Library; Wednesday [ 10/31 ]

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

October 31. Thirty one backwards was thirteen, a supposedly unlucky number; October, from the root oct, meaning eight, maintaining its Roman ground despite no longer being the eighth month. All Hallow's Eve was certainly something never celebrated in the Price household, so Adah didn't feel any inclination to dress up or anything like that. She figured her personality was dark and cynical enough to meet the holiday without costumes to add to it. She did support the theory of rotting teeth out of your mouth so you either looked like the witch you were trying to resemble or one of the ear-pulling Crawley children she barely escaped spending her entire education with, though, as indicative of the bowl of suckers set in front of the books and notebooks and pens spread around the desk. However, there was a catch, a small scrap of writing attached to it:

Lliw reh tsniaga neve
Evol ll'ehs noos, gnivol won ton fi,
Evig ll'ehs tub, stfig tpecca t'nseod ehs,
Eusrup ll'ehs noos, seelf ehs fi rof.
Have the poet? Get a sweet.
Don't quite know it? Ah! Defeat!

She had a temptation to go with Poe, but realized that, considering the day, that would have been too easy, and, besides, she couldn't quite get this one out of her head lately.

Comments

First Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

And while Poe would have been too easy for the riddle, it would just seem wrong if Adah were sitting behind the desk and reading anything else. Quoth the raven, erom reven!

Second Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah took a break from the reading, choosing the second hour to be the hour of limping, around the shelves sliding books back into their rightful places on the shelf.

And, in a few instances, the wrong place on purpose.

Third Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Poe translated into Japanese was a fascinating thing, Adah came to learn, as she went about her usual practice with the language for want to be in the class right now.

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

River tried to slip into the library quietly, hoping that Adah would be caught up enough in a book for her to be able to advance to the desk unnoticed. She stopped for a moment in the doorway, though, unable not to just observe Adah before approaching.

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

And it was that moment of observation that cost River, as Adah was never one to go too long without noticing a pair of eyes on her. Of course, the nice thing about it being River was that she wouldn't even have to look up for the other girl to know that she'd noticed her there in the edges of her excellent peripheral vision. All she had to do was smile as her pen dragged out the smoothly flowing linear patterns of a Japanese character and think, teasingly, that, really, River was welcome to come closer if she wanted, that Adah wouldn't mind, although perhaps the books might, in which case, Adah washed her hands of the affair.

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

Although her plan had failed River couldn't help smile back. Whether the books minded or not didn't matter to her, and as Adah herself didn't mind, River walked up to the desk, making no attempt to hide. Slipping up on to the table top she took a seat, crosslegged, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her palms. "Brought an apple," she said, her eyes moving from Adah's hands next to the Japanese characters, up along her arm to try and meet her gaze.

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Only after finishing off another character did Adah look up, and she did so slightly reluctantly halfway through Dream within a Dream; the rest of the dream would have to wait, suspended, halted, in all it's poorly, roughly translated glory. Japanese was harder than French, with its familiar roots and concoctions of useless, silent letters. Adah looked up at River, marveling a little at her ability to find a spot to sit on the desk amid the literary chaos Adah tried to construct there and wondered at the singularity of her offer. An apple. Elp pana. But, really, it made more sense if River had just brought one: practical, as Adah could never eat that much of it anyway, as well as somewhat symbolic for them to share, although developing that metaphor further in her mind threatened to leave her scoffing at herself. It was cliche, but, then again, poetry...good poetry that wasn't cliche, was even more difficult that Japanese.

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[moonbrain-tam.livejournal.com]

"Not chaos, just complexity," River pointed out, and that was something she was used to. In fact, it made her feel at ease, and perhaps that was one thing that drew her to Adah; complexity and yet recurring patterns. Her smile widened, her eyes caught at the corner of Adah's mouth. That brought memories, and she pulled herself away from them by starting to peel the apple. "Apples are better suited to libraries than ice cream, perhaps. Will the Dream within a dream resumed later be the same as it would have uninterrupted?"

