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 Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 5:07 pm
Anthony Darrow was having a fairly normal day, considering. He had taken a day off, which was spent mostly sleeping and keeping ice on a sore shoulder, and felt much better now that he was back at work. Granted, he had come in a bit later than he had meant to, but it was just from getting a bit carried away with the sleep he had gotten the day before.
At the moment he was upstairs, in the very large P section on the third floor, shelving a truck of books that had been sitting in the back. No one liked shelving these because they were small, most of this particular section filled with plays, so to fill a cart and then got put them all away took much longer than most of the other sections.
Which was why Tony was doing it, with his infinite patience, and not the student worker downstairs. He had left them at the desk, and if any one needed him they could call him on their phone/walkie talkies.
Humming to himself, an ipod in his pocket, he was in no rush to get everything shelved. He was only using his good arm, the other comfortably tucked away in its sling, but he didn't need both, really.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 5:18 pm
It was not appropriate to follow anybody around, but really, she had a legitimate excuse to be in the area of the library that had Shakespeare. Elke's English course was going over Macbeth, and Elke couldn't find her copy and had a paper due in a week with the outline and thesis due tomorrow and it was just a terrible situation. So, she needed to borrow a copy, and it was a coincidence that Tony was there too!
...She was glad he looked better than when she'd left him outside his house, though.
The recent (rather common) experiences of rescuing Tony Darrow had not exactly exacerbated her shyness as a civilian, and she had been standing at the edge of the aisle for a good five minutes now. She might have stayed right there until he was done shelving books, but--
"Mr. Darrow," she said, her voice lilting, "is that Macbeth?"
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 5:28 pm
Tony looked up when he heard someone call his name, almost missing it under his music. Pulling the ear piece down, he looked and saw a familiar girl standing at the end of the aisle. He smiled, to let hew know he wasn't as startled as he looked.
He remembered seeing her around the library a bit, looking uncomfortable most of the time. Or at least whenever he looked over at her. But she seemed a little less so now, speaking to him.
"Hello there, miss," he said politely, looking down at the book in his hand, "why yes, it is. We had quite a few Shakespeare books downstairs and I thought I'd-ah, you didn't ask. Do you need Macbeth?"
He moved around the cart, which took up some of the aisle, and offered her the book. It was a nice edition, better than some of the paper back versions floating around.
"School?" he asked conversationally. Most students he spoke to did not read Shakespeare for fun.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 5:53 pm
She smiled a little and shifted further into view, resembling nothing so much as a girl who had been caught up after bedtime. With a nod, she walked down the aisle and took the book. "Yes," she said; she felt kind of like a bobblehead doll, with all the bobbing her head was doing. Elke tucked Macbeth against her chest. Her bracelet clicked against the cover of the book, and she looked down at it as if surprised.
"I have to write a paper about symbolism, and memorize things, and I--I lost my copy of the book!" She held the book up rather like a shield, blushing even redder and staring over the cover. "It should be easy but it's not, I have a hard time with Old English, Papa always said it wasn't right that I was so good at all the Romance languages and not so much good at old Romance languages."
She fell quiet, still staring over the red-bound cover of the library's copy of Macbeth.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:01 pm
Tony was all smiles as she took the book, listening to her speak. He usually was a very good listener, and let the patrons tell him whatever they wanted, and reply with interest or at least in a way that they would appreciate. But something caught his eye this time and he found himself distracted.
The bracelet she was wearing was a bit childish, but more than that it was very familiar. A little charm bracelet that he remembered, clearly, buying for the girl who had saved him. Sailor Virgo. He had given it to her the second time they met, when she walked him home.
Shaking his head, he snapped himself out of his daze and regarded the girl. She had finished speaking and was hugging Macbeth to her like it might try to escape.
"Ah, a paper, you said?" he ventured, "do you need any supplementary material? We've lots of books on Shakespeare symbolism."
He glanced at the bracelet, giving in to his impulse. "Where did you get that bracelet?" he asked, trying to look nonchalant about it, "it looks very much like a gift I gave someone, which is strange because I picked the charms on it..."
