Mina Fanfiction -- Untitled
Word of warning to the flist: This post is not Harry Potter, Sycophant Hex, or Real Life related, so I will not be offended if you skip over it. ;)
Also, if you have never read the wonderful stories posted over at mina_de_malfois's journal, nothing below the cut will make one bit of sense to you. Sorry. I highly recommend her stories, though, because they're just so awesome, and witty, and intriguing, not to mention quite addictive. So addictive, in fact, that I have *gasp* written Mina fanfic. It picks up right at the end of mina_de_malfois's last posted chapter, Mina de Malfois and the Brides of Fictionstein (Part One), however, so if you've never read it, or haven't kept up with it, you might want to do so before or instead of reading this story.
This didn't start out as fanfic, really, but as a way for me to get through an evening of boredom, and the end result amused me, even if it was nothing near as fabulous as the original, so I sent it to the wonderful mina_de_malfois in the hopes that she would get some laughs from my rather odd attempt at Mina fic. I was more than a bit surprised when she encouraged me to actually post it for others to read, but decided that, well, what can it hurt? My flist already knows I'm crazy anyway… *shrug* So anyway, please enjoy, and if you think that I've depicted the characters all wrong, well, oops. I tried. :)
Obviously, all things Mina belong to mina_de_malfois, and I'm just borrowing them. And, of course, many, many thanks to mina_de_malfois for the wonderful stories she's treated us all with, and for allowing me to mess with her characters. *fangirls* And a warning to the readers, there is hints of femslashy subtext (and just a tiny, tiny, squint-and-you'll-miss-it bit where subtext is dropped in favor of the real thing). Just in case anyone's bothered by that sort of thing...
Summary: Xena acts dramatic but endearing, Arc is absent but thought of often (I gave up the attempt long before I got to the planned scenes with Arc *is sorry*), Mina discovers she might have a crush on our favourite librarian, Adage hates Xena with a passion, Jen is more than a little mean, italics are abused wildly, and I concoct a rather random layout for the library that, well, I really can't explain beyond, 'It's what it looked like in my head, sorry.'
It didn't take me long to realise that I was in a fair bit of trouble, surrounded by the more unstable members of fandom-not the least terrifying of which was Mrs. Sev. The thought that the woman with her arm wrapped around me was the same woman who had admitted to keeping shrines to characters from books in her house... well, that did very little towards making me feel safe, you know? I mean to say, did she live nearby? Would she expect me to associate with her offline now that she knew I was within meet-up range? One could never tell with people like this….
That disconcerted feeling, I found, was small compared to the one that overwhelmed me a moment later, when she started introducing me to random fen scattered around the room. Whispers of things like, 'It's Mina! Did you read her story about-' and, 'I wonder if we can talk her into finishing her Sangui-' floated past my ears as I was quite literally dragged around the library by that all-to-friendly guiding arm. Perhaps I should have been flattered, but, to be honest, I was barely paying attention to the women whose hands I was shaking (or who were randomly enveloping me in rather tight hugs that lasted just a bit longer than I was strictly comfortable with), opting instead to keep a close eye on the second floor railing. I could only imagine what sort of rumours would spread if any of the library staff were to see me not only being accepted by the women who had infested the place like cockroaches, but being treated like some sort of idol.
Thankfully, the attention turned away from me a moment later when the library doors swung open and a rather annoyed looking Xena stepped inside, throwing an angry glance back at the protestors, who were causing enough noise to have been a group of hundreds instead of just a dozen or so. They seemed to have been trying to keep her from entering, but apparently hadn't been all that successful, and the security guards were doing a rather admirable job of keeping them outside, where they were significantly less of a nuisance.
Xena looked as though she fully intended to knock over anyone who got in her way as she walked up the stairs to the second floor, and yet, considering the white-robed women around me, I decided she was probably quite a bit safer to be around. Not wanting to brave the placard-toting crazies outside anymore than I wanted to continue to chat with the prayer-bead-toting crazies inside, I quickly made my excuses and hurried after her.
Nodding to Seldom where he sat at a table near the top of the steps, looking for all the world like he was guarding the entire floor from the library's 'visitors', I looked around just in time to see Xena disappear into the Media Fandom Special Collection section. I followed, giving the confused grad student sitting at the table inside a small wave as I continued on to Arc's office, where Xena was rummaging around in a desk, a determined look on her face.
'Hi,' I said softly, feeling for a moment like I was talking to a rather irritated tiger of some sort, and not wanting to startle her and prompt an attack. Really, she did look a bit scary, with her hair mussed in a way that was a bit extreme even for Xena-I was certain it could only have been the work of either a very fast moving convertible or an angry protestor-and a look of sheer annoyance on her face.
I needn't have worried, though. When she looked up and saw me hovering in the doorway, she smiled brightly and said, 'I'm surprised to see you here, Mina. I didn't think you usually associated yourself with this particular brand of insanity.'
'Yes, well, I wasn't warned properly,' I said simply, shaking my head at her raised eyebrow. 'Looking for something?'
'They all hurried out of here in a bit of a huff,' she explained, waving her hand in the general direction of the door. 'There's some sort of meeting this afternoon between the head of the Atheist Society and the leader of the… well, of them,' and here she motioned again towards the door before bending over the drawer again, plucking out files seemingly at random, 'and just in case that doesn't go well, there are a few things in here that your darling librarian would rather not have found. You know, if they should get it into their heads to overwhelm the remaining staff and start ransacking things or something.'
'Do you really think they'd do that?' I asked, wondering if perhaps I'd underestimated the level of danger associated with what was, from all appearances, the real-life version of the Cult of the Tented Tartans. There was fandom obsession, and then there was, well, breaking into a librarian's office and destroying actual books. That, to me, was just an entirely new level of wtf.
'Who knows? They're not exactly proving their sanity and willingness to be understanding by taking over the school's library, are they? Most of them aren't even students here. Besides, I'm just doing as I was asked. The entire non-student staff refuses to come back until everyone associated with this whole thing has left. Apparently they can't force anyone to leave, and so they're doing a bit of a protest of their own until everyone has vacated the area-and taken their candles with them. I mean, honestly, the lobby was one thing, but who puts candles on bookshelves? If they come anywhere near the second floor with those things, I have a feeling heads will roll….'
Pushing her hair out of her face, she shut the drawer and dropped the ever-growing stack of file folders on the desk, looking around for a second and then heading for a filing cabinet near the door. Adage, who had followed us in, jumped down from his perch atop the cabinet and scurried away from her, and she rolled her eyes. I got the feeling that there wasn't much love lost there.
Stepping gingerly out of her way, I leaned carefully on Arc's desk, fighting the urge to look at whatever files she'd deemed important-or damaging-enough to send Xena in here to collect. I was horribly curious, but I couldn't help but feel like I'd already pushed the limits of Arc's trust quite a few times already, and though she'd never said as much, or even alluded to it, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to take the risk. Truth be told, I'd been thrilled to have her back online after her cruise, and even more delighted that she'd not held any of my… youthful aspirations against me. If anything, she'd seemed friendlier as of late-I attributed this to having just come back from vacation, which can put anyone in the best of moods for a time. Eventually the day to day of life would wear the shiny off of everything again, but I hoped that would happen later rather than sooner.
'So are you just hiding in here, or do you have research to do?' Xena asked me, chuckling as I jumped a bit, startled out of my thoughts. 'I could use some help carrying all of this downstairs, once I've gathered it all,' she explained.
'No, no research,' I answered quickly, not wanting to be left behind to fend for myself. 'I came to see what all the fuss was about and was a blindsided by "Mrs. Sev," and the protestors looked like they were getting a bit violent, so I decided to wait until they calmed down before trying to leave.'
'Mrs. Sev? Be careful with that one, Mina, she has… issues.' She wrinkled her nose, frowning. 'You should have heard some of the things she was talking about on that island of theirs in-game. She even made James nervous,' she said with a laugh, and then added, 'PrinceC,' in way of explanation when I gave her a questioning look.
'Is his name really James?' I couldn't help but ask. 'Or is that just what he goes by online?'
'That's really his name,' she said, brushing her hair out of her face again and leaving a small streak of dirt on her cheek from when her hands had touched some of the older, dusty files. 'It's his first name, anyway. His last name is Hamill, just like his mother. Don't know what he's on about with the rest of that crap.'
I thought back to Xena coming out of Eva Hamill's cabin, and Arc's admission that she'd gone to school with both women, and realised that there was a fairly good chance Xena knew PrinceC better offline than on. I'd been reluctant to ask Arc for her opinion on the recent revelation about PrinceC's… non-fandom interests-I'll admit, I was hesitant to associate myself with him too much at the moment, all things considered-but I'd had more than one conversation with Xena in person now, and I was beginning to feel significantly less intimidated by her. It helped that instead of exhibiting her own rather unique kind of odd, as she usually did, she was dressed in jeans today and had dirt on her face. Though somehow she managed to make even that look glamorous, I noted with just the smallest pang of jealousy.
I took a steadying breath, not entirely sure how to phrase this sort of question, and then finally blurted out, 'He can't really believe he's been reincarnated, can he?'
Xena gave me a long, serious look, and I got the distinct feeling I'd said something wrong. She didn't answer, but instead handed me a rather large stack of files, piling the other stack from the desk on top, and nodded her head towards the door. Once I'd passed through, she locked the door behind us and then disappeared behind a row of shelves, emerging a moment later with a very disgruntled Adage held tightly in one arm.
Without warning, she grabbed my shoulder with her free hand and steered me towards the railing that overlooked the first floor. For a second I nearly pulled back, but then reasoned that no matter how much I'd offended her, or her friend, she wasn't likely to actually kill me in front of so many of my devoted fans. After all, they were surely unstable enough to try and avenge me…. It was a bit disconcerting all the same, though, and as if only to add to my discomfort, Seldom and another one of the special collections assistants were looking on in interest, obviously wondering what was going on. I'd gotten the impression the last time I'd talked to them that they didn't particularly know what to think of Xena-frankly, I wasn't sure I knew what to think of her, either-and I was more than a little surprised that she'd even gotten as far as Arc's office without question. Though I supposed the fact that she had a key would have been enough to convince them that Arc had consented….
I was snapped out of my musings by Xena leaning her arm across my shoulders and bending her head down enough to speak directly into my ear.
'You want to understand why James seems a little… different?' she asked, her voice soft so as not to be heard by others in the room, and I nodded, trying to ignore the tingling feeling that shot through me at the feel of her breath against my skin.
'You see those people down there, Mina?' She motioned at the women gathered around the library with the hand that was holding Adage, much to the cat's displeasure, and he growled softly. I nodded again, and she continued. 'Jamie was raised around people like that. Instead of bedtime stories, his mother tested out her Lord of the Rings plot bunnies on him. Well, the G-rated ones, anyway.'
'By the time he was five, he was acting out his own little Star Trek fanfiction stories in the living room, much to the delight of his entire family. They're all like that; his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles…. Their lives seem to revolve around not only fanfiction, but around role-playing, fan art, cosplay, fandom in general. They do have a good grip on reality, it's just that it's buried under quite a few layers of just plain weird. And unlike the rest of them, who began participating in fandoms as teenagers or adults, James grew up surrounded by all that.'
I couldn't help remembering what he'd said to me not all that long ago about his Christmas plans, and realised that Xena was probably telling the truth. I wasn't even sure I understood how that was possible, though. I mean, I'd done my best to keep everyone I'd ever known in my real life from finding out about my hobby. I would have been mortified if my mother, or worse, my grandmother had read some of the things I'd written-Bound for Detention came to mind-and I couldn't imagine the horror I'd feel if they'd not only encouraged my stories from day one, but possibly written something similar of their own.
'So,' Xena said after a pause, giving me a moment to let everything sink in, 'give the kid a break. He might seem a bit crazy, but it's a harmless, fun, good kind of crazy, and he's much saner than he probably has any right to be.'
Stepping away from me, she turned towards the stairs, leaving me looking out at the robed figures sprawled around the library floor and realising with horror that quite a few of them probably had children of their own at home. When she was halfway down the stairs, she stopped and looked back, calling, 'I do need to leave here at some point today, you know, and I'll never hear the end of it if I show up without any of the stuff I came for,' and smirking as I hurried to catch up.
Getting outside was much easier than I'd thought it would be-everyone gathered inside the library seemed a bit too intimidated by Xena's stern glare to come rushing at me again, though quite a few did call their goodbyes to me and made noises that bordered on what could only be described as a 'squee' when I nodded at them, and everyone outside the library didn't seem to care what we did as long as we didn't try to get back in again. They were too busy arguing with the security guards to notice us, anyway.
Xena led the way to her car-a rather nice car at that, but then, the woman had her own seaplane, so it hardly should have surprised me-opened the back door, and all but tossed Adage inside. 'If you throw up in, pee in, or scratch up my car, your "Mommy" will find you skinned and hanging from her front door by your tail,' she hissed at him, her eyes narrowing, and he hissed back, dug his claws into the seat as if out of pure spite, and then turned around a few times before settling down for a nap.
'Not a fan of cats?' I asked, not sure whether to be amused at their obvious animosity for each other or worried that she might have been serious with her threat.
Frowning, Xena stood up, took the files from me, and dumped them haphazardly onto the floor behind the front passenger seat, shrugging as they fell out of order. 'I love cats. That one,' she said, glaring at him one last time before shutting the door, 'hates me. And makes it painfully obvious by destroying as many of my things as he can get his paws on.'
For the briefest of moments I was curious about just how often Xena's "things" were around for Arc's pet to mess with, but then decided I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know.
'Where are you headed now? I could give you a ride,' she offered, raising one eyebrow, and her eyes danced with amusement as I froze in place. I was horrified to find that my brain seemed to have turned completely to mush at her words-and more horrified when I realised that she'd probably meant them in a completely innocent way. I could feel a hot blush creeping its way across my face, and I looked away quickly.
I spend way, way too much time reading fanfiction, I decided, worrying that the ever increasing levels of poorly written smut that had infiltrated fandom as of late were starting to do rather unfortunate things to my mind.
After a very awkward two seconds that felt as though they lasted a year, I finally stammered out, 'Uh, no, that's all right. My dorm's just over there, and it's faster to walk than to drive all the way around.' I half-heartedly pointed towards the Tia House, which stood not too far away, and shrugged. 'I'd better get back anyway; I have some studying to do.'
'Studying?' she repeated with a frown, giving me a disbelieving look. 'For what?'
'A test….' I wasn't entirely sure what she was getting at. I mean, honestly, how long had it been since she'd been in school? Neither she nor Arc looked even remotely old enough for her to be looking this confused at the prospect of studying.
'On Monday?' she pressed, and I shook my head.
'No, Thursday.'
She sighed, hanging her head down as if supremely disappointed, and then said, 'Mina, you need to get out more. It's Saturday. You're young; you should be going to a party, or spending time with friends.'
'I don't really know anyone around here,' I admitted, feeling more than a little self-conscious, and shrugged. 'Besides, I'm not much for large crowds of loud people.' Not to mention, I added mentally, I'm sure the large crowds of loud people would rather not have a shy computer geek crashing their parties. I'd never really been the sort that did well in social situations-perhaps part of the reason I adored my online popularity so much. I very rarely made 'Real Life' friends these days, and with being at school, away from what few friends I did have back home, I'd, unfortunately, become somewhat of a hermit. Not that I was going to tell Xena all of that.
Xena stared at me for a long moment, her expression thoughtful and serious, and I struggled not to fidget under her gaze. Finally, she said, 'Do you know that little café on Chambers Street?'
'The one with all the green decorations and curtains?' I answered slowly, wondering what that had to do with anything.
She nodded. 'We're going to be stopping by there tonight around ten,' she said, and she motioned towards the library, which I assumed meant that the other half of 'we' was Arc. I was beginning to think that the fact that she'd not mentioned Arc's name nor her own during any of the conversations we'd had was deliberate, and I couldn't help but wonder if she was waiting for me to ask, or if she expected me to call them by their online names in person-something I wasn't overly anxious to do, since that's usually the first sign that someone is spending just a bit too much time on the computer.
'You should stop by,' she continued, walking around the car to open her door. 'They have the best coffee in town.'
'I… I'm not sure. I have quite a bit of work to get done,' I said in a rush, a bit panicked at the idea of having coffee with Arc on such short notice. I know this probably seems silly, considering I'd now seen and talked to her in person, but frankly, the idea of having a real conversation with Arc when she could actually see my reactions to things was a little unnerving. I'd done fairly well making myself seem rather intelligent and mature online, and possibly a bit older that I really was, and even though I realised that she probably knew my exact age and all that-and, to my annoyance, probably thought of me as some sort of kid-I wasn't looking forward to having to stumble through awkward small talk with her. I'm far better at speaking my mind, and doing so articulately, online than in person.
'Well, if you can manage to tear yourself away from your books,' Xena said with a grin, 'the offer stands.' And with that, she ducked her head inside the car and drove away.
I spent the rest of the day debating whether or not meeting them at the café would be a good idea. Well, I mean, I knew it wasn't a particularly good idea, but I wasn't sure if it would rank somewhere around 'not so bad', or 'absolutely awful'. To be honest, I was still trying to figure out why on earth Xena had extended the invitation in the first place.
Finally I decided that I had nothing to lose, and really, I was curious to know what Arc was like in person, when she wasn't busy being the intimidating special collections librarian. Was her rather cool, calm attitude part of a necessary façade that came from dealing with too many idiotic students day in and day out, or was she always so serious and… well, I was looking for another not-so-flattering adjective, but my mind refused to come up with anything other than 'amazing'.
Still, it seemed that she must be a trifle dull, if she was always so… standoffish. I reasoned, though, that perhaps she had to be that way. After all, Arc was amazing, as far as I could tell, and absolutely gorgeous, and I imagined she'd have quite a hard time discouraging the hordes of men-or women, apparently, if what I'd gathered about her relationship from Xena was anything to go by-if she was anything but standoffish.
