, as if to imply that he'd better take a seat because it would be a long one.

Undoubtedly that wouldn't be a surprise given either of them.

"This won't be as fancy as it could be," she warned. "I haven't written it down yet; I'm still working it all out, so it looks like you get to be my test audience."

She took a breath and closed her eyes for a moment, lips moving silently as she tried to formulate at least a decent-sounding opening.

"I sing of Illusia, land of song, where music stirs deep-rooted feelings and begins to heal old wounds." She paused and added in a less dramatic tone, "There's a lot of water there, too, but I'm not sure how to work that in just yet."

Anyway. Gabrielle cleared her throat and went on, a little haltingly but gaining in speed as she kept going, telling him about helpful guides who took the shape of irritating acquaintances and mortal enemies, ending up in an oddly colorful version of her home village where her sister and childhood friends tried to encourage her to kill Xena, then going through a doorway and getting killed by Xena herself.

"I keep wondering," she had to admit in an aside, "if it really hurts that much or if that was Illusia at work."

Faramir had taken his seat, enjoying hearing her talk of her home and reassuring himself that there was no need to worry as she was telling it to him now. Still, it did not stop him from sitting upright at the last part.

"I would not be able to tell you since I have never managed to get myself killed," he frowned at her. "Yet, neither have you as you are sitting in front of me. Is it a dream world then? You did not say how you came to be there."

Pssht, getting yourself killed was no big obstacle if you were Gabrielle, much less Xena.

Gabrielle pursed up her lips and frowned. "I'm not entirely sure. I -- we fell over a cliff, and I woke up in a river with no sign of Xena. I didn't see her until I went through that door. The whole thing might have been some kind of shared dream, but that's skipping ahead to the end of the story," she added with a mild chiding tone.

That did bring up a question, though. "I can't remember -- were you here in Fandom the last time everyone started singing for no apparent reason, if they felt strongly about something or were keeping it a secret? Illusia was something like that."

"I was," he nodded, suppressing a grin as he remembered how other people seemed to have found it more annoying than he did. "This world forces you to confront your troubles?"

He halted and shook his head. "No, do not answer. Continue the story as you wish it be told. I do not want to get ahead of things."

She gave him a conspiratorial smile. "Well, that's part of the story anyway, so you'll get your answer. Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was somewhere else completely, in this . . . forest sort of place, and yelling at Xena for killing me." She'd conveniently left out the whole part where they'd ended up falling over the cliff in the first place because Xena had dragged her behind a horse and tried to throw her over, and would have if Gabrielle hadn't kicked her in the head.

. . . so much ~~over the top~~ drama.

Reaching for another book, this one on the tarot, she flipped through it and showed him a full-color illustration of the wheel of fortune (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(Tarot_card)). "There was one of these there, and it started to spin, and then --" She waved her hands in a poof sort of gesture. "We ended up singing at each other about how much we were hurting inside."

Be glad she wasn't actually subjecting you to the lyrics, Faramir. They'd been horrible.

"We started arguing about whose fault everything the last few months was, and the wheel started spinning, and turning to fire. The fire reached out after me and dragged me onto an altar just like the one in Dahak's temple back in Britannia, and when I looked up Xena was tied to a cross at the foot of the altar while images of some of our enemies sang at us about hate . . ."

She was completely serious, telling this story. If it sounded completely absurd, it didn't occur to her.

At least she had been arguing and not merely taking the blame on herself. He would cling to that little fact amongst the strange images she was describing. It sounded more like a dream, but he had heard of men talking about the strange things the saw while unconscious.

"It seems Illusia agreed that you both had some blame," he remarked. He didn't prompt for her to continue, knowing that she would.

. . . because she just talked that much. It was a constant of the universe.

"We did." Gabrielle smiled slightly. "I think it was a matter of admitting it out loud, and apologizing, and forgiving. We sang about all that, too."

And again, it was a good thing she wasn't recounting the lyrics in detail.

There was a chance he would have been intrigued by the songs, even if they weren't as artful as the Elven songs.

He returned the smile, glad to see it come so easily. "That sounds like what you both needed. "But please, let me not distract you from the tale. I want to know how you managed to break free."

Let's not be diplomatic about those songs. They were awful.

"Only after we saw visions of ourselves betraying each other," Gabrielle told him. "That was . . . incredibly unpleasant, but -- I think -- necessary, to face up to everything. It all gets a little bit fuzzy toward the end. I just remember taking Xena's hand and stepping through a curtain of water, and seeing her smile again for the first time in so long . . . and then we woke up on the beach again."

Awful did not mean it could not be interesting.

"And you found then that she had shared the dream with you," Faramir concluded. "That is a strange tale, but one can not argue with the results."

Interesting like a trainwreck, to use a figure of speech that wouldn't mean much to either of them.

"I've lived some really interesting stories, but this one might beat them all," Gabrielle said thoughtfully, unaware that she'd just gone and set the bar even higher for herself now. "Have I missed anything interesting here?"

"Not much. At least not to me," Faramir said with a small shake of his head. "Many people had visitors come during the weekend."

"But not you?" Gabrielle guessed. "I don't know how I always manage to miss these things . . . but it was worth it this time."

"Not me," he confirmed with only a small shrug that belied how he did feel about it. "As long as it was worth it, that is all that matters."

"That is the important part." Which was restating the obvious, but Gabrielle did that sometimes. "Were you hoping for a visitor?"

"No," he shook his head. "I had word beforehand from Boromir. His presence was required as Osgiliath. It seems the enemy's troops have been very active near the city."

Gabrielle remembered him saying something, once, about how it was his people's job to hold back this enemy of theirs. "More so than usual, then? Is it a bluff, d'you think, or does the enemy have something bigger in mind?"

She didn't like war. That didn't mean she was unfamiliar with the concept of strategy.

Faramir shook his head. "I do not know and Boromir is not very forthcoming with information. I believe he does not wish me to worry when I am somewhere where I cannot help. Not that it keeps me from worrying," he admitted with a crooked smile.

"Because you know just enough to keep the questions coming, and not enough to answer any of them." Gabrielle reached over to pat his hand. "I know just how that is. 'An old friend needs me, Gabrielle, so I'm going to drop everything and race halfway across the known world right this second,' and no explanation. At least, not until we're on the way if I'm going along with her."

It also all seemed to have happened ten winters ago. She hadn't gotten an explanation for that yet.

"That does sound like something Boromir would do," Faramir agreed with a laugh and he reached to catch her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "I say we have our revenge and go off on an adventure of our own. Let them do the worrying for once!"

"I say we should do it," Gabrielle agreed, smacking her free hand lightly on the top of the desk for (enthusiastic) emphasis. "But first, we should make sure the two of them never meet, or we'd never see the end of that kind of hassle. I have enough of that to deal with, whenever Hercules and Iolaus come around."

"If they not kill each other first," Faramir chuckled. "Such stubbornness should never be allowed to turn towards the same goal. And now you must tell me who Hercules and Iolaus are."

Gabrielle pretended to sigh. "All right, I'll let you slide on that since you're not from this world." Although really. Why had people heard of them, but not Xena (and her)? This continued to make no sense whatsoever, despite what Ender had said about alternate realities. "Hercules is the son of the god Zeus, and one of the great heroes of our time; Iolaus is his ~~boyfriend~~ best friend. They travel together a lot like Xena and I do, and help people. Hercules has a special interest in making sure mortals get a fair shake when the gods are out to get them."

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Library, Wednesday (3/16)

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