Verdy followed the point of the finger with her eyes, then the path of her friend with her body. She was cautious to leave enough room that she wouldn’t collide with her friend each time either of them paused to get their balance and prepare for the next leap. Or the next. Or the next. How large a library does one mansion need? The fact that it was this big across, while this was merely one floor meant that if she ever needed a book, it was most likely here. With a wobble she came to a stop next to her friend and, breathing heavily, nodded agreement to the maze remark.

Whoever designed this warped rat race had a terrible sense of humour, borderline sick. She wiped her hands against her legs and surveyed the shelf they were standing on. Perhaps no one would mind if they did try and attract some attention by slight pyrotechnics. She patted her pockets hopefully.

“No matches.”

She glanced to the left. To the right. Then straight up. The small circles on the ceiling confimed her suspicion. A mansion full of mutants, more than one probably possessing the ability to manipulate fire or heat, it was very unlikely they would leave the collection of such flammable material unprotected.

“Look…”

Sprinklers.

Normally Verdy didn’t mind getting a bit wet, nothing like a good drenching to clear the streets and allow you to be yourself for a few moments. But stuck atop library shelves with no foreseeable way of getting dow-

Maybe this was it… maybe this was the answer to the prayer she hadn’t thought about sending, sitting ignored in her mental ‘drafts’ box. A ladder. She could just see the tips, poking up above the shelf a few leaps away. With a cry of joy she hopped, jumped and scurried over to it. Triumph was short lived, however, as she looked down to see a partially rung-less ladder. The tops eight or so steps had been removed, leaving a dangerous drop to a target thinner than an A4 page of paper.

“Ugh.”

She could see a piece of paper tacked to the shelf, so wriggling onto her stomach she reached down and snagged it. ‘Adult fiction. Please ask for assistance to access these books.’ Trust her to find the unusable ladder, surrounded by books the mere titles of made her blush. She shuffled into a sitting position and glanced around.

“Maybe there’s more ladders here somewhere?”

A hop, a skip, and they stopped.

>>“Ugh.”

Ditto.... Andrea Copied Verdy's grunt with her own monotone version of it, staring down from atop the shelf with her eyebrows furrowed. Joining her friend on the next book case over, she shuffled close and looked to where she was directed. Sprinklers.... No matches and falling water, there went her fire idea.

"We could jump and the one who doesn't break a leg will have to drag the other to the medical room..." While it was a suggestion formed as a question, she was also seriously considering it. She had never had a broken lg before... so, maybe it woulden't hurt as bad as she assumed it would? She paused. It was a bad idea; she let it slip as a joke without further explanation and sighed. She was tired... her idea's were becoming more and more ridiculous...

>>“Maybe there’s more ladders here somewhere?”

She agreed again. It was logical to assume that there were more ladders hiding about this place somewhere... even if the evidence so far hadn't really pointed in that direction. She had to have hope! Always hope and faith.... without them there wasn't much else.... Her eyes dropped from the sprinklers to spy the paper Verdy held in her hands. She read it quietly, her lips forming the words, and blushed a dark brown- which was the equivalent of a deep red on her green tinted skin.

"Oh my..." Turning her eyes from the note, she shuffled backwards a little. They were in that section... Mother would definitely not approve...

Ahem... ladder... they needed a ladder, or else they would be stuck atop the steamy section forever. Turning, Andrea hopped back onto the shelve they had just come from, before copying Verdy's previous position on her stomach to lean over and spy down the length of the shelves on the opposite side.

"I don't see anything on this side of the shelves... all the way down..." Her nose wrinkled as she continued, "You know, I saw on TV that one can make a rope strong enough to hold ones own body weight out of hair... Got a pair of scissors on you perchance?"

The mansion gardener was not really a busy person. He had his work. And then more of his work to get him through the evenings. Until he fell asleep. Sometimes he even woke up outside in the darkness, having fallen asleep during his work. Yesterday had been one such day apparently, for he had woke up (un)comfortably buried in a stack of old leaves that, according to his latest memories, if they were reliable, he had just tried to put away from the grounds and into some box for further processing. Burning maybe. But well. He had dusted himself off for a while (those leaves were wet and pretty sticky) he decided on rather having a shower. And then finishing the day in his room. Reading maybe could be a nice way of concluding the morning-midday-evening-whatever that was just bothering him right now. But not another night in a mound of leaves. It was just a bit too eccentric to not endanger his cover for a while yet. Not until people knew more about him. Which in turn would really endanger his cover. Quite a dilemma?

