The Book Girl and..

[tohko_amano]

Characters: Tohko Amano and you!
Setting: The first prompt starts in dorm room 1-09, and the autumn one starts in the library, but the rest are all around the Tower.
Format: I'm starting in prose, but I'll match you!
Summary: Like A Lion catch-all event post.
Warnings: None so far!

Tohko, for once, didn't have any nightmares, but instead, woke up rather nicely..only to feel some water fall on her head and feel cold and wet sheets. Sitting up, wide awake, Tohko saw that it was raining in the dorm rooms for some reason...and her trunk was getting filled with water.

"No! My books!" Quickly working her way out of the wet sheets, Tohko jumped out of bed, grabbed her trunk, and pulled it onto her bed. It was hard..but at least it would keep it from getting even more waterlogged for now. Opening it a little, she poured out the water before inspecting the damage. Her clothes and shoes were soaked. Tohko usually changed into her nightgown when she slept, so her school uniform got soaked, along with her cloak. That wasn't what bothered Tohko. What bothered her was that all of her books were soaked. The first volume of the Holy Knight chronicles, Similar To The Sky, the story Romeo had given her..and her notebook with Enoch's story in it..they were all ruined. She couldn't read a single word of them.

Tohko sighed to herself, clenching her fist. "Darn it.." Those were the last few things that had connected her to Konoha..and home. Why did the Administrators have to be so darn cruel?!

She wasn't given much time to mourn the loss. As she pulled out her shoes and her lightning ring, she noticed that her mailbox, her last connection to the book club, and her box full of the daises that Kiyotaka had given her were floating away. She usually kept them outside of her trunk, but..since they were made of wood, they were floating out the door. Quickly putting on her shoes and ring, Tohko chased after them, into the dorm hallway, not caring that she was in her nightgown or soaked.

Help her? Laugh? Lecture her about how she could easily catch cold?

This was a different change of pace to the rain..and while her books were now dry, they were still pretty illegible..and the heat was horrible. Even though she could now wear her normal clothes, she was sweating horribly and kept trying to find water somewhere. After all, even if she couldn't taste it, she still needed it to keep her body alive. Normally, she would use her lightning ring to generate some rain..but she was just so exhausted by the heat and the lack of water that she couldn't get the energy to.

Help keep a book girl from dying?

The leaves themselves weren't bad, and the fact that the temperature had changed was great..but the fact that there were leaves everywhere was horrid. It was bad enough the library books had been subjected to the rain, but these leaves wouldn't help any patrons that still tried to keep reading. You can find Tohko trying to keep the library and it's entrance tidy, even though there seems to be no end to the leaves.

Waking up to rain was unpleasant. Waking up to cold snow was even worse, and the temperature drop was horrible. Even with her brown cloak, Tohko was still shivering somewhat..and occasionally sneezing. It seemed that someone was starting to catch a cold, but wouldn't admit it. You could find Tohko wandering around, breathing into her hands and trying to find V/V or any other human cuddlepile that might have been established.

Comments

Spring

[starofpleiades]

Kazumi was carrying one (1) bedraggled looking cat with her as she splashed her way through the halls in her magical girl outfit. Sure, it was kind of chilly with the exposed skin, which was why she had her cloak wrapped tightly about her and Toto, but the wide-brimmed hat was practically an umbrella, so she was going to wear it as much as she could!

"Ow!" She looked down to see what had bumped into her legs. A box? Oh no, whose were these?

Spring

[tohko_amano]

Tohko had managed to grab her mailbox easily, but her small box of flowers still floated away, mocking her. However, when she saw Kazumi and her cat find the box, she smiled and quickly ran over to them. It seemed that her last reminders of home and the flowers would be safe, for now.

"Good morning, Kazumi! Thank you..I've been chasing that box all morning. I'm lucky you came along. How have you been feeling?"

As she asked that, she looked a little..sheepish and scratched her head. She still felt bad for what happened back during the mist.

[starofpleiades]

Picking up the box, Kazumi looked up when she heard Tohko splashing her way.

"Ah, Tohko, this was yours?" Her smile faltered though at that question. How had she been feeling? After what had happened the last time they'd met... Kazumi couldn't help looking a bit awkward as well, even though she still tried to smile. "Um, well... better?"

[tohko_amano]

Tohko was a frequent wearer of mask-smiles, so she could see through Kazumi's a bit. Smiling, she tried to pat the girl on the head.

"Yup, that's mine. Thanks for picking it up..it's been giving me quite the chase..and..it's good to hear that you're feeling better."

Tohko sighed and scratched her head as she spoke.

"..I've been meaning to apologize, actually. I..didn't mean to hurt you that badly. I'm sorry."

[starofpleiades]

Kazumi shrunk in on herself a little at that head patting, mostly out of shame, but she didn't move away from it otherwise.

"No, you don't have to! You were just protecting yourself... I'm really sorry I tried to hurt you myself," said Kazumi, her look downcast. That she'd tried to hurt her... and could have done some really serious damage if she'd used her magic more...

