My Kingdom For A Book - RPLOG

Participants

• Fenris
• Indra
• Lochlan
• Rokarion
• Vari

Date

12/12/2014

Log

The area around the group remains unchanged, except that the Zephyr agents are no way out of range. The marker of previous civilization, that is the highway, remains in front of the group. Beckoning for them to traverse its neglected surface

Vari shook her head. "Yeah, this place is desolated. And I don't wonder why that is. I am more worried about what could await us inside of the library. Even if it was blockaded, it still would provide shelter. And shelter means possible inhabitants." She began to walk towards the said town. "Don't loose your heads, because here, wounds that you neglect can end up fatal for you, and I can heal only so much."

Fenris grunts as the container is loaded on his back and secured to his bell strewn harness. "Perfect!" he says, shifting around a little to make sure the container is secure before he starts clopping along toward the library. "There isn't much outside the bubbles anymore," Fenris explains as he walks, "But then, there are some things out here that we have lost." The tanuki turned reindeer goes into tour guide mode for a moment. "The nanites in the bubble break down most organic and technological stuff," he explains, very technically, "And that means that they eat books. So Zephyr has been making this push to retrieve and digitize what books we can. Everything from Seuss to Shakespeare to Hawking!" Even though he is talking, the reindeer remains alert, his ears swiveling from side to side, though his happy smile never fades.

Lochlan double-checks the ropes on the harness, then answers Fenris "I know about the paper preservation project. Me and a certain fox were planning to raid less-obvious places for survived paper, not necessarily books. We were thinking that something could have stayed untouched in sex-shops or places that sell journals. You know how they sometimes wrap them in shrinkwrap or put them under the counter somewhere..." He draws his laser pistol then looks around the scenery "Guys, I'll go scout a bit if you don't mind. We need to check what goes on here."

Indra drums her fingers on the hilt of her saber as she looks around, her tails waving closely behind her as her ears swivel around on her head. "I don't mind if you do, though shouldn't you wait until we finish what we came here for?" Indra asks as she follows along behind Fenris.

As the group traverses the rundown highway, some of them could spot two figures in the distance. The figures, a couple of hundreds of meters away, are rather large, bulky and obviously furry. The two wolfish beasts are right now busy hitting on a car, they seem to have not noticed the group yet.

The arachnid looked ahead, spotting the figures, wolfish. In a lower voice, she said to Lochlan: "I told you about being reckless. Scouting ahead alone can be your death. Don't forget that the nanites can't heal you properly right now...see those two? What if there are more around?" She shook her head. "No it is best if we keep together. Since they are bashing that car, I am not too sure if they will greet us with the same hospitality we would want. And Fenris here...I don't think he would be efficient in battle right now, and I am in no form capable of fighting. I am here to patch up injured people. I vote on staying away from them, not wanting to risk a fight. After all, we don't need a thing from them, as we have our goal, and except for manpower, they couldn't provide us with more."

Fenris listens to Vira, that infuriating little smile unaffected by the raging wolf beasts. "Around it is," he says cheerily, then jingles his way off the road, opposite the direction of the wolves, "Just keep me moving in the right direction!" The tanuki-deer has no doubts that he could handle a couple of mutants, but not with this thing on his back.

Lochlan gives a glare at the arachnid. "We have jingle-bell Rudolf, and a self-proclaimed non-fighter, but you still call scouting reckless? Sure, let's just go in an ambush..."

Indra shakes her head at Lochlan's apparent anger. "So long as we don't get distracted, we should be able to notice an ambush." Contrary to her words, Indra is a little unsure about that. Still, she continues to follow behind Fenris, making sure they don't step into a hole in the road every so often. "Any idea how much this container might weigh if we fill it entirely?"

The group manages to avoid the wolf beasts, who none the wiser move in an opposite direction of the agents. After an uneventful trip, the group finally reaches an area near the highway where a small road diverges into an obviously small and abandoned town. The whole town could be seen from their position, a dozen or so houses strewn around, a grocery shop and other mercantile enterprises to the west side of the town, a gas station on the side road leading to the once habitat of humans, and a really large building in the middle of it all, towering above everything around it. That building is obviously their desired destination. If the group decides to approach the town, then it will become quite obvious that this place where people might have lived is now nothing more but a ghost town, the old sounds of children laughter and people going about their work replaced by an eerie silence and a melancholic air.

As the group stood at the edge of the town, Vari got an eerie feeling. No, she didn't like silence at all. She remained alerted, but all she could hear was her own mind racing, and her heart beating. She looked around, nervously. "Yeah...easy task this is, alright." She whispered. "I've had surgeries which were more fun than this." She shook her head. "No, being here feels way to oppressive. I can't wait to get to the library." She said, as she started heading towards their goal.

Fenris seems unfazed by the scene of desolation, and even less affected by Lochlan's disparaging remarks. It is sad that the people are all gone here, but he has seen Tanuki's realm and hopes that with the recent incursions by his adoptive people there will soon be a renewal here as well. The tanuki reindeer plods steadily along toward the big barricaded building ahead. He will be glad to get this thing off his back. "I think I am more of a Prancer than a Rudolph, really," he says absently, humming an obscure Christmas carol into the silence.

Lochlan tilts his head again. The stillness of the scenery doesn't really make him feel that depressed. Paranoid on the other hand... "Guys, is there someone with a better nanite collector than me. We really need to find out what's with the nanites here. It can't be just two wolfbeasts"

Indra sighs and shakes her head at the devastated town. It was beyond sad that such a thing had happened, but the most they could do now was try to rebuild... She looks up at Lochlan; they had raised a point though. "I'm not sure how nanite collectors work, I haven't been able to get one... but you're right, shouldn't we have seen more than just two wolf-beasts?" Just what, if anything, might be waiting in the other parts of the town? In the library itself? Once again, Indra set her hand on the hilt of her saber, just in case.

