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xp_logsCecil has been taken by a Librarian! Our heroes go in to save him.
Night Vale Middle School was almost deceptively normal, considering everything else they had run into. The building Carlos led them into was... just a normal school hallway, with fluorescent lights and lockers and tiled floors. About twenty feet down the hall, a girl in a wheelchair was staring at a door with a look of abject horror. She turned her head when she heard the squeal of sneakers, terror giving way to relief.
"Uncle Carlos! The librarian got Uncle Cecil!"
"Librarian? Cecil? Isn't he too smart to get grabbed by one of those?" asked Nica, incredulously. At the look the girl gave her, she waved sheepishly. "Um, hi. We... sort of know your uncle."
"The school librarian likes to randomly grab people sometimes," Carlos said, grimacing. "It's a learning experience." He looked back at Janice, giving her a gentle smile. "It's okay, these people are here to help Cecil. The town found out he was missing and, well, you know how they get about strangers if your uncle isn't on the radio talking about how handsome they are." Janice gave a reluctant giggle at that.
Topaz shot a wary look at the door. "Looks like I get to explore a library after all," she said, mostly tired. Night Vale would be joining Limbo on 'list of places I never want to go ever again'.
Miles wanted to ask what could be so bad about a library that made them all so apprehensive to go in, but he had enough genre awareness to know better than to ask that. Plus, the lack of speech capabilities. So he just reached for the doorknob but turned to the others before actually touching it, waiting for their permission to go ahead.
Alison winced. Her ache-y, gross feeling had been getting steadily worse since they'd arrived in Nightvale, and right now she felt like liquid was bubbling beneath her skin. It almost felt like a migraine across her entire body.
"Guys," she said softly, "I don't think this place agrees with me. I'm okay now, just... someone keep an eye on me in case I pass out, please?" There was a beat. "Now, librarian. I'm assuming it's evil." Because of course it was. It seemed like everything in this town was either evil, eldritch, or both. "Anything we should know before we go in and it tries to eat our eyebrows or whatever?"
"Don't let it catch you?" Jubilee asked, her tone dry as she nodded to Miles to open the door. Given the nigh universal reaction of terror at the mention of Librarians with a side serving of 'It's educational!', she was willing to bet some form of horror, or possibly just a witch. She could have told them stories about a younger Amanda in the school's main kitchen in the morning. Now _that_ had been horrifying. "Dude, let's just get this done, yeah? Work is gonna be brutal if we're gone too much longer."
"They're more like giant bugs, or at least that's what I was able to make out from the sh... er from my study of them," Nica explained, realising telling Carlos and Janice they were fictional, while totally normal for Night Vale, might cause more of a distraction than they needed right now. "But I think between us, even with some of our issues right now, we can distract it long enough to get Cecil out? Miles, you up for some bug smooshing?"
She didn't have to ask him twice. He flung the door open and . . . nothing. Just a big dark room. He could make out the stacks reflecting some of the moonlight streaming in through the windows, but otherwise empty. Not exactly the insect extermination he was psyching himself up for.
Unless they were more like cockroaches, skittering around the perimeter out of sight, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Strangely enough, Warren liked libraries. Even in school, when he had his aloof, jock image to uphold, he'd always enjoyed unwinding at the end of the day in some dusty corner.
Not this one though. "Amethyst," he said quietly, "I think you're up again. There has to be some secret librarian language you can speak in right?" He received no answer, but he wasn't really expecting one.
Topaz edged in around Miles, keeping her back to the wall and scanning the library the best she could. Static or not, there was still a difference between the void and emotions. "Back left corner," she said as quietly as she could, not wanting to stir whatever was waiting in the darkness. "There's something there."
"Um, is somebody out there?" called a voice from said corner. "Is that the Sheriff's secret police? You totally have to tell me if you're a secret policeman, that's the law." A man was sitting there, leaning against one of the walls and holding both hands over his knees, which were pulled up to his chest. "Wait, if you're a librarian then never mind, I'm fine, just browsing. I don't need any help, thank youuuuuuu."
Jubilee gave the others a look that while completely silent managed to convey an entirety of 'what the actual fuck?' She wanted out of this place, quickly, before she just decided to say screw it and find the nearest dog park to go postal on. She'd never been a fan of whimsical horror and this place was just a few too many picnics shy of a holiday for her liking.
A skittery, hissing sound broke the silence, and it took Miles a second to remember that was him, warning his friends of the extra-dark shadow creeping between the stacks. Bad move. The mystery thing heard him, paused, and then lunged at him, all spindly legs and antennae and pincers. Miles screeched in surprise and swatted it away with his many hands, flinging it directly into a bookshelf, which collapsed under its weight.
