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 Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:57 pm
"It's not working..." Lorelei shook the leather-bound book a few more times before setting it down on the table.
"No squids, no pixie dust, no nothing... how can I immerse myself in the world of books if they don't do anything like this? Father must've played one of his mean tricks on me again..." she crossed her arms and sat down at the wooden table, her eyebrows furrowed.
"I'm a teenager now, I shouldn't believe in silly things like walking into books or magic or... ohhh..." Lorelei was once again distracted by a speck of dust that floated in the air. Some things never changed. It darted to and fro throughout the air before it finally landed on a still-open book.
Lorelei's gaze followed the speck, and she read the word that it landed on.
"Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye..."
The language was different, as Lorelei never was a reader, and yet somehow she could understand this character that she started to read about.
"Huh..." she flipped the cover over and scanned the title.
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Lewis Stevenson, eh?"
Lorelei continued to read the book, soon turning the pages more and more quickly as she was sucked in.
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:35 pm
Back to the library with more books to return. Honestly, it was becoming a habit these days. Go to mansion, borrow/return books, go home. Stay home. Read. Rinse, lather, and repeat. Occasionally Flitch would run into a Sin'aeis here in the mansion, but those days seemed to be increasingly rare.
Imagine his surprise, then, when today's visit turned up another Sin'aeis in the library. A green-haired girl, who seemed vaguely familiar, though Flitch couldn't exactly recall who she was. He'd probably met her before, but long before he could properly remember names and faces. That seemed to be happening a lot as of late.
She seemed to be intent on reading, so initially Flitch decided to leave her be. However, after a moment of consideration he overrode that thought, and instead approached the table. Besides, he was curious as to what she was reading.
"Hi," he offered simply, with a small smile.
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:15 pm
Lorlei snapped her head up and closed the book, blinking a few times. She didn't expect to get sucked into the book like that, and it was even more surprising when someone came in.
"Oh, hi!" she sat the book aside, nudging it away with her pinky, "Flitch, right? It's been a long time since I saw you... dunno if you remember the Hell Hot Springs or not."
Lorelei shrugged her shoulders and pushed a few strands of hair behind her face.
"My name's Lorelei, if you can't recall."
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:28 pm
"Mmhmm." He nodded at his name, but shook his head at the mention of the Hell Hot Springs. It sounded amusing though, whatever it was. Ah, he should start writing these things down! Otherwise it'd probably all just be forgotten.
Lorelei, right. He repeated the name silently to himself a few times, before sliding into another seat at the table, setting the books he had brought back with him upon the wood surface. There. Task done. Might as well talk a little while. She seemed friendly enough, even though he'd interrupted her reading.
"Reading anything good?" he asked, curious as to the book she had been absorbed in when he had entered. If it was something he'd read, it may be a good, uh, conversation source. It wasn't like he knew anything else about Lorelei, anyways (at least, not within memory). Nor was he terribly god at these sorts of things, he'd recently realized.
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:59 pm
"Yeah," Lorelei looked at the book that she had nudged away for a moment before slowly sliding it across the table to Flitch.
"I didn't mean to get sucked into it the way I did..." she smiled, "But the language was interesting. I hadn't read anything before like that."
Lorelei looked away, her eyes following dust specks, "It's about this guy named Dr. Jekyll. He's nice, but isn't the nicest guy ever. Anyway, I haven't gotten very far, but there's also this lawyer named Utterson and..."
Lorelei's eyes snapped forward as she leaned her chin on her hand, "Sorry, I started rambling. It's called The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:59 pm
"Oh! I read that before, when I was a kid." Flitch smiled, glad it was a book he knew. "I used to love Robert Louis Stevenson's stuff when I was younger. Me and my brothers used to play out scenes from Treasure Island all the time."
Ah, those days were fun. Of course, Flitch had had to explain everything to his littler brothers. Still. Oh, right. Lorelei. He shouldn't drift off while in conversation.
"Sorry," he offered sheepishly. "Anyways, how far into it are you?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:59 pm
"That must've been fun. I don't know much about Treasure Island... except that my mom and I saw Treasure Planet once. It's only loosely based on the book, though..." Lorelei smiled and opened the book once more, thumbing through the pages.