Moving across the ghost town the group stands in front of the central large building, form its size and design one would assume that it most likely served as the town's library and town hall. The front door seems to be barred and so are all the windows. There seems to be no visible way to enter the building right now from this angle. The group now stands in the middle of the town, the library's entrance locked in front of them, leaving them alone with their thoughts on how to get in.

Lochlan puts his pistol back in the holster. "I'm gonna check how it is on the roof. If I can enter from there, I'll throw a rope." With a weird, and somewhat ridiculous combination of flapping, jumping and climbing on the building, he quickly reaches the roof and immediately pulls out his weapon again, checking around if everything is safe.

Vari looked at the building. "Listen...this might sound paranoid, but I don't like the looks of this." She said, still having her voice lowered. "The windows are barred from the insides, but the door..." She shakes her head. "It almost seems like someone wanted to lock something up in there. After all, why should they bother barring this thing up? I could understand the insides, if someone was seeking shelter. But how and why would he bar the door from the outside? And if they were simply evacuating, why bother barring this thing up at all? We...should probably tread even more carfeully in there...bookshelves provide good blind spots to hide in."

Fenris trots happily toward the front door and hooks a large antler under the bar on the door and casually flips it aside. "Somebody get this thing off me, please," he says, "I think I may need to be able to move soon." He raps his antlers against the door. "Knock knock!" he calls out happily.

Indra palms her face at Fenris. "Really? You're knocking?" she asks in disbelief. Shaking her head, she walks over and begins to help the reindeer remove the boards, though she keeps a hand on her saber just in case something decides to knock back. "I have the feeling you've done this before," she mutters, tossing another board aside. "You're going in first, by the way."

Fenris's knocking confers no response whatsoever, The group remains standing there unbarring the door, while Lohclan stands at the roof of the building, and when they finish unbarring the door and attempting to open it they will find that the door refuses to budge, looks like it was also barred from the inside too. Glancing the front side of the library again the group does notices no other special features. The windows are still all barred and the door still won't budge.

Vari just glares at Fenris in disbelieve. "Are...are you..." There was no anger in her voice, only utter shock. She recollects herself, after they unbarred the door from the outside, just to find it barred from the inside too, apparently. The arachnid ponders a bit. "Well, this means that someone really used this as shelter. Now we know. Then i am wondering if they are still alive. Who knows how long they were inside, when this town was abandoned." She sighs. "Don't drop your guard. Even if we got no response, if there is something living in there, it is alarmed to our presence." She looked up on the roof. "You found anything?"

Fenris grins as he shrugs the big container to the ground. "Always moving forward!" he says happily, "It has worked for me so far!" The reindeer turns his back to the door and gives it a couple of solid kicks, hoping someone will answer. If there is no reply and if no one stops him, he will likely try to knock those doors down!

Lochlan gives another nasty glare, this time at the reindeer. "Too much idiots..." he says to himself, before saying in a louder voice, so the rest can hear him "There's a door up here. I'll throw you a rope, one comes up for backup and we can try to open." He then secures the one end of the rope from his backpack and lets the other reach the ground.

Indra immediately heads to the rope. Looking up, she nods to Lochlan and begins to climb up the building. It's a little difficult, but the windows make excellent footholds and she eventually climbs over the ledge. "I need to climb more often," she mutters, her grip having nearly slipped a couple of times. "Is it just going to be you and me?" she asks after a moment. They could probably get Vari up... but Fenris? That... may be a problem.

Rokarion after Vari that is/

Vari looked at Fenris. "Well, he could fly up there...but." She shook her head. "No, too exhaustive. We could tie the rope around you, and carry you up there, while you 'walk' up the wall. But...we also need the rope to get the container up there..." Vari sighed. "I don't like it, but I will go last. Unless your repeated 'knocking' will somehow break the door open." She stared at the deer, still in disbelive that he didn't stop.

Fenris grins at Vari and shakes his big, shaggy head. "Got it covered!" he cheers happily before turning a quick little circle, humming the beginning of a tune, and suddenly rearing up onto his forelegs. "Fa la la la la!" he starts, "La la! La! La!" On the last melodic La he brings his hardy reindeer hooves crashing into the door!

Indra looks over the edge, a confused expression on her face after the somewhat cheerful singing and loud bang. "Did... he just bash down the door?" she asks, more to herself than Lochlan. If Fenris did, then he just made their climb up the building pointless...

Fenris's merciless kick at the door leaves it slightly ajar, the power of the kick making the door shake a bit as the loud cracking of wooden bars can be heard from the inside. From the looks of it another swift kick at the door will knock it open for the group to enter.

Vari rolled her eyes...or at least would, if they weren't spider eyes. "Well, at least you get things done." She says, somewhat annoyed. "But YOU are going to be our lead now. I don't want to be the one jumped by some...entity in there." She looks up, no sense in hiding anymore. "So, our festive friend has bashed the door in. You can come down again, if you want to stay in a group. Alternatively, you two could look around up there, if you are so inclined. Maybe getting this job done quicker. But it'd be a risk of course, halving our manpower."

Fenris gives the door one last hearty kick, just to teach it who is boss, then turns to lead the way into the building. "Hello!" he calls out genially, "We were just looking for the library! Sorry about the door, but it was blocked!" There is no greater defence than appearing to be a loveable idiot. Fenris is certainly loveable, but maybe not a complete idiot. Despite his silly demeanor, the reindeer is on high alert, ears flicking about for sounds in the building. "We can probably get you an evac if you want to come along with us," he continues to babble amiably, "We don't bite!" He hesitates a moment after that. "I don't bite, anyway!" he calls, "And I am sure these guys will wait until they know you better!"