paixaorpg | Reading to see if we learn anything new [Completed]

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Reading to see if we learn anything new [Completed]

Character(s): Bakura, Blue, Jack and Gaston
Content: After wondering what happened to the white things, the whole group goes to Os Dias Sao a Noite--the library--because Jack wanted to and the rest decided they had nothing better to do.
Setting:Os Dias Sao a Noite
Time: late afternoon
Warnings: nothing yet

None of them knew what had happened to the white things. They were gone though. Bakura was amused by the fact that they had gotten weapons just as the creatures disappeared, but Bakura still figured his simple staff was a safety precaution. And considering how sudden that attack on the city had happened, it should be useful in the future.

The library was BIG even from the outside. It made him think of a very fancy school. It was about as big as Domino High, but the design was quite a bit more decorative. He smiled, walking up the stairs and pushing the door open. The whole thing was big, but it was warm. He held the door open for the others, before going to explore the shelves himself.

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((Don't know if we wanted to keep up the old posting order, buuut I'm posting anyway XD))

Blue slipped into the library, paying attention to every detail of it. She hadn't seen many books up close herself from where she was from. The Old Man often read a book or two when Russ was still alive; sometimes he'd read a book to both Russ and her and she'd try to listen intently to words that she couldn't always understand. But she always made a good pillow for Russ, and if there were scary parts she would know because his hands would be curling into her dark fur.

After he was killed the only book he really heard of was the Book of the Moon in passing. She doubted something like that would be here.

"I wonder if we'll be able to find anything..." she said aloud after she had settled in and, like Bakura, had slipped off between shelves. She scanned book titles, finding nothing that gave hint of those creatures that were here... but really, what was she searching for in a title?

It was only fitting they'd purchased weapons right when they had stopped being useful. Ah, well, better to have them and not use them, right? It at least would give him time to practice a little, try to get the hang of using his. Hopefully he wouldn't need the practice, but one never knew, did they?

The library, now that was impressive. Simply enormous, and rather tastefully decorated inside and out, if he did say so himself, even if he did prefer darker colors. He followed Bakura up, nodding appreciatively at the door being held, and headed for the information desk first and foremost. Why browse aimlessly when you wanted specific information. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon, sir. Can I help you with something?" The receptionist looked up with mild interest.

"I certainly hope so." Jack smiled charismatically. "Do you have any books about those strange white creatures that were outside recently?"

"I'm afraid not; they've never been seen before."

"I see.... well, I certainly hope they aren't seen again....." Jack sympathized, the librarian nodding in agreement. "Well, then. Do you have any geography? Atlases and such, travel journals, anything like that...."

"There's a map in your journal, sir, and foreigners like you write accounts of their life and their travels in Paixao in their journals. Would you like me to show you how to reach them?"

"Oh, no thank you." Jack laughed, shaking his head and spreading his hands apologetically. "I already use that--I mean, maps of the land outside, surrounding Paixao?"

The man stared at him incredulously. "Why would anyone want to map that? Those lands are very dangerous, sir. You might find children's fairy tales about them, but nobody would dare to make serious efforts."

"I see.... understandable, I suppose." That didn't mean he still wasn't curious, though. "Why do people venture outside at all, then?"

"Only for gate duty, sir, which isn't very far. Someone has to welcome foreigners, after all. Is there anything else?"

"Well, that's awfully kind of you all." Jack smiled. "Well, then.... what about history?"

"Of where?"

"Paixao, I mean. Historical records, social books about the local customs, treatises on Paixaoan government.... anything of the sort."

The librarian regarded him blankly for several long moments. "I could give you some brochures about some of the attractions Paixao has to offer...."

"I believe I already have those.... thank you anyway, though; I think that's it." Jack shook his head, discouraged, and turned to leave after trading farewells. Maybe he would try browsing the shelves too....

