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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 17:44:39 GMT -5
"I was afraid for a while that your sister would start messing with us, but she's already got enough to deal with, I think." Ariana smiled ironically. "I hope you get on better with your folks than I did."
Cyrus watched as Jonathan prowled off towards the center desk. "Don't think you'll find any rubber duckies here."
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Post by elizar on Mar 2, 2009 17:52:54 GMT -5
"I so to speak grew up when fifteen, then went to carverse for breed evaluation and never really returned home after that. My relationship with my parents and siblings is strained to say the least." Gideon said. "How is it with yours?"
Jonathan had half the mind to remind him of the 'toy' he had found, but figured that getting reminded of a ducky was better than getting reminded of a dildo. He got to the librarian side of the desk and opened few drawers. This was how he was when he was locked onto something. After a moment, he found it.
It was a notebook with some jailbait anime character on the cover.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 20:12:44 GMT -5
Cyrus chuckled when he saw the notebook. "Was somebody here a secret anime freak? Maybe we'll find some hentai in the stacks. Who knows?"
"Hentai my arse." Rihanna growled as she kept working away at the locked door to the stacks. "I think I have one more number to go here." She was entering numbers into a combination lock and making notes. "We're lucky this is still functional at all."
Ariana scowled slightly. "My folks divorced early. My paternal grandmother was bugf*ck crazy and Dad never stood up to her. Mom left with us, but she had quite a few issues of her own to sort out after that. I haven't seen her since my eighteenth birthday."
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Post by elizar on Mar 2, 2009 20:18:16 GMT -5
"I think this isn't part of the usual books." Jonathan said as he opened the notebook. "These are some extensive notes about American history. Could have been a college student notebook." He skipped to the last written pages. "The last entries are diary entries, written after the Yellowstone."
Gideon caught his breath. Her situation was much worse than his was. At least he knew that he had a home to go to if things went south. He edged forward and stretched out to her, giving her a light tap on the muzzle with his own. Sometimes, it was better not to speak at all.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 20:27:17 GMT -5
Cyrus peeked over Jonathan's shoulder. "That poor kid." The handwriting seemed to lose clarity and order as it neared the end. "Anything else there?"
Ariana blinked, but gathered enough wherewithall to smile. "Thanks. I know I'm better off away from the mess but it hasn't been easy to be alone either."
Another set of rotor blades dopplered in. Two sets, in fact. Arataki was back.
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Post by elizar on Mar 2, 2009 20:37:43 GMT -5
Jonathan found an entry and read out loud:
"You haven't found a regular crew to join yet?" Gideon asked. He then looked up as Arataki was landing. He didn't really bother with waving a blade to her.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 20:55:31 GMT -5
"I've been with this firm about three months now." Ariana explained. "That's about the longest stretch that I've stayed at any outfit here. Before that, it was this odd job and that. I hope this works out, I'd kind of like to put down some roots now."
Arataki touched down on the LZ some six hundred yards away, and started to wend her way over.
Cyrus grimaced, and turned aside. Having seen the remains, it still got a bit too personal when one witnessed their end in their own handwriting. "They were a few among millions, but it was still a nasty way to go."
Rihanna let out an "Ah-ha!" as she got the last number of the combination. "Door's still a bit creaky." She took up a crowbar and applied her weight to it. She was not a "petite" woman by any means, standing about 5'11" and weighing about 160 lbs, most of it muscle. She looked back to Jonathan and Cyrus. "Looks like a lot of stuff in there." There was a slight musty smell, but the interior was still dry and clean after having been sealed off completely for several decades.
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Post by elizar on Mar 2, 2009 21:02:13 GMT -5
"A book like this would fetch fortune in the black collectors' market." Jonathan said. "There aren't that many entries to make a decent sized book, but it is still interesting, from an academic point of view."
He then followed Rihanna inside the stacks. "Still fresh." He said as he looked around. He put the notebook at a clear table nearby before inspecting some of the other titles. "We certainly hit the jackpot here."
