(no subject)

[herr_bookman]

Two mountains of books surround a skinny boy in the library today. Two mountains, and a disappointing gap where a third should be.

After having stopped by home for an inventory record, Autor--standing on a stool, no less--ignores his swollen knuckles to grasp the book at the top of the left stack. He dutifully flips to the end, crosses a name off of his list, and moves the book to the stockpile on his right.

Close observation reveals that he's wearing a silver ring.

Botherable, but somewhat annoyed.

Comments

[orange_lily]

"Dude, this is a lot of books," Yugo remarks as he wanders by, peering at the two mountains. "You totally have enough to build a bookfor - what happened to your hand?"

[herr_bookman]

"A 'bookfor'? What's that?" Autor asks, wondering where Yugo was going before he started speaking louder than he really should in a library. "Oh, that," he says, and raises his other identical fist. "Nothing, really. Just learned something.

"Anyway, it's good to hear silence again, isn't it?" he says, flipping to the back cover of another book. "From the music, I mean. Yours wasn't so bad, but the bar as a whole was awful."

[orange_lily]

"I was going to say 'bookfort'. It is a fortress made of books," Yugo says somberly. "What did you learn, not to punch people without protection?"

[herr_bookman]

Autor glances at his two piles before lifting a leather-bound tome. "Isn't such a fortress easily toppled? And wouldn't that hurt the books?"

If that's what Yugo has planned, he'll need to prepare himself for an amateur librarian fight.

The kid pages through his book to the end and crosses another name off the list. "No, though I've done that before."

[OOC: His most recent OOM is amazing. What a trip!]

[orange_lily]

"Dude. Dude. You make it sound like you've never made a blanketfort. A bookfort is just a logical extension of that. With words," Yugo says reproachfully.

At Autor's last remark, he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Dude, have you even seen a doctor about those?"

[OOC: :D :D :D! Thanks. I had a lot of fun writing it.]

[herr_bookman]

"I haven't made a blanketfort," Autor says, wrinkling his nose.

"And I am not too concerned," he says, shaking out his right hand. "I've got these books to go through and put away. Then I suppose I can track someone down who can cast Episkey."

Which is to say no, and he wasn't going to because he hadn't thought about it.

[orange_lily]

Mildly: "You are a very frustrating person. Harsh."

Beat.

"So, what happened?"

[herr_bookman]

All right, now he's bemused--both because he doesn't know what Yugo means and that he doesn't know how to react.

"Yes, that is often an attribute given to me by other people--likely justifiably?--but why, exactly, are you calling that out now?" he says, tilting his chin up and raising his brow.

Smug will work, right?

[orange_lily]

"Because," Yugo says, "the books aren't going anywhere, and you could organise them later, and find someone who can cast, er, Episkey now."

[herr_bookman]

"Oh," Autor says, and has the decency to look sheepish. A little. "I'd thought you were referencing my declaration about the blanketfort."

The kid hesitates. His gaze travels to the books. "There are fewer than a hundred books left. Shouldn't take me more than half an hour to go through them..."

Unless he finds what he's looking for, in which case all bets are off.

"I don't think this is as 'harsh' as you're making it out to be? I mean, yes, they hurt and all, but it's not like I haven't deal with this sort of thing before."

[orange_lily]

"Dude, that's totally not the point," Yugo says, sitting down. "Why are you going through all these books, anyway?"

[herr_bookman]

"Check that one, would you?" Autor says, offering him a little green book. If Yugo is going to sit down, he may as well make himself useful--though the kid is grateful he piped down about his knuckles.

"For an ending."

[orange_lily]

"You're being cryptic, kittendude," Yugo says, but takes the green book anyway and flips through it.

[lyricaltokarev]

It would normally take a very good reason for Punie to voluntarily enter a library, terrible student that she is, but it's fun to explore the bar further. So when she wanders in, it's purely on a whim -- and yet it lands her right where she'd not-so-secretly hoped to be.

To say that her face lights up when she catches sight of Autor would be a gross understatement. This is a library, though, and skipping up to him would be unladylike in such a place. So when she enters, she has her hands neatly folded, and she walks with calm (if nonetheless predatory) grace.

She'll wait for him to notice her. It's more fun that way.

[herr_bookman]

Unfortunately for him, Autor has the survival instincts of a baby ostrich. If she were to, say, hang out in the rafters with a sniper rifle, she could take him out before he lifted his first book of the day.

