Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 11th

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

The library was up to nothing??? weird today??? Arden kept expecting something, but apparently it just...wasn't? No gremlins, no creepy whispers, no books doing anything other than...sitting there, unmoving, the way books were supposed to.

She didn't trust this even a little bit, but it didn't matter how often she tried to surprise check up anything, it just stayed...normal.

This was weird and she didn't like it. She had her eye on you, library.

Comments

Mod Your Library

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Keep an eye out for something. It had to be there, right? Just, like, waiting or lurking or...something?

Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Tell her she was being suspicious for no reason.

(She wouldn't believe you.)

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

Oblivious to the normalness around her, Kamala came into the library in her usual cheerful mood and a box under her arm. “Hey-ey! My mother went overboard again and sent care packages for us,” Kamala called out. “My brother says her empty nest syndrome is kicking into high gear and it looks like we’re all benefiting from it.”

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden whipped her head around, waiting for something to shush Kamala or to show interest in the care package or anything, but...nothing. Just silence.

"This is getting fuckin' creepy," Arden muttered, before offering her bestie a wave and a soft grin. "Hey Kams. Care packages for...all of us?"

Awww, Mrs. Khan.

Wait.

"...Did your dad send anything?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

“I already dumped that out,” Kamala said with a smirk. “Are you sure you don’t want me to say something to him? I think Ammi has been dropping hints but he’s pretty clueless sometimes.”

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Absolutely not," Arden said. "I would rather die. I would rather drink the sweet tea!"

Basically the same thing.

"His feelings would be so hurt!"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

"You're so going to regret that someday," Kamala said putting the box which advertised "Milk Toffee's" on the counter.

Inside she would find some spiced tea, barfi (which tastes better than it sounds) and some gulab jamun. Additionally there was a colorful dupatta. Along with a note:

Arden,

I hope you are doing well on the island! Kamala's texts tell me that everyone is fine and doing well but as usual it lacks the details a mother truly needs to know. Regardless please enjoy some of the treats, they are some of Kamala's favorites. Also her Nani recently send some of her old belongings to us and decided to pass one of them along to you as a small gift. The dupatta belonged to Kamala's Nani Amma which she owned before her family took them to Pakistan during the Partition. We thought it fitting for such a fine young woman such as yourself.

Enjoy the treats & sweet tea!
-Muneeba Khan

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh!" Arden said, pulling out the colorful fabric and holding it up to the light. "Oh, Kams, I can't--surely this can't be for me! There's gotta be some mistake, this is a family heirloom, it's--" Her voice cracked a bit and all her words fell out through it, and she had to concentrate on blinking very rapidly instead.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

"There's no mistake," Kamala said shaking her head but smiling at Arden's reaction. "My Nani has been hoarding this stuff for years and has been shipping it over to my mom a lot recently. Pretty sure my Ammi just wanted to give it to someone who would appreciate it."

Kamala held up her arm and pointed to the bangle she is always wearing. "My whole becoming a superhero came from a box of jewelry my Nani sent two years ago and would have sat in our attic if I hadn't found it. After that Ammi likes to find a good home for these things. I think she sent an old watch of my grandfather's to Cal and some other Dupattas to Lydia and Eleanor."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I don't know if that means she is trying for all of us to become superheroes or if she's just getting things out of the house so you don't find anything else," Arden said with a slightly watery smile. She quickly rubbed at her face, you know, no reason. "But if she sent one to everybody..."

Then Arden felt a lot better about accepting, like she wasn't taking something that shouldn't belong to her.

"I should write her a thank you note," she murmured. "And pictures of you drinking smoothies."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

"Oh no, no pictures," Kamala said shaking her head. "If Abbu sees pictures of me drinking smoothies then he'll want pictures of us drinking sweet tea. That's not happening. But a thank you note will probably send Ammi over the moon. And then I'll get a text about how I should be more like you and blah blah blee."

She reached out to put her hand on Arden's arm. "I'm pretty sure my mom fussed over which person got which item. Trust me, everything she does is a long and thorough process. She probably spent an hour looking for the right scarf for you."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, she's wrong, you shouldn't be more like me," Arden said. "You're strong and brave and fearless in so many ways that I'm not...I wanna be more like you, honestly." She leaned over and gave Kamala a hug. "I'm a suck up to parents for fucked up defense mechanism reasons that you never had to develop and that's good, actually."

She started to drape the dupatta over her shoulders. "Wanna show me how to wear this?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[slothbabyproductions]

It took a moment for Kamala to recover from the hug and the feelings of this moment. She hugged Arden tightly before they pulled back. "Oh, stop it. You're just as brave if not more than me. I don't know if I could ever be as independent as you are. You've shown me I can stand on my own two feet and trust me, that's a great gift."

She immediately started fussing with the draping of it over Arden. "There's over a dozen ways you could wear it," she said trying not to focus on the joy she felt just now. "Really there's not a wrong way as long as you don't trip over it. Over the shoulder, drape it, wear it as a cowl... Really just wear it how you feel comfortable."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[napking]

Unlike Kamala, Gray had not brought gifts, but nor had he brought flash cards, so...yay? "Hey, Arden. How's it going?" Something seemed...off, and Gray looked around the library suspiciously.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Was he also weirded out by how well-behaved the library was? Because that made sense actually.

"Hey Gray," Arden said, watching him watch the library. Finally. Someone who understood. "What's up? Come to dish about who you ended up with at 3MD?"

What else could he be here for?

Even if he was acting a little...squirrely.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[napking]

Actually, yeah, that was probably it. The books were behaving too well. It felt ominous.

"I met your boss," Gray told her. "He seemed nice."

Not helping with the 'acting squirrely' allegations there, Gray.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh?" Arden asked with a reflexive glance at Constantine's office. "Yeah, he's pretty cool, I like him." She watched him some more. "Did he say anything? Like, he's not mad that folks come visit me or anything, right?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[napking]

"He said he'd have to put me on the payroll if I keep it up," Gray reported. "Joke's on him. No work will get done." Or he would put books back in entirely the wrong places. He was an organizational nightmare.

Except when it came to his Converse collection. That was painstakingly organized by year and color.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Gray, the books here wandered around of their own accord. (Usually.) How much worse could you do?

"Yeah, I don't see Sloth seeing a handful of hours at the library as anything but a good reason to nap," Arden agreed. "Though I did bring a blanket and a Squishmallow to stash here in case you fall asleep again. So you'll be comfy." Because that's just what friends did for their friends cursed to be an Avatar of a Deadly Sin! Obviously! "So what's up?"

Also, h-how many Converse did he have? The curious want to know!

Re: Talk to the Aide

[napking]

A whole walk-in closet full! Just...way too many shoes, really.

"Oh, that's so nice of you..." Maybe he would take a nap after this, if Arden wasn't mad at him. "Okay, so, uh...I realized I forgot to tell you something about Krave, because it just seems...normal to me, and I didn't think about how it probably won't seem normal to you." Humans were so uptight about this stuff.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Hey now! She was a Sylph. Her not being human was part of why she was going to Krave at all!

"O...kay...?" she said slowly. "Liiiiiiiiiike...do we have to give blood to enter? Or enter into a magically binding pact to cause no harm? Or....?"

She was never going to guess what he had to tell her.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[napking]

"Oh, no," Gray told her. "None of that. I mean, fighting is against the rules and if you start a fight you'll get kicked out, but I think that's most clubs? Caritas dumps people in the duck pond, I'm pretty sure. But, uh, Krave is also a...sexclub."

What was that, Gray?

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden had actually sharper than human hearing - sound waves through the air -though she'd been trained to try and ignore things she wasn't supposed to hear. But, uh, nope. No chance she could pretend not to have heard that.

"A sexclub?" she yelped, apparently now making sure the whole school could hear him, too.

Talk to the Librarian

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Did Constantine do something? What did you do, Constantine?

OOC

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Being uninspired is its own inspiration!