Some time later found Jack flustered and embarrassed as he cracked open yet another book. Porn. Again. Explicit, full-page, color photograph, male on male porn. What was this, the twenty-fourth book on that subject he'd found in an hour? It was ridiculous! It wasn't even the right section for it; he'd glanced through the how-to section first, and found the bulk of those--much to his chagrin, a few of those illustrated books HAD been how-to's.... He'd also found heaps of gardening books, surprisingly enough. And books on pet care and bird watching. And hunting. Why did these people have them at all? There weren't any real plants here, and he didn't think that glowing creature had been a pet....

No, it couldn't have been. It looked something like a stag, from what little he'd seen of it. He'd picked up an illustrated book on hunting dragons to show to Gaston, just for novelty's sake; he didn't think the man's world had dragons in it at all. The how-to and recipe book he'd seen on cannibalism had been put back immediately, for the sake of not nauseating anyone. The fiction section had been interesting, if uninformative; he'd picked up the one book he'd seen about things outside the domes--true to the librarian's word, it seemed to be the sort of compendium of the type of horrific fairy-tales meant to warn children against doing harmful things, in this case venturing past the gates.

Deciding to take a break, the skeleton moved off to find the others. "Any luck so far?"

Gaston, for his part had mostly ignored the books for a long while, choosing instead to lean back in one of the library's chairs and polish his new weaponry. That only used up so much time, though, and eventually he had to find something new to do, so he wandered through the aisles as well, not really expecting to find anything of interest to him. He never really spent any time at a library, so he felt a little awkward walking through rooms with so many books. He tried to fit in a little more by actually pulling books off the shelf and paging through them for a moment.

Actually, it wasn't entirely boring for him. The library definitely had a strange arrangement of books, as Jack had already found out. In fact, Gaston found one of those "informative" books that the skeleton had been suffering through and stopped to glance at it for a few moments, before hastily putting it away. He wasn't anywhere near ~that~ desperate yet... And he wasn't about to be caught looking at that kind of stuff.

He quickly moved on towards the others and grabbed a large book off the shelf as he neared them, flipping through the first few pages. This one fortunately didn't have any pictures, but the content was almost as bad. The hunter shuddered and closed it after a moment and looked at the cover, giving it a confused look. "The Ultimate Harry Potter Fanfiction Collection... Volume 13? ... I don't know who this boy is, but if his adventures are anything like what's in this book, he is a very disgusting and warped little boy..."

This was why he didn't read. There just wasn't anything ~worth~ looking through!

Bakura was having a bit more luck than Jack had. Although he had not found anything on Paixao yet. Bakura pulled one book off the shelves, standing on tiptoe to reach it. The title had caught his eye. He opened the book, brown eyes, scanning the first few pages. “Ah…shortened version of the Egyptian belief?” A further flip through the book made him change his mind…why on earth would someone want to know want to know what happened if a piece of being died?

He sighed, putting it back. This place had some really weird belief systems.

He began to walk back towards a section on children’s literature. He spotted one title, a book he had borrowed once when he was starting to learn English, figuring that he could start learning the pronunciation better with a sample, even though the book had been ultimately too advanced, he had eventually learned how to read it. It surprised him that it was here, considering everything Tori had quoted at him and insisted on basic purity. It was a children’s book with insights on how unfair life is.

(( ... eeek... ))

Blue just wasn't sure. She'd found a book on sea creatures, sea fairytales, seafood, and then decided that her row was not one that would help her (even though she was still hoping for a book on "Paixao Seas" but oh well).

She wandered off, glancing around and trying to find the others. In the process she had found two boys gathered around a cart of books. She glanced over them curiously, sorting through them as she slipped her hand in between them. The boys jumped apart looking defensive, fists out childlishly with double-yells of "These are our treasures!"

