Library (12/20/05)

[janet_fraiser]

Janet ran towards the library. She'd overslept, and it looked like no one else had gotten it open yet. She flipped on the lights, unloaded the food from last night's shopping trip with Parker, made sure that no one but library staff could get to the food, and sat down to start eating while she finished up her Classics project.


Assortment of four French cheeses - Epoisses, Buche Chevre,
Chaource and Gruyere de Comte
4 pounds of Jumbo Shrimp with cocktail sauce
Mousse of Goose Liver pate', with black truffle mushrooms mixed in
Maine Lobster tails, with garlic butter
Russian Beluga, Sevruga, and Osetra caviar, with mini blinis and
creme fraiche
Blinis with raspberry preserves
French bread
Grapes
Pears
Granny Smith and Tulip apples
Belgian Chocolate truffles
Chocolate Marble Cheesecake
Maple Walnut fudge
Wine and champagne (hidden)

Comments

At the Library check-in desk - a few hours later

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker is a *liiiittle* tipsy. "So, you see, the religion part is cool, except, I don't want to believe, but it makes people happy, an they give presents, so, it's all good...."

The computer to the side is playing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the goodies and food spread out are all juuust out of reach of anyone on the other side.

As he neared the check-in desk, Xander caught a glimpse of the only visible person behind it, and did an abrupt about-face -- almost walking into Logan. "That is not the librarian," he hissed quietly, pointing over his shoulder.

"You have keen observation skills," Logan said dryly. "He's probably around. Come on!" He marched up to the counter and rapped his knuckles on the wood. "Miss?" he said to Parker. "I have business with the librarian. Happen to know where he'd be found?"

"Heyyy, Echolls." Parker lazily looked up from her conversation with the salamander, and smiled at him and Xander. "He's back in his office, doing... things. Researchy things. With food. Why? Whatcha need?"

"A librarian," Logan said. "Go, fetch him." He made a shooing motion with his hand.

Parker folded her arms and smirked, leaning back on her spinny chair. "I think not. If you need a book, you can ask me. If you need a reference, you can ask me. The only thing he can do that I can't is translate dead languages. If you need that, I'll get him. If you say 'please'. Sweetly."

Xander winced. "Oh sure, now comes the day when I regret not having made Giles teach me the proto-Aramaic for 'where's the porn'..." he said under his breath.

"Fine," Logan grinned. "Just let us into Special Collections and we'll be out of your hair."

Parker's eyebrows went up. "Show me your note from a teacher, then we'll talk Special Collections. Otherwise, no dice."

Logan nodded and slapped down a piece of paper (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomhigh/452424.html?thread=20995144#t20995144) in front of her.

Parker read it, and shook her head. "The sad part is? I can believe he wrote it. Okay-fine. Follow me." Parker grabbed the keys to Special Collections, and motioned them to follow her. "This is your only visit, don't break anything, don't touch anything you shouldn't, don't take anything out, and if the lights suddenly go out? Run for the exit. Understood?" She asked, unlocking the doors.

Xander was frankly still back on 'ZOMG Parker just read the thing with the thing that says we're here to look at the thing' - but he followed, eyes wide. "Um. Do the lights usually suddenly go out?"

"Never." She gestured to the bookcases directly in front of them, the study tables to the left, and the lumpy leather furniture in the lounge on the right. "Which is why if they do suddenly go out? You are in *so* much trouble."

The stacks-- behind those immediately in front of them, the ones that go on for about fifty or sixty feet-- don't seem to end at all.

"This is the green section, though. As long as you're in sight of the door, you're fine, really. Since you have a note."

She grabbed some vinyl gloves out of a box on the table. "Wear these when you're looking at the books. They're in the 890's." She smirked at them. "And they better not be *damaged* when you get done."

Re: At the Library check-in desk - a few hours later

[fh_jackass]

Logan took the gloves from her. "Kinky," he said, and put them on with a snap. "Shall we?" he said to Xander.

Re: At the Library check-in desk - a few hours later

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander eyed the gloves nervously even as he reached for a pair and started to pull them on. "Think these are to protect the books from us, or us from them?" he asked Logan.

Re: At the Library check-in desk - a few hours later

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"The books from you, mostly. Although it does work both ways," Parker said sardonically, then turned around and headed for the door. "I'm going back to the party. Come get one of us if you can't find something for your 'art project.'"

