The Library, Wednesday

[talentforlying]

John had gone home long enough to get a good three hours of sleep in, shower, and then gotten back up and come into work.

Real coffee was out, you could ask for tea if you wanted it, and the librarian was in-and-out of Special Collections, bringing out the oldest books and scrolls he could find.

Good luck, Fandom. You were going to need it.

Comments

Research -- Morning

[talentforlying]

There was coffee and donuts for the early birds, and stacks-upon-stacks of the oldest magical reference materials John could find.

Have fun, kids.

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

After shattering her mirror, Kathy had gone to bed and slept for almost twelve hours, gotten up to eat anything she could find in several common rooms, and then gone back to sleep for another four.

She still felt awful. Not even her first shower in days could fix that. She still looked awful, too. Too thin, too tired, too much time crying. But she had to do something other than sit in her room and brood over how she'd ruined everything. So she'd made her way into the library, found a nice out-of-the-way nook, and curled up with a stack of books. She wasn't sure she'd find anything useful in a bunch of old Korean books of myths and legends, but at least she could make sure no one else wasted their time worrying about what secrets the books held.

Re: Research -- Morning

[wildandbrave]

"Can I get you something?" Cosette asked quietly, approaching but not getting too near in case Kathy wanted her space. Yes, she'd noticed that Kathy was in bad shape, but wasn't going to point that out; she just hated seeing people in that kind of state and wanted to do something to help. "Coffee, or a cup of water, a pastry perhaps?"

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

"A pastry and some water would be wonderful," Kathy said, looking up to give Cosette a wan smile. "I think I cleaned out the dorms of anything remotely edible before coming over here, but I'm still hungry."

Starving a super-speedy metabolism would do that to you. Go figure.

Re: Research -- Morning

[wildandbrave]

"Just a moment, then," Cosette said, and hurried off to the main section of the library, returning shortly with a bottle of water and a couple of blueberry scones wrapped in a napkin. (She'd decided the morale boost would be worth the risk of going into town on a bakery run.)

"I'm sorry, the water isn't very cold," she said apologetically as she held out the scones and water, "but I thought that this way it's less likely to spill. I think Monsieur Constantine would feel better about that."

This was also why she'd taken care to get a selection of pastries that weren't as likely to leave grease stains on the books.

Re: Research -- Morning

[suitably_heroic]

Atton wasn't here to do research this time, either, but he was popping his head in to see if anything new had been discovered since the last time he'd done so.

Also: "So there's a whole bunch of people outside Needful Things who have lost their minds, in case you people didn't know."

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy poked her head around the shelves. "Umm, that's because Mr. Gaunt called us for help," she said quietly, not meeting Mr. Rand's eyes.

Re: Research -- Morning

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, I was given that impression, somewhere in the middle of all the ranting about how much of a terrible person I am and how much of a saint he is," Atton muttered.

He rubbed the back of his head. "But hey, you made it back here instead of lurking out there trying to beat my skull in. Congratulations."

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, somehow Kathy didn't feel like congratulations were really in order, thanks. She just nodded, intending to retreat back to her corner with her books when she had another idea.

"Umm, who's out there?" she asked. "Maybe if we get a list going of people who we know are under his thrall we can...I don't know. Keep track?" She tucked a luck of hair behind her ear, nervous. "What he's doing makes us sick. If someone who was fighting stops showing up, it might mean that they're really in trouble."

Re: Research -- Morning

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Was Joker there?" Eleanor asked, eyes wide, before realizing that Atton may not have the least idea who Joker was. "Sorry. I mean. Were they okay?"

If they were just standing around, that was maybe not so awful.

Besides, it was entirely possible that Joker wasn't one of these people. Maybe he was just completely fine, and the necklace was a coincidence.

Re: Research -- Morning

[suitably_heroic]

Joker'd been in one of Atton's classes, so he did in fact know the guy. Which was fantastic, because the kid had seemed a little fragile, physically, and now he was slightly worried.

Well, okay. He'd already been worried, and this was a tiny extra scoop of it.

"Haven't seen him, but that's not saying much," Atton said, sounding vaguely apologetic. "It's foggy as hell out there. The people I did see seemed okay... ish? Sleep deprived and crazy, but not bleeding or anything."

Admittedly, he might have a slightly twisted notion of what the word 'okay-ish' meant.

Re: Research -- Morning

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Eleanor said, nodding quickly. "So they aren't ... hurting themselves, just standing there."

She offered her own apologetic smile. "I don't even know if he's part of what's going on," she explained. "I might be overreacting."

Re: Research -- Morning

[gavegoodface]

Avoiding Barry's coffee after his caf had run out had had predicable results and now Face was slumped over the open book he'd been reading last night, sound asleep.

At least he wasn't drooling on it.

Re: Research -- Morning

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

Karina stopped by the library before heading into town mostly because she wanted to see if anything new had been figured out since the broadcast.

She looked grumpy, but that was mostly Sparkle's fault. Karina wasn't meant to be a caretaker and she hated worrying over him. Ugh.

Re: Research -- Morning

[suitably_heroic]

Hey, now there were two things she and Atton had in common.

Atton lifted his chin at her in greeting. He'd been just on his way out. "What's up?"

Re: Research -- Morning

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey," Karina said. "Just checking in on progress here before I head out. You?"

Re: Research -- Morning

[wildandbrave]

Cosette was around again, whenever she wasn't in class -- still not researching herself, but there to provide moral support and help keep things organized.

It gave her something to do, and kept her from fretting over her fellow students quite as much.

Re: Research -- Morning

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor was downing the coffee like it might run out if she didn't drink it quickly enough, and wishing she could smoke in here. Stimulants were stimulants.

She tackled some of the more medical-looking books, hoping she'd have a chance at deciphering the jargon.

Re: Research -- Morning

[nuclear_snide]

Bob wasn't a kid, but he was having fun!

Well, he was researching and trying to find out anything useful, but meanwhile he was really enjoying the chance to check out some of the more esoteric materials here. They were really something!

Re: Research -- Morning

[gavegoodface]

After being woken by one of the etiquette books flinging itself at his head, Face had gotten stuck into a number of the older books. It was slow going, given half were written in regional dialect and the others were handwritten (just because he's gotten used to translating English characters that were printed and distinct didn't mean cursive didn't make him want to pull his hair out), but he was pretty sure he was onto something. Creepy, store, evil shopkeeper, cursed items, concerned spouse smashing item...

...oh, sithspit. He stood up to project his voice better.

"So we may have a problem." Beat. "More of of one than we already did."

Re: Research -- Morning

[likethegun]

"Oh good, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear," Sam said dryly, setting his book down to focus. "What'd you find?"

Re: Research -- Morning

[gavegoodface]

"Apart from a number of frankly disturbing recipes, it looks like these items can induce a case of fatal melodrama." Which was one way to put it. "Looks like in our man Leland set up shop before in some place called Iowa? Different name but everything else tracks. This woman's husband buys a book, gets all vapebrained about it, just sits there stroking it while he gets sicker and sicker. So she does the sensible thing and kills it with fire, only he doesn't get better, he just flings himself down on the ashes before they're even cold and weeps until he passes out and never wakes up."

Face paused to let that sink in. "Now since we've got people here who smashed up things they bought and none of them have seemed prone to tears, or just prone in general, I think you can see where I'm going with this."

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

After her talk with Atton, Kathy sat down to make a list of people that he had mentioned.

LIST OF THE AFFECTED
Sparkle
Professor Heartilly
Bartender at Devil's Nest (Name?)
Crazy lady with weird teeth (Name? Unsure if she's affected or just crazy)

Underneath the list, she wrote, Please add & correct information as you get it!

[Posted with dauntless_four's permission!]

Re: Research -- Morning

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four looked up from the list he'd been making. "Did you get that from the radio too?" he asked.

He gestured to the iPod he was listening to. "With a roommate as a radio guy, figured it was a pretty good place to start..."

Re: Research -- Morning

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "No, these are just the names that Mr. Rand gave me of people he'd noticed stationed around Needful Things."

And, considering two of the people on the list didn't actually have names (and a third did only because she'd known who he meant), Atton was probably not the best source of information.

But Four's idea, now...that had merit. "Listening to the podcasts?" she asked. "That's really smart. Even with as flaky as the squirrels can be about reporting, they're generally good about 'So-and-so went to such-and-such and place.'"