From the Library to Special Collections, Wednesday

[fewer_explosions]

Certain actions had taken place. Now, there was nothing to do but wait. For a little while.

Help had been promised, and it was about to be given. For better or for worse. Well, worse. Worst, actually.

Somewhere on Pandora, Doctor Patricia Tannis sat in a chair, poking at Science, ignoring everyone and muttering erratically to herself. This was not in any way an unusual occurrence. In fact, even the horrible timing wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The Vault Hunters had gotten used to it.

Maybe too used to it.

Lilith	There'd been a lot of faint arguing since Lilith had last shown up on the computer screen in the library, although it had ceased a few moments prior to her reappearence, with Dr. Tannis in tow. There was... some kind of weird metallic half-helmet type thing on Tannis' head. "Okay, kids," Lilith said, as Tannis sat down, grumbling to herself about how she'd prefer less interaction with people. "I think I've got it. We have this thing, you see? This –– helmet thing. It's supposed to help clear her head but so far we haven't gotten it to work right. So, this might be totally crazy but also totally awesome: I'm gonna connect it to your connection. It should throw up a visual representation on your screens, and you can try and solve this problem." Waaait. "Uh, try not to be too disturbed by anything you see in there. And find out where that damn blockage is. I promise, if you do that, she'll help." Another beat. "Oh, and what you're about to see right this second is pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie." She shrugged, and nodded. Here they went, right? She put her hands against the helmet thing. They began to glow purple, and the glow spread up along her arms until she was entirely aglow, so bright that both women disappeared into it. There was a brief, weird rattling sound in the library. And then the edges of the door to the Special Collections were glowing purple, bright even as Lilith's glow faded away on the screen. But nothing else changed on the screens. "Uh... did it work?" Edited at 2013-12-09 04:32 pm (UTC)
Samantha	It was becoming clear that Sam really had to accept that at no point today was she going to feel the slightest bit bored. "Well," she remarked quietly, her gaze flicking over to the door that was suddenly hard to miss, "she wasn't wrong."
Isabelle	Hanging around computers did not exactly come naturally to Isabelle, so that wasn't what she'd been doing a minute ago. However, the weird sound and the glowing had her coming over. And pointing at the door. "Is that door supposed to be doing that?"
Josh	"Probably not," Josh said, "but when has a sense of self-preservation been a thing around here?"
Sia	"And that's exactly why it should be a thing around here," said Sia. Call her crazy.
Hannibal	"Since nothing on the screens has changed," Hannibal pointed out, "I think it's safe to assume this has not worked as planned." He eyed the glowing door. "However, it has certainly done something." He gave Josh a wry smile. "Now all we need is someone particularly lacking in that self-preservation to open the door."
Liara	"What does self-preservation have to do with the act of opening a library door?" Liara asked. "I am sure the luminescence is simply a side-effect of the connection." Sweet summer child. Edited at 2013-12-09 06:27 pm (UTC)
Lilith	"Yeah, that... might be it," Lilith hazarded from the screen. Beside her, Tannis sat in her chair with her head lolled forwards. "Think you're gonna have to go in. It should be safe! Ish." Reassuring. Especially from a woman who'd just merged the brain of person with a room instead of a computer.
Josh	"That is super reassuring from someone not in this same building as us," Josh said.
John	"You people are not allowed in my library ever again," Constantine decided, shoving his hands into his coat to fish out a cigarette and light it. "You just fucking lost fucking Special Collections, and you'd better fucking hope we find it again before something else does." He took a hit of nicotine to calm his nerves before striding over to the doors. "Tally-ho, then. Let's get this over with before you lot break anything else."
Samantha	Sam bit her lip. "Does anyone want to venture a guess on how dangerous this should be?" Sam, don't be a spoilsport.
John	"On a scale of singing candy-canes to demons, I'd rate this about a heavily-armed elephant herd doing ballet, and we're the mice," John replied, rolling his eyes. "What, you think it's a fucking walk in the park? Special Collections is never not dangerous, love, even when it's being appropriated by glowy-bits."
Jack	"Is this going to be another incident where we end up sleeping under mushrooms and waiting for the world to end?" Jack asked unhappily. "I didn't like that one much." Which wasn't stopping him from squaring his shoulders and following along.
Hannibal	"I suspect I would rather not know." Hannibal eyed them all, eyed the door, then shrugged. "If the world's going to end, I'd rather be trying something than sitting here."
Sia	"The world's not going to end," Sia said. "It already did that, and we're all fine." The joy of having that happen a few months before you got to town. You got jaded from hearing about it.
bigdamndean	"We'll all be fine," Zoe said in her most reassuring tone. "We just have to stick together." She was trying not to consider how difficult that might be in here, shhh.
Josh	"Are any of you, you know, armed?" Josh asked. "Because I'm...not that kind of person."
Isabelle	"I'm definitely that kind of person," Isabelle said. The only thing visible was the electrum whip coiled at her hip, with the handle tucked underneath her belt. But they could rest assured, there were other weapons concealed on her. "So that's not something to worry about." Ah, the endless confidence of the Shadowhunter, even when faced with a glowing door.
Jack	"I believe in being prepared at all times," Jack confirmed, with a small smile for Isabelle. "I've seen too much not to be." And by 'prepared,' he meant he had handgun strapped in a holster beneath his jacket in addition to being a werewolf.
bigdamndean	"I'm always that kind of person," Zoe said with a smirk. "My trust level isn't very high right now. If somebody's looking to get shot, I'm going to be happy to oblige them." She also just had a small concealed gun. It could still do some damage though, in her hands.
John	"Armed as I get," John said, cracking his knuckles. His smile? Wasn't very nice. "One tick." He reached into his coat, flipping out a penknife and nicking his finger open with a muttered swear before smearing a protection rune on either side of the doorframe. Yes, with his blood. Constantine was totally hygienic and stuff. "Right then," he said, popping his finger in his mouth for a second to stem the bleeding. "That should keep any hitchhikers with dubious intentions from coming back with us, so if anything goes utterly balls-up, run like hell back to the library."
Josh	Josh blinked rapidly. "Well that was certainly...new and kinda gross."
Samantha	"Agreed," Sam said, most emphatically. She shot Josh a meaningful look. They seemed to be on the same page about all of this.
Isabelle	"It's just blood magic," Isabelle said because honestly. It was gross but perfectly ordinary... to her, that was. She was eyeing the librarian with some mild interest, yes, but she wasn't about to get all caught up in that. "Let's just go in already."

