To the Library!

[bogusmagicker]

Who: Yuki, Relm, anyone else in the library.
When: Afternoon.
Where: Library
Warnings: None.
What: Yuki sneaks out to go find some proper reading material.  Relm agrees to accompany her.

Neither of them were quite sure where the library was.  Yuki had climbed out a window and suffered a minor cut in the process.  The entire way, she'd merely stared at

Comments

[rainbowbrush]

On the way to the library, Relm had been a regular chatterbox as usual. her new friend was definitely the shy, quiet type, and she intended to get Yuki as far out of her shell as possible. Even in the face of Relm's cheerful babbling, she barely got more than a few monotone responses, and she quickly realized that she was going to have to put a lot of effort into her new project. The young painter always enjoyed a new challenge, though, so she was more than ready for it!

She had been to many towns and villages in her journey with Terra and the others, and she had seen her fair share of libraries. This one wasn't too impressive, but really, it was about what she had expected. If they could find any books that weren't mindless drivel she'd be pleased. She wasn't holding her breath, though.

She followed behind Yuki on their way into the building, and was quite impressed with how the quiet girl dealt with the creepy librarian drone's questions. As they finally got to the shelves of books, her demeanor changed, and Relm saw her almost seem happy for the first time since they'd met.

"Wow. You must really like books, huh? That's how I feel about painting!"

Idly, she grabbed the closest book and flipped though it. It was entirely filled with cooking recipes; nothing interesting, but she supposed it was necessary. Being able to cook wasn't a bad thing, it just wasn't something that interested her. The entire section seemed to be nothing but cooking books, and she quickly lost interest.

Moving on to the next shelf, she found countless books on how to be the best mother she could be. After flipping through one for a few minutes, she immediately dismissed it as completely stupid and foolish. This wasn't working at all.

"Hey, Yuki, you having any luck?"

((I asked our mods, and according to them, Relm and Yuki will only find books on cooking, cleaning, and motherhood. Sounds like this won't go over well for either of them. XD Also, sorry for the wall of text!))

[bogusmagicker]

She nodded at Relm's comment. If there was anything she'd learned during her time on Earth, it was that humans were filled with an incredible amount of potential. Much more so than the Integrated Data Entity; she doubted even the most functional of the interfaces they sent had the imagination to write a fictional story of any sort, much less a science fiction novel. The key to the evolution of the species may have lay within a single individual. But the entire race, as a whole, was one that constantly challenged itself to grow, to advance, and of course, to evolve.

Yuki had wandered down an aisle to the left. Like Relm, she paged through book after book, her frown increasing in severity with every one she opened. After a bit of fruitless searching, she began to take note of the small numbers printed on the spines of the book -- And though she was currently unable to access her stores of information, it still didn't take especially long to figure it out. Her face looking a bit more calm, Yuki momentarily popped back into Relm's aisle.

"Call numbers beginning 64X signify home economics studies. Further."

Without waiting for Relm to follow, she took her own advice and silently drifted down about ten aisles to the right. The frown returned.

"Highly irregular."

[rainbowbrush]

"Call numbers... what?" Relm was confused, but she understood Yuki's last comment - time to check out other parts of the library. She was starting to have a very bad feeling about this place, but again, it couldn't hurt to try. She followed behind the other girl, trying to keep up. For someone so small, she sure was fast!

Once she caught up, she found Yuki frowning again. Not a good sign. "You don't look too happy. Still nothing useful?"

[bogusmagicker]

Yuki did not immediately respond to Relm, choosing to silently stare down the aisle for several moments instead, a seemingly blank expression on her face. Thankfully, the girl snapped out of her reverie quickly -- Without a sound, she darted forward, her eyes flickering back and forth as she went, her mouth moving soundlessly as if she were reciting an endless stream of figures. Halfway down, she paused. Yuki reached towards a shelf at eye level on the left and removed a thin paperback proclaiming, '101 Recipes for Steamed Vegetables That Your Kids Will Simply Love!'

"Call number 641.3245. Hold." Reappearing at Relm's side, she gently placed the volume into the other girl's hands. "Please wait here."

Yuki drifted away, returning to the original aisle they had first started out in. Performing the same ritual she had done before, the girl sped down the middle of the aisle, eyes flickering, mouth whispering. This time, she stopped about a quarter of the way down the aisle.

"Call number 641.9184. '101 Recipes for Steamed Vegetables That Your Kids Will Simply Love.'" She nodded in satisfaction before returning to where Relm still patiently held the book. "Identical data is encoded in each aisle and run through a scrambling matrix. Each is a duplicate containing the same materials laid out in a different order. The effect most likely targets each individual patron of the library in order to ensure maximum inadequacy."

Though her face remained as placid as always, her eyes seemed just the tiniest bit . . . sorrowful.

[rainbowbrush]

Relm just stood there, watching Yuki run up and down the aisles, soundless as a whisper. She was honestly pretty impressed with the quiet girl. When she handed her a book, Relm took it without question and idly flipped through it as she ran off again. "Recipes, huh? Boooooring."

She was reading a recipe for something called macaroni and cheese that actually interested her when the other girl returned. Making a mental note to ask Jill to make that interesting food for her later, she tried to process what Yuki was telling her.

"Whoa, hang on. I'm not sure I got all of that. Are you trying to tell me that the library is just one giant loop of the same stuff?!" She would have been angrier if she was sure that was what Yuki meant, and if the girl didn't look so sad. She must really love books. Relm made up her mind then and there to somehow get her new friend some reading material that she would enjoy, even if it meant painting them for her personally.

[bogusmagicker]

She nodded silently. She doubted any library on Earth was dedicated entirely to home economics studies -- though it was possible, of course, that they were no longer on Earth. That was besides the point, though. There were simply far too many books in this place about the exact same things to store the data for each one separately. Much too wasteful. Had she been tasked with coding the environment, she would have found it more efficient to simply take a known set of perhaps two hundred and slot it into each aisle after applying randomization factors. This was, she suspected, precisely what was happening.

A shame she had no way of accessing the data.

"It will change for the next patron." It was too much of a coincidence to think that the library would present the only genre of books that she did not desire. Perhaps they had several sets of data in store -- one for girls, one for boys, one for men, one for women. Or perhaps the presented sets would even alternate depending on the situations under which they were searching for books. It would be interesting to study.

Whatever the case, Yuki stepped around Relm and began to examine the offerings on the shelves. Books were books. Even if the information contained within was entirely inane.

[rainbowbrush]

As Yuki nodded, Relm definitely grew angry. "How can they limit what we can read?! This is insane! Arrgh, I hate this place!"

The next patron? "You mean that if we came here with Kyon or something, the books would be different? We need to try this! I'll drag Kyon with us next time, and Jill and Guy too. That way we'll be able to access all the books at once!" She paused, thinking about that. It was possible that whoever was in charge would still find a way to limit the young girls from getting their hands on the books that were meant for the boys. It couldn't hurt to try, though! Surely Kyon would do the proper big brother thing and check out any books that they wanted, anyway. She was confident that she could convince him to help them out, one way or another.

Yuki still seemed intent on finding something to read, and Relm couldn't blame her. Even though she hadn't come here for any specific books, it upset her that their captors were even monitoring what they could do for fun. Who did they think they were?! They had to be just a bunch of old fuddy-duddies who got their jollies messing with innocent people! Well, it was going to stop.

"Hey, Yuki. How fast do you read? I can try to draw books for you, I just don't know how long I can keep them around. Or what will be in them. I've never tried to create books before, but I'll give it a shot!"