Blue noted their curled blonde hair and blue eyes made it clear to her that these were indeed kids from Paixao, either that or some kids that had some really bad luck showing up here. Blue managed to get her hold around one book that looked tattered and just thrown together like scraps of paper with a barely stable cover. The boys hopped back after her as she moved away, reading the title in her mind. The Complete Guide to Paixao. And as she started to flip through the pages, not yet paying attention to the scrawl across them, the boys leapt at her and dragged it from her hands. One of them kicked her knees and the other ran down the aisles with the book.

"Hey!" She wasn't going to let a pair of children - presumably brothers - take away something that could very well be what they had been searching for. Their game of cat and mouse didn't last long: she had skidded down one aisle and luckily in front of the boys. They eeped and she gained the book back in her possession that afterwards earned a bit of a dance between her and the boys that she was coming out on top of.

She couldn't read the writing. And out of probably a thirty paged book, there was only writing on too. She stared down confusingly and came to a hault that made the boys stumble and glare. Blue held it out towards them. "What is this?"

"It's my brother's!"

"It's mine! Give it back!"

"Why is it yours? Isn't it the library's?"

"No, it's mine! I'm writing it! Give it back, give it back!"

"Yeah, give it back!"

Blue gave it to them with a sigh. So she was out of luck, it seemed. She left the boys after returning the book and went back to finding the others. "Bakura have you come across anything?" she had finally found someone. "I thought I did... but some kid was just writing it, and it didn't even have much to it. ...Some library. Not sure what I was expecting though."

"Ah...That's too bad. You should have asked him if you could see it after he was done writing. Might be interesting to see his idea of the place." Bakura smiled, "No, not on Paixao, but I have found a few things that seem perfectly against what the little girl I met inferred to me about Paixao. Books about death, books about resurrection, books about how unfair life can be. It's odd. She seemed to indicate that there can always be a happy ending. That there's no such thing as a lie. And that we're we all are from isn't worth knowing about except through storybooks. I think it's odd though that I've found a book...rather against her philosophy here." He held up the book he was holding, The Princess Bride by William Goldman. "I read it when I was younger to my little sister..." There was a pause, while he got his emotions under control, refusing to cry about it, and then continuing, "I guess it's interesting what they have and what they don't have here."

(( *blink*blink* I think you skipped over Jack and Gaston XD Unless it was on purpose, of course... ))

Jack was startled to hear the shouts of Blue and the children; he set the books down on a nearby table which already sported an impressive tower of books from some previous visitor, popping his head off and holding it up to see over the shelves; the skull was turned in his hands to see what the matter was, and he soon spotted the commotion, sighing. Whether it was of relief of disappointment, he couldn't say; at least nobody was hurt, though they seemed to be just as stuck as when they'd started.

"Ah, well...." He took a few steps back, turning as he brought his head back down to put on again, and found that he'd misjudged the distance he'd been standing from the table. He stumbled a little upon backing straight into it, elbow knocking over the stack of books nearest to him as he reached back to steady himself. "Goodness!"

He took a moment to make sure his head was firmly attached, then turned to gather up the little spill, eyes--well..... no. Actually, that metaphor wasn't appropriate at all. First of all, he didn't have eyes to fall upon anything or light up, metaphorically or literally. But had he any eyes in his sockets, they would have done both.... though whether they actually would have glowed or fallen out, he couldn't have said. Regardless though, he spotted one book in particular that looked interesting, and took it in hand as the rest of the stack was tidied up, non-existent brows furrowing with the quiet creak of bone shifting. What Is the Domed City?, by Ranolf Gallian Esq. III....

Well, this looked promising indeed! He didn't have to do more than read the table of contents to figure that out. Smiling warmly, the skeleton turned to the others, now that they all seemed to have found their way back together. "I don't mean to discount any of your discoveries, but I believe I've found something we all ought to spend some quality time looking over together." The book was held out for inspection, and Jack found himself wondering why the librarian hadn't seemed to know about it at all. Perhaps they weren't meant to find it? If that was the case, then they evidently weren't trying very hard; someone had to have been reading it, if it was out on the table like that.