[[ wait for the ocd is up! ]]

Comments

Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

The room that laid right past this door and the librarian's careful wards was empty. And big. Very big. And purple. Incredibly purple. In fact, the only thing that might catch the attention more than all the purple was the squishiness of the bumpy floor, which was also purple, albeit a slightly different shade of it. Occasionally, arcs of... stuff... shot by overhead.

There were also fish, swimming by in happy schools of a couple of dozen. Why? Why indeed.

[[ arrive! let us know in the ooc if you want a guided tour of weird... ]]

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[playsforkepesh]

Sam took a step. She regretted it quickly. These shoes were uniform-issue!

And worst of all was the bright purple.

"Of all things I should have brought in here," she muttered to whoever happened to be closest to her, "I didn't think I'd regret not having sunglasses."

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Or a fishing pole," Josh added.

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[playsforkepesh]

"I'd happily take one of those too," Sam agreed. "Have you ever done -- anything like this before?"

He seemed like a Normal.

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"Go through a big glowing door into a place full of fish?" Josh shook his head. "It's hard to get a security clearance with a drug addiction."

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[playsforkepesh]

"Right, right." She nodded like that was a familiar concern. "The Alliance wouldn't stand for this either. Really, I'm glad I'm only in town on a business posting -- I can most likely get out of including this in my weekly report."

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"My girlfriend thinks I'm making most of this place up anyway," Josh said. "She calls it my flair for the dramatic."

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[playsforkepesh]

"Oh, I wouldn't dare share some of the more colorful aspects of this town with anyone from home who hasn't seen combat," Sam vowed. "I'm not sure any of my university friends or my friends from the labs could hear the details of this place without losing all trust in me whatsoever."

This place was weird, was basically what she was saying.

"I'm Sam, by the way. Sam Traynor."

Re: Onwards! Into Special Collections!

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe blinked a little, looking almost offended by their surroundings. She'd seem some weird stuff in Special Collections, but it was usually... less bright. "It's like a girl's toy store gone wrong. With fish." Of course there were random fish, of course.

Uh-Oh...

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

Re: Uh-Oh...

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

Re: Uh-Oh...

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

Re: Uh-Oh...

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

[[ continued in the comments... ]]

Re: Uh-Oh...

[playsforkepesh]

"Well," Sam said, "it sounds like your relationship with it might be -- perhaps -- intimate enough that it might listen?"

Sam, that wasn't the best thing to say.

Re: Uh-Oh...

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

"ECHO and I are close... but we are both our own people," Tannis replied, sounding... thoughtful about the matter none the less. "Should I entertain the thought? I don't usually entertain bandits."

Beat.

"Without gunfire, at any rate."

Re: Uh-Oh...

[talentforlying]

"Well, you wanted conversation, didn't you?" John reasoned with her. "That's what we're here for, sunshine. And we're not bandits, so you won't have to kill us in self-defense. No gunfire necessary. Seems like a win-win for you."

Re: Uh-Oh...

[seveninchmotto]

By the Angel, everyone else was coming off seeming much more patient than what Isabelle was feeling.

"Look, ma'am," she called out, "just make sure the thing doesn't attack us, okay? We're here to help and we'd like to get a move on doing that!"

At Last! A Tannis!

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

[[ continued in the comments... ]]

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[playsforkepesh]

"Now, let's say he doesn't," Sam ventured, opting for the best-case scenario partly to keep from freaking out. "How might we, ah, help keep it that way? Could he be persuaded to stop digging somehow that you know of, Doctor?"

When in doubt, polite forms of address were always a good strategy.

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[bigdamnprincipal]

"And if he does have a key, would it be in our best interest to remove it from his possession?" That was Zoe's polite way of asking if they could resort to violence. Violence was a good answer sometimes!

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[pandora-goodies.livejournal.com]

"Yes, it would be in your best interest." Tannis was helping them, but that wasn't going to stop her from acting generally exasperated at them. With her tone and things. "And no, you won't be able to persuade Jack to do anything. I suggest not bothering with persuasion. Look into obtaining the Vault key. Or at the very least finding out if he has it."

Re: At Last! A Tannis!

[bitten_notshy]

"But that's what my question was getting at," Jack said, sounding slightly frustrated. "It sounds like he won't just tell us that he has it if we ask, so how can we know for sure?"

OOC

[fewer_explosions]

Ping us here if you'd like NPCed crazytiemz!