(no subject)

[sunshinethroughgrey]

WHO: Bethany Darton nee Hawke, Fenris, Jim Kirk, Inessa Serra, Velenna, Hermione Granger, and whomever else wants to go exploring
WHAT: Book nerds!
WHEN: Last week of Justinian
WHERE: The Kirkwall Library
NOTES: You cannot handle this much nerd.

Bethany was waiting for her little group in front of the Viscount's Palace, and if they happen to get there early they can see her pensive expression as she looks off to the crater where the Chantry once stood. She was, after all, a Fereldan dog who called Kirkwall her home, so every wound here is personal.

Yet as soon as the others appear, her cheer returns, as she excitedly leads them to the Library of Kirkwall, in the lower levels of the Palace. Scholars wander between the tall shelves, but Bethany has an old brass key, and she leads them further down, down, down into the cellars of the library, where crates of books await them. Some are moldy, some are old and falling apart, and some of them are just useless ... but keep looking, you don't know what you might find ...be

Comments

[circleprodigy]

Inessa arrives fairly early, Garahel rushing ahead of her to greet Bethany while she takes her time catching up to them. At her hip is a canteen with the promised tea inside. A smile is barely given before others begin to arrive, so she won't hold them up, instead following Bethany's lead into the cellars. Garahel sniffs about, the dust causing him to sneeze but not stopping him from investigating whatever looks interesting at the time. Glancing over to him periodically to be sure the mabari isn't getting into anything he shouldn't, Inessa pauses at the nearest crate and carefully brushes off a tome.

"It's probably wise to retreat upstairs every so often for fresh air." And yet, Inessa is on the verge of forgetting those words as she speaks them, bringing the book over to where she can sit down and carefully inspect it.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany rubs Garahel's ears affectionately, beforehand, and even as she sat at a rickety chair in front of a rickety table, she was still petting the mabari when he wandered over to check on her.

"Hmmm. Yes. Probably." She's squinting at a scroll in front of her, trying to make out the words. They might be in Tevene. Or they might just be that faded. "At least we shall have to eat at some point."

[circleprodigy]

Garahel rumbles his agreement at this, firm in his determination to protect the bookworms from themselves. Inessa ignores that, though, frowning in thought as she conjures a light to read by. "This is so faded as to be nearly illegible. It wasn't stored very well...." But she'll flip through it all, just in case the latter pages are more fortunate.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany dimpled at Garahel, scratching his head. "Yes I know, we're not taking care of ourselves. But it will only be a little while longer. People aren't going to let us lose ourselves in here all night."

A sigh, a nod of agreement. "None of this was stored well."

[failedfirst]

Velanna has always had a fondness for books. They were generally rare and precious things among the Dalish, as most history is passed verbally between the clans, but Velanna had always had a love for the written word. Even when she didn't necessarily agree with the words written, it was a special thing, to be able to record and permanently have your thoughts and insights left for the world.

So the state of many of the books and how they were stored is abhorrent to her, and she's scowling as she sorts through the tarnished volumes, looking for something legible.

"Idiot shemlen can't be bothered to take care of all their books only the ones that agree with how they live their lives," she's muttering as she gingerly leafs through the pages of a tome that looks like if she's too hasty with her pursuit it'll crumble.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany looked up from the pile of scrolls she was gently sifting through to make sure that she wasn't crumbling them with her fingers, and winced at Velenna. "Please, I know you're angry with stupid shemlen but don't take it out on the book."

[failedfirst]

"I'm not" Velanna replies somewhat sharply, looking offended that Bethany would even insinuate that she'd harm the book. "I know how to treat things with respect." Really, books get more respect from her than most people.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany gave her a steady look, before she said quietly, "You're very upset - and you know as well as I do that the slightest rough touch on some of these parchments could damage them." A pause, "I can show you the gylph of preservation I learned, if you like."

[justice_is_blond]

Anders keeps his head down as they head in. He's not wearing a hood, that would draw too much attention, but he is most definitely not looking at people and risking them recognizing him. What books they have here, though, could be important. They could be worth this.

Not until they're in the cellars and at the crates does he look up, and then it's to shake his head at the sight before heading for one of the nearby crates.

"Since this is being lead by a former Hawke, should we expect giant spiders to jump out at us sometime while we're down here?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany carefully did not speak to Anders all the way down into the library. In fact she was very careful to ignore him altogether, except a nod in his direction to show she knew he was here. Otherwise, she kept talking to the others about the Library of Kirkwall.

Only when they got down to the basement, with all the stacks of older books, did she answer Anders, and that was a playful smirk.

"It's a Hawke, Anders. You know it'll be the undead as well."

[justice_is_blond]

He flashes her a grin as he gets to work prying open one of the older, mustier-looking crates.

"Except I'd plenty of fighting off them when working with Jonas too. Ridiculously large spiders seems to be the Hawke thing. I just want to know if it holds true for you as well." A bunch of tiny, entirely ordinary, spiders spill out of the crate now that he has it open and Anders makes a face as he steps back and lets them disperse.

