Scene #9783: The Ancient Library

Owner	Pose
Ember	Ember has set a date to explore the mysterious library his allies found in the wastelands of his world. Though 'wasteland' is vastly overstated. The warpgate itself is not in the city of Mythril, but rather in the ruins of an overgrown city whose name has been lost to time. More of a town than a city itself, it is large enough to have housed a decent population, but now seems more like a wildlife sanctuary. Roads overgrown with grass, trees growing wildly wherever they wanted, and animals (and some monsters) wandering throughout the place. Ember himself is there, waiting by the portal. "Hey, thanks for coming. The place we're traveling to is a bit off, but thankfully it's mostly plains. The site itself seems to be dug into a cliffside. Anyway, I hope you brought water." If not, Ember has water skins for you. The walk itself isn't so bad; wild prairie gives way to pockets of forested areas, which give way to plains. There are lakes and small creeks, and of course living creatures. Wild Chocobos are common, though Ember warns about getting too close. "While most Chocobos will run away if in danger, many will also peck at you first to try and get you to run away. It takes some practice to tame wild ones." They aren't the only monsters, of course. What Ember calls Hyenas are more common. Unlike hyenas from other worlds, these have a pronounced 'horn' on their snouts, which they use to fight and disable other prey. There are a few encounters with small groups of them, which can easily be turned away with coordinated attacks. The other threat appears to be slimes. Small creatures that seem to be the scavengers of the ecosystem. Mostly, they go after injured or dead animals, or scraps of them. Occasionally, though, one gets large enough to be an actual threat, but not enough for a coordinated party of elites. There are also rather large birds, the most notable are the cinderwings, red colored birds but they seem uninterested in the party, and remain beautiful creatures to watch. Eventually, plains give way to drier conditions, turning into hilly land. Ember checks a map to guide them, before pointing in the distance to a camp set up in front of some stone doors. Two men seem to be standing outside the door over a campsite they have set up. One seems to be a larger man turning a spit to roast some meat; the other is a skinnier man who seems to be examining the door of the place thoroughly. "...so I don't see anything coming through." "Relax, man. Ember said he'd be here today, and then you can stop worrying about things coming out." "Yeah...though you don't seem that worried at all." "The door is heavy, and the things in there are books, right? Ain't going to open that door anytime soon." "Hey," Ember says finally to the guys as they get closer, and the larger man looks up. "Biggs." He motions towards the larger guy. "And Wedge..." he points at the smaller one. He lets his elite allies introduce themselves. The door to the library is a large stone door that seems a little ominous itself. On the door itself, there seems to be a droplet of water, and inside the droplet is a scroll. It seems to represent something, but some sort of connection with the element of water and learning? Knowledge?
Skipper	"I didn't just bring water, I brought... lunch!" This week it was Poppy's turn to pick the outing, and she jumped at the chance to do 'presumably haunted library outing' with her cousin. She does indeed have lunches, one lunchbox for everyone on the expedition. If someone's spent time with Poppy before, or otherwise indicated a food preference within her or Skipper's earshot, an attempt is made to include their favorite foods - otherwise the default is a mostly-vegetarian lunch of fruit, bread and jam, mixed veggie salad, long-grain rice, and a handful of escargot. "You can't explore a haunted library on an empty stomach! Believe me, I've tried!" While Paprika 'Poppy' Whiskersmith is the most enthusiastic of the two, Skipper's here as well, and game for helping out. "So what are we expecting?" they comment after fending off an opportunistic hyena. "Aside from monsters?" "And haunted books!" Poppy pipes in. "And haunted books?" adds Skipper.
Tamiel Luxis	When Tamiel arrives, tehre's a visible bounce in her step, her wings flapping happily, laden down with canvas and supplies. Anyone who makes the mistake of lingering too long near her, is accosted with trivia. "In the side of a cliff...!" She clapped. "If it's deep enough, that might help keep the library cold...! That's one of the most important things. You want to keep old books cold and dry--or they'll start to decay. Even if they're magic, that's one less miracle their magic needs to circumvent...! Humidity is the worst." Rapidly, it becomes clear that of all the supplies Tamiel brought with her--she hadn't put a lot of thought into how she would feed and water herself. Abashed, she accepts Ember's waterskin, and--"Be careful not to get any water on the books! That might cause mildew--You wouldn't believe how many books have been ruined like..." "I brought a tent--we can set it up inside the library, and try to move books into a controlled environment. And then, we'll sort them by damage and need--" her wings did a happy flap again, threatening to shove around anyone too close. She doesn't seem particularly perturbed by learning that the books are haunted, except. "How are we going to keep the books safe, while fighting them off?" She accepts Poppy's snacks, with a 'thank you,' quickly forgetting as she gets back into it. "Does something set them off? A place we have to go? Something we do or say?"