Warren made a disgusted sound. "Oh good, it's a cockroach that reads. Lovely." With the stacks around him, there was no way he could fly up and watch safely from the air. Nope, he had to just stand there and hope for the best. He crossed his arms over his bare chest and sighed. "How many can there possibly be?"
Alison didn't stop to think as everything devolved into a panic. She may have had no powers and less than ten percent of a plan, but she had instincts honed by years of warding off creepers and a predilection for overreaction in the face of adrenaline rushes, so she did exactly what came naturally.
She grabbed the largest book within arms reach (The Encyclopedia Austro-Hungarias, Volume Mn-Jy) and swung as hard as she could. There was a crunch as something gave under the weighty tome. She drew back and slammed the book down again, over and over, punctuating each smash with a yell of rage. There might have been words in there, but more power to anyone who could actually understand her.
Topaz was still sliding along the wall, using the flashes of light to try and see through the murky darkness to find the huddled figure. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, Alison's terrible abuse of the book, grimacing and flexing her fingers for a moment before saying out loud, "Screw it, not my library," before turning back to her search. "Uh... Cecil?"
"If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. 'Cause, y'know, staring is kind of rude, and fair is fair. Welcome... to Night Vale." Cecil spread his arms out wide, taking them all in as he looked around. "Sorry; force of habit. You do look new to town, though, so welcome just the same."
He got to his feet, brushed the dust off of him, and picked up a book he'd been looking at - 'Mountains And Other Geographical Impossibilities' , re-shelving it in the nearby Fiction stacks. Turning around and facing the group again, he blinked. "Oh, that, I was just trying to fit in, promise. I don't believe in mountains or anything. I was just trying to look inconspicuous in case a," his voice dipped into sotto voce, "librarian came around. My earlier cover was talking to an acquaintance, John Peters - you know, the farmer? - but he left me alone." Cecil sighed and looked around once more, as if looking for someone in particular.
“Remind me to let you guys thank me when we get back home.”
Jubilee lit up like a Christmas tree, multi-coloured sparkles suddenly pouring out of her and hovering dangerously close to the books. It illuminated the shadowed stacks, bright as daylight, if a little more colourful than that.
No amount of torture would ever convince Topaz to admit that she had a brief moment of shock and pure delight at the iconic words. She shook it off quickly. "Right, um, it's been a pleasure being here," she lied. "But your niece is waiting for you and she's pretty word. My uh, friends are distracting the librarian. I suggest we leg it while we can."
"Janice, riiiiiiight, Carlos and I have to make sure she'd ready for when Steve comes to pick her up," he said, making his way towards the exit. "You can't miss him, he'll be in the sadly cared for tan Corolla." Cecil sighed and rubbed his forehead before stopping and turning around. "Also, you guys should seriously get out of here ASAP, libraries are not a safe place to be."
If asked about the moment later, Alison would be able to honestly say that she hadn't a clue what had been the final trigger that had sent her over the tipping point. Between screams, from one shout to the next, something deep inside of her began to crack. Each thwack and crunch and whump pushed a wedge deeper. The first sign that anything was changing was a soft glow, burning underneath Alison's skin. Faint at first, it quickly built until she hurt to look at.
Then, all at once, it shattered, and the burning glow ripped its way out of her. The book slipped through her fingers on the back-swing as Alison was suddenly a roaring inferno of golds, crimsons, and oranges vibrant enough to wake the dead. The driving pressure that had pushed her to the edge of anxiety faded in an instant as the sounds of a town, unknowingly and accidentally stored over the course of the night, poured out of her in a tsunami of light bright enough to be seen from space.
For a moment, even the ambient noise of Nightvale faded as the cascade of power converted even the gentle breath of the wind into a single dazzle far beyond anything Alison had ever done, or ever dreamed was possible.
And then, just as quickly as it happened, it was over. The light faded, the sound returned, and Alison was left gasping for breath and feeling better than she had all night. She grinned. "That.... didn't suck."
Nica blinked rapidly to dispel the afterimages from Alison's starburst. Even with her powers adapting her eyesight, it had been an epic amount of light to adjust to. "Whoa," was all she said, before touching the Miles-Spider on the shoulder. With eight eyes, he'd probably be close to blind, she guessed. "Time to book it," she said, smirking at her own pun.
She was right, so right that Miles was more focused on the pain than admonishing her for her scarily Bobby-esque pun. With 4 hands on her shoulder so she could guide him out, he fled.
"Yeah, I think I'm ready to be done with Night Vale," Topaz mumbled, shading her eyes and hurrying out into the hall with Cecil behind her. She heard a squeal of delight from Janice as she peeked into the library to make sure everyone was out before happily slamming the broken door.
