WHO: Gansey & Beauregard WHAT: A leak at the Great Library D: WHEN: Today! WARNINGS: Uh they put duct tape on one of the most significant libraries in history??? STATUS: Complete!
Gansey wasn’t quite letting the panic settle in just yet. But little things gave away hints of it, his hair being messier than usual, his frantic twitch whenever he moved, the way he just stopped in the middle of the corridor to take a deep breath…
This was fine.
Potentially fine. Possibly fine. It was only a small leak in the roof of an ancient library that held a prized collection. And it was only a small storm rumbling on the outside of these old columns. And every magical repairman was only booked back to back for the next three days.
The moment he’d hung up his phone and found that out, Gansey went into fix-it mode. He started moving items, getting bowls, peering up at the ceiling and wondering just how difficult it would be to climb up one of those columns to check out how bad the damage was. And just how likely it was that his friends would all lock him indoors again if he fell.
If it wasn’t for the Library of Alexandria, it probably wouldn’t have been worth it. Which was how he ended up dragging a heavy chair over to one of the tables, so he could start stacking with a plan in mind.
Beau couldn’t claim to be especially aware of weather changes, but she was aware of people. And Gansey’s unsettled behavior was hard to miss once she spotted it from across the room. She stopped reshelving books and squinted over him, following his line of sight up to the ceiling. The stones above looked solid but now that she was paying attention, Beau heard the subtle sounds of the approaching storm outside. Stashing her rolling bin of books behind a short bookshelf, she jogged across the room.
“I know you’re resourceful and smart and all that, but uh, you’re not planning to hodgepodge a fucked up ladder together out of random furniture, right?” She put her hands on her hips and squinted up at the columns and walls around them. “I mean, that sounds fun, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t especially want to clean up your brains today. No offense!” She flashed a teasing grin and lifted her hands, palms out. “I already to had to argue with the cranky old goat man about trying to sneak books out again today.”
Gansey, caught in the act, froze mid-stack. He adjusted course and just slowly set the chair back down again, the scraping echoing comically loud off of the marble around them. “I was just doing a little rearranging.” He was both a good liar and a bad liar all at once, able to look smooth and put together as he effortlessly spun the words around with his easy smile.
But he had also been caught in the act of doing exactly what he was accused of, and his cheeks were no doubt tinted pink from that alone. Gansey coughed, and then turned his gaze back up to the ceiling. “Mr. Fimos, right?” He couldn’t even count the number of times he’d been stopped by that old man for conversation or complaints - it reminded him of Roger Malory enough that Gansey was too polite to run him off.
His distraction, as intended, was half for himself, and failed miserably as Gansey frowned up at the ceiling again. “There’s a leak. So we have to figure out some way up before the rain gets really bad.”
Beau liked Gansey. He reminded her of all her nerdier friends. She had more of those than she’d ever expected to back in her teenage years, but now she’d punch the shit out of anyone who endangered them. Gansey wasn’t quite on that list yet, but he had potential. She hummed at him and then looked upwards.
“Mr. Fimos, yeah. Should probably know that by now since he barks it at me every time I tell him to give up the book under his shirt.” There was a solid path from the top of the bookshelf to a pillar and up to a few handholds that she could shimmy out to the leak. She smirked sideways at him. “Do you have a patch method in mind? Or were just planning on balancing on ten chairs and putting your mouth to the crack until it stops raining?”
Gansey huffed out a quiet laugh, trained to keep his voice low at the library but unable to stop himself from that image. He’d been seeing Mr. Fimos at the library since it’s arrival, but his own position didn’t put him in a place where he had to boss the faun around. Unless Mr. Fimos tried to sneak out any of the pieces that were decidedly off-limits, which Gansey wouldn’t put past him at this point.
“He can still run pretty fast, careful.” Her idea might’ve been meant as a joke, but Gansey took a second to ponder if it was possible before finally giving up and shaking his head. “That’d be a trick you could sell tickets to if I did, but no. I have something better.” On cue, he reached into his nearby bag and pulled out a full roll of duck tape and followed it up with a grin. “How are you at climbing?”
"Oooh, I hope he tries to outrun me one of these days, that little shit." Beau was reasonably certain she wasn't allowed to chase anyone out of the library, but she was also pretty sure she'd do it anyway. She wasn't as fast as Yasha but she was still damned fast and nobody with a goat belly was going to get away on her watch.
She lifted both eyebrows at the duck tape reveal, snapped back into the moment by intrigue. The tape was an invention she'd come to know and suspect of magical properties in her time here. But not like good magic. The scrubby, dirty kind that did the job but left a big ass mess. Beau flashed a grin, glanced over her shoulder, and ran up the side of the bookshelf, nimble and light on her toes.
"Climbing is my special skill." She waggled her fingers down at him from her perch on top. "Toss it up here and we'll see if it holds."
Gansey opened his mouth to protest on the chasing thing, but he immediately second-guessed himself. What he knew of Beau, he suspected this would be a Ronan-type situation where it would just egg her on further. It was knowledge he knew firsthand, secondhand.. Every hand.
