fandomtownies | The Perk, Monday

Hungry for a muffin and some coffee, Belthazor wandered into the Perk. He spied Angela sitting near the window, clearly in a bad mood. She looked off, like finals had aged her. He kept his distance, but sat close enough to eavesdrop if she was waiting for someone. He was curious to see what was causing her bad mood.

Alanna glanced over at Bel and Angela at the Perk, and vaguely nodded to Bel. Then she did a double take. "Angela?"

Bel nodded at Alanna, and was about to thank her for her gift when he saw her reaction to Angela. Curious, he waited to see the response.

Angela vaguely recognizes the young redhead, though the man with dark hair spurs nothign at all in her memory.

She squints, trying to dredge up a name. "Alicia?"

Alanna raised a brow and walked over. "Alanna actually. Um, you are Angela Chase, right?"

"More or less," Angela says tiredly. "I mean, I am, but I'm not who you think I am. And hello, Alanna."

She quickly explains what had happened; her departure from Fandom ten years and change earlier, then finding herself abruptly back in the middle of Special Collections and beiong taken by Rover to the middle of town. "And now, nobody can figure out how to get me home or the other Angela back," she finishes, a little sadly.

Alanna sat listening, absentmindedly petting Faithful. "Only in Fandom. What have you tried already?"

"Nothing, really," Angela admits. "I mean, I've asked everyone in Fandom, but nobody really knows. I'm supposed to try to find some doctor who knows about time travel. Oh, and I thought about just walking off the island and hitching a ride home, but I can't even *call* the people I know, so I'm thinking they won't be there if I try that."

"Do you have an idea?"

"Or you might walk off and stop existing." Alanna pointed out. "Hm, well, maybe switch you two? I know a spell for simple switching, in theory it should work for people too. Since you're kind of the same person there won't be much to switch, right?"

Switching? Bel stares at his coffee but pays very close attention to the conversation.

"That's also a possibility. And I kind of like existing, even here," Angela says.

She takes a deep breath, noticing the man with dark hair seems to be very interested in them, and lowers her voice. "Magic is kind of weird for me. Is there any risk the spell could go wrong, and I'd be switched with a banana or a dust bunny, or something?"

"Existing is good." Alanna began running through various idea in her head, not noticing Bel. And faithful Faithful had decided to take a nap. "Spells can always go wrong, but um, not in the way that you mean. The possibilities I can think of right now is that nothing happens, or I switch you with someone else." She shrugged. "I'm macking no promises, just that I can try."

"Nothing happening is fine," Angela says. "Being switched with someone else would not be good. At least I'm me and just in the wrong place, as things are."

"But we should try anyhow," she says, resigned. "I haven't heard any better ideas, and at least this way I'll feel like I'm doing something. I've been here five days, and as far as I know there are no other ideas."

"Can you do it here, or do we need to go someplace where you have supplies? The white ball Rover thing won't let me on campus."

Alanna nodded, running through a list in her head. "I'd like to check a few things, luckily I grabbed the book with me on my trip home." She made a face at that memory. "Um, let's see. Meet me tomorrow in the park?"

"Sounds good," Angela says, relief flooding her face. "I'll look for you there."

"And thanks for trying, even if it doesn't work."

"I'll remind you of that when you're a toad." Alanna said with a laugh.

Angela rolls her eyes elaborately. "I hope I don't end up a toad," she says. "But, hey. It would be a change."

"See you tomorrow."

Marty walks into the perk with a package under his arm. He waves at Angela and sits down at a table while he waits for Janet to arrive.

Angela looks up and manages a wave in Marty's direction. "Any closer to getting me home?" she asks hopefully.

"Maybe," he says with a sigh. "I'm currently working on a plan and I'll be spending tomorrow... researching."

Janet walked into the Perk, entirely too early, and ordered a strong black coffee. No mocha today; there was too much to do and she needed the caffeine.

Marty gave a guilty smile and pushed the package towards Janet.

"Um... first I wanted to apologize to you for what happened the other day. Maybe this might make up for it."