Martin stepped into the library dressed in his usual manner. Working gloves, heavy boots, dirty jeans and started looking around for things that might arouse his interest, humming a tune, a distant tune of past and future. What interesting things one might find wandering here? Hopefully nothing too exciting. His blue eyes wandered over the shelves it seemed, barely touching the titles of the books before continuing. His head was filling with them. All of them. One after the other. And most seemed boring. He only stopped to gather one thick volume on rosacaeae from the shelves, under which he buried an edition of a book about modern weaponry.

The humming tine. It was relaxing in a way. It would be a good evening. Martin proceeded through the shelves, heavy steps falling, loudly, wherever he went.

OOC: So sorry this took so long to reply, real life got a bit too crazy and I couldn't get onto the internet. Back now and in councilling so hopefully it wil;l be more regular. Good to be back. BIC

Verdigris was, she had always thought, a logical kind of girl, not given over to rash decisions or spontaneous actions; she always tried to think things through first. Well, she was thinking, and despite the feeling in her stomach akin to a large hunk of lead- or something equally heavy- she found herself fleetingly considering jumping. She didn’t even know where the medical area was, never a good thing if you were considering risky actions or broken limbs, but their tour had not progressed that far and she could always follow groaned instructions from her friend, provided she could carry her. She surveyed her friend quietly, measuring up a rough estimation of how heavy she might be, provided her limbs weren’t made of rock, in which case she was unlikely to break.

She grinned as her friend flushed, darkened? Nothing quite like awkward situations to make or break friendships in the bud. She followed the line of looking before glancing around on the other side. Nothing there either. She felt her pockets half heartedly, she was fairly sure she didn’t even have a pair of scissors in her backpack, much less her pockets. Ah well, she was fond of her hair anyway, besides she was fairly certain that even between them they didn’t have enough hair for a rope. As she turned to detail this to her green skinned partner she froze mid-twist, her mouth already forming the start of an “I”.

Something was there that hadn’t been there a moment ago, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it and a shiver made its way down her spine like a trickle of ice-cream, slowly but steadily chilling her spine and clinging like the sticky, slimy milk product. Survival instincts took over and she slunk into a crouch, balancing carefully on the balls of her feet, ready to dash away if whatever it was that was giving her the heebie-jeebies decided to attack.

Fingers clutching the edges of the shelf she swayed side-to-side, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. It was a strange sound, low but not monotonous, it rose and fell, like the wind through the trees in the park, with a dull thudding sound she couldn’t quite place punctuating it. Eyes wide she turned to her friend and spoke in a dull hiss.

“What’s that?”

>>“What’s that?”

Pulling herself up from her stomach, she blew her hair from her eyes- once more thinking about chopping the dark locks off- and turned to look at her friend over her shoulder."What's-..." Andrea clammed up real fast, noticing the girl's on purpose hush, and dropped her voice to a whisper to match Verdy's. "What's what?" She swiveled about, crawling to where her friend was to help peer about like a feline, all hunkered over and quiet like... She could almost feel a tail whipping about angrily behind her. Now they just needed an unsuspecting mouse, prey to the predator. Andre shook herself, blinking away the thoughts that were most likely spurred on by tiredness. And then... she heard it. A casual clopping... of feet perhaps? hopefully... but not likely... and a light, airy sound... deeper than a female, but she couldn't be sure. Some women she had met in New York sounded a lot like men..

"I do hear something...." The sounds continued, somewhere down there... amidst the books. "...Is that..... humming?" Tilting her head, the gorgon shifted on the shelf to better hide herself and looked to the dark haired girl beside her, her eye brows raised in curiosity.

"What should we do? Throw a book down or something? Maybe yell like we had planned?"

She wrinkled her nose in thought, and shuffled backwards like a crab onto the shelf. Both noises were faint, but present. Throwing a book could cause complications... such as hitting their possible savior and knocking him or her out... which would then make him or her better suited to be a cushion from when they jumped. She sighed, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses. "No... throwing would not work, now that I think about it." She turned to Verdy and pursed her lips.

"Got any ideas?"

S he stopped in front of another section, the sounds fell into oblivion, fell away, diying to the ears, just to increase the volume of the humming. An old song. Old harmonies mingling with the dust ridden air, hands touching, feeling, eyes seeing, looking for an answer to a question. What was there worthy to be held in his hands here?

Verdigris leant out over the edge of the shelf. Glancing one way, before sweeping her gaze the other, her eyes settled on the head of what appeared to be a man. She cocked her head. After wanting desperately to be rescued, all of a sudden fear clutched at her, maybe she didn’t want to be rescued, to owe some stranger for helping her down from atop a bookshelf.