Regulus	Regulus has ended up kind of pulled into a lot of Mythril's problems, largely by helping teach Ember's people how to Do Infrastructure, or at least part of it. Cement roads and architecture aren't exactly within Regulus's knowledgebase, but she knows how to fix pipes and lamps, clean out vents, and is generally willing (if not in a manner free of grousing) to even go down into sewers and oither unpleasant places to get work done. At least the worst of the monsters have been cleared out and the locals can handle keeping it more or less working. Regulus has brought her own water bottle, only one though, for traveling. She's seen your sewers and even after making sure the purification plant is working she is not so eager to personally test the results. Other people can do that! And if it's bad she can doublecheck her work. Brilliant thinking Regulus. Regarding enemy encounters, Regulus prefers to avoid fighting rather than assist in battle, even against monsters. She's wiulling to blast them with her light blasts, but she's definitely relying on others to handle the bulk of the fighting as usaul. ''Biggs and Wedge'' Regulus waves a hand to them, "Regulus, the mother of Plumbing in Mythril." She jokes but it's kind of true. "Ember said there was a Library to check out, maybe there's books that aren't violent?" In Regulus's bag she has included a butterfly net in case she has to just catch books that are flying. "And don't worry, I'm not afraid of ghosts, ghosts are super friendly with me."
Team Timekeeper	Sonetto's prepared for an outing that could last days, much less for a measly little hike. As an investigator, venturing into the 'wasteland' full of arcane creatures and mysterious ruins requires for due diligence packing survival supplies like X's invention of insta-meals and a water filtration kit. She also has, just, normal water bottles and stuff, packed into her field-standard backpack worn over her Investigator uniform. With her, summoned by the mention of exploration, is Leilani, the pink-haired Zeno Private on Team Timekeeper! Her arcane skill helps her navigate, which turns out to be mostly unnecessary with Ember's map to check, but it's at least comforting to verify through her-- or to verify her arcane skill with the map, depending on which way your trust goes. Her bubbly carefree attitude doesn't really inspire that much confidence in her ability as a soldier. . . . "I wonder if this world was so populated by these creatures back before the catastrophe...." "Oh, definitely not! Gosh, back on O'ahu we got deployed a bunch of times to clear out critter nests for new settlements. Back when these ruins were active, there probably wasn't a critter in sight." Sonetto and Leilani chatter back and forth during the walk. Both of them are trained soldiers, so there's little risk to be had from the roving wild animals. Sonetto's arcane skill can often scare them off before they get close, and if they charge, Leilani's arrows are deadly. "You can't explore a haunted library on an empty stomach! Believe me, I've tried!" "You have?" Sonetto hasn't met Poppy or Skipper before, and so she's fully credulous to this claim. "When have you needed to explore a haunted library before?" > Biggs and Wedge "Hello. I'm Sonetto." "Hi Biggs and Wedge! How long have you been guarding this place for?" "You want to keep old books cold and dry--or they'll start to decay." "Is that true?" Sonetto did visit Tamiel's library, so she's inclined to trust her on this. "Okay. We'll be really careful." "Ember said there was a Library to check out, maybe there's books that aren't violent?" Sonetto stiffens up when it starts to get tossed around that there's probably going to be ghosts inside the library. "Um... are we aware of the likely history of this library? Or the civilization that existed around it at the time it was in use? Perhaps it was evacuated peacefully during the catastrophe-- after all, if there was a large quantity of deaths within the library to render it haunted, the overall structure of the library would likely have been damaged."
Skipper	> "I brought a tent--we can set it up inside the library, and blah blah blah blah blah words words words words words." There were other things said, but the main Poppy takeaway is: "Camping! I would have brought things to make s'mores if I'd known!" "No fires inside the library," cautions Skipper, who actually heard what Tamiel was saying. "I'll give you a hand with the sorting once we know things are safe." > "When have you needed to explore a haunted library before?" "Three weeks ago! And let me tell you, it was rough!!" "It was one of those ghost tours by bus in a New York. We had to leave early before we got to the haunted library stop because we forgot to pack lunch," Skipper adds, providing some actual details. "Never again!" Poppy brandishes her backpack full of lunchboxes as if it were a holy relic in the face of the undead.
Regulus	''Sonetto stiffens up'' Regulus forgets that she's got feelings right now as she grins and wiggles her fingers, "Don't worry, Sonetto, I'll protect you from the spooOOOoky ghosts...." She then draws out the butterfly net. "With this! Any spectral literature will be powerless before my butterfly catching skills. You see, I've determined that flying books probably sort of open halfway, see, and then flap their back and front covers from side to side like butterflys thus--they'll have all the weaknesses that butterflies do in terms of pinning them down." ''And try to move books into a controlled environment.'' "Oh right you are an expert librarian so you probably know all about this. How do you keep the books from flying around everywhere? Do you put them in large book-sized jars? Do you need to poke holes in the top so the pages can 'breathe'?" ''It was one of those ghost tours by bus in a New York.'' "Iiiiii don't know if that's the same kind of thing as this." Regulus says. "That sounds more like tourist traps than real hauntings. Ghosts are notoriously shy." She only knows one ghost!!
