Just Archivist Things

[beholding_archivist]

WHO: Jon & You~
WHERE: Temba Library & Around
WHAT: The library is growing eyes? Also Obelisks.
WHEN: End of March
WARNINGS: %

I - Meet the Archivist in his Natural Habitat [ library ]

Jon would be the first to deny that he has barely left the library the last couple of weeks. He would argue that he leaves it when necessary, which wouldn't be wrong at all. But at the same time Jon hasn't had many reasons to leave in the first place. A few trips over to the hospital, diner and the replicator to either drop off deliveries or pick things up are his most common reason to head out. His list of reasons to stay in or around the library is much longer. Especially with winter finally being over and the outside area and garden are demading great amounts of attention. And that's not even mentioning the mothcats that are again setting up their nests in the highest shelves.

And it may very well be the Archivist's prolonged stays in the library that has resulted in the building slowly but gradually adopting a somewhat different atmosphere. It's nothing obvious, however, but it's a feeling that one may pick up when approaching the building already: The uncanny feeling of being watched.

Jon himself is either unaware or unbothered by this, but he often can be found just standing or sitting somewhere in the library, spaced out and staring into space in the middle of one task or another. Anyone watching him long enough may or may not take note of the fact that he doesn't blink. But it shouldn't be too difficult to snap him back into reality...

II - This wasn't here yesterday... [ fountain ]

"That's not something the Atroma built." Jon concludes, one hand on his hip while the other adjusts his glasses to properly underline his frown. The tall black structure has appeared not far from the library. And it has appeared literally over night, which as far as Jon is concerned, is incredibly suspicious. Which is only one good reason to investigate the thing closer. Even if the thing seems to be giving him a headache.

And while a simple headache isn't something that will keep Jon from trying to understand what he is looking at, placing a hand against the seemingly solid surface only to find it yield unpleasantly under his touch has him back away with a grimace, shaking his hand. "Good Lord that felt wrong!"

Comments

The Library

[ashwantstobattle]

Ash wouldn't normally have much of an interest in the library as he's really just not the bookish type. However, he was tipped off that he could find the Mothcats here and that's really what he's after.

"Hello?" Ash calls out as he steps into the main entrance, Pikachu perched safely on his shoulder. They take a few steps further in but then that unsettling feeling starts to set in.

"Hey Pikachu, do you.. get the feeling we're being watched?" He chances asking, a hint of nervousness hiding in his voice.

"Chu..." Pikachu agrees, pressing as close to Ash as he can at the two continue to move through the library, both glancing around in search of whatever is watching them.

[beholding_archivist]

While Ash doesn’t get a verbal response right away, there is a distinct fluttering noise from somewhere far above him before silence sets back in. At first glance nothing really seems to hint at the presence of those mothcats at all.

A presence that is more easy to notice is that of Jon. A short man that looks as if he hasn’t been sleeping for about a week, holding a couple of pillows in his arms as he emerges from the back of the library and makes to walk towards the front.

It’s then that he spots Ash and his Pokémon. “Oh. Hello.” He greets in a somewhat confused tone. “What- Can I help you?”

[ashwantstobattle]

Ash and Pikachu both glance up towards the ceiling at fluttering sound but then look at each other again before the ten year old looks up to see someone emerge from the shadows. He quickly offers a smile and moves a little closer.

"Hi! I'm Ash, and this is buddy Pikachu." He greets with all the enthusiasm of a ten year old boy.

"PiKachu!" Pikachu lifts a paw in greeting.

"Sorry if we woke you up-ya see, we heard this is where we'd find the mothcats."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon looks at his two visitors and nods in return to their greetings. "I'm Jon. Nice to meet you two. And- You aren't wrong." He points upwards to indicate the upper parts of the shelves around them. "There are mothcats living here, but at this time of the year they are more focused on tending to their nests." He pauses a moment before raising his voice and tipping his head back a little before calling out. "Countess? Do you have a moment?"

He falls silent again and waits. After a few moments a pastel colored feline with long feathers for a tail comes fluttering down, circles Jon once and then finds her perch on his shoulder with an inquisitive little sound directed at the man before her attention shifts over to Ash and his pokemon.

"This is the Countess. The, uh, I suppose she's the matriarch of the flock living here." Jon introduces the mothcat with a hand raised up towards her which she promptly rubs her head against.

[ashwantstobattle]

Ash and Pikachu both look absolutely amazed at the creature. Their eyes practically sparkling.

"Wow! She's so cool!" Ash says enthusiastically. He hasn't had a chance to meet many of the animals here but he's on a mission to meet all them, at least eventually, just he hopes to one day meet all the Pokémon.

"Pika! Pikachu!" Pikachu makes an attempt to talk to it. Although, so far, he hasn't had any luck talking anything that's not a human or human-ish.

II

[out_of_order]

The atmosphere's just been feeling a little heavy in Temba recently and Cal's not quite sure why. It's difficult to put into words, other than that something just feels...off.

'Off' about covers the new addition to the strange black shape sitting in the city square once he sees it. He sees Jon already there investigating, but something about it does not encourage the young Jedi to go any closer.

"...What is that? Jon? You all right?"

[beholding_archivist]

Jon's attention is drawn to the young Jedi when Cal calls out to him and he blinks twice before looking down at his hand once more and from there to the ominous structure.

"I- I'm fine. It didn't hurt, just--" He takes a step away from the thing to direct his gaze further up. "It must have appeared over night!" But how or what it even is, those are questions he just has no answers to.

[out_of_order]

Cal is still eyeing the obelisk warily, not wanting to come as close as Jon has. He frowns, but he's glad it didn't cause the Archivist any harm. His eyes go back towards the thing. Something about it makes it difficult to focus on.

"Sure wasn't there yesterday," he agrees. "It's not exactly giving me good vibes..."

[beholding_archivist]

"God vibes, huh?" Jon repeats the Jedi's chosen words and peers up the structure himself. "No. Certainly not. But- It's doing... Something."

It's hard to put a finger on it, but being close to the dark thing causes an uneasiness in Jon and he takes a step away from it.

"Have they found a way to replace the old tower with something we can't break as easily?" He wonders aloud.

[out_of_order]

"I don't know... This...I'm not sure how to describe it." Other than that he doesn't trust it. It's some relief to see Jon back further way from the thing, although it's still too close for Cal's tastes.

"...heh, should I give it a try?" He forces a smirk, shifting to pat his lightsaber at his belt.

I - The Library

[newmemorywhodis]

Link had come into the the Library fully intent exploring the building. Peeking into all the nooks and crannies. Opening up the doors and seeing what's behind them. Maybe even reading a few books, if he finds ones that look interesting.

But then he walks in and...stops. Takes note of that odd feeling, of being watched. And another odd feeling, the sense that something is trying to tell him something...

He draws the sword on his back, and the blade glows with bright blue light. He looks at it a moment, then looks around. It's not like the obelisks, where the source was clear. The library doesn't seem to be a place of malice and dark magic...but the blade wouldn't glow for no reason.

Link starts moving again, but this time there's a shift. Now, he has the deliberate and methodical movements of someone who is scanning for dangers - and prepared to meet them, if necessary.

[beholding_archivist]

"Please be careful with that." Comes a voice from somewhere within the library mere moments before the Archivist steps into view, a frown on his face. Why anyone would draw a sword when entering a library remains a secret even to him, but even he can see that this blade is clearly magical and magic tends to follow its own nonexistend lofic.

Jon crosses his arms lightly. "You might attract the mothcats and I don't want them to get hurt."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link looks at the man, but doesn't relax his stance. If anything, now he has even more reason to worry - if there's another person here, then that's someone that Link needs to keep safe.

"Something is wrong here," he says. His eyes return to scanning, looking for dangers.

[beholding_archivist]

Jon raises a single brow to break up his frown a little. "Please explain wrong to me." He prompts, keeping close watch on the young man and his weapon. "Lower your weapon, please. I can assure you that nothing here will harm you."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link lowers the Sword, but does not put it away. He absolutely still wants it at hands, because even if the man thinks there's nothing dangerous here - Link does not.

"The Sword glows when there's evil or malice," he explains.

I

[ziedrich_bearer]

Gladio had been in a few places in his life that felt like the library had come to feel. Not many of course, but a few, some of which filled him with memories of failure and loss. But that wasn't here he liked to think. That wouldn't happen in this place. It was just a library. What could go wrong in a library?

So he tried to soldier through the ominous feelings and continued right on until he found a glimpse of Jon. Maybe him and the guy didn't get on well in the past, but that didn't change what Gladio was here to do today. Which might be hinted at with the armload of books he was balancing.

"Hey there. Came to make a friendly donation."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon looks up from where he has been dusting off the gathering of cassette tapes - A task that has become quite regular and even more necessary with the mothcats constantly around leaving fur, feathers and featherdust around. He blinks at the man carrying the books.

"Oh, hello. That's- Where did you pick these up?" It can only have been one of their off-planet trips, right? Jon has been picking up books when he could during these as well. It had meant that most of them needed to be translated, but that at least gave him something to do.

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Eorzea. Some I replicated from the replicator's 'memory banks', whatever that means. Finished all of them."

Which meant they needed a home now.

"Even read this weird one on the history of some people called Kree. Found it in the Civics Center. Sorry to say they all need translated. I've been reading them in starts and fits."

The complication had been annoying, the going to get communications to read them. So he'd sit down on his ship, read for a while, then go pick up piloting again before heading back out, in case they needed one.

"Still, there's a romance or two in there that was pretty good, and then one on the trade history of that Eorzean port that was interesting."

[beholding_archivist]

"Kree... That must have been Lauri-El's..." Jon muses for a moment, falling silent at the memory of the tall woman that used to be part of their group.

He shakes the moment off with an exhale and motions for Gladio to follow him over to a table where he can put the books down. "I don't mind doing the translations. People appreciate having something to read or listen to while here, so the donation is very much appreciated."

Even though Jon himself isn't a big fan of fiction novels regardless what type.

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Ah, the big blue lady," Gladio said after a moment. That made sense.

The gesture was something he was thankful for, having a place to put the things down was valuable, and Gladio did so. Almost immediately he started sorting into piles of history versus non-fiction versus fiction. That should help some.

"I'd offer to help do them but I'm doing enough ship runs between here and Sh'Ka that it's better to keep piloting when I can."

I

[giveusfreedom]

Markus is very drawn to libraries. He would spend hours and hours with Carl, reading excerpts to one another in their free time. It was stimulating in a way that back then he couldn't understand, but probably set him in motion to finally understand what he was set to do, who he really was.

He lets himself be nostalgic, keeping a safe distance from Jon but not minding him much, and he's actually distracted when he detects the movement of the eyes following him. He tries to run some scanning, but the radar seems now more focused on the Mothcats than anything else.

He's almost about to say anything, to try and catch Jon's attention, but he's not really sure, so he stays silent. He turns back at the Mothcats, squinting.

[beholding_archivist]

"They are having their nests up there. On the shelves" Jon informs his visitor with a small nod. It's not unusual that people come to the library because they have heard about the mothcats living there. Or to be surprised by encountering one or several of the winged felines when seeking out the building still marked as 'library' on everyone's map.

"In a month the kittens will start flying. In two months they will harrass everyone stopping by for attention."

[giveusfreedom]

"They don't seem dangerous." Markus examines the animals a bit more closely "Then again, I have never seen anything like this before."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon turns his own attention upward as well and shrugs once, casting a fond smile up at the brightly colored feline that leans its head over the side of the shelf to look back down curiously. "Oh, they're very much cats. Just with wings and the ability to stroll up the walls and along the ceiling. They're only dangerous to the local rodents and insects."

Looking back down and turning his attention back towards his visitor, Jon inclines his head a little. "Are there no cats where you are from? Oh- I'm Jon, by the way."

[giveusfreedom]

"Markus." he reluctantly extends a hand "And yeah, we do have cats. Just not ones with wings."