Chapter Text
Aradia walked briskly through the park, on her way to class. She was nearly 21 and majoring in archaeology with a minor degree in history. She hoped to someday be an archaeologist and unearth ancient civilizations. When she was a child, back in the orphanage, she had first seen a great man who would become her hero, his eyes barely visible from below the brim of that brown felt fedora. She was immediately infatuated with the man on the screen, whose face was rough with stubble, as he rushed through ruins, running for his life from an enormous rolling stone ball. And yet he survived, even though it seemed he had surely reached his end. As Aradia would soon find out, that man was Indiana Jones, and in virtually no time he would become the young girl’s idol. Ever since then she aspired to explore ruins, just like her hero. And now, with any luck she would be able to. It was through a lot of hard work that she had gotten this far, hours and hours of studying in high school; extra credit projects; reading she didn’t actually have to do; fundraising for educational trips. But look where it had got her, a full ride to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Of course this didn’t include meals or books so she still had to work long hours in the library. It would have helped to have parents to pay, but what could she do? She was never adopted, but was bounced around a few foster homes.
The problem was the Aradia had a bit of an obsession with death. Anyone without parents would want to know why, and when the answer is death, any child would do a bit of reading on that. So many ways to die, Aradia had been enchanted in this world of death. She was fascinated with dead things and would often do home dissections of anything she found dead at the side of the road. Which isn’t exactly what you want from a daughter, so she was usually sent back to the orphanage before long. And then when she saw Raiders of the Lost Ark she was even more interested. An entire city? Without any people whatsoever? In a way the city itself was dead, at least it was bare of life. So back in that cold orphanage she decided she would do whatever it takes to get herself into a dead city just like that. And now she was so close, so if all she had to do was work some odd hours at the on campus library then she would.
Aradia worked her way across the park (the dorms had been full and since the school was paying for her they let people who would actually pay their own way have the dorms first). The park was the quickest route for a girl without a car to go from her apartment to main campus. Now something caught her eye, a bright purple flier, tacked to a tree. Since she was early, Aradia stopped to look at it. It advertised a free magic show, here in the park tomorrow afternoon. She scoffed. Everyone knew magic was fake and something for kids, but she wasn’t doing anything at three anyway. Actually, it would be convenient, right after her shift at the library, and it was Saturday, so no classes for her. Aradia decided she would go, and continued on her way to class.
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Class had been boring, a total drag. It was all stuff she already knew about Ancient Egypt. She had passed the time by texting her boyfriend, Sollux, a computer major. Sollux was a total nerd, tall and wiry, but a cutie. She loved spending her free nights off with him, in his dorm room, eating cheap Top-Ramen and playing video games with him or cuddling and watching adventure flicks (though nothing tops the four Indiana Jones movies). Through the entire lecture she struggled to keep a straight face as Sollux sent her cheesy pick up lines. Eventually class was over and she walked home. Aradia shot Sollux a text asking if he wanted to come over tonight for an Indiana Jones movie marathon (what else is new) since she didn’t have anything besides work from 12-3 tomorrow afternoon. He agreed.
Aradia went home and quickly tidied her small apartment. She called for a pizza, half plain for her, half sausage and pepperoni for Sol and relayed her address to the worker who spoke in a gruff voice, like he was angry (she swore she heard him yell “we have a phone call, fuckass” at someone in the shop). She found the vhs tapes and put the first one into her video player. It was old fashioned, but it was what she could afford. All the best movies were on tapes anyway, and if they weren’t she could always make an exception to her ‘school supplied laptop is only for school’ rule. There was a rap at the door, and she opened it to a boy about her age, who had extremely green eyes and was wearing extremely short shorts. She took the pizza from him and set it on the table.
“Give me a sec, gotta grab my wallet.”, She said as she walked back into her bedroom. The pizza man just nodded and uneasily took a step into the apartment. When she came back out she handed him the money. He went to leave and then turned back, clearing his throat uncomfortably.
“Is that Raiders of the Lost Ark?” He queried. He actually had some sort of accent, maybe British, which was quite strange for someone in Rhode Island.
“Why yes.” Aradia blinked, surprised, she had it paused at the beginning on a nondescript landscape. It was amazing he has recognized it. “We’re having a marathon, all four of them tonight.” She smiled at him, clearly she found someone with good movie tastes.
“Devilfucking Dickens!” Aradia had to giggle at that, then listened back in as he continued, “It’s a shame i’ll have to miss out on that! Oh, not that I would have intruded. I mean I don’t know you, sorry that was odd of me.”
“It’s fine. I’m Aradia Megido.”
“Jake English.”
“I’m at the University for archeology”
“Capital! I’m actually there too, I’m for biology though. You see, back on the island where I was raised there was a considerable amount of flaura and fauna. Not much besides that though. And the ruins of course.”
“Ruins?” Aradia asked, curiosity piqued.
“Yes, huge ruins, underground, I don’t think anyone has ever gone through them in their entirety. In my youth I quite fancied myself an adventurer like our hat-wearing-hero.”
“As an archaeology major, i’m interested. Is it possible that I could have a look at them sometime?”
“I’m sure that could be arranged.”
“I’ll see you around then! You probably ought to get back to work.”
“Egads! You’re right. Later then.”
He hurried off and Aradia shut the door after him, laughing. She had never met such an odd fellow. Egads? Capital? She snickered. Devilfucking Dickins? He was certainly individual (especially with those shorts (Egads!)). But wow. To grow up exploring ruins of some old city. Aradia wondered if he ever found any mummies, or if mummification wasn’t the method used after death there. She would definitely go about contacting him, if not through the school, she at least knew his workplace.
There were two sharp raps at the door. That had to be Sol. She let him in. To her surprise he was holding two pint-containers of Ben and Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. “Here, i’ll stick these in the freezer. I got pizza.” Aradia said taking the containers from him. She did as she said she would, noting how empty her freezer was. She needed to restock her college survival foods: frozen pizzas and macaroni and cheese TV dinners. Aradia wasn’t a vegetarian per se, but she didn’t eat a lot of meat. It wasn’t really something she even thought about, she just didn’t have it often. She returned to the living room to see Sollux already eating, leaning over the box. Aradia hit play on the VCR player and went and sat next to him, snuggling into his side; pulling up her feet on the couch; and grabbing a slice of cheese. Sol was already on his second next to her.
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Throughout the duration of the four movies they finished the pizza pie and about a half dozen A-Treat black cherry sodas (Aradia adored them, even if they were somewhat harder to find in stores). They also ate one of the pints of ice cream, after Aradia had insisted they share and Sollux pointed out she just wanted the other one to herself (Which she couldn’t really deny, chocolate fudge brownie? Who wouldn’t want the second one for later). Sollux was already asleep, stretched out on the sofa. Aradia reluctantly pulled out of his grasp. She turned off the TV; returned her tapes to the shelf; brushed her teeth; and grabbed the comforter off her bed. She threw it over him and then re-inserted herself into his arms, feeling them automatically tighten around her. She smiled and snuggled back into her boyfriend. This was her favorite way to fall asleep and was a perfect conclusion to a dull Friday.