Search for Answers

Ryan checked his phone. It was 4 in the afternoon as he entered Sac State Library. He tugged at bookbag around his shoulder, the books that have consumed his attention for the past few months were killing his arm. The textbooks in there didn't help much either. I hope that theres a free computer terminal. He thought as he looked around for a free computer.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ryan found a computer. He sat down and took off his bookbag. His shoulder was throbbing a little. He opened up the internet, opened a few tabs and went to google on all of them. Ryan hoped that there was someone in Sacramento that could help him figer out what the hell was going on.

He quickly typed up a few words that came to mind, mostly limiting it to bookstores, places with weird markings, and anything else unusual, limited it to the local area, placed different search criteria into each page and clicked search on each one. "C'mon. Give me something to work with." He muttered to himself quietly as his fingers drummed impatiently against the table.

Henry walked into the library, almost casually. He had orders, and they came from on high. Something had attacked this place, something that has to be stopped.

First order of business was to figure out how much the Sleepers had seen. Henry tried to get a look at what everyone was reading as he walked among the tables. Anything on esoteric subjects was a danger.

He then went, slowly, to the computers area, pondering that people today just don’t use books like they used to. He tries to pose as library staff and walks slowly through, taking a not-so-inconspicuous look at each screen with a stern look on his face. Maintaining cover demands that he reprimand those looking at porn, even though taht’s not the real object of his search.

Ryan shook his head. There was alot of information on the internet, problem was there was sometimes too much. the lists complied already were making his head hurt from just thinking about looking through them. He reached down and grabbed his book bag
He took a deep breath and fished through it. He the pulled out one of those dammed books that had been consumeing his attention for months.
He took a few glances left and right and started trying to make sense of the texts for what felt like the 100th time already. I'll figer it all out eventually...

It takes Henry a few moments to spot the content of Ryan's studies. Once he does, however, he gets close to the man. Sneaking would be too rash a term. Sidling would be more appropriate. He crouches down next to Ryan, with an easy view of the computer screen as well, and asks in a quiet, library-ish voice. "Do you need help with anything, young man?"

Ryan nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard that voice. He snapped the book shut and slipped it back into his bookbag. "Uh, no. I'm doing great, thanks." He said with a nervious smile.

Ollie scans the library, looking for the green bookbag. Spotting it he walks over and takes a seat at the computer station next to Ryan's. He chills for a minute, watching him out of the corner of his eye. Finally, he looks over "Hey, man, the name's Ollie. Have we met before? You look familiar. Uhhh, that class on lost Atlantis, right? You remember?"

Henry makes a small soothing motion. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. No need to be so nervous." He chooses a name at random from the few on the list he saw. "'wearenotalone.org' doesn't sound like anything harmful. It's just really not something the average student looks at. Why would you spend your time poring through that kind of material?"

He gives at glance up at Ollie's approach, followed by a more intent look once the course subject's been mentionned.

(( Ollie's Active spells trigger Henry's Unseen Senses ))

(( Resume posting ))

"I;m just curious about it, thats all." Ryan said before looking over at the guy sitting at the other terminal. "I don't think we have, but it might have been mentioned once though about humanities idea of utopia."

Ollie nods, and figures he may as well not pull any punches.

"Yeah. Humanities. That must have been it. Hey man, I've been trying to make sense of something."

He places the note that he'd found in the gunman's pocket on desk of Ryan's station.

"Mean anything to you."

He looks over his shoulder, catching Henry's eye.

(( The notepad page has Ryan's name and Sac U written on it. ))

Ryan read the note, starting to feel unconfortable. "Other than tell me who I am and where I am, not much...Did someone send you or something?" He asked, starting to feel unconfortable with the situation.

Ollie seems to think for a second, before nodding.

"Yeah, man. You can kinda say that. Hey, bro, I gotta go look for a book in the rows. Wanna come gimme a hand over here and we'll talk about this note?"

He jerks his head in the direction of a stand of bookshelves.

Ryan gave the older man a nervious look before clicking out of the internet on the computer. "I guess I can help. What are you looking for?"

