Outside: Grass touch place

[Morty]

[Ruins]

"Hmm. I think I prefer the big wolf-man shape." Thariza flashes Atreyu a slightly toothy smile. "And I won't say no to help. As for Charr... well, we're just born this way. We all have the horns, the tails, the claws and the two pairs of ears. They make me stand out around here."

[Shadowcaller]

[Damundra Canyon]

The tiny shapes dash forward.

Thariza's shield seems to have been enough to discourage them as she finds only dust coming at her.

But Emily isn't so lucky.

Practically ignoring her sword they come for her legs.
Each one of the three attempting to stab their sides with unnaturally sharp needle-like weapons which they will just leave there as they continue past her.

What they attempted to stab her with is unclear as their movements kicked up so much dust that it's difficult to see anything that's shorter than 3 feet.

[Shadowcaller]

[Run Rabbit Run]

"...Oouagh."

The figure's shadow recedes, down to a more reasonable size, once again sitting limply on the log.

"You don't know. You wouldn't ask if you knew." She mutters. "The jail between the bars, the dark between the stars, that place which is ours. There is nowhere else to be, nowhere else to go." She inhales sharply, shuddering breaths rattling throughout the clearing.

The figure's hands clench around her chest again. "I am the queen!" She screams suddenly, standing up again. "And you will bow! All of you! Each and every last one of you sorry ingrates! I give and I give and I give and I give and I give and I give! And yet you throw me out?! Throw me away like trash! Like filth, like muck! No!"

The log is hurled across the clearing, smashing against the other trees, sending a rain of splinters down the path Harley just came from and a shower of loose leaves down around him.

"...Why don't you love me?" The shadow sobs, burying her face in her hands.

[Run Rabbit Run]

As this is happening there's a distant cry of "HARLEY!" in the distant.
Soon followed by "ARE YOU THERE?!"

They can make of this what they will but Harley does recognize the voice.

[quillpleasant]

Run Rabbit Run

Harley ducks, raising his arms automatically to shield himself from the falling leaves and twigs. Then he reflects how silly it is to use his arms to protect his face, since it's already covered by an indestructible mask. Old habits die hard.

His mind races as he tries to make sense of what this strange individual is saying. It's hard to tell how much of what she says is metaphorical. Is she actually some being from between the stars? Is she even a queen? There's a lot of possible questions, and he doubts she'll be providing answers anytime soon.

But what is sure is that she's in pain, and she's sad. That's something Harley understands very well, and just maybe is something he can help with.

"You're right, I don't know. So why don't you tell me?" says Harley reasonably, talking in a firm but gentle manner. "I don't think you're trash, you seem pretty cool, really. And I'm sorry you've been treated that way, you don't deserve that." For all he knows, she may- but if it's truly a question of deserving, then Harley himself wouldn't come out very well.

As he considers how best to coax more information from her, a familiar voice comes through the woods. Raheeda! She can always make Harley feel better, so maybe she'll be able to help cheer up this strange woods woman too. "HEY! OVER HERE!" he calls out, cupping his hands in front of his mouth so the sound carries.

[General Shrimp]

Ruins

"Certainly a bit different from yer usual feline folks, aye." Atreyu nods in agreement. "Seen my fair share of assorted catlike people, n' horns ain't exactly a common addition. Or the ears."Atreyu pauses, snapping himself out of his somewhat studious assessment of Thariza's appearance. "Hah. All of which is somethin' of a longwinded way of sayin' yer very impressive, Missy. And if wolfman is what ya prefer, wolfman is what you'll get. Between you n' me, I much prefer myself lookin' like this too." Thariza's toothy smile is answered in kind with a very wolfish grin.

[Morty]

[Ruins]

Is Atreyu flirting with her? Thariza has almost forgot what it's like. Granted, she was never one for subtle hints, even compared to other Charr. But no one has expressed this kind of interest in her since she ended up here.

"Impressive, huh? That's a new one. Not many people around here can appreciate a Charr." She shrugs her shoulders and stands up a bit straighter. "But we can exchange some more pleasantries after I've found my artifacts and you've found your samples. Should be quick work between the two of us."

