fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [11/30]

Gabrielle hadn't received word from home this week. Ordinarily that was little cause for concern; not even her Greece, strange as it was, could send correspondence with anything like the (more or less) reliable speed of the current era. This week, though, it had her fretting. Were her parents all right? Was Lila? Helen, wherever she was now? Salmoneus, Autolycus, Hower and Minya, Flora, Pandora, Joxer, her Amazons, Homer and the boys at the Academy, Hercules and Iolaus?

And Xena . . .

That was the one that really twisted her stomach with worry, even though she remained mostly convinced that no matter what this thing was, Xena could handle it. The what-ifs were just persistent enough that Gabrielle couldn't help imagining a world without the Warrior Princess in it.

Her life without Xena in it.

That was . . . unthinkable.

On one level, she was aware of how many people she'd met and learned to care about throughout the past several years of her travels. It wasn't until moments like now, though, that she realized just how many people there were, and the thought had her in a pensive but agitated mood.

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"I'm hardly going to have you reshelve all of these," Wesley pointed out mildly, claiming a cart and starting to load books back onto it. "Though I might've considered this inevitability, er, perhaps at some point toward the middle of the day."

Instead of, you know. Now.

"You got caught up in it," Gabrielle replied, instinctively trying to make him feel better about it. "It happens, even in fun circumstances. But --"

She held up a finger.

"Don't think you're going to get away with doing this all by yourself, mister. What's a library aide for if not helping?"

Despite his exhaustion, Wesley, nerd that he was, actually cast back for an answer for that.

"Well... 'aid' comes from the French 'aidier,' and..."

Then it occured to him how completely needless that train of thought was, and he cracked a smile. "Dear lord, I truly am exhausted," he murmured, reaching one hand up to rub at his temples.

Getting into a linguistic discussion with the girl who inexplicably had no trouble at all understanding anyone wherever she went despite being from the multiverse's most ridiculous version of ancient Greece ever? That was ambitious, Wes.

"Then you don't have a choice," she informed him, going after a stack of books herself. "You're getting my help whether you want it or not."

"If you insist," Wesley granted, wheeling over a second cart for her to use. Nodding at the stack she'd gone for, he noted, "Those go with demonology."

Because if they had to deal with misshelved books on top of the Nothing, they might as well just pitch themselves off the roof right now.

And Gabrielle plummeted from ridiculous heights to escape narrowly ~~and despite the laws of physics~~ often enough as it was, thank you very much.

"Do you think --" she really hoped he didn't notice she was eyeing the stack a little warily, as if she expected to find a text in there about Dahak -- "this might have anything to do with demons?"

Look, give her time. It'd be years yet before she discovered that Xena's childhood home apparently had a Hellmouth underneath it.

Wesley sighed, dropping his hand from his forehead to flip through one of the books. "I can't be sure, really," he admitted. "It's difficult to say -- really, whatever's happening seems much too widespread to have been caused by any individual, or even a clan of demons. But taking the memory difficulties that outsiders have been having -- if we look to that alone, taking the disappearances themselves as a separate matter... then there's one who's purported to be capable of it."

He came to rest on a passage (http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Cyvus_Vail) with a picture and a brief blurb summarizing a particular demon.

Oh, Wes. Just wait.

Edited 2011-11-30 21:42 (UTC)

Gabrielle nodded. "The goddess Mnemosyne -- I've heard of a temple of hers, back home, where people can go and surrender their memories (http://whoosh.org/epguide/forget.html) if they choose."

She'd thought of it. After Britannia and Agio and Panem, she'd very, very seriously considered it.

"And I know the Fates -- they offered Xena that chance, once (http://whoosh.org/epguide/remember.html). To remake her entire life. But those are my people's gods, and I don't know how much influence they have over people who don't even believe in them."

"That seems to be a recurring wonder of mine as well," Wesley said, nodding. "Demons -- that, is in my universe -- they're not tied to the, ah, the religious sense--" with the exception of the occasional cult-like fanatical followers ~~because Joss Whedon does not believe in subtlety~~, "--but it's dificiult to assess how much power they can yield over other universes. Then again, the, Slayer -- the, ah... warrior who's generally equipped to fight them back home -- appears to have disappeared, so there's always the chance that they've gained power in her absence."

Because this time there was no Buffybot. Woe.

"It might be helpful," he decided, "if there was some text that outlined the limitations on individual universes' abilities to influence the entire multiverse." Feeling a bit foolish, he asked, "You wouldn't happen to know of any?"

"As long as Xena's around back home, there's no danger of that for me," Gabrielle declared, and wasn't she adorable in her stubborn blind faith? ~~Don't talk to her about cult-like fanatical followers. One of those had gotten her crucified and knocked up by an evil god.~~

As for his question . . . she frowned and stared into the stacks.

"I haven't come across anything like that yet, and I'm pretty sure I've looked at every one of these shelves a thousand times by now."

Which was absurdly optimistic, given the Fandom library's whims.

You go with that blind faith, Gabrielle. ROCK THAT BLIND FAITH.

"Blast," Wesley said, eloquently. "It's just -- well." He looked out on the rest of the library, its many shelves stretching for he didn't even know how long ~~because what the hell do I know about meters~~ in the distance. "I've read everything I can on multiversal decay, and there's nothing useful to be found. If what we're looking for is coming from a particular universe, rather than the entire thing, if that's even possible -- there's simply too much material to go through. Even if everyone on the island were to look, it'd still be all but impossible."

She would. She so would. There was even an episode called that.

"And that's before we even think about Special Collections," Gabrielle added ruefully. "But everything has to start somewhere."

"That's true," Wesley conceded tiredly, rolling one cart over a nearby shelf and starting to reshelve the books. "Even Ender's, er, less than enthusiastic brother was... well, I wouldn't say helpful, but..."

~~WES. COME ON. DON'T JUST GO AGAINST YOUR PLAYER'S CRUSH LIKE THAT.~~

"He had something to contribute?" You could always count on Gabrielle to spin things for the positive. "Every different point of view we can get has got to be helpful somehow."

"Exactly."

Even the snotty ones.

"Really, I'm just glad that those who might not ordinarily be inclined to research are taking the time now," Wesley added. "Even if they're... out of their element here."

Gabrielle huffed a laugh. "It's an improvement over going out and trying to hit something when we don't even know what it is."

Somewhere in another dimension's Sunnydale, Kennedy felt the sudden urge to glare, and no idea why.

Library, Wednesday [11/30]

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