paixaorpg | Comic Book Search

Entry tags:

Comic Book Search

Character(s): Virgil Hawkins & Harry Dresden
Content: Virgil figures there HAS to be comics somewhere and if they aren't in a store maybe the library will work. He calls Harry to help
Setting: Os Dias Sao a Noite (library, K4)
Time: Daytime, Week 2 {takes place BEFORE Virgil/Static goes to check out Hades' "party")
Warnings: None at the moment

Virgil sat on the front steps waiting for his newly appointed friend to show up for the search. He didn't have to go in to work today and getting around the city was easy when you could fly. Virgil was in his civilian clothes now though, his "hero gear" tucked into the backpack he carried and that was sitting by his feet.

He was a little excited, he wasn't sure if the search for comics in a library would turn up anything but it would be worth a look, he reasoned. He knew his own library had some collections back home, who knew, maybe this place would have comics from OTHER dimensions. That'd be kind of weird now that he thought about it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Harry needed some time to work through everything that had been going on in this city, and what better way to recharge his brain than with his favorite form of entertainment?

Wandering though the streets, he made his way to the library, where he quickly spotted Virgil waiting out front. Of course, Virgil and he had technically met before, but Harry hadn't quite found it in his heart to tell the teen he'd seen through his disguise just yet.

Arriving at the foot of the library, Harry grinned and said, "Hey Virgil, ready to see what this place has to offer?"

Virgil saw Harry and stood up, snagging his backpack and slinging the strap over one shoulder, "You bet. I know our library back in Dakota had some older comic collections so I'm hoping maybe it's a trend even in libraries in other dimensions."

He headed up the stairs with Harry to get to the doors. It looked big from the outside but Virgil was amazed how big it looked on the inside too. "Woah, alright, this is gonna take longer than I thought," he replied, realizing how high the shelves stretched and how many rows there were.

"It's where I get most of my reading material when I haven't had much work in a while."

Following Virgil in, Harry just stopped for a moment and kind of blinked at the size of the place. Yeah, this would require a couple trips. "Let's hope whoever runs this place has heard of the Dewey Decimal system, or this might take a while," he commented.

"What do you do for work anyway," Virgil asked, lowering his voice since even though the library looked pretty empty old habits of being quiet in a place with lots of books was hard to break.

Virgil walked over to one of the shelves and looked for a plaque of some kind to signify numbers. Sure enough at the end of the shelf was a plaque designating the shelf with a series of numbers. "Huh, what do you know, guess the Dewey Decimal system really is universal."

Grinning at Virgil, Harry answered, "I'm a wizard," before moving into the library.

"I suppose something had to be, aside from corruption and taxes. Now if only we can find the card catalog." Harry was understandably distrustful of computer records.

Virgil raised an eyebrow at that, sure he could handle meta-humans, aliens, and superheroes but wizards were a little out of his league, "For real?"

"Card catalog," he groaned, "that'll take forever. We could probably find a database on a computer." He paused and looked around, the again, finding a computer in this place might prove just as difficult as finding the card catalog. They had to have something like that right? They had the little electronic journals after all, it wasn't that hard to imagine a computer in this place. "The library alone needs a map," he muttered.

"As real as a dragon," Harry replied.

"Well, if we do, you might want to take care of that," Harry said. "Computers and I don't exactly get along." He still wasn't sure why the electronic journals didn't fry themselves when he got near, but he wasn't taking any chances.

Of course, he quickly looked around and sighed. "Figures we need a map to find a map. Who made this place?"

"Oh," Virgil replied, then blinked, "wait...DRAGONS are real?" Jeeze, just when you thought you'd seen it all someone came along and made you realize there was still a ton of stuff you hadn't even THOUGHT of yet.

"Alright, I'm pretty good with technology...though lately I've been leaving that to Richie, he's a whiz with a computer," Virgil replied, thinking of how his friend could probably have honed in on some sort of computer signal on instinct or something.

He chuckled, "Someone one step below Escher in terms of complicated." He noticed a sign on the wall and pointed it out, "Maybe that'll help." The sign was rather simple looking, an arrow with the words 'Directory' written just under the arrow, which was pointing down a long row of books.

"They better be, or that one that tried to kill me has a lot of explaining to do," Harry added.