I'd just finished getting ready, and was spending the last few minutes before I had to leave looking myself over in the mirror-one must present the right image, after all-when Jen finally reappeared. She breezed into the dorm room, unlocked her desk drawer, grabbed something from inside which she quickly deposited into her pocket, and then turned to leave, but stopped as she caught sight of me.
'Where are you off to?' she asked, sounding amused, and I frowned.
'I'm going out with friends,' I answered coldly, not bothering to look at her. Really, I was over the fact that she'd practically abandoned me in the library. After thinking about it on and off over the course of the afternoon, I'd come to the conclusion that she must have run into some of the fandom people at cons while she was pretending to be Josh-or at least, that was the only thing that made sense at this point, though after my visit into the teen section of Sanguinity, I wasn't all that sure of anything when it came to Jen/Josh-and assumed that she'd been afraid of being recognized. Considering that being alone had given me good excuse to spend some time talking with Xena, I could hardly still be angry with Jen, but it was the principle of the thing, I suppose.
'Has Mina found herself a man?' she teased, sitting down on the edge of her bed. At my questioning look, she explained, 'You're looking at yourself like you're wondering what someone else will see, wondering what they'll think of you, and people rarely do that unless they're hoping that the other person will….' She paused for a second, looking me up and down in a way that wasn't exactly how I was used to roommates and such looking at me, and I felt inordinately shy for a moment. Finally, she finished, 'Unless they're hoping the other person will like what they see.'
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. 'Unlike most of the women around here, my life does not revolve entirely around getting the attention of boys.'
'No, I suspect it revolves around getting the attention of girls quite often too,' Jen said with a grin, laughing at my "have you lost your mind" expression.
'What's that supposed to mean?' I ground out through partially gritted teeth as I smoothed out my hair one more time, trying to keep from letting on that I was getting annoyed, which I was sure was what she was hoping for. After only one day of spending more than five minutes at a time with Jen, I was beginning to realise why no one in the dormitory seemed to like their roommates. I mean, I was covering for her, keeping her secrets, and she was going to go out of her way to purposely get under my skin?
'It means exactly what I said,' she answered simply, her smile widening and her eyes adopting an innocent expression.
Well. That wasn't, strictly speaking, an answer, but it irritated me nonetheless. Or perhaps that was the reason it annoyed me. Regardless of my reasons, I had the overwhelming urge to forcefully wipe that ridiculous grin off her face. I spun on my heel and in an instant was standing over her, glaring. She looked startled for a second, and met my eyes as I said, as calmly as I could manage, 'I, for one, know exactly who I am-something I doubt you can claim. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stay out of my business, and keep your comments to yourself.'
And with that, I whirled around, picking up my bag as I stormed towards the door, fully intending on making a rather loud and dramatic exit-if there ever was a moment when one was warranted, I felt that this was it. I didn't get that opportunity, though, because in a fraction of a second Jen leapt up from the bed and grabbed my arm, spinning me around and pinning me against her desk. Before I knew exactly what she was doing, she had pressed herself against me and tilted her head just so, pausing with her lips less than an inch from mine. And once again, my body, horrible traitor that it is, froze.
Oh, don't get me wrong, part of me wanted to shove her away, tell her to seek professional help for her sake as well as mine, and march out of the room as planned. But some other part of me thought that I'd much rather remain right where I was, thank you very much, and as the two sides seemed to battle in my brain, I couldn't move, instead opting for just staring at her in shock.
Jen stayed still for a long moment, meeting my eyes, and then moved closer when I did nothing to protest. But just as I was sure I'd have a heart attack right then and there because my heart was beating faster than I'd ever thought possible… she pulled her head back and reached her hand up, patting my cheek patronisingly.
'Oh, Mina,' she said, 'I don't think you know yourself at all.'
I pushed her away as hard as I could-which wasn't all that hard, considering she practically had my arms pinned against the desk with her body-and she stumbled back a step, then steadied herself and continued to laugh as she shook her head and walked out of the dorm, letting the door fall shut behind her.
I don't think I'd ever been so furious-at least, not at Jen/Josh/whoever the hell she was. The overwhelming urge to do something horribly mean, like log on and reveal her as Josh Amos, came over me, and I was already across the room and turning on my computer before I thought that maybe, just maybe, that wasn't the best of ideas. Jen knew more about me than anyone in fandom, with the possible exception of Arc, and also knew my online reputation. She could do some serious damage to my 'practically-British, independently-wealthy' image, and while I, quite frankly, didn't care at the moment, I suspected I'd feel quite differently in the morning. Or in a few days. Or whenever I stopped being angry, anyway. Besides, I'd probably have enough damage control to do whenever Mrs. Sev and friends got back to the internet, after them seeing me looking rather less than my best in the library.
Glancing at the clock, I realized that I was supposed to be meeting Arc and Xena in just a few minutes, and I seriously considered just not going after all. I was hardly in the mood to be sociable, and the last impression I wanted to make on Arc-on either of them, really-was that I was whiny and had a foul temper. But at the same time, I refused to let Jen ruin the first invitation out on a Saturday night that I'd had in nearly a year.
Resolving to not let her win at this ridiculous little game of hers-because really, what else could she have been trying to do, if not upset me?-I slipped out of the room and hurried to the lift, hoping that I wouldn't be too late and miss them. The entire ride down to the main floor, Jen's words echoed in my head. I don’t think you know yourself at all. That was insane. I knew myself perfectly well, thank you, and knew exactly what I wanted in life, and who was she to say any different?
But as I walked out of the building, I caught myself watching my reflection in the plate glass window that looked in on the office, appraising how I looked and frantically wondering for a second if the shirt I'd chosen was flattering as I'd originally thought. Stopping in my tracks, I searched my mind desperately for a reasonable explanation of why I cared so much what Arc and Xena-oh, all right, mostly Arc-thought of my appearance, but kept coming up with the same unnerving answer.