But by then, he was too busy being impressed by her climbing that Gansey just stared after her dumbfounded. “When I’d asked, I assumed you would-- suggest a ladder? But that works!” If anything cutting a few corners when it came to safety was something Gansey was all-too-familiar with.
Without further complaint, Gansey tossed up the tape with decent accuracy. “It just has to hold temporarily. I put out a few calls and everyone is booked through the storm, but I’m hoping to call in a favor to Essek or Caleb later on, if at all possible. They appreciate the safety of books.”
Beau liked to act like no one's opinion of her mattered at all, about anything, but it was just an act. And not a very good one. Anybody with a little time in her presence could figure that one out. But she hoped Gansey didn't see the relief in her expression. He was welcome to see the smugness as she caught the tape and smoothly walked across the bookcase to a nearby pillar.
"They're a good idea. Caleb would probably make an umbrella out of himself to protect all of this," she joked. Tucking the tape into her top, she shimmied up the pillar and then dangled upside down from the roof with her fingers and ankles hooked around a horizontal beam. A few startled faces turned up towards her, but she ignored them. She needed every ounce of concentration as she let go with one hand and tore at the tape with her teeth.
In retrospect, this probably hadn't been a very well thought out plan, but well thought out plans never went well for the Mighty Nein anyway. She managed to get a large x-shape of tape over the leak with a minimal amount of cursing, at least. The tape slipped out of her hand as she tore off the last section, though.
"Fuck," she grunted. Hopefully it didn't knock anyone out.
Gansey had made apologies as he kept to the ground but followed her, dodging through a few patrons of the library, the same ones that were also enraptured by the climbing monk above them. After the second bump, and sorry, excuse me, he paid more attention to where his feet were going and less worrying that she was going to fall.
It put him nearby to catch the roll of duct tape, arm out and stretched over someone’s head as he fumbled slightly before getting a good grasp on it. Gansey gave the man a grin, and tilted his head apologetically. “Hi, sorry, we’ll be out of your way in a moment, just doing a little repair work.”
That seemed to placate the man, who mumbled thanks and shifted his seat, and Gansey looked back up at Beauregard. “Do you need more? Is two pieces enough or should we go with-- say, twenty?”
Beau examined her work now that Gansey's chattering below confirmed she'd hadn't brained anyone with duct tape. It seemed solid but she pressed down along it, one hand and then the other, to be sure.
"Seems like it'll hold," she called down. "Watched this shit rip off chunks of a dresser a couple days ago so maybe we don't slap too much of it on the walls of this ancient building. Just a thought." With another check of her handwork, Beau looked below her for a path down. She didn't particularly care to go back the way she came and there weren't any people below her so she just shrugged and dropped down. The landing was surprisingly smooth, even if it did make the soles of her feet ache. No one would ever know with her dope pose and smooth stand.
A little old lady clapped in surprise so Beau gave her high five. Well, a low five because she was tiny as fuck.
Gansey’s anxiety was one to still get the better of him as he peered up at the patch, clearly still unsure. She had a point with it potentially damaging the library itself, but then so would water damage, surely?
Well, at least they knew what to look for now in terms of damage, and the silver x-marks-the-spot would be handy when they could get someone with magic out here to help.
And her landing was impressive enough to pull his brain away from worrying, for a few minutes. Gansey grinned. “Very nice. And thank you for your help, I know who to call now when we need to make any other adjustments to the roof or top columns. But for now we’re just going to have to watch and see what this storm is going to do, we may have bigger problems on our hands. At least according to the psychics.”
Beau gave a little bow with shithead flair. "I can go back up anytime if it doesn't hold or the magic fix can't be done right away. Pretty sure Caleb will put aside literally whatever he's doing to save a library though. He could be saving the actual world and a library being in danger would debatably rate higher."
Joking at Caleb's expense wasn't nearly as fun when he wasn't there to give her an unblinking staredown, but sometimes she couldn't help herself. She glanced over to where she'd found Gansey.
"You got any other damage already done that needs fixing? That--" She gestured towards the ceiling. "--Is the extent of my handiness but I can go kidnap a wizard right now if need be."
“We have that in common,” Gansey replied with a cheerful bounce. It was much better now that there was no impending doom of books and scrolls being destroyed, though he had a few things to sort through that had got the brunt of the damage.
“I don’t think any kidnapping necessary yet, but…” He started unstacking the pile he’d pulled down back when this first started, lovingly laying everything out so restoration could happen. “Keep the option in your back pocket in case something else happens? I’m half tempted to spend the night here at this rate.”
Beau wasn't entirely convinced Gansey wouldn't see an especially wet book and get weepy. She decided to stick around and help a little at least. Just to make sure he didn't actually sleep at the foot of a bookcase. Though she probably wouldn't actually try to stop him. Maybe just take a picture and go find him a pillow.
"Alright, let's see what we're dealing with and then we can make the final call." She spread out a few of the stacked books and resisted the urge to flap them in the air by the binding just to freak Gansey out. "Kidnapping a wizard is pretty much my idea of a fun Friday night anyway."