[Damundra Canyon]

Flames, it's like she's back in Ascalon, keeping Skritt off the munitions store again.

"Why you little...."

Unable to spot a solid target in the dust, she hits the ground with her mace instead, causing purple flames to erupt upwards. Hopefully they serve to at least scatter the small attackers.

[Shadowcaller]

[Strange Library]

Eddie have found himself in odd locations before without understanding exactly how he got there and this is no exception since he suddenly finds himself staring at a door.

Depending if he's got dark vision or not he can either not make out much beyond that the room he's in is rather small and that dim light is coming through the bottom of the door or:

► SHOW SPOILER

That he's in a cleaning closet filled with brooms and other tools used for cleaning. Not much in the way of modern cleaning supplies though.

[Shadowcaller]

[Floating Library]

Despite its sheer size there aren't actually many rooms within this massive building. But considering how difficult it's to get here those who built it probably had rather original ideas about what a library should be like.

Since Eddie will have found that most of the books here are stored in a single gigantic hall with shelves going all the way from the floor to the ceiling. With strange creatures roaming between those shelves, seemingly ready to pounce on anything they might see as an intruder.
However, within all that vastness Eddie will have found what one might consider some sort of office space near the entrance to the library. On the door it is labeled as the "copy room" and it is actually structured like a more traditional library. With a fairly regular sized room with only two shelves of books and what seems to be a check out counter at the end of it with a door which presumably leads to some employee only space, if there even are people that work here that is.

There's no one at the counter at the moment but as the entrance was manned by a giant raven who knows who is manning this one?
The books are like in the rest of this building in contrast to the building itself rather plain looking. In fact, most of them aren't even books but scrolls that are stored in a hexagon patterned rack that might remind Eddie of how wine bottles are stored. There's very little in the way of titles. One has to open up a scroll or book to see what its about unless familiar with the strange note system the librarians in here must use.
There's one exception to this rule however, since on the counter lays a book decorated with hard gold-plated edges and intricate patterns. The center-piece being an "eye" made up by a huge ruby at the very center of it, making it appear more like a treasure chest than a book.
Since like the others it has no title visible on its expensive-looking cover. Though considering how thick it is, it must be an encyclopedia or something similar.

[TeChameleon]

[Floating Library]

Eddie took one glance at the overly-fancy book and dismissed it as a probable spellbook. Wizards always seemed to have the self-control of a crazed magpie when it came to shiny things, and the more powerful they were, the fancier... and more tasteless... their gear became, until eventually it started looking like it had been designed by Louis XIV after a head injury. He'd worked for one archmage whose hat looked like somebody had fired a wedding cake through an embroidery shop and the gilding studio next door, after which somebody let their six-year-old loose on it with glitter glue. All in 24k gold and precious stones, of course.

Scanning the shelves quickly, he frowned slightly. What, the Dewey Decimal system wasn't good enough for these people? There didn't seem to be a card catalogue, at least that he could see, and if there were any computer catalogues, they were out of sight.

The little golem adjusted the red hoodie that concealed his face... and for that matter, most of his body except his legs... and grabbed the first book that he could reach, flipping it open in hopes that it was in English, Norwegian, Spanish or Latin, or at least French, since he could take a stab at understanding that, although he was nowhere near as fluent in it as he was in the first four languages.

[Shadowcaller]

[Floating Library]

As he takes out and opens one of the books he can right at the first page see it is written in some sort of kanji. However it starts to feel as if he's seeing double. Since, despite not being able to detect any sort of magic coming from the book, a secondary set of letters forms over the first. Written in perfect english.

It could be a translation of what's written here though how accurate it actually is he cannot tell. But if it's accurate this seems to be a book discussing something called the Hyshun empire. Speaking in rather critical terms regarding it.

But before he can get any further into the contents of the book a voice calls out.

"Hello handsome, can I help you with anything?"

