fandomhigh | Just outside of Special Collections and beyond [Wednesday late afternoon]

Belle couldn't believe it had taken her this long to think of this. She blamed the exhaustion clouding her brain, but a possible answer was looming there at the other end of her library.

Of course they hadn't found anything, out here where the books she understood lived. But why would they? These books dealt were normal, and while they spoke of otherworldly things, Belle knew where the dangerous material was kept.

So she'd emerged from her office (nearly tripping over Gabrielle's gift (and her heart melted a little at the thoughtfulness, but this wasn't the time), tying her hair back and looking more awake than she had in a week. She stopped by the circulation desk to tell Gabrielle to keep things under control here as she moved towards Special Collections and stopped at the edge of the entrance in.

She wasn't stupid enough to go in alone, but she also hardly wanted to drag anyone else in. So she cast a glance around, hesitating. She'd only pause a minute, but she needed to see if there was anyone else she could or would take with her. The idea of bringing in students caused her to pause a fair amount.

[for our intrepid team, and ~~please hold for~~ OCD is up, even if lj bloooows.]

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As the group moved deeper into Special Collections, around them, a forest grew, and grew, and grew until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around, and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for ~~Max~~ our explorers.

Okay, now this was cool. Not that Jen thought it was at all random to be exploring a forest as part of trying to solve the mystery of the multiverse-eating clouds -- it was finding the forest in the middle of the library that threw her. Ordinarily she expected to get flung through a magic mirror or some kind of portal (which, in the current situation, no thank you) to end up in a place like this, but to have the forest practically sprout up around them?

That was weird. But neat.

Oh, hello, ocean.

Chloe blinked in surprise at the forest that they found themselves in. She looked around carefully and had to bite back a stab of pain that her first thought was that she couldn't wait to tell Tori about this.

"I thought ... well, I mean ... what happened to the library?"

"I think we're still in it." Jen was resolutely shutting down any distracting thoughts of her lost world to deal with later; at the moment she looked a little awed by the forest. "This forest exists inside the library."

Like a kid in a candy store? She was a geek, so yes.

"That's kind of ... okay, that's pretty amazing,"she had to admit. "Our library must be a lot bigger than it looks from the outside."

You're just now figuring this out, Chloe?

The look Jen gave her translated to You're just now figuring this out?

What a coincidence!

"This library has to break about a thousand laws of physics," she agreed, still in total-geekgasm mode. (Of course it did. It was Fandom's library.) "Isn't it awesome?"

She nodded. "It really is. I never imagined that something like this could be here."

"More libraries should have forests in them," Jen mused. "It would've taken a few hundred less years to get kids really interested in reading."

Which was not to say that it was a nonexistent problem in the 31st century, but it was a lot less widespread and had partly been solved through profligate use of genetic recoding. Creepy much?

"Especially if they are nice forests like this. I know I would have spent even more time in my libraries over the years if they had something like this."

Parker relaxed. "Way better than a monastery. Good." She looked around. "And not familiar."

"One pro, one con. It evens out," Jen said, a grin threatening to break out on her face despite everything. "This is amazing. I don't usually get out of the city much unless I'm on a mission, so this --"

Hang on.

"-- is about typical. Except for how we're still inside the library, oh my god."

"Yeeeeeeah." Parker gave her an amused look. "Hurts your head, doesn't it? We lost a couple of the early librarians in here. They just disappeared one day and didn't come back. I always wondered if they meant to, though." Her voice softened. "Really damn amazing."

"There's a part of me that thinks it would be a nice life," Jen admitted. "But I think it'd get too unpredictable for me after a while."

This, to anyone who might have glanced at her research spreadsheets, would not be a shock.

"Probably," Parker had to admit. "What, you don't like knowing if you'll be in a jungle or a conference center within the next hour?"

"At least then I have an hour's notice," Jen replied with a touch of humor.

Parker snickered. "I wouldn't have your job for anything. But once in a while, it's good to get back to this place." She paused. "I just wish the circumstances were better."

"I can't imagine having a different job." Then again, Jen's imagination was not the greatest. "But I'm with you about the circumstances; it's a little too much like work."

Wesley was completely dorking out about this, thank you. He looked out in awe as the trees and vines and ocean formed around him, his mouth slightly open while he took it all in.

"Amazing," he finally said, reaching up to touch one of the vines. Upon verifying that it was indeed really there, he hurried forward to examine the boat.

"Now this . . . this is new," Claudia commented. She had to admit it was pretty cool, though.

Despite all her years on Fandom, her grandmother's garden, and all her inner voices, Ghanima still had never broken the Fremen conditioning when it came to green and growing things. Let alone the awe/fear of an ocean.

She brushed her fingers along the underside of some low-hanging leaves; a left-over memory from the tau of Lady Jessica, as she looked around, scanning for any threats.

Aesthetically, Tyrion approved; it reminded him of a godswood, or of some of the less-traveled patches of Westeros.

But on a practical level, he was irritated -- he had a hard enough time walking without having to climb over and under roots and branches. He went slowly forward, occasionally chopping away at vines with his dagger until he could make it to the boat.

Edited 2011-12-07 22:12 (UTC)

Just outside of Special Collections and beyond [Wednesday late afternoon]

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