"I have a hard time believing that," Gaston announced irritably, although his annoyance wasn't really from anything Jack had done. The hunter was just starting to tire over all this library business, especially when it seemed like all the hype had been for nothing... He was starting to get the feeling that this library was even more useless than most were, and that was saying something because he didn't think much of books to begin with. Still, on the vague possibility that his friend had found something that could assist them, he came over to see what it was all about.

He just hoped it wasn't some sappy romance novel or other similar rot. He'd had enough of that already. The only thing he had found that had seemed at all useful had been a cookbook... and it had been focused on desserts and pastries. Not a bad subject, but it was women's cooking -- or at least baker's cooking. Gaston would have been more interested if it had discussed preparation of some sort of meat, since he was a hunter and his kills made up quite a bit of the cooking he did for himself.

"Oh?" Blue had listened intently to Bakura as he spoke. Yes... still nothing on Paixao itself, but it was strange to have such things that seemed like.... the Anti-Paixao. None of the books she read herself would have been agreeable to this city, most likely at least.

She stared at the copy of The Princess Bride, a bit on the curious side. But staring at the book did keep her from staring at the suddenly solemn Bakura - it never did seem like a good thing to acknowledge someone heavily when they slipped into another moment. Some thought it was helpful. She saw it a bit as rude.

"I don't mean to discount any of your discoveries..." Blue turned at hearing Jack and quickly found herself smiling again. Maybe this library did have some worthwhile pieces to it after all. "Perfect. Then let's take a look, shall we?" She rested a hand gently on Bakura's shoulder as a simple, non-rude comforting gesture.

Having managed to get his emotions under control, he smiled at Blue, "You can look at it sometime. I'm going to see if I can check it out."

He heard what Jack said, as well, "Yes, let's go look." He smiled at Blue, before turning toward where Jack had called from.

"Oh, come now, Gaston...." Jack clapped Gaston on the back encouragingly. "I'm sorry to drag you through all this, I know it hasn't been too enjoyable of a search for any of us.... but I think you'll find at least a little of this book useful. They have a section on the glowing creatures we saw one of yesterday afternoon."

"Certainly!" Jack opened the book, turning it for them to see, then realized he would have trouble reading as well. "Ah, just a moment, sorry...." It was a quick task to pile up a few books on the table to make a sort of stand, and Jack pulled his skull off with a sharp little pop, setting it down on top of them so it was tilted up a bit, the better to see the book. "There we are! Now, then...." The book was opened for all to see, flipped first to the table of contents. "Where should we start?"

Gaston had been gazing at Jack and the book in apparent boredom, but mention of the glowing creatures aroused his curiosity. "Start on those creatures," he suggested. "I want to know what they're called so that once I catch one, I can tell everyone and they'll know what I mean... And see if there's anything on their habits, too. It's always good to know your prey..."

Honestly, Gaston really didn't care about much else the book could tell him about the city itself. He'd already seen a lot of the place and although it was a rather spectacular location (and more than a little gaudy in places), he didn't feel a burning need to learn that much more about it.

Blue crouched down by the table, resting her arms on it and tilting her head towards the open book, glancing over the contents and trying to discern what could be useful to them. Probably most of it... what did they really know about this city in the first place, other than the name 'Paixao'?

She glanced to Gaston and frowned a bit. "But do you really think it'll mention those creatures? Even Paixao's citizens seemed as confused as everyone else about what they were."

Bakura smiled at Blue, "I think they're talking about something else....not the monster things that were attacking people...There's another kind of shiny creatures....I saw one...The one I saw looks a little like my plushie." He pulled the whitish kitty back out of his bag to hold with his book.

He shrugged, "I don't really care, but it would be interesting to see what they have to say about those and anything else."

Jack might have nodded, if his head was still attached; as it was, he smiled amiably, running a finger down the table of contents until he found the proper section. "As good a place to start as any.... but yes, the sort that looks like your plushie is right--the other creatures likely wouldn't have been scared away, even by someone like Zim." The section, once flipped to, made very little sense at first; it earned a thoughtful frown as Jack made an effort to work his mind around the first few words. "It's english, I think.... I've never seen a variant this... opaque, though. Probably quite old...."