The glass door swung shut behind her.

In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

"Well." Logan raised his eyebrows at Xander and started walking through the stacks. The first books he spotted were what he'd expected to see - old, worn leather volumes of varying sizes and colors. Further along, the books changed. Different shapes, different colors, and some things that Logan wouldn't have classified as books at all.

One book had an odd shimmer about it. The binding was so black it was nearly invisible and no markings were visible. Logan lifted his hand to touch it, and the shimmer flared up. Logan pulled his hand back quickly. He didn't need to be a bunny again, or worse.

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander, about to run his fingers along the spines of the row whose numbers he was checking, drew his own hand back. "Do I even wanna know what you had to do to get that note, by the way?" he asked.

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

"Sometimes, grasshopper, the shortest distance between two points really is a straight line," Logan said.

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

"You did lines with Coach Ash? Way to take one for the team."

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

Logan rolled his eyes. "I asked," he said. He spotted movement and peered at the binding of a book, only to spot two tiny yellow eyes staring back at him. "Whoa." He backed away.

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander reached out without thinking, to run his gloved finger over the spine of a book that seemed to be bound in soft, glossy brown fur.

It thrummed under his hand.

"I... think possibly we're getting closer," he said, gingerly removing his hand and reflexively wiping it on his jeans.

Re: In the stacks

[spec-collection.livejournal.com]

A sound carried from down the rows.

A low, throaty, "MmmmMMmmmmmmm...." trailing off into giggles.

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

Logan looked at the book. "I think it liked it," he said.

Re: In the stacks

[spec-collection.livejournal.com]

The dragon opened one eye. "You don't need to do that," he says. "Too dangerous by far. Where are you going? I might be able to hhelp you find it."

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

"Um. Hello," Logan said, regaining his foothold. "We were just looking - ah, here it is." He grabbed a book at random from the shelf.

Re: In the stacks

[spec-collection.livejournal.com]

"Excellent," the dragon says, closing his eyes again. Then: "I think all the school libraries are to your left. Do be careful, injured humans scream so."

And, indeed, the lamps are flaring on that side of the path, seeming to point them that way.

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

The bookshelves receded to form an open corridor beneath the lights, and Xander didn't waste any time scrambling down from the shelves and moving away from the not-so-sleepy dragon. Just because it sounded friendly didn't mean that it was going to stay that way. "Er, thanks..." he called back, when he was - hopefully - out of barbecue range.

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

Logan followed Xander, still clutching the book he'd grabbed. "Later, dude!" he called to the dragon.

Re: In the stacks

[spec-collection.livejournal.com]

The library seems to spin around them, settling into a configuration that might be familiar to Xander; they're standing next to a long, dark table, with bookshelves on terraces to all sides. An office and a bookcage are also on their level.

The smell of chalkdust and cafeteria food hangs in the air. This is clearly a school library.

But not a quiet one; some shelves are in disorder or have even been tipped over, and a girl lies near the library desk, unmoving.

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander didn't need more than a glance to recognise the figure on the floor by the desk, and only two heartbeats worth of memory to know there wasn't any point in walking over to her.

"Shit. Is this supposed to be real?" he asked, moving forward to the nearest fallen shelf even as he spoke. He braced his shoulder against it, not even sure who had ended up beneath it, but positive there was more chance to help whoever it was than the still, dark girl who lay near the desk.

Re: In the stacks

[fh_jackass]

Logan crouched against a bookshelf, holding a book called "Forty-Two Uses for Gillyweed (Illustrated)" over his head to keep the flying objects off. He looked over at Xander, crouched beside him. "Well, they're not here yet. Any other ideas?"

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander glanced around. "Build a book-fort?"

Re: In the stacks

[swerval_zero]

Then a voice could be heard. "TELL ME where they are! This is really not funny."

Re: In the stacks

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Does it talk back?" another voice wondered, considerably less angrily. "Logan? Xander? Can you guys hear us?"

Re: In the stacks

[swerval_zero]

"Sometimes. Apparently not today. It's like it's in a snit, which I think means they must be close. Logan? Xander, are you there?"

Re: In the stacks

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander heard a female voice off in the distance, though it was hard to tell what direction it was coming from. He certainly recognised his own name, though. "We're over here," he called back. "Um, wherever here is!"