Ember	'So what are we expecting?' Ember doesn't turn down a free lunch; he was just expecting to eat field rations or whatever Biggs had caught and cooked up. Though he was expecting more meat. He isn't aware that these are mostly vegetarians, though the escargot catches him off guard... but hey, have not want not. "To be honest, we don't know. The scouts down there only took a few steps inside before the books attacked them." "I imagine if the books have turned sentient, it is because they were infused with magic long ago, and years of mana accumulation and mismanagement have turned the books not only into monsters, but aggressive ones... though I suppose the other alternative is that they are some security system." Ember shrugs, "It's a touch early to tell." 'Does something set them off?' Ember doesn't have a good answer for Tamiel, so he shrugs. "The scouts sent didn't have much information other than 'books haunted' or something like that. As for what to do, I'm not sure. I'm not sure the books are even still books or if they're just monsters in the shape of books. I wouldn't put anyone at risk over them, though, so at least feel free to defend yourself." 'I wonder if this world was so populated by these creatures back before the catastrophe....' "Your friend is probably right there. I mean, some monsters and animals are so barely distinguishable that they might as well be one or the other, but for the most part I imagine it was done like more modern cities. Even if some cities have various creatures that live in them. Probably no monsters." 'Regulus, the mother of Plumbing in Mythril.' Biggs looks up, "Oh hey, it's Regulus. We've heard aboutcha. Anyone helping the poo' is a good friend of mine. Though I ain't got much to offer ya right now. We'll at least get somethin' cooked for ya for dinner if yer still around by then." Wedge, on the other hand, still looks nervous about the door and afraid something is going to come out and papercut him to death VIA firaga. He waves behind him towards Regulus. "Sorry about not meeting you directly; I don't want a book to come out and ghost me away..." Ember looks at the net... "Well, I hope they don't have any fire spells, but the Net might actually be helpful to find out what they are." To Sonetto and Leilani, the two wave to them, friendly enough. Though Biggs is more focused on getting dinner together, and Wedge is too afraid to look at the door. "Good to see that Ember has brought some muscle to help," Biggs says. "As for how long..." Wedge interrupts him, "At least three years." Biggs on the other hand rolls his eyes, "A few weeks. We've had people come by to supply us, and we know how to live off the land, so no need to worry about us. Thankfully, there is a lake not too far." 'Um... are we aware of the likely history of this library?' Ember shakes his head. "Sadly, we don't. Though I can say somewhat confidently that the stonework here is definitely the precursor. There is mana infused in the stonework itself, making it incredibly resistant to damage. Much like how Mythril's stonework is. It'd be nice to be able to replicate their techniques in construction... it'd help make moving away from Mythril a viable option." "As for ghosts... I don't think there are any ghosts here. Ghosts really only appear where the life stream is weakest... and there just is too much life here for that."
Ember	Ember himself eventually approaches the door itself. "Be safe out here Biggs, Wedge." and he pushes on the door itself. Instead of opening in or out, the doors slowly slide apart, opening so that they can walk inside. The air is actually NOT musty, though it is very thick with magic for those who can sense it. There is a stairwell that leads down to an opening. The opening room is a massive one, with books all over the walls in orderly rows. There are small carriages that could take you up to higher shelves, as well as move left and right. Some books are left on the floor in small piles, likely left there from when the place was abandoned, never to be reshelved again. SOME of the books, however, shake back and forth. Some of THOSE books are far larger than a book has any right to be. Though nothing immediately attacks, they do seem... ominous. Ember holds a hand to his head. "Damn, this place is just saturated with mana. I think almost everything here works on some magical principles." he points to the lights above, which, despite how high up they are, seem to be able to illuminate the entire chamber. He also motions towards the carriages. "Well, at least the monster books are obvious... If we grab one, the rest will likely stir. So what do you want to handle this?"
Skipper	Skipper stares at the pile of monster books. Behind them, Poppy's oohing and ahhing over the Authentic Haunted Library, which absolutely is super haunted no matter what Ember says about mana or whatever, and not paying any attention to the actual single anomalous thing so far. "I think I can probably pick one up without waking any of them up?" Skipper says. "Just shove it in a bag really quickly, before it can make noise, right?" "Anyone have a good strong bag? I really think this will work."
