fandomhigh | Library [03, 20]

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Library [03, 20]

Things had been... quiet, this week. Which certainly seemed like a nice change of pace, so far as Jonothon was concerned. And he really didn't seem to be in any hurry to change that fact, deciding to take things easy today in the library, re-shelving books and dusting.

Now, if only the books would stop un-shelving themselves every time he turned his back to dust.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and mutants...

[Open!]

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"I prefer to be virtuous," Raven said, nodding absently. Well, not all the time. There was room for some lust, yes?

"Thank you," she said to the book, giving it a smile for being so helpful. "Yes, it cannot hurt to look it over. Is it supposed to be humorous?" A comedy about sins seemed strange, but it would be better than a horror movie about them, right?

//Nnnnoooot rea... Um.// For a moment, Jono was torn between explaining to Raven the intricacies of literary terminology, but he decided that he'd rather just simplify the hell out of things. It seemed like the saner option, really. //It's a very, very old poem. And 'comedy' used to be used to refer to anything with a happy ending. It ends in Heaven, and so... fitting enough of that definition, really.//

"A happy ending would be welcome," Raven said. Much better that than someone's head in a box.

She took the book from Jono and flipped it open to the section about Purgatory, brow furrowing at the language on the pages. Fortunately there were convenient study notes following along with the poem. "Pride is the first sin they encounter," she said. "Love perverted? I am not perverted."

Try telling that to Jono on Tuesday when you pull out the handcuffs, Raven.

//Perverted.... doesn't just mean what you think it means,// Jono replied. He was going to end up being a far more helpful study guide than the notes, he just knew it. //It can be dumbed down a bit, to mean... twisted about. Contorted a bit. Selfishly, I'd assume, in th'case of love.//

A pause, and then he was wincing and correcting himself quickly.

//Yer not selfish, either, though.//

Tuesday was going to be kinky, not perverted! There was a difference! OK, it was a small one, but still.

"Love of self instead of love of others," Raven said, glancing at the book and feeling a little foolish. "I am sorry. I have learned much since coming to Fandom, but some of the nuances of language are still unknown to me."

//No need to apologize,// admonished Jono with a wave of his hand. //We'll think of it as a cultural difference. You've still learned a good deal since coming here, right?//

He looked back at the pages of the book.

//Either way, it's... something, I suppose?//

It was a poem. Yep.

"The second terrace is Envy," Raven said. "Perhaps that is why it seemed to me that Jesse was the leader of the three who were here. He was stronger than the others, I could feel it." She had a feeling twisting and manipulating envy could mimic or provoke the other sins, making Jesse more powerful than his brothers.

Not more powerful than herself, of course. But he would give her the most trouble if it came to a fight.

He was the one who had managed to unsettle Jonothon the most. And without even using his power on him. Envy was something that Jonothon spent a good amount of his time practically drowning in.

//He did strike me that way as well,// Jono agreed, looking pointedly down at the book. For all the good it would do, trying to hide his eyes from an empath so that she wouldn't see how unsettled the mention of Jesse made him feel. //Envy is... a bit of a driving force for most people. For most other sins, for that matter.//

Raven frowned, shifting the book to one hand and pulling it away. She moved in front of Jono, her free hand coming up to touch his cheek. "You are troubled," she said.

She'd felt Jared and Jacob try to use their powers on Jono, but Jesse hadn't -- he'd just used words. But those could be just as powerful.

"Talk to me?" she pleaded.

//It's just th'same old whining,// he replied, peering at her while his hand lifted to take hers. //Not whole this, wish I was like everyone else that, and so on, and so forth.//

He shrugged.

//Only, I was just thinking about how easy it would've been for him to use against me. Wrath and lust... those are things that I choke back, every waking moment. I already know how to deal with those.//

Envy, however, was something he kind of just went along with. For as much as he understood that he could never have what everyone else did, he wasn't about to stop wanting it. And maybe even resenting them all for that, a little.

"I will never allow him to use that against you," Raven said fiercely. "I promise you." She wasn't entirely certain how she could keep that promise if her brothers showed up again, but they were her kin and her responsibility now, and she'd do whatever it took to make certain they didn't harm Jono or any of her other friends.

"And you already have one thing he or the others will never have," she reminded him.

//You.//

The one thing Jonothon had that the other sins wanted. Probably the only thing Jono had, for that matter, that they had any interest in.

He had Raven.

"Yes," Raven said slipping her arms around his neck. It might have been her own Pride prompting that line of thought as well, but it was also true.

"They wish me to be with them more than anything, I could feel it. But I will never join them. I would rather be right here. With you."

And there was another brief pang; a moment where Jono tried, and failed, to keep from thinking about what graduation meant, especially in light of all of this.

//Right here,// he agreed, softly, as he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close. //They can't have you.//

Graduation was the last thing on Raven's mind. She was becoming skilled at repression. It was all her sessions with Anakin that helped her with that, really.

"Because I am yours," she whispered in his ear. That wasn't the only reason, but it was a big one.

//And I'm yers,// Jono decided, nuzzling in a little more. Repression could carry the both of them on for quite some time, right? It was a force to be feared. //We'll figure this out. If we have to shove six bloody virtues down all their throats, we'll figure this out.//

Hey, if it worked in Dante's Purgatory...

Raven closed her eyes and relaxed against him. "I know," she said. "I am not afraid."

That wasn't the entire truth, but she was trying not to worry about it too much. They'd defeated Trigon -- all right, at significant cost -- so how hard could his less powerful children be?

Well, there had only been one Trigon.

But since then they'd also gotten a better idea as to what they were capable of, as well. Maybe that made all the difference? They could hope.

//Then I won't be, either.//

What was there to be afraid of? A little envy? Lust? If nothing else, he was practically immune to the most obvious sort of gluttony, so that helped, somewhat...

It would work out.

"There are much more pleasant things to think of," Raven agreed. "Like the music you will share with me Tuesday night."

And what she had planned for afterward. If she didn't lose her nerve.

After a Bush concert, soaking in the grindy emotional feedback of several hundred post-grunge enthusiasts, Jono would be stunned if Raven managed to lose her nerve. Stunned!

//Just like that,// Jono agreed. And then, another wisp of a daydreamed kiss, brushing her cheek. //We'll have to make it good, luv. I'd like an excuse to do it with you again, if it does go well.//

The concert or the night after, Jono?

"You do not need an excuse," she said affectionately. "You know I enjoy spending time with you. But music is as good a reason as any, for I have learned to enjoy it very much."

Both! If the concert didn't go well, he'd have to pick Matchbox Twenty after all, the next time around.

//All th'better for spending more time together, then.//

He gave her another pleased look, before reaching to retrieve Dante from the shelf. And reaching. And groping at the shelf some more. And then glancing that way just in time to see it making a break for freedom past the books on do-it-yourself witchcraft.

Sigh, Fandom.

Raven couldn't help but laugh a little. "Perhaps the books think we have read enough for now," she said. "Or that we should indulge in some lighter reading."

Hopefully any truly horrifying books about the Seven Deadly Sins would hide where they couldn't be found.

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Library [03, 20]

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