[PRP] also, books [Estel, Quillan]

[Luridel]

Just walking through the doors of the library had triggered something for Estel: an impression of safety. Where that came from, she wasn't sure, because Amityville's library didn't look like a particularly safe place to be.

Clutching the strap of her shoulder-bag, she set off into the stacks, looking for something familiar. Nothing was ringing any bells. The titles in the various non-fiction section were almost indistinguishable from the fiction section. A few minutes later, the ghost found herself sitting at a table with a stack of books almost too tall for her to carry - she had selected things more or less at random, both fiction and nonfiction.

She didn't even know if there was a limit to how many books she could check out at once.  

[yylaayl]

The library was like a second home to Quillan. He spent almost twice as much time in there as he did in his own dorm room. While he could confidently say that he'd read every single book in the library back home, he wasn't even sure he could read all the books here before he graduated. There were just so many books, waiting to be read!

He entered the library and was about to find a book on apasus since he'd recently met one when he passed by a table with an enormous stack of books. He peered behind the stack to find a ghoul sitting there.

"Wow! That's a lot of books to be reading at once!", the ink demon said to the ghost ghoul.  

[Luridel]

Estel ducked her head, her body glowing softly golden in embarrassment. "I, uh, didn't know what I wanted to read." She put a hand on the top of the stack. "I just think I must have liked doing it, before. But I don't remember any... so I've got a lot of catch-up to do, yeah?" She kept her voice low, aware of the other students using the library.  

[yylaayl]

Quillan noticed the ghoul was practically whispering so he immediately lowered his voice. He was just too excited to meet a fellow book enthusiast and had forgotten one of the most basic rules of the library! "Oh man, that sucks! I would hate to forget everything I've ever read before! But I guess that means you get to enjoy all the plot twists and exciting moments all over again! If you have anything you want to know, like if you're searching for a particular story or you want to learn about a certain species or something, you can ask me! And if I don't know, we can learn together! Oh, and do you mind if I sit here?" The boil whispered, all in one breath, while pointing at the seat across from where the ghoul sat.  

[Luridel]

The boil's enthusiasm was contagious - not that Estel hadn't already been enthusiastic about stumbling upon the library in the first place. Inching the stack a little bit backwards on the table (it wobbled precariously but didn't fall), she nodded. "Yeah, 'course you can sit!"

She took another look at what she had selected. The Tiniest Toadstool... Poisonous Vines... Tracking the Wild Smudgebeast-- she squinted at the spine of that particular book, where someone had crossed out a portion of the previous title in a thick black smudge and then neatly written 'Smudge' above it. That didn't look like something you were supposed to do to a book.

Estel pushed her stack to the left. "What are your favorites? What did you read when you were growing up...?"  

[yylaayl]

Quillan sat down and set his book, "Everything You Want to Know About The Apasus" down on the table, next to the ghoul's enormous pile. In response to her question, he said jokingly, "If I were to list everything I've read, I think you'll fall asleep! My family is made up of writers so I've read a lot of news articles and rough drafts of novels my siblings have written! And there's a lot more on top of that because reading is so much fun!"

As for favorites, I have to say I really like fiction novels! I'm trying to be a fiction writer, you see." He paused for a moment and said, "What do you want to be?"  

[Luridel]

Estel tilted her head to the side, peering at the title of Quillan's book. "What is an Apasus?" she asked, absently, before focusing on the actual question he had just asked her.

It wasn't an easy question. She had only been alive - dead - around for about an October, and in between helping out at the bed and breakfast and sending out school applications, she hadn't even once thought about what she wanted to do after school.

"I, um... I don't know, actually."  

[yylaayl]

“I’m sure you have plenty of time to think about it and figure it out!” Quillan said. He kind of felt bad for bringing it up – he could see how a ghost might be preoccupied with other matters and how the lack of memories from his or her past could affect him or her. He quickly changed the subject and waved the book he had retrieved around. “I don’t really know yet! I recently met one and I wanted to find out a bit more after she told me that she was an apsasu! She appeared to be part bovine at least …” He opened the book and quickly skimmed through the first page or so and said, “Apparently apsasus are the females of a species called lamassu?”

Luridel

Not sure if you're on AIM right now so I'm quoting you~ Also apparently I spelled apsasu wrong which would explain why I couldn't find anything when I googled it LOL

 

[Luridel]

"Oh, wow. Are they rare?" Most of the people Estel knew well were reapers, and she wasn't quite sure why - it had just turned out that way. "If it isn't really rude to ask... what species are you?"

That probably was rude. She hadn't even asked his name yet. Oops.  

[yylaayl]

Quillan said, ”I don’t think they’re rare? There are just so many different species, especially at school, that it feels that way! I’m sure there is an area somewhere where every other person you meet is a lamassu!” In response to her other question, he showed her his hand. ”Don’t worry about it! I’m an ink demon! I can make ink secrete from my left arm, but that varies for other ink demons.” He would’ve shown her in the library but that would’ve resulted in a mess and he didn’t want to get ink on the books and table. Sometimes it was really difficult to remove, if his arm forever being a dark bluish - black color was any indication.

”What are you? I know you’re a ghost of some sort …”  

[Luridel]

"That sounds useful!" Messy, but useful. You'd never get in trouble for forgetting to bring something to write with that way. "Oh, me? I'm a wisp, a guiding spirit. I can't bleed ink or anything useful like that, but I don't get lost very often? I'm, um, pretty recently dead, I guess."

Manners, right. Estel held her hand out, grinning. "I'm Estel, yeah? Estel Herald."  

[yylaayl]

”Nice to meet you Estel! I’m Quillan Atramentis. Well Atramentis is my last name so you can just call me Quillan! I hope we can be friends! This is my first year at Amityville Academy.” Quillan said, reaching out his hand so he could shake hers. “It must be tough to have recently died and to start school so soon after!”  

[Luridel]

Estel shook Quillan's hand, grinning. "Nice to meet'cha, Quillan! Yeah, let's! Maybe we'll have some classes together?" She hadn't quite gotten used to the academy's irregular scheduling.

She had wanted to come here, though. "It's not really - this is a good place for me to be, I think. I woke up... and I didn't know anything important, and I thought I should learn as soon as possible before it gets me in trouble. I know all sorts of useless things, like how to tie my shoes--" And here she swung her legs sideways in the chair and kicked one of her feet up to table-height briefly, next to the table, so Quillan could see - the shoes she was wearing had no shoelaces, just buckles. "--but I don't know what not to say to avoid offending people, or geography, and I keep mixing up the days of the week... Anyway, I wanted to go to school right away."  

[yylaayl]

”Wanting to go to school is great! I know some people who just don’t put any effort into school. But if you have a thirst for knowledge, you should quench it! As for the other things like dealing with people, I’m sure you’ll pick it up in no time. Although some people just take everything the wrong way no matter how hard you try not to offend them…” Quillan said, nodding.

”And maybe we’ll run into each other in class? I don’t think I’ve seen you so far but there are a lot of students in the each class. And there’s a lot of classes to sign up for, so maybe we can sign up for some together?”  

[Luridel]

Estel nodded. "I just moved my stuff in the other day." Not like she'd had a lot of stuff to move in. "Okay, let's!"

She took another look at the giant stack of books. "I should probably put some of these back, huh? I probably can't read them all before they're due..."