If he looks in the direction of the voice he will see that the lavish-looking book is now standing up on its spine. Yet it hasn't moved otherwise. It's also easy to tell (if it's design hadn't already given it away) that it is indeed magical.

[TeChameleon]

[Floating Library]

Eddie glanced at the book, unfazed. Magical objects were hardly new to him, especially given that he was a magical object.

"Handsome?" he echoed. "What, you're into jawas or something?"

Eddie might not be particularly movie literate, but you'd have to have been living under a rock in 1977 to not have seen Star Wars.

"In any case, a pleasure to meet you. I am Dag Wentim, Filias Edmond Lapis, Second Baron Hamilton, although please call me Eddie. And I am mostly here to read, although if you can explain the filing system here, I would appreciate it."

[Shadowcaller]

[Floating Library]

"Honey, I'm into anything." The book seems to reply, soon followed by a girlish giggle. Though he can't see any moving parts that would constitute a mouth.

"But likewise, a pleasure gyosu Wentim or 'Eddie' if you prefer. The system in here is an extension of the one used across the entire library and is on based on a tree structure if you're familiar with it. You will see three letters at each note which tells you what the book is about. The first one indicates the general subject and the rest gets more into the specifics. It's not made with visitors in mind unfortunately."

[TeChameleon]

[Floating Library]

Eddie simply... well, to all outside perspectives, he just stood there for a moment, although if you could see under his hood, there was a sharply raised eyebrow. "Indeed." was the only response he made. Being an animate rock, there were certain aspects of the interaction of biologicals (and apparently talking books) that would remain forever opaque to him.

"I have some understanding of tree structures, albeit not in-depth- it has simply cropped up in my reading from time to time. A pity that your filing system is not more user-friendly; I would like to understand the titles of the books I am reading, if nothing else. And why would a library have a system not designed for visitors? It's a library." the little golem added, a frown audible in his voice.

"I don't suppose you would be willing to translate the filing letters for me? As an aside, this book was initially in a script I do not recognize offhand, and then changed into English, despite no magic being visible to me. That seems a bit unlikely, at the very least. What exactly caused that?"

[Ironsmith]

[Run Rabbit Run]

"Have you not been listening to a word I've said?" The shadow demands, pulling herself up over Harley again. "Are those ears of yours just for show?"

Harley's probably familiar by now with the sensation of someone watching him. But here, it seems to not-so-slowly shift to the sensation of someone glaring at him. As though the unseen woman is going to start manifesting daggers with her gaze and hurling them right into his face.

Fortunately, she doesn't seem to be entirely capable of that.

[Shadowcaller]

[Run Rabbit Run]

As Harley calls out a colorful figure can soon be seen jogging towards them in the distance and as she gets closer, she starts to wave.
"I GOT A NEW QUEST FOR US!"
Wait, was Harley with a new friend? A girl friend perhaps?

They did seem awfully close.
As in, they weren't staying too far away from one another.

[Floating Library]

He was an animated rock and she (the voice certainly sounded feminine) was an animated book.
Clearly they were the perfect match.

"Yeah, odd isn't it? But she also built it in the middle of nowhere on a floating rock so I'm questioning the commitment to the scholarly principles. Just don't tell anyone I said that. I might get eaten y'know?" Though the book doesn't seem to take this seriously.

"But the letters are changing? Never heard of that before. It might be a new feature they introduced but it would be the first time they actually did something to help visitors. So it sounds unlikely."

The book pauses.

"And I could help you but you'd have to open me first. I know what that sounds like but I'm not cursed, I swear. Don't think they'd just leave me out here if i was." The book is highly magical but not cursed as far as he can tell.

[Rebonack]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

Being fair here, high explosives can reasonably be considered technology as well.

The gnolls, however, are pretty adverse to it one way or the other. They have their teeth, their claws, and those gross bone javelins. Not much else. They can toss the javelins pretty far, which they're getting ready to do about the time Blank decides to fire a projectile at a low arc right into the middle of the monsters. The blast sends them tumbling through the air, largely disjointed by the explosion.

