fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday [11/30]

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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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Distracted bard is distracted.

But still in possession of her vocal faculties.

She did make sure to prep plenty of coffee.

Who might have been living in her office the last few days.

So help me, if you people make me bawl at work today . . .

"... So I guess we won't be finding any convenient 'What To Do When Your Reality Disappears' books around here, huh," Peter said.

He was a Wiggin. They felt better when they kept their relentless thinking about everything on the inside, and their I-don't-give-a-crap on the outside.

"No," Ender said, "Not unless you manage to pull one out of your ass right this minute."

He spared Peter a glance from the corner of his eyes, but being a Wiggin himself, he anticipated everything would be fine until Peter refused to get out of bed.

Peter pulled an exaggerated face. "Always with the anal fixation, little brother," he said, massively hypocritically. "Though I guess now that makes sense..."

"Oh, good," Ender said, picking up a stack of books from where he'd left it yesterday. "Stereotyping isn't dead."

He shoved a book at Peter.

"Good morning," Ender greeted, because it was only polite. "My brother and I are going to be in here for a while today."

Until Peter got bored and wandered off to do something he considered 'more useful', but such was the way of the Peter.

"Oh, hi." Gabrielle was about half a beat slow in responding, but she shook off her faraway look with an almost visible effort. "That's fine -- it's what the library's got all those tables for, and there's coffee if you need any."

She hadn't had a chance to listen to the radio yet, but she frowned.

"Is there someone back home for you who . . . ?"

"Yes," Ender said, with a brief smile. He glanced towards the coffee. "Thanks for the coffee," he added, "I have a feeling I'm going to need it."

He looked back to Gabrielle. "How about you?" he asked, a little more gently.

Gabrielle nodded, the I'm sorry she wanted to say constrained to the flash of sympathy in her eyes; even she got the feeling saying so would only be absurd at this point.

"A few people. Some places. It's -- it's hard to say how much, now; letters sent by messenger aren't quite the same as phone calls." She glanced past Ender for a moment, to Peter, then back at Ender. "The ones who can't say something like that seem to be the lucky ones, at this point."

"We're losing more every day," Ender agreed, "But on the other hand, more and more alumni seem to be making it to the island; we're gaining manpower."

He didn't want sympathy right now - that's why he didn't elaborate on his own situation. "This place is likely to get busy."

Gabrielle had enough experience with Xena's stoic tendencies to recognize the signs of not wanting sympathy. Unlike Xena, though, Ender wasn't that familiar to her and so she wouldn't push the subject. Not yet, anyway.

"That's how it usually goes when we have a crisis," she agreed instead. "Extra people on board won't hurt at all, especially if they already know how Fandom is."

Something occurred to her; she shook her head. "If they're up to helping, that is. It can't have been easy for them to leave their worlds behind."

"Well, if they came here in hopes of riding this out," Ender said, "They're going to run into some awful peer pressure pretty quick, if this keeps up."

Wesley was back, as he'd ~~handwavily~~ been every day for the past few weeks, and went through three cups of coffee and at least two dozen books before he started muttering to himself.

"Idiot, idiot, you're missing something..."

Someone was a wee bit sleep-deprived.

He was probably right about that, though it didn't mean Gabrielle had to like it. One corner of her mouth twitched unhappily, just for a second.

"I guess that's inevitable," she agreed, mentally resolving to see what she could do about creating some kind of safe space for people who weren't up to helping, or just wanted to mourn their lost. "But we'll do what we can for them. The gods know, they've probably done their own part for this island when they were here. It's our turn now."

"This isn't about turns," Ender said, "And it's certainly not about the island. Whether any of us like it or not, it's starting to look more and more like this is about everybody, everywhere."

That being said, though... "But some people work better away from the front line-- and some of them are likely to be scared out of their minds, so you're right, in that regard. We should do what we can... but that goes for everyone."

"If there is, it isn't in this pile," Wesley muttered darkly, overhearing that.

Well. "Pile" was probably the wrong word. He'd constructed about three walls of books around him, such that it would probably be difficult to actually find who had spoken. And what was worse, the books were in a very particular order.

Except that sounded a bit sharper than he'd meant it, so he added, "Good morning, Ender." Then, looking up and trying to put a name to the face, "And --?"

Peter assumed a smile that was only detectably fake if you knew him. "Peter Wiggin," he offered. "I'm Ender's big brother."

He kind of hated introducing himself like that, but it was the quickest route.

"Peter had some business of his own here in the library," Ender sort of lied smoothly, "So we figured we should join forces."

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce," Wes returned, standing up so that he could extend a hand to Peter over one of the walls of books. And if he maybe looked a little bemused as to what sort of other business someone might have in the library that wasn't about this, well. Could you blame him?

"I've a few texts that look, er, passably promising if you'd like to take a look," he offered. "I can't say I'm entirely hopeful at this point, but..."

Sorry, Ender; that was the sort of ~~sleep-deprived fuzzy-brained~~ dewy-eyed logic you got from ~~Shanie~~ Gabrielle.

Who didn't look like she was upset by being corrected, at least. She pressed her lips together in a tight line, thinking. "I'm used to getting the defenseless bystanders to safety, if it comes to that," she offered. (It wasn't that hard. It usually involved yelling "Run! Run!" a lot.) "Or finding ways for them to help."

Though she was thinking in her accustomed terms of a straightforward fight, wasn't she?

"Do you think something like this will come down to a battle, though?"

Faramir's unease had only grown as the board had gotten an increasingly large number of names added to it. Enough that he could not help but wonder if he was in the right place at the moment. He had a sense of foreboding, one that possibly only was augmented by the dreams he had of the great wave swallowing up the island Númenor.

Perhaps he had known his decision for a while, but that morning he had packed his possessions and gathered the library books he had in his possession right now. It was those he was carrying as he entered the library, but they were not the main reason for his being there. "Hullo, Gabrielle."

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Page 1 of 5

Library, Wednesday [11/30]

Mod Your Library [11/30]

Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Research [11/30]

Talk to the Librarian [11/30]

OOC [Library, 11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Mod Your Library [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]

Re: Talk to Gabrielle [11/30]