[PRP] I Saw the Sign (Algernon/Rabbit)

[Smerdle]

He had reportedly been working at Bibliophile for a while now, just under the year he'd been at Maverick before things had changed. Even though he'd seen the pay stubs and the pictures, this was the first day Rabbit had reported to work since the beginning of the new world, and he was nervous. It was one thing to know nothing about cutting hair and be the receptionist at a salon. It was quite another to be around books all day having never read anything more challenging than the SCP Foundation website. At least he was familiar with three or four Red Herring Mysteries, though that had been in the old world. Had they changed? They'd probably changed.

Rabbit didn't linger outside, pushing through the door as soon as he arrived. Yup. This was, in fact, bookstore.

Now to find his boss.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Algernon had found that life since the events at the rift were closer to a seek and find puzzle than they were really odd. It was like holding two photographs of the same room together and being asked to spot the differences. He'd discovered his books were different, he'd been in Ashdown longer, and the Algernon that lived this life had made some slightly better decisions in the way things went.

It wasn't bad, and in the long run was probably good, but.... it was odd. It was strange to look in on a life that was, but wasn't, his own.

He had discovered, upon arriving to Bibliophile, that Equinox was right next door and they shared an entry vestibule. He'd discovered they had a much more technologically advanced clock-in badge system, and upon finding a small room that was 'his office' that he had lost and gained a couple of employees... including one Bennett Vaughn who it seemed had worked there for quite a while.

Alg was coming out of the closet of an office (something he hadn't had before the changes) when Mr. Vaughn walked into the shop that day and Alg perked, waving a hand, to see someone who possibly may realize that Things Were Different.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Hey! I'm here to do book things," he said, chuckling at his own stupidity. "Just so we're clear, you don't have to keep me around if I do, just, really horribly, okay? I won't take it personally if you need to hire someone who actually knows what they're doing." Rabbit shrugged out of his coat, leaving on a very, very long scarf that loosely looped around his neck several times. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, more suited to Berenstain Bears level discussion.

"How are you? And things. After." Rabbit had seen the professor there, both before jumping in the hole and in Sunday's library. He had seen Alg falling through the void too, but that seemed private.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well according to the paperwork you've worked here a little while," Alg chuckled a bit, making sure to keep his voice low because the entire nature of the conversation was bizarre. "So I'm sure you can do it just fine."

Alg scratched his head and looked around, the store was laid out much the same with the sitting area in the front and the rest of the building separated into sections. There were just a few new sections that didn't exist in the world before.

"Well things are different.." Alg sighed, "The full extent of which I haven't quite grasped but I've googled myself.." Which he always hated saying, "..and I moved here about 15 years earlier. So that's something."

He adjusted his glasses and decided they should both go on a store walkthrough since it was new territory for Rabbit. He could give him a run down on things while they worked out conversation.

"How are you? And.. the kids?"

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"The kids! Yeah." He fished his phone out of his pocket as he followed Alg on the start of his tour, flicking several pictures across the screen and turning each one on the other man. They were mostly of the sirens by themselves, either smiling and posing or in a blur of movement, but there was one with the pair of them standing on either side of a woman in a wheelchair, a woman with a spray of tousled, dark curls and Rabbit's open grin. The kids were of a height comparable to her seated form, and Rabbit paused on this picture the longest.

"This was my biggest change. They're still beautiful singers, now there's just a 40 percent chance of backtalk whenever they open their mouths." He huffed a brief laugh, half sarcasm, half pride.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg smiled looking through the pictures, "What're their names?" He wasn't sure he'd ever been told but last time he'd seen them they were pocket sized.

"It's quite a difference, the growth," Alg idly motioned to section labels on the ends of rows of shelves. He paused at a back section encompassing 'MAGIC' and broken down into theory, biology, psychology and other miscellany he'd never even thought of. All of this, of course, was new. "I feel a bit like fast forward was hit for a lot of people and we came back in the midst of it. I wonder," his jaw was scratched, "if we'll just know things or remember things by accident.." That the this world's versions of themselves had known or done.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Neverain," he said, pointing at the peacock. "And Sywyly. Pax told me the names of some of their relatives and they were kind of naturey, so we started with that. We might have gone off track with Sy though." Rabbit chuckled. "But, I mean, we tried." As much as he loved the sirens, there were plenty of times when he felt awkward about how he had come to take care of them, like he had stolen them away from their potential while deliberately overlooking the harm he was causing. Like so many things in his life, he tried not to dwell on it.

"Them being so big has definitely been a lot to get used to. But I've got a house now. And my sister doesn't look worried when I tell her I've been on the other side. I'm not sure I'll ever remember what the other me did, but pretending I do has been easy enough to fake. I feel comfortable here." He shrugged, looking at the shelves Algie indicated and spottily committing them to memory. "I just wish I knew what we really did underneath, 'cause I'm so confused."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"You're telling me," Alg chuckled a bit. "Confused is an understatement."

It seemed like things had come out on this side in Rabbit's favor though. A better job, a house, better relations with his sister and kids.

"Have you asked any of them if they could fill you in? Or have you not told them...?" How did one tell their family that they didn't remember basically their whole life because they lived another one up until a few days before?

