fandomhigh | Library, Sunday 03/25

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Library, Sunday 03/25

Raven had raided the cooking section of the library shortly after arriving, selecting a couple vegetarian cookbooks to study until Jono arrived. With the exception of deadly cookies, she'd never made anything more complicated than a salad, so she wanted to get a feel for what cooking would entail. It didn't seem too complicated -- lots of measuring and stirring.

Deciding what she was going to do after graduation, however, that was an entirely different matter.

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Raven nodded. "It might be an interesting way to pass the year, at least," she said. "And it would be useful, I think, to know about such things, for any time that I do spend on Earth."

Still, the thought of leaving Fandom and facing the outside world was making her heart race.

"What sort of information is required to attend one of these schools?" she asked, trying to distract herself from that fear. "I know Fandom High will provide a transcript for the time I was here, but before that I have nothing."

Like, say, a social security number.

"Nothing that can't be thrown together if you pull strings with the proper people," Jono replied helpfully, shrugging his shoulders. "You wouldn't have any paper trails in any of these realities in the first place. That's where we need to get creative."

Jono had worked for Weapon X. He knew a few of the big ins and outs of government record-keeping. He was fairly confident that he could manage something.

That was where dubious morals came in useful, and he didn't have to tell Raven that he was putting said dubious morals to good use, here.

It was for a good cause! It wasn't as if she'd be using them to cause any harm to anyone, except perhaps breaking the brains of a teacher or two if she asked a strange question in class.

"I think if I choose this path, your assistance will be invaluable to me," Raven said, giving him an affectionate glance. "Thank you again for offering to help me."

She picked up the anthropology course listing from ~~her player's school just because~~ one of the piles and glanced over it. "'Human, Animals, and Cyborgs'? 'Angels, Ghosts, and Hustlers'? These seem like very strange titles."

So help him, Jono was leaning forward with a raised eyebrow to have a better look for himself.

"Strange... but educational?" Well, that was the hope, anyhow. "How do hustlers have anything to do with angels and ghosts, dare I ask?"

"I do not know, but it seems to be about a place called Bangkok," Raven said, looking over the description. "Oh, and look, there is a Folklore and Mythology section. Some of those look intriguing."

Jon took a moment to look over the courses offered under the folklore section, pursing his lips a little as he went along, and then, so help him, turning a smile in her direction.

"So help me, reading this almost makes me want to apply," he admitted, wryly. "It is all rather fascinating, isn't it?"

Could anyone blame him?

"If I did decide to go to college, and took these courses or ones like them, I could share the materials with you," Raven offered, leaning toward him to brush her shoulder against his. "I do love to learn, and some of these topics look very interesting."

And it wasn't like she'd be there long enough to get a degree, so she could take whatever she liked just because it appealed to her, right?

Why not? So long as the schools were getting money, and she wasn't failing miserably, what harm was there in letting her go through, taking advantage of some sort of open studies program?

Jono was actually a little envious. But he had to admit, the prospect of her sharing did sound appealing.

"Is university still looking so impossible now, Sunshine?"

"I must admit the classes seem as if they would be quite enjoyable," Raven said. And less traumatizing than some of the Fandom classes she'd taken over the years as well.

"But the thought of being alone in a strange world is somewhat terrifying," she went on. "There would be dorms like here, would there not? But larger?"

"Most likely," Jono agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "But the people there wouldn't be strangers for long. And you can teleport, and there are portals. And I made a point to find schools that weren't going to be so ridiculously temporally askew that you'd lose years for each month that goes by."

Because he had a bit of affection for realities that functioned in realtime by Fandom's standards, these days.

"I'm certain I wouldn't be the only one to pay you a visit now and then, to make certain you're settling in well."

He'd just have to wear taller collars and maybe some make-up. Or... something.

"That was very thoughtful of you, thank you," Raven said, picking up another course calender to look over. "I know I must seem foolish for being so nervous, but aside from Azarath and Fandom, I have only spent a handful of days in other worlds." And most of them had been fraught with dangers. His, for instance. Sookie's Louisiana. Kaeleer. She didn't have a good track record for peaceful places she could get by on her own.

