Library, Monday

[intotheout]

Tip was trying to get actual library work done this week, she really was. But every time she focused on it, she kept seeing flashes of something dashing by out of the corner of her eye. She never saw what it was, exactly, and when she asked Bill he just gave her the bubble version of a shrug. It didn't matter if she was at the front desk or in the stacks. She tried just staring vaguely into space for a bit to see if she could track it down, but it only every happened when she was actually working.

"Right," she said. "Either there's a ghost in here who wants me to be a slacker, or I'm losing my mind."

[open!]

Comments

[intotheout]

". . . Jello?"

Yeah, that one was well before Tip's time.

"I mean, like . . . that weirdly resemble people here. I think one of them was a giant ship shaped thing that used a student's body as a lure? And I heard about a big spider with a teacher's face."

[always_someone]

"Oh. Then sorry." Norman shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing like that, I don't think. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered a literal ghost ship."

Norman probably would have turned around and left the island again if any of the boss spirits were here. Fortunately, technically, they didn't even exist yet.

[intotheout]

"Oh thank god," Tip said, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. "That whole thing was nasty. I'd hate for it to still be hanging out where we couldn't see it."

[always_someone]

"Something like that, I probably would have mentioned," Norman replied, looking thoughtful. "Though I guess I haven't gone running around telling people about the jello dragon, so..."

No, no, there would have been freaking out.

[intotheout]

“Now I’m trying to think of other weird things I’ve seen here that might have left spirits behind,” Tip said. “Oh! Have you seen an alot of ghosts yet?”

[always_someone]

Norman paused for a moment to parse that one.

"An alot of ghosts?"

Look, he saw a lot of ghosts on a regular basis. But he didn't know what an alot was, yet.

[intotheout]

"Yeah! You know, the big hairy things that live in the woods and look like a cross between a bear, a yak, and a pug."

Surely he had at least seen a ghost of an alot, if not a full on alot of ghosts.

[always_someone]

"Oh, that's what they're called? Then sure, I've seen those around. I don't go into the woods very often, though."

Norman shrugged. It wasn't that he didn't like the woods. It wasn't even that he'd been traumatized by that one time he'd almost been killed by a screaming poltergeist in them. It was mostly just that he didn't actually have any reason to be there.

[intotheout]

"It's too cold out to go out there right now. But in the summer it can be fun to go on hikes sometimes."

Tip had never been on a hike in her life.

[always_someone]

"Yeah? Do you hike a lot, then, Tip?"

Norman preferred not to. Really, he was not a sporty type.

[intotheout]

"Not . . . historically," Tip said. "But I also never used to know how to use a sword, so maybe next summer that'll be part of my growth as a person."

[always_someone]

Norman laughed. There was no judgment in it, just an easy acknowledgement of understanding.

"I'm a little bit like that, too," he admitted. "I mean, without the awesome sword skills or anything. Back home I'd ride my bike almost everywhere, but there are too many stairs here for that. But if you want to take up hiking once the weather is better, and you ever want company..."

Well, he certainly wasn't going to go hiking alone.

[intotheout]

"I might take you up on that," Tip said. "Or, hey, maybe we can get mountain bikes and go riding instead."

[always_someone]

"Now there's an idea," Norman replied, giving Tip a grin. "And that gives me time to save up, too."

He paused.

"Uh, do you know anyhwere in town that might be hiring students?"

[intotheout]

Tip grinned at that. "Basically everywhere," she said. "Seriously, you can probably ask even if you don't see a sign hanging up. I worked at the post office for awhile after I got here."

Come to think of it, she'd never officially quit that job, had she? She'd just applied to work at the library and then eventually stopped showing up at the post office.

Oops.

[always_someone]

"Wait, that's it? No application forms, no interviews?" He paused. "Do they even care if you don't have any experience?"

Basically you just had to not be a total dick. And even that wasn't a dealbreaker.

[intotheout]

"Not as far as I can tell," Tip said. "I dunno, maybe you'll find the one person in town who wants you to have a bachelor's degree, but I doubt it. What kind of thing do you think you'd like to do?"

[always_someone]

Norman paused for a few seconds, thinking on that. What did he want to do? He didn't think for a moment that 'liaison between the living and the dead' was a viable job option, here.

"Helping people, I guess? Or on the complete other hand, something that doesn't involve dealing with people much at all..."

There wasn't much middle ground between Norman's penchant for helping others and his awkwardness around the living in general.