Today his attention is focused very narrowly indeed: his list and the current book he's moving from one pile the other. Suffice it to say that the magical princess, while usually a welcome sight, is out of his line of vision.

[lyricaltokarev]

That won't do at all.

Sniper rifles would be more her mascot's jurisdiction than her own, but she has a similar sharp-eyed gaze as she approaches him. It's the work of a moment to circle around the edge of the table, stand on tiptoe, and pluck the topmost book from the stack he's working on -- a moment before his hand can take hold of it.

"What are you working on?" Said brightly, if a bit below conversational volume in deference to the library setting.

[herr_bookman]

It is only due to many, many years spent wandering the aisles of a library that Autor doesn't shriek. Mark my words, he thinks, once he has that capacity, I will startle you someday.

Fully recovered after a breath, he folds his arms on the stockpile and smirks at her from his perch. "I want to see if all of these books have been vandalized, or just some."

He straightens again, and brushes pretend lint off of his blazer. "So, what are you looking for?"

[lyricaltokarev]

"Vandalized?" She looks down at the book in her hand as if it is an injured bird, broken and fragile. "Oh, the poor things! Who would want to do that to so many books?"

Even in her world, you don't just damage a book and then put it back. Magical books in particular deserve respect, because you never know what might be useful someday.

She runs one hand gently over the cover, an oddly soothing gesture. "I was exploring a bit, and saw you working here, so I thought I would say hello. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular."

[herr_bookman]

"Ah-!" Autor says. Her reaction surprises him--as they always seem to--but this... she sounds almost nurturing. And for books! His gaze follows her fingers as she brushes her hand over the cover. The boy soon has to look away. To clear his throat, perhaps.

"Horrible people," he says quietly, and then turns back to her. He hops off of his stool and looks her over, framed by the two mountains. He waves a little in greeting and then extends that hand for the novel she's holding. "Aside from me, what have you found during your exploration?"

[lyricaltokarev]

She brushes the cover again, with the same gentle touch. "I haven't found much. Lots of rooms with no one in them, lots of quiet places. I ought to have looked in my Mama's books to see if there was anything in particular that I should try to find, but I thought it would be nice to be surprised. Is there something I should look for?"

She catches sight of his hands as she gives him the book, and her mouth purses sorrowfully. "You've hurt yourself again."

[herr_bookman]

"There is a man-eating mermaid living in the lake, but she's been subdued already, and is a patron besides," he says, and he tilts his head, thinking. His smile is boyish, almost playful. "Have you ever been to the greenhouse?"

And now he has the impulse to poke her lips back into place. "I learned something new," he says, and his shrug sets the bar for casual. "Well worth the cause."

[lyricaltokarev]

"Mermaid flesh is supposed to be very tasty," Punie says, almost idly. "At least it is where I come from, if you can eat it without it killing you or turning you into a demon. It depends on the person who eats it, I think. I've never tried it myself."

She'll let his own comment on his hands pass by without comment. She wasn't the cause, after all. This time.

"What's the greenhouse like? I've walked past it, but never been inside. I wasn't sure if you needed a key, or someone's permission to go in."

[herr_bookman]

Punie's tone appears to be such a contrast to her words about the mermaid that he almost laughs, but he knows who she is. Mermaid flesh probably is a culinary delicacy in Magical Land. "Sounds like a food to avoid if one has a delicate constitution."

The boy takes a second or two to phrase an answer to her question. "The greenhouse is just like it sounds. It has a massive variety of flowers, indoors and out, from different worlds. I have no idea how big it really is."

He turns to his books and encodes them in his sylladex without the use of a couplet. She may catch sight of a pink envelope when he tucks his folded list into his blazer pocket. "I am fairly certain the doors are unlocked if you wanted to visit."

[lyricaltokarev]

"So it's all right to go in without asking?" Her expression turns wistful. "I do like flowers. I wasn't home this spring to see the ones in the palace gardens start to bloom, and it made me feel a little homesick to think about it, but the cherry blossoms in Japan almost made up for it. And the ones here were lovely, too."

She hadn't missed the pink envelope. The sight of it makes her want to giggle, but she catches herself and merely presses a hand to her mouth to partly hide her smile.

[herr_bookman]

"Do you?" he says, and the thought pleases him more than it should. "I suspect the palace gardens put on quite a show."

He leads her through the bar to the grounds--holding the doors open, of course--and ignores the squelching sound his boots make on the wet grass on the way to the greenhouse. "How long do cherry blossoms last, usually? A month or so? And yes, you can visit the greenhouse whenever you wish."