Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Oh sh-"

-"It's not a huge problem," interrupts the curator-assistant, "I mean the lead curator is on vacation anyway." He ruffled his neck feathers about five different ways before settling on a pile of torn books.

The head librarian, quite a tall book-gremlin for his kind, was not impressed. "The-the repair alone will cost us over a billion, not to mention the archives that we can't salvage, the memories, the authenticity, the raw emotion. We aren't just a library, we're The Library. The entire fabric of our existence could become unraveled if this chaos is unconstrained, an unbridled, unprecedented chaos, chaos beyond chaos." He continued flailing limbs about until it was difficult to figure out what was him and what was the empty book bindings he kept on upturning.

The curator-assistant yawned and blinked both eyes lazily at completely different times. "So? Just find some volunteers to help clean up this mess. Fill in as many pages as we go."

Now, what the curator-assistant meant was to find the empty pages and stitch them back. What the head librarian interpreted was something entirely different.

"We can do that?" The sentence as laced with doubt and confusion. "As in, fill up the pages with anything?"

"Mmm-hmmm," replied the curator-assistant, already falling asleep. Day-morning-noon was way too early for him. "Just don't disturb the archivists working downstairs, they've had to get rid of so many strays and we're already behind schedule." He was already falling asleep on the last syllable of the last word and there was quite a long period of time where no conversation passed.

This was of course, absolutely fine to the head librarian, who immediately skidded over to the closest skellyphone. "Okay, everyone downstairs, stop what you're doing and listen to these instructions very carefully. Like undeath and dying carefully. First we're going to need a lot, and I mean a lot of empty parchments. Next, we're going to need some enchanted quills, extra strength, and some beginner's magic ink. And if also someone could print up a few extra hundred of those hiring an part time librarian flyer and paying absolutely nothing flyers that would be great.

Vaudrey Scarlett

Money.

It was a beautiful thing, Vaudrey knew. A beautiful, glorious thing, because without money, there would be no clothes to look presentable, and no world to go around, and essentially nothing at all. Money was what made things work, and Vaudrey was nothing if not determined to Be Important one day.

Apparently Being Important meant falling on your head as he tripped up the stairs going to said Library.

When he managed to clatter to his feet again, wings swaying, tail flicking, hair fluffy, Vaudrey hastily smoothed everything down that was supposed to be smoothed down and bustled forward through the doors and smacked straight into a gremlin. Or something. A shelf? No, it was talking, it was definitely a gremlin.

"Hello!" said Vaudrey nervously. "Er, I'm here for the - "

Another gremlin skittered by.

"I'm here for the - "

He tripped over a fallen stack of books.

"Pardon me, I'm trying to find - "

Approximately thirty two and a half seconds later, Vaudrey found himself shunted into a dusty row of shelves, quill in hand and book...well, not in hand. He stood there, feeling awkward and uncertain, blinking around in the dim, yellowish light, and then heaved a breath and stood up straighter.

"Right then," he mumbled to himself, patting down the front of his coat. "To work. Must make a good impression, that's what Ren said, must make a good impression..."

He reached for the first book he saw, talons curling around the edge of it. Vaudrey carted it over to the nearest table and took a seat, squaring his shoulders as though preparing for something Very Serious - which it was, because work was a Very Serious Thing if one wanted to be a good gentleboil.

Vaudrey flipped the book open.

He had time to say "Oh!" in a shocked tone of voice before he was spun away, yanked headfirst into the book, and sucked into a vortex of absolutely nothing at all. His last thought, upon being spiraled away into nothingness, was mostly:

"I hope I don't break anything."

They wake, they train, they sleep... they wake, they train, they sleep...

Words haunted her being. It could have been yesterday, or even a week prior, when the elder mare had muttered these words over a roaring fire. Something about wasting their lives, or time... Iyari didn't see any of that. Time didn't just disappear, and training wasn't useless. Her hands gripped the spear out on the practice field and she huffed and tossed it. Somehow it'd gotten to her.

Rather than give the old mare the satisfaction of seeing her frazzled, Iyari opted to stretch her wings away from the prying eyes of others. Time didn't just disappear, but you could lose it just the same in an angry huff. The War horsewoman was realizing this with each passing step, not phased by the warm, cold, dark or light as they danced overhead.

All of that was humdrum, run of the mill. Though, she had stopped suddenly, feeling a call... Lips uncurled from their default to a frown and she was quick to draw her blade, turning to strike down whatever it might be. Shink! Her blade passed through nothing and dissipated as quickly as it had been unleashed. "..." Bright green hues locked onto the nearby anomaly and an soft exhale left her lips. That distant memory... she'd seen this before. Fire erupted in her being. Ignore it, ignore it... She took a step forward. Remember what happened last time. Another step. It felt like a twisting knife in her stomach, destroying the little voice inside and her arm reached to it...

BAM!

Iyari roared angrily as she fell onto something hard and leaped up to the nearest high point, trying to get her bearings. Dust filled her nose and she sneezed, hunching down low on top of the bookshelf she'd found a perch on, wings tucked in close. "..." Annoyance filled her and she let out the exasperated sigh to match. Of all things, it seemed she'd popped out into the oldest, most disheveled library she could have. Not enough Famine would keep it this unorganized. The thought tussled around as she landed back on the ground, her wings cramped against the narrow aisle, feeling objects fall and jumping aside as a student moved by.

"Tch." She held her tongue at an expletive. It wasn't worth her time.

Time. The word was a bitter taste in the mouth. Iyari moved through the dark, away from the hustle and bustle and at the piles mounted. Half-filled bookshelves were at her eye level. What was she here for...? An empty aisle was more cramped than the others as her eyes searched for what might be an exit. As she moved through she stopped, turning as her wing had lodged. Annoyed, she pulled back and reached her hand to the bookshelf, a nearby book falling.

The ornate backing was faded, the words unreadable but her eyes stared at it curiously, feeling a twitch of her wings. As quick as her reflexes, the half-filled book snapped open with a loud Hsssssss....

And all that had been Iyari was seemingly devoured into the pages.

The opportunity quite literally smacked Sidron in the face. He was used to flyers falling from the sky by now and generally he ignored them. They never really held too much that interested him.

But this one was different.

He spent a lot of time reading and reading meant he generally spent a considerable amount of time in the library at the school. At least as much time as he could before it got a bit cramped and he was forced to leave. Why they made it so cramped in there he never knew but such as it were.

The opportunity to work, a paying job no less, in a library intrigued him more than normal and so he made haste to and through the portal that lead to the library. The dragon took in a long breath and almost whistled at the sight of the place. It was chaos, pure chaos. Something that one would normally not associate with a library but these were special circumstances he supposed. Everyone was running around in a panic. But that didn't phase him.

Of course, when the gremlin instructed him to pick up a quill and a book he was taken a little aback. His girlfriend was the writer, he just read books. And being tasked with this might have been a little much for him. He certainly didn't feel like he had much of an imagination....

But he was here so he would give it a try.

And that would be his misjudgment of the situation for as soon as he grabbed a quill and opened one of the books he was sucked right into it. Well, he should have expected something like this. So he wasn't at all surprised about his circumstances now.

[Hunter: Dong Shu Lei]

Shu hadn't been around Deus Headquarters for such a long time, or better said she avoided it. The job as a translator was much safer, not in a sense of getting injured but to her poor soul. Missions always triggered past memories, sad and happy. No matter which one, the thought of going back to her sisters lingered in her mind, like a tweak of smell.

Gaining so much since the day she joined while watching as many deaths, bloods and graves, she was glad that she was still breathing. Anyway, when she visited the Headquarters for a while, maybe just to see some familiar faces, a rescue mission called out.

The asian stared at the vibrating phone, a powerless sigh escaped between the lips. Amber eyes scanned the paragraph, spaced out wondering what she would see. In the end, she made up her mind and appeared at the lighthouse. Young faces she did not remember seeing were put in between individuals she barely knew. The mission would be taken in terms of a golem was to her best wishes, she wasn't ready to explain to the close one and friends why she left.

The young hunter closed her eyes, allowed memories to float within her mind immersing her like a warm ocean, about her adventures in the Halloween world, the princess-resuce training and so on. Upon awakening, the experienced hunter first checked her hands and painted black nails(?). Her glance was stopped realizing where she had been sent. A library. A huge library which was odd enough.

Separated by the open space at the entrance, on both sides aligned rolls of tall long shelves. There was no need for walls, they served the purpose as well. Raised her hat to check it out, she couldn't help but think of The Hogwarts Library. However, the one in front of her was the upgraded version of it. Wide aisles divided packs of tall book shelves, <Yuck!>, the Nian expressed his dislike towards reading materials. Visible eyes were unable to catch the ceiling of it, the shelves continued to extend skywards, what an amusing scene.

The Amityville Library, when compared to it, became nothing. Its existence was enormous and not allowing you to look away from its dignity. To her disappointment, the shouts and nuisances destroyed all.

In its strange way, it was the product of different noises and messes. The hunter wondered if something went wrong during the transfer, a resuce mission taken place inside a library? In her disguise, she walked along shelves of books quietly as her hands mindlessly brushed over the bridges of books barely clung there. Shu'd intentionally not drawing attention while she observed the place.

Weird. She tried her best not to frown, being expressive could be her merit or otherwises weakness. The place seemed like it was under attack of a huge tornado, turning everything up and down. Piles of books blocking the passage, empty papers covering the shiny tiles and gremlins crying something like "filling pages". They pointed at the standing individuals and urged them to write, complained about how poor those part-time librarians were and jumped in annoyance.

While everyone was busy tackling their own work, she rubbed her face gently and chewed over what those gremlins asked them to do. Since when a librarian needed to write as their task? What had happened? Not paying attention as she walked with confusion, it won't be a surprise when she was knocked over by simply a pile of books. A bit mad, she picked one up to check what story dared to do that to her - well, she didn't have the chance.

[Student: Etzer]

Depression was the only thing that ticked away in Etzer's mind.

He'd sulked and avoided doing homework completely, content in the fact that he could just lie on his bed and stare at the wall, thinking of nothing but his own sorrows.

He didn't touch his books. He didn't touch his own designs for clothing. He didn't even get up to eat or drink for a length of time, wasting away and becoming gaunt and thin, his eyes almost hollow and lifeless.

Days had passed this way. Months. A year?

It was only the fact that he was completely out of food that sent him out looking to restock his fridge, when a flyer smacked his chest in a haphazard fashion. Without even looking at it, he picked it up and began to gnaw at the corner before he blinked, glancing down to it in a rare moment of clarity.

A job... around books?

Etzer missed books... he found he missed reading, but his depression had not allowed him to enjoy much of anything anymore.

Sighing, he decided to go check it out... and was promptly shuffled to fill out not the standard paperwork, but a book itself. The frost demon found himself staring at the quill that was shoved into his hand with a sense of resigned charm before he put the end to the paper. He couldn't think of anything, save for his CYOA books...

... but he didn't have to worry about much of anything else -- only a few moments had passed before he was whisked away almost instantly to an entirely new world... completely different from the one he was used to.

Where had Camilla been all this time? Studying, training, learning, pretty typical school stuff really. After her becoming a 3rd year, she felt she should take her studies a bit more seriously then she had in the past. Plus, she still felt wholly unprepared for situations like that happen during that human rescue event... Ellie was a close friend of her's now, but, deep down, Camilla still felt quite bad for not being able to save Ellie when she was alive... This guilt drove her to train harder and learn faster so she could be better prepared next time... She couldn't bare to imagine losing Carlos or Keen or Shayne because she was ill prepared...

But, adventure was in Camilla's blood, as was a desire to help people; What better adventure could one have helping out at a library! She'd been studying and training for months without a bit of adventure, she needed some excitement! To some, volunteering at a library might seem droll, but to the book loving Dormouse ghoul, it was amazing! That's why, when a call for literary adventure literally hit her in the face, Camilla couldn't say no! Plus it had pay; not that, was really a concern for the well to do ghoul, but some self earned money was always good. Fortunately, the portal to get to the library was right inside the town hall! Quite convenient that.

Camilla was fully expecting a well organized, quiet, average sized library. What she found when she got there was a massive archive of literary chaos! Pages flew every which way, creeple ran every which way, and books lay scattered helter skelter everywhere! It was both tragic and confusing at the same time and Camilla couldn't help but let out a small unhappy noise that was drowned out by the sheer cacophony of noise! This was not how a Library was supposed to be!

For a long moment, Camilla just stood in the middle of the chaos just looking around in confusion. Luckily, a frantic book goblin would soon run up to her and beg her assistance! She was told to pick up a book, find a quill, and just start filling in the blanks! Wait, was she supposed to... Rewrite the books? As wonderful as that sounded, Camilla wasn't confident on how well she'd do.. Still, they needed all the help they could get it looked like... Ok, yeah, she'd do it!

Smiling excitedly, Camilla picks up the first book and quill she found. her smile broadens at the sheer irony of the title and she couldn't help but give a happy tail wag as she goes to open the book! "Alice in... Wait... the wonderland is missing..." she says in confusion as it dawns on her the title wasn't complete. She had little time to worry about this, however, because the moment she opened the book and got ready to put quill to paper, the book began glowing and a white swirling hole seemed to appear in the center! "Eep!" she squeaks very mouseishly as she feels herself get sucked in and everything fades to white!

[ Sludge - Monster ]

Sludge had been minding his own business, when a piece of paper had blown right into his face, leaving him to stand there for a few moments before removing said paper and looking at it's contents.

It was a small miracle that in the past few months, Sludge had somehow managed to learn how to read and write. How this feat was done involved the combination of looking at a book for hours on end trying to figure out what it said, drawing plenty of scribbles on any sort of scrap paper he could get his claws on, and stalking the many gnomes that ran about, watching how they read and wrote.

None of these things actually helped him; what did was the gnomes being fed up with the second year constantly following them that they just sat down and showed him the basics. Truth be told, he picked it up rather quickly, but it was still rather simple, just barely better then a scarelings ability to read and write.

With his newfound knowledge, the xenomorph was able to make out what the paper said. Something about the hiring of a part time librarian, and being paid for it. These concepts were still foreign to Sludge, but he did remember something about there being a special kind of teacher that did something with books. Money was also something he had no use for, he just ate cafeteria food and only worse the clothes on his back, and nothing else. Still, he was interested in what this was all about, and since he could read and write now, why not go and create a novel?

At the very least Sludge knew how to get to the town portal, which took him straight to the library. For once he was standing straight instead of his usual crouching moves, his tail giving him extra balance as he walked into the building and bore witness to the mayhem that surrounded him. All kinds of creatures were running everywhere, and paper fluttered all around like floating snow. He was tempted to reached out and eat said paper, but resisted as one of the little creatures approached. He was reminded of the gnomes at school, if only cause of the size. The clothing it wore was thoroughly different.

The xenomorph stood there, tail idly swaying and catching some of the falling paper on it's spiky tips, and stared at the tiny creature telling him to grab a book and a quill, and start writing. Just what he was supposed to write was not revealed to him, but that was probably a good thing, considering he had no idea what the original contents of the books located here were. Plus he would end up butchering the original story, so it was best he just made some stuff up.
Looking around, it take a while for Sludge to find a quill he could use since everyone else was looking for the same thing. Eventually he did find one located on a empty bookshelf, pausing to chew on the edges of the feathery item before realizing he was supposed to write with this. Which was strange, as he was used to using those thin cylinder looking things called pens or pencils. Oh well, it was time to look for a book now.

It didn't take as long for him to locate one, a sad looking thing with half it's pages ripped out and the cover all scratched up (which was not his fault for once, he had been told off before for chewing books before). But as soon as he had opened it he felt a strange sensation, and with a startled hiss he was pulled into the book itself.