peckenpaugh | ELFLOCK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK SALE

elflock public library book sale

what's up? Elflock Falls’s Public Library gets a lot of book donations every year. Residents move, estates give away remaining possessions and some people just buy books and donate them, so the library is never short on tomes. Other things, though? Yes. Frequently. To close the gap a little, every year Elflock Falls Public Library opens up the basement and has itself a sale to clear space and raise money for the library’s many other features ⁠— adult and child literacy programs, night classes, occupational assistance, translation services, the list goes on. Here, you can get some truly interesting texts for rock bottom prices. Even if you’re not the reading type, you never know what weird junk you’ll find sorting through boxes and boxes of books. Not to mention it’s kind of cool snooping through an almost two-hundred-year-old library basement.

It's cloudy and cool but otherwise lovely today. Late fall hangs heavily in the air, the crisp smell of autumn leaves carried on chilly breezes. In all but the most heavily shaded spots, the snow's gone. There's a food stand in the plaza outside serving up a variety of home-cooked fare including the controversial-even-in-West-Virginia West Virginia style hot dog. No food in the 'brary, please!

visuals!

volunteer slots! Tybalt and Uriah know what they're about. They head straight up into the encyclopedia section and find a nice secluded spot to make out. Unfortunately, the library itself has other plans and the shelves keep moving to expose them to passersby.

Trudy gets lost in the labyrinthine second floor well into the evening and needs to be rescued by Head Librarian Santos.

You're supposed to be quiet! This is a library! [CHARACTER D] gets shushed, but it's not them making all that noise. A high pitched cry of "TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSST!!!" echoes through the library as a magically propelled shoe rockets right by [CHARACTER D]'s feet and disappears between the stacks. How did THAT get in here?

how this works! 📚Fill out this form and post it to the BOOK BUYING header below:

📚 What are the sections?

REFERENCE: Academic textbooks, encyclopedias, cook books, language books
FICTION: does what it says on the tin. Prose. Short stories and novels. This is a VERY broad section so if you’re looking for something specific in ANY way you should make note in the “SOMETHING SPECIFIC” part of the form.
NON-FICTION: essays, biographies, histories.
CHILDREN’S: children’s books.
ODDITIES: particularly strange books, magical books, etc.

📚 We will give you between one and four books. Please reply stating if you decided to buy any.

📚 The database of books being RNGed is predominantly fun flavor — real titles have been mixed in with fake books. There are a small handful of pre-written items that could be useful in ongoing plots, but getting a plot relevant or metaplot item is not the goal and is not guaranteed.

📚 Feel free to be as specific as you want with what you're looking for. We may give you exactly what you need. ;)

📚 Other things being sold at the library sale include: vinyl records, a bit of visual media (VHS tapes, DVDs), old book carts and extra shelves

locations! 📚 BOOK BUYING: If you're browsing books, post your form here!

📚 IN THE LIBRARY: Elflock Falls’s public library is two very magical floors of books, books and more books. The interior is an eclectic hodgepodge of old and new, with some parts dating back nearly two-hundred years! While the entrance and circulation area are relatively modern, farther into the heart of the first floor, where the main librarian’s desk is, the floor is heavily worn stone. There are a few computers set up with internet access, a bright and colorful children's section, and twisting rows of books on both floors. The second floor is a bit more maze-like than the more open and welcoming first, which is illuminated by a sky light in the atrium. Being a magical library, everything here has a bit of personality: books might bite, shelves shift, the card catalog is desperate to be helpful, and the staircases sometimes shift while you're on them. It's warm in here. Everything smells of books and paper and dust.

📚 THE LIBRARY BASEMENT: Have you ever wanted to go shopping in a dungeon? If so, you're in luck. The library basement is a creepy network of narrow and dimly lit hallways and countless doors leading to a variety of equally eerie rooms: book binding, book processing, the rare books collection, the depository, storage, storage and more storage, and a few meeting rooms. Several storage rooms have been...sort of cleaned up for the book sale. Poke through shelves and poorly sorted boxes to hunt for weird goodies, or just disappear into one of the creepy old side rooms, never to be seen again!

📚 OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY: It's chilly, but pleasant enough in the sun. You can grab some local greasy spoon goodies at the temporary food stand that's been set up outside. There's space to sit both on the plaza and in the grass, and—Lord, there's some guy here spray painted silver pretending to be a living statue. Does he...realize this is less cool for wizards? He should've put on an Elmo costume or something.

