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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:57 pm
Xander was perched on the edge of a dark, dusty, and cobwebbed chair in the library, leaned forward with his head between his arms and his hands twined up behind his head. It was somewhat uncomfortable looking, but it was how he liked to position himself when reading. And he was determined to sit here and read for a good, long, time.
He had actually changed his clothes since the 'gym' experience, finding the scorch marks on his other clothing much too unsettling and having thrown them away. It was fortunate that he had another shirt much the same as the first, with an appropriate amount of holes and tears, stains, and a collar for which his tie to loop loosely around, as well as another pair of dark, well fitting jeans.
His eyes were scanning what appeared to be a newspaper article. He was reading about the events recently published in regards to the incident in the weeping forest. The incident that still haunted him and made him shudder if he thought too much about what had happened.
Loosening his hands from behind his head and shaking out his hair, he pursed his lips in thought, before pushing the article to the side. It was interesting, but it wasn't exactly brimming with answers to his many questions. With a sigh, he grabbed a book off of the large stack sitting next to him, placing it in front of him with a dusty thump, and flipping back the cover, ready to immerse himself in knowledge in an attempt to forget about...certain events.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:10 am
The stout gnome he had politely tried to ask for help had been rather unsettling. Its glower firmly imbedded in Yǐn Cáng's mind he quickly made his way to the library. He had passed the room before, but had never attempted to go inside the room. But according to the gruff and grouchy answer he had been graced with by the gnome the library had books. Books, the gnome had explained with a few words Yǐn Cáng had never heard before (what was a candlejack anyway?) were places for information. Yes, like scrolls.
The entire ordeal, and an ordeal it had been, had him apprehensive before he ever reached the room. But walking into the room itself was even worse. Shelves rose from seemingly everywhere, with dusty tomes filling every nook and cranny. Now knowing that these bound rectangles were all written records, and seeing how many there were stopped the weremantis short. The Mantodae naturally had their own written works, history and records mainly. But they were all on scrolls, and most were carefully preserved by the records keeper. He had read the normal primers during his childhood, and could read labels and such, but this...glancing at one shelf confirmed his suspicions. Some of the titles grooved into the spines were longer than most sentences he had read.
He thought he heard a female voice somewhere behind him, and still bewildered he decided to simply go deeper into the library, fear pressing him on despite the almost overwhelming sense of confusion that he felt. As a result he was fairly lost, panicked, and flustered when came to a nice, fairly open space. The sight of a familiar face , even one with a stack of "books" next to him, was a relief. "Alexander." Whether saying the boil's name was a greeting or a reminder could be debated, but at least the boil was not another book.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:08 pm
Alex's happy silence was suddenly shattered by a voice saying his name.
"Eeeyyaaah!" he cried out, startled as he sat up quickly and pushed back as though to stand up in a hurry. The reflexes in his legs didn't really keep up with the actions in his arms, however, and the propulsion with which he'd thrown himself backwards in his seat made his chair tip back precariously, before he could rise. He was forced to shoot one hand forward to grasp the edge of the table in his vice-like death grip lest he fall backwards completely.
Pulling himself -and his chair- back forwards to safety, he slowly turned the upper half of his body, resting an arm on the back of the chair. Two very pale white eyes appraised the boil that had spoken, and blinked slowly, recognition dawning, and with it, memories of the battle field. He had to repress a shudder, but was fairly impressed that despite nearly falling out of his seat, he'd managed to maintain some amount of composure in the end.
"Yes...Uh...Yin was it?" He managed a smile, probably the first one he'd been able to muster since, well, the burning.
Looking at the boil a little closer, Xander observed that he looked somewhat...lost was it? "Do you...need help with anything?" He hesitated before speaking more "I've been spending quite a lot of time here recently...If there's anything you need to find, I could probably help you."
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:49 pm
Feeling slightly guilty, Yǐn Cáng had not meant to startle the other boil, put him back on edge, his antennae beginning a spastic twitch. Alexander had good reflexes he noted as he tried to focus. He had saved himself from what had promised to be a rather splendid fall, and he could appreciate the effort.
"Yǐn Cáng," he replied, half-correcting but mentally counting how many times his name had been mispronounced. It had proven to be somewhat difficult for some to say.