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:14 pm
"That would be helpful," she said, relaxing a little; he was all the same. No matter who she appeared as, Sailor Virgo or Elke Arma, he was just as nice. Which was hopeful, but not exactly encouraging. She dropped the book a little, but it came right back up when he asked about her bracelet.
She couldn't explain that she was Sailor Virgo, but she couldn't say she'd just magically picked out the exact same charms, or say that a friend gave it to her because that would imply that Sailor Virgo didn't like the bracelet, and she realized she had been probably silent for much too long, her eyes riveted on the floor. "I'm keeping it safe," she said, a little slowly, "for a friend of mine. She does some dangerous things, so she doesn't want it to get broken, and I... I lose things a lot, so it's best if I just--hold on to it."
There was a reason she didn't come up with the alibis, ever. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, looking up at Tony through her bangs.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:18 pm
Tony was generally not a skeptical man, believing things as he was told or at least sorting them out with the help of others, but he did not believe her for a moment. She was stammering and her answer took so long he couldn't help but feel that she had just made it up on the spot.
"Ah," he said, puzzled.
He looked at the cart near him, pretending to look for a book, but he stopped and regarded her one more time, his green eyes fixed on her with a keen light in them.
"Your friend wouldn't happen to be... ahhh... a Virgo, would she?" he asked pointedly, now not looking away because he wanted to see her reaction to the question. If she gave herself away further he would have to talk to her somewhere I little less likely to be overheard in.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:35 pm
She backed up a half-step. "Yes," she said, cautiously, and that wasn't a lie so the stutter faded a little. Her shoulders still hunched up, like she was waiting for Tony to say he didn't believe her. Just in case, she leaned forward onto her toes. "She's a little taller than me because she has brown heels--" Elke was wearing sneakers, worn-out and black "--and her hair is blue with a circlet made of two rings and she wears a green dress? With a brown lace-y sort of underskirt?"
Elke didn't know if she was doing this right. Dr. Baskov had seen right through her like a clean window on a summer day. "She's a senshi." She started to pick nervously at the collar of her overshirt. It was one of Andeon's, white with a crisp collar. Clearly too big for her, too, because the tails of it ended below her shorts.
"I'm telling the truth," she asserted, looking up to thinking that she was definitely, most definitely, going to have to ask Andeon or Mackenzie to teach her how to lie better. It might help. Couldn't hurt, anyway. It was just incredibly, incredibly weird to be claiming she was her own friend. Couldn't she just admit she was Virgo? This wasn't fair!
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:42 pm
Tony tried to keep his thoughts off his face and out of his eyes.
He didn't believe her, not for a moment. She was lying to him, though she was doing her best to hide it. He might have believed her, but he had no reason to. Sure, she could know what her friend wears, but in that detail it was also easy to know what she might wear.
If she were Virgo.
He folded his arms over his chest.
"Forgive me if I sound skeptical... but I don't think that bracelet belongs to your friend. She was very happy to receive it, and if she were to keep it save I would imagine she would put it somewhere, not let someone else wear it." He lowered his voice, looking around, peering through the books to the other shelves on the other side.
"Are you Sailor Virgo?"
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:54 pm
Her hands clenched a little tighter on the book; her relative lack of observance except in cases where she knew the person very well left her clueless and in suspense. She ran her fingernails over the pages of the book, the golden polish flaking a little. The situation made her need for a new manicure rather secondary to the need to get out of this without being called a thief. She pulled on a loose thread, snapping it.
It was somewhat chastening to hear that Tony thought so highly of her senshi self. He didn't think she would give away his gift, which was true--she wouldn't. That was why she hadn't even shown the Princess, and she usually showed the Princess everything, all of her little treasures. But then he asked if she was Virgo, and her mind went blank. For a few long moments, she stared at him with an expression of obvious horror. Then she came back to herself and looked left, then right, then behind her and above.
What if he told someone who was a disguised Negaverser?
She looked to her side again. "I," she squeaked, but couldn't seem to get any words out after that.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:18 pm
Tony watched her and was immediately convinced that she was who he thought, that he was right. He glanced around when she did, then went to her. He knelt down in front of her, more of an impulse than anything he thought to do, and put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.
"You saved my life," he reminded her quietly, extra careful that no one heard them, "you can trust me with your secret. I won't endanger you."
He smiled, then rose. He nodded at the book, changing subjects.
"So, that paper of yours. When is it due? We've good writing tutors here, if you need any help putting something together. Or any more books? That I'm good at." He grinned at her, trying not to look as excited as he felt. It wasn't every day that he stumbled into something like this, after all.
He had a lot more questions for her, but now wasn't the time.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 9:51 pm
"Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever," whispered Elke; she was shaking, full-bodied shaking. Could everyone spot her out like that? If Tony could figure it out, who else could?... She was white as milk, which looked odd under her olive skin. "Pinky promise," she said, holding out one hand with the extended little finger. "Promise you'll never tell."
It went without saying if he did she would die.
After extracting her promise, she exhaled shakily. "It's due next Monday," she said, "and I will do okay with the writing, I think, I am just not so good at, at researching. Libraries are set up very different in France." She looked down at the book she had been pressing to her chest like a lifeline, then up to Tony again. Back to the floor, and she shuffled her feet on the floor. Nobody was supposed to be able to know. Nobody, nobody, nobody---
"If you tell, they'll find me and I'll die." She said it almost silently, her tone intense. "Please."
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 10:00 pm
Tony offered her his pinky when he realized a change in topic wouldn't be enough to put her at ease. He got her hand and then hooked his finger with hers, awkward because he couldn't use his other hand to hold hers stead. He stooped in front of her again, catching her eyes with his glance.
"I promise," he said slowly, definitively, "I will never let anyone hurt you. I won't tell anyone who you are, or that I even know a... soldier... at all. Okay? I'm the very last thing you need to be afraid of."
He smiled and moved to hug her. He saw how badly she was trembling, and he was struck by a paternal instinct to calm her. He gently patted her shoulder with his good hand and pulled back, gentle green eyes watching her passively.
And he felt it was true. He would be more careful about researching senshi happenings, and certainly not talk about anything that happened to him or around him with others. He would protect her with everything he was, because that was just the way he did things.
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:32 am
With the pinky swear, some of the shakes went away. Everyone knew pinky swears could never, ever be broken; it was a fact of life, a True Fact, as one might say. She stiffened, for a moment, when he hugged her. A paranoid voice in her head insisted that he was going for her starseed, that he was going to betray her, but it was just a hug. Even if her head said "what" Elke knew what to do with hugs. That was: return them and, if she could, cling for dear life. That was exactly what she did, too, until Tony pulled away.
"Thank you," she said fervently; the pinky promise and the hug had done much to repair her confidence, so she smiled up at him, still clinging to the copy of Macbeth. This seemed to remind her it was there, and she looked down at it for a long moment and then back up to Tony.
Her voice was a little petulant, like a daughter's might be, when she asked, "Are there really books on Shakespearean symbolism?"
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:17 pm
The librarian, in his element, nodded eagerly. He moved to the shelves, shoving the cart further down the aisle. Looking over the books, he knew he had only just put a book that might be useful on the shelf. It turned out he was remembering one from the next shelf over, and he disappeared to look for it.
"It's over here!" he said, more to himself than to her. He took a couple books from the shelf and came back to where she was, showing her what he brought.
"A lot of people write all kinds of things about Shakespeare. This whole section is full of it. Anything you want to write about, you can probably find someone has written the same thing, only filtered through Shakespeare. It's rather impressive." He grinned, trying not to look too excited. But he loved his job, and couldn't hide that. Finding books for people, even if it was more than they needed? He loved it.
Hopefully these would be useful though.
"Symbolism particularly. These are about Macbeth. Er. Well, this one is," he offered the smaller of the two books to her, "this one is about a couple of the tragedies."
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