[open] nobody knows it but me when i slip

[scowlish]

Who: Onni Hotakainen; Ben Hargreeves, open to anyone else who might be in the Library
What: Onni has a bit of a personal problem and turns to the Library for help.
When: mid-September
Where: Library
Format: Whatever you like. I started in brackets, but I do love prose.
Notes: He'll be running into Ben on the first day but the research will take longer than that and I'd love some additional threads. For the non-canon-familiar: 'luonto' is a word for the spirit/life force of a Finnish person, 'runo' is a Finnish magic spell.



[Probably, he should have told Reynir by now, but Onni isn't exactly the type of person to share his vulnerabilities, even with people he likes. So when he'd discovered that he can still see and hear spirits, that he's still aware of and capable of using the power of his luonto and still goes to his haven in the dream space, but isn't capable of using runo anymore, he hadn't mentioned it. Gone on as if things were normal, even though he feels almost completely vulnerable and exposed in this strange place without any familiar method of self-protection.

It takes quite some time to talk himself into trying things another way - the Finnish gods aren't within his reach, he is too far from home, but if there are spirits here, there must be something else here he can call upon. It galls him, enough that he's felt prickly for a week straight, the thought of reaching out to foreign gods for protection, the thought of what that might do to his relationship with his own when he goes home. But the truth is, he can't be without his mage powers, for his own safety, for Reynir's, or for any of the other people here.

So it's just a matter of finding out what there might be here to call upon. Starting from scratch on his training. A huge pain, but not impossible.]

❄ For Ben

[Eventually, he settles on the Library as the best place to look for that kind of information, if such information exists. He feels on edge as he walks inside - it's not much bigger than most libraries he's attended, besides the big one in Mora, which is a little disappointing. Of course, he doesn't register that the computer banks are part of the library or really what they are at all. Computers are something he knows about in a passing sort of way, but he doesn't recognize them in this form. What he sees are books, lined up on shelves, some in his own language, others in languages he doesn't know or recognize.

Running his fingers over the spines, he tilts his head, glances up as a man comes out from behind the other end of the shelf - his dark hair is cropped short, and his dark eyes look calm enough, even if there's a strange aura about him, as if his spirit is far too big for the size of his body. Onni tilts his head, looking at him from under his fur hood, mouth set in a straight line.]

Do you know much about the books here?

❄ Open

[Of course, it takes much more than one day to do the type of research he needs to do in a place like this, so he comes back for a while every day, in the afternoon while Reynir is working on the garden in the upper levels and doesn't need his help. Cross-legged on the floor of the Library, still wearing his fur hooded cloak, he leans over to peer at the papers and books on the floor in front of him.

When people enter, he generally doesn't pay them much mind, at least until they get close enough that Onni can ask for help with his research. Whether it's a blunt 'can you read this?' or asking if they'll hand him a text, he isn't above requesting someone's input.]

❄

OOC Note: If your character wouldn't approach him directly, feel free to just put them nearby and I'll have him ask them something. If you want to wildcard, go for it! If you want to plot first, hit me up on discord at coffee #6251, in game chat, on plurk at caffemisto, or by PM to this journal.

Comments

[writtendestiny]

What? Oh--

[She's slightly taken aback with the person on the floor abruptly asks her to hand him a book that's only just out of his reach. On some days she'd be indignant about it, as if the brief pause to answer the request might inconvenience her somehow, but her curiosity gets the better of her when she reads the title while she's handing it over.]

Here.

[Poison comes to the library because it's comfortable and familiar, and she gets the feeling that's why a lot of people come here. She peers curiously at the papers spread out on the floor.] What are you working on?

[scowlish]

[The floor is really the only space in the library that's big enough to do the type of research he needs - there are comparisons between texts, the process of picking out which are describing things native to this place, Anchor, and texts brought from other worlds; of trying to work out the rhythm of the songs and poetry he might use to call on whatever spirits he can find the origins of.

It's tedious work, and if his voice sounds slightly annoyed when he asks a girl to hand him a book he can't quite reach, it's mostly from exhaustion and the headache blooming behind his eyes from trying to decipher texts for half the day. When she responds in that slightly startled way but still hands him the book he'd asked for - the tone reminds him of his manners, though, at least, and he sighs, rubbing at his eye.]

Thank you. I'm sorry for being demanding, it's been a long day.

[Accepting the book, he turns it over in his hands for a moment. 'Anchor's Poetic Anthology' - he's looked through it before, but he keeps coming back to it after dismissing it, since it seems to be one of the few runo references that originated in the city, written by residents. It's no Kalevela, but if he's going to try to summon the spirits of this place, then he'll need to learn the rhythms of this place.]

I'm trying to learn about the religion and poetry of this place. Frustrating...there's plenty from other worlds, but not much that originated here.

[Though he glances up at her once or twice, his eyes are on the book she handed him, flipping through the pages. There's no real consistent metre between the poems, but there are some that are repeated more often than others.

Sighing, he rubs at his face, and looks up at her.]

I don't suppose you've run across anything like that?

[writtendestiny]

[Ah, well, at least he apologised. Her lips still press together slightly in annoyance at the sharpness with which she was asked for the book... but she's done a lot of growing up in the last few years, and she pushes back the urge to say something about it.

But he's talking about something that she's curious about, too, and she finds a clear spot to sit down on the floor and look over his notes and his chosen books without touching them, holding her hands together in her lap.]

No. But it was the same in the place I was before this one, and the one before that. As if whoever started it all doesn't want anyone to find out how it began.

[The Box had had little information to be found at all, until the Techs had started being booted out into the populace for not wanting to go along with the plans. Hadriel had come with its own challenges - all the books save for the most benign and useless were written in utter nonsense.]

The computers might have more, but half of them barely work.