"Actually," the weremantis reached up, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand and not quite meeting the white-haired boil's eyes, "I could use some assistance." Well, that is the hard part is it not? Admitting that I need help? "I would like to locate information about Halloween. Information that is to many common knowledge. Do you know where I could find such a scr...book?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:29 pm
"Ah yes, Yǐn Cáng" he tried his tongue at saying it correctly. It might have still sounded off to the other boil, though.
Pushing himself up with a small grunt from his chair, he stumbled and unfolded his lean body into a standing position, stretching out his arms to the side and clenching and unclenching his fingers before letting them fall back.
"Hrrrrmmm, books about Halloween, hey?" he pondered, lips pursed and brows furrowed, before speaking again "There are just so many...were you looking for a History? Geography? Something about pets? The day of Halloween itself?" He grinned, because this was actually quite a vast topic, and he wondered if Yin needed to know anything more specific.
"I haven't been at this school long myself, but I've spent most of what free time I have in here..I'm sure I can find you whatever you need!" He boasted with confidence.
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:59 am
The pronunciation was much closer to the original, and Yǐn Cáng acknowledged with a slight nod of approval. Watching the boil remove himself from the chair was slightly more painful. The lanky boil seemed to be a bit off balance. How long has he been seated there? Sitting too long may have affected his muscles.
Those questions were shoved aside as Alexander spoke. "Not geography," was his prompt reply. Then he began to dwell on the questions, pondering them. Whatever he needed it seemed that Alexander could help him, one did not falsely claim to be an expert after all.
"The day is one of feasting, I know this already so we can probably rule that out." He looked up, knowing what his request was. "Everything else would be appreciated though. The history that I know is of the Mantodae, and not of all of Halloween. My questions about eating pets seemed to horrify the first boil I met, so knowledge about those could be useful as well. Perhaps a bit about recent events as well, as I keep hearing peculiar words tossed about such as "eyepod," "hunter," and "doombox."
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:04 pm
Alex listened to Yin thoughtfully, mentally ticking off the type of books he needed and already beginning to move, albeit slowly, towards some shelves in the 'history' section.His skeletal leg was a little stiff from sitting for so long, and was not bending overly well, so he sort of limped it along without seeming to notice. Obviously he was used to such things.
"Alright, well, I'm sure we could get you started here." He glanced back at the other boil, somewhat puzzled. "Do you need this for a research paper or something?" and then "Wait..Mantodae? Like a...were-mantis?" he blinked in surprise. He'd heard of them but didn't really know anything about them. It was strange that one would leave it's clan though...right? He shrugged it off for now. Plenty of times for questions after the finding of the books! He turned back to the task at hand, finally reaching the appropriate shelving.
"Most of the actually history books can be found here...ah, here's a good one!" He grabbed a large, dark tomb, lifting it down easily. " 'Halloween: A History' " He read the title, then proceeded to hold it out towards the Mantodae. "This one might keep you busy for a while..it's a little dry in some area's but the parts about Jack Skellington are great!"
While Xander did find it a bit odd that Yin didn't know what pets were, or even recent events...well, he just assumed the Mantodae lived a very very sheltered life. He was not one to become easily or overly suspicious. One word made him pause though. "Hunters? ....Like, the zombie subspecies hunter?" Somehow he doubted it, and the tone of his voice gave his doubt away. This sounded more like the few whispers he'd overheard himself but didn't quite understand. The ones that were somehow connected to the events in the weeping forest. "Do you...do you know what happened out there? In the forest?" He hadn't actually talked to anybody about this yet, but Yin had been there, and maybe he knew something....
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:46 pm
The weremantis followed, and had to force himself to the slower pace the undead was taking. They stopped amidst some truly dusty books, and Yǐn Cáng tried not to look depressed at the thickness of most of them. Perhaps the letters were large or there were pictures. He looked up in surprise when Alexander mentioned weremantis. The Clan had relatively little contact with the outside world, though with the amount of information contained in this single room it really was not surprising that information about the Clan was known by outsiders.