~~"What should we do? Throw a book down or something? Maybe yell like we had planned?"

Verdigris smiled faintly, Rupunzel Rupunzel let down your hair. She felt for the edge of the shelf and grasped the spine of a book, drawing it up to glance at it before tossing it into the space between the shelves. Rose lips She nearly dropped it in surprise, somehow tossing a book with that much skin on the cover was a little bold. She nodded agreement to her friends statement about not tossing it. She still had shame, after all, and that was no way to introduce oneself.

A deep breath, her toes tingled in anticipation, or fear. Poking her head out far enough that she would be clearly visible if the man looked up, but able to duck back behind the wood if he pelted fire, or ice, or anything else, towards her.

“Excuse me, we’re stuck. Do you have a ladder?”

Smoothness was always portrayed by whomever made the first comment being some form of sane, and non-creepy. She did the best she could under the circumstances really.

Watching curiously as her roommate tossed down a book, she cinched over to her side and peered cautiously over. Her eyes squinted and after a few moments, she spotted the unfortunate book- and flushed immediately. Now a nice, warm shade of brown, Andrea inched back until her nose was the only thing poking out over the ledge and waited in silence as Verdy cautiously called out to the owner of the disembodied footsteps and humming. She didn't share the discomfort of her friend, well, maybe a little due to the girl being on edge, but sill felt the need to hide herself as much as possible (if only because of where they happened to be located currently). After a few tense moments, she finally let herself relax a little and maneuvered herself up onto her hands. A sitting position, much better for scoping out possible ladder bringers. Her eyes landed on the form that Verdy had spotted and she ducked a little to whisper to her fellow bookshelf victim.

"Do you think It's a student?...or a teacher?... I would hate terribly to be caught in such an embarrassing situation by anyone who helps run this place..." After a moment, she wrinkled her nose at her own words. What did it matter who found them? She wasn't planning on taking any classes... and she would definitely be able to avoid meeting said person in the halls of the great school again.... or, at least she would take great steps to.

Her eyes once again traveled down to the books below, and she found herself hopelessly drawn into reading some of the rather awkward titles while they waited for a response. The Cradle robber... She couldn't even begin to understand what that name had to do with the story, nor did she want to, mind you. And The blind and button less horeseman? Honestly, that didn't even sound romantic! She spotted another, just below her, and plucked it from its shelf, barely stifling a snort of laughter at the title.

"Verdy!" She hissed and shoved the book towards her roommate, thoroughly distracted from the situation at hand, "Look at this!" The cover of the book clearly showed a man and a woman locked in each others arms, looking longingly into each others eyes, with windswept hair and masculine rippling muscles- yet the title was nothing less than 'Gimme back my shirt!'.

And his humming was interrupted by a voice, calling from.. somewhere. A female voice, young too. His eyes, which had just been browsing the rather uninteresting parts of the modern children's stories section, touching on titles as “The wonderful world of Wiggley Wiggums” or “The tale of Fast-beendet” -the latter of which made him grin ever so slightly at the books, face turning sour when reading more titles- was now lifted and his head turned round and round, as he was looking, quite plainly, for a person that could have called him. He even looked down, if there might have been a youth he had overlooked.

And he turned.

And found nothing.

And so he answered, in like manner to the raised voice, in a polite tone, befitting of a British tea time, not though with the corresponding accent, of which he had a slightly different, distinctly more Germanic, variation: “A very good day to you, too.” Polite lying was art of British tea-time event, was it not? The voice mentioned being stuck somewhere. In need of a ladder. And obviously the voice had made the right choice in addressing him for its concern. He had the keys to the storing shack, where the tool for gardening were stored. But where? Again his body moved around, crossing a border to a section, which was, quite unfitting sitting right next to the one he had passed through just now, a rendering of blank skin of various, though mostly white, colors, exposed chests and ambiguous titles. Why anyone of working mind would get stuck in this array of Belletristic titles, the collaboration of nonsense being even more extreme here in the adult novel section, was something that presented a corundum to him.


As did the title of more then one of the paper...things present.

“Darling... I think you have lice!”

What did lice have to do with adult novels? On the other hand: He did not want to know the answer to that question. Also: There was another question on his mind.

From where was the voice coming? So his lips formed words once more. Pressing words. As questions pressing. "But before I go to rummage through the school with a ladder on my shoulders, why dont you tell me, where you are, first?"

