Searches. News. [OPEN]

[keytoanewworld]

Characters: keytoanewworld and YOU
Setting/Location: Streamdrab, a library
Date & Time: Day 10, shortly after the Caravan arrives at the new village.
Warnings: none so far
Summary: Sumire wants to investigate the village and she heads to the library in hopes of finding history books or newspaper articles.

Comments

[von_habsburg]

Austria had left the caravan soon after it had arrived in the village. Just for the chance to stretch his legs, to look around a little bit and hopefully find something interesting. He had neglected to get any books while he had been in the castle, and as such had nothing to read or do apart from play the violin. Perhaps they even had some sort of sheet music here.

Unfortunately the library, by and large, was rather dark. There were still large windows that let in a good amount of light, but many of the inner aisles were shrouded in darkness. Perhaps he should have thought to bring some sort of illumination with him. But he was still able to find a few books that looked interesting, and he had two of them in his arms when he heard a familiar voice.

He headed toward the voice and finally poked his head around the corner with a nod, not noticing the cobweb that was clinging to his hair. "Ah, hello Sumire. How have you been?"

[keytoanewworld]

Although she had called out, she actually didn't expect anyone else to be in here, so she nearly jumped at the sound of that male voice. Clutching the lantern tightly, she turned to face the direction that voice came from, and then she let out a sigh of relief when she saw who it was. "Oh, hello Austria-san," she said, trying to will her heartbeat to slow down. "I'm doing fine."

She stepped closer to him and held up the lantern to get a better look at him, and then she noticed the cobweb clinging to his hair. "Um, there's a cobweb in your hair. Here, I'll get it." She reached up to pull it out of his hair, and then flicked it off her fingers.

[von_habsburg]

The taller man bent over enough for Sumire to reach the cobweb that was clinging to his hair and nodded, shifting the books he was holding to brush the dust off his coat sleeves with a slight frown. "Thank you, I am afraid this whole village is in a horrible state of disrepair." The library was not as bad as some of the building he had seen, at least it didn't appear to have any holes in the roof.

"Here" he handed her a handkerchief to wipe her hands with, taking out one that had already been used to wipe the dust off his hands. Again. "Did you come here looking for something specific?"

[keytoanewworld]

She accepted the handkerchief with a smile. "Thank you," she said, wiping her fingers. "It appears abandoned, so that's not surprising, but it's better than nothing."

She glanced at the books Austria was holding, although she couldn't make out the titles, and she looked back up at him when he asked the question. "Oh, I'm just trying to find some information, like about this village, why it's abandoned, and maybe something about this world or even that witch who we're supposedly heading toward."

[von_habsburg]

Austria nodded his approval. "A good idea, and you have a lamp, that will help matters along." The few books he had found were largely for his own entertainment, a storybook and something that looked like one of those mystery novels that were getting more popular lately.

"Perhaps there is some sort of catalog system? Otherwise looking for a few specific books could take most of the day." He wondered if she wanted someone to help.

[keytoanewworld]

"Uh, right, the catalog system!" That thought hadn't crossed Sumire's mind, and now that she thought about it, she probably would had gotten so caught up in exploring the books that she risked losing track of time and missing when the Caravan left. She let out a nervous giggle and added, "Yes, that's a good idea."

She held out the lantern to scan the area and her eyes spotted something that looked like a card catalog. "I think that's it over there." She smiled up at Austria. "I appreciate the help."

[von_habsburg]

Austria had simply assumed there was some sort of system, he had been unable to use it because it was not in one of the parts of the libraries that was lit by the windows. But it made sense that there would be one, how else were the library's past patrons supposed to find anything?

He blinked when Sumire thanked him for the help she assumed he was giving. He hadn't been expecting to help her, and cleared his throat to correct her, but he faltered at the smile. It couldn't take too long after all, what would be the harm? And so he nodded, sighing quietly and resigning himself to an hour or two in a dusty library. "Yes, of course. Please, lead on."