Autumn

[bytheirhand]

[After the rain and blistering heat, the cool feeling in the air was a welcome change. The leaves were a bit obnoxious, but Czes wasn't about to complain after experiencing the crazy fluctuations in weather the past few days. He had been staying close to the upper floors, but now that he could walk around without having to worry about drowning or dying of heat stroke on top of the numerous other dangers the tower posed it was worth braving the lower floors.

He enters the library, an amused smile pulling at his lips.]

It's going to take you an awfully long time to clean up these leaves when they just keep coming back, miss.

Autumn

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko, sadly, didn't have a broom or anything else of the sort, so she just had to keep on cleaning and picking up the leaves with her bare hands. So, when she saw and heard the boy speak, she sighed, holding a huge pile of them.]

Maybe, but I do have to keep trying! The poor books have been under so much..I'm not going to let them get wrecked by leaves! Plus, it's hard for patrons to take a look when leaves are blocking the way.

[bytheirhand]

Aren't they already ruined from all the rain?

[tohko_amano]

A little..but summer's drought healed them a little, even if they are still pretty illegible. However, that's why we have to keep them from getting even more wrecked!

[bytheirhand]

But... how can leaves hurt them?

Falllll

[forgetbeam]

With the intense summer heat gone and water being accessible without flooding the entire Tower, a few leaves seemed like nothing at all. Even if "a few" meant they were well up to Ishimaru's waist in places and he had tiny bits of them sticking to his uniform and in his hair no matter what he did to try to keep clean. He was beginning to see a pattern with the weather, and he could only hope that winter would be skipped over in this latest experiment. Hadn't people suffered the cold enough in December? He made a note to stockpile warm blankets by the end of the day.

First he had a little pit stop to make.

His arrival at the library was heralded by the loud crunching and shuffling noises of the leaves he waded through, but he was surprised to find the entrance itself a lot shallower than everywhere else he'd been. He couldn't help but feel the need to kick out the leaves he'd dragged in with him.

Oh, what a futile effort...

Yaay!~

[tohko_amano]

Tohko, of course, had been hard at work in the library, gathering up leaves with her bare hands and dumping them outside, all while trying to keep the entrance tidy for patrons. However, as she wandered by the entrance with another pile of leaves, she spotted Kiyotaka kicking out a few leaves and smiled, both happy to see her friend and that he was trying to help out the library.

"Kiyotaka! Good morning! Thank you for helping..these leaves are quite the nuisance. I keep cleaning and they keep coming!"

Since Tohko had given a hair ribbon to Mondo, she would have not two thin braids but one thick one that held her charms.

[forgetbeam]

"Good morning!" At least he had enough energy to give a proper greeting now that it wasn't unbearably hot. He shoved a final small pile of leaves out of the door, frowning as a few more blew in from a wind that came out of nowhere. At least it wasn't anything intense enough to be heralding a tornado... yet.

"I'm not entirely sure where these are even coming from. There are few floors that even have trees, so there is no way there can be this many leaves! The rain was one thing, but this is ridiculous!"

[tohko_amano]

Yet. When that happened, Tohko would probably try to duck under a table or something. Assuming she got hit at all. However, at that comment, she sighed and scratched her head.

"I have no idea either. I'm guessing the Administrators are materializing these leaves either because they're losing control of the weather or because they like seeing us suffer with the elements. However..the rain was horrible. This is only insult to injury with the library now."

[forgetbeam]

"Both of those seem equally likely... I am certain it will be cold in a few days, given the way things have been going."

He cast his gaze out to the library, disheartened at the state it seemed to be in. So much valuable knowledge, and who knew what was too water-damaged from the flood to save?

"Speaking of the rain, I... am deeply ashamed that I was not able to save the book you gave me in time!! Even trying to dry it in the sun after wasn't enough! That's actually why I came here. I was looking to see if there was another copy."

Spring!

[springserpent]

While her title may have been the Springserpent, this was just plain ridiculous. Normally water wouldn't bother her much, heck, she can manipulate and conjure the stuff herself through aid of her magics, and despite the fact that she's technically a feline, it's not as if she'd react to being drenched like any ordinary housecat. This massive, continuous downpour is far more than just annoying, and sloshing down twenty floors because the elevators decided to either get flooded, stop working or some ungodly combination of both isn't at all fun, she'll be the first to tell you.

Chilled to the bones, her turban floating off into the distance, Mihli stalks down the hallway with gritted teeth, almost hissing in annoyance before Tohko's vigilante mailbox catches her attention. Bracing herself upon a nearby wall, she casually stops the box's path with a leg so that she can scoop it out of the drink, victoriously offering up the prize to the drenched Book Girl while forcing a tired smile while she's at it.

"Lovely weatherr we're having!"

The one season where you'll have a sarcastic book girl!

[tohko_amano]

Tohko, who was running after the mailbox-which kept taunting her, as her box of flowers hadn't been this difficult to pick up-noticed a turban as she was running. It look like the one Mihli wore, so she picked it up, in the hopes of giving it to her later and continued chasing after her mailbox.

However, when she saw Mihli pick up her box and offer it with a forced smile, she had to give one as well while offering the catgirl her turban.

"Yes, just wonderful!"

..This may be the first time Mihli has heard genuine sarcasm from Tohko.

[springserpent]

A happy exchange, though she wouldn't dare throw that soggy turban on her head now.

"Thanks."

The sarcasm in Tohko's voice is surprising, though not at all unwelcome. Actually, it gets Mihli to chuckle a little despite the circumstance.

"What's causing this ... rain? And why isn't it stopping?"

Not even midway through her sentence, Mihli silently panics as she comes across a rather startling realization. If the whole Tower were drenched right now, what's to become of the Libraries and their books?

[tohko_amano]

Not that Tohko would blame her for not doing so. She took her box and sighed, scratching her head with her one free hand.

"I have no idea..I just hope it stops soon..the library books are probably drenched..and my books are all destroyed.."

Tohko sighed again. The book she had borrowed from Oz, the stories from Konoha, her notebook, and the snippets of Enoch's story that he had written for her. They were all destroyed by the weather.

Tohko sighed again, and this time, it wasn't a sad one. It was..an irritated one.

"They had better return them at the end of all this, or I'm going to get even madder at them! Not that they'll really care..but really.."

Tohko tried to calm down before she spoke again.

"Sorry..I shouldn't have yelled like that..but..I'm really annoyed that they decided to pull something like this."

[springserpent]

"I'm surre there's some way to get the books restored to their former state. We'll just have to find someone who can do it, that's all."

Mihli contemplates, glancing down the hall. Technically she could work some White Magic to (somewhat) alleviate the problem with being soaked, though there's still the matter of flooding to worry about - a Barwatera spell would only keep someone relatively dry for a temporary amount of time, a moot point given the constant downpour.

"I assume no one place is safe from this flooding? That would be about ourr luck."

Summer

[proteusmoon]

Cecil was not accustomed to sweltering heat, let alone a lack of water in such conditions, but she had experienced it at least a few times before. The desert between the village of Mist and the Kingdom of Damcyan, stretched on forever it seemed to any who tried to cross it and the only refuge from the heat was the oasis town of Kaipo. Cecil, amazingly, had been able to cross that desert not only in armor, but with an 8-year-old boy in tow who did not trust her.

Hoping her experience could be of some use to other residents of the Tower, she walked up and down the dormitories, stopping to do what she could for those who needed her help, some of whom she found in a worse state than others. Her white magic could help a little, but her mana was limited and she could only heal a few before she needed rest herself. When she reached a door that read "Tohko Amano", she felt her stomach tie itself in knots in worry.

"Tohko? Tohko!"

Summer

[tohko_amano]

At that moment, Tohko had been in the middle of forcing herself to eat Similar to The Sky. After all, even though it was illegible, it was best to not let it go to waste, even though the taste was really weird-like a piece of strawberry shortcake with lots of whipped cream had gone through a blender. However, when she heard Cecil cry out, she put the book on the nightstand and forced herself to stand up.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Tohko sat up, walked over to the door, and opened it. It Cecil was observant, she would notice that she had one thick braid instead of two thin ones. She had given one ribbon away to Mondo to help him out, with the promise of giving it back when this was all over.

Tohko forced herself to smile-even though it was weak-when she saw Cecil.

"Good..morning, Cecil. How are you..holding up?"

Summer

[proteusmoon]

The white knight could see how the girl suffered and she frowned immediately in concern, pushing her way through the dormitory doorway. She reached out to take Tohko by the arm so she could support her if she was insistent on standing.

"I'm all right for now. Please... sit. You must conserve your strength," she urged the younger woman. Cecil did notice the change in hairstyle, but she didn't realize that the ribbons were significant. "I do not have any water for you, unfortunately, but I can possibly better your condition for a little while."

Then she noticed the book on the nightstand and quirked an eyebrow in curiosity.

Summer

[tohko_amano]

Tohko would insist on standing for a little while..but she wasn't the sort of person who liked making her friends worry, so she wandered over back to her bed and sat down when Cecil told her to.

"That's good..I'm glad to hear it."

Not that many people would. Tohko had only told one person that her braids were important to her, and he had probably forgotten, since she had told him during the weird aging-up event.

"It's alright..don't worry about it. If I rest for awhile longer..I might be able to make some rain for the both of us."

Tohko wiped some more sweat off her forehead, and noticed Cecil giving her book a puzzled look. Tohko sighed.

"..The rain destroyed all of my books..but they're still pretty nostalgic..so I don't have the heart to throw them away, even if I can't read most of it."

Summer

[proteusmoon]

"I see. I'm sorry. I wish there was some way for me to restore them for you..." Cecil replied regarding the books, still looking at them once Tohko had taken a seat. They looked terrible and she could understand the hurt the girl felt in response to the Tower and the administrators ruining them. "But I don't understand. Make rain?"