"I'm about three chapters in," she continued, "There's a lot of issues going on right now about Dr. Jekyll's will. I feel bad for him, but I can't help but think that he got into his own mess..."
Lorelei looked up at Flitch, "Um... I think I'll check it out, unless you wanted to re-read it."
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:47 pm
There was a movie on it? Interesting. Of course, being unaware of it was no surprise. Flitch had never been much for films and television.
"You take it," he said with a dismissive wave. "I have a copy at home already." He nodded. "Mmhmm. He seems to be one who tends to do that."
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:57 pm
Lorelei took the tome and held it to her chest, inhaling the musty scent that was common for old books.
"I really like the character of Utterson, though. He seems smart, when the rest of the book is filled with crazy people."
Lorelei adjusted her seat, letting some of the folds of her stola fall against the wooden floors.
"So, this book was written by Robert Louis Stevenson? Maybe I should look up his other books, though I wasn't really one for pirates..."
Looking ashamed for a moment, she whispered, "I'd like to read more... but I'm not very good at it, to be honest. I've spent most of my life reading paperback romance novels you'd find on the shelves of grocery stores, and cookbooks of course."
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:59 pm
Flitch laughed, an amused quiet laugh. "At least it's reading," he pointed out. "Everyone starts somewhere, right? Besides, there's always plenty of books here. I keep borrowing them, and I've never had an issue."
Well, none so far. The book-borrowing routine from the mansion was still a fairly new one. Still... there were certainly plenty enough books around.
"But you can cook?" this intrigued him. "That's neat. I'm a horrid cook. Tried once, burnt everything."
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:06 pm
"Yeah, I can cook," Lorelei blushed, "I actually went to Greece to learn cooking... for about a week. It was terrible. They told me to beat the eggs like they were my lovers or something."
She looked away, hugging the book closer, "I-If I had a lover... I mean... I don't think I'd beat them..." Her eyes darted back to Flitch for a moment, she felt akward talking about something like this with a boy. A teenage boy. A CUTE teenage boy.
She was distracted for a moment by another floating dust speck. Oh, that one had a tinge of purple to it...
"Oh!" Lorelei straightened up, shaking her head, "Sorry, I mean..."
She tilted her head upwards and leaned forward to look at him more closely, "I mean... would YOU beat someone like they were eggs...?"
She didn't notice that her boobs were glowing. ... Oh, wait, that was the book! The BOOK was glowing!
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:59 pm
...Of course Flitch didn't get that Lore was probably flirting with him. Of course not. this was the kid who had managed to mistranslate a girl directly admitting she had a crush on him at one point.
"Uh-uh," he replied with a swift shake of the head. "Why would I want to beat anyone in the first place? I mean... what the-?"
Why was Lore's chest glowing? Chests and books weren't supposed to glow... This couldn't be good.
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:11 pm
Lorelei's face reddened further when she saw the direction that Flitch's eyes were taking. She hadn't thought that he was that kind of boy... curiously she followed his eyes down to her chest, and when she saw the glowing book she dropped it in surprise.
The book flipped open and started to glow more, glittering like Jem and the Holograms had just performed.
The light became so bright that it bleached Lorelei's eyes, and she covered them to stop herself from being blinded.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in London.
Dingy, dark, dangerous literary London.
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:20 pm
Flitch let out a surprised gasp as the glowing book was dropped and flipped open, bursting into a light so bright that Flitch's eyes watered just to squint at the magic source. He squeezed them shut, one hand reaching up as if to wipe the painful brightness away.
Eventually the glowing dimmed, making Flitch's eyes once again flick open, though spots danced dizzyingly in his vision. Wiping them away, he gave his eyes time to adjust, paling upon recognizing just where they were.
A disbelieving sigh. "This has to be a sick joke. Or a dream."
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:25 pm
Lorelei moved a little closer to the shorter Sin, her eyes narrowing.
"This street... I didn't get too far in, but..."
Lorelei plucked off Flitch's glasses and put them on her nose for effect.
"This looks like the London right out of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!" Lorelei paused for even more effect before putting Flitch's glasses back on the fish Sin.
"It's like some movie that I saw once..." Lorelei looked around, "Only this time I have a feeling there won't be friendly talking books or a glowing EXIT sign..."
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