[keytoanewworld]

Sumire was truly thankful for Austria's presence; she really didn't want to be alone in a place like this, but she didn't like bothering people for such things. She headed over to the card catalog, which was away from most of the windows but near the information desk. It was also extremely dusty, and like before, it made Sumire sneeze. "Ah, sorry about that," she said as she dusted the top off.

Once that was done, she turned toward Austria. "Austria-san, can you hold onto the lantern for me, please?" she asked.

[von_habsburg]

Austria would have said 'Bless you,' but the dust had set off his own bout of sneezing, which he was busy containing in his handkerchief. "Quite choo! quite alright." He sniffled, wiping his nose one last time.

"Yes, of course." He took the lantern and held it up so that the light would shine over whichever drawer Sumire had open. "Is the light sufficient like this?"

[keytoanewworld]

"Yes, that's fine. Thank you." She knelt down in front of the drawers and after a brief glance at the labels pulled one open. She could've sworn she saw something dark and small scurry across the cards, but she shook her head slightly and assumed her imagination was messing with her again.

"Let's see what's in here..." she muttered to herself, flipping through the cards, and then she pulled a few out. "These ones are for books about the animals and plant life, and that'll be useful to know."

[von_habsburg]

Austria didn't see whatever it was that scurried along the tops of the cards, looking around at the inside of the rather small library as he idly wondered what sort of town this had been when people had lived there. He kept thinking that he saw the shadows move, but it was obviously just the flickering of the flame in his lantern nothing more.

"Yes, that would be good to know. Shall I get some paper so that you can right the names down?" He wouldn't think to take the cards out, they were there for a reason after all and they should be returned to their place in case someone else needed to find the books. Never mind that the place was abandoned, it was always good to leave things as you found them or better. Since better in this case would most likely mean dusting, he would be content with leaving it as it was when they arrived. Minus a book or two of course.

[keytoanewworld]

"Do you have any paper with you right now? Otherwise, I was just going to take the cards out and then put them back when we're done." When she was done browsing through that drawer, she closed it and opened a new one, slowly so that she nor Austria would get a face-full of dust. Although, when she opened that one, she didn't expect a bat to suddenly fly out of it.

"Ah!" Sumire yelped, falling backward. Of course, the bat was just a small, squeaking creature, and she felt her face go red as she watched it flutter away. "Um... that startled me."

[von_habsburg]

"Let me check.." He looked through his coat pockets, not noticing that she was opening the drawer, and as such was even more surprised when the bat flew out of the drawer.

"Gah!" he squealed shouted in fear surprise, jumping backwards and nearly dropping the lantern as the small rodent flew past them. Realizing that he had squealed about been startled by a small bat, he quickly cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up, reaching out to help Sumire to her feet. "Yes, well, that was rather sudden."

[keytoanewworld]

"Thanks," she said as she took Austria's offered hand. "Well, at least it's free now. I hope it wasn't trapped in there for very long."

Once she was back up, she turned toward the catalog again. She hoped there wouldn't be any more surprises like that, but she supposed a bat was better than something like spiders or cockroaches. She began flipping through it again, and soon pulled out a few cards for books that looked to be about history and mythology.

Whoops, I should probably reply instead of post a new comment >.>

[von_habsburg]

"You are welcome. I wonder how it got in there in the first place..." How did a bat get inside a closed drawer unless it was already open? And how did it get opened and then closed in the first place? Unless the bats in Willaknapp could pass through walls or the sides of drawers or somesuch. Normally Austria would have said that was ridiculous, but it was hard to say what was beyond the bounds of reason in this world.

He kept half an eye on whatever Sumire was doing, waiting for her to finish so that they could move on to finding some books. Hopefully this wouldn't take too much longer.

And I've done the opposite when trying to reply to a new post

[keytoanewworld]

"The poor thing probably got trapped when someone was using this and closed it without knowing," Sumire answered. She glanced down at the cards she had already pulled out; if she got too many books, she wouldn't be able to carry them, and likely wouldn't even have time to read a large amount at the rate things were going. So she closed the drawer and stood back up, dusting herself off.

"I think this should be enough," she said. "Or is there a subject you're interested in looking for?"