Fieldtrip to the Stacks

[fuzzylittleprob]

"Ein," Kurt said with a smile, "zwei," and before he could get to drei both young men were gone with an unsurprising puff of pink smoke and the smell of sulpher. Only the quarter-full bottle of vodka was left behind in the garage to mark their place.The same assaults announced Kurt and St John's presence in the middle of the cold, snow-swept street

Comments

[codenamepyro]

Tolerance might be needed. It wasn't so much the wild disorientation that threw him, or the smell of sulphur practically clinging to them. It was the odd pull of having his entire body shifted from one place, to another in an instant.

Although now that he knew what it felt like. "Oh, wow. Head rush." He was not going to puke, but damn if his stomach wasn't rolling a little. He just needed a minute.

"Definitely an interesting way to travel." He managed an almost forced laugh, which sounded a little strained, but he was mostly just laughing at himself.

[fuzzylittleprob]

That they were not on fire was, in Kurt's opinion, a good first experience for St John. He smiled and clapped the other man's back lightly. "It beats the bus," he joked honestly.

A thumb was jerked up toward the library. "Shall we? I was just making sure that you weren't going to burn the place down. I'll have to remember to laugh at Jamie for making a duplikat his first time... of course, he came in useful for helping to lift the table."

[codenamepyro]

But then Jamie was a total spaz. "Yeah, sure." He'd probably be better since he knew what to expect.

And hopefully the rolling of his stomach would stop and he'd be fine from then out. The smell didn't bother him at all -not when you spent most of your teenage years burning things until they smouldered.

"No burning, promise." His lighter was safe in his pocket, so St John doubted he'd have anything to mind. They probably didn't let people smoke inside the building anyway.

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt gave a nod and a grin before simply letting his hand rest back down on St John's back--he gripped only with the slightest of pressures into the material of his jacket--and they were off again.

The second puff of pink found them in the open front lobby that Kurt could see through the doors. It wouldn't have been a good show to accidentally land them inside a row of bookshelves. "Die Bibliothek," Kurt announced with a sweeping hand.

[codenamepyro]

St John managed to smirk this time, bracing himself for the pull and going with it rather than being surprised. It was surprisingly tolerable, yes. Although probably not something he'd miss while not doing it.

"I'm gonna end up learning German at this rate," he joked, looking around and smiling at Kurt's theatrics. "Maybe we should'a brought a backpack or something."

Too late to think on it now, but then again, it would've been useful. "Man, this place is huge." And suddenly, boredom was the least of St John's worries.

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt laughed and he would have said that he wouldn't have minded having someone else to speak German with--except that it made him think of Jimaine. He didn't speak up.

Turning his eyes up to everything, the tall stacks upon stacks, the rounded end caps... Kurt was awed. He'd never seen anything quite like it at all, and certainly never in terms of books--the carnival folk were nomadic, they could only keep what they could carry. Suddenly Kurt felt a little overwhelmed.

And more than a little giddy.

"Mein lieber Lord im Himmel, so ist ihre prämie," Kurt whispered to himself, his eyes wide with the sight before them. Then a grin shaped the corners of his mouth up and he turned to St John.

"I think the saying is like a child in a candy store?"

[codenamepyro]

At the translation, St John grinned. "Oh yeah, it so is." Although how they wouldn't get lost in all this, St John wasn't sure. Sticking to the main interests would probably be better than simply exploring away.

"There's gotta be millions of millions in here." And it smelled like a library should, old and dusty, and St John wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, but damn if this wasn't just the best thing in the world.

He enjoyed books, liked reading and usually learning a little about shit he picked up. But this went beyond that. "So, we need to find a freaking directory, someone getting lost in this might never be seen again."

[codenamepyro]

"Kidnapped is a Scottish history one, it's pretty cool. All suspense and action. Catriona is the sequel. They're all by Stevenson. He's pretty great." He wasn't exactly a connoisseur of literature, but he knew a few decent writers from the 19th century.

He ended up in the Scottish History section when he was hiding out a snow storm in the Bronx one December. Curled in a chair, struggling with insomnia, St John decided to just read. He was pretty glad he did.

"Tell you what, you read some proper books and then I'll give you mine." St John smirked, he was nothing if not self-depreciating, "Wouldn't want you thinking I was an actual writer."

[fuzzylittleprob]

All suspense and action sounded like something right up Kurt's alley. He was excited by the prospect of having something to do that might kept him from making the mistake of heading back to Jamie's stash out of sheer boredom.

"I think perhaps you are too hard on yourself, mein freund. Surely you wouldn't have gotten one book published if you were not a good writer--let alone three."

[codenamepyro]

"Ah, you make the mistake," St John smirked, pulling out a hard back book to flick through some pages. "Good writing and a readable book aren't the same. People read utter drivel all the time." Which is what he called his gaudy romance novels.

"Being able to flick through three hundred pages to reach a happy ending is just an easily passed interest in the book. Doesn't make the writer 'good'." Surprisingly, for his own career, St John could sit down and debate the subject for hours.

He wasn't overly passionate about it, and sure, he would like to one day write something that wasn't pure fluff. Something that he'd actually put his own name on.

But that wasn't happening here. "Hey, think we've found the classics."

[fuzzylittleprob]

For a moment Kurt thought about what St John had said, the difference between good writing and a readable book. "I'm not sure I see the point," he admitted after he'd thought about it, "in writing a book that is technically marvelous if no one wants to read it." He looked at St John and shrugged. "I would rather enjoy what I was reading--otherwise what is the point?"

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt winked at the permission and took St John's elbow. Before the other man could blink they were already gone and then back, smack-dab in the middle of the General History section. His gut-instinct had never failed him yet--except for that time when it had put he and Jimaine inside the tiger's cage instead of behind it... but that was a long time ago.