neutral_omens | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Time: July 1, 2000
Place: Library
Status: Public
Summary: Where have all the flo ... er books, I mean ... books gone?

Asking Odin about fiends hadn’t sounded like such a good idea after all once Loki had thought it over. Not, if John wanted his problem kept secret. If it had been any other person in the manor, Loki would have just made up a story, but he knew Odin wasn’t likely to buy it no matter how well thought out it was.

So he decided to use the old fall-back: Read up on it.

He wandered into the library and over to the well-stocked section of books on Satanism and hell. ... Or at least he remembered it being well-stocked. There were still more books in there than in any other section, but the once tight packed shelves looked oddly empty. Some books had even fallen over, because there weren’t enough others left to support them.

None of the titles looked promising. Loki pouted at the meagre collection and went to search the next shelf over. The romance section still looked quite full. Maybe the books had simply been mis-shelved?

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Uriel shook her head as well, rolling her eyes. Making sure the strange man couldn't see the book's real title, she let its disguise slip long enough for Loki to see the real name, Perfect Pregnancy.

"I'm afraid Adam is the one to turn to," she said to Loki. "He more or less runs things around here. You don't have to talk with him personally, you know." She didn't know why Loki didn't trust Adam. Considering who the boy was, she had probably more of a reason to distrust him than the god.

"Ezra Fell?" Well, that name was certainly familiar. "I believe he even owned a book shop once. For a rather long time, too. He'd probably be the best librarian this Manor could get." She frowned then. "However, if that leaves us short of a receptionist..."

"But we've got Remus here as a receptionist. We could just lock the doors outside of his working hours." When Loki had set his mind to something he didn't let such trivial things as practicality get in his way.

"Yes, Ezra. Why don't we just forget about Adam and go directly to Ezra?"

Remus watched at the exchange between Loki and Uriel with a bemused look. "Actually I was happy working nights... but I'll be willing to work days again," he added, looking at the both of them.

"Isn't Adam the one paying us? Although we should talk to Mr. Fell - I'm not sure how pleased he'll be if it's a surprise."

Uriel blinked. "But he does love books!" she exclaimed. "I am certain he would love to work as a librarian!" She was honestly confused that the stranger could even consider that such a surprise might be unpleasant to Aziraphale. She also honestly didn't even notice slipping to her more formal way of speaking. "He owned such a fine bookshop for centuries. Surely he could never object to receiving the chance to work with such vast amounts of literature again, however peculiar the choice of subjects among those books may be."

She looked at the man, realizing that Loki had called him by some name. What was it? Ah, yes, Remus. "Forgive me for forgetting my manners in such a rude way," she said then, forcing herself to forget her nervousness about facing a complete stranger. He was only a human, after all, even though his aura did bear the mark of a wizard. "I do fear we've failed to meet before."

"See," agreed Loki happily. "No need to ask Adam."

"You wanted to see me about somethin'?" asked Adam, stepping into the library. He waved a cheery hello to Uriel and Remus and smiled at Loki.

Loki started, gave Adam a sidewards look, then as casually as he could make it stepped behind Uriel. Maybe it wasn't fair to expose the pregnant angel to danger like that, but she wasn't scared of Adam, carried daggers wherever she went and knew how to use them. Loki on the other hand felt sick and weak, had no idea how to counter Adam's powers and didn't even have a single wolf with him.

Adam stepped forward, concern creasing his brow. "You feelin' okay, Loki?"

Remus turned gracefully to the door, hiding his own surprise and a smile at Loki's antics. "Good afternoon, Adam," he said kindly. "I'm sure he's fine; you startled us. How long have you been there?"

"I'm fine." Loki assured Adam hastily. "Just fine."

He retreated a little further behind Uriel.

"Hi, Remus." Adam gestured back at the door. "I just walked in. What's up?" He peered at Loki again, clearly worried.

"Well, we were wondering where certain pieces of literature have decided to disappear to," Uriel said. At the same time she made sure to stay between Loki and Adam. She had been both surprised and shocked when Loki had chosen to hide behind her, and she had no idea why he wanted to hide at all, but if Loki didn't want to face the Antichrist, it would be cruel to force him to do so.