"Yeah, I leave the technology department to my friends as well. A guy has to know how to delegate after all." In Harry's case, he had to out of necessity.

Harry laughed as well and said, "Well, hopefully the staircases are all facing the right way at least." Turning he followed Virgil over to the sign. "I think you're probably right. Well, lead the way."

"And I thought Dakota had an interesting collection of characters," Virgil replied, shaking his head in mild disbelief that a dragon had wanted to kill Harry. "So how well does that pay exactly? I mean do you deal out potions for a fee or is it more like a 'hero' thing where you rescue people with your magic and its just the satisfaction of doing good," Virgil joked, he knew he was being really general in his description but he was genuinely curious about this whole 'wizard' thing.

He set off down the row of books, keeping an eye out for another arrow or for them to stumble on the comics by accident. Things were never that easy though and Virgil had to continue down the row for quite awhile before another arrow pointed down a different direction. "We can only hope...although in this place I'm starting to wonder," Virgil replied, smirking slightly when they passed a staircase spiraling upwards...but at least it looked like it obeyed the laws of physics.

"The joy's of life in the big city I guess," Harry joked.

Harry shrugged at Virgil's question and explained, "Mostly I work on commission, about twenty bucks an hour plus expenses. A lot of my work is with the police department, supplemented with private work, usually finding lost wedding rings or quieting spirits, or most often just showing people there's nothing supernatural about their problems at all. You can imagine how grateful those customers are," Harry added with an eye roll. "Professional heroing sounds great in theory, but even Superman needed a day job."

Laughing Harry added, "Well, I suppose the designer could have decided that he'd make it so only the truly determined reader could actually find anything in this mess." Hell's bells, at this rate he'd need to use divination just to find the directory.

Virgil laughed, "Something like that."

Either someone really didn't want them to find the card catalog or this place really was just that big. "So, not only are you a wizard, you're like a detective or something," Virgil reasoned, he was a smart kid and it wasn't hard to figure out. He stopped walking when Harry mentioned Superman, "Whoa, you know Superman's day job?" Virgil was under the impression that very few people knew that Superman was Clark Kent. Heck, he hadn't found out that until fairly recently.

He realized he should be walking and picked up the pace, "Well, I'm not gonna let a silly thing like a building stop me...maybe we should look for one of those suggestion boxes while were at it." He turned down another row and saw in the distance a large row of cabinets that just screamed 'card catalog.' "Jackpot."

Harry had been in labyrinths less roundabout than this place, though at least it had fewer minotaurs. "Yeah, officially I'm a Private Investigator, though you'll find me in the phone book under 'Wizard.'"

Harry was a little confused that Virgil was so amazed that he knew who Superman was. Were comics really that different where he came from? Maybe Superman's identity was some big mystery they would reveal during a slow sales month or something. "Yeah, mild mannered reporter Clark Kent is in fact Superman. I though everyone knew?"

Harry laughed and said, "Given our track record so far, I'm firmly convinced the suggestion box is either bolted to the ceiling, or guarded by several large men with automatic weapons."

Yet, low and behold, success! "Now we just need to find C..."

Virgil was really weirded out. This was like that time he had been transported to the future and had met Terry (the future Batman) as well as his future self who was apparently a REALLY big hero. Okay, calm down, maybe Superman knows this guy. Wait, he said he thought 'everyone knew' though. What's up with that?.

The teenager rubbed the back of his neck, probably looking a little nervous, "I didn't think so. I mean, he has a secret identity for a reason...I thought he would keep that kinda thing on the downlow and I'm pretty sure I would have seen some kind of headline if he had told everybody." Yeah, Virgil was a little weirded out now, something wasn't adding up.

Wait, Harry was a wizard, what if he was pulling that kind of information from his mind or something? Wizard's could do that...right?

Alright, Virg, now you're just being paranoid, he thought, giving Harry a glance anyway and thinking in his head (just in case Harry COULD read his mind), 'I'm on to you bro.'

Virgil started scanning the various drawers for a 'C'...moving to the side since he was staring at the 'H's.

Virgil's own words caused Harry to do a double take. The way Virgil was talking, it was almost as if...