She glanced sideways at him, almost shyly. "It would mean a great deal to me if you would come visit," she said. She'd long hoped to spend a good chunk of the year between her graduation and Karla's with him, but that had been before everything had changed. Visits would mean the world to her.

"Well, then visits, you'll have," he promised, and those words were accompanied by a little smile. It wasn't much, but it was sincere.

That was sort of a big deal, these days.

"And... phone calls. You can call me any time you need to, you know."

Which was also a bit of a big deal, at least for him.

"Or just any time you want somebody to talk to."

"I know," Raven said.

She set the papers down and shifted a little in her seat so she was facing him. "I just always worry about being a pest," she said, cheeks pinking just a touch.

So help him, she was still adorable when she blushed.

"Better a pest than a stranger, don't you think?"

"Now that I most definitely do not ever wish to be," she said, smiling as she ducked her head.

When she lifted her gaze a moment later, her eyes had turned more serious. "There is something I wish to say to you," she said softly. The thought of strangers had called it to her mind. "I want to apologize."

"... To apologize?"

That seemed sort of... unexpected, mostly. Jono blinked, looking at her with a bit of uncertainty about him, clear in his features.

He was apparently not terribly used to being apologized to.

She reached for his hand, slowly, to give him the choice of letting her take it. "I have been trying so hard to be what I thought others wanted me to be, or what I thought I needed to be, that I forgot to be myself," she said. "And I am so sorry for that. That is what I meant the other night when I spoke of trying to sort things out, and being more settled now."

Jono watched her hand inch forward, and was well aware that he had the option, in that moment, to pull his hand away. And briefly, he even considered doing so.

He let his hand remain where it was. He let her take it.

"That's hardly something you need to be apologizing to me, of all people, about luv..."

When it came to losing track of just being oneself, Jonothon seemed to be doing it like a champ.

"Yes, I do," Raven said, squeezing his hand. "I have been awkward and confusing and unfair, I think. And I hope that you will be able to forgive me for that."

She gave him a soft smile. "But that is all behind me now, I hope."

"Well, then..." Jonothon was watching their hands now, hers so small and pale against his own. "Of course I forgive you. Everybody... Everybody loses themselves a little at one point or another, I think."

Some of them were even lucky enough to get themselves back again, after.

"But there is always a way back, especially when there are friends around you to help you find the way," Raven said softly, sending a soft, warm pulse of comfort to him.

"It makes me especially glad to spend time with you today. I have missed it."

It was that always that tripped Jonothon up, even while he closed his eyes and breathed in the comfort that she was sending him. Idealistically, he wanted to believe it. He wanted to latch on to that statement and take it as a given.

Realistically, he simply nodded, resigned to silently disagree, because real life just didn't work that way. Not without fail. Not always.

"I've missed it, too," he said, instead. "I can only get so much company out of Joni, really."

Teasing, see? He was teasing. That was probably a good sign, maybe. For certain. Ish.

Raven was too idealistic for her own good sometimes. But she wouldn't be Raven if she wasn't, despite the trouble it got her into sometimes.

She could sense his disbelief, but she wasn't going to push it. "I have missed Joni as well," she said instead. She glanced down to her bag under the desk. "I have a present for her, if we go to your apartment to watch a movie and not the theater. Do you know what is playing so that we might decide what we are going to do?"

"I haven't a clue," Jono admitted, looking a little sheepish as he said so. "I got so wrapped up in striking the sets yesterday, and then finding the course calendars, I just... figured that perhaps we could find something back at the apartment, after all."

Spoiler: Almost all of his movies were horror films. But there looked to be a few good things on the television tonight, and he never really minded having to wait through commercial breaks.

"I did not think to check before now either," Raven said. "But something at your apartment would be fine. Perhaps next time I will think to put some DVDs in my bag just in case."

One day, Jono. One day, there would be Xanadu. Resistance was futile.

Library, Sunday 03/25

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