Night 58: Staff Research/Medical Reference Library
[ from here]It was a library. Sesshoumaru blinked in slight surprise, his eyes flicking around to take in that which could be seen, in the scant light cast into the room. Books and papers, leather covered plush chairs, the same high-standing tables as the rest of the institute was populated with, a dark carpet stretching out across the floor. The
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The text was dense, and many of the words absurdly long; though she could read the words, and at least guess at the pronunciation for some of them, the subject matter was leagues above her comprehension. The sound of pages turning was loud in the otherwise silent room, but the rest of the text remained the same. It seemed useless to her. Slipping that back, she tried another, and another; at least as far as this shelf went, it seemed of no use to her. She couldn't understand it at all.
Relaxing her shoulder, she retrieved her flashlight in hand once more, walking to check another bookcase, and another. Surely she would find something useful here, right?
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After a moment of studying her he turned away again.
There was a book on the table, and he walked to it, set his flashlight down at a not entirely inconvenient angle, and occupied himself with the delicate art of turning the pages - which were almost as thin as onion skin - without tearing them through. He grew bored quickly; there seemed little of interest here. And so, after several pages he had dropped the last page he cared to touch and taken up his flashlight again, sweeping it across the room quickly.
Shelves upon shelves. He wondered if they were all books like the one on the table?
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But there was a chance it might be something someone else could understand, right? Maybe even an ordinary person could--maybe 'Terra' could have, if she were here instead of this foggy-headed girl. Picking a text at random, she flipped open to some page in the middle, smoothing flat the paper on each side of the crease. With some care she tucked the front half of the book against her back, beneath her belt. It was flat and a little strange-feeling against her back, but folded over her belt like this, she'd be able to carry it without losing use of one of her hands, or need to worry about it slipping out, or impeding her movement.
That done, it was easy to find her companion in the darkness -- though more difficult to cross the room to where he stood and not trip over furniture along the way. The openness of it made it easier to miss chairs until her hip knocked against the arm of one.
"Nothing here seems useful to me," she said, pitching quiet. "What about you?" She knew nothing about her companion -- she hadn't even asked for his name. He could very well have been an expert in whatever subject this library was devoted to.
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He held the corner of the second book lightly, scanning the pages one last time, before delicately flicking it closed. His flashlight, when he picked it up, fell to a pad of paper that had been next to the first book. Someone had scrawled a few notes on it, almost illegible, apparently in some sort of code- MeSH D010259, ICD 297.1. He studied it for a moment, but without knowing the code this was written in, there was little he could learn.
He turned from the table and left it, and began simply scanning the titles of books instead of choosing tomes to open. His flashlight flicked over the spines as he read of their contents. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Anesthesiology, Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man, Virology, Disability: Challanges vs Responses, Educational Handook for Health Personnel.... They came in different shapes and sizes, different bindings, the print of each strange, too uniform, but all seemed to share one thing in common. None of them seemed to make any sense. He did not turn around for several moments when the girl came up behind him, as he was examining a large stack of thin, nearly uniform, paper-bound volumes. They had seemed perhaps more promising - journals and articles - but when he had flicked the cover sheet over, the language they contained seemed just as incomprehensible as any of the other books.
"If they have a use, it is not one I am able to decipher." His tone was slightly annoyed. "There seems to be some sort of code, though not one I have encountered." He let his flashlight sweep across the room again. Bookshelves and furniture, and the door they had entered from. Little else seemed to be of note. It was annoying, because one assumed the door had been locked for a reason, and yet....
"It seems there is nothing to be gained by staying here."
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"Then let's go," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "There's no use wasting more time here."
And with that, and another sweep of her flashlight to rediscover the door, she made her way back out.
[to here]
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