Our NEXT wave of gnolls begin tossing their bone weapons at our heroes while several more rush into melee only for them to get cut down by Octavia. Really, they aren't doing very well at all.

More concerning, perhaps, is the gnolls in the back that are going to try to eat their fallen pack-mates.

That's how you get big gnolls! But between the melee attackers and the missile throwers it might be difficult to disengage and stop the dreadful nomming.

Meanwhile!

Khannie, likewise, wrinkles her nose at the dreadful glow from the heart of the pit. "It kinda reminds me of how Elysium felt, if it were turned inside out and gross."

It's an apt observation.

The realm of liberty is akin to all the good things about wilderness. The wildness, the freedom, the awe, the beauty, the peace.

This awful place, though, is all the BAD things about the wilderness. Hungry, savage, and filled with nothing but blind, pitiless indifference to suffering.

Really not great.

Creeping deeper, our heroes will soon find themselves standing before the heart of the this defiled place. A huge riftstone with a fiery gash slashed through its center, sweltering heat and the scent of rotting meat wafting out of it. Every now and again something like a gnoll crawls through, a hairless slimy wretch that though pitiful in appearance is full of unthinking malice.

"Okay I'm gunna have to drop my illusion to work on breaking this thing," Khannie says to Ginger. "Once I've got it weakened you whack it with your holy magic and that oughtta do it. We're probably gunna have some of these creeps trying to stop us."

And sure enough, as soon as her baffle fades the wretch down in the mud gives a fiendish cackle as it tries dragging itself over to the unicorn to bite her.

[Ironsmith]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

...Well.

Can't have that, now.

Blank doesn't have long to think over the situation. If the gnolls are given unrestricted access to their fallen brethren's corpses, they could find themselves dealing with a major problem; there's probably enough there to bring up half a dozen of the big gnolls, maybe more, and just having one already proved to be a big problem.

So he absolutely can't let them eat those bodies.

It doesn't occur to him until after he unleashes a redundant bombardment on the already-dead gnolls that they actually might make for decent bait. The gnolls still need a second to eat the bodies, and while they're doing that, they're staying in one spot, that Blank already knows about and can already hit, and as such are essentially literal target practice.

His concern is more along the lines of reducing those bodies to useless consecrated ash, but if he scores a few more kills this way it'd make a nice bonus.

[quillpleasant]

For Whom the Bell Gnolls

Octavia swings her spear in a wide arc to keep the gnolls at bay, deflecting a couple bone javelins as she does so. However, one of them gets through, bouncing off her leg and leaving a gash behind. Her body is going to need some serious repairs when this is through.

But it'll need more than repairs if she has to deal with multiple gnollks or even worse variants. She notes the gnolls in the back with trepidation as they descend on their fallen brethren. Not good. She'll need t stop them before-

Boom. Oh, looks like Blank is on it already! He's going to keep bombarding the dead gnolls to lure in more. That's a great plan! -nice going, my friend!- she calls out enthusiastically.

But it won't work if the gnolls are able to swarm him and tear him to bits. Blank will need protection in order to keep blowing up the dead ones. Time to switch tactics.

-Razor Field Shreds The Misguided!- she intones, and her spear dissolves into light, which pools on the ground by her feet and spreads out in a wide vicinity around her and Blank. Then, with a metallic hiss, the pool of light extends up into a field of six foot tall razor sharp spikes. Anyone approaching any faster than a very careful walk will find it very difficult to avoid being sliced to ribbons by the spikes before they get to Blank and Octavia.

The only downside is that this provides no defense against the javelins. Octavia stands in front of Blank, dodging from side to side as she prepares to guard him. As long as he's able to keep blowing up enemies in range, she'll gladly take a few hits in his place. It doesn't hurt, and even if her body is destroyed, as long as her halo lives on she can make a new one.

Hopefully their compatriots are having an easy time of it thanks to all this.

---

Run Rabbit Run

Harley doesn't back down an inch as the shadow woman looms over him. Not in a confrontational way, but in a way that indicates that he's simply not afraid. He tilts his head to one side.