[OOC: Remember the slippers Marty had Lockheed torch? It's the same replacements]

"Thanks," said Janet, unwrapping the package. "I hadn't had a chance to replace these yet." She glanced up at him. "And I appreciate the apology."

Marty nodded. "I was completely out of line. I was upset about Angela. I got frustrated and I took it out on you. I'm just trying to figure out a way to get her back to normal."

Marty looked down at his cup of coffee.

"If I can't get her back..."

He shook his head indicating he didn't want to think about it.

"Thank you," said Janet. She took a long drink from her coffee. "Marty, you'll get her back. Did you talk to Rover about the security feed yet? If you need to, I can have Dr. Pierson contact Rover to vouch for you."

"I called and left Rover a message. He didn't bother to respond, So I guess that's a 'No' on getting access to the video feeds," Marty said bitterly. He sipped his coffee. "Not that we don't know what happened. We just need to figure out what books she was handling and what locations she was in and go from there."

"I have the list of books she was shelving," said Janet. "Odds are it was one of those. They were all on time travel, so hopefully she stayed in that section." She pulled a printed list out of her backpack and held it out for Marty. "I also pulled the books and stacked them on a table in Special Collections near the time travel books. I'll leave a message for Dr. Pierson that you may need him to lend a hand."

Marty took the list and studied it. "Thanks Janet. Though I'm doubting it was the books she was putting away because Parker told me that Angela wasn't wearing gloves at the time."

Marty looked up from the list with a frown on his face. "So I'm betting that the book that did this to her? Was one of the books around where it was put away. It's probably just a matter of figuring out which."

Marty gave Janet a grateful look. "I really appreciate your help on this Janet. Hopefully we can figure out what happened. I'm assuming Dr. Pierson is keeping the Library closed until the new term starts?"

Janet frowned. "She wasn't wearing her gloves? That explains this. I've been trying to figure out what caused the switch."

"We have a new librarian," said Janet. "But Dr. Pierson was in charge when this happened to Angela--and, well, the new librarian is an orangutan. I figured that Dr. Pierson would be able to intercede with the Librarian."

"Yes, that's his name too."

"Orangutan?" Marty asked with a confused look, then shook his head. "This place gets stranger by the minute."

Marty looked over the list and took note of the dewey decimal numbers and memorized them.

"Thanks Janet."

"Research. That sounds ... promising," Angela says, realizing as she speaks that she sounds like her mother. "Um, good luck with that."

"How was your Christmas?"

"We'll see how it goes tomorrow," Marty replied. "As for my Christmas? Pretty quiet. Spent most of the day going over possible ways to fix your problem and watching my chicken knit socks."

"Your chicken knits?" Angela repeats. Then: "Right. Muppet chicken. Moving on."

"Thanks for working on this, though. I'm sorry you didn't get to spend the day with your Angela."

Marty nods. "I'm sorry you couldn't spend the day with... James? Right?"

Marty sips his coffee and stretches. "I don't think any of us had the Christmas we were expecting," he says somewhat sadly.

"I was supposed to get my engagement ring for Christmas," Angela says, looking deeply disappointed. "I guess it'll be a New Years' present, now. If, you know, he still wants to marry me, and everything."

"So no. Not the day I expected. I ended up spending it in bed with a lot of rum."

Marty smiles a litte. "Spent most of Christmas Eve drinking something one of those space people brought back from Paprika or whatever planet they are from. Don't know what it was, but it left a nasty hangover in the morning."

"Don't worry about your fiance. I'm sure he'll understand- uh... Well maybe you should think of an explanation."

"I'm thinking runaway bride," Angela says, completely straight-faced. "I got scared about committing and took a little vacation. I mean, unless younger me is there, in which case god knows what she told them."

"Your younger self probably covered for you pretty well. She got pretty used to the weird stuff around here," Marty said trying not to think of how weird it was he was having this conversation without dropping acid.

Looking up he saw Janet enter the room.

"Listen I need to talk with Janet about the uh... research project. If I learn anything, I'll let you know."

"I hope she did," Angela says. "Wish I could get home and find out."

She waves to Janet and Marty as she leaves the Perk.

The Perk, Monday

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