[Video]

[tearmeanewone]

[When the feed starts there's a quick flash of Elizabeth's distressed face before a flash of quick movement jerks the TAB away and Elizabeth yelps. There's a struggle happening, and a lot of what's being recorded is jerkycam of the ceiling. After a few seconds, some grunting, and solid thumping noises, Elizabeth comes back into view.]

This is Elizabeth DeWitt, I'm in my apartment, in the private collection and--

[The camera is obscured again by something pale covered in gray splotches. It takes a minute for the camera to focus while Elizabeth is shouting 'No, no, no, let go, let go!', but eventually it does focus to reveal... words on a page.]

[She screams again and the TAB goes flying and lands on its side, finally giving the viewer a clear shot of what's going on. Elizabeth is on her side and being swarmed by what can only be described as... overly excited puppy-sized books. At least fifty of them, all the same size and color. They hop about on the corners of their covers, flapping and clinging to Elizabeth while she tries to get up and fight them off. Gently, of course. Don't hurt the books. She starts shouting:]

I'm in the Moira's private collection in my apartment in Region Five and I need some help here!

[One of the books hops over to the TAB and after hopping around it, somehow picks it up and starts shaking it again, viciously, until it flies into a shelf and bounces until it stops against a box marked 'Thán's Collection - DO NOT LOAN OUT - Hands Off, Snart'.]

Comments

video; SLAMS INTO THIS

[alterplex]

[ Well, that's— hm.

As far as disasters go, overexcited books may not be the most apocalyptic. But it's still a young woman calling for help over the public network, and Venom is, in fact, inclined to answer with a measure of urgency. ]

—Gonna need specific coordinates.

[ "Hi, how are you, I see you're not having a good time, I know you don't know me but we can discuss all of this later when you're not being papercut to death." ]

voice;

[brokeassgoing]

Gotta be bookworm karma...where the hell's your place? Should I bring a blowtorch or a pizza or?

COME ON AND SLAM

[tearmeanewone]

["Yes hello, I recognize that this is indeed an awkward situation I've put both of us in, however I will of course forgive the less-than-traditional meeting while we figure this out together."]

[Elizabeth bats off some books and makes a dive for her TAB. She grabs it and a wave of books swarms over her.]

From the Kauto public library walk six blocks south, turn left, walk two blocks, third door down with two hedges, I'll work on getting to the door to unlock it then draw them back here.

Video

[tearmeanewone]

No blowtorch!

[Elizabeth kicks out and sends a couple skittering.]

I can't believe you don't know where I live -- [And she gives him directions from the cafe they met at a few months back.]

[alterplex]

[ For the sake of convenience, and because it'd otherwise take Venom upwards of an hour to get to where Elizabeth is, we'll say that he's walking his dog in R5 today; it's a bit of a way from R1, but a guy's gotta get out sometimes, right.

He checks his peripherals, opens up his map. ]

ETA's 10 minutes. Try to hold the fort until then.

[ Because, as his appearance suggests (scar-patterned, horn-clad, weather-beaten), Venom is military. Pragmatic and levelheaded, already switching his feed from video to audio so Elizabeth can have an open line of communication without needing to keep her face in frame.

He's also punctual, so she won't be kept waiting for too long. It's 10 minutes and 34 seconds, counting, when he hits her front door. ]

[brokeassgoing]

So the pizza, then. Hope you like mushroom and pepperoni.

[he is Not helpful]

I'm not trynna be a stalker or anything. I'll be there in a few, hang on!

[tearmeanewone]

If I can't fend off a horde of books for ten minutes, just leave me for dead.

[There's plenty of noise as Elizabeth fights her way to the door, and once she's unlocked the door and vocally confirmed it, she crawls back towards the library. She doesn't want any of these books to escape -- who knows what could happen. Maybe they'd reproduce?]

[By the time the door opens, she's got a split lip and her hair is a rat's nest. Elizabeth props herself up on her elbows, sighing in relief.]

In here!

[A book tries to suffocate her by face hugging. The living room is barely lived in aside from a blanket that's seen quite a few nights of nesting and some normal books on a coffee table. The decor is nice though, it's reading like a very upscale home.]

[To the right is a bedroom, cluttered with objects laid out in the floor in some kind of order that must make sense to Elizabeth. To the left is the chaos. It's a room with shelves, clean and white and well lit, with Elizabeth trying to hold struggling books in her arms while the others snap at her legs.]

I've got them on the run, I swear.

video; yo

[el_paso]

[ You know, one of these days he's not going to be surprised by all the weird shit that happens in this place. ]

...this some kind of performance art?