"Did you find any records relating to what might be in here?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"You know, Cousland seemed to have all sorts of horrible things following him around. I'm not sure if I should be glad we only had spiders or impressed at his supernatural menagerie." Bethany stated as she started going through one shelf.

At his question, she brought out a scroll and some other wrapped papers. "It's all rather scrambled - they still haven't really recovered since Sebastian came marching through here."

[lyriumcarved]

Fenris may not be a scholar at all, and he may still be relatively new to reading, still learning... but what better place to go for this than here? He'd admittedly lost track of it all when he'd gone back out on the road again. But since settling in place once more, and for the foreseeable future... he'd become interested in picking the lessons back up. He's comfortable enough with Bethany to return to her for that.

"I'm glad you offered this opportunity... I doubt I'll find anything as interesting in the mansion as they have here."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Well they certainly won't be offer the complete history of slavery, I can tell you that much." Bethany said wryly, as she put one book atop the pile of others she was carefully preserving. "Have you found anything you'd like to try to read?"

[lyriumcarved]

"Exactly. Danarius seemed to have a certain... distinct taste in literature, unfortunately." Sure, there seem to be some other works there too, but there's a bias toward Tevinter-written texts. He's mostly worked to sound out the titles at this point, only pulling something that sounds like it may be of interest, attempting to read a page here and there. It's a slow process, but at least he's made some progress.

He glances around, pondering. There's so much more to choose from here, he almost doesn't quite know where to start. "Do you have any suggestions? I could use something that's not from Tevinter for once."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany pressed her lips together thoughtfully, before she went back to another stack of books and pulled out a simple version of the stories of Andraste. She dusted it off, made sure it was still in good condition to read, then handed it over to Fenris.

"Try this. I think you'll like it."

[sans_harmony]

Diwaniya may not be able to work his way through more than the titles of these yet without effort, his newfound skill at deciphering the trade alphabet tested to its limits by the old pages and faded ink--but a library is a library, and the musty basement smells more like home than anything else he's found in this world so far. He takes a moment, inside the door, to subdue the little wave of emotion that wells up.

"Is there a particular cataloging system we should be using?" he asks, all business once he pulls himself together. "Or are we just setting aside anything that looks unusual?"

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Right now, we're just getting to the bare bones of it." Bethany stated, as she carefully went through a stack of books. "Seeing if we find anything that would be of use to us, seeing anything that might be interesting at all. Later on we can start focusing on breaking down to smaller piles."

[sulena]

Saoirse had never been the sort to get lost in books which, she had always thought, had been a shame. She had been given a rare oppunitity as a child, one of the few in the alienage to both read and write before being shipped off the Circle. After that did happen, she spent more time absorbed in the Chant than history and even ignored her magical studies at times.

But now, she is careful as she picks through the tomes that have been laid out before them. Nose scrunched, she picks one up and dusts away from the settled dirt and grim. Every moment seems thoughtful, almost scared any sudden movements would result in disaster...

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany is looking over at Saoirse, and is about to utter, 'Be careful!' when she realizes shouting that will have the opposite effect. So she clears her throat, and waits.

[sulena]

There is a spark along her fingertips, a spell or perhaps the beginnings of one when Bethany's throat clearing still manages to startle her and she snaps back into focus.

"Sorry," she murmurs as if even her voice will tear the pages. "I've never done something like this before..."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"It's all right - I remember my first time going through older volumes. It's exciting, and scary." Bethany grinned at her, "Here, I'll show you the glyph that Inessa taught me. It helps preserve the paper."

[bookish_lioness]

By the time Hermione had arrived at the Viscount's Palace, she saw a small group head inside, and upon seeing a few familiar faces, assumed these were the people she'd be meeting with and sprinted along to catch up with them. She didn't call out to them to alert them to her presence, though; they were soon in a library, after all, and it wouldn't do to raise her voice.

So she didn't say anything until they'd arrived at their destination, properly introducing herself to Bethany this time before the young woman could get too engrossed in her studies. Looking around at the rather haphazard disarray of books, she frowned slightly before asking, "Are we just... going at them blindly, then? Picking them up at random and seeing what we can find?"

There had to be a more efficient way of going about such a thing, but a library with no system of organization already in place didn't exactly lend itself to efficiency.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany is quietly going through the books in front of her, and glances over at Hermione. Her lips press together thoughtfully, as she recalled what the young woman had said.

"You've got a good point, Hermione. You said you're rather good at archiving -- would you mind sorting while we go through what we have? That way we know what we're reading for what."

[bookish_lioness]

"Sorting by title alone?" Hermione asks, trying not to frown even more deeply as she continues to eye the various small mountains of books. "I suppose it's not very likely we'll find many novels or things with vague, creative titles, but I do wish there was a way to fine-tune it a bit more."

She pauses for a moment, thinking it over as she adds, "I suppose I can look at the publishing dates and try to organize them by both title and when they were published. That way we can have an idea of a timeline of when certain theories or ideas were most prevalent."