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 Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 7:57 pm
Tony found his interest in books, specifically any books that featured mentions of knights or Camelot, renewed. His collection had many older editions in it, and he was very lucky to have some of them, but he was finding that he wanted to see what more modern interpretations had for him to read.
Maybe because he hoped they might be based on what he now was. As if some author happened to run into someone like him, a Page, an had based a character on it.
It was a little specific of a search though, so he settled for any books with knights and Camelot in.
He was not expecting anything to go amiss in the pokey used bookstore he had wandered into. He used the library search to find some titles to look for, and because he was in the market to keep these books he had to come to places like this to find them, rather than check them out from the library.
Humming to himself, he browsed a shelf slowly, looking for the first author on his list.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 12:13 pm
The bookstore in question also wasn't a place that Adira frequented, or had even really been to before. But after calling around to a few places, it seemed that the book she was looking for was only at this small bookstore. Staring at the small slip of paper in her hand, scrawled with an address, the socialite navigated the streets until she was standing in front of the used bookstore.
With the soft noise of a bell ringing, the girl entered the shop. It smelled like old books, the iconic must of yellowing pages that had long since been touched by human hands. She waved to the shop keep a bit offhandedly before browsing through the racks, looking for the book that had been so illusive. Looking at the designations on the stacks, Adira picked the one that seemed relevant to her interests.
It also happened to be the same stack that the resident librarian was residing in. The librarian was buying books? It seemed a little strange to purchase books when you had unlimited access to free ones at the largest library in the city. "Oh, hi Mr. Darrow." She flashed a smile and slipped past him to the back wall, attention on the books in front of her.
The bookshelves creaked in an odd fashion. The sound creeped her out a little, but Adira just figured it was the old shelves settling under the weight of countless books.
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Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 4:51 pm
Tony jumped a bit in surprise when he heard the voice, looking up from the shelf he had been scanning and spotting a familiar face. He smiled brightly, recalling her name without much effort. It was hard to forget someone that nearly got killed in his library, after all. And by something that wasn't supernatural, no less.
"Hello, Miss Adira," he said brightly, watching as she went to look for her book. He didn't know what brought her there, of course, and he opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but something strange happened.
Calling it strange at this point was unfair. It was more common than actually getting through the day without something 'strange' happening. So that made normal strange and strange normal. Or something like that. Thinking about it made his head spin a little, and now was not the time to be getting distracted.
Tony spent most of his days around bookshelves and books, and he did not know that sound. Even when those shelves had fallen on Adira, they hadn't made that sound. He looked around and saw the source.
A shelf was bowing in a very unnatural way. It might have been acceptable if the thing were under a ton of weight, but there were barely any books on it. He frowned, thinking that was not normal. But he didn't say anything to Adira, hoping that if they ignored it there would be no problem.
Right.
"Uh... so... how have you been doing?"
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Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 11:00 am
"You remember me?" Adira turned her attention away from the bookshelf and over to the older librarian. "I wasn't sure if you would or not." While Tony may have marked the noises as strange, she hadn't spent her time around enough of them to designated the sound as odd.
"I've been alright." She was going to make a joke about not being beaten up by any inanimate objects lately, but then she realized that was completely untrue considering the lamp-post youma she'd encountered last week. "Happy that its summer vacation. How have you been?"
What was an unusual sound, however, was the intense creaking noise the bookshelf started to make. She could see the books lean in towards the middle, beginning to rattle a little bit underneath the ever so slightly twisting shelf. "Thats...odd. Earthquake?" There was probably a much more sinister reason, but Adira couldn't be sure without henshining up, which would be difficult with a civilian present. It almost looked as if the shelf was trying to pull out of its restraints. Two ominous pops, that sounded strangely like bolts being pulled free from concrete and all was quiet again.
Eerily quiet. Bright blue eyes turned to Mr. Darrow next to her, unsure of what to say. She knew a lot of strange things went down at the library, but didn't know how much he knew about everything. How could she explain this?