"No, I can hear just fine. More than just fine, this dumb helmet magnifies sound something awful." Really, it's a wonder it hasn't made him deaf yet. "I just don't think you're understanding. I'm not judging you for whatever you've done. I'm offering to be your friend and do what I can to help out. But if you'd rather I go, that's okay too."

As Raheeda enters the clearing, Harley turns to wave. "Hi! I love a good new quest! Uh, Raheeda, this is... oh hey, what's your name?" he asks, turning back to blink questioningly at the nebulous figure.

[Ironsmith]

[Run Rabbit Run]

From a distance, it might look like Harley is talking to someone. Nobody either of them knows, of course. Some random stranger he happened upon while out for a run. Which isn't exactly wrong so much as a little vague.

But when Raheeda gets close enough to address Harley directly, she can see she must have been mistaken. There's nobody else in this clearing. Absolutely nobody. What at first appeared to be a person, on closer inspection, turns out to be a trick of sunlight playing through the trunks of the trees, producing a vaguely humanoid image from way back there but revealing its illusory nature the moment the angles are unfavorable.

Nobody here at all.

Which doesn't really explain why Harley hears a soft whine in response to his declaration. "My... friend?" The hidden demoness whispers, as though not understanding the meaning of that combination of pronoun and noun. "You... you want to be my... ooouuuaaagh..."

The shadow recedes, taking a place up a nearby tree, staring down in Harley's direction. "Too many mouths, not enough teats, too many stomachs and not enough eats." Her sneer can be heard even from here. "I've had enough of you little tick-tick-tick-tick-ticks, thinking you deserve seconds from us, but they are hours and hours alone."

"...No. Wait." She begins again, almost immediately. "Don't leave me hungry... I need a tension, I can't exist without, without it."

[Shadowcaller]

[Run Rabbit Run]

Aw, that's disappointing.

Disappointing enough to stop Raheeda stops dead in her tracks as she looks at the trick of the light she thought was a person.

But then Harley goes on to introduce them which causes a temporary confusion which he may or may not be able to read on her face. Raheeda was often confused which is why he should have seen that expression plenty of times.

Was the trick of the light so convincing that Harley still thought there was a person there?
Or-
Aha!

"Oh!"

She suddenly bows deeply, and somewhat clumsily, before the nothing Harley was looking at. "Sorry. I didn't expect to meet, uh- you must be one of Harley's god-friends, right?" Probably a sneaky god (as opposed to a snakey one).

[TeChameleon]

[Floating Library]

Eddie just ambled over, popped the latch, and flipped open the book with the end of one of the scrolls, careful not to touch it. Her?

"I can smell curses, so I'm not too worried. And if you're wondering, I'm not touching you because I consume mana by touch- it's not fast, but enchantments can be delicate, and even the tiny amount I would have taken opening you might mess with whatever makes you... well, you."

A snorting noise. "And anyways, it's rude to tear off and consume bits of peoples' life force without asking first."

[Shadowcaller]

[Floating Library]

The latch being there somewhat unusual for such a large and thick book. It's more of a old-fashioned tome really, so large that it would be difficult to easily carry around for a ordinary human.

However, as soon as the latch some interesting developments happen.
The book bursts open and serrated teeth appear along the spine. Then two appendages shoot out from out of the pages of the book and starts to clumsily grab a hold of the table the book sits upon.
They are made up of book pages that has been folded like origami so many times that there seem to be actual substance to them, especially the scythes at their ends with which gives a new meaning to the word "paper-cut".

The book then falls over onto the table and the eye in the middle of its cover animates and seems to focus on Eddie. The fangs it now sprouts making it appear as if it was grinning.

Then it pushes itself up in the air with its scythes and from within the pages another mass of pages fall out which pushes the book up even further. It's like an elaborate pop-up book where the entire book is just one single page that's folding out before him.
Like orogami the pages within fold themselves into what seems to resemble a body. A thick abdomen that looks like it would belong to a human-sized ant is seated upon the counter connected to a smaller thorax and a pair of pointy connecting to a pair of pointy legs which resemble scythes almost as much as its "arms" does.