Tamiel Luxis	"Is that true? "It's true!" She insists. "Mostly, it only matters for really rare books--normal room temperature and humidity is fine, if books can be replaced or copied. But especially old ones? It's important!" She bounces, lingering near the investigator. "A book left somewhere warm and humid for one year? Fine. Ten years? It's going. One hundred? Insects might eat them. And the presence of water will break it down, too...Most normal paper will decay to dust after a few hundred years, so it's important to routinely reprint, copy and maintain them..." "The biggest danger now, is disturbing old books, and destroying them--some papers can just fall apart, if you handle them roughly! The damage is done, whatever it is. We need to make sure we can safely get them out, where they can be looked at, preserved--and--" Her tone dipping into the marveling. "--If the condition is good enough, maybe copy them!" "We might actually be lucky, that they're magical, or 'haunted.'" Tamiel mused. She isn't keen to disturb her supplies, and lets the others deal with slimes and wild chocobos--though those that wander close to her find themselves speared through a shadowy knife, coming up from beneath them. "It might have helped preserve them all this time, you know?" "...if there was a large quantity of deaths within the library to render it haunted, the overall structure of the library would likely have been damaged." "Oh, no..." Her wings drooped. "If IS damaged, then there's a chance that water has started to leak into some of the library." She was filled with visible distress at the idea of rooms filled with secret, maybe magical texts, left to mildew. "Hopefully, if there is damage, it's not throughout the structure..." Ember's reassurance about the actual integrity of the structure gets her to perk up, visibly, and then she verifies her, tips of her wings reach out to brush the stonework. "Come to think of it, you're right...There's magic in this. I hope they did climate control, too..." Their talk about the weakness of books to humidity and water made Tammy a little nervous, to see the water drop, scared for a moment that they'd made the mistake of putting fountains or decorative pools near the books. Easy mistake! Tragic mistake! But her worries were brushed away by the sliding of the doors, and when she stepped inside, the wave of magic bowling over her took her breath away. "Do you put them in large book-sized jars? Do you need to poke holes in the top so the pages can 'breathe'?" "Usually, that's Monster Control's department." Tamiel sorted through. "Typical step one is try to understand what they are...If they're guardians, and we can follow the rules, we don't need to fight them at all, and they might even let us read them. Some books are very polite!" The athenueum's collection was eclectic, to say the least. "You're not kidding..." She gasped, as they went in. "Magic, everywhere. And contained...This could be so promising..." She moves to clap, only to just BARELY stop herself, at the mention of sleeping books. "Ehe...I'll put up the tent...!"
Team Timekeeper	"It was one of those ghost tours by bus in a New York. We had to leave early before we got to the haunted library stop because we forgot to pack lunch," Sonetto waits patiently for a more reasonable explanation than this, because that just doesn't sound like it could possibly apply. "Ah, no. No, I don't think this will be like that at all." "Oh! Aww, how old are you two? Are you training to be soldiers or mercenaries? Well, I'll protect you from any evil books that come your way, okay?" Leilani leans over and gives a little salute to Poppy and Skipper, assuming that their teeny tiny stature makes them children from this world. "You see, I've determined that flying books probably sort of open halfway, see, and then flap their back and front covers from side to side like butterflys thus--they'll have all the weaknesses that butterflies do in terms of pinning them down." "Okay." Sonetto both treats this as reasonable tactically from Regulus, and also doesn't seem like she's harboring any hostility towards Regulus at the moment. "That's good thinking, Regulus. Thank you." "Well, I hope they don't have any fire spells, but the Net might actually be helpful to find out what they are." "The books? Is it likely that they will have fire arcanum?" Sonetto doesn't! Sonetto's magic is pretty much book-safe! "I would like if we can capture them properly, because it may be possible to purify them some way and access the books that they were." "A few weeks. We've had people come by to supply us, and we know how to live off the land, so no need to worry about us." "Oh, geez. The library's that important, huh? Have you ever found anything like this before?" Weeks is so long! "It'd be nice to be able to replicate their techniques in construction... it'd help make moving away from Mythril a viable option." Sonetto nods, understanding. "Yes. I am sure the precursor civilization held many techniques for self-sufficiency that would reduce dependency on Mythril's harmful political structure. However... we have only barely reintroduced basic literacy to the people of this world, and so translating ancient texts for dissemination will take considerable outside resources even if what we are looking for is contained here." Inside the library, Sonetto covers up her mouth and nose with her hand, making an expression like she's trying to choke down something dry and bitter. Leilani holds up a flashlight, sweeping it around the entryway. "Well, if they're not attacking us immediately... we don't wanna pass by and get pinned in! We're not aware of any other way out besides this, are we? Then let's..." Leilani snaps her fingers. "A bag! That's a great idea! We can pounce on them one by one and stuff them away!" Sonetto draws her glasfeder. "I will also begin to draw an array around this hallway. Once I complete it, I can efficiently dispatch the monstrous books even if they are flying in pursuit of us."