Gideon moved slightly to allow Ariana to move for Arataki. "I've been in the same outfit for two years now." He said. "But I've always been in the white team." He said in reference to not being one of those who raided values and put on black market or held hostage in some way.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 21:16:02 GMT -5
Ariana nodded. "I hope to make a go of it here, but I want it to be by honest work." There seemed to be some sort of implication that maybe other members of her family hadn't been so good and she would be quite happy to forget about them. "Thank you." she said to the crew as they went over her with blow dryers. "If I hit anything big, I'll remember you guys."
Arataki, as she approached, paused and listened. She was surprised that the two hadn't already taken off for a bit of nookie. Was Gideon slowing down in his old age?
"They built the stack rooms good." Rihanna nodded. With reference to the book, she said. "Stuff like that is almost like porn to some people, like slowing down and gawking at the scene of an accident, except this was a big one. I'd rather see it go to an archive or university collection than some sick-puppy collector."
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Post by elizar on Mar 2, 2009 21:31:50 GMT -5
"Please do." Gideon smirked. "For those working white, this is a job for the experience, because the money's non-existent in the job." He saw Arataki paying unusual attention to him and Ariana.
"Mind telling me how I have confounded you so?" He asked with a mock-curious tone.
"I'll bring the carrybox over here." Jonathan said. He took a passing glance at the notebook. So far, he had kept all of the objects he had found with this strange sense of his. Well, the dildo was pretty much on constant loan for Cyrus' new theatrical plays. But this could be the first time he had to give the object up. And that didn't really fancy him.
"You can go find some of the more interesting titles that we've been asked to retrieve, and those who strike you as interesting." Jonathan said before he finally went out. There were few books that they had been instructed not to bring back at this time, as how they handled books like those was still unknown, and no one wanted them to accidentally ruin them due to ignorance.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 2, 2009 21:46:16 GMT -5
"I think everyone can wait on the Congressional Records for now." Rihanna rolled her eyes. "Bullsh*t still smells the same after forty-five years." She looked over the title list that had been provided. She put out a mylar bag for the notebook. "Seeing as that might have belonged to one of the identifiable dead, it's got to go into personal effects."
Cyrus took a look inside the stacks. "They covered everything with mylar and sealed it up, looks like." He ventured further inside.
"I'm shocked that you're both still here." Arataki admitted frankly. "You, actually conversing with a girl beyond your usual pick-up lines?"
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Post by elizar on Mar 3, 2009 2:19:18 GMT -5
"We're both on-call in a hot zone that's the holy grail of relic hunters and wildcatters." Gideon said sharply. "I do not intend for my team to get killed."
Jonathan came in dragging the carrybox with him. He saw the pile of books Rihanna and Cyrus had gathered in his absense, and he took it on himself to pile them in the box. "So, what do you have?" He said, not having read on all of the bags, and he couldn't see the contents through the mylar bags.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 3, 2009 18:06:15 GMT -5
"Ditto here." Ariana added. "We're supposed to go back for them pretty soon."
Arataki allowed a trace of an ironic smile to surface. "Getting slow in your old age, bro."
"Everything that was on the list that we could find." Rihanna answered. "I'll leave markers for the team that does the full survey on anything else that might be of interest."
"I found some correspondence and journals from the Revolutionary War." Cyrus said. "Lots of that stuff here."
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Post by elizar on Mar 3, 2009 18:23:47 GMT -5
Jonathan was careful about putting the books in the box. He tended to them as if he was handling fragile vases.
"In this room is stuff that is worth some serious cash in the black market. And what is that stuff?" Jonathan asked no one in particular, but he had his own reply. "History books."
"I almost lost my team a month ago. I don't know if you've heard that particular story." Gideon said. "The only way for me to get them back was what I am known for." Gideon had his pride for his qualities, even though they were far from redeeming. He didn't know how Ariana would take the story, so he dragged it slightly.
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Post by Evangeline on Mar 3, 2009 19:11:50 GMT -5
Ariana snorted in amusement, doing the math.
"I heard." Arataki sighed in a resigned fashion. "If she gets a nice little surprise ten months from now, she'll remember you for sure."
"Even some comic books here, supposedly." Cyrus checked his tablet computer, going through the inventory that had been issued them. Old comic books were almost like currency in some places where there wasn't any other entertainment.
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