Alg stopped by a window that looked out onto the street. Bibliophile was a corner building, an old house that had been adapted into a store while still retaining it's homely charms. Sections were separated by rooms and what used to be the kitchen and mudroom served instead as the employee area. The only major change was that now it shared a wall, and an entryway, with Equinox.

"I couldn't even tell you what we did on this side," Alg said honestly, "I felt like we equally did magic nonstop for days but also like.. I was very refreshed afterwards." And his magic was stronger now. He hadn't done anything new but he could feel it.

"But the me from here had his s**t together," The profanity was not usual with strangers but Alg was hardly as proper as the airs he put on. "And now I have to read my own novels again because they are different than the ones I wrote."

sxmerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I said I'd been away and that things had changed," he said after a bit of thought. "They'd already seen me acting weird after the ball, so maybe they're used to it. If the ball even happened here." Rabbit paused, clearly only just considering that it might not have for the first time. He made a mental note to freak out about it later in private and moved on.

"The sirens were on board too. It helped. They don't really lie a lot, from what I can tell. They just avoid. Leave out." He shrugged. "So when they say things like 'the otherworld made Dad forget where our house was', I guess my sister believes them. I'm gonna try to learn as I go and hope nothing backfires."

He appeared tickled by Alg's admission, if only for a second. "I know that must suck, but it's really interesting, right? Maybe you could use some of the stuff from the first books to write new ones here."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Algie thought how strange it was that Rabbit had started with eggs and ended up with children, non-human perhaps but still his children. To go from being just a man getting by, doing his best, to being a father. It was something he'd struggled with and through his going through the house, his counterpart as well. Jeremiah and he had adopted Zac together in this version of the world.. and he'd kept some contact with his own displaced child.

He wasn't ready to deal with that issue yet.

"I'm not sure about the ball though I keep thinking we need to go back to the court," Usually 'we' meant he and Jeremiah but in this case it was just as true for Rabbit. "Make sure it's... still there. I haven't seen Adze-" it was better than saying 'fetch'. "Perhaps just to check in."

At mention of his books he made a bit of a face, "It's hard. To do that would be, to me, like trying to rewrite something I wrote and lost.." Like when a word document closed without saving and you had to piece it together from memory. "To me it would feel cheap and.."

He was a writer. Writing could be fickle and moody and needed to feel right.

"I'll figure it out."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He hadn't been back to court since coming home either, and Rabbit also hadn't considered that it might not be there at all anymore. If he had, he probably would have tried harder to visit.

"Yeah. I didn't think about checking there. I hope Oroh's all right. I mean, I can still do my noble... thing, so even if the place is gone, there's something."

The book stuff got a considering eyebrow raise and a thoughtful hm. He had no doubt Algernon would do just that—figure it out—and he certainly didn't need outside help on that front. There were other ways he could be useful, however.

"If you ever think you're gonna get a group together to make sure everything's okay and you need more bodies, let me know."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Definitely," Alg blinked at him. He'd been thinking about the court, lapsing into a moment of thought, "Yes my powers haven't lapsed so.. "

He ran a hand through his greying hair, paying no mind to the fact it stuck up a bit when he did so, "Considering the court before-" And not knowing if it was the same, "It may be a good idea for us all to gather together and see the state of things.."

As much as it was not something others wanted to be roped into, they had as noble, unwittingly become essential to the politics of other ashdown.

"Oh ah-" Alg moved towards the back of the store, "There's an employee break room here-" He was showing him around, right?

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit peeked into the indicated room and nodded. He preferred to go outside for his breaks, for various reasons, but he'd keep it in mind.

"Looks good. How do you feel about... like, if there ever was an emergency, could I bring the sirens here for an afternoon? Not all the time or anything, just... things happen."

He wondered if his phone number was on file here for secret noble shindigs. It would have to be, right? Rabbit tried to put it on some sort of mental to-do list—MAKE SURE ALGERNON HAS MY NUMBER—but even he doubted he'd remember.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"That's absoluetly fine.." Alg chuckled, "Honestly I wouldn't mind having them around. Liven up the place so long as they don't disturb the customers too much.." And behave with the cats obviously.

"Also you know Jeremiah and I can usually take time if you need babysitting that isn't available," Algie liked watching kids so long as they were sent home at the end of the day.

Algie had found a bunch of new numbers in his phone since the world turned and Rabbit's was one of them. Not that he could read his mind that he was thinking of it.

"Anything else?" He scratched his jaw. There was a schedule posted for all the employees on the wall, as well as names - Zac Bantok-Mercer, Jordan Miller, Obadiah Thompson - amongst them.

"Oh and Eve next door at the teashop gives a little discount for us.. and vice versa." Because he would obviously have figured that part out quickly.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Cool. Thanks. I haven't been around them as long as I'd been before, but I get the feeling they know how to keep quiet." It was a little sad that they still had to hide in this new world, but he understood why. Just because most people knew about magic didn't mean there weren't those who would react poorly to weird bird creatures going to school with their kids.

Rabbit continued to look around the immediate vicinity as he thought, but quickly came to the conclusion that he was currently questionless. "I don't have anything else to ask right now, but if I think of something, I'll get a hold of you." The tea discount sounded interesting, but he was wary of approaching someone he didn't know to claim it. He'd work up to it, he supposed.

"So... I should probably get started." He chuckled, slipping his hands into his pockets.

iloveyouDIE