Video; HEYO 8D

[tearmeanewone]

Do I look like Hannah Höch to you?

[One of the books nearly gets her in the eye and she actually bats that one back with some force. Though after it hits the floor she's wincing and hoping she didn't crack the spine.]

Believe me, I wouldn't call for help unless I actually -- [Ow, ow, that's her hair, ow.] -- needed it!

Video;

[el_paso]

[ Severely: ]

Dada bullshit isn't art.

[ She gets a brief view of the sky, then the pavement while he tips his TAB aside to light a smoke. Alright, he'll bite. He's at the mansion in R5 anyway, she shouldn't be too far. ]

Where are you, exactly?

[warandpeace]

[He sees that V is going, but-]

Are those usually more normal books? Or have they just been hibernating?

[What is this? What's happening? What has he missed?]

[alterplex]

[ Venom's wolfdog is the first responder on the case: professionally inclined, he trots over to Elizabeth and starts nudging the first wave of books off of her struggling legs, nosing at the spines to make them retreat.

His handler isn't far behind, brow raised and prosthetic hand extended to wrangle a few more belligerent hardbacks from Elizabeth's arms when he gets within reach. ]

—Looks like they drew blood, though.

[ Who knew books could be so dangerous, huh.

Venom tucks a particularly boisterous specimen between his thighs, and works on zip-tying it closed with alarming dexterity; almost as if he's done things like this often enough that he doesn't even miss a beat. ]

You're alright?

[tearmeanewone]

[The dog is a surprise. To everything in the room, thankfully-- most of the books start skittering away at the insistence of the wolfdog, though a couple of them seem to hop around and follow him like they're waiting for instruction. That's one way to get them under control.]

[Elizabeth holds the books closed as the man takes them out of her arms, and between the two of them and the thrall the wolfdog holds over most of them, the more aggressive ones throw themselves against their knees in an attack that's more annoying than anything. At the mention of blood, Elizabeth checks herself out, finally realizing it's her lip. She rolls her eyes as she pulls it in between her teeth.] I've gone to work with worse.

[She watches him zip tie the books closed, fascinated by the device and also wondering why the heck he just happened to have those on him.] Fine, just banged up. Here, I can help. [She holds out a hand for some of the ties-- she doesn't want to look like an idiot and ask what a seemingly simple object is, she'll figure it out for herself.]

[tearmeanewone]

[She rolls her eyes-- of course he'd focus on the pizza-- and pushes a few more off of her chest. He is definitely Not helpful.]

Not the time to be polite, Mister Nails. I'll unlock the door for you.

Video;

[tearmeanewone]

[Woah, what?]

[Elizabeth manages to look quite startled, despite having a miniature Encyclopedia Britannica crawling all over her. She stares at the TAB for a moment, at a loss of what to say. Usually when she gets smart like this, the response is something akin to a blank stare or some version of 'I don't get it'. She doesn't quite know where to go from there, opinions about art aside, so the direct approach it is.]

Well neither is this--! [She forces the book that's managed to latch onto her ponytail open and tries to hold it down on the ground while the others take advantage of her singular focus and start climbing onto her back like small, paper-based mountain goats.] If I wanted to make art, I'd paint a bridge! [It's at the very least more relaxing.]

There's a bar two blocks east and three blocks north-- [The combined efforts of three of them manage to tear the hem out of her skirt, and she pauses to kick them back and away. Great, one more thing to fix.] --it's called Mephistos, mine is the one with the gray door with the tall hedges on either side. I'll try to make it to the door to unlock it, but don't open it if I'm still in the landing. [Who knows what would happen if these things escaped.]

[tearmeanewone]

[This is embarrassing. This is the part where she reveals she's been a complete idiot.]

They used to be one book-- [She rolls hard and sends most of them flying, allowing Elizabeth to at least get back up on her hands and knees and try to stand.] --I found a box I'd hidden, probably for this reason, and I picked out this one and started reading, it had some instructions, I followed them--

[This happened. To her credit, there was just one step and it sounded fun. There was a spot worn shiny inside the cover, and when rubbed hard enough it made a ridiculous squeaking sound from the friction. Suddenly chapters of this book were separating out of the cover, like some kind of book-amoeba.]

This box is dangerous, and if I make it out of this with all of my fingers, it's getting put back where I first hid it.

Video;

[el_paso]

[ As he's still dicking around with his lighter and cigar, he misses her expression and just catches her retort. When his face tips back into view, Logan eyes her and the books' progress with a flat look. Then, he nods. ]

I know it. Be there in a few. Try not to lose any fingers.

[ It's really a short trek through this end of R5, sniffing out the bar and the gray door with the tall hedges. There's an acid tang in the air, beneath the mix of other scents-- sweet traces of the cigar he finished, people and pavement, greenery and bar refuse, a broad brush of salt and beer and hard spirits --and it's a smell he knows all too well. Books. He'll rap his knuckles on the door to advertise his presence before testing the knob. ]

Hey! Elizabeth, right?

Video;

[tearmeanewone]

[Great, he knows it! Maybe he remembers that her picture is behind the bar following a regrettable incident, but perhaps enough time has passed that the owner thinks she's long gone. In a way she is, she hasn't been there since the incident, since she fried her brain trying to close a tear while the Ingress fought to keep it open.]

[Regardless, her place isn't hard to find. It's big, nice-looking, more of a condo than an apartment but she's clearly the only one who lives there. Her, books, so many cups of tea and coffee, and the no doubt familiar scent of old guns that are routinely fired.]

In here!

[She's made it back to the former-bedroom that houses all of the Moira's collection, and while she's clearly exhausted she's still putting up a fight. She's sprawled out awkwardly on the floor, holding down as many as she can with her body weight while the rest jump all over her. A couple of them are fighting over one of her shoes. She looks up when he enters the room, irate and disheveled.]

Thanks for coming.

[warandpeace]

And it didn't give you any warning about what it would do?

[But, Kaz doesn't blame this time. Because he might have been tempted to do the same out of curiosity, which he only realizes in this moment doesn't bode well for anyone.]

I guess it's good that it only led to-

Well. A literary swarm.

[It could have been considerably worse as recent events have highlighted.]

Are they painful or mostly annoying?

[brokeassgoing]

Ain't you polite!

[what if the pizza is digiornos though will she be pissed



either way, he does show up]

[alterplex]

[ DD— the dog— seems somewhat wary of the trail of books on his literal tail, but satisfies himself with the task of corralling his new posse to the corner of the room and barking once, twice, to put them in their place.

His human counterpart, complete with matching eyepatch, fixes Elizabeth with careful scrutiny before handing off one of the three zip ties he has left. She might notice that he's an amalgamation of strange parts, a composite of incongruous materials strapped and fixed haphazardly on an organic body: a horn-shaped piece of shrapnel in his skull, a metal arm hanging at his left side, a firearm balanced on his hip next to a battered cassette player.

The only gentle thing about him is the way he uses his hands. For someone who looks like he murders people on the regular, he sets the struggling books down on the available floorspace with quiet attentiveness. ]

This kind of stuff happens to you often?

[ "Do inanimate objects often give you trouble?" ]

video;

[retributes]

[ What a thing to open her TAB to. This being one of the first things to greet her when she's only now beginning to get a feel for the technology here. ]

Is this— [ uh. ] —normal?

[ Thank god she doesn't have or know of libraries that do this back home. ]

[tearmeanewone]

[She does take a moment to take in all of the man who's come to help, but Elizabeth knows enough not to stare. The shrapnel is probably the weirdest part, but hey, if they couldn't remove it and he's living just fine with it in his head, more power to him.]

[Elizabeth thanks him for the tie and takes a moment to examine it before she watches him use it one more time. She follows suit, watching in fascination as the tie makes its characteristic zipping-noise. And when she tries to pull the end out, it doesn't move. Wow, what a fascinating invention...]

[Once she's done exploring the magic zip tie, she sets the book with the rest of its brethren. They all twitch angrily while DD keeps the others in the corner.]

I'm fairly certain this is the first time. [She looks around and finally spots the cover of the book all of these little bastards jumped out of. Elizabeth turns the cover over in her hands and looks for more instructions.] Hopefully it will be the last.

Thank you for coming, um... [She has no idea what this man's name is.]

[tearmeanewone]

[Badou she has no idea what Digiornos is. It'll be weird frozen pizza, novelty and newness, probably okay. This time.]

[When he gets there, the door is unlocked like Elizabeth said it would be. It's pretty clear from the ruckus going on to Badou's right that the result of bookworm karma is happening over there.]

Badou! Badou that better be you! OW-- damn it! [One of the books goes sliding across the floor, gets up, and hops back out of sight angrily.]

[tearmeanewone]

It was vague. [It really was. It said something about 'voracious knowledge', that does not translate into 'sentient puppybooks'.]

Yes, it's good that they're mostly annoying and I didn't... I don't know-- OW. [She waves her hand around until the book that's clamped onto her fingers goes flying off.] Nngh, damn-- Didn't cause a flood or something equally damaging. But rest assured, this box is not seeing the light of day again.