That was a lot more pressing. Than. The Cleavage. Of. Mary-Ann. Pushup.

He cast down his eyes. If there was such a thing as embarrasment for others, he was feeling it. Right now.


Oh... it burnt.

Badly.

"Do you think It's a student?...or a teacher?... I would hate terribly to be caught in such an embarrassing situation by anyone who helps run this place..."

Verdigris quirked her lips, if whoever it was was a decent person, and not some snotty-nosed brat who would take pleasure from their situation then it was fine by her.

“Rescue is rescue my dear friend, no matter who is on the white horse, prince or no.”

Her eyes found the book that Andrea was offering her, and an amused snort left her at the title. Strange, strange things that people were… ‘amused’ by these days.

The hummer looked left, looked right, did a 180, looked down, apparently the request for a ladder didn’t prompt someone to look up as soon as one would think.

~~"But before I go to rummage through the school with a ladder on my shoulders, why don’t you tell me, where you are, first?"

She glanced around briefly for a suitably scathing statement, but decided not to employ the use of the ever useful ‘where do you think genius?’ and opted for the gentle option. Their fate rested, after all, on the shoulders of this man.

“Erm, we’re kinda on top of the bookshelf.” A pause and a wave “See?”

The fact that they were surrounded by the steamy section- complete with the newer titles including those involving X-gene positive (‘Eugene and the girl with two mouths.’)- should not be mentioned, must not be mentioned. The fact they were two young women dressed for bed perched atop said section was irrelevant.

They were stuck.

>>“Rescue is rescue my dear friend, no matter who is on the white horse, prince or no.”

Pursing her lips, she nodded. Verdy had a point, Andrea could live with whatever embarrassment came from being rescued. She glanced down at her current attire and frowned. Yes, she would live... even if it went down in history that she slept in alien space cow jammies. Oh, how she wished she had gone for plain blue... or black, even pink! Anything but cows in little spaceships. Her ears caught the response from below, and with a glance at her dark haired friend, she let Verdy fill him in on their location.

>>“Erm, we’re kinda on top of the bookshelf.”-“See?”

A wave was good, yes, but Andrea wanted to make sure they were seen- and quickly too. "Hold on..." As swiftly as she could manage, Andrea scrambled to her feet, dropping her few found favorite book back behind her as the full height at which she stood hit her once more. "...It is a very good thing that I am not afraid of heights..." Standing at Verdy's side, she made the perfect green beacon, impossible to miss- unless of course there happened to be a lush green tree right behind her.... Which she would no doubt blend into perfectly...

But! No trees existed in the library... at least not up on the shelves- so all was well. Pulling her hair over on shoulder, she shifted on her feet and glanced around while her roommate handled all of the complications of talking their way down.

They were... on top. Oh yes. How wonderfully fortunate for them to be there. Here. His facial expression changed, slightly, disapprovingly twitching, tiding, spiraling, between smile, a good one, and a bad one, back and forth again, and again, as he looked up to them. Just back and forth a little, journeying back and forth. Ping-pong in the library. The gardeners head raised, higher and higher, following the lines, the strings of books to the end, the very top, the space between books and ceiling, from whence the voices were calling him, calling on him for rescue it seemed. Only to find a green girl swaying back and forth, standing where even perching should be an exercise. And his features shifted. The books shifted, falling from his arms. Toppling down.

Falling on the ground. It did not matter. His smile was gone. “Sit down please.” His voice was sharp. Commanding. “I know your position now.” Not that he would be bothered by her falling down the shelves. Not really. But it would be a bother to explain the incident to his employer. A big one he imagined. The green girl just jumped of the top of that shelf. Really. She seemed quite agitated at the time...Must be the books. No... it wouldn't be easy. So he let his voice fall up to them once again. “I will be back shortly. Just stay where you are.” As if that was a big problem. On the shelves. On top. It was so easy to fall down. A flight of stairs. Now where had he hidden those keys for the shack again? His back pocket? Now where were they?

* * *

After a while the steps returned. Bringing with them the same sound that had been there before, hadnt there? No difference at all? Not even a little? But there was a ladder. This much was sure as soon as he entered their field of vision again. A long one too. He had to prune some trees in the garden from time to time. And for that there were big ladders needed. Stable ladders. But enough for the two of them? In their Pjs? Obviously? But he would not risk ruining this place either. Again, his employer would probably complain. He had not yet complained yet, by the way. And Martin intended to keep it that way. “OK, Ill lean the ladder against this junction here, so that you wont be in danger of toppling any of the shelves, but you will have to get here.” Wander on the bookshelves. A natural thing, was it not?