Maybe there was a possibility, however remote, that Jen had been right after all...
Part two now posted!
Also, if you have never read the wonderful stories posted over at mina_de_malfois's journal, nothing below the cut will make one bit of sense to you. Sorry. I highly recommend her stories, though, because they're just so awesome, and witty, and intriguing, not to mention quite addictive. So addictive, in fact, that I have *gasp* written Mina fanfic. It picks up right at the end of mina_de_malfois's last posted chapter, Mina de Malfois and the Brides of Fictionstein (Part One), however, so if you've never read it, or haven't kept up with it, you might want to do so before or instead of reading this story.
This didn't start out as fanfic, really, but as a way for me to get through an evening of boredom, and the end result amused me, even if it was nothing near as fabulous as the original, so I sent it to the wonderful mina_de_malfois in the hopes that she would get some laughs from my rather odd attempt at Mina fic. I was more than a bit surprised when she encouraged me to actually post it for others to read, but decided that, well, what can it hurt? My flist already knows I'm crazy anyway… *shrug* So anyway, please enjoy, and if you think that I've depicted the characters all wrong, well, oops. I tried. :)
Obviously, all things Mina belong to mina_de_malfois, and I'm just borrowing them. And, of course, many, many thanks to mina_de_malfois for the wonderful stories she's treated us all with, and for allowing me to mess with her characters. *fangirls* And a warning to the readers, there is hints of femslashy subtext (and just a tiny, tiny, squint-and-you'll-miss-it bit where subtext is dropped in favor of the real thing). Just in case anyone's bothered by that sort of thing...
Summary: Xena acts dramatic but endearing, Arc is absent but thought of often (I gave up the attempt long before I got to the planned scenes with Arc *is sorry*), Mina discovers she might have a crush on our favourite librarian, Adage hates Xena with a passion, Jen is more than a little mean, italics are abused wildly, and I concoct a rather random layout for the library that, well, I really can't explain beyond, 'It's what it looked like in my head, sorry.'
It didn't take me long to realise that I was in a fair bit of trouble, surrounded by the more unstable members of fandom-not the least terrifying of which was Mrs. Sev. The thought that the woman with her arm wrapped around me was the same woman who had admitted to keeping shrines to characters from books in her house... well, that did very little towards making me feel safe, you know? I mean to say, did she live nearby? Would she expect me to associate with her offline now that she knew I was within meet-up range? One could never tell with people like this….
That disconcerted feeling, I found, was small compared to the one that overwhelmed me a moment later, when she started introducing me to random fen scattered around the room. Whispers of things like, 'It's Mina! Did you read her story about-' and, 'I wonder if we can talk her into finishing her Sangui-' floated past my ears as I was quite literally dragged around the library by that all-to-friendly guiding arm. Perhaps I should have been flattered, but, to be honest, I was barely paying attention to the women whose hands I was shaking (or who were randomly enveloping me in rather tight hugs that lasted just a bit longer than I was strictly comfortable with), opting instead to keep a close eye on the second floor railing. I could only imagine what sort of rumours would spread if any of the library staff were to see me not only being accepted by the women who had infested the place like cockroaches, but being treated like some sort of idol.
Thankfully, the attention turned away from me a moment later when the library doors swung open and a rather annoyed looking Xena stepped inside, throwing an angry glance back at the protestors, who were causing enough noise to have been a group of hundreds instead of just a dozen or so. They seemed to have been trying to keep her from entering, but apparently hadn't been all that successful, and the security guards were doing a rather admirable job of keeping them outside, where they were significantly less of a nuisance.
Xena looked as though she fully intended to knock over anyone who got in her way as she walked up the stairs to the second floor, and yet, considering the white-robed women around me, I decided she was probably quite a bit safer to be around. Not wanting to brave the placard-toting crazies outside anymore than I wanted to continue to chat with the prayer-bead-toting crazies inside, I quickly made my excuses and hurried after her.
Nodding to Seldom where he sat at a table near the top of the steps, looking for all the world like he was guarding the entire floor from the library's 'visitors', I looked around just in time to see Xena disappear into the Media Fandom Special Collection section. I followed, giving the confused grad student sitting at the table inside a small wave as I continued on to Arc's office, where Xena was rummaging around in a desk, a determined look on her face.
'Hi,' I said softly, feeling for a moment like I was talking to a rather irritated tiger of some sort, and not wanting to startle her and prompt an attack. Really, she did look a bit scary, with her hair mussed in a way that was a bit extreme even for Xena-I was certain it could only have been the work of either a very fast moving convertible or an angry protestor-and a look of sheer annoyance on her face.
I needn't have worried, though. When she looked up and saw me hovering in the doorway, she smiled brightly and said, 'I'm surprised to see you here, Mina. I didn't think you usually associated yourself with this particular brand of insanity.'
'Yes, well, I wasn't warned properly,' I said simply, shaking my head at her raised eyebrow. 'Looking for something?'
'They all hurried out of here in a bit of a huff,' she explained, waving her hand in the general direction of the door. 'There's some sort of meeting this afternoon between the head of the Atheist Society and the leader of the… well, of them,' and here she motioned again towards the door before bending over the drawer again, plucking out files seemingly at random, 'and just in case that doesn't go well, there are a few things in here that your darling librarian would rather not have found. You know, if they should get it into their heads to overwhelm the remaining staff and start ransacking things or something.'
'Do you really think they'd do that?' I asked, wondering if perhaps I'd underestimated the level of danger associated with what was, from all appearances, the real-life version of the Cult of the Tented Tartans. There was fandom obsession, and then there was, well, breaking into a librarian's office and destroying actual books. That, to me, was just an entirely new level of wtf.
'Who knows? They're not exactly proving their sanity and willingness to be understanding by taking over the school's library, are they? Most of them aren't even students here. Besides, I'm just doing as I was asked. The entire non-student staff refuses to come back until everyone associated with this whole thing has left. Apparently they can't force anyone to leave, and so they're doing a bit of a protest of their own until everyone has vacated the area-and taken their candles with them. I mean, honestly, the lobby was one thing, but who puts candles on bookshelves? If they come anywhere near the second floor with those things, I have a feeling heads will roll….'
