The Bookbelt, Sunday

[cypher_can_fly]

"Well, it's certainly cheery out there."

Did Owen expect the books to speak back? Of course he didn't. He wasn't an idiot. But some days, when the outside was just that dreary, you had to indulge a bit. Say the ridiculous things. Go with the whimsy.

"Doesn't seem like the sort of place they'd treat a book right in either," he added to the bookcase. "You lot are lucky, you're all safe in here with the fantastic Owen Corley and his dusting... rag..."

He squinted at it.

"...of wonder."

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Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

"What's of wonder??????????????????????" Nina asked, having caught that last bit as she wandered on in from outside. "Owen, hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"My dusting rag! ... Thing!" Owen held it up, waving it at her enthousiastically. "Hello!!"

[bookbeltof_love]

She laughed.

"At least you're in a good mood about it," she teased. "Since I'm not sure from where I'm standing that I see what's wondrous about it????????????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"It removes dust from very desperate, very dirty bookcases," Owen said solemnly. "What's not wondrous about that?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"That fact that, like, we have no idea how dirty these bookcases will be by tomorrow??????????????"

Like, really, they didn't have a clue.

"Though I have, like, no complaints about your industriousness??????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Yes, but now we know that if they are dirty, it won't be my fault," Owen said, pointing at her with the rag.

Also it was better than freaking out about the dome-water-thing outside.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina laughed, again, holding up her hands.

"I concede your logic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won't say another word about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Thank you," Owen said solemnly, bowing his head. "... But now your angelic self is here, I can take a break."

And with that, he tossed the rag onto the counter.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Absolutely," she said, matching his solemnity. "After all, it would be terribly rude to keep working when you could be keeping a lady such as myself company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Can I interest you in a cup of coffee and a sit-down in our wonderful lounge?"

Did Owen take the excuse to make exaggerated welcoming motions? Of course.

[bookbeltof_love]

"I would be delighted, my good sir," she said, dipping him an exaggerated curtsy in return. "Shall I, like, seat myself?????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Of course," Owen said brightly, wandering towards the coffee machine. "What can I get you?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Surprise me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said airily, as she surveyed the seating options and picked the most comfortable one.

[cypher_can_fly]

"I see ma'am likes to live dangerously," Owen said, putting a cup in the machine and poking... several buttons that were meant to do something to milk.

[bookbeltof_love]

"It keeps things from getting boring," Nina said happily, since it was true enough in a lot of ways. "Like, most of this week has been pretty great to me????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"I never did take you for a creepy underwater dome sort of person, but do tell me about it," Owen said, leaning back. Was the machine...? Yes, it was working.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina flicked an imaginary bit of lint off her skirt at him.

"I wouldn't like to stay here for life," she said, making a bit of a face at the very thought. "But, like, it's like when I go exploring places back home???????????? It's really neat and, sure, it can try to kill you, and you have to be careful, but at the end of your explorations, you get to go home?????????????? So, like, this is weird and sad and scary all at once, but it'll be over soon, and that means it's just............. a vacation??????????????????"

And she did like vacations.

"What sort of person do you take me for???????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Someone who likes adventure," Owen said lightly. "I can understand that, wanting a bit of it. But it is all a bit... new."

A beat.

"And creepy. Have I mentioned the creepy? I'm not imagining the creepy, am I?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"It is super creepy," she assured him. "Incredibly, impossibly creepy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, like, tomorrow we'll be somewhere else, so the creepy is almost over?????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Unless tomorrow is a completely different brand of creepy," Owen said practically. "Though I suppose no one has gotten horrifically murdered yet, so we're doing all right."

He fumbled about, trying to make sense of all the tiny containers and the... that was the cocoa powder, wasn't it?

[bookbeltof_love]

"The worst injury I've seen was, like, on Grumpy Bus Driver," Nina mused, tilting her head back. "And that was, like, scythe to the ribs???????????? Or something??????????? But I healed that up for him, so he was fine.............."

Nina shrugged a little.

"I think, like, after so much of the summer that people know if they can or can't handle the creepy of the week??????????????? So the people who go outside are mostly the ones who can handle it????????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Now I don't know what it says about me that I haven't been out there yet," Owen said, bringing the milk-cocoa-powder-and-coffee concoction back to her. "I like a spot of adventure, but scythes... less of a fan."