Verdy felt herself pale a little as her friend stood. The bookshelf seemed to have rocked a tiny bit. She spread her arms out wide and gripped the edges of the shelf, her feet firmly in the crouched position, ready to spring across to the next shelf if this one started behaving worse.

Their rescuer seemed in a little bit of a bad mood from what she could tell by his voice. But perhaps it was just the way he spoke, or the fact he had spilled his books all over the floor. Accents could change the way a sentence was interpreted however and he was going to get them a ladder.

~~“I will be back shortly. Just stay where you are”

Barring another round of shelf-jumping to get to a more desirable location Verdy could see no reason to move from where she was balanced atop the shelf. Despite the fact the man couldn’t see her she gave a curt nod. His words would be heeded. She smiled at her friend.

“That was lucky, him passing through, it would have been awful to try and sleep up here…”

She sighed and hung her feet over the edge of the shelf, leaning back far enough to balance easily.

~~~

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps she pulled her feet up and returned to her careful crouch. She could see the man, his gloved hands gripping the ladder, plodding purposefully to where they were waiting as per instruction.

~~“… but you will have to get here.”

Verdy watched the end of the ladder straddle the edge of the bookshelf with a relieved smile. This was good, everything was going to be ok. They were practically safe now. The ladder was on the end closer to Andrea so Verdy gave a grin and a slight bow, dipping her imaginary pirate hat.

“After you matey…”

Sit she did, as commanded. With her bottom plopped firmly next to Verdys once more, the Greek folded her hands in front of her on her lap, and turned a small smile her roommates way as she mentioned how lucky they were and what sleeping on a shelf would have been like. She agreed wholeheartedly. "Indeed it would have, I can not imagine trying to get into a comfortable enough position without rolling off the shelf in the middle of the night..." But, on the other hand. If they had been forced to sleep atop the books, at least when they fell to the floor they wouldn't exactly be conscious. "Once he gets back, I think much hugging and kissing of the floor is in order." Wasn't that what people always did in movies when they had been away from solid land for long periods of time? She shrugged inwardly, and let the subject drop before it could capture all of her attention.

After a few moments of foot kicking and thumb twiddling, the man returned... and with a ladder too! Andrea's poor shielded eyes had never seen a sight so welcome. The ladder was positioned, a little ways away, and they were instructed to shimmy over and climb down to safety. Her dark haired companion turned to her- for she was closer- and motioned for her to go first. The action of tipping her hat escaped the sheltered woman for a few moments, before a toothy grin slipped into place on her lips and she stood again- more carefully this time.

>>“After you matey…”

She understood now, the tipping of a make believe hat, as well as the bow. "Aye aye, captain." Pulling off her own quick bow, she made haste to the ladder- not wanting to waste any more of their ladder bearing hero's time, and began the careful trip down. (all while trying to direct her gaze anywhere else but the colorful books before her, least she turn burgundy again.) Once her feet were planted safely on the floor, she went through the motions of mentally kissing the ground, before turning to wait for Verdy to climb down as well. While waiting, she turned to the ladder bringer, and scratched at the back of her head sheepishly, "Thank you, Sir, for helping us out."

He watched the two females descend from their lofty prison. Watched unmoved and unmoving as they came down on him, not falling, but step by step loosing their place in heaven, coming down to earth. And he was awaiting them. A young man in working clothes, arms crossed over his chest, blue eyes waiting. Awaiting them in calm. One of the girls really was as green as a tree. And she wore a nightgown he noted. Just noted. Nothing wrong with wearing a nightgown when it was dark outside, no? But in the library? A little strange it was.

The green woman spoke to him. Addressed him. But he did not respond. Not until the second one was returned safely from her spots in the heavens. Of the adult section. Then his voice rose, just as Verdy made her last step onto solid ground. Timed. Perfectly, the youths voice rose. Arose in the aisle. “It was no trouble.” no... helping them had not been. Only that they had nearly gotten him in trouble. A thing he found somewhat unnerving. “I am curious though as to what reasons led you two on the shelves of this section tonight.” The tone was impeccable. He was making polite conversation. Not making them remember all the nice little things they had sat upon. Not those. And all the while his books were awaiting him on the floor just a few steps away. The ones with the perfectly normal titles. He just wasn't quite there yet.

First he would have his questions answered. Such innocent questions. And then remove the ladder. Back to the shack. And then finally, hopefully, he'd get some sleep tonight. In this darkness. He had work to do after all. Spying was hard work to do.