Pushing her hair out of her face, she shut the drawer and dropped the ever-growing stack of file folders on the desk, looking around for a second and then heading for a filing cabinet near the door. Adage, who had followed us in, jumped down from his perch atop the cabinet and scurried away from her, and she rolled her eyes. I got the feeling that there wasn't much love lost there.
Stepping gingerly out of her way, I leaned carefully on Arc's desk, fighting the urge to look at whatever files she'd deemed important-or damaging-enough to send Xena in here to collect. I was horribly curious, but I couldn't help but feel like I'd already pushed the limits of Arc's trust quite a few times already, and though she'd never said as much, or even alluded to it, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to take the risk. Truth be told, I'd been thrilled to have her back online after her cruise, and even more delighted that she'd not held any of my… youthful aspirations against me. If anything, she'd seemed friendlier as of late-I attributed this to having just come back from vacation, which can put anyone in the best of moods for a time. Eventually the day to day of life would wear the shiny off of everything again, but I hoped that would happen later rather than sooner.
'So are you just hiding in here, or do you have research to do?' Xena asked me, chuckling as I jumped a bit, startled out of my thoughts. 'I could use some help carrying all of this downstairs, once I've gathered it all,' she explained.
'No, no research,' I answered quickly, not wanting to be left behind to fend for myself. 'I came to see what all the fuss was about and was a blindsided by "Mrs. Sev," and the protestors looked like they were getting a bit violent, so I decided to wait until they calmed down before trying to leave.'
'Mrs. Sev? Be careful with that one, Mina, she has… issues.' She wrinkled her nose, frowning. 'You should have heard some of the things she was talking about on that island of theirs in-game. She even made James nervous,' she said with a laugh, and then added, 'PrinceC,' in way of explanation when I gave her a questioning look.
'Is his name really James?' I couldn't help but ask. 'Or is that just what he goes by online?'
'That's really his name,' she said, brushing her hair out of her face again and leaving a small streak of dirt on her cheek from when her hands had touched some of the older, dusty files. 'It's his first name, anyway. His last name is Hamill, just like his mother. Don't know what he's on about with the rest of that crap.'
I thought back to Xena coming out of Eva Hamill's cabin, and Arc's admission that she'd gone to school with both women, and realised that there was a fairly good chance Xena knew PrinceC better offline than on. I'd been reluctant to ask Arc for her opinion on the recent revelation about PrinceC's… non-fandom interests-I'll admit, I was hesitant to associate myself with him too much at the moment, all things considered-but I'd had more than one conversation with Xena in person now, and I was beginning to feel significantly less intimidated by her. It helped that instead of exhibiting her own rather unique kind of odd, as she usually did, she was dressed in jeans today and had dirt on her face. Though somehow she managed to make even that look glamorous, I noted with just the smallest pang of jealousy.
I took a steadying breath, not entirely sure how to phrase this sort of question, and then finally blurted out, 'He can't really believe he's been reincarnated, can he?'
Xena gave me a long, serious look, and I got the distinct feeling I'd said something wrong. She didn't answer, but instead handed me a rather large stack of files, piling the other stack from the desk on top, and nodded her head towards the door. Once I'd passed through, she locked the door behind us and then disappeared behind a row of shelves, emerging a moment later with a very disgruntled Adage held tightly in one arm.
Without warning, she grabbed my shoulder with her free hand and steered me towards the railing that overlooked the first floor. For a second I nearly pulled back, but then reasoned that no matter how much I'd offended her, or her friend, she wasn't likely to actually kill me in front of so many of my devoted fans. After all, they were surely unstable enough to try and avenge me…. It was a bit disconcerting all the same, though, and as if only to add to my discomfort, Seldom and another one of the special collections assistants were looking on in interest, obviously wondering what was going on. I'd gotten the impression the last time I'd talked to them that they didn't particularly know what to think of Xena-frankly, I wasn't sure I knew what to think of her, either-and I was more than a little surprised that she'd even gotten as far as Arc's office without question. Though I supposed the fact that she had a key would have been enough to convince them that Arc had consented….
I was snapped out of my musings by Xena leaning her arm across my shoulders and bending her head down enough to speak directly into my ear.
'You want to understand why James seems a little… different?' she asked, her voice soft so as not to be heard by others in the room, and I nodded, trying to ignore the tingling feeling that shot through me at the feel of her breath against my skin.
'You see those people down there, Mina?' She motioned at the women gathered around the library with the hand that was holding Adage, much to the cat's displeasure, and he growled softly. I nodded again, and she continued. 'Jamie was raised around people like that. Instead of bedtime stories, his mother tested out her Lord of the Rings plot bunnies on him. Well, the G-rated ones, anyway.'
'By the time he was five, he was acting out his own little Star Trek fanfiction stories in the living room, much to the delight of his entire family. They're all like that; his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles…. Their lives seem to revolve around not only fanfiction, but around role-playing, fan art, cosplay, fandom in general. They do have a good grip on reality, it's just that it's buried under quite a few layers of just plain weird. And unlike the rest of them, who began participating in fandoms as teenagers or adults, James grew up surrounded by all that.'
I couldn't help remembering what he'd said to me not all that long ago about his Christmas plans, and realised that Xena was probably telling the truth. I wasn't even sure I understood how that was possible, though. I mean, I'd done my best to keep everyone I'd ever known in my real life from finding out about my hobby. I would have been mortified if my mother, or worse, my grandmother had read some of the things I'd written-Bound for Detention came to mind-and I couldn't imagine the horror I'd feel if they'd not only encouraged my stories from day one, but possibly written something similar of their own.
'So,' Xena said after a pause, giving me a moment to let everything sink in, 'give the kid a break. He might seem a bit crazy, but it's a harmless, fun, good kind of crazy, and he's much saner than he probably has any right to be.'