Re: Third Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

River's comment made Adah quirk an eyebrow and, despite herself, a smirk as well. Yes; ice cream would not be suited to libraries at all, especially not in their possession. They were, clearly, just no good with ice cream. No good at all. The grin maintained a little as she watched the ease at which River peeled the apple, with a fleeting thought that it was wasteful, as some of the best nutrients were in the skin, but they'd still be consumed, just seperately, mind jumping to seemingly forever ago, among first meetings and heads tilted back for curls of apple skins to slide down throats. Adah had to draw her lower lip under her teeth for a moment at that direction of thought made an inconsistency in the pace of her heart in her chest, but then it helped her decide on her commentary for River's question.

No; she figured the dream would end there. It was difficult to go back to one dream after being interrupted from it, but she didn't mind. She should work on translating the short stories, instead, and there was a lovely one about a heart in a floorboard...

Lunch -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah has her usual, sensible but small lunch at her desk, trying not to get the mustard from her sandwich on the pages of her book. Ketchup, however, would be okay. It was her own book from her personal library, after all, and the stains might resemble blood, which seemed befitting of Eop.

Of course, in that reasoning, Adah realized she should take the book to the bar one of these days and spill alcohol all over it. And that would be especially fitting of Eop.

Fourth Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Enough Poe. It's back to the shelves with Adah; she's feeling oddly restless at this point, and the desire to put books where they don't belong has grown. Like the Kama Sutra with the Orthodox texts, and the Bible translations in the Fantasy section, although, really, that last one she feels is just the right place for them.

Fifth Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah knows not to be anywhere else but the desk this hour.

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Like clockwork, Lee found himself pushing open the door to the library like he always did on Wednesdays and walked towards the desk, smile on his face.

He waved and then said, "Hi there," once he'd gotten to the desk.

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"Fancy meeting you here," Adah wrote back in response, sliding the notebook forward for him to read.

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Oddly enough, I happened to be in the neighborhood," he said, grinning at her. "How are you doing?"

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"Approximately the same as I was the last time we talked," Adah answered after a moment to consider. "It has been a rather uneventful week so far."

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it's been pretty boring," he agreed, leaning against the desk. "Just classes and some homework and some sleep. I really shouldn't complain because this is so much easier than what I came from."

Re: Fifth Period -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah's head tilted a little with her eyes set widely in an agreeing sort of expression as she recapped all the things that used to make up her own typical day before she started coming here. After Bethlehem, because she never did much then other than Verse after Verse after Verse. But in Africa.

"I used to think I read a lot before," she finally wrote a moment later. "That was nothing compared to what I plow through these days. Thankfully, I seem to keep finding things to look forward to."

The Study Tables -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Because Adah doesn't want to deal with that many people at once ever, they get their own special OCD tables to collaborate.

Re: The Study Tables -- 10/31

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

Katara was at the tables bright and early in the morning, trying to see if she could find anything on a curse or a legend or SOMETHING that would change a normal kid into a pumpkin-headed thing.

Re: The Study Tables -- 10/31

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi was there as soon as Miss Connell agreed to take the rest of her shift at the hotel. And yes, she was still green. "Any luck?" she asked Katara.

Re: The Study Tables -- 10/31

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"I think I might have found it," Katara said. "Well, okay, it's one of two things, I think. Either Jim found a cursed pumpkin and we need to destroy it. ...or he's under a curse of the ancient Pharaohs and will only stop trying to pumpkin us if we sacrifice him to the gods. ...I'm hoping for the first."

Re: The Study Tables -- 10/31

[itsjustlanguage.livejournal.com]

Hoshi frowned. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to sacrifice him to the gods, even if he tried to convince me that his name was Pam the first time we met. I guess we could see if we could find this cursed pumpkin before we jump to conclusions. If the pumpkin exists, then we know it's the first option, right?"

Re: The Study Tables -- 10/31

[southernbender.livejournal.com]

"Unless we don't find the pumpkin, sacrifice Jim, and my shoulder never, ever turns un-pumpkiny," Katara pointed out.

OOC -- 10/31

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Not only do I work from 1;30 pm to about 10;30 pm EST today, but I might have the same internet issues that I had yesterday, so, please, SP? Is so much love.