Loren ‘s arms became covered in dust and grime as his dirty feathers shifted back, and if that had been the worst of it he would have been fine. Alas, using water magic as a jet might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the result was… unfortunate. Water pressure shifted the dirt around somewhat without doing much to actually clean the glass, but the rebounding spray sent the beetle carcasses flying around the room. Instead of collected in one spot, they were now scattered and sticking to various surfaces. Dirty water splashed and pooled, already beginning to drip down through the floor and onto the shelves of books on the first floor. The books in the room that had been too damaged to save were further reduced to sodden lumps of wet, disintegrating bricks as Loren made more of a mess than he’d started with.
Sometimes Lady Luck just wasn’t on your side.
Samuel managed to catch Jigano as he was loading up another armload of books, and the Provost glanced down the length of the railed walkway with a wry smile for his friend as he started down the stairs again.
”I trust you to handle it, Sam. If you need help moving any of the heavier or larger shelves we’ll get to those just as soon as everyone finishes their cleaning.” With that he was off on another trip, working away at
six three rooms’s worth of books.
And Sam was left to deal with the problem he had been presented with on his own, just like everyone else.
Quanil might not have been able to see, but they could hear just fine. Several of their sweeps connected with
somethings, knocking the creatures away. They hissed as they were struck, and scuttled off. Definitely not paper wasps, from the sounds of tiny feet scurrying more often than the buzz of wings could be heard. The room was still pitch dark, so Quanil couldn’t see what they were, but after a few moments the room returned to silence. It seemed the denizens had been routed…
For now.
Rance was luckier than he had any right to expect, the mother mouse freezing in terror rather than lashing out in protection of her pups. Protected by the rag he was able to retrieve nest, pups, and mother all in one fell swoop. They weren’t even harmed, and the nest was still intact when he pulled it out. He might be able to feel the warmth of the small
snacks rodents and the staccato roll of the mother’s heartbeat against his hand if he paid close enough attention to it.
But now what was he going to
do with them?
Ronin would struggle with the window, and only the assistance of his projection proved enough to finally get the ancient pane to budge. A full six inches, before it became stuck again. It wasn’t catastrophically stuck, but it was apparent that much more brute force would break the hinges if they weren’t finessed first. Still, a little airflow was better than none, and it could still be cleaned. The crow, at least, was very impressed with the shimmering starbolt and paused in its gleeful mutilation to hop towards it, croaking the corvid equivalent of
’oooh, sparkly!’. It hesitated for a few moments, torn between its chew toy and the starbolt, but curiosity (and greed) won out in the end and it flapped out the window after the new treasure, leaving Ronin alone with himself and a small but dry mess of an ex-robin.
So far, so good?
Amalia was able to fish one of the moons out from beneath the bookshelf, but the planet had rolled to the back, beyond reach until the shelf was moved. The pallet held no treasures for her seeking hands to retrieve, but neither did it hold any traps. The ancient straw was dry and dusty, and the blanket and pillow crumbled at being disturbed, but it would be easy enough to sweep up with a broom. Her luck failed her in her search for the second moon, unfortunately, and though it had certainly rolled into that area it had lodged too deep into the remnants of the bed for easy retrieval.
Maybe if she cleaned the room up a bit she might be able to get the missing pieces back?
Jigano huffed and puffed as he carried another load of books down, trying not to cough as dust collected in his throat and urged a sneeze. He was 75% through with the Great Book Migration and things were almost ready for the next stage.
”Give me a few more minutes to get these – achoo! – last few books taken downstairs and then we can pair up and begin dragging the shelves out,” he called, assuming (ha!) that all books had by now been brought out from the rooms, as initially requested.
”Then we can scrub the floors and move some furniture in.” Simple, basic stuff, but it would do for temporary housing until they had time to barter for or construct better.
Last round of initial cleaning, then the PQ will be moving on!
Loren was
very unsuccessful at cleaning his window with water magic.
Rance was
very successful at retrieving the mouse nest!
Quanil was
very successful at shooing away the mysterious vermin!
Amalia was
somewhat unsuccessful at finding the orrery pieces.
Samuel made no progress this round, but was
very successful at it.
Ronin was
somewhat successful at opening the window and
successful at luring away the raven.
Jigano was
somewhat successful at moving books.
No posting order