Stepping away from me, she turned towards the stairs, leaving me looking out at the robed figures sprawled around the library floor and realising with horror that quite a few of them probably had children of their own at home. When she was halfway down the stairs, she stopped and looked back, calling, 'I do need to leave here at some point today, you know, and I'll never hear the end of it if I show up without any of the stuff I came for,' and smirking as I hurried to catch up.
Getting outside was much easier than I'd thought it would be-everyone gathered inside the library seemed a bit too intimidated by Xena's stern glare to come rushing at me again, though quite a few did call their goodbyes to me and made noises that bordered on what could only be described as a 'squee' when I nodded at them, and everyone outside the library didn't seem to care what we did as long as we didn't try to get back in again. They were too busy arguing with the security guards to notice us, anyway.
Xena led the way to her car-a rather nice car at that, but then, the woman had her own seaplane, so it hardly should have surprised me-opened the back door, and all but tossed Adage inside. 'If you throw up in, pee in, or scratch up my car, your "Mommy" will find you skinned and hanging from her front door by your tail,' she hissed at him, her eyes narrowing, and he hissed back, dug his claws into the seat as if out of pure spite, and then turned around a few times before settling down for a nap.
'Not a fan of cats?' I asked, not sure whether to be amused at their obvious animosity for each other or worried that she might have been serious with her threat.
Frowning, Xena stood up, took the files from me, and dumped them haphazardly onto the floor behind the front passenger seat, shrugging as they fell out of order. 'I love cats. That one,' she said, glaring at him one last time before shutting the door, 'hates me. And makes it painfully obvious by destroying as many of my things as he can get his paws on.'
For the briefest of moments I was curious about just how often Xena's "things" were around for Arc's pet to mess with, but then decided I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know.
'Where are you headed now? I could give you a ride,' she offered, raising one eyebrow, and her eyes danced with amusement as I froze in place. I was horrified to find that my brain seemed to have turned completely to mush at her words-and more horrified when I realised that she'd probably meant them in a completely innocent way. I could feel a hot blush creeping its way across my face, and I looked away quickly.
I spend way, way too much time reading fanfiction, I decided, worrying that the ever increasing levels of poorly written smut that had infiltrated fandom as of late were starting to do rather unfortunate things to my mind.
After a very awkward two seconds that felt as though they lasted a year, I finally stammered out, 'Uh, no, that's all right. My dorm's just over there, and it's faster to walk than to drive all the way around.' I half-heartedly pointed towards the Tia House, which stood not too far away, and shrugged. 'I'd better get back anyway; I have some studying to do.'
'Studying?' she repeated with a frown, giving me a disbelieving look. 'For what?'
'A test….' I wasn't entirely sure what she was getting at. I mean, honestly, how long had it been since she'd been in school? Neither she nor Arc looked even remotely old enough for her to be looking this confused at the prospect of studying.
'On Monday?' she pressed, and I shook my head.
'No, Thursday.'
She sighed, hanging her head down as if supremely disappointed, and then said, 'Mina, you need to get out more. It's Saturday. You're young; you should be going to a party, or spending time with friends.'
'I don't really know anyone around here,' I admitted, feeling more than a little self-conscious, and shrugged. 'Besides, I'm not much for large crowds of loud people.' Not to mention, I added mentally, I'm sure the large crowds of loud people would rather not have a shy computer geek crashing their parties. I'd never really been the sort that did well in social situations-perhaps part of the reason I adored my online popularity so much. I very rarely made 'Real Life' friends these days, and with being at school, away from what few friends I did have back home, I'd, unfortunately, become somewhat of a hermit. Not that I was going to tell Xena all of that.
Xena stared at me for a long moment, her expression thoughtful and serious, and I struggled not to fidget under her gaze. Finally, she said, 'Do you know that little café on Chambers Street?'
'The one with all the green decorations and curtains?' I answered slowly, wondering what that had to do with anything.
She nodded. 'We're going to be stopping by there tonight around ten,' she said, and she motioned towards the library, which I assumed meant that the other half of 'we' was Arc. I was beginning to think that the fact that she'd not mentioned Arc's name nor her own during any of the conversations we'd had was deliberate, and I couldn't help but wonder if she was waiting for me to ask, or if she expected me to call them by their online names in person-something I wasn't overly anxious to do, since that's usually the first sign that someone is spending just a bit too much time on the computer.
'You should stop by,' she continued, walking around the car to open her door. 'They have the best coffee in town.'
'I… I'm not sure. I have quite a bit of work to get done,' I said in a rush, a bit panicked at the idea of having coffee with Arc on such short notice. I know this probably seems silly, considering I'd now seen and talked to her in person, but frankly, the idea of having a real conversation with Arc when she could actually see my reactions to things was a little unnerving. I'd done fairly well making myself seem rather intelligent and mature online, and possibly a bit older that I really was, and even though I realised that she probably knew my exact age and all that-and, to my annoyance, probably thought of me as some sort of kid-I wasn't looking forward to having to stumble through awkward small talk with her. I'm far better at speaking my mind, and doing so articulately, online than in person.
'Well, if you can manage to tear yourself away from your books,' Xena said with a grin, 'the offer stands.' And with that, she ducked her head inside the car and drove away.
I spent the rest of the day debating whether or not meeting them at the café would be a good idea. Well, I mean, I knew it wasn't a particularly good idea, but I wasn't sure if it would rank somewhere around 'not so bad', or 'absolutely awful'. To be honest, I was still trying to figure out why on earth Xena had extended the invitation in the first place.
Finally I decided that I had nothing to lose, and really, I was curious to know what Arc was like in person, when she wasn't busy being the intimidating special collections librarian. Was her rather cool, calm attitude part of a necessary façade that came from dealing with too many idiotic students day in and day out, or was she always so serious and… well, I was looking for another not-so-flattering adjective, but my mind refused to come up with anything other than 'amazing'.
Still, it seemed that she must be a trifle dull, if she was always so… standoffish. I reasoned, though, that perhaps she had to be that way. After all, Arc was amazing, as far as I could tell, and absolutely gorgeous, and I imagined she'd have quite a hard time discouraging the hordes of men-or women, apparently, if what I'd gathered about her relationship from Xena was anything to go by-if she was anything but standoffish.
