Library, Saturday

[not_harmless]

Instead of books, today the library was filled with… oranges. Oranges of all types. Terra had no idea what might have happened to the books- she hoped they’d been replaced by oranges and not transformed into oranges, because she’d accidentally stepped on a small mandarin when coming in today.

Hopefully no one needed to do any actual research today, because unless it was about juice they were probably out of luck.

Comments

Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

Ask her WTF is up with the oranges, maybe.

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

Libby was definitely going to ask WTF was up with those oranges, although not in exactly those terms, because that would definitely be cussing!

Most of her oh-so-handwavey visits to the library thus far had been fairly normal, so this was definitely something!

"Are those oranges?"

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“They are, in fact, oranges,” Terra said with the long-suffering sigh of someone who’d been dealing with this far too long already. As she spoke, one such orange fell from a shelf, rolling across the floor and coming to a stop near Libby’s feet.

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

Libby watched the orange roll across the floor, waiting until it came to a complete stop before bending over to pick it up and place it, helpfully, on the desk.

"What happened to all the books?"

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“I’m not entirely sure,” Terra confessed. “I’m hoping they merely swapped places, and not that the books were transformed, because I may have, well, I may have accidentally stepped on one earlier.”

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

Libby's eyes went a little wide as Terra was talking, but when she was finished, she breathed out in relief with a hand over her chest.

"Goodness!" she said. "I thought you were going to say that you ate one! Which...can you imagine if they transformed back then? At least, with stepping on one, if they turn back...maybe at least it wouldn't have been a very good book anyway?"

And no, it had not escaped her that she'd just been talking about books turning into oranges and she looked around, faintly marveling.

"Do the books get switched out with fruit sometimes?" she wondered. "Is that a thing?"

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“It’s certainly the first time this has happened to me,” Terra admitted with a bit of a grimace. “But I can’t say I’m particularly shocked, either. The library’s always been a bit- odd.”

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

"Odd...how?" asked Libby, leaning forward eagerly.

...as if she hadn't just walked in to all the books being replaced with citrus already.

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“Well,” Terra said slowly. “I think the books are kind of… self-aware? Half the time when I show up for my shift they’re involved in some sort of… argument or disagreement? Like, it will be the books on bicycling versus the books on skateboarding, things like that.”

Yes, she was aware how deeply strange that sounded, but a) like the rest of Fandom was totally normal, come on, and b) oranges.

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

Libby's eyes started to rove around the room and over the shelves again, feeing a small pang of regret that it was all oranges now, becaues she was getting ideas.

It did all sound rather wild, but, then again, so was pretty much everything here.

"So if I were to someday have trouble deciding on what to read," she asked, "would they be able to make their own recommendations?"

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“Oh, yes,” Terra assured her. “Though keep in mind, of course, that they all tend to be terribly biased. No objectivity at all.”

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

"Do you think..." Libby ventured, head tilting, "most books like to be read? Or are they probably a bit like people, where some people would like the attention, but others might not like it at all, so they might try to make the case against being read or to go read a different book instead?"

It seemed a little counterintuitive, if you asked her, because that would only wind up making her more curious about that book.

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“So far, it’s been my experience that they want to be read,” Terra shared. “My guess is it’s something intrinsic to their very… book-ness. But it could also be the doing of whoever stocked the library in the first place. Perhaps they only made sure to acquire those volumes that would be enthusiastic about the idea.”

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

"That would make sense," Libby agreed, thoughtfully. Or at least it made as much sense as sentient books would make, she supposed. "No one would want to fill their library with books that wouldm't want to be read..."

Then she hesitated a moment, worried that this next thought might sound a little crazy, but, at the same time, they were talking about books with feelings and whether they turned into fruit, so...

"Can I check one out?" she wondered, lowering her voice a little as if to avoid getting in trouble for even thinking it. "One of the oranges, I mean? I'm really curious to see what might happen if I did."

And because it would be funny to say she checked out an orange from a library.

Look, she'd grown up very sheltered, it did not take much to amuse her.

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

Terra gave the orange on the desk a thoughtful look. “I don’t see why not,” she said, after a moment.

It really didn’t take much to amuse her either, honestly.

Plus, she wanted to see what would happen when she scanned one of the tiny barcode stickers affixed to each orange.

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

"Then I would like to check out this orange, please," said Libby, picking the one on the desk up and handing it over to Terra. "After all, since it rolled off the shelf when I got here, it sort of feels almost as if it picked me, doesn't it?"

Re: Talk to Terra

[not_harmless]

“It really does,” Terra said, taking the orange and scanning it with the library’s barcode scanner, which beeped obligingly.

“You’ve got that for two weeks,” she told Libby, handing it back. “But do feel free to come find me before then if it turns into a book. I’d like to know which it was.” Sadly, the library’s checkout software offered no clue as to the title of the orange in question.

Re: Talk to Terra

[outofthequiver]

"If it stays an orange," Libby said, taking the orange back and holding it close to her chest now as if she'd been bestowed a precious item, "I'll probably return it well before two weeks because I can't picture it keeping that well for that long, but who knows, if it's really a magic orange. But honestly? I hope it's really a book, because I want to know what book it'll be, too."