fandomtownies | Entries tagged with $book haven

Owen was totally awake! He was! Really he was!

He was just, er. Trying out the comfort of their reading nook?

Yes. Yes that was what going on here.

... The Bookbelt was open. Allegedly.

cypher_can_fly

Weren't the quiet weekends nice? Owen certainly felt so.

Even if he was still uncertain about Nina's whole book furniture... thing. "Right, mates, it's time for your bi-weekly cleaning," he said, "By which I mean I'm going to lightly wave this rag at you and... maybe give that massive tome over there a massage because you're looking a bit ornery, buddy."

How had he fallen so far, so quickly? Who knew.

[[ open ]]

bookbeltof_love

"So, like, what's the verdict on furniture, you guys??????????????????????" Nina called as she entered the shop.

Silence answered her.

"You know, like, if you haven't come up to an agreement yet that's totally fine??????????????????" she ventured as she went about turning on lights and booting up the register. "While you guys are still working on that you can also let me know how you all feel about Owen's idea about a 'book zoo' which, to me, still totally------------"

No, no, she didn't want to influence them too much, though she could tell that she had their attention now. It was still silence, but it was a listening sort of silent.

"Anyway," she said, "you let me all know how you feel about that too, okay???????????????"

Nina hated the idea. Giving the books some say over their temporary home was one thing. Deliberately setting it up so people could come and gawk at them was totally different.

She set the sign back in the window:

NOW HIRING!!!!!!!!!!!
Inquire within!

"I've got research to do," she finished cheerfully, "so if you need me to pull more catalogues for you all, just let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Bookbelt is Open!!!!!!!!!!!!

cypher_can_fly

It had been a surprisingly quiet day.

Quiet in a cypher sort of way, Owen meant. He spent some time that morning cleaning up a bit, broom in hand, but by afternoon laziness had struck and he'd take up lounging in the corner.

But it was quiet. His senses weren't even giving him much data on the weather.

"Sigh."

Yes, he just said the word 'sigh' out loud.

[[ open ]]

bookbeltof_love

Saturday wasn't, like, her usual day to hang out at her bookstore (though, then, she should probably get around to figuring out when her usual day was, really, with the new semester…) but she'd solemnly promised Prompto that she wouldn't die today and, like, it would be pretty hard to die in a bookstore, right?

… Right?

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina chirped as she rounded up the most fussiest, demanding books she could find and got them settled on the tables by the reading window. "Like, we have a mission today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That got them all to stop fluttering their pages in indignation at least.

"This is a very important mission," she told them all earnestly and completely sincere. "So important that I wouldn't dare do it without your input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Then she set a stack of furniture catalogues on the space she'd insisted be kept clear.

"You all live here," for a certain value of 'live', really, "so you all get to help me out by picking out new furniture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What will it be, everyone?????????????????"

Why had she picked the fussiest books for this? Because they'd be the most annoying if they didn't like what she picked out. But now some of the other books were sidling on over to look too, and she waved them onwards.

"Let me know what you all decide, okay??????????????? Try not to rip the catalogues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And while they did that, Nina was going to stick a sign in the window:

NOW HIRING!!!!!!!!!!!
Inquire within!

And then she was going to text Rufus about the mayhem the books were causing by looking through those catalogues.

The Bookbelt is Open!

cypher_can_fly

It was a perfectly ordinary sort of day, and Owen was in a perfectly ordinary sort of mood.

Bar the part where all the books had decided to hide in boxes in the back today.

And so he was stuck going from the back to the front, trying to figure out how he'd somehow wound up living a life where he had to coax books out of their hiding places.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

Well, the excitement of no longer being the newest person on the island had worn off, perhaps, but the food hadn't!

... Yes, Owen had stolen a fair amount of pastries from the picnic yesterday. Was he snacking on them above the books? Of course not.

... The counter, however, was free game.

Mmm.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

Owen had fallen asleep a small, orange-y toy computer, sitting alone on a shelf somewhere in the Bookbelt.

He woke up a fully-sized teenage boy, sitting on top of a toppled bookshelf, surrounded by dust and cranky books and covered in paper cuts.

"What the... Ow! I need a medic!"

Well, okay, maybe that was a little overblown.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

The music was gentle, almost unobtrusive.

Outside.

Inside, it was blasting at high volume, and it was driving Owen insane. Bad enough that all the walls were now creepy stone and block-shaped 'bookcases' that looked like the books had been drawn on one dot at a time, but the music--!

"If I hadn't been here for a few months already, I'd think I was losing my mind," Owen sighed, watching the lava spark and pop outside in the store's sudden, unexpected moat. "Actually, jury's still a bit out on that, come to think."

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

This week hadn't been so bad. Certainly, Owen had sensed a few more... mishaps... in the area, but his senses didn't actually extend to knowing why, and. Well.

So he showed up reasonably early, and by the time anyone entered, they'd catch Owen humming an old tune to himself while he took books from one place and put them somewhere else.

Not all of them needed to be put elsewhere; he just wasn't in the mood to lounge just yet.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

Owen's head had been going haywire every night, these past few nights. Ah, it was bad enough during the day, but at night, when he could identify all the monsters wandering about outside... it didn't allow for a lot of sleeping.

Hopefully Nina would forgive him for opening up the shop, sitting down for a moment, and...

... passing out.

Sleep. Sweet sleep.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

Well, Owen had gotten turned around on at least seven seperate occasions, and he'd almost blown off the whole affair in favor of sitting in his room and eating... something.

Except then he'd remembered that the delivery people were no longer... doing their delivering. And he hadn't been here last weekend. And so he trudged obligingly towards his workplace, where he patted a book on the head (just to be certain) and settled behind the counter.

"Random hazards popping out of nowhere," he sighed. "Almost feels like home."

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

"Well, it's certainly cheery out there."

Did Owen expect the books to speak back? Of course he didn't. He wasn't an idiot. But some days, when the outside was just that dreary, you had to indulge a bit. Say the ridiculous things. Go with the whimsy.

"Doesn't seem like the sort of place they'd treat a book right in either," he added to the bookcase. "You lot are lucky, you're all safe in here with the fantastic Owen Corley and his dusting... rag..."

He squinted at it.

"...of wonder."

[[ open ]]

bookbeltof_love

Nina had figured that, like, she should probably go see what was up with her shop since it seemed wrong to leave Owen to do that, when she wasn't actually sure where he fell on the helpless-to-badass scale.

Her shop was… more than a little overgrown, greenery everywhere, and while it was damp like basically everything in this version of the island, it wasn't flooded, which was nice to see.

Honestly, the most confusing thing was…

"Um, like, where are all the books????????????" she wondered, peering at the empty shelves and wondering if something was going to jump out and try to eat her the way the books had clearly been eaten.

(Okay, they probably hadn't been eaten, but who knew in this place???????????)

And, eventually, she was going to get bored enough to sent out an email.

The Bookbelt is… Open?

[And OCD free!]

cypher_can_fly

It was a mightily pleasant week so far, wasn't it? Owen came to work whistling, with the occasional skip. It was a lot easier to segue back into his regular, brilliant, upbeat self when the island wasn't frustrating him at every turn.

He was humming as he went through the stacks, making sure everything was dusted and cleaned up and put in the right place.

Were the books humming back? Perhaps they were.

This week, he was intent on not letting anything throw him off his stride.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

"Well, I suppose at least nothing seems to have drowned."

Owen arrived to the Bookbelt fashionably late to open up. The lock creaked a bit. As, as it turned out, did much of the insides. "Since when do we have metal shelves?" he wondered. "And... are those fluorescent mushrooms? Did we go home unexpectedly?"

Beat.

"No, they'd be bigger."

He shook his head, cleaned up a bit, and then sat down to lounge behind the counter.

[[ open ]]

cypher_can_fly

Owen was fine.

Sure, he'd spent the better part of the past week - all right, the entire past week - locked inside his room trying... to make sense of the weekend-- yes, sense was the right word, just making loads of sense, ha ha. And so maybe he hadn't returned any of Nina's messages.

It happened! Sometimes he was forgetful!

He arrived to Book Haven with a smile practically tattooed onto his face. Unlocked the doors, and... found himself facing a massive expanse of water.

"You must be joking," he muttered.

Did that... did that mean he could go back to his room? Or did he have to swim, or...?

He had no idea.

[[ open ]]

bookbeltof_love

Eventually Nina's avoiding of her store—her responsibility ran out and she wound up there, dismally having to climb up onto the roof to access the building and then having to break into her own shop (and Rufus', but details) to survey the… damage.

The top floor—an unused apartment—was totally fine. Nicely dry, and Nina set the few things (her phone, her tablet) that she didn't want to get wet down there before bracing herself and heading for the rest of the store.

Only… well…

The rest of the store was…

Nina stared at the wall of water that stayed a wall of water as she opened the door leading to the store proper…

And then a school of books swam by.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina closed the door, briefly, then opened it again.

No, no, the books were still swimming about gaily through the completely flooded store front. Nina took a seat, fascinated despite herself, and after a moment took a video of it, to send to Rufus.

When her phone buzzed a moment later it was with, the entirely unjustified question:

What did you do?

"Rude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Store is not really open, but the post is!]

cypher_can_fly

"All right. Selling books, how hard can it be?"

... Owen had. No idea. How to do this job. But he was sure he was going to work it out.

"Right," he concluded, staring up at the building, "I suppose it helps if I know how to get in, first..."

It was Sunday, and the Bookbelt was... open? Sort of?

[[ open! ]]

bookbeltof_love

It was probably a bad call that Nina was now just flat out avoiding both her roomie, and her roomie's new murder-kitten (and Nina knew she had to stop thinking of the kitten that way, if she wanted to let go or move on like Sidon had said) but, well, it was a bad call she was making anyway.

Besides, today at least, she had the excuse of wanting to make sure everything in the shop was in order for showing Owen the ropes.

And if she spent a good part of that time curled up in one of the shop's chairs, scribbling in her diary, and sending off irritating texts to Rufus, just to remind him that she existed and that he co-owned a shop with her, and that she'd changed the name of it without consulting him…

Well, whatever.

The rain suited her mood perfectly.

The Bookbelt is Open!

bookbeltof_love

Nina breezed into the bookstore and stopped, eyeing the blond who eyed her right back, distaste already clear in his expression.

"Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, like this was some sort of surprise at all. (It really wasn't.) "I know who you are!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're the other blond who does my radio slot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He grimaced. "You can have it," he said flatly. "What are you doing here?"

"I quit my other job," Nina said, setting her bag down on the counter and heading around behind it. "Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your dog is adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And weird. Definitely weird. That was a tentacle. But she didn't miss the way that the guy thawed slightly at the dog's compliment.

"He--what are you doing?!"

Nina sat down on the other stool. "What's it look like?????????????? I'm now co-owner here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice to meet you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"What? No."

Book Haven is Open!!!!!!!!!

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