crystal, ota.

[murderbaby]

[Ahem.] Mhavos Dalat, a pleasure.

...There is a quote in Petrus Plowman, if one complains overmuch, one ought to do something about it. I suppose it is in that spirit I should introduce myself as head archivist. Largely, this task includes inventorying the library, the existing archives, and making sure we have what we need to move forward.

However, I cannot be everywhere at once, nor can I know everyone's needs. Please, if you notice a hole in our collections, or something missing where it once was not, please inform me post-haste.

In general, my hours are open, and I am easily found in the libraries. I don't believe I have an office, but I don't believe I need one.

On a final note, anyone hiding things in the library books should come forward now, or remove their hidden treasures before I find them. This includes, but is not restricted to, cod.

[ooc Introducing the official archival bullshit post.]

Comments

i'll fill out your form too but

[katabasis]

[A written list of necessary acquisitions, sent by runner:]

The Waking Sea, 6th edition. Melwyn Tharp.
Orlais and Nevarra, 2nd edition. Abram Blaeu.
Mountains and Rivers of Thedas, 4th edition. Kelley.
(If substitutions must be made, avoid Rombeau and Claude.)

If you come across anything by the essayist Malenna Vasco or the poet Deondre (ideally in Nevarran, though translation is acceptable), purchase it and I will refund you. 

nerd.

[murderbaby]

[Sent back:]

You are suggesting we make a naval section in the library. What else would aid that, or are these basics?

You have excellent taste in poetry. What is lost in the translation?

-M.D.

(yeah, well.)

[katabasis]

What I am suggesting is that our chartbooks are painfully outdated, and that these are the basics for anything we might care to do.

As to Deondre—she is an untitled woman writing in the vernacular of Nevarran courts. The impression has less clarity in Trade.

[At this point, the unnamed runner in typical Riftwatch mouth-off fashion probably says something to Mhavos along the lines of, 'Isn't there an enchanted book you could use for this nonsense?']

[murderbaby]

[Which is the point that the unnamed runner is informed that his master doesn't sign his notes. A name is named, and a note is written in a magical book.]

Serrah Flint,

Your runner, while charming, was liable to bleed me dry should this conversation continue as it had continued as such.

I have no knowledge of chartbooks, but if you tell me what to requisition, I'll go about rectifying our lack. Would you suggest anything aside from your previous list, or would that complete the collection?

Then my loss is doubled; I know nothing of Nevarran, vernacular or otherwise. I suppose I should rectify that as well.

Vasco's essays are an interesting choice as well.

[katabasis]

The note goes unanswered, but at some later point - a day, two -, a particular Forces Commander appears in the doorway of a particular workroom with a book in hand.

"Are you familiar with the work of Ezzelin Anastas? He was a Blessed Age poet in the Pentaghast court following the capture of Perendale. Admittedly, unpopular company; I'm uncertain if any of his work was ever translated."

[murderbaby]

Mhavos figured the good captain was busy... captaining, whatever that entails, and leaves it at that. He goes back to work. At some later time-- a day, two-- his nose is predictably in a book.

"Please at least entertain the notion of knoc-" He looks up to see who it is, and clears his throat. The man is imposing, to say the least. Doubly so when you're barely five feet tall. "Yes- yes. I've heard his work referenced in others, but I've never been able to find a translation. I only speak Orlesian and Trade."

[katabasis]

"I can't imagine any of it was sought out by his Orlesian contemporaries. But these things have a way of finding their way into the light regardless."

He's slow to move from the doorway, unhurried as he crosses the room. The book is turned over, and in it a place is marked by a folded piece of parchment. The cover is ambiguous, but the contents are clear. This copy isn't in translation either, but there has been some effort made on the piece of paper. It is, at a glance, more annotation of the earmarked piece than it translation. This word could mean this, but it also could be written as this. A cross-reference to some other piece, written later by another man with contents popular enough to be found in translation. So on.

On the back is also a list of collected maps and charts.

"Deondre borrows his phrasing more than once."

[murderbaby]

"They do; Gagneux's Blessed Histories make minor note of his influence in court, or lack thereof."

Though Mhavos' eye is on the book and the paper with it. He turns his slightly head to the side, not hiding his interest in what Captain Flint is holding. He suspects the conversation on poetry, while interesting (very interesting, he wishes they had more books in common; another reason to learn Nevarran) is not the entire point.

But he's not going to let it go.

"You seem to have a particular interest in unpopular Nevarran poets. Is that common, in Tevinter? I'm asking genuinely; I've never been, as if I had, I'd likely never left."

[katabasis]

Something shifts in the lines of his face, a sideways twitch of his mouth that meets the remark, then elects to step around it in favor of: "More than you might expect. The two share a common impulse toward expansion, and a certain dislike for powerful women in Orlais. But no."

He nods to the book, the slip of paper, the effort.

"I can't say that Anastas is admired especially there either."

[murderbaby]

"Always so charming, to find one's political opinions shared with the famous dead." He doesn't like the Empress, what a shocker.

Gingerly, he takes the note and the book. The note, he carefully placed in a neat pile of others, with the words Requisitions - Library written above. The book, he places to the side with a careful reverence; a borrowed book is nothing to be trifled with, regardless of whether it belongs to a pirate captain. (And also, especially if it belongs to a pirate captain.)

"You're down three for three, then. But as eclectic literary interests go, I can't fault you. What survives despite negative reaction-- I always find great respect for those authors and their works. It is a hard thing to survive while one is alive. Unimaginably so when one is dead."

[katabasis]

Well. Maybe that's true. Certainly the version of the thing matters, and whose hand copied this one? Who translated it, or who refused to and why? Anastas writes about a the giant squire of a knight, and the pernicious crab who kills him. Whose bitter sentiment keeps the crab's claw sharp?

"I didn't expect it to be an easily satisfied request. I only ask that you keep your eyes open on my behalf. But, seeing as you've taken it upon yourself to see my crew educated, I trust you have some fondness for impossible tasks."

[murderbaby]

An slight smile. He spreads his hands toward the library. "Perhaps." And then, "Your... first mate? Quarterman? Serrah Silver dared me to steal books from Hightown, and I am not a credit to my race."

A shrug. It's self-deprecating, not self-loathing.

"But I respect personal collections, and if I see anything that I think would interest you, I'll pass it along. Our library doesn't need an extensive prose selection, but I hate to see the things wasted."