Regulus	''Anyone helping the poo' is a good friend of mine'' "...Yeah hopefully there won't be any clogging for a while." Regulus looks a little confused, though, because she didn't think he said ''poor''. "Honestly it's a good thing we're able to lend a hand, it's starting from a real rough place, but on the other hand--makes it easy to get started, right?" She tries so hard to be a glass half full kind of person to the point that sometimes she'll try to make sure that glass is overflowing. The talk about the books getting sentient being because of mana accumulation and mismanagement makes sense, if it can make sewer water sentient it can probably make books sentient. Books are smarter than sewer water. But if it's happening within the city of Mithril, and this close to the city of Mithril, then she can only imagine how bad it is on the other side of the planet. "Monsters in the shape of books..that aren't books... I guess you can probably tell if it's a real book if they have actual writing on the inside." She cups her chin, thinking about traditional final fantasy monsters maybe a bit too much. Monsters and animals being conflated also make sense. There's critters that are fuzzballs and critters that are decidedly not fuzzballs. Everything makes sense so far. "I won't say no to dinner if we've the team for it." She looks to Wedge. "Hey we'll check it out don't worry." She thinks about Lilian's commentary on payment though before setting that aside. ''Tamiel's warnings about damaging books'' Regulus grimaces. "Looks like we better be careful even if we're attacked. We could seriously destroy something important and never even know it." Alternately, they could destroy something totally unimportant and fear that it's really important for the rest of their lives, which is actually kind of scarier as she thinks about it! Regulus thinks about potentially leaky roofs. She probably could...patch that up, maybe? It doesn't have to be PRETTY to make it functional, but probably not with anything she has now. Hopefully if there is a leak, it isn't harming anything too important. ''If they're guardians, and we can follow the rules, we don't need to fight them at all'' "Oh I didn't think about that, maybe they'd be worried we're invaders and we can just talk it out." Though that might be complicated by Ember's theory. ''That's good thinking, Regulus. Thank you.'' Oh no, all of Regulus's feelings are onesided right now! This'll make it so much harder to bring up later! ''IS it likely that they will have fire arcanum?'' "It feels a little ... scary for books to use fire arcanum." Regulus admits for numerous reasons. They can watch their own arcanum but if the fire is coming from the books, that's so scary! She nods along with Sonetto's thought that even if they do find something it'll be a long while before they can make use of anything in this library. She heads in after Sonetto, wielding the butterfly net in front of her like a cautiously raised spear. ''I will also begin to draw an array around this hallyway.'' "My net's ready! I'll bag any that skitter outta the way!" Firing light blasts in here would be dangerous to the books so.
Ember	Before entry... 'Have you ever found anything like this before?' Wedge answers this one, "Nope. In all my travels of the wastes, I haven't found anything like this place. Usually it's just broken military bases or facilities we have no idea how to operate or what they're used for. The exploratory forces of the Rebellion have been looking for a very long time through scraps of the old world... and this is the most significant find in a long time. Probably the most." 'However... we have only barely reintroduced basic literacy to the people of this world, and so translating ancient texts for dissemination will take considerable outside resources even if what we are looking for is contained here.' Ember nods firmly, "I know. Hard not to remain hopeful... though if we can find a way to translate and print these books out for the world to see, then we might have some reason for hope." Right now, Ember's current plans are... well, not great. Slow changes to that city aren't going to be enough, he feels. '--If the condition is good enough, maybe copy them!' "Well, that's where multiversal help might be necessary. Something to help mass-produce books we find here." Ember says, with a sigh. How long would it take, he wonders? 'Hey we'll check it out don't worry.' Wedge actually turns his head to her and nods. "S-sorry. The books just spooked me a lot is all. I didn't think they'd just wake up and attack me is all."
Ember	INSIDE "You...think you can?" he asks Skipper. Well, the plan was... potentially sound? He wasn't the one for stealth, however, so he'd have to let Skipper and whoever else had the bag do it. "Wait, didn't Regulus have a net?" 'Ehe...I'll put up the tent...!' "You're more excited than I am about this... though I don't know about setting up the tent here..." This place is swimming in mana. Though if they were to explore it, they'd need a fallback point, he supposes. 'I can efficiently dispatch the monstrous books even if they are flying in pursuit of us.' "Sounds like a plan. While Ifirit might be most effective here, I would want to avoid bringing fire to such a place... so Titan might be the better solution. I can support your arrays." He mentions to Sonetto. Though what happens if they defeat the books? 'It feels a little ... scary for books to use fire arcanum.' "I mean... I wouldn't say it'd be unexpected. Long ago, many tomes could have magic sealed inside them and used on the fly. So it's not impossible for magic-using tomes. Unfortunately, they are not as common these days... or maybe more fortunate than I realize. They would be likely in the hands of the upper class to be used against those below them."
Ember	THE PLAN The plan is simple: Skipper, Tamiel, and Regulus sneak to get a possessed book. They bag it and take it back to where Sonetto, Ember, and Leilani are holding a defensive position. Walking out onto the platform is easy; three stealthy characters can easily show off on books... while monsters, they are still BOOKS. They apparently only attack or wake up on sound rather than sight or smell. Or, well, if you touch them! Skipper manages to grab one easily, and Tamiel has the bag open. With Regulus, they can easily get it inside the bag and sealed before the book actually wakes up and causes an alarm. This part, is made increadibly easy by the three working together with teamwork! Unfortunately, one of the larger tomes moves erratically, bumping into the back of Regulus' leg. There is a good news/bad news part to this. The good news, for Regulus, is that the book can't see her, because she's invisible! The bad news is for everyone else because anyone that they CAN see... well... Given who is in the stealth group, that would leave Ember, Sonetto, and Leilani. Ember looks surprised by this: "Not sure what happened, but they're waking up..." Ember channels Titan immediately, growing a few inches, and his body changes slightly from a fleshy exterior to a more golem-like tone. His arms become massive and more stone-like than the rest of him. "There aren't many of them, so I hope your magic can take them."