"Wait, are you saying where you come from, there's actually a guy who flies around in red and blue tights, and calls himself Superman?"

Harry supposed stranger things had happened to him, but not much stranger in this case.

"Yeah," Virgil said cautiously, glancing at Harry. Wait, did this mean Harry wasn't reading his thoughts and it was more like he just knew the knowledge from common sense.

Like from reading a comic book his brain supplied helpfully. This put a whole new light to the matter, really. If Superman's heroics were in comic book form who was to say that someone like Batman, the Justice League, or even his own weren't. That was just WAY too weird for Virgil (even if he HAD read comics where that had happened before). Snap out of it Virg, let's remember that just because some of the people you know are fictional in one universe doesn't mean they aren't real to you...or however that works.

Virgil forced himself to calm down, besides, Harry had given no indication that he'd read a comic about someone named Virgil Hawkins who had the identity as Static.

"Yeah, he's in the papers all the time...recently it's mostly been stuff involving the Justice League, too," Virgil continued, trying to act natural by looking over the drawers for the letter they were looking for, "He even helped my buddy Static once."

Harry's mind was blown for the exact opposite reason Virgil's was. The idea that somewhere in the infinite universes there was a real honest to goodness Superman, and maybe even a Batman or Spiderman, running around saving the world was just so, bizarre, even for Harry.

Still, he supposed in some ways it made sense. If he was going off the theory that there were an infinite number of universes, he supposed eventually one would contain something that was considered fiction in another. The odds of running into someone from that universe were staggering, but Harry supposed his life always had a lot of weird coincidences.

Still, he reminded himself that Static's world could be very different from the comic books themselves, so he shouldn't make too many assumptions. "Huh, weird. Maybe Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster were secretly interdimensional travelers?"

Harry looked along side Virgil, and managed to keep the grin off his face at Virgil's attempt to maintain his secret identity. "Really? Wow, Static must be in the big leagues then."

"Not really...I mean sure he's helped Batman and the League and stuff a few times but it's not like he's an official member or anything. He's mostly in Dakota handlin' the Bang Babies who like to go on crime sprees and cause trouble, " Virgil replied, being modest...although it was true. Actually, he probably should have said 'Batman and the League helped Static' but there were a few instances where he felt he had come in handy. There was also that whole 'Static in the Future' incident but since no one but Static should know about that he kept that to himself.

He smiled slightly, finally finding the section that had 'Co' and pulling out the drawer, "Still, I guess he isn't exactly a newbie anymore...I just hope Dakota doesn't go crazy without him there. Hopefully his partner Gear can cover it."

"Hey, everyone has to start somewhere," Harry pointed out. "I mean, Static's still...well, I assume he's still young, so I'd say he's doing pretty good."

Harry pondered Virgil's concerns for a moment before he said, "I'm worried about Chicago as well, but I know I've got good people back home watching out for it. We just have to trust our friends will keep things in order while we're out, and hope that they don't clean out our fridge while we're gone."

Finally Harry found exactly what they were looking for. C, for Comics. "Hah, success!"

Virgil smiled slightly, even if Harry didn't know that Virgil WAS Static it always felt nice to have someone praise what he had done.

"Well that's good that you have people you can rely on too, I like to think we were brought here for some kinda purpose though," Virgil replied, "Not sure what help I can be but I figure I have to be here for some reason, right?"

Virgil brightened when Harry pulled out what they were looking for, "Awesome! Now let's see what they've got."

"Probably," Harry nodded. "I'm pretty sure this would be one hell of a coincidence otherwise. Who knows, maybe the city just felt it needed a few more heroes. After all, Static will likely need all the help he can get."

"Good idea," Harry said with a grin, following the teenager.

"Sounds like we could all use some help figuring out about this place," Virgil muttered, he'd been here awhile now and he still didn't know much more than the basics. He'd been keeping an ear and eye out for trouble or a story behind this place but the locals were passive and a lot of the people he'd talked to didn't know much more than he did...or they weren't sharing.

Navigating through the books was difficult, again, but at least now they knew they were getting some where. Virgil was a little surprised at the shelf of comics though, they looked like comics but a lot of the titles were stuff he'd never even heard of before, "Well, doesn't look like we'll be reading any issues of Spider-man."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Comic Book Search

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject