Fandom Library, Wednesday, July 30

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

The last thing Arden remembered before her sudden finching was the library being a complete wreck, so she was very grateful to discover that, at some point in the intervening two weeks, someone or something had cleaned it all up. She couldn't swear that the mess had been the reason for her transformation, but she couldn't completely disregard the possibility, either. Today, however, that seemed unlikely to be a concern either way; the library was spotless. In fact, the circulation desk was practically gleaming in the light.

Hey, wait a minute--

Arden marched over to the desk and examined it closely. Yep, someone had smeared Vaseline on the surface of it. And there were thumbtacks on the chair she normally sat in. And a bucket was perched precariously over the door to Mr. Constantine's office.

Someone had been in the mood for pranks, it appeared.

[ocdless!]

Comments

[napking]

The door to the library opened sloooooowly and Gray peered around it.

When he saw Arden, he opened the door the rest of the way and asked, "Well, now what is Raiden going to do with five kinds of Australian grass seeds?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Five kinds of Australian grass seeds?" Arden repeated, confused. "Why is he trying to grow--oh!"

Confusion gave way to a soft smile at Raiden's thoughtfulness. "Is that a vote for me turning back, then?"

[napking]

"I mean, you can if you want to," and the island let her. "We could go flying! But I hear thumbs are useful."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Yeah, the island's whims were an important factor there. Sadly.

"I don't know if my little songbird wings would be able to keep up with you," Arden said. "But that doesn't mean we can't go flying! I just have to bum a ride."

[napking]

"Bird you was very maneuverable," Gray pointed out. "But yeah! We should totally do that soon!" Falling into the sea if/when Gray fell asleep midflight would be refreshing in this heat.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I hear I won paintball because of how speedy I was," she said.

And also because nobody wanted to be responsible for accidentally killing her, but sure. Totally the speediness in action.

"And yeah! It's been awhile since we cannonballed into the ocean!"

At least two weeks!

"Maybe after brunch this weekend, so you get your necessary intake of waffles and cream?"

[napking]

"Totally! Maybe we can get Ray to come with us." For safety purposes. "Running two restaurants keeps him so busy, he needs to chill sometimes."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Ray absolutely needs a break," Arden said. "He's been prepping for Over Easy to open for months and I think the only thing he's done besides that is patrol in Baltimore and that doesn't count as a break."

[napking]

"It really doesn't," Gray sighed, sounding exhausted by the prospect of patrolling in Baltimore. "But we've gotta do it. So, what was it like being a bird?" the guy with wings asked.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Musical," Arden said. "I did a lot of greeting the mornings with song. And...pretty easy? Maybe it's part of having a brain the size of a hazelnut or whatever, but most of the last few weeks have been pretty blurry. A lot of singing, cuddling Cal's neck, and flying around. That part was great," she said with a happy sigh.

[napking]

"Yeah," Gray said. "Flying is the best." Until you fell asleep and had to peel yourself out of a Gray-shaped crater, or maybe that was just him. "Cuddling Cal's neck, huh?" Gray. She had been a bird.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden coughed a bit and was suddenly very absorbed in looking for more pranked areas of the library.

No reason.

"I was a bird," she reminded him, just like the narrative said.

[napking]

"Yeah, okay, that--that would present a serious obstacle to...anything," Gray allowed. "Forget I said anything."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Now when she'd stopp being a bird, mind...

"Birds and craggy dudes," she teased. "You've got some weird kinks, Gray."

[napking]

"I never said I was into birds! Galen told Raiden about the grass seeds!" And Galen was into birds a normal amount.

You know, if you let the kind of person who traveled to other continents for the purpose of looking at birds measure what was normal.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Okay, but as someone who definitely looked at birds when she was on other continents even if that wasn't the express reason she'd traveled, Arden was willing to say Galen was perfectly reasonable here.

"...How many pictures of me as a bird are on the group chat?"

[napking]

"...a normal amount? For identification purposes!" Which was why they had captions like Aaaaaah look how cute and whatnot.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"And are there more after Galen identified what kind of bird I was?"

She already knew the answer. She also wasn't allowed to say shit, considering she still had a picture of Gray asleep in his waffles as her phone wallpaper.

[napking]

"Well," Gray said slowly, drawing it out. "What if he'd been wrong? We had to keep checking, obviously." He said 'we' like Raiden had been in on any deception and not just posting cute bird pictures like a normal person.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Poor Raiden, who absolutely did not deserve to get tarred with that brush.

"Okay, but making Galen admit to being a birder multiple times is actually worth any number of pictures," Arden decided.

And, again, she was no better than Gray about filling her phone with embarrassing pictures.

[napking]

"I don't know why he's embarrassed," Gray said. "We're all just thrilled he has a hobby besides sharpening his sword." Not dirty.

Seriously, Galen, it was okay to have interests, it didn't make you any less tough or whatever.