Tamiel Luxis	Tamiel put up the tent, with little flaps that could be tied closed from the outside. Poppy would find herself disappointed--it was a small, utlitarian structure, with small little mounds arranged to put each of the books--some supplies for bookbinding--glue, some replacement covers...and a few ominous-looking locks, with sturdy chains. and various canvas bags. Designed to keep out moisture, and even light, she cracked a glowstick and let it hang from the top of the tent, letting it hang. "Okay," she said, quiet. "Books in good condition, lets leave out there. Anything that looks fragile, please put in the tent. Any that want to kill you, please use the locks. If the writing makes your eyes hurt to read...Also use the locks." She nods to Skipper, after a moment. "Yeah...It's better than nothing. Let me have a bag, and I'll do my best." She fell into her own shadow, like a stone falling into water, leaving ripples, before attaching herself to Skipper's shadow. When Skipper seized a book, or Regulus managed to snag one in her net, bag came immediately out of the shadows, only to vanish back down once hidden. When the books began to stir, Tamiel froze, immediately. Her shadow briefly split from Skipper's own and gestured, frantically, back toward the entrance.
Skipper	Poppy is disappointed, but with a bit of nudging she and Skipper both get to helping with Tamiel's setup and initial cataloging. And then... BOOK GET! Skipper runs back with the bagged book, holding it directly overhead as they run back. "Got- (I mean, I got one!)" they say, at a much lower volume. Tamiel's shadow trick amazes Skipper, albeit as something that takes the critter a little bit to realize what exactly happened. "How did you do that? That was amazing! Did you just - become part of my shadow, or did you swim in it, or-" All of that is soon set aside in favor of a more important followup question: "Can you teach someone how to do that?"
Team Timekeeper	"It feels a little ... scary for books to use fire arcanum." "A tome containing instructions for fire incantations, animated by ambient pneuma, would likely not have the higher reasoning skills necessary to understand the danger those incantations would pose to the library," Sonetto confirms. "So we may be working against the guardians of the library to guard the library." "Books in good condition, lets leave out there. Anything that looks fragile, please put in the tent." "Ah! That's so resourceful! Look at you!" Though it's Leilani who helps Tamiel in setting up her tent, Sonetto's opinion of her rises considerably. "These books... any of them that are destroyed, we might never know the contents again. Whether they contain magic, history, or even literature and poetry, they are all that the previous civilization has left of their lives." While the others are sneaking around, Sonetto is drawing a complicated ritual circle around the large open space in the library. Light streams out of her glasfeder and glows faintly where it rests, with secondary circles and arcs inside the ritual design being packed with dense clusters of cursive poetry. She's nearly done when Leilani, the lookout, calls out to warn them of the books' movement. "Ah...! Sonetto! Behind you!" "...?!" Still bent down to draw, Sonetto has a book flapping up into the air just over her shoulder. Leilani can't use her bow without tearing the books to shreds, so she runs over and full-body tackles it, wrestling it to the ground to hold its pages shut. "Tamiel! A lock!" "Okay! Ed e subito sera!" With a swipe of her arm, Sonetto draws the last line in her ritual array, and the entire design lights up at once. A hemisphere of night emerges from its perimeter, reaching up to the ceiling of the vast library in a shadowy dome that sparkles with nameless stars. Holographic crystals slide down from the top of the dome to penetrate in like the tips of swords, and ribbons of light lash in every direction within its effect to bind books tightly shut.
Regulus	''So we may be working against the guardians of the library to guard the library.'' "Wonderful." Regulus sighs. ''S-sorry'' "We're already here, so--" Regulus says before moving in. But it's hard not to think about just how much work there is to do in this world. In a way, it's actually kind of exhilirating. The work is bereft of many of the barriers and complexities that typically get in the way of doing work that feels genuinely helpful to do. But at the same time, it's daunting that there is so much that still has to be done. More than can be relied on with Elites, at some point the locals are gonna have to be able to handle their own plumbing, their own reading, and their own efforts of reclamation. ''While Ifrit might be the most effective here'' "Yeah... we might as well bring a bulldozer if we were gonna go that far." Regulus quips. Regulus turns invisible! She would've lent her aid to Skipper and Tamiel but they didn't ask for it and she knows Tamiel, at least, is plenty sneaky on her own and she has no idea how many times she's gonna have to go stealth mode or how long she's gonna have to keep it up. She swoops her butterfly net and helps guide the book to the bag. Easy! Teamwork makes the dream work! And then ... bonk. Regulus feels a bonk. "Ah bugger me." Regulus mutters. She is forced to do the stealth walk of shame back to the others. Dang it! Why does she always have the rotten luck?! She needs that ability to go 'please?' at people in real life!! She vows to try it out next time someone gets mad at her to see if the technique is transferable onto people who aren't NPCs in a video game. At least it seems Sonetto was ready for it, so no harm done. She gives Sonetto an invisible thumbs up. She'll never know.