[bookbeltof_love]

"The most important thing is to, like, avoid the creepy little girls and their guardians," Nina advised, grinning up at him. "Most everything else will still try to kill you, but they're the most dangerous and if you avoid them, they won't come after you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So, really, they were the least dangerous, if you were smart.

"Thank you," she added, sincerely, "for the drink!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"You're welcome," Owen said, sincerely.

He sank into a seat opposite her. "You know what'd be useful in a summer like this? A Javelin. Just marching about, shooting what needs to be shot..."

[bookbeltof_love]

"You know, like, you've mentioned javelins before, but what are they exactly??????????????" she asked, carefully sipping her drink.

It wasn't half bad, really. But then, coffee and chocolate and milk were hard to go wrong with.

[cypher_can_fly]

"They're these massive... suits of armor, I suppose," Owen said. "They can fly, they can shoot, they're piloted by a javelin pilot, they need a handsome cypher like me to tell them where all the punches are coming from..."

[bookbeltof_love]

"And what, exactly, makes handsome cyphers the ones that can pilot them?????????????????" she wondered, smiling at him.

What? He was quite handsome.

[cypher_can_fly]

Owen beamed at her, quite flattered by that, thank you. "Ah, cyphers can't be javelin pilots, that's what they say, at least," he said. "But we can sense a whole load of things that javelin pilots are just too..." He tapped his own forehead. "Dense to grasp."

It was actually proving to be a nuisance with the island jumping around so much, and at least half the reason Owen hadn't gone anywhere was that it was... disorienting... right now.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Some sort of psychic ability?????????????????" Nina asked, looking curious. "Oh no, doesn't that mean you've been having it rough with----------"

All of everything? Out there?

"Like, a lot of students are taking this summer badly due to their abilities................"

[cypher_can_fly]

"It has been a little..." Owen made a vague gesture at his head. "...Disconcerting getting entirely new input every week."

[bookbeltof_love]

"Can you, like, shut out things???????????" she wondered. "Or is that impossible????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Not really," Owen said, expression wry. "12.01 AM sharp, there's the voice in my head informing me that the day's weather has changed rather a bit."

[bookbeltof_love]

"Useful for knowing what to wear, but with this sort of thing............. that, like, sounds like a total pain," she said sympathetically.

[cypher_can_fly]

"I'm used to it," Owen hastened to say. "It's just the Sunday nights? Not fantastic. Avoid calling me on the--" He waved his tiny, cheap little burner phone. "--thing around midnight, perhaps."

[bookbeltof_love]

"I can do that," Nina said earnestly, since she couldn't imagine it being very likely that she'd need to call him or anyone around midnight, really. "Does that thing, like, get email????????????? Did you get my email about the party tomorrow??????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"How stupid am I going to look if I ask you what an e-mail is?" Owen wondered. "...Asking for a friend!"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Not, like, that stupid," she said reassuringly. "Like, my world doesn't have any of this sort of thing either and I got the hang of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Email is, like, letters that are sent to phones and computers instead of by paper through the post office!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Ohhh," Owen said, relaxing. "We have those." Beat. "I mean, we need cyphers to send them from one city to another, but otherwise..."

[bookbeltof_love]

"But otherwise, the same sort of thing?????????????????" she said, smiling. "Shall I take it, though, that you didn't get my invite to the party????????????"

[cypher_can_fly]

"Nope, but I will be there," Owen said, waving his finger. "Fashionably late, of course, but there."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina beamed at him.

"It's at, like, the onsen--which is a hot spring--though that is assuming tomorrow isn't another week like................"

She glanced out the window.

"Like that, really.............."

[cypher_can_fly]

"If I wake up tomorrow morning and I sense large swathes of lava, I promise you, I will not show up to your onsen party," Owen said solemnly.

[bookbeltof_love]

She laughed.

"Please don't," Nina said. "If that's the case, I will totally understand!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[cypher_can_fly]

"But otherwise," Owen said, clapping his hands together, "I would be honoured."

[bookbeltof_love]

"Excellent, excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A totally dashing guy at my party???????? I'm the one who is honoured!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina was definitely happy about it, in any case.