thechanged | Papercuts Are Inevitable | The Library

[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.

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"Exactly," she says. The prospect of searching these books for ages is both dreadful and exhilarating to her. For every thousand or two thousand or ten thousand unreadable books, there has to be a book that they can read. And she can only guess at what the contents might be... "With so much time, we are bound to have success eventually. With so many books here, there is likely information about everything in existence. Information about us, our memories, this house...imagine if only we could access even a little of that information."

"God, that sounds wonderful," he says wistfully. His hand finds an odd book, flimsy and bound with a simple coil of wire. He turns it over in his hands, frowning. "This...there's something familiar about this." He offers it to her, though he doesn't open it just yet. "What do you make of it?"

Angel takes the book and looks it over. She doesn't recognize it, or even feel any familiarity about it. It's completely new to her. Perhaps the man saw it in another part of the library? It wouldn't surprise her if books changed places here.

"I'm not sure," she says. "It seems like something one would carry with them, as if for research or drawings. Have you seen it before?"

He runs his hands over the simple cardboard cover. "I have. I know I have." His voice trembles a little with excitement. "I've never seen it here, but..." He flips the book open, smoothing out the lined paper as well as he can. When he sees the words on the paper he gasps. "Oh my God. I can read this! I can read this!" His smile is delighted. He hands it to her so she can see as well. "Look! And there's two languages here! Look in the margins!" His eyes are lit like a child's on his birthday.

"Ah! This is amazing!" She smiles wide, still looking at him, as she takes the notebook.

When she looks down, however, the smile turns to a look of intense confusion. She can't read this. At least, not the main body of text. It's gibberish to her, much like the books on the floor. She can read the scribbles in the margins, but that's it.

"You...can read this?" she asks.

"You can't?" He seems surprised, and moves closer so he can read it as well. "Oh jeez, that didn't even occur to me, sorry. Um...it looks like some kind of...lesson, maybe? There's questions and answers in here, like some kind of homework assignment. Like...this bit seems to be talking about a story. And a little bit about symbolism here. It looks like something you'd have in school." There's still excitement in his voice as he looks it over. It didn't help their situation much, but there was a mundane familiarity to it that was comforting.

"I see," she says, disappointed at this new unfortunate discovery. She's happy for him, though. He seems quite enthusiastic about it, and she doesn't want to spoil his fun. "It sounds interesting, and I think the scribbles in the margins fit into what you've said well." Things like I HATE THIS and DESTROY make much more sense when put in the context of undesired work.

This does raise another question, though... "I wonder why you can read it while I cannot." she adds. Considering they can understand each other just fine, they have to be speaking the same language. Does that not apply to reading certain books?

"Yeah," he agrees, tracing his fingers along the margins. There's something disturbing about the combination, of mundane schoolwork and fae malice, but he can't quite put his finger on what bothers him about it.

"Maybe...maybe it has something to do with the visions we had," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I mean...a lot of people...and I'm starting to agree with them...a lot of people think they might be memories. That...we were...I don't know. Someone or somewhere else before here. What if..." And here his eyes widen. "What if this is from my home?"

"Do you think that's what it is?" she asks excitedly, looking up to him with bright eyes. "I don't have any doubt that we existed before all of this; what I remember tells me of a world much larger than this house, and of experiences that were very much real."

She looks back down at the book, studies the letters she cannot read. They're different than the other unreadable tongues in that someone who can read them is standing right next to her. Because of that, they mean something more.

"It would certainly explain why I can understand it and you can't," he says. "I wasn't sure before. What I saw...it was so brief. Just a brief moment in time. But...it's from a real place, isn't it? There's more to us than this." He looks like a man who's discovered hope for the first time. He presses the book back into her hands. "Here. You should hang on to this. It'll help you recognize the language if you see it again, I bet. And then I can help you read it."

She accepts the book and holds it carefully. The last thing she wants is for it to be damaged. "Thank you," she says, "but are you certain you don't want to read it in case there is anything in its pages you might recognize? There may be something in this book relating to what you remember." If it were her, she would read the book from cover to cover, perhaps more than once, no matter how slim the chances of finding something were.

"I have to admit I'm not being completely selfless here," he says, gesturing with both hands. "I was thinking that if we both knew what to look for, there'd be more eyes to find things in the same language. And if we find something that's where you're from, I can do the same for you!

"Though..." He smiles, his eyes lowering shyly. "I would like to borrow it from time to time."

She laughs. "You may borrow it whenever you like," she says, tucking the book against her side. "As for your strategy, I can't guarantee that I will be able to recognize this language if I see it, but I will try. You will certainly be the first to know if I find any books that are in this language or in one that only I can read."

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

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