deercountry | January Catch-All [Semi-Open]

Ruby watched as Perell was started awake and snorted before turning over to Billy and giving a wide grin.

"You're on." She says with a thumbs up before turning to watch the book go sailing toward the pile. She'll gleefully shout out from the behind the fort.

"We're going to give you one chance to surrender! Hand over all of your comic books and we'll leave you in peace."

He watched the book sail into his stack as if in slow motion-- and didn't have time to react before the whole pile came tumbling down on him. Toppling to the floor, Perell acted on instinct and immediately crawled underneath his work table.

"Comic books?" He squeaked, very undignified.

"I-I don't even know where they're at in here!"

"We can't find them either! So you gotta have them!" Billie calls out. He can't find anything in here he's even remotely interested in.

His interest in comic books is solely because Ruby wants them. He would probably enjoy the pictures, but it's still a bit hard to follow the story if you can't read.

Ruby has every intention of reading the comics to Billie with sound effects and all if she has the option.

"What he said!" She watches Perrel retreat under the table and lobs another book up to rain down on the table with a satisfying thud.

"You can't hide them forever. Eventually we're going to get them. We have ways to make you talk."

--That was a familiar little voice, and immediately Perell frowned.

"Billie?" He called from underneath his protective shield-- visibly wincing when more books rained down upon the wooden table. "Are you out there? Who's your friend?"

Tentatively, he stuck his hat on a nearby broom and lifted it high in a gesture of surrender.

"Did you want someone to read to you? You could have just asked. I can read to both if you, if you want."

It'll be boring, though.

Wizard stuff.

"Yup! It's me!" Billie calls back. This is all in good fun after all, right? So what does it matter if Perell knows he's in on the chaos?

"Her name's Ruby! She's a pirate!" Complete with the eyepatch and little flag and everything. He realizes there might be some confusion, though, between Ruby Rose and Ruby Tuesday from the Crystal Bay. "Uhhh... not that Ruby, though. A totally different one."

He glances over at her as Perell makes his offer, looking skeptical. "We should ask what he's gonna read us," he whispers. "He tries to teach me things sometimes, and it's so boring."

Ruby leans in and whispers back to Billie.

"Don't worry. I've got this. He wont be reading us anything boring." She then slides up the to the edge of the fort.

"Yargh! He be right, I'm Ruby Rose. Dreaded Pirate of the depths! If ye can read we'll accept a story! But they have to be exciting and fun, with monsters and fighting!" She then takes a book and throws it at the hat one the broom to knock it onto the ground.

"Or else!

Or else what? Exactly!"

Well. That ruled out the Alchemist's Primer that he was holding.

Scrambling, Perell tossed it aside.

"As long as we're not talking about any 'centaurs in full bloom', I think I've got it." He called, pinging on a reference he was certain Billie would understand. Why were all Pirate Queens called Ruby, anyway?

Was this a Gary Oak situation???

With a shake of his head, Perell reached for another book and stood up-- hat held upward on his free hand in a makeshift gesture of surrender.

"How about... the Princess Bride?"

He scoffed, then muttered: "That doesn't sound like it has any monsters or fighting..."

"No centaurs!"

There aren't even any centaurs in Trench. Not that he's seen anyway. Billie's little hand appears holding a book just above their fort, ready to throw as Perell makes his offer.

He does not recognize the title at all, and he looks to Ruby for guidance. "Is that a kissing book? It sounds like a kissing book... What do you think?"

"You heard the boy, no centaurs!"

She's just going to repeat Billie's demands to add emphasis. She looks down to him at the mention of the Princess Bride and shrugs. She hadn't heard of it before either.

"It does kind of sound like a kissing book... But don't worry I've got an idea."

And she whips herself back up to the top of the fort.

"Read us a page and we'll decide if that be the story we hear!"

--

perell.exe has reached an error.

The Wizard made a face at this, utterly bemused but willing to roll with it. Anything to avoid more books being rained down upon him with a fury unseen since he left Crystal Bay...

More importantly: It made Billie happy.

"Okay..."

He said uncertainly, flipping to a page at random within the text and picking out the first paragraph he laid eyes on.