Ollie stands with Ryan, and begins strolling off with him towards the bookshelves.

"I'm not sure what the title was, but the author was a William Worker, ya know? Will Worker?"

They reach a point where they're deep between the shelves. He turns.

"You get me?"

Ryan just gave Ollie a weird look. "Will Worker? I don't think I know any authors by that name." He looked around nerviously. "Look, can you just tell what the hell is going on? Its not everyday some guy shows up with a slip of paper with only my name on it and asks about it."

"Alright, man. Just stay chill, yeah? You gotta trust me when I say that I'm here to help."

He takes a deep breath.

"Fact is I found that slip of paper in the pocket of a dead man. This same dead man tried to kill me and some friends of mine."

Ollie goes on to tell of how they'd been shot at in the park, and he tells him of the dead body on the roof. He doesn't mention, at first, the missing hands. He also, of course, omits anything regarding magic. He'd never really realized how frustrating talking to sleepers could be.

After the story's over Ollie stands there, watching Ryan's face. Hoping and praying that the guy doesn't take off.

Ryan just stood there, stareing blaknly at him. "So...Your telling me that there was a psyco with a rifle that was trying to kill you and a bunch of your friends and that I was apparently on his hitlist." RHis face then started looking frightened as soon as something in his brain clicked. "Dammit. It could be about those books I got. I knew they were important."

(( ok guys time to wait for paranoid to catch up ))

((Yowsa, lemme see if I can catch up in a single post. Sorry for holding you guys back, I hate conflicting schedules :S. "WIlliam Worker", heh; I like that one. ))

Henry listens to the two talk withat what can only be described as growing horror. Gadnabit, what's next? Summoning demons with runes painted all over them? Summoning a neon sign describing the Orders?

Henry follows the two, and interjects, trying to sound like the voice of reason. "No books are important enough to kill over. I'm sure it was just a random shooting, you see it all the time. RIght?" That last has a certain serious tone to it, and is aimed straight at Ollie.

((PM sent to West to complement this post. He should be able to respond before you two, but well, better safe than sorry))

~~Narration~~

As Henry speaks, he uncloaks his Nimbus* to give meaning to his words. Ollie notices that it has a slightly larger area of effect than his own.

(( * Need a Nimbus description, PA thx | resume posting all ))

((All right, let's see what I can come up with. By the way, was able to get home sooner today, so will be able to post more often than yesterday))

(Nimbus description)
A fire seems to light up behind Henry, and backlights several figures that quite simply weren't there before. The features of each are clear, but seem to be in constant flux. All of them seem to be standing in the exact same spot, but send their shadow in a different direction from each of the others. A variety of odors comes with the shadows, from womens' perfumes to workmens' sweat.

Ollie stops talking and stares at Henry. When he uncloaks his nimbus Ollie's eyes widen with the recognition of another mage. He doesn't change his tune, though.

"Happens all the time? To you, maybe. I don't know why you're here, bro, but you might as well help me now that you are. As to those books, I could give a shit, I'm here for the primary reason of keeping more people, like Ryan here, from gettin shot."

He snickers derisively. What was this guy trying to hide? It's not like he'd straight told the kid that he was a mage, and that magic existed. If Henry knew how close he'd come to that course of action then maybe he'd be a bit more alarmed.

"Besides, the note had Ryan's name on it, with the name of this college. Now how do you call that random?"

Henry shrugs, and without missing a beat, answers. "Guy needed tutoring before he snapped, got his name for reference. Job opening, surprise limo service, take your pick."

Ollie throws his hands up "Right, yeah, well.. I've been honest about why I'm here, what about you? Who're you? A library aide? A college professor?"

Ollie smirks, waiting to hear the line of bull he'd no doubt feed him in front of the sleeper.

((Last post before I give Darksider a chance to respond))

Ryan smirks right back. "I volunteer, a few days a year. Sometimes, their staff is just overwhelemed with last minutes researches." Bull it may be, but hell it works.