Tamiel Luxis	"Well, that's where multiversal help might be necessary. Something to help mass-produce books we find here." "THAT, we can help with!" Tamiel declares, proudly. "It's a lot of what we do. A lot of our books are copies, too, and we need to make a lot of them. We might want to locally source the paper or ink, though...A whole city's worth a books would be a lot." "Ah! That's so resourceful! Look at you!" She's a little embarrassed at Leilani's praise, her wings pulling inward, hand scratching at the back ofh er neck. "This is pretty standard, really..." She gives Leilani a soft smile, as she hands over some of the canvas to help the setup. "This is the most vulnerable time. Keeping them safe and contained is important now." "These books... any of them that are destroyed, we might never know the contents again." Tamiel's expression grows much more subdued, and she nods. "Yeah...I think so too. History is so easy to lose. Sometimes, all you have left are the echoes that people left behind. This..." She gestures toward the library. "...Is a window into a world that we might never get a chance to see again. The stories of a world that doesn't belong to us anymore." When Regulus awakens the hoard, Tammy is sliding back toward the entrance. "Coming...Coming!" A dark shape rises up beside Leilani, color and substance quickly bleeding back into the angel as she gets on one knee, latch, pulling out some of those chains and quickly wrapping them around the book. "Almost got it, Leilani..." She fumbles, for a moment, as she tries to secure the lock in place, and tightening it. Unsettlingly, it's like it was specifically forged to cage books. A relieved laughed bubbles up, out of Tammy's chest. "Heavens."
Ember	'Tamiel's tent.' Ember looks confused by it. "Wait, is this what a tent is in your world?" he asks, digging into his bag and pulling out a small item that looks like a 'tent'. "We have these; we just put these down in certain places..." Weird that other places even have reusable tents. 'Yeah... we might as well bring a bulldozer if we were gonna go that far.' Ember nods, "Yeah, I agree. It's why I'm avoiding it. I'd rather not lose anything we don't have to." A pause. "I appreciate your help, Regulus. I don't think you hear that enough." 'THAT, we can help with!' Ember nods, accepting that. "Well, I appreciate the help with this. I think regaining what we lost is a good step in making a better future." Hopefully... hopefully... 'Team Book Retrieval' Ember nods, "Good job... this can give us something to look over. Maybe something we can do to neutralize the other books. We just need time to actually research their magic..." 'Books waking up.' "Well shit..." Ember says, working with Sonetto to bolster the defenses. Some books launch magic spells, like fire and ice, and Ember responds by stomping the ground to create walls of stone to protect Sonetto and Leilani from most spells launched at them. Sonetto can finish her incantation that wraps the books in various ribbons of light. Ember, impressed with the magic, gives Sonetto a thumbs-up. "Nicely done; that'll make Tamiel happy at least. I can see why Vertin appreciates you so much." Now, with a captured book and the other books safely subdued, people have their choice of what to do next. This particular area is unlocked, though the library has stairs that seem to go farther down. Perhaps into more halls like this one. Ember warns against exploring until they have an answer to the book problem. Other books on the walls and in small piles that AREN'T awakened or possessed books are there to read. There is also actually inspecting and working on the possessed books themselves. Ember takes an interest in that, helping anyone who actually studies them. Ember can easily see that there is a strange sort of wild magic possessing these books. "It's like a naturally occurring spell... a sort of life to them. More animal or monster than sapient, but still sort of quasi-life." "Does anyone know any powerful dispelling effect? Something that can scatter magic in an area away? I think even a small amount of time in some sort of field could turn the books back to normal. Though this leads me to believe there is a powerful magic in this place. I don't know if it's a sort of spell or a being."
Skipper	With the danger passed, the archiving begins again. "I didn't think exploring a haunted library would involve so much work," complains Poppy, who was envisioning a lot more spectral spookiness and less carrying books around for an angel. Skipper, meanwhile: "Hey, um - are you a butterfly net master, by any chance? I'm trying to find some training, maybe butterfly nets are it? And you were right about how the books were moving..." How much of this is genuine interest and how much is trying to take a break from work is unclear.
