Papercuts Are Inevitable | The Library | Days 8-10 [OPEN]

[wingedapostle]

[ooc: this search is going to take place over three in-game days (days 8, 9, and 10), so please state in the post subject which day you want to go for!]

Answers have come, but not enough. She's remembered two more things since she awoke: the poisonous forest surrounding the pure land, and herself preaching peace to a crowd of people. Neither memory gives answers regarding the other, which leads her to the library's fourth wing. If in her memories she cannot find answers to her questions – Who is she? Who were those people? Why is the forest purifying the world? Why that urgent plea for peace? – then perhaps she'll find them in books.

That is, if she can find any that she can read. She's been here before, more than once, but she has never found a book in a language that she could understand. The languages in the many books she's looked over have all been beautiful-looking, but that doesn't help much when she doesn't know what they say.

She picks a bookshelf at random, and slides a book out of its place. Its cover is colorful and ornate, but a look inside reminds her that she's likely not going to have much luck on this search, at least not anytime soon. She puts it back with a sigh and takes another one out. This is going to take a while.

Comments

[ovidscholar]

"They're here," he says, "I'm sure of it. I think it stands to reason that given such a multitude of tongues, you'll find one you recognize."

When, he doesn't know. He cranes his neck and squints at the very top of the shelf before him.

"In fact," he murmurs. "In fact--"

[wingedapostle]

She glances between the top of the shelf and the librarian's face. "Do you see anything promising up there?" she asks.

If he's getting a feeling about that section, there should be something there, right? She can only hope so. Seeing all of the strange and beautiful languages contained within these books is nice and all, but her favorite part of this is getting results.

[ovidscholar]

"Nothing yet, but I've had a thought," he says. "Rest your wings a little while."

He crouches at the bottom of the shelf. There's a drawer here. It's full of cards: playing cards, calling cards, business cards, nothing they'd recognize save tarot. This does not concern the librarian. He looks at the back of the cards; they bear numbers and titles, all in his elegant hand.

He slides the drawer out entirely, and kneeling, he offers it to her.

[wingedapostle]

The drawer is a surprise to her; she didn't even notice it while she was looking through the books. She takes it in her hands and looks over the contents. All of the cards are foreign to her, but she notices now what he was looking at. She picks out one of the cards. Flipping it over, she tilts it toward the lantern's light.

"What do all of these numbers mean?" she asks.

[ovidscholar]

"They're places. Wings, shelves, rows," he says, his voice rising in pitch, "terrific, don't you think? It's not just idle servant's work, it's mine. It is my writing. Suppose I had the idea of my own?"

He smacks a card against his palm.

"And so: short work! We locate a title and then the shelf."

[wingedapostle]

"It's brilliant!" she says excitedly. Short work, indeed; she should have come to him for help days ago. He clearly knows what he's doing here, which makes sense if one considers who he is.

She inspects another card, looks over its numbers and its title. She can't help but note the elegant curves of his handwriting. "Are all of these books we can read?" she asks, hopeful that success might be just around the corner. "Are any of these books we can read?"

[ovidscholar]

"Unfortunately," he says, "unfortunately we still have work ahead. There is less climbing, though." He squints at a card full of glyphs he cannot read; did he really write this? "Now you know the thrilling life I lead."

[wingedapostle]

She chuckles. "You don't spend all of your time in here, do you?" She looks at the card in her hand one last time, then returns it to the drawer. She takes another, and adds, "As for the work, I'm willing to do what it takes to find answers."