[scowlish]

[When the girl sits down on the floor nearby and peers at the papers he's looking at, her hands folded in her lap and not touching, he gestures at them, glancing up at her and catching her eyes.]

Pick them up and look, if you like. If you have any thoughts about any of it, I'd like to hear them.

[That much is genuine, and when she explains that it was the same in the place she was before this place, and before that, he blinks.]

You were in other places like this?

[Leaning in, curious, he closes the poetry book with his finger inside it to mark his place, eyes on her face.]

So you think we were drawn here purposefully instead of by accident like they said?

[writtendestiny]

[She picks up one of the papers when he offers, looking over it and pressing her lips together while she concentrates on reading.

But then, the questions, and she looks up to Onni and meets his eyes steadily.]

I didn't say that. [Poison replies, putting down the paper and clasping her hands together instead.]

I've been in two other places before this. They've all been different, but I don't know why I keep getting taken to other worlds instead of going home. [She looks around, frowning slightly.]

But every place has had a... muddied past. Like the story's been erased. I don't know if it's deliberate or not.

[scowlish]

[When she protests that she didn't say that she thinks they were brought here on purpose, Onni raises a brow. Well, that's what it had sounded like, though her response makes more sense when she explains that she's been in two other places like this instead of going home, and that they'd all had a muddied past and a story that's been erased.

Nodding, he makes a soft 'mm' of acknowledgement, shifting some of the papers around on the floor, as if he's trying to put together a puzzle, and each paper is a puzzle piece that isn't quite in the right spot.]

I suppose if someone was dropped into my world, there wouldn't be much information about where it had come from either, or what had happened to it. Not without a lot of looking. It makes sense.

[Glancing back up at her, he tilts his head.]

Something like this seems too complex to be by accident. You said there are computers here? I didn't recognize them.

[writtendestiny]

Mm, they're everywhere, but some of them don't work very well.

[She isn't looking at him as he speaks, more focused on the books and papers on the floor. It's like trying to work out a puzzle when all the pieces are turned upside down and you're not allowed to look at them anyway.

Frustrating, but she's never been shy about throwing herself headlong into far more dangerous intrigue than this.]

A lot of the sensors are broken, and I'd expect the circuitry has degraded while Anchor has been empty.

[And now it's down to them to fix it all... but she notes something that she's mentioned to someone before.]

It all looks like it's set up so anyone can understand it, with a bit of work.

[scowlish]

[When the girl says that computers are everywhere, but some of them don't work well, Onni shifts and looks around, as if he could identify them now that she's said it when he couldn't before. But the truth is, the only type of computer he knows of is the type that's like a box with a screen and a set of keys in front, and nothing here looks like that.

So he turns his attention back to the books and papers spread out on the floor, glancing up at the girl as she continues to explain about the computers.]

Sensors?

[A pause, and he exhales heavily.]

Set up so even someone without experience in computers could understand?

[writtendestiny]

It looks that way. I can understand them easily.

[Her own experience of 'computers' comes mostly from her time spend with the Cybertronians, which lends itself more to the understanding of robotics over computers themselves. It helps, but she's never going to be as good at it as Peter is.]

I can show you, if you like.

[The computers, the sensors... anything he needs to know. She's no expert, but she's been able to familiarise herself with most of it.]

[scowlish]

[When she says she can understand them easily, Onni's brows raise a bit and he makes a 'hm' sound in his throat, glancing around again as if he could see the computers now, even though he hadn't recognized them a few minutes ago.]

That would be helpful. I haven't had a chance to work with computers before. We don't have them on my world and I haven't experimented with them here yet. I'd like to, though.

[He pauses, just for a moment, then speaks quietly.]

May I ask what a sensor is?

[writtendestiny]

[Sometimes she forgets how much she's learned. Poison came from a world much like Onni's, where the same questions would have been asked.]

Sensors are... they're things that let the computers feel, see, and hear. Like our own senses. There are ones outside that gather information about the weather, the temperature, even the red shifts.

[She hopes that makes more sense.]

If something's wrong, the sensors will pick it up, and tell the computers... and the computers will hopefully tell us.

[scowlish]

[It does make sense. Thankfully, Onni has always been a quick study, and the way she's putting it makes it sound logical enough that he follows it. Nodding a bit, he leans in, curious.]

So the sensors outside tell the computers inside what's going on...hm.

[Glancing around again, he considers the library they're in, sees where the computers might be.]

It's a shame the computers have most of the information here, since they're not working.

[writtendestiny]

Mm... if the visual sensors don't work, it's like Anchor is blind. [She thinks he gets it, and a concern of hers has been the things she's already seen outside of this place and knowing they can never be sure if something got in.]

If everything worked like it should, we might stop getting things like hallucinogenic fungus outbreaks.

[No small amount of wryness in her voice as she says that.]

I'm sceptical, but I don't think Anchor was made to harm people.

[scowlish]

[Nodding, he purses his lips and looks around at the computers again.]

That's true. Those were very annoying.

[It's said in a very matter-of-fact and almost dry way, but he remembers that fungus outbreak and how awful it was, how Lalli had hallucinated and how badly it had scared both of them.]

Mm. It seems to have been built as a protective fortress. I lived somewhere built for that reason at home, and there's some similarities. Ours seemed to work better.

[A pause, and then he tilts his head, curious.]

What are you skeptical of?

[writtendestiny]

[A fortress. Yes... but one that doesn't seem to be wholly capable of keeping everything out.]

Of whether or not Anchor means harm to the people in it.

[When she says it like that, it sounds so sinister. She hesitates, then decides to elaborate further.]

The places I was before, we were always there for a reason. Always being used for something. I don't think Anchor is different, I just haven't figured out what it wants from us yet.