Tamiel Luxis	"Oh...This isn't like, to rest. This is just a temporary structure to give shelter to any fragile books?" Ember is right to say Tamiel would appreciate it, and it's clear from the smile that she offers the investigator. She rushes back to get more locks. "Does anyone know any powerful dispelling effect? Something that can scatter magic in an area away? I think even a small amount of time in some sort of field could turn the books back to normal. Though this leads me to believe there is a powerful magic in this place." Tamiel considers, then shakes her head. "Not personally...But we might be able to work out something. Like a place low on magic we could let them sit in...That might take a long time, though." She sighed. "If it was a curse, maybe I could chip away at it--but my usual purification would probably just make it stronger. Fire and salt are known to have cleansing magical properties, too--but we should NOT be exposing the books to fire." With that aside, Tamiel began to look at more mundane angles. "So, this is an entrance, right...?" She begins to look around. "A lot of libraries have places like, catalogues, or reference books--ways to find where other books are kept, you know? They'd be near the entrance, right? Kept accessible." She begins to hunt and peck around. "We can find out more about the library. What it's for, who made it--and what they kept here. At least...If any of us can understand it."
Team Timekeeper	"Nicely done; that'll make Tamiel happy at least. I can see why Vertin appreciates you so much." "Thank you." As always, her language makes all of her feelings impenetrable by word choice, but her attitude is much more readable. She's breathing heavily from the sudden extertion of the large-scale spell and nearly getting attacked by the book, but the compliment lands, and she's clearly pleased with the result. Once Tamiel's locked the book in Leilani's arms, she can finally release it. She braces on the ground with her forearms, giggling from the adrenaline. "Woah! It's such a good thing you had those locks! Or else we'd only get them to settle down if we sat on them. I've never seen a book like that before; have you?" "It's like a naturally occurring spell... a sort of life to them." Leilani shakes her head, then looks to Sonetto. Unfortunately, Sonetto's out of luck here too. "If there was a ritual empowering them, perhaps we could disrupt it... but I would not know how to dispel environmental pneuma. Is there something deeper within the library that is drawing in so much arcane energy passively, causing it to condense in this area? A half-completed ritual, or some kind of arcane material?" "Oh! I can't dispel anything, but hey, if there's something like that...! Lemme get my compass out!" By conducting a small ritual with her compass and a metallic implement arrowhead, Leilani tries to trace the source of the 'density' or flow of arcane energy within the library. If there's some specific source for it, the compass arrow will swivel to point towards it, staying steady no matter where they move it. "I didn't think exploring a haunted library would involve so much work," "...Hm? But this is a job." Sonetto tilts her head at Poppy, uncertain. Even assuming they're children, children should be capable of working without complaint! "It has been going smoothly all things considered." "Fire and salt are known to have cleansing magical properties, too--but we should NOT be exposing the books to fire." "If necessary... I could ward them one at a time against fire, if you know a cleansing ritual that would expel the monstrous arcanum."
Regulus	Regulus, once the books calm down, finally rematerializes. "Maaan... that sucked, but at least you all handled it real fast and easylike. Nothing wrong with a bit of action, right?" Glass half full, glass full full, glass overflowing! It's flooding!! Regulus's interest would be in history and anything about infrastructure, honestly, but it's not like she can tell which book is which. She could care less about 'arcane tomes'--it's not like she's going to learn this magic system--but there's also the fact that those 'arcane tomes' seem to have the ability to get grumpy at you, so there's that too. ''Does anyone know any powerful dispelling effect? .. Something that can scatter magic in an area away?'' Regulus looks to Sonetto and Leilani for a moment to shake her head for herself. "The good news is we can come back another time." ''It has been going smoothly all things considered.'' "That's true, this could've gone way worse." So her setting off the books is fine actually! No harm done!
Ember	'I didn't think exploring a haunted library would involve so much work,' "I'm telling you it's not haunted; it's a magical phenomenon. I did warn you before coming in that the place had living books and we'd need to pacify them," Ember had been pretty honest about what he knew about the place. 'This is just a temporary structure to give shelter to any fragile books?' "Uh, well, all things considered, the place seems alright for books. It's not too hot or cold, and I don't feel humidity here. Mmm... Well, at least we can see what we have here." Tamiel's guess is right: most of the books here are less about anything important, but about where to find other books. From the sheer number of books, this place must be /huge/. Multiple wings, deeper levels, and all that. She will have a feeling, though, that there are at least several main sections. A section dedicated to history, one to great works, and one to magic. 'Lemme get my compass out!' Ember nods; his own magic sight isn't precise enough to answer those questions. Especially with so much mana in the air. On the other hand, Leilani's compass comes to life and swings around for a minute. Eventually, it starts pointing in a particular direction. There is a specific source somewhere deeper in the library. Looking at it, Ember shrugs. "Well, it looks like it's deeper in. We'd need to subdue more books on the way, I imagine. However, if we can subdue the source of all this mana, it might dry the books out on their own. It'd take some time, but it's better than nothing." 'The good news is we can come back another time.' "Yeah. It'd be easier if we could make an artificial warpgate near the entrance." Ember muses. "Anyway, if you want to head back and come back, that's fine by me. We don't have a pressing time limit on this place. Taking it slower will get us more than rushing it, at least."