"A suggestion was made, however," she continued, "that the Manor might benefit from a librarian. We even got as far as to suggest a person whom we considered good for such a task, but it would cause other, rather problematic questions as of who shall work where and when."

Remus cleared his throat quietly. "We've suggested Mr. Fell."

"I'm sure he'd like that," said Adam. "He can find all the books that've gone missin' and catalogue them and get them in order and stuff. But then who'd run the front desk?"

Uriel could hardly believe she was even considering suggesting this. However, she needed something to do. And besides, sometimes the best way to hide something was to put it in plain sight. Perhaps, if she appeared to have nothing to hide, nobody would wonder about her female appearance.

So, despite herself, she spoke up as a thought crossed her mind. "Well... I could perhaps give it a try," she offered, a bit shyly. "I'm not exactly sure what to do, but if somebody could explain me the basic points of the task, I should be able to handle it just as well as anybody else. It is not like I have much else to do, anyway, so I would definitely have the time."

Adam positively beamed at her. "That'd be great, Uriel! I'm sure that Remus and Aziraphale wouldn't mind showin' you what to do. And you and Remus can work out your schedules for whatever's most convenient."

Remus nodded, offering her a smile. "I should be able to handle the teaching, Uriel. May I call you Uriel? It's not very difficult."

He looked at all three of them, and put down his book, spreading his hands. "Did you want to go and surprise Mr. Fell, then? He should be at the desk now..."

A smile spread onto Uriel's lips. "That sounds definitely like a good idea," she agreed.

Perhaps, if Adam's attention was on Aziraphale, even Loki could relax a bit. He was still hiding behind her, not saying a word, and if Loki was using her as a shield, he was definitely not okay.

Loki did his best to keep both Uriel and Remus between him and Adam while leaning cautiously closer to the angel.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he whispered hoping she had very good hearing. "I thought you wanted to stay out of sight?"

Angels did indeed have a very good hearing. "I've tried to stay out of sight, and I keep running into people all the time," she whispered back. "I figured I could just as well try hiding in plain sight. Maybe if I act like there's nothing weird about my appearance, nobody will think there is something amiss."

"But do you have a story for them, if they ask?" It wasn't so much that she was going to be visible to everybody. It was the fact that she'd be working for Adam. "Can you tell it properly?"

"I can always say I just needed a change. It's true, anyway. It's just that my body changed all on its own, not asking my opinion first." Had she known about Loki's true worries, she would have been very surprised. After all, Adam was the one she counted on to keep both her and her baby safe.

"I'll have to come up with a story anyway. You could always help me to make it up and then practice it. You should know how to do it convincingly enough."

Loki glanced nervously at Adam.

"Well, not right now, okay?"

He thought Adam was looking at him. Not good. Not good at all!

"Well, if we're goin', we might as well go, right?" asked Adam cheerfully, gently herding the others out of the library.

It was easy enough to have the four of them descend the steps, two sets of stairs before the carpeted floors of the lobby were in view. Remus knew the area he could walk it in his sleep, and after having worked the night this was very similar to walking in his sleep.

He yawned, covering his mouth quickly as they reached the bottom steps. It was obvious, then, that he'd miss what everyone else had stopped for.

"Oh," he said, finally, when he'd got a good look. He was sure he heard a giggle from his left.

There were two people at the desk, rather than the usual one. Mr. Fell was there, in his chair, and bending over him, gripping the collar of his ill-fitting tweed suit, was quite another person entirely. Dark-haired and good-looking, but seemingly reluctant to remove his sunglasses indooors, the man was kissing Mr. Fell rather enthusiastically. Neither of them had noticed the presence of the four.

He hadn't known this about his coworker. Remus glanced at Adam, worried about his reaction.

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Replies frozen? O.o "Error contacting server."

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I think I fixed it? Weird...

Re: I think I fixed it? Weird...

You did fix it. Loki and I tried to no success before.

Re: You did fix it. Loki and I tried to no success before.

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