fandomhigh | Library, Friday (12/18)

Entry tags:

library

Library, Friday (12/18)

Nightmares were not, generally speaking, a problem for Cosette. The ones she had had last night, though, must have made up for lost time: herself as a small child again, struggling to carry a heavy bucket of water through the woods at night, surrounded by a cacophony of raucous laughter and angry voices and visions of Madame Thénardier's vicious smile.

Hoping some early morning air would clear her senses, she had gone out for her walk only to have that cut short by having to run from some flying creatures with nasty-looking weapons.

And then -- because she knew this island fairly well by now and it was more than obvious that something was afoot -- she had gone straight to the library. People would likely be coming in to see if they could figure out what was going on, and besides . . . it was safe here, and being around the books was comforting. So she put on some soft, soothing music and got to work brewing some tea for people to have, should they need it.

[OOC: ~~Please hold for BDE OCD.~~ Have at!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For non-monsters-and-nightmares related purposes.

For those of you hitting the books to try and find out what's going on.

At some point in the early afternoon, Cosette put up a whiteboard to keep track of information. One side was meant for a list of creatures people might have seen around the island today, and the other for any information or ideas people might care to jot down.

[OOC: Just a little organizational thing if people want to contribute without interaction. The actual clue for the day will go up in a little bit.]

She'd already written down, in her neat and deliberate hand:

Winged creatures with weapons
Demons?
Creatures that like to hit things

This side of the board had Anything else? written across the top of it. That was broad enough, wasn't it?

Right. Her dreams had been bad enough, and then there was the matter of things swarming the streets and seemingly intent on attacking whoever they saw. The mail wasn't getting delivered today, and people could just deal with it.

But Éponine wasn't in the mood to just hide and let everyone else handle the situation, not this time, and since she didn't care to tangle with the demons or the shambling undead things or whatever else was out there, she headed for the library. Why should the kids be the only ones who got to try to figure things out? She could read, too, and since she didn't have too many points of pride, might as well do something with the ones she did have.

She was beginning to regret that decision just a bit by the time she was leafing through some volume with Fandom Historical Poetry Through the Ages printed on its spine.

"These words are silly," she declared out loud, regardless of whether anyone was around to listen. "All these funny spellings, and extra letters, good lord! But here, look."

Putting one finger on the page in front of her, she read out loud, and haltingly:

""'twas the days before Crīstesmæsse -- you see what I mean about silly, now? Less letters would do just as well -- when it came to us;
the waters rose 'sides the island rocks, but no one cared
for we were agripped in the sights of matters past affeared
tears, fears, those gladly lost, all history's pus,
it came for us, it came for us.""

She set the book down, humming softly to herself as she stared off into the stacks with a faint frown on her face. "It came for us? What did? How d'you like that for comforting?"

"A slightly older version of English," Bob explained. "Some of those letters used to actually mean things." He came to look over Éponine's shoulder. "The past? Is that what this is?"

Forgive the ghost who didn't dream.

Éponine tapped the third line of the passage. "Sights of matters past -- that's the thing, isn't it? Lord, the dreams I had last night! That's what it means, I'd guess."

"The past..." Bob thought for a moment. There was something in this book..."

He headed for the pile he;d been working on, one of which was Dangers of Fandom: A Compendium. "I only brushed by it - I don't think it was part of the book itself. Can you open this?"

Éponine briefly considered telling him to ask Cosette to do it, since she was the one getting paid to be here, but it was in her own interests to stop whatever was happening this time, after all.

"That I can," she answered, getting up to follow him over to the pile. "This one here, is it? Just tell me where to open it to."

Yes, well, Éponine was here, and Bob was single-minded. "It was about halfway, maybe a little less. Something stuck in the pages."

"Ah! Well, that's easier than trying to find one or two lines," Éponine said, starting to flip through the book's pages a few at a time.

Close to halfway through the book, she could feel what she could only describe as the pages suddenly feeling as if they wanted to fall a different way, and opened the book to that spot.

"What's this, here?"

"There it is," Bob confirmed. "Something you said about the past..." He read, "'If these spirits cause you no upset, be wary: the past, it came to me, and I was fine, for I had little; the present followed, and it did no harm, for I forsake it; twas the future that swallowed me whole, for I saw none.' There it is again, the idea of the past coming for someone."

Éponine looked distinctly unhappy about that notion, but kept her thoughts about that to herself.

"But there's the present too, isn't there?" she asked. "And the future -- yes, I think I know what that's like." That last bit was half-muttered, and accompanied by a bitter laugh.

"I'm not sure I want to find out," Bob muttered back.

Dipper had headed to the library as soon as the weirdness had started. If there was anything that was his thing, it was research.

And so after going through a pile of countless books he found a slim book entitled "Spirit O' the Isles."

And inside was an image that came back to him somewhat. He photocopied the image (http://iambicnut.com/rpg/misc/carol/fandomghosts-sketch.jpg) and placed it on the whiteboard. Maybe it would make sense with some of the other clues.

Who's around to help you find books, or get you tea and something to snack on, or even just give you a hug if you need one.

It was hard to have nightmares when you didn't sleep, but it had been even harder to miss all the things out around the island.

Bob showed up at the library, because that seemed to be what people did when trouble hit. Well, or they hit back, but that wasn't exactly his strength.

He peered around, then headed for Cosette. "Is something up again?"

That wasn't particularly Cosette's strength either.

She set aside the tray of cookies she was arranging and looked up, nodding. "That seems to be the case, monsieur," she answered. "All sorts of creatures about today. Have you seen them?"

"The flying things, the demon-looking things, or the ones who like to hit a lot?" Bob asked. "In other words, yes. Any idea why yet, or shall we get cracking?"

"I only ran into the flying ones myself," Cosette admitted. "But of course there's more. And I had awful dreams last night, which I'm not in the habit of doing. Do you suppose that's related? Like the time I couldn't stop dreaming of my mother, and then we had so many visitors who were supposed to be dead? I didn't dream anything quite so terrifying as this, but perhaps someone has."

"Hm. A very good question," Bob said. "I don't sleep, so I can't speak to that, but it's something we should probably ask. Meanwhile, we can add that to the list of things to look up. I thought I'd start with things that open portals - perhaps things that open portals from dreams? I'll have a look."

"It's as good a place as any to start, isn't it?" agreed Cosette. "I'll put up a list, see if people have anything else to add."

She laughed a little bit, ruefully. "This is hardly what I used to think about whenever I read the phrase 'dreams come true.' But now it makes as much sense as anything."

The unique benefits of a Fandom education.

"Let's hope it isn't quite that," Bob said. "Some people here have nasty dreams. But at any rate," he clapped his hands together, "I'm off to research. You'll help get the books down if I find any?"

Cosette seemed to relax a bit at that, and smiled. "Of course, monsieur. You've only to ask, and I'm glad to lend you, quite literally, a hand."

"Wonderful." Bob beamed at her. "Let's see what I can find, shall we?" He dissolved into a swirl of lights and headed off for the stacks.

HOW IS IT A WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS AAAAAUGH.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Library, Friday (12/18)

Mod Your Library (12/18)

Research (12/18)

Research: Whiteboard

Research: Whiteboard - List of Creatures

Research: Whiteboard - Misc.

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Re: Research (12/18)

Talk to Cosette (12/18)

RE: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

Re: Talk to Cosette (12/18)

OOC (Library 12/18)