Night Vale Middle School was almost deceptively normal, considering everything else they had run into. The building Carlos led them into was... just a normal school hallway, with fluorescent lights and lockers and tiled floors. About twenty feet down the hall, a girl in a wheelchair was staring at a door with a look of abject horror. She turned her head when she heard the squeal of sneakers, terror giving way to relief.
"Uncle Carlos! The librarian got Uncle Cecil!"
"Librarian? Cecil? Isn't he too smart to get grabbed by one of those?" asked Nica, incredulously. At the look the girl gave her, she waved sheepishly. "Um, hi. We... sort of know your uncle."
"The school librarian likes to randomly grab people sometimes," Carlos said, grimacing. "It's a learning experience." He looked back at Janice, giving her a gentle smile. "It's okay, these people are here to help Cecil. The town found out he was missing and, well, you know how they get about strangers if your uncle isn't on the radio talking about how handsome they are." Janice gave a reluctant giggle at that.
Topaz shot a wary look at the door. "Looks like I get to explore a library after all," she said, mostly tired. Night Vale would be joining Limbo on 'list of places I never want to go ever again'.
Miles wanted to ask what could be so bad about a library that made them all so apprehensive to go in, but he had enough genre awareness to know better than to ask that. Plus, the lack of speech capabilities. So he just reached for the doorknob but turned to the others before actually touching it, waiting for their permission to go ahead.
Alison winced. Her ache-y, gross feeling had been getting steadily worse since they'd arrived in Nightvale, and right now she felt like liquid was bubbling beneath her skin. It almost felt like a migraine across her entire body.
"Guys," she said softly, "I don't think this place agrees with me. I'm okay now, just... someone keep an eye on me in case I pass out, please?" There was a beat. "Now, librarian. I'm assuming it's evil." Because of course it was. It seemed like everything in this town was either evil, eldritch, or both. "Anything we should know before we go in and it tries to eat our eyebrows or whatever?"
"Don't let it catch you?" Jubilee asked, her tone dry as she nodded to Miles to open the door. Given the nigh universal reaction of terror at the mention of Librarians with a side serving of 'It's educational!', she was willing to bet some form of horror, or possibly just a witch. She could have told them stories about a younger Amanda in the school's main kitchen in the morning. Now _that_ had been horrifying. "Dude, let's just get this done, yeah? Work is gonna be brutal if we're gone too much longer."
"They're more like giant bugs, or at least that's what I was able to make out from the sh... er from my study of them," Nica explained, realising telling Carlos and Janice they were fictional, while totally normal for Night Vale, might cause more of a distraction than they needed right now. "But I think between us, even with some of our issues right now, we can distract it long enough to get Cecil out? Miles, you up for some bug smooshing?"
She didn't have to ask him twice. He flung the door open and . . . nothing. Just a big dark room. He could make out the stacks reflecting some of the moonlight streaming in through the windows, but otherwise empty. Not exactly the insect extermination he was psyching himself up for.
Unless they were more like cockroaches, skittering around the perimeter out of sight, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Strangely enough, Warren liked libraries. Even in school, when he had his aloof, jock image to uphold, he'd always enjoyed unwinding at the end of the day in some dusty corner.
Not this one though. "Amethyst," he said quietly, "I think you're up again. There has to be some secret librarian language you can speak in right?" He received no answer, but he wasn't really expecting one.
Topaz edged in around Miles, keeping her back to the wall and scanning the library the best she could. Static or not, there was still a difference between the void and emotions. "Back left corner," she said as quietly as she could, not wanting to stir whatever was waiting in the darkness. "There's something there."
"Um, is somebody out there?" called a voice from said corner. "Is that the Sheriff's secret police? You totally have to tell me if you're a secret policeman, that's the law." A man was sitting there, leaning against one of the walls and holding both hands over his knees, which were pulled up to his chest. "Wait, if you're a librarian then never mind, I'm fine, just browsing. I don't need any help, thank youuuuuuu."
Jubilee gave the others a look that while completely silent managed to convey an entirety of 'what the actual fuck?' She wanted out of this place, quickly, before she just decided to say screw it and find the nearest dog park to go postal on. She'd never been a fan of whimsical horror and this place was just a few too many picnics shy of a holiday for her liking.
A skittery, hissing sound broke the silence, and it took Miles a second to remember that was him, warning his friends of the extra-dark shadow creeping between the stacks. Bad move. The mystery thing heard him, paused, and then lunged at him, all spindly legs and antennae and pincers. Miles screeched in surprise and swatted it away with his many hands, flinging it directly into a bookshelf, which collapsed under its weight.