The text was truly a struggle to work through, in Jack's opinion, even if he was only supposed to be the living bookstand for everyone. What he extracted from it didn't seem to be very helpful, though--it was rather lacking in basic information. Gaston would at least learn that the creatures were called Lumens, and that they seemed to be not only the only form of wildlife here, but neither alive nor dead, either. Other than that? He'd just have to learn from the accounts of Lumen encounters this Ranolf fellow had compiled here, which were unfortunately few.

"You know, from this, I'm not sure if anyone can actually catch them.... If any of you are having trouble with your journals, there's a section on that, too. Something about the town's artificial properties, the weather, geography--oh, they mention outsiders coming in, too...." Jack flipped to the latter section, curious in spite of himself, feeling the skullache of plowing through the language worth it to see why they all were here. This one seemed to be even briefer than the one on Lumens, unfortunately--the mention of the town being vacuum-like was certainly interesting, though. It made him wonder--could the dustbag ever get full? What would happen if it needed to be emptied out? Disturbing thought....

Gaston mostly ignored the information being presented on the pages... It was dull and hard to read... Not to mention, it really didn't tell him much he didn't already know. It was pretty obvious that there weren't any plants, which was something the book mentioned a few times, and who cared if it actually rained inside the dome? In Gaston's opinion, that pretty much negated all the advantages of having a domed city in the first place. It might make a tiny bit of sense if there were plants to water, but as was already established, there weren't any of those to worry about...

The only thing of interest that he found was the name of the creatures he was after... Lumens... The very brief section mentioned something about a light-based nature and the hazards of excessive close contact with the things... That was something of mild interest to the hunter. He supposed he would have to keep his gloves on while carrying any trophies around.

"I think I've seen all I need to see here," he told Jack, as he turned away from the book. "Most of this seems to be fairly useless anyway."

"Oh." Blue stared at Bakura's plushie. She remembered having seen other of the plushies in that shop they had met Jack and Gaston in, but having she had never actually seen any of the creatures themselves. It made her curious, but the book didn't fill that curiousity. She skimmed what she could, seeing bits every so often of DON'T LEAVE THE DOMES and then a bit later on why anyone would want to. She looked up to the others, mainly Jack and Gaston. "Have either of you been outside?"

The "Lumens" sounded like interesting creatures. She wondered a bit if she could have a sort of animal-ken with them, even though she wasn't physically a wolf anymore. She also had to wonder how many people had been outside the domes, certainly not many Paixaoans! - she realized that once more by seeing another caption of DON'T LEAVE THE DOMES. Blue remembered the Old Man mumble sometimes to experience things for yourself, something that even the Flower Girl, Cheza, probably knew about - subconsciously at least.

Besides, all of the bold captions really seemed more like an open-invitation to leave.

For Bakura, some of the text was a little easier to read, although that might have to do with some of his father's background working in the museum with a lot of stuff in archaic script from various archaeological digs. Although most of those were usually translated into Japanese for him. He could at least recognize a few words and get confused over the printing of lowercase L, F and S.

They whole book was interesting, although the caption to not leave the domes that repeated itself was odd in itself. He didn't really see a need to leave. The parallel to a vacuum cleaner bugged him. He paused to think on it for awhile, wondering what it meant for them if this was like a vacuum, sucking in random people from elsewhere. He also wondered if the monster attacks were some bizarre primitive method of population control to ease the overfilling of the domes. He also considered if it was possible for things to change if something happened here. If it could mess up events...change ones that happened in his own time, or if this was just like getting taken over by the voice--a simple time gap that he would barely remember. How he got to that tangent from what he was reading he didn't know, but he kept the thought. It might be useful at some point to take into consideration.

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Reading to see if we learn anything new [Completed]

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