fandomhigh | Library, [05/01]

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Library, [05/01]

Well, this was it. Jonothon's last weekend on the island, his last shift in the library, dutifully pretending that whatever was going on outside was more or less sane.

Which would be going so very well for him, if it wasn't for the way the books had gotten it into their heads (or whatever) to attempt to imitate the Viking-related shenanigans that seemed to be the weekend's running theme, ever since their appearance at graduation.

Jonothon had wrestled to keep the books shelved for a while, before simply giving up, rolling his eyes, and making himself comfortable at his desk with his feet up, playing Ride of the Valkyries on Youtube to keep the hardcover raiders satisfied as they plundered and pillaged the various sections of the library.

If you can't beat them...

The library is open!

[And OCD freeee because I'm feeling lazy today. Hi!]

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"Neither have I," Ariel said, smiling at the prospect. "Well, there was this one time, I found a message in a bottle, from a little girl, I think, and I wrote back to her, but I'm not sure if she ever really received them, you know? I like to think that maybe she did, though. Hopefully, this way will be much more reciprocal."

//Well, bottles don't generally come with a return address and a guarantee of delivery,// Jono noted, straightening again as the song ended. //So, theoretically, this ought to work better than just tossing a bottle into th'water and hoping th'tide does th'rest. Especially since the Academy isn't really near th'shore.//

"Then you'd probably have to throw it really hard," Ariel said with a faint smile, a little sad that the song was over so soon. They never seemed long enough. "Where is this Academy, anyway? Anywhere I might have heard of?"

//Massachusetts, if you've ever heard of that,// Jono replied, remembering that Ariel's grasp on the geography of this world seemed... tenuous, at best. //Out in th'middle of bleedin' nowhere, in th'woods. But it's... not really a bad place to be. It's for people who aren't quite... er... right.//

That wasn't exactly the best way to put it.

"Oh," Ariel had to comment with a quirked brow, "and this place is?"

//Just yer run-of-the-mill training ground for freaks and monsters.// Jono's tone was entirely too casual. //And... safe. It's safe, for people like me.//

He shrugged.

//I'm trying not to think too hard about th'fact that I seem to fit in better around here than there.//

"Freaks and monsters," Ariel repeated with a tilt of her head. "Your words, or theirs?"

//Depends on the 'they,' I suppose,// Jono replied, shaking his head. //I used to believe it, is th'thing. Looked in the mirror and hated what I was. Tried to push everyone away before they could get a decent look at me, too.//

He turned and made his way back toward the computer. Music. Music was good.

//Before anybody could get hurt.//

And Ariel, of course, drifted over with him, following him, hopping up to sit on the edge of the desk as she watched him with the computer.

"You haven't hurt me at all, Jono," she told him. "And I like to think I've gotten a pretty good look."

//How good?// Jono's eyebrows lifted slightly as he glanced her way. //You've gotten a look in the wrong order, Sunshine. You don't see me th'way th'rest of the world does, because you know who I am. Things are different here. People care about the who. Back home, it'll all be the what, all over again.//

Ah. Swallowed seemed fitting enough. The Viking books would just have to cope.

Ariel was quiet for a moment; her eyes shifted toward her feet, which she kicked out a little bit, pointing her toes as she did so and she sighed. "Well, then," she said. "Who cares? If a person can't like you for who you are, then they're not worth it anyway. If they can't look past what you are to get to know who you are, then that just shows that you can waste your energy on much better things. You can be all, 'well, forget you guys, because you all may not know any better, but I've got all these other people who do care, and they're better than you all anyway.'"

She sighed, though, her legs settling down and staying still again. "I know how it is, though. It's one of those things that is easier said than done."

//Far easier. And you are, you know. Th'best group of people I've known, I mean. I trust th'people here more than I've trusted anybody. Maybe more than I ever should have. But... it's funny. You know, I don't regret it? And I've been worried all this time that I would.//

Go figure, this place was full of people who got it.

//But you... you get this idea in yer head, that maybe there's something that not even the people who care about you should ever know, because it might change everything, turn it upside-down and leave you right back where you started with nothing to show for it but burn scars and heartbreak... It's... it's frightening, changing all that. Even more when it works out and you realize that it's time to leave it all behind.//

"But you don't have to leave it all behind," Ariel offered. "Not entirely. But I..."