I'd just finished getting ready, and was spending the last few minutes before I had to leave looking myself over in the mirror-one must present the right image, after all-when Jen finally reappeared. She breezed into the dorm room, unlocked her desk drawer, grabbed something from inside which she quickly deposited into her pocket, and then turned to leave, but stopped as she caught sight of me.
'Where are you off to?' she asked, sounding amused, and I frowned.
'I'm going out with friends,' I answered coldly, not bothering to look at her. Really, I was over the fact that she'd practically abandoned me in the library. After thinking about it on and off over the course of the afternoon, I'd come to the conclusion that she must have run into some of the fandom people at cons while she was pretending to be Josh-or at least, that was the only thing that made sense at this point, though after my visit into the teen section of Sanguinity, I wasn't all that sure of anything when it came to Jen/Josh-and assumed that she'd been afraid of being recognized. Considering that being alone had given me good excuse to spend some time talking with Xena, I could hardly still be angry with Jen, but it was the principle of the thing, I suppose.
'Has Mina found herself a man?' she teased, sitting down on the edge of her bed. At my questioning look, she explained, 'You're looking at yourself like you're wondering what someone else will see, wondering what they'll think of you, and people rarely do that unless they're hoping that the other person will….' She paused for a second, looking me up and down in a way that wasn't exactly how I was used to roommates and such looking at me, and I felt inordinately shy for a moment. Finally, she finished, 'Unless they're hoping the other person will like what they see.'
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. 'Unlike most of the women around here, my life does not revolve entirely around getting the attention of boys.'
'No, I suspect it revolves around getting the attention of girls quite often too,' Jen said with a grin, laughing at my "have you lost your mind" expression.
'What's that supposed to mean?' I ground out through partially gritted teeth as I smoothed out my hair one more time, trying to keep from letting on that I was getting annoyed, which I was sure was what she was hoping for. After only one day of spending more than five minutes at a time with Jen, I was beginning to realise why no one in the dormitory seemed to like their roommates. I mean, I was covering for her, keeping her secrets, and she was going to go out of her way to purposely get under my skin?
'It means exactly what I said,' she answered simply, her smile widening and her eyes adopting an innocent expression.
Well. That wasn't, strictly speaking, an answer, but it irritated me nonetheless. Or perhaps that was the reason it annoyed me. Regardless of my reasons, I had the overwhelming urge to forcefully wipe that ridiculous grin off her face. I spun on my heel and in an instant was standing over her, glaring. She looked startled for a second, and met my eyes as I said, as calmly as I could manage, 'I, for one, know exactly who I am-something I doubt you can claim. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stay out of my business, and keep your comments to yourself.'
And with that, I whirled around, picking up my bag as I stormed towards the door, fully intending on making a rather loud and dramatic exit-if there ever was a moment when one was warranted, I felt that this was it. I didn't get that opportunity, though, because in a fraction of a second Jen leapt up from the bed and grabbed my arm, spinning me around and pinning me against her desk. Before I knew exactly what she was doing, she had pressed herself against me and tilted her head just so, pausing with her lips less than an inch from mine. And once again, my body, horrible traitor that it is, froze.
Oh, don't get me wrong, part of me wanted to shove her away, tell her to seek professional help for her sake as well as mine, and march out of the room as planned. But some other part of me thought that I'd much rather remain right where I was, thank you very much, and as the two sides seemed to battle in my brain, I couldn't move, instead opting for just staring at her in shock.
Jen stayed still for a long moment, meeting my eyes, and then moved closer when I did nothing to protest. But just as I was sure I'd have a heart attack right then and there because my heart was beating faster than I'd ever thought possible… she pulled her head back and reached her hand up, patting my cheek patronisingly.
'Oh, Mina,' she said, 'I don't think you know yourself at all.'
I pushed her away as hard as I could-which wasn't all that hard, considering she practically had my arms pinned against the desk with her body-and she stumbled back a step, then steadied herself and continued to laugh as she shook her head and walked out of the dorm, letting the door fall shut behind her.
I don't think I'd ever been so furious-at least, not at Jen/Josh/whoever the hell she was. The overwhelming urge to do something horribly mean, like log on and reveal her as Josh Amos, came over me, and I was already across the room and turning on my computer before I thought that maybe, just maybe, that wasn't the best of ideas. Jen knew more about me than anyone in fandom, with the possible exception of Arc, and also knew my online reputation. She could do some serious damage to my 'practically-British, independently-wealthy' image, and while I, quite frankly, didn't care at the moment, I suspected I'd feel quite differently in the morning. Or in a few days. Or whenever I stopped being angry, anyway. Besides, I'd probably have enough damage control to do whenever Mrs. Sev and friends got back to the internet, after them seeing me looking rather less than my best in the library.
Glancing at the clock, I realized that I was supposed to be meeting Arc and Xena in just a few minutes, and I seriously considered just not going after all. I was hardly in the mood to be sociable, and the last impression I wanted to make on Arc-on either of them, really-was that I was whiny and had a foul temper. But at the same time, I refused to let Jen ruin the first invitation out on a Saturday night that I'd had in nearly a year.
Resolving to not let her win at this ridiculous little game of hers-because really, what else could she have been trying to do, if not upset me?-I slipped out of the room and hurried to the lift, hoping that I wouldn't be too late and miss them. The entire ride down to the main floor, Jen's words echoed in my head. I don’t think you know yourself at all. That was insane. I knew myself perfectly well, thank you, and knew exactly what I wanted in life, and who was she to say any different?
But as I walked out of the building, I caught myself watching my reflection in the plate glass window that looked in on the office, appraising how I looked and frantically wondering for a second if the shirt I'd chosen was flattering as I'd originally thought. Stopping in my tracks, I searched my mind desperately for a reasonable explanation of why I cared so much what Arc and Xena-oh, all right, mostly Arc-thought of my appearance, but kept coming up with the same unnerving answer.
Maybe there was a possibility, however remote, that Jen had been right after all...
Part two now posted!