📚 OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gideon lasts a full minute. It's very impressive.

So a full minute before he's on his knees and stacking the books into a neat pile. He'll pick them up later. But having them all in one place and ready to be picked up later is good enough for now. "Yeah, those can definitely get messy. But at least it's not also an extradition issue." People get super weird about extradition.

Then he hefts himself back to his feet, brushing off his knees and stepping into place in front of the newly opened book gap.

"Hi," he says. Again. Less questioning, but still probably too questioning for the situation. "So this is going well so far, I think."

Hawthorne blinks, looking relieved by the bookshelf vignette he gets of his classmate. Oh, it's Gideon. And not a library spirit. Excellent. "Hello," he replies, because that's polite. "I feel bad about the mess."

He says that, and yet, he pushes a few more books off the shelf. After the fact, he decides to add, "Sorry. Watch out." Which is very helpful. "I think the shelves only move if they want to, and I'm not sure what they want from me."

The books hit the ground and Gideon looks a little like he's having a heart attack. Or maybe he looks a little like somebody's mom is going to walk in on them and have a heart attack. "I could've -" he starts. Then stops. Then pulls a hand up to his mouth and very narrowly avoids sinking his teeth into his knuckle. "Okay. That's -" His fingers twitch. "Okay."

He doesn't, it might be noted, watch out. At all.

He does, however, tip his head at Hawthorne and the amount of space left between rows of books. "So are you planning on shimmying through a shelf?" If the expression on his face looks skeptical, it's because it is. "Because it's going to be real unfortunate if the shelf decides to go on a trip in the middle of that and it bisects you."

Hawthorne's eyes follow all of Gideon's movements, head bobbling up and down, affirming every partial-to-full sentence he gets out. "Yes I—" At that last bit he cringes, then wrinkles his nose and backs away from the shelf. Like it might bite him. "Oh."

This does seem like the exact sort of set up for an entry in Quackenbush Best Demises. A later entry. Less impressive than most, more memorable for the gore than anything. He snorts, crossing and uncrossing his arms, unwilling to let the library see his frustration.

"I guess I live here now." Hawthorne decides, resigned. "D'you want to take my last will and testament for me?"

"Television loves it when elevators do that to people." Gideon winces sympathetically, gaze momentarily far away in vivid memory of people that've been halved before. Well. Fictional people. People in reenactments at best. But, still. Distinctly unpleasant. There's a lot of crushing. No one seems to enjoy it. Not a good way to go.

"Don't you need a lawyer for that?" He blinks, reconsiders. "Or at least a witness. I could definitely lie." He probably wouldn't. But there's still that chance of human error. "Besides, I feel like I could reasonably keep you fed. There's room for that."

"Oh, Willow is my lawyer..." The first bit of Hawthorne's reply is mumbled into the palm of his hand as he rubs his chin. It's reflective, perhaps just talking to himself. He perks up when Gideon mentions food. "Oh, that might work." A pause, then a frown. "But food isn't allowed in the library. So you might get in trouble."

He does not notice any gaps in his logic.

It takes a considerable amount of effort not to ask where Willow picked up her degree. It's not that he doesn't want to say it - it's just that it was a pretty self-directed comment and it's probably rude to call someone out on their sister's learning credentials when they're already in the middle of a borderline hostage situation.

"I feel like they'd need to make accommodations," Gideon shrugs, as though he's already run the analysis on the situation. The cost benefits of eating in the library versus starving to death. Also in the library. "If you're going to be a permanent resident."

"I don't want to be an inconvenience," Hawthorne replies with some trepidation. He doesn't much like the prospect of being taken care of forever, a prisoner of the library, and he furrows his brow, scowling thoughtfully as he tries to come up with an alternate plan.

It doesn't take long. The Bad Luck Curse tends to inspire him, as luck to provide him a solution as to foil him. "What if we knocked all the shelves over, domino-style. Everyone would be so overwhelmed, the chances they'd be impressed rather than angry are very high."

He did absolutely zero math to come to this conclusion. It's just a feeling.

ELFLOCK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK SALE

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused

Hawthorne is stuck, Gideon is Confused