TROUBLE TO MY LEFT ☆ books

[wormwood.]

Ever since he had been a child, Wormwood had been absolutely enchanted with many different kinds of stories. Back when he had been a cub, he hadn't been able to read stories from books, but the occasional members of the pride who were actually kind to him would tell him stories verbally that he would hang onto every word of, his eyes wide and his breath catching whenever they got to the exciting parts of the stories, usually leaving him on a cliffhanger and ushering him off to do something that he needed to do with the promise that he could hear the next part of the story if he did well. Part of him had always wished that it had been his parents telling him those stories, rather than some random member of the pride that took pity upon him, but he had always been happy, as long as he could dream about being like the heroes in the stories, or dream of having friends and family like the ones that supported the protagonists. Ones so unlike the friends that he didn't have back then, and so unlike the parents that he had that had ignored him and showed him no love.

As he had grown, the hellhound had continued to love the stories from his childhood, and had become more and more curious about the stories that were contained within the human books he had occasionally encountered. On his lengthy journey from leaving the pride to eventually arriving in Tanglewood, Wormwood had slowly taught himself the language of the humans, and had collected many different books of many different genres, eventually packing them all up into a little satchel and stashing it away at the edge of the territory when he had arrived, just in case he hadn't been accepted, or had to run for some reason. However, after he had been accepted into the group, he had taken his satchel of books and dragged it into his little new home, eventually migrating all of the books that he had brought with him up onto their own little shelf. As time had gone on, Worm had accumulated more and more of the different books, sometimes from his long walks out through the territory, sometimes from traveling merchants that visited Tanglewood, and sometimes even from other people's homes, such as Feza's party store or the bunker. He had amassed a pretty impressive collection that took up an entire large bookshelf in his house, and he had actually been pretty damn proud of it. There weren't many things that he kept in his house, since he tended to keep a very clean and calm little house, and his books were one of the only things that livened up the place, with their many different spines of varying colors. Still, it was time for him to make a change.

Recently Roy had approached him, hesitating apprehensively before he had voiced a want to move in with Wormwood, to live with his new adoptive Father and really feel like he was a member of the group, and not just an outlier living within the jungle and struggling against his own flames. Wormwood had been quick to agree to take in his son, and now it meant that he'd be having the small tiger living within his little wooden house. He knew Roy didn't have many possessions yet – he didn't have any in fact, since he had been living in the woods – but he wanted to make sure that when Roy did acquire things of his own, he'd have plenty of space to put them in. So, he had decided to get rid of some of his beloved books, and give them to others, or just donate them to the library that the group had. After all, if he went that route, he could always just go and grab the books for himself if he really wanted to read them at that very moment.

So, right now Wormwood was pulling a large cardboard box of the many different kinds of literature out of his home, the hellhound's teeth sunk into the rim of the of the box as he pulled it carefully down his steps. Once they were at the bottom, he sighed and stood on his hind legs, glancing inside the box and looking over the small chunk of his collection before sighing heavily. He mumbled as he sat back down, eying the stories that he had decided he didn't need around constantly, "It's a shame to get rid of so many... but Roy should have his own space too."

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[arcy]

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[glow=#000,1,400]all you've ever done is been a noose to hang on to — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

[div style="width: 480px; height: auto; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 13px;"]For somebody who didn't read, Crowley knew a lot about books. Or, more accurately, somebody who couldn't read. Not because of a lack of knowledge, of course. In the modern age, at least among the humