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 Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:24 pm
"I miss you!" Maia blurted immediately. "Things are alright. I've been taking care of things. I vacuumed. And I found a website that shows me how to make all sorts of stuff, even food, so when you get back I should be able to make you something special. How are you doing? Lori came over yesterday and told me you were okay." But she couldn't help worrying. "When will you be home, Toby?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:30 pm
Toby chuckled. "I miss you too. Thanks for taking care of things. It's always just sort of gotten dusty when I went on missions before. Not that i expect you to clean! That's totally not your responsibility. Just don't not-wash your dishes." Hopefully she was using them and not living off of cafeteria food and frozen dinners. "Umm..." How long? Days? A week? How could he know? So he didn't answer. "Here, listen to this."
He thrust the phone out, and Maia would be able to hear more clearly the chirping and chattering of the forest. At the moment he was well above ground-level for the safety of the team. A bird was singing loudly for its mate. It was a pretty sort of song, and he'd bet Maia didn't have the skills to triangulate their position on that alone, although he knew people who could.
He took the phone back. "It's beautiful here."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:42 pm
"I don't mind cleaning, it means you won't have to when you get home." And they could go to the lake or something, once the boys were suitably rested.
Maia smiled at the sound of birds and listened, she'd never heard that sort of birdsong before. It was beautiful. "Sounds like he's got a girlfriend," she said, smiling into the phone. "You're safe?" she asked. Was it a dangerous mission? How far away were they from home?
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:13 pm
Toby laughed. Girlfriend or boyfriend. Probably girlfriend, what with how nature worked. Now, safe? Safe was subjective. Relative. He looked down the eighty-plus feet beside the platform.
"Yeah. We're safe, don't worry about us. Oh, here."
Dari's voice then. "Hello, Maia."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:29 pm
Maia wasn't sure she believed Toby but before she could clarify her views on safety, Dari was out on the phone. "Hi Dari!" Maia smiled into the phone. "I miss you."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:37 pm
"I miss you as well," he said, "How are you faring? Not too lonely, I hope? Lorien said that he visited you."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:43 pm
"I'm alright," Maia said. Better now, now that she was talking to him. "That was nice, we had fun at the park. I'm looking forward to you coming home."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:55 pm
"It may still be a while yet," Dari responded, sounding slightly apologetic. "When we do, when all of the things we have to do after are taken-care-of, we'll go somewhere special."
Mumbling. Another voice. Shuffling. Toby again.
"Think about where you might like to go. More than just the lake."
"Not that the lake isn't pleasant," Dari again. They were sharing ear-to-ear because speakerphone was out of the question.
"We should probably go, though. I think we're about to head out again. Everyone's waking up." Ah, so the time zone was quite different, as it was mid-afternoon for Maia.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:38 pm
Maia didn't like the sound of that. A while could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Dari must have seen her frown somehow, as he immediately brought up going somewhere special. Somewhere special, somewhere different than the lake. Hm. She'd have to think about it. What was better than the lake?
They had to go? Ugh. They'd only just started talking. "I love you guys," She said. "Try to call me again sometime, and be safe."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 6:46 pm
"We will if we can," Toby said, at the same time that Dari responded, "We love you too."
"We'll talk again, I'll try to make sure," Toby said finally, "Bye, Maia."
"We'll be home soon." Dari's voice, and then dead air. They hung up, presumably for some important reason. They had to be remotely higher-up than the others on the trek, mustn't they?
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:10 pm
Maia sighed, putting her phone aside and setting it down. They would try to call, good. That was promising at least. And they would be safe. And home soon. Maia hoped whatever important thing they were doing, they'd come back whole and happy.
She expected them to be exhausted.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:16 pm
Cryptozoology may be a psuedo-science, but it was a helpful one. Every so often some misled scholar fell upon something new and interesting, whether it be a theory or some old story or document. The FBPI could get any damn book it wanted. That wasn't the issue. The issue was that they only dug up old texts with decent credentials, as if the research department shouldn't bother with laymen. Lori thus had an agreement with the libraries in nearby towns. If anything new came in, whether it be actually new (much less exciting, unless it was a new collection of old stories) or only new to the library (more often exciting, and often rare and/or overlooked) he was to be contacted. The fact that one of their past logged entities worked there had nothing to do with it. Lori knew he existed but had never come across him. It was fine. It felt sort of nice to be supporting a fellow dusty supernatural ally rather than a random assortment of dusty humans, so call him biased.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:32 pm
Luca had called in at once, upon finding a set of books. He hadn't put them on the shelves; they were probably older than the library, if not older than him. Some poor idiot had donated them without seeing their value; they were leather bound, there was no elaborate decoration on the cover, no title; and he'd looked inside far enough to know it wasn't some religious stunt.
He straightened the books to go on shelves cart, waiting for the person interested in these to arrive.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:44 pm
Lori arrived and introduced himself to the woman just behind the counter. He mentioned he had some books waiting for him and she pointed off toward some tall redhead standing beside a cart of books. Lori offered him a little smile. He was kind of cute, in a pretty-boyish sort of way. He wasn't really the type you'd expect to be a librarian, but Lori knew better than anyone that people came in all sorts.
"Hey," he began, "The woman at the desk said you'd have the books I need?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:58 pm
"Oh, yes," Luca looked up at Lori in a distracted sort of way. He smiled at him and led him to the back room behind the desks. "They're fascinating. I didn't look too far into them. They're ancient." Just the smell of them said that. The musty almost pleasant smell of old books. "Typed, but I think its more likely each letter was stamped onto the page by hand." He opened one of the books carefully. "They don't line up at all."
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