fandomhigh | The Library {Saturday}

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The Library {Saturday}

The carnival was unnatural and evil from everything that Cassidy had heard and from the headache she received from all of the strangeness that she could feel even from the land where the carnival was sitting. That wasn't even mentioning all of the things she heard about people being hurt or going and not coming back out.

She got to the library early and made sure that there were clean tables for the researchers to work at and she had even started brewing restorative tea in one cleared corner of the library.

People needed to keep their strength up and their wits about them for this, after all.

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She'll bring you tea or fetch more books for you.

Because there are plenty of places to research or just sit to feel safe.

There were plenty of tables with books and notebooks to take notes on what the intrepid researchers might find.

Rapunzel had left the book she'd found last night open to that creepy, creepy picture, for anyone else to look at and confirm that she wasn't imagining things, and was now tucked into a chair and poring over every other book she could find on this kind of thing.

So far, 'Cooger and Dark' wasn't turning up anywhere else, but she did find a lot of upsetting stories about possibly-haunted circuses. Eesh.

Riley was back in the library, not about to get close to the creepy carnival especially after hearing about what it had done on the radio. No way, no how. He was much better doing some research here, looking into freaky carnival and the like.

Google had probably never seen the likes of the searches he was doing right now.

After Raven's visit last night and this morning's radio, Hannibal was very focused on finding out what was going on here and stopping it. He didn't take kindly to anybody ~~else~~ killing his friends and students.

He started with the book Rapunzel had found, checked its bibliography, and went from there.

He set one of the books down, went into the stacks for another, and came back to find a stack of children's books (http://iambicnut.com/rpg/misc/wicked/childrensbooks.jpg) strewn in front of his seat. He frowned and moved them. What were those doing in a high-school library anyway, and didn't whoever'd put them there have better things to do?

"Well, they're not 'Pat The Bunny,' but they're a good start if you're looking to entertain the shiny new kids that came off that merry-go-round," Nikolai noted, pulling up a seat beside Hannibal's. He'd just come in from the carnival himself, without so much as a scratch on him because he wasn't stupid enough to actually step into any of the creepy attractions alone, thanks. "Anybody have any leads on what the hell's going on out there, yet?"

He was pretty sure it wasn't mute undead harpies or sharks this time around. Though that really wasn't too difficult to deduce.

It wasn't falling from the sky, for one thing. Except for maybe Flick.

"There's a picture showing this same group at the Chicago World's Fair," Hannibal noted. "Apart from that, not much. You've been there?"

Hannibal hadn't. Because he valued his skin, thank you.

Yeah, Nikolai wasn't so big on the self-preservation, apparently.

"Creepy as hell," he replied, nodding. "Pushy, too. And they seem to have a sixth sense for figuring out what it is that you want to see when you go to one of those things. Either that, or the barker that met me at the gate is a damn good guesser."

Hannibal had noticed. It was a good thing his medical license was up to date.

"What you want to see and what you fear. A friend of mine was frightened rather badly last night. Although whether it's mind-reading or magic or something else..." He spread his hands. He really did need to learn more about the possibilities around and how they worked; his home dimension's libraries had been sadly lacking.

"Whatever it is, its messed up. Watched a carousel turn some student here into a little kid with fucking zombie eyes. The ferris wheel is a literal deathdrap. And half the faces around there now are people I might not know personally, but at least I recognize in passing."

He frowned.

"Not as patrons. As attractions. It's not pretty."

"So they lure people in and they make them a part of the carnival. And presumably," Hannibal mused, "once they have everybody they think they can get, they'll move on. The question is, what are they after apart from survival? And how do we stop them?"

He thought for a moment. "Do you think you could get in and back out again? If we had pictures of everything, it might help in our research. You never know what might be an important clue."

Or excellent blackmail material. Or just fun to know.

Nick frowned, clenching his hands into fists, but nodding a little.

"In and out, I could probably do," he noted, at length. "I'm not in any hurry to get back there. There's something wrong just sitting in the air in that place. But it's taken faster, tougher people than me. And the place plays dirty. I think I saw Mr. Wayne's brains splatter out the back of his head, but I was already working on tearing myself out of there."

He sounded a little sick about that-- not necessarily about what he saw, but about the fact that he'd run. Nikolai wasn't made for running.

"I won't push." Hannibal nodded seriously. "We want information, not one more victim. If you don't feel up to it, you shouldn't go back. I'm sure we can use the help here."

All of which was completely true. If it possibly made Nick feel guilty for not doing it, that wasn't Hannibal's fault.

That slight tic on Nick's cheek was caused by a moment spent clenching his teeth together.

"There's the thing," he said, at length. "It's less being a victim I'm worried about, and more being grabbed and turned into an attraction myself. I want to be as prepared as possible when I go in, not end up being the sideshow's newest hypnotist or something."

Look into my eyes. You're getting sleepy. Very sleepy. Sleepier still. Are you asleep yet? Oh. Wait. You're dead.

He frowned and shook his head.

"I'm not saying no. I have every intention of going back in to try to get to the bottom of this. Just... not immediately. I need to shake off that first case of the skeevies and suit up before I jump in for round two."

"That sounds eminently sensible." If slightly disappointing. Ah, well. "In that case, why don't you have some coffee and fruit?" Hannibal nodded toward where he'd set them out. "And you can help us try to figure out what's going on."

Nick took a deep breath, and then nodded, sitting himself down.

"I'll take the fruit, thanks. Last thing I need after hauling my ass out of there are the caffeine jitters. You have any promising-looking books there that aren't See Spot Run?"

"I have a list, from the first book's bibliography." Hannibal pulled up the list on his iPad and helpfully checked off the first two. "Any of these may have something."

Nick leaned over for a better look, and then sighed.

"I don't even know why I was hoping that list would be shorter," he admitted. "Okay, might as well grab the next one, then. If that doesn't get us somewhere within an hour or two, I'll start to get my shit together to head back in, anyway."

Maybe a quick run through Baltimore would knock him up a few tiers, and then he'd be in better shape to survive the carnival of death.

"Maybe we'll find something before then." As if that were likely.

"If nothing else, at least I'll get my bearings some more before heading back in."

Maybe get his head around that prickly feeling that ran along his spine whenever he remembered how Kathy's leg had felt, looping around his neck.

Hannibal nodded. "And you'll have eliminated possibilities."

"Eliminated," Nikolai echoed, smiling in spite of himself as he shook his head. "You sure have a way with words, Doc."

Considering what they were going up against.

Hannibal gave him a somewhat exasperated look, for once having not even had a double-entendre in mind. "That may come later. Would you prefer 'ruled out'?"

"Ruled out works for me," Nick decided, giving Hannibal a wry twist of a smile. "That one doesn't come with the unfortunate connotations, at least."

Were they unfortunate? If he said so.

Hannibal nodded. "In that case, any resources you can rule out before you go would be helpful."

Ichabod's visit to the carnival had made him quite suspicious. Something was not right, that was clear. Clearly he wasn't the only person to think so, as he found others in the library of a similar opinion.

He began looking through books. A few hours later, he found an pamphlet entitled "Fandom's Big Bads & You" marking a page in a book entitled "Physical Affection and the Arcane Arts". At first more intrigued by the pamphlet, a story on the marked page then caught his attention.

"It says that hugging dispersed evil in a carnival that visited Fandom Isle in 1914," he said, frowning. "Could it be related?"

"Hugging?"

Riley looked up at the student who'd brought that up and stood up to actually go and take a look at what he'd found when a book --

A FREAKING BOOK! (http://iambicnut.com/rpg/misc/wicked/hugtherapy.jpg)

-- grabbed at his leg. "There's a book hugging me. There is a book clinging to my leg right now."

Ichabod was used to books behaving unbooklike from working in Book Haven, so he just frowned a little.

"Do you need help, sir?" he asked.

"I might," Riley said, glancing down at the book. "You said hugging and this book attached itself to my leg like a limpet. Can you see what book it is?"

Ichabod leaned forward and tried to get a better look. "'The Hug Therapy Book'. With an illustration of two bears hugging on the front. What is it about hugging?"

The book kept hugging Riley's leg and he just let it at this point.

"Hugging as therapy?" Riley said, frowning in thought. "And you said that you read about hugging stopping a carnival? I...can't see how that works, though."

"Does it imply that the carnival loses its power of a person if he is hugged?" Ichabod frowned. "That makes little sense."

"Yeah, it makes like no sense," Riley said, scratching his head. "When has hugging been able to make powerful magic go away? In movies, that's where and this isn't a movie."

"I'm not familiar with movies," Ichabod said. "A hug would signify affection or friendship, could that be relevant?"

"It...yeah, it could," Riley said, peering down at the book hugging his leg. "Is this a love conquers all thing? I thought that was a myth."

"I have little experience of the strange things that happen on this island," Ichabod replied, "But that love conquers all would at least be a reasonable conclusion, although the practical implementation of hugging is a little odd."

[I need sleep! Hope someone else can join in the conversation]

"I just don't see how it could be safe to send people into hug those that are...well, being pretty violent," Riley said, scratching his head. "That's a pretty big gamble."

[Night! And yes, anyone else feel free to chime in!]

In case you can't find what you're looking for in the books already on the tables.

He was probably doing the same thing everyone else in here was -- but he might be able to help find things.

Up early because I'm not sure I'll remember when I get back from the train station at ohmygod early.

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The Library {Saturday}

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In The Stacks

Librarian's Office

OOC