"When Inigo regained consciousness, it was still night on the Cliffs of Insanity. Far
below, the waters of Florin Channel pounded. Inigo stirred, blinked, tried to rub his eyes, couldn't.

His arms were tied together around a tree.

Inigo blinked again, banishing cobwebs. He had gone on his knees to the man in black,
ready for death. Clearly, the victor had other notions. Inigo looked around as best he could, and there it was, the six-fingered sword, glittering in the moonlight like lost magic. Inigo stretched his right leg as far as it would go and managed to touch the handle. Then it was simply a matter of inching the weapon close enough to be graspable by one hand, and then it was an even simpler task to slash his bindings. He was dizzy when he stood, and he rubbed his head behind his ear, where the man in black had struck him. A lump, sizable, to be sure, but not a major problem.

The major problem was what to do now?"

Billie peers through the peephole in the fort as Perell reads, watching as though trying to determine if this is some kind of trick. In spite of the title, it doesn't sound like some kind of cheesy romance novel. It sounds like it might be kind of good? He kind of wants to know what's going to happen when Inigo frees himself?

He settles back down beside Ruby, looking up at her with big, round eyes. "It's got sword fights, at least!"

Ruby listens to the page he reads and then looks down to Billie and gives a smile.

"It does have that. Let's give it a go and see where this goes." She looks up over the barrier of their fort. "Okay! We're not going to throw any books. You can keep reading!"

And then she's going to hunker down beside Billie.

Meanwhile, Perell was still peering at them from the edge of his stacks with the book in hand and a bemused look on his face.

"I can... but can we at least get a little closer? I don't imagine the librarians like us much right now."

He nodded toward the far end of the nearest aisles, where a young docent with a bird-like carriage bounced on the balls of their feet-- looking ready to run and call for reinforcements.

Billie stands up so he can peer over the top of their book fort at the docent, narrowing his eyes. "Tell no one! Or we'll hit you with books too!" He hisses.

He settles back down beside Ruby; the fort feels comfortable with books piled all around them, and he doesn't feel terribly inclined to leave it. He calls to Perell, "Okay, you can come closer."

Ruby gives Billie a little nudge with her elbow and a wink of her mechanical eye. "Nice work, you're a natural pirate."

She isn't exactly eager to leave the pile either and she look over to Perell.]

"Yeah. Come on closer. Pull up a chair if you need to. We'll hold our fire."

[The poor docent scurried off with a pathetic squeak, eyes wide with fear, and left Perell alone with the pair of pirates that had taken over the library.]

Uh. You know you don't need to be so threatening, right?

[Yet he was awkwardly pulling over a chair while he spoke, cringing every time the leg scuffed too loudly over the thin carpeting on the floor.]

[Billie grins at Ruby.]

Thanks! We were pirates once for a little bit...

[The grin fades as he thinks about it.]

It wasn't that fun, though. It was kind of a lot of work.

[He listens as Perell drags the chair over, and peers over the top of the fort one more time.]

But they were gonna arrest us! Or throw us out! Or something!

[She listens to what Billie has to say and gives a little nod when she sees the grin fade.]

Yeah. I think being a pirate is a lot work- I'd rather play pretend and have fun than actually be a pirate myself.

[She gives a grin]

Yeah, I guess. But if I showed weakness in front of my first mate here I might have had to deal with a mutiny. Can't have that.

Yeah. Uh.... some of that was probably my fault?

[Perell commented, trailing uncomfortably at the recollection of their time in Crystal Bay. It had been a vacation retreat-- but also the start of disaster.]

The being arrested part, anyway. Look, Captain Ruby? As long as yourself, showing 'weakness' doesn't matter. I think your crew would feel better with a captain who was upfront about what's important.

Edited 2022-02-14 04:19 (UTC)

[Billie isn't so concerned about the Crystal Bay any more, that's long in the past. It's fine. It doesn't even matter any more. Except he learned that Perell's taste in clothes is just... awful. Awful, and so stupid.

He is more than happy to defend Ruby - she is his captain, and more importantly, his friend.]

She is herself. She's the best Ruby I know! Come on, we won't throw any more books, I promise.

January Catch-All [Semi-Open]

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Sorry for the accidental format switch!

Sorry! I lost this.

It's totally cool!

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