i'm a power load [st john]

[lovegonetowaste]

Nica...is annoyed.

There's something in the library that shouldn't be there -- something wrong, something that wasn't there before. She doesn't know what it is, yet, but she knows that she feels--different. She can feel something. She's got a headache she can't get rid of, and that almost never happens. There's always a reason for it...usually a

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[tendencytostart]

Baby, can you dig your man? Oh god why. ANYWAY, St. John is out on the wide set of stone stairs; a library that used to be a church is good for a number of things, and one of them is impressive entrances. As such, he is sprawled on the steps like a kittyface in the sun, smoking with his head tilted back, hair askew and clearly very quickly acquiring a truly excellent sunburn.

He's having a good day.

[lovegonetowaste]

"St John." Nica's voice is, uh, kind of curter than usual. The headache is lessening the further away from That Fucking Book she is, but it's not going away and she...would really like for it to go the fuck away. She folds her amrs under her awesome secrets and stands on the second stair from the top, obviously agitated.

It used to be really hard to get Nica to show that kind of agitation. In some ways it still is -- but it's there now.

"There's a book in the library that wasn't there before."

[tendencytostart]

"'s par for the fucking course anymore, isn't it. Zombies, vampires, books in a library..."

...St. John, Nica is going to turn you into a woman. And not even a pretty one! A fat one, with warts!

"Please don't hit me." Right, he's not stupid. Not really. "Siddown, I'll give you a cigarette." He tugs the hem of her yoga pants, which is a clear indication that she should come down here, pls.

Now, Nica, you tell your big strong tiny little man all about the book. Perhaps he'll go in and glower at it, because mysteriously? It won't burn. Isn't that interesting!

[lovegonetowaste]

She sits next to him, disgruntled and fidgety. "I need one. Whatever it is, it's giving me a killer headache." That's what gets her. More than the fact she couldn't read it; that's par for the course, for Nica. It's hurting her.

"Make it go away." >:/

[tendencytostart]

St. John gives her a cigarette - a lit one, even, because he is an Excellent Boyfriend and also he's still kind of waiting to be hit - and scoots a little closer, bumping knees and shoulders with her. "The book is giving you a headache? What is it, Dickens?"

He's not being a smartass now, swear! He just uh, didn't like Dickens when he had to read it in school. >__>

[lovegonetowaste]

Cigarette acquired, Nica sighs smoke and doesn't answer until she trusts herself not to get pissed off. "I didn't try to read it -- I don't think the title is in English? I just--my head started hurting. I can't make it stop."

There's an undercurrent of fear in the matter of fact sentence. One of the things that terrifies Nica the most -- if not the thing -- is lack of control over her body. Fair enough, considering her gift.

"The book made it worse. The nearer I got -- when I picked it up, it was worse. We should get rid of it, dude."

[tendencytostart]

"Obviously. Come here." He's going to rub your temples now, Nica, as one does! Possibly without setting one's tiny girlfriend on fire. Thaaat would suck, not that like, she'd have burns or anything for all that long. Still sucky!

St. John likes to have a plan, always have one or two or 12 of them in place, and this is no different - he believes her, and as she really is not interested in going to traipse after a book that apparently has some kind of ouchiful properties. "We can get rid of it. Should see what we can do with it first, though." Something that could make Nica's head hurt has power. And St. John is always looking for more of that.

[lovegonetowaste]

"Wh--oh." She shifts closer and holds her cigarette out of his way, closing her eyes. Temple-rubbing is nice and distracting and very, very soothing, so she is just going to sit here and submit to that for a while before she actually tries to process and answer the rest of what he's saying.

"Do with it?"

[tendencytostart]

"If it's givin' you a headache it's got to be something big." This, by the way, St John, is the kind of pragmatism most people hate themselves for. Just FYI.

He's only being slightly manipulative with the temple rubbing, honest, part of it is that he really just likes touching her, and part of it is that teeeeeeny tiny part of him that likes making her feel better, because he can do that. It's sort of a nice change from, you know, affecting people by being an absolute fuckwad. Although he'll always do that, at least part of him. St. John will still be a teenager when he's 50.

"Besides, this place is too fucking weird for books to be showin' up with no reason." Obviously he will investigate this, for He is a Man. But first, he will do this temple-rubbing thing, while smoking sloppily out of the corner of his mouth. This takes talent.

[lovegonetowaste]

Nica is good at pragmatism; she had to be, with her mother. It was all about balance--but some things make her a little...irrational, or she'd think of it as irrational if she weren't busy in the midst of it. It can hurt her -- hurt her, how can that happen? -- and so it has to go far, far away.

"I guess." She closes her eyes and breathes in smoke. "Guess it's better to know what the reason is."

[tendencytostart]

"Sure." He doesn't know if it is or not, really, it's just that he doesn't have that 'don't want to know' button like normal people have so they don't, you know, do things that hurt their own self or other people's. Possibly because he's kind of a jerk! And also an 18 year old boy.

Those are frequently simultaneous, for the repeatedly stated record. St John stubs out his cigarette and musses her hair a little, for extra Possibly Getting Hit points. "Where'd you leave it?"

[lovegonetowaste]

She swats at his hand automatically when he touches her hair, so yeah, cashing in on those points for Shiny Prizes of...girlfriend negative touching. Or...something. Anyway, she leans back with her cigarette and rolls her head back. "It's on the floor by the kitchenette."

What the fuck is it doing there? Well. She kind of hurled it a little when she was dropping it.

[tendencytostart]

"Right." Fascinating place for a book to be, but he doesn't question it! Maybe books that just appear out of nowhere (in his library >:( ) appear in the kitchenette! Maybe they're interested in some instant soup mix, which is basically all that's in there right now! "You coming or staying out here?" St. John's tone of voice implies that either is fine, although Nica is no dummy and can probably infer that just a TEENY TINY part of St. John wants to go in there all RAR and charge down the book.

Like a knight in...something. Perhaps armour made of flattened cigarette cartons.

[lovegonetowaste]

"I'm gonna finish this and then I'll come in," Nica answers, gesturing vaguely with her cigarette. She can tell, and it's cute, but ARGH GOD, book. Kind of her priority, just for the moment! Although part of her is probably imagining some kind of shining knight scenario and believe me, if she weren't fending off a headache, she would be telling him about it and laughing.

A lot.

[tendencytostart]

Possibly if she did this, he would pick her up and carry her over his shoulder, because he is A) made of maturity and B) capable of that and C) REALLY mature. For serious.

"I'll wait." Which he does, hovering like a tiny...bird of prey...? No, like a tiny Australian boy with messy hair and a sunburn, but one who is BY GOD going to see what's going on with the spooky spooky book.

[lovegonetowaste]

"Okay then." She leans back on the stairs, watching him. "You know, we could probably find sunscreen."

WHAT. It's a valid...observation. Yes. And totally unrelated to the matter at hand, but that really just makes it better for her. She'd rather not think about the matter at hand. The matter at hand is giving her a horrible headache.