fandomhigh | Combined Reserves Meeting, Library, Thursday Afternoon

Karla, Dolf and Wesley had sent out a ~~handwavy~~ notice to the student body that today's Reserves meeting would take place in the library. Wesley, for his part, looked very much in his element. Maybe something to do with spending a day in here once a week for about a year now. Also, it could've been that his position as a library aide gave him the authority to veto Karla bringing in any cookies. For the sake of the books, you know.

"In case you're not already familiar with it, this is the school library," he pointed out, perhaps a bit unnecessarily. "We have quite an extensive collection of books and other resources that really come in handy for research during invasions and other such problems, so today we'll be showing you where to find the different materials." Because he was lonely in here on Fridays. Don't judge.

"The history section is over there," Dolf added, because that was pretty much the only part of the library he ever got into. "Just in case everyone was wondering."

Thank you, Dolf. "There's some works there about Fandom as well, if anyone is interested."

"I know we keep records of previous invasions, for example," Karla said. "No two invasions are alike, at least, not that I've seen, but there's nothing wrong with learning about the different kind of invasions we've had in the past, just to get an idea of the different kinds of things we might be up against."

Alligators that spat piranhas, bitey vegetables, gremlin things that weren't their gremlins, weeping angels, vampires, non-Caritas zombies, goblins...The list was getting pretty long.

"Either way, time is usually of the essence when we're under attack. It's hard enough trying to find information about whatever we're fighting, but trying to do so in the wrong section entirely squanders what little time we may have. By learning how the library's laid out in advance, you'll know where to go whether you're looking up the weakness of the attacking jello-dragons, or the best way to bind a wound, or whether those plants you're holding are edible or deadly poisonous."

[Cowritten with the usual suspects. ~~Please hold for OCD, which will probably take FOREVER to post~~ It did, but it's up now! Yay!]

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If there was one, Tara didn't know it either. It must have been in that breakup handbook she and Kennedy didn't get.

"That wouldn't be too bad," Tara smiled back. "We hand it over to the really, really smart people, and the rest of us go watch TV until it's over."

"I suppose so," Wesley agreed. "Well. There it is, at any rate."

Yes, Wes. That was clear.

"And, ah, over there are most of the mystical texts," he added, pointing. "Quite a few of them seem compatible with, er, the magics back home."

"Huh," Tara said, making a beeline toward them. A witchy beeline. "I do most of my research in the shop. I haven't really looked around in here."

She glanced up the shelves. "Okay, your collection is almost better than ours."

"Likely," Wesley admitted with a smile. "It's nearly as big as the Council library, even." Which might have been being a bit generous with the Fandom collection, but it certainly was big. "Actually, I was looking at this one," he said, indicating a book, "for advice on how to, er, improve... baked products."

Meaningful look. Yeah, Tara. You knew what he meant.

Tara laughed into her hand. "I've suggested cookbooks, but apparently they kind of go over some people's heads?"

Yes. Some people.

"I don't know of a magic way to fix them, but if there is one ..."

It would be a mercy to all of Fandom.

Edited 2011-10-07 15:11 (UTC)

"I've also been looking into discreet portals, but those also affect the surrounding area and disrupt other magics, so that may not be the best bet," he added. "But if you'd like to take a look, there's a ritual in here that might work on improving them somewhat."

"Really?" Tara was intrigued, so she looked over Wesley's shoulder as she waited for him to find the ritual. "Do you think magic's the way to go? It seems kind of ... petty. Someone could just tell her to quit baking and --"

She stopped there. She was not willing to be "someone," and she didn't want to dump the burden on anyone else.

"Maybe it's not such a bad way to use magic."

"Well, if you really think about it, we are protecting Warren from unspeakable harm," Wesley pointed out as he flipped through the pages of the book to settle on the spell he'd found. "We might well be saving his life."

"So it's, um, kind of almost noble, if we look at it that way," Tara said, then tilted her head at a page he'd flipped past. "-- wait, there's a magical way to get out ketchup stains?"

"So it seems," he said, squinting down at it. "Seems a rather wasteful use of newt eyes, in my opinion."

Especially if you happened to live in Sunnydale. The cleaners there could get anything out!

"Depends," Tara said. "I mean, if you work at a magic supply shop and it's your favorite sweater ..."

Yeah, she was copying down the spell.

"So how does the one that makes the cookies safe work?"

Wesley waited for her to finish copying down the ketchup one, then flipped a few pages forward to the one he'd had in mind. "Ah, here we are." He ran a finger down the list of ingredients. "Salamandar eyes, poppy, cedar bark... nothing too hard to come by, really."

"We have all of that at the store," Tara agreed easily. "Hmmm. If we gave a bottle of it to Warren, maybe he could add a couple drops while she's baking? She'd let him if he said it was vanilla or something."

"Or we could simply pour it into something that says 'tartar sauce' on it," Wesley pointed out. "She'd probably add the whole bottle."

She probably would.

"No." That was reflexive; give Tara a second. "...okay, so she probably would. Her world's a whole lot different from here."

Not that different -- not tartar-sauce-in-cookies different -- but Tara felt obligated to be at least a little loyal.

"I'm just repeating what I've heard," Wesley added. "I wouldn't have thought it possible, myself."

And Wes knew all about bad cooking. He was British.

Tara sighed. Woefully. "I've known her two years," she said. "I think the cookies are actually getting worse."

Which she wouldn't have thought possible, either.

"Even Katniss wouldn't eat them last winter," Wesley recalled tiredly. "She, er. Grew up eating squirrel. Not to speak ill of her upbringing, but in most cases, one would suspect baked goods would be an improvement."

But not with Karla. Sigh.

Combined Reserves Meeting, Library, Thursday Afternoon

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