Fandom Library, Wednesday, September 3rd

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

It was still technically summer, so Arden was really confused by the creepy snow monster that had tried to attack her on the way to school today. She'd been alone, so she'd grabbed as many chords of magic as she could and shoved them at the monster - which had poofed into bitty snowflakes.

Which, in retrospect, might have been overkill. Especially since she was immediately hit by the exhaustion that came from using up most of her energy at once. She managed to drag herself the rest of the way to the library, but now was doing her best not to pass out at the counter.

She also wasn't moving from this chair, because if she did, she was pretty sure she'd end up falling over flat.

Comments

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Wait. Why would the girl who warned you about wandering books disbelieve in the supernatural?

"Here is Fandom Island, off the coast of Baltimore, Maryland," Arden said. "It's also September 3rd, 2025, in case you need to calibrate yourself. You're on a dimensional nexus, which means you might talk to people from many different worlds and times." She eyed him. "So...you didn't show up on a shuttle? Or arrive over the weekend?"

That would mean he was probably an adult normally...who was British amongst the faculty? Wait, was this Professor Sims? Huh.

"What kind of book are you looking for, sir?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Look, people rationalized all sorts of things beyond what was reasonable! *cough*

"What are you talking about?" None of what she had said made any kind of sense. It sounded more science fiction than supernatural. "Dimensional what? How...I was in Oxford yesterday!"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"And today you're here," Arden said calmly. "Don't worry, you'll probably be back in Oxford by Monday morning at the latest. And since you already traveled through time to get here, it's likely you won't miss any time at Oxford. Consider it a self-contained loop slightly to the left of your normal dimension."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"What do you mean time travel?" He'd sort of skimmed over the second "2" in that date earlier. "This is insane!" He clutched his hair in lieu of having anything else to hold on to.

He wasn't denying anything, mind, but it was mental.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Not at all," Arden said. "Beyond the pale, sure, but hardly insane. Just expand your definitions of what's possible."

Imagine if she'd tried explaining that, actually, he was a temporarily de-aged version of himself who lived on the island full-time!

"You've briefly been transported to Fandom Island in 2025. In no more than a few days, you'll be transported back to your normal life and will be able to keep going as normal."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Normal." Jon laughed shakily. "Normal sounds wonderful about now." Not that he was ever terribly normal, but a lack of...all this...would be an improvement.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"From your lips to the goddess's ears," Arden drawled. "But normal is in pretty short supply around here."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I can handle oddities, as long as they're not trying to kill me!" Jon protested.

He very much could not. In his defense, there were Oxford-level oddities, and then there were Fandom-level oddities.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden couldn't mask her disbelief, but she did try to make it at least polite."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

See, and this was how politeness was useful, because Jon felt free to just ignore that!

Or he didn't notice. Take your pick.