Ariel sighed again, looking up toward the ceiling as she mulled over what Jono was saying and realizing that things were hitting the fact that she did have her own thing that even one of the people she cared about the most, Jono himself, didn't know anything about, and here they were sitting there talking about that exact thing.

"I do know what that's like, though, Jono. In order to come here, I had to give up everything. And I mean everything. I mean, things ended up working out much better than expected, but when I signed up to come here, I did so thinking I would never see my family or my friends or my home ever again. And then I came here, and I've never even told anyone about what I am or where I'm from unless it was mostly by accident..."

Well. That was cause for Jono to let go of the mouse and stand up, giving Ariel a curious look before edging back to take a seat, himself. This seemed like 'sit down and shut up, Jono,' conversation, if ever he'd stepped into one.

//... Family and friends are a lot to give up, for th'sake of stepping into a secret, luv.//

Despite herself, Ariel gave a small breath of a laugh at Jono's choice of words. She glanced over at him with a distant sort of smile. "I know," she said. "But it wasn't so much stepping into a secret as it was stepping into a dream. Even if things hadn't worked out that so that I could go home every once in a while, I still wouldn't regret it. I guess it's kind of different, but, I mean, it's all how you look at it. If you go in thinking it will be horrible, it probably will be. But if you go in determined to make the best of it....you will."

//Stepping into a dream...// There was an interesting choice of words to hand to the boy who didn't sleep much anymore, haunted by nightmares. //It... worked out for you, then? This dream of yers? It would've been worth th'cost?//

Ariel's head bobbed easily, eyes wide with the conviction. "Totally. I mean, I've been really lucky, but I haven't regretted a thing."

Jono watched her carefully for a moment, and then gave a somewhat less bobbly nod of his own. //This place... it's good for that. For luck, really. But I don't know that I could really call it luck, either. It's... th'people here, they're... I mean, a lot of us...//

Bloody hell. He was excellent with words when he wasn't talking about things like this, and now he found himself almost completely at a loss.

//We've all left a little behind, for th'sake of dreaming. Or even for th'sake of living.//

"So that's all the reason why we have to make sure we make the best of it, right?" Ariel offered. "To make up for everything we've left behind or sacrificed or thought we had to give up."

She had, at that moment, a sudden spark of an idea and hopped off the desk to her feet.

"I will be right back, Jono, okay? Don't go anywhere!"

As if he had anywhere to go, but she took off, hurrying out of the library so that he couldn't have a chance to say anything to stop her or ask questions.

Ariel wasn't gone long, though, and when she returned, a little breathless for running, she had something in her hand. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" she said, reaching for Jono's hands so that she could press the thing (http://www.thinktank.ac/page.asp?section=456&sectionTitle=Pearly+Nautilus+Shell) into them.

"For luck," she said.

//Luck...?// Jono blinked down at the shell in his hand. He was cradling it carefully, vaguely aware that there was something important about this, that it was... maybe symbolic of something, at least for Ariel. But for the most part, he found himself... well... confused. //A shell, Ariel?//

For what it was worth, it was a very pretty shell.

Ariel smiled a little. "A Nautilus shell," she specified. "Remember how I couldn't talk during the summer? That's because I gave up my voice to be here, too, and the sea witch kept it in a shell just like this. They remind me of how lucky I've been; maybe it could do the same for you while you're gone."

Her voice had been...

Jono stared at the shell, absorbing that. Ariel was so talkative now, it was almost difficult to remember a time when she'd had to rely on making faces at him and flapping her arms about like... Well, like a mute, really.

//Sea witch.//

His brain was processing this bit by bit. Honest.

//Put yer voice in...// He nodded at the shell. //So you could be here?//

Ariel bit her lip a little, shrugging her shoulders as if it was no big deal, but her eyes weren't leaving the shell in Jono's hands.

"I gave up my voice so that I could have feet," she offered, wiggling her toes almost impulsively. "Legs. So that I could be...human."

Okay. Legs. So she could be human. That made... sense. If Jono squinted at it a little.

//Th'Sea Witch... took yer voice... in... in exchange for legs? Because you... you didn't have them before.//

You know, if he managed to figure this out, so very many things would actually make sense.

Like her apparent obsession with anything aquatic, for a start.

Ariel felt a tightness in her throat that she tried to force down with a swallow; those feet she'd traded so much for started to shift a little.

"Nope," she admitted; she kept her head down, but she did peek up through her hair to see what the readable half of Jono's face might be doing. "Just a fin."

Library, [05/01]

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