((Different timezones are confusing as hell sometimes))

Ryan stood there watching the two. There was alot they were not saying and it was bugging the hell out of him. "I actually show up in the library most of the time and I'v never seen you around, even when the staff were having trouble keeping track of everything."

Ollie's smirk thins.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Ollie sighs, looking down, thinking. This was getting them nowhere. As is he was arguing uselessly with some random willworker, probably an order mage he figures, all while confusing the hell out of Ryan. He looks up, looking Henry in the face.

"Listen, bro. You wanna go somewhere, you and me, and talk about this? We don't seem to be really communicating here, ya know?"

((I second that, DS42. I gotta turn in myself, and won't be back 'til tomorrow evenin'. I'll excuse myself ICly as well, since the opportunity is there , and let you guys rocket on ahead))

"Just our luck we never saw each other, then, I know those back rows like the back of my hand." Henry looks over his shoulder, towards the counter. "Speaking of which, that reference material is piling up." He shoots one last look at Ryan, and adds non-committaly "Stay out of trouble now." He doesn't say anything to Ollie, since they'll be seeing each other soon. He turns, and heads to the coutner to pick up a few volumes with similar numbers. Hey, even when the gig is up, the gig isn't up.

Ollie watches Henry go. After he's gone he turns to Ryan. He jerks a thumb in the direction that Henry went, grinning comfortably.

"Don't worry about that guy, I'll take care of him. Why don't you tell me more about those books, it sounds like they may be important, ya know? Is this the first time anyone's approached you like this?"

Ryan felt a little more confortable now the old man was gone. But he still wasn't too sure about Ollie. "I'm not sure if I should. Promise me you won't take them or do anything that might freak me out?" He said, making sure his voice didn't sound weak in any way. He hated sounding weak.

Ollie gets extremely serious now.

"My word's all I got, bro, and you've got my word."

He puts a hand on Ryan's shoulder, smiling again.

"I'm all about people, bro. That's why I'm doin this. I'm just lookin to find out if someone's out to hurt you for these things, and if they are then we'll be in this together, right? Enemy of my enemy and all that, right?"

Ryan looks at Ollie for a moment before nodding. "Ok man. I'll show you. He reached into his book bag and pulled out two leatherbound books. There were paperclips between some of the pages. He handed them to Ollie. "I got them delivered to me a few months ago. Been trying to figer out what the hell they are."

Ollie takes the books, feeling the soft leather they're bound in.

"Had them delivered? From who? Does eBay do creepy old books?"

He tucks one under his arm, opening the other book to the first clipped page.

Ryan shook his head. "It was FedExed to me. It didn't have a return address. All it came with was the books as you see them and this letter." He said as he began rummaging through his things until he pulled out a small envelope. It had a small picture of a leather bound book and a small keyhole in the middle printed on it. "It was all inside the package."

~~Narration~~

Ollie sees mathematical formulae and strange symbols -- symbols that seem to resonate as, perhaps, hieroglyphic representations of the Atlantean words he's recently learned.

"None of this makes an ounce of sense to me. I have no idea what to make of this."

Not exactly true, but it's not like he could easily explain it to the sleeper. He closes the book, and hands them both back to Ryan. He looks, then, to the envelope that Ryan said had been sent with the book. He opens the envelope and removes the note, unfolding and looking at it.

~~Narration~~

The note simply says, "I told you I would explain it - H"

Ollie returns the note to the envelope and hands it back to him.

"I can't tell anything else about these, myself. Let's exchange phone numbers. I'm gonna see if I can find any more information on my end about this stuff. You should lay low, man. These books are serious stuff, I can tell you that much. Keep em secret. I wouldn't let em out of your sight. We'll meet up again soon. If you see any more weird cats like Mr. Librarian give me a call. The name's Ollie, remember? I'll talk to you soon."

Ollie leaves, rather abruptly. He exits the library. Emerging outside and stopping to look around.

Ryan nodded and watched Ollie walk off. He quietly put his things back into his bag with a small grin. Looks like I might be getting somewhere with this... He thought before making his way out of the library.