The whole process didn't take more than a moment yet despite the books alarming change in appearance it makes no aggressive moves. Instead it crosses its pointy legs the way a humanoid might and places its scythe like arms on its knees as it seems to lean over towards him.
"Don't worry, honey. I might be magical but I'm no pushover. I can handle some rough play if you know what I mean." The voice still seems to originate from within the book, from where the rest of its body has emerged. The cover with the single eye of its center coming to resemble the creatures face.

"So what subject are you looking for, darling? Since I should point out that all the books in here are in the process of being copied. Figure you couldn't have missed the sign."

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Fox Hunt - Remixed]

"Yes, they're shy with people. To see traces of one so close to a settlement is nothing short of a miracle. So it will run away as soon as it gets a whiff of us." Obriane explains as she glances in the direction they were walking. The direction of the wolverine.

"So the idea is get close enough to get a glimpse of it before it does that. If it's still around of course." The droppings were recent so it had to be.
She looks back, meeting May's eyes. "Don't feel like you need to prove anything to me though, May. I just figured it'd be cool to see. Something to tell Kitty when we get back home." Maybe Annie would find it impressive at least...

[Fox Hunt - Remixed]

"No, um - I mean, it's okay, I think it sounds fun to try." May forces a smile, trying to reassure Obriane. "And besides, like, Im sure being in my - uh, our fox form gives me a better sense of the environment anyways." Her senses are a bit sharper, and it certainly provides a different perspective on the forest around them.

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

The tiny shapes dash forward.

Thariza's shield seems to have been enough to discourage them as she finds only dust coming at her.

But Emily isn't so lucky.

Practically ignoring her sword they come for her legs.
Each one of the three attempting to stab their sides with unnaturally sharp needle-like weapons which they will just leave there as they continue past her.

What they attempted to stab her with is unclear as their movements kicked up so much dust that it's difficult to see anything that's shorter than 3 feet.

[Damundra Canyon]

Flames, it's like she's back in Ascalon, keeping Skritt off the munitions store again.

"Why you little...."

Unable to spot a solid target in the dust, she hits the ground with her mace instead, causing purple flames to erupt upwards. Hopefully they serve to at least scatter the small attackers.

[Damundra Canyon]

Emily is a bit of a monster as far as pain tolerance goes due to the training she's gone through for it, and the current stabs, while awful, aren't quite enough to make her topple. They still don't feel great, but her tail provides good balance even as her legs weaken. With so much dust clogging up her eyes and nose, she can't really see or scent the little monsters. But that doesn't mean she's helpless against them. Which is why she sucks in a deep breath, heedless of the dust... and then roars.

It's perhaps a failure of the English language to describe such as a roar, because that implies distant things, a low tone heard from somewhere half a mile away to let you know some great beast is stalking the forest or savannah. That's not what the little creatures experience.

From this close, the roar is as much a physical force as it is a sound. It makes the air in your lungs shift in ways that make it hard to breathe, makes the jelly in your eyeballs vibrate so hard you can't see, and could even stagger someone's balance if they have vulnerable inner ears. If they don't have some kind of defense against this, the little creatures will be prevented from acting by the nature of their bodies just not working right when exposed to so much raw sound, bouncing about the canyon.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fox Hunt - Remixed]

Right, our.

May certainly was unique even for a kitsune and Obriane hadn't been able but to wondered if Kitty also had a second person living inside of her somehow.

...

And then she recalled that it seemed to be a family trait and just wanted to forget even considering it.
Back to the question she was going to ask.
"Right, so is, uh, Scarlet also okay with this plan? Just making sure so everyone is onboard." Obriane was usually a pretty cautious person.

[Damundra Canyon]

Once Emily's roars start fading what seems to be utter silence follows.
Or perhaps that's since most people that heard it can't hear much of anything right now. If that includes poor Thariza is up to her player but there doesn't seem to be any further attacks.
Yet as the dust start to settle their attackers can't be seen. Where could they have gone? It seems unlikely they managed to run away after that roar.