Warren made a disgusted sound. "Oh good, it's a cockroach that reads. Lovely." With the stacks around him, there was no way he could fly up and watch safely from the air. Nope, he had to just stand there and hope for the best. He crossed his arms over his bare chest and sighed. "How many can there possibly be?"
Alison didn't stop to think as everything devolved into a panic. She may have had no powers and less than ten percent of a plan, but she had instincts honed by years of warding off creepers and a predilection for overreaction in the face of adrenaline rushes, so she did exactly what came naturally.
She grabbed the largest book within arms reach (The Encyclopedia Austro-Hungarias, Volume Mn-Jy) and swung as hard as she could. There was a crunch as something gave under the weighty tome. She drew back and slammed the book down again, over and over, punctuating each smash with a yell of rage. There might have been words in there, but more power to anyone who could actually understand her.
Topaz was still sliding along the wall, using the flashes of light to try and see through the murky darkness to find the huddled figure. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, Alison's terrible abuse of the book, grimacing and flexing her fingers for a moment before saying out loud, "Screw it, not my library," before turning back to her search. "Uh... Cecil?"
"If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. 'Cause, y'know, staring is kind of rude, and fair is fair. Welcome... to Night Vale." Cecil spread his arms out wide, taking them all in as he looked around. "Sorry; force of habit. You do look new to town, though, so welcome just the same."
He got to his feet, brushed the dust off of him, and picked up a book he'd been looking at - 'Mountains And Other Geographical Impossibilities' , re-shelving it in the nearby Fiction stacks. Turning around and facing the group again, he blinked. "Oh, that, I was just trying to fit in, promise. I don't believe in mountains or anything. I was just trying to look inconspicuous in case a," his voice dipped into sotto voce, "librarian came around. My earlier cover was talking to an acquaintance, John Peters - you know, the farmer? - but he left me alone." Cecil sighed and looked around once more, as if looking for someone in particular.
“Remind me to let you guys thank me when we get back home.”
Jubilee lit up like a Christmas tree, multi-coloured sparkles suddenly pouring out of her and hovering dangerously close to the books. It illuminated the shadowed stacks, bright as daylight, if a little more colourful than that.
No amount of torture would ever convince Topaz to admit that she had a brief moment of shock and pure delight at the iconic words. She shook it off quickly. "Right, um, it's been a pleasure being here," she lied. "But your niece is waiting for you and she's pretty word. My uh, friends are distracting the librarian. I suggest we leg it while we can."
"Janice, riiiiiiight, Carlos and I have to make sure she'd ready for when Steve comes to pick her up," he said, making his way towards the exit. "You can't miss him, he'll be in the sadly cared for tan Corolla." Cecil sighed and rubbed his forehead before stopping and turning around. "Also, you guys should seriously get out of here ASAP, libraries are not a safe place to be."
If asked about the moment later, Alison would be able to honestly say that she hadn't a clue what had been the final trigger that had sent her over the tipping point. Between screams, from one shout to the next, something deep inside of her began to crack. Each thwack and crunch and whump pushed a wedge deeper. The first sign that anything was changing was a soft glow, burning underneath Alison's skin. Faint at first, it quickly built until she hurt to look at.
Then, all at once, it shattered, and the burning glow ripped its way out of her. The book slipped through her fingers on the back-swing as Alison was suddenly a roaring inferno of golds, crimsons, and oranges vibrant enough to wake the dead. The driving pressure that had pushed her to the edge of anxiety faded in an instant as the sounds of a town, unknowingly and accidentally stored over the course of the night, poured out of her in a tsunami of light bright enough to be seen from space.
For a moment, even the ambient noise of Nightvale faded as the cascade of power converted even the gentle breath of the wind into a single dazzle far beyond anything Alison had ever done, or ever dreamed was possible.
And then, just as quickly as it happened, it was over. The light faded, the sound returned, and Alison was left gasping for breath and feeling better than she had all night. She grinned. "That.... didn't suck."
Nica blinked rapidly to dispel the afterimages from Alison's starburst. Even with her powers adapting her eyesight, it had been an epic amount of light to adjust to. "Whoa," was all she said, before touching the Miles-Spider on the shoulder. With eight eyes, he'd probably be close to blind, she guessed. "Time to book it," she said, smirking at her own pun.
She was right, so right that Miles was more focused on the pain than admonishing her for her scarily Bobby-esque pun. With 4 hands on her shoulder so she could guide him out, he fled.
"Yeah, I think I'm ready to be done with Night Vale," Topaz mumbled, shading her eyes and hurrying out into the hall with Cecil behind her. She heard a squeal of delight from Janice as she peeked into the library to make sure everyone was out before happily slamming the broken door.
