Fandom Library, Wednesday, February 4th

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden couldn't skip two weeks of work, even though she felt 'bitten by a gremlin' was a really good excuse for missing one, and so she was back behind the circulation desk today. With a book. And determinedly ignoring everything the gremlins did, so long as they were doing it more than five feet away from her. See if the little jerks got any attention from her for awhile.

Comments

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

He'd always felt like he'd actually had it better than the other kids in the Cradle. For a number of reasons, not the least of which, he got mail. He still had people on the outside who cared about him. Not everyone had. Granny Amburgey had asked him and the few others with connections to keep them to themselves, and it had become, though he didn't know this concept, somewhat of a conditioned response to not talk about himself in that way.

Which was partly why he was able to hold onto all that long enough to take another drink.

"To be honest I dunno if I'd have done that if it weren't for whatever is goin' on right now, but thank you. Everyone back home had a horror story of their own and Granny discouraged us from tryin' t' one up each other." Well long enough to at least boil it down.

"You know I wonder if some o' the haints in my world are elves. Now that I think of it Granny Amburgey had a book from the old country about 'The Good Folk' but them stories didn't make 'em sound all that good."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

You could have it better than some and it would still suck.

"There's a difference between trying to one-up one another and just getting something off your chest," Arden said. "I don't get the feeling you're trying to get me to pity you or anything like that, either. You went through something legitimately awful and traumatic, and having the chance to just air it out and let it breathe really helps some time. Like giving a wound some time in the air and light, you know? Sometimes, you wanna talk about it just to talk about it, sometimes you wanna talk about it so the other person knows you've seen some shit, too - different than theirs, sure, but still rough. There's some stuff that people with good, loving families and childhoods just can't get, some stuff you can only tell folks who've been there, you know? And none of that is playing Oppression Olympics, it's just saying, yeah, I've been hurt, it sucks."

She took another sip, this time not because she wanted to stop talking, but because she'd talked so much.

"The Good Folk are usually fae, at least in my world," she added. "Dunno about yours, of course, but in mine, elves and fae are very different. Elves'll shoot you for even suggesting otherwise."

Not that it took much to make a marshmallow shoot somebody anyway.

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

"I should add that t' my readin' list. I know folklore an' fairy tales but I know first hand those don't usually match reality." And then he remembered something else Miss Ellie had explained to him as he'd gotten older. "'N fact if more folk knew the real story behind the Dead Queen my family might not'a run afoul of 'er. What I understand she shouldn't even have been up an' about yet but we homesteaded too close to her burial site an..."

It was anyone's guess as to whether this was the truth affect or just general nerding out/lore dumping but either way the water helped. If nothing else today was going to be good for staying hydrated.

"It's complicated I guess when your dealin' with stuff not everyone actually believes in."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Yeah," Arden said. "Does your world have laws against telling regular folks about magic, too?"

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

"No laws about it, it...well I guess my worldly experience is limited but my understandin' is that most people would dismiss you as tellin' tall tales. Or it's like a dirty secret you ain't supposed t' gossip about. Everyone knows th' local midwife don't just help deliver babies but we don't talk about that with folk who are from 'away'. That sorta thing.

"So you can tell 'em but it don't do no good a lotta the time."

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Gotcha," Arden said, a wry smile tugging at her mouth. "Mine does. Nobody who knows about the Otherside is allowed to tell a human about, not without seriously extenuating circumstances, and even then..."

Oh look! Water!

Re: Talk to the Aide

[not_a_haint]

“Does it have anything’ to do with the witch trials? That was parta our history lessons, like the whole mess in Salem.

“Course Granny said most o’ that didn’t actually have anything’ t’ do with witches.”

Re: Talk to the Aide

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden shook her head. "No, that was purely human nonsense. Othersiders just don't like how we're outnumbered by humanity and, more specifically, humanity's guns. We get by by hiding in plain sight. Well. Most of us. Them. Whatever."