He nodded and debated how to answer before the boil moved the topic alone back to the books. He took the tome offered to him, slightly surprised by the weight of it. The title seemed relatively short, a good sign. He opened it, glad to see that the first several pages had few words. There was the title, and who the book was by. Table of Contents. Maybe books were not as bad as he had feared.
However, Alexander's question tore his attention away. Unconsciously his voice dropped, quiet but not quite a whisper as he answered. "There is another type of hunter that a boil here told me about. Apparently they are humans, who can somehow come to Halloween, but they looked like monsters and demons in the forest." He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. "He said that there was a teacher here that something strange happened to. Students...students helped destroy her. Hunters too. But their leader did something atrocious to her corpse.
A visible shudder shook the boil as he said one last sentence. "He said they take students and turn them into weapons."
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:06 pm
Alexander stared at Yin, white eyes wide with shock. Humans? He couldn't be serious!
Of course, Alex knew a little about humans...but only what he had read about in books. Most things he knew about he'd read in a book, actually, come to think about it. And they were turning Halloween denizens into weapons? How could that even possibly happen? How were they able to enter Halloween? The answer Alex got only led to more and more questions popping into his head.
"The...The teacher...Do you read the news? There's been articles. I read one before coming here but thought it was just a hoax or an exaggeration of events but..then the forest" His voice was a little loud, frantic almost, but it trailed off as his mind wandered back to the forest. Had his captor said anything unusual after he'd been caught in the net? Not that he could remember...but at the time he was a little more preoccupied with the pain, and struggling not to fall asleep.
He spoke up again, but quieter now, his voice a hiss "When you were captured, did they say anything to you? Anything odd? I can't remember everything...to be quite honest, after waking up in the nurses office I've tried my best to block the entire thing from my mind..wait, I'll go and get that article. You can read the entire paper if you want, since you were interested in current events."
He shambled back to the table, snatching up the article that he had pushed aside earlier, glancing at the headline again before thrusting it at the other boil. "Here, keep it. I've already read the entire thing." and then a totally random thought struck out at him.
"Are you any good at fighting? Could you teach me?"
After what had happened, Alexander had been feeling incredibly vulnerable. He didn't know how to defend himself, or really how to fight. Lashing out at that hunter, if that's what it was, had been the first time he'd ever tried to hit anybody in his entire unlife. Also, he just couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was happening, and that he was going to need to be able to protect himself, if what had already occurred was any indication of future things to come.
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Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:48 pm
"I do not...read very often," the mantodae admitted. As the boil walked back to retrieve the article he called after him to answer the other question. "Unfortunately they only engaged in public displays of affection, and I did not overhear anything."
With Alexander gone he turned the page to the book again, and was faced with something almost terrifying. There was a large "Chapter One: B.J. or Before Jack." But after that were lines of tiny printed words. They were like ants marching across the page, too many to eradicate in one go. He was staring at it when the white-haired boil approached and gave him the article.
He tried to gather his wits. "I have been trained in the art of fighting since I was a child. In times such as this I would be willing to train you. Everyone can benefit from learning the basics."
He glanced down as his hands again, the article in one hand and juggling the book in the other. "Before that however, do you think there might be a book with less..." he searched for what he was trying to say. Pages? Words? In the end he just left it like that. A book with less.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:24 am
Alexander had to laugh, though it was bitter laughter as he remembered that evening and the 'public displays of affection' Yin spoke of between the two captors.
"The one that trapped me...it was a ghoul but it sounded like a boil when it spoke. Something was just off about it. It could be that what you heard was true. But...if they can disguise themselves as one of us, does that mean they could be anywhere?" Alex's eyes widened at this little realization. He had no reason not to trust Yin, though, since he was there that night and had been captured himself.
"I...I almost wish I had just stayed home" He muttered, but his gaze shot back up when Yin spoke again.
"Yes, yes. Training. That's what I need. Just the basics, of course, of course." He seemed a little distracted now, like he was speaking while thinking of something else. He snapped out of it, however when Yin asked about a book with 'less'. Less what? Was Yin trying to say that it was..too big? Ohhhh....
"Um, ya, sure! You probably don't need most of that information now anyways!" He laughed, albeit a bit nervously, and gently took the big book back from the weremantis to place back on the shelf. "Ok, lets see here..." Would he be able to find something more for beginner readers (since that's what he assumed was needed) in this section? It couldn't hurt to look. Most of the tomes were quite thick though, with tiny script. He hardly thought any of these could be appropriate. He also didn't want to offend the other boil by grabbing something that said "A scareling readers: " on the cover.
Finally he pulled out a much thinner book, the words scrolled across the front reading "Halloween: A History (abridged version)" and had to chuckle a bit.
"Well, this certainly is less?" He flipped through the book, noting that the text was larger and more spaced out, and that it really just gave a quick overview of the larger volume, letting one know the history of Halloween without going into nearly as much detail. "This might be better to read first, then if you want to know more about something you read about in here, you can always come back and look it up in the larger one." He nodded towards the volume that he'd slid back on the shelf moments before, and then turned to hand the much thinner version over to Yin.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:21 pm
Yǐn Cáng nodded his head. "I have been questioned by students who thought that I was suspicious, so perhaps hunters have been here before."
As the zomboil searched for a different book Yǐn Cáng addressed the matter of training. "There is a gymnasium that seems to be for training. When you have free time we could meet there to work, I go there daily."
He took the book, immediately liking it more than the last simply because it was not nearly as heavy. He opened it up, noting the larger print and that it did not have the overwhelming feel that the other tome had. "Yes, I believe this should work nicely." He said nothing about the long words he had seen, he could puzzle them out on his own, surely. "I noticed that you were reading when I arrived. Must all books be read in the library?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:43 pm
Alexander held back a grimace and a shudder at the mention of the Gymnasium, not only because of what happened the last time he'd been in that area, but also because he associated it with physical exercise, which he generally despised. But he needed to learn, and it was going to be hard work, so he quashed his own misgivings, mentally setting his mind to seeing this task through to the end.
"Huh..nobodies questioned me so far. Maybe I've only met the more accepting students of this school" He smiled, while pushing his mop of hair out of his eye out of habit. "The gymnasium will work fine.Just let me know when and I'll be there! Just...uh..be aware that I'm not the fastest mover and I might be a bit late...." This happened more often then not with the zombie boil, and he figured it might be best to give the weremantis fair warning.
"Oh, ya, I tend to read my books here, but you don't have to! As long as you check the books out you can take them back to your room to read if you want, or to class, or anywhere really! Just as long as you bring it back before it's due." He nodded, hoping the mantis would understand. "I'll show you where the librarian's desk is...they'll just take your info so they know who has the book and let you know when they expect you to bring it back." He began to shuffle away, leading the weremantis past aisles and aisles of books, towards the librarians desk.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 3:09 pm
"I am there most mornings, not too early but until it is time for lunch. If you show up at that time on any day I would be happy to work with you, and you would not need to worry about getting there at a particular time."
Alexander did indeed make sense to Yǐn Cáng. "The record keeper in the Clan would sometimes allow a select few take records with them. I would assume that it is similar, but you are sure that they will allow me to take a book with me?" That was slightly worrisome, as he was still new to the school, and they may not let him take a book with him if he did not seem to be trustworthy. Written materials were special after all.
Nearing the desk Yǐn Cáng noted a small nameholder, Avery Chase. The name was unfamiliar, and sounded a touch feminine, though with the peculiar names that many seemed to have at Amityville it was hard for him to tell. A touch of panic raced through him before he saw the figure actually at the desk. Apparently the desk was being managed by a gnome. Gnomes he could deal with. Still, he stuck close to the familiar zomboil as they approached the desk. "I would like to take this book with me."
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:24 pm
"Mornings work fine for me...early mornings before classes start would be best." He nodded, trying to keep his face cheerful even if on the inside he was whining to himself piteously about what he had gotten himself into.
He gave Yin an encouraging gesture as he approached the desk. "Of course they'll let you take it! Just be sure to bring it back. They won't be too happy if you don't, or if you get the book wrecked somehow." He eyed the gnome sitting at the desk suspiciously. Usually one of the two librarians was here, but they must have both needed a break at the same time or something. He gave the gnome a hard glare, a silent warning not to try anything. He'd stay until the weremantis got his book checked out, then probably wander back over to his table to immerse himself in his own studies again.
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