Of course, that doesn't mean their problems are over. Since those stings Emily took to the legs? Turns out they were dipped in some kind of powerful venom. Emily might not yet feel the effect yet but depending how her body is able to resist such things it might get worse over time.

[quillpleasant]

Run Rabbit Run

"Uh..." Harley holds up his hands in a reassuring gesture, "I'm not asking for anything. Totally voluntary. You just seem like you could use someone to talk to and stuff, that's all." Despite the fact that holding a conversation with someone who spouts nonsense half the time is tricky at best.

Raheeda's comment makes him turn to her, then glance between them, a little confused. "What? Oh no, I don't have any god friends. They uh, they all hate my guts, ha. No, I don't think you're a god, are you?"

He turns back to the person-that-isn't, stroking his chin. "And what do you mean, a tension? Like, you need conflict to feed or something? Sorry, I'm, uh, a little slow sometimes." Who knows? Spirits can have some pretty weird diets.

[Ironsmith]

[Run Rabbit Run]

Strictly speaking, the words from the un-person aren't quite audible to Raheeda; there's nobody talking, after all. But she'll still "hear" what's being said, in the sense that she'll get the impression somebody said it, despite there being nobody who could have but Harley (and it clearly wasn't him).

"I don't think so. If I did and I was I would be." The branches overhead give a little shudder as a limb is pulled from it, leaves flaking down idly. "But we are a trinity. One plus one plus one, less one, to lessen by lesson."

A twig snaps overhead, and is promptly dropped between Harley and Raheeda.

"If ever again the trinity is whole, they will need me, their hole. If they are raveled, I am raveled."

Something like snake lands on Raheeda's shoulder, coiling around it. Well, it feels like a snake, at any rate. It doesn't really look like one, and if she moves to examine it, it'll slip off her shoulder and disappear without a trace, leaving no sign it had even gone into the bushes.

"I will not be silenced!" The voice snaps, again with that tooth-shattering force. "Not again! Never again! Do you hear me?! That is my home, I will not be made prisoner within it!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Run Rabbit Run]

"So who's your invisible friend then?" Raheeda gestures to the spot where Harley attention keeps returning to. Whatever it was seemed to move around since Harley was looking all over the place.
Then something feels like it lands on her.

"Ehh?"

Yet again, nothing is there as she looks.

There was way too much nothing going on here right now.

That's when she understands and she lets out a gasp.

"I think your friend is a ghost, Harley. It's haunting me right now!"

[TeChameleon]

[Floating Library]

Eddie didn't even blink when the book unfolded. Being the nigh-invulnerable and strong enough to casually juggle tanks allowed one to take a remarkably relaxed view regarding personal safety.

If she(?) didn't make any aggressive moves, he wasn't going to either.

The flirtatious banter didn't even penetrate far enough to get a blank stare. It had already wandered into territory that the little golem had long ago filed under 'permanently incomprehensible', and thus no response was offered, in the vague hope that the baffling nonsense would stop and the conversation would return to topics that made at least a slight modicum of sense.

"I honestly didn't have anything specific in mind when I came here- I'm a pretty omnivorous reader. But specific topics that I would find intriguing at this point in time would be the nature of this 'Nexus'- its physical laws, its history, that sort of thing."

[Shadowcaller]

[Floating Library]

"Nexus? I'm unfamiliar with it I'm afraid, darling." The book replies with a shake of what could be considered its head. "But if it's a location you're probably looking for geography. Though I know for sure we don't have any books on 'the nexus' in the copy room right now. At least not by title."

It gets up from the counter and raises to what would be considered an impressive height even by much taller peoples standards. Its long slender legs bending slight as they touch down on the floor. Making them appear similar in shape to prosthetic running legs as the book-creature move past Eddie and turns its attention to the books next to him.

"May I interest you in a book about conjuring instead? We got a pretty spicy title in right now. An original from Elshar. Not even translated yet." Its scythe-like arms moves gently over the backs of the books on the shelf until it stops at one particular. "Otherwise- well, you might need to give me more details on the 'nexus'."