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Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 5:54 pm
Tony smiled. He wanted to say that he couldn't forget her, considering, but he imagined reminding her of the bookshelves attacking her probably wasn't the best way to start a conversation with someone he hadn't seen in a while.
He shook his head instead.
"Of course I do. You were very kind."
His attention was drawn before he could answer about his summer, looking to the bookshelf as it started to shake. It would have to be a very small and specific earthquake, to shake a shelf but not the floor around or near by it.
"I... don't suppose that's supposed to be doing that," he said, after a long moment of silence. The shelf was quieted, but in an ominous kind of way. Like it was waiting. Watching. He looked at Adira and smiled, getting the feeling that he needed to power up and Camelot should explore this happening, but he couldn't with a civilian around.
He had no idea she was thinking the same.
"I'll go... ah... get someone who works here. They might want to take a look at it. It could be dangerous, creaking like that. As we both well know," now was a good time for a reference to that event, sure. When a bookshelf was being weird and something dangerous could happen. Awesome timing. He smiled apologetically, then scooted off to find a place to power up without anyone seeing him.
Maybe he was being a little paranoid, considering it was just a bookshelf, but he had once been attacked by a book. So who knew what a whole shelf might do.
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 9:43 pm
It seemed as if both the librarian and the socialite had a penchant for drawing trouble. She couldn't help but feel relieved as Mr. Darrow skittered away from the shelf to go find help- he was closer to finding some than he knew! As soon as she was confident that he was out of site behind the other musty bookshelves swollen with tomes, Adira fished her henshin pen from her jacket pocket and whispered. "Perseus Constellation Power, Make-up!" In a flash, where once had been a girl stood a Super Sailor. The bookshelf creaked in front of her in a greedy fashion.
Wait, could bookshelves creak greedily? It was odd to attribute an emotion to creaking, and it wasn't something she could say she'd ever done before. It was eerie, to be honest, standing alone in front of what looked to her like a frowning bookshelf. The top shelf had bent into sort of a V shape, almost like angry eyebrows, while the bottom shelf had bent upwards into a frown.
Wait, what kind of bookshelf buckled upwards? Perseus took several steps backwards, out into the isle of the bookstore, eyes trained on the now silent bookshelves. Maybe she had overreacted? But something indeed seemed very off about the bookshelf, including a rather dusty youma aura that was filtering out at her from that general direction.
She hoped that Mr. Darrow had at least made his way out of the bookstore and to somewhere safe- she had a feeling that this might get ugly.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:07 pm
Camelot got a little distracted by shooing the other patrons out of the store before he could return to the strange bookshelf. No one believed the strange man in a medieval get up, but he managed to get the few people out and lock the door.
By that time, he was sensing a senshi in the store. He hadn't noticed it arrive, or rather appear, because he had been so busy with his efforts to save lives that had, for the most part with all the attitude he was getting, hadn't wanted to be saved.
Ah well, he wasn't in it for the thank yous or shoulder pats. He knew they wouldn't believe him, and he certainly knew they would never appreciate the efforts he and others like him went through to keep them safe.
He hurried back to bookshelf. It was certainly looking different, and he looked at it, then at the super senshi nearby.
"Is that a youma... that is also a bookshelf?" he asked, incredulous. He had never known youma to be functional before. And it had such a nice design, as well. Such a waste.
But it was a monster, and monsters needed to be destroyed. A book came flying out of the shelf suddenly, and Camelot moved to block it from hitting Perseus. It bounced off his shield like a book might, and he looked down at it with a frown as it fell mostly harmlessly to the floor.
He looked at the senshi, smiling and about to make a joke, but then an impossible amount of books came flying at them.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:13 pm
As much as Perseus had tried to be a champion of saving lives, she'd learned fairly quickly that most people did not want to leave their normally scheduled lives in order to be saved from a youma that wanted nothing more than to suck up their souls and have them for brunch. Regardless, she was a bit confused by the new power signature lurking in the shop. It didn't feel evil, but it didn't feel like Kurma either, who was one of the other strange signatures she had felt in her time as a senshi. What exactly was this?
After a moment of thinking, the sailor could only attribute it to what Elegancia had described as a knight. "Youma come in many shapes and forms, all of them twisted concoctions of the Negaverse." Perseus looked somewhat grim and resolute. She'd been in many youma fights, and already this one was looking tricky.
"Thanks." She nodded at her new companion before they were barraged by tomes of book projectiles. The girl made a strangled noise and dove to the ground away from the bookshelf, reaching out a hand to try pull the older man down with her. "I am going to start flinching when I see books after this." First the dominoe'd effect of the bookshelves in the library, and now a youma tank that spat them out like papery poison. More than a few of hardcovers hit her on the way down, thumping against her skin.
"Well, hopefully it will be out of books after this." It was a fleeting hope. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to know what else the youma could spit out.
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:13 pm
Camelot nodded his head. He knew that much, at least. He had been in what felt like a hundred youma fights or more, considering how often he had been the targeted victim of them. And now he was fighting them off.
With more than trashcan lids and his cane, which was a nice step up.
When Camelot was yanked down he moved with the pull, throwing himself to the floor as a book whizzed by his head. He shuffled closer to Perseus, protective to a fault, disregarding common rules of personal space for the moment as he kept himself between her and the oncoming projectiles. The youma's aim was not great, and it seemed to take it a moment to realize it had no targets standing in front of it now, and needed to relocate them.
Camelot was glad for the chain mail he wore. It prevented sharp things from jabbing him, and kept him reasonably safe from bites and claws, but it also seemed to buffer books slamming into him.
Or maybe he was just used to it, considering how often he dropped books at the library.
"I think I will, too," he laughed, though that would certainly make his chosen occupation impossibly difficult. Scared of books? Not good for a librarian, certainly. He got enough crap for just not being much of a reader.
The youma seemed to be thinking, turning with some difficulty to look for them. It looked less like a bookshelf now, and more like a strange bug. Like the ones Tony had seen on TV, that could look like sticks and leaves to avoid trouble or wait for food. Except this one seemed to have much more talent in that area than the others. Or it was just more literary.
"I don't think it can see us very well," he said lowly, hoping it couldn't hear, either. "If we try and surprise it we might get a good shot. I can play distraction for you, if you have a magic attack that might help?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:54 pm
It was a bit close personal quarters for her tastes, but to be honest, Perseus didn't mind the chivalry. After all, it saved her from quite a few books to the face and body! Though, she did have to admit she felt a bit bad for him taking the brunt of the blow, despite his chain mail coatings.
"My magic unfortunately might be a better distraction than attack option to be honest." At least the books had subsided, allowing the two to talk in hushed whispers. Library whispers. "I cause illusions and distortions of space, but it might give us an extra chance to do...something." How on earth did you attack a bookshelf? Neither of them seemed to have an axe or hammer ready, despite the need for it at that moment.
"We have to find some weakness to exploit." Perseus trailed off into thought wondering what weakness a bookshelf would have. "I wonder if we could tip it?" Even more deja vu, both probably sharing the same sense of it without knowing what the other was experiencing. "Or dismantling it somehow. Though it looks pretty sturdy." A few more books were shot off in random directions, but the youma seemed both unable to move where it was and unable to see what wasn't directly around it. It seemed about as angry as a possessed bookshelf could seem, however.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:53 am
Camelot was not unused to Senshi with magic meant for defense or support. He just wished he could be a bit more useful on the attack front to compensate. That would make the ideal team, but unfortunately his shield was a bit lacking on the power front. It could deliver a few hits, but ultimately it shattered.
Still, he could use it while he had it.
"Alright, I'll try and attack it?" He offered looking at her. He was a bit jostled from the onslaught of books, but it wasn't the worst he had ever endured in a fight. At least in this case he was particularly well trained. Though, to be fair, it was very rare for someone to actually throw a book at him at the library. "If you can distract it."
He wasn't sure what weaknesses a bookshelf touted. At least not a living one. He knew in the library when shelves were bowing or the braces were giving out. Somehow he didn't think a youma opporated the same way.
"Tip it? That's a good idea," he said, nodding his head, thinking it would be very much like a turtle. A square turtle. As long as she didn't end up under the youma when it fell, things would go well. "Alright. If you use your magic, we'll see if we can't knock it down. It won't be able to spit books at us if it can only see the ceiling."
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 9:33 am
Perseus picked herself up off the ground, taking a deep breath to recenter herself. "This...is going to look a bit odd to you, just as a warning." They would need the bookshelf to be incapacitated for as long as possible, which meant actual contact would be the better option.
Meanwhile, the wood of the bookshelf was twisting like mad as the almost barren bookshelf attempted to see its tricky prey. While it was twisted in the opposite direction, Perseus darted forward. "Illusion's kiss!" Gloved fingers touched the splintered wood just a second before her lips did.
The girl darted back as the shelves began to shake. "It wont be able to judge distances or pinpoint where we are to attack us." The bookshelf seemed frustrated. "Have any ideas about how to go about this?" Perseus turned to her new companion. They had about a half a minute before the effects of her attack wore off, but she wanted to make sure that they were attacking on a united front.
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Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:01 pm
Camelot nodded his head, having learned by now to listen to a senshi if they said something like that. He didn't want to get himself into trouble by not listening when he should and getting caught up in her attack, or something equally as graceless or embarrassing.
Knowing him, it was bound to happen at some point, no matter how hard he tried.
He watched the attack, though, not one to try and mask when he thought something was impressive or curious. This was both of those things, and his expression reflected that interest. He nodded his head, though, working to stay focused on the fight at hand.
"The bookshelves I'm most familiar with are weakest in the center of their shelves or at the hinges, where they bear the most weight," he said reasonably, though he should have known that reasonable thoughts had little to do on battlefields most of the time. "I'll hit it high from the front, you low from the back? Perhaps we can topple it. I wouldn't stand... directly behind it..."
He moved to charge the thing, jumping to slam his shield into the middle of the top 'shelf' while it was distracted. He imagined that would be its head.
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Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 3:13 pm
Perseus shuddered a bit at the thought of being railroaded by another bookcase. "I'll do my best not to get myself squished.Your plan sounds as good to me as anything else." Taking her cue from the the older gentleman, she moved into action as soon as he led. While he took a direct approach, she darted around back and pushed as hard as she could, attempting to loosen the bolts at the corners so his attack would make it topple.
It seemed to work. With an angry groan the bookshelf stirred little at first, but eventually the pressure was enough to rip the bolts from the floor. The noise was a fairly awful one, it almost sounded like the bookshelf was screaming. Perseus just managed to roll out from behind it as it fell, twisting its shelves in agony or anger, she wasn't sure which. The shield slam had left a giant crack along its top shelf, almost breaking it apart completely. The super gave it a booted kick, moving to break the shelf entirely. "Good plan." With the bookshelf in such a harmless seeming state, she figured a little bit of chit chat wouldn't hurt. "I'm Super Sailor Perseus, Senshi of Illusion." She extended a friendly hand to what she could only guess was a page that she had been hearing about. His power signature certainly didn't feel evil, it just felt different.
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:33 pm
Camelot visibly winced when the bookshelf let out its terrible sound. Now whenever one broke in the library, or he had to replace one, he would hear that sound in his head. He felt bad enough when he had to replace the ones that fell, or the ones that got destroyed in random youma attacks, but now it felt like they were even more than just wood and metal.
Of course, this one was at least evil, so that lessened his desire to offer it pity.
He took a breath, stepping back as the thing fell, watching Perseus keenly in case she got in trouble behind it. but she appeared just fine and he smiled at her, relieved in his simple way, nodding his head in her direction as she complimented the plan.
"Oh, ah," he moved closer to her quickly, not wanting to be rude, extending his hand and catching hers, shaking it vigorously in proper greeting. "Camelot, page of Earth. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sailor Perseus."
He smiled, then looked at the book shelf. It should be dust, but it wasn't. That meant they still had to destroy it, but breaking the shelf further, even the idea of it, tore at his librarian heart strings. Still, it was his duty not to let a youma to go, since it could hurt a civilian if they gave it the chance.
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