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

Re: Research -- Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

PIZZA.

Kathy felt like she shouldn't be all that hungry. Didn't heartbreak usually come with a loss of appetite? But her body apparently had enough of a hunger strike over the past week and the mere scent of pizza had Kathy braving the more populated parts of the library to grab a plate.

Taking the equivalent of half a pizza back to her chair, Kathy settled back into her chair and picked her book back up.

Ugh. Why did it take so long for everyone to switch from hanja to Hangul? For once, Kathy was grateful for her parents' insistence that she and Sarah go to a Korean-style hagwon after their American schools let out. Without it, she wouldn't have been able to plow through this book of...Cautionary Tales for Children.

Right.

...and though I was not allowed into the store, I snuck away from my mother one day, for I heard the stranger's shop was filled with wonders that took away the breath--and the mind. Even to this day as I write this, the treasure I saw haunt my dreams and call to me...

Kathy's pizza fell back on her plate, unheeded. Whatever. She could eat later. Right now, she was scooping the book into her arms and rushing out to where more people were gathered. "Excuse me?" she said. "I think I found something. I think Mr. Gaunt's collecting souls."

Re: Research -- Afternoon

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"... souls?" Eleanor stared. "How -- he's getting souls?"

Very eloquent.

Re: Research -- Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded and held up a finger, asking for one more moment while she scrawled a few more notes. "Sorry," she said when she was done. "This is just written in a really old form of Korean that's actually close to a really old form of Chinese and, like, I know both, but not really well enough to read and translate out loud at the same time." It was only after she had to pause for a deep breath that Kathy realize she'd been babbling.

"Sorry," she said again. "The important thing is that I finished the translation? I can read it. Umm, so this kid sneaks into a store that just opened up and is filled to the brim with treasures that, uhh, 'stir up the fire's of longing in the hearts of even the most ascetic of men.'"

Picking up her notes, she read, "...For I was young and the imp of mischied was in me, and so while the man was distracted, I reached out to touch a battered satchel that was cracked age. Immediately, the man turned to me and let out a shriek unnatural in its power. For a moment, his face turned into that of a demon from the furthest reaches of Hell. I ran from the store, never to return, and weeks later, many of the town sickened and died from an illness that had no natural source."

She looked up at Eleanor. "Sound familiar, huh? But this is the part that really has me worried. 'I said above that I still dream of the treasures I saw in that shop and I do. But more frequent are the nightmares about that face, which I believe to be his true face. His face...and the voices that I heard coming from the satchel. They were pleading. They were screaming.'"

Re: Research -- Afternoon

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"He's ... collecting souls in an old, battered satchel," Eleanor said, flatly. "He's not allowed to have souls."

Even Mother hadn't tried for souls.

Re: Research -- Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's what this says," Kathy said, sitting down abruptly. Her soul have very nearly been collected up by a demon-faced monster, leaving her physical body to die. That...that was a lot to take in.

"I gotta sit down," she said, a little dazed, before glancing down at the chair she was in. "I gotta sit more down."