This really IS heaven, isn't it?

[owingnobody]

Who: Nobody Owens
What: A discovery
Where: THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH!
When: Tuesday
Why: Because his boyfriend babysitter/keeper can't always be responsible for the little tyke
Status: Open!!!! (but quiet. Shhh)

Comments

[a_hat_trick]

This place was really starting to screw with Connor's head. And for someone who had truly believed in the Yeti and chupacabra and the like even before he starting working with time anomalies and prehistoric creatures, that was saying something. But since living there, he'd basically had his body snatched, met a real live dragon, and now people didn't know who they were. When Lulu, the most reliable source in town, had forgotten Aternaville? No one was safe. Not to mention his girlfriend suddenly snapping into a terrified world he couldn't even begin to enter.

All in all, it called for some stress relief. He couldn't concentrate well enough to do any programming and gaming just reminded him of Kimberly. So Connor did the third thing that Connor did best; Connor studied. Learning was a surefire way to get his head back together enough to deal with the hand he'd just been dealt.

Though the Aternaville library couldn't possibly compete with the ones in London, it had several volumes on subjects he didn't know much about but wanted to know more. He pulled out, Storms of My Grandchildren, which was probably the opposite of a cheerful read, but interesting nonetheless, and searched out a seat. A young boy sat nearby, reminding Connor a lot of himself at that age, pouring through one book of many. And as much as he hated to interrupt, Connor recognized the book the kid was reading and, being his chatty self, had to comment. "I love that one," he mentioned casually. "What part are you at?"

[owingnobody]

"That's what Bilbo Baggins hates! So carefully, carefully, with the plates!" he said, reading the last two lines of the dwarves' song before looking up, his eyes shining in his otherwise solemn little face. "Though it probably wasn't very nice of Mr. Gandalf to send so many people to Mr. Bilbo's house. He's very lucky that they're so congenial." It made him wonder if maybe he should do a little more to help around Mr. Perry's house, since he was being nice enough to let him stay there.

"You liked this one, then?" he said. "Did you read Mr. Tolkien's other books?" He gestured to the stack; Fellowship of the Ring was among the other titles there. "Are they just as good? I'm afraid I don't know-- I sort of just picked up whatever sounded interesting."

[a_hat_trick]

Did he like them? Oh, that was like opening a can of worms. Or something far more delightful than worms. Connor's face lit up with a smile, listening to the boy read aloud. A part of him missed being that age, just able to open the book and get lost in it and not care. But he could tell there was something more behind those eyes, and he didn't judge. Connor knew better by then.

"Absolutely," Connor agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "Tolkien was brilliant, really brilliant. A whole world to get lost in. That one's a little different from all of the others there. Those three all go together, one great big adventure with a hobbit named Frodo and his friends. But Mr. Gandalf is back and I think you'll like him exceptionally well in those." Come to think of it, Connor was pretty sure most people had told him he was too young to appreciate the series when he'd first picked it up, but he'd loved it and it was still a favorite of his. Why underestimate the boy who was so clearly loving the world he was buried in now? "I'm Connor, and you've probably been told not to talk to strangers but don't worry too much, there's plenty of grown-ups around."

[owingnobody]

Bod blinked at him, a little surprised by his candor. ...not to talk to strangers? "It's funny," he said thoughtfully. "That's what Scarlett said-- her mother told her not to talk to strangers. And I said I was a stranger, and she said that I wasn't, that I was her friend." He frowned. "How do people meet and become friends, if they never talk to strangers?

"I think I know what they mean," he continued. "Strange people could be dangerous." Boy, did he ever know that. "But you don't seem like a dangerous person to me. You haven't asked me to go anywhere with you," which was GOOD because he wasn't about to go quietly, even if this was the Library! "...and you like books," he finished. "And you're Connor. And I'm Bod. So we're not strangers anymore, are we?"

[a_hat_trick]

Connor grinned brightly. Oh, he could get used to this guy. Smart kid, really, reminded him a little of himself. Something about lacking social grace maybe? "You're absolutely right. Sometimes you have to talk to strangers. Otherwise, they'll always be strangers and you won't have any friends at all."

"You have to trust your instincts sometimes, Bod" Connor agreed. "And definitely not going anywhere with a person you don't know well." The boy was kind of engaging, and Connor definitely needed that just then. It was helping him keep his mind off of things. "How long have you lived here?"

[owingnobody]

"Um..." he counted backwards. "Two days." He bit his lip. "I'm not sure how long I lived here before that. A while, I think. Well, not me. Other me. There was another Bod who lived here before, did you know that?" He tilted his head. "...maybe you didn't know him.

"I like it here," he said. "I mean, I miss home, but... look at this place!" he gestured around himself at the library. "I would never get to go to a place like this where I come from." Or meet new people. Living people. It was amazing!

[a_hat_trick]

Wait a minute. Bod. The bloke who was seeing the bloke who'd thought he was Claudio from the Shakespeare play. But that was impossible. Wasn't it? But then, Bod, this little Bod, had said that there'd been another Bod. "No," he said quietly. "I knew him. Well, a little at least. He's a friend of my girlfriend's." And now he was gone? Or...was this him? Two days definitely would've made it about the same time that people kept cropping up with strange things happening to them. Maybe that's what had happened to this Bod.

"You like books that much, do you?" Connor asked with a smile. "Where is it you're from? If you think this is brilliant, you should see the library back where I'm from, in London. It's got ten times this many books!"

[owingnobody]

"I..." he frowned. "I don't know the name of the place where I'm from. The... city, I mean. Mr. Perry showed it to me on a map, but I don't know what it's called, just that it's far away. Across the ocean, far away. I've never even seen the ocean, have you?" He shook his head. "I wasn't really allowed to go anywhere, not even the library. There must have been one in the town, but I had to stay at home, because it was dangerous to go outside..." He looked down at the book in his hands. "Really dangerous," he said quietly.

"But yes! I like books," Bod said, looking up again. "I think I have read every one that I could get my hands on, twice. You have a girlfriend? Is she pretty?" He wondered if "Other Bod" had a girlfriend. It didn't seem like the kind of question to ask Mr. Perry.

[a_hat_trick]

Across the ocean? Well, that Connor could work with. "I'm from all the way across the ocean, too," Connor said with a sympathetic smile. Poor kid. Mr. Perry? Was that the partner? Oh, boy. If and when--no, preferably when, because Connor couldn't stand the idea of Kimberly living in fear the rest of her life and Lulu never remembering them--Bod returned to himself, he'd have to ask. It was an interesting story to hear, he was sure.

"Oh, she's very pretty," Connor agreed, a small smile on his face. Pretty, but currently a little nuts. "Some people thing girls don't like guys who love to read, but you'd be surprised." Teasingly, he grinned over at Bod. "I bet you have loads of girlfriends." Or boyfriends. But he wasn't even going to go there with an eight year-old.

[owingnobody]

Bod opened his mouth, and then closed it again. "Me?" he said. "I don't really even know any girls. Except Scarlett, but she moved away. And Miss Lupescu, but she's a lady-- and a Hound of God, so I don't know how that would work." He wrinkled his nose. "Plus, that would be weird. And then there's Li...za..." he trailed off, a chill running down his spine at the name. He liked Liza. It was because he wanted to do something nice for her that he'd left the Graveyard in the first place... and that was how Mr. Frost had found him.

He changed the subject. "Why wouldn't a girl like a guy who loves to read?" he asked. "It seems a strange reason to not like someone. People are drawn to other people, aren't they? So it shouldn't matter who they are, or what they like to do. If you like that person, then... that's it." He shrugged. To his mind, that was easy.

[a_hat_trick]

A Hound of God? Oh, now Connor was interested. "Oh, yeah? What's a Hound of God?" he questioned, his eyebrows raised with intrigue. He couldn't believe he was asking that kind of a question-for all he knew, it was just some odd version of those ladies with the white gloves. But from the things he'd learned here and the things he'd already seen, there was no way he was going to pass up the chance to ask.

Connor smiled, though, at the childlike reasoning for how to tell if you liked someone. "I completely agree. You're very smart, you know. I think there's plenty of girls out there who aren't afraid that a boy might be smart and boys who don't care if a girl likes to play sports."

[owingnobody]

"Oh, a Hound of God?" Bod sat up, the book falling open into his lap, and gestured wildly with his hands. "It's this BIG DOG- big enough to ride on, and she's got big teeth and fur and the first time I saw her in her other form I was really scared but then she talked to me and she rescued me from the ghouls and we were really good friends after that." He paused, and peered at him. "...is that strange?" he asked. "What I just said. Normal people... don't usually meet Hounds of God, do they? She's friends with Silas, and that's how I know her." Silas wasn't normal, either. He knew that because Silas didn't go out during the daytime. But that was about all he knew-- Miss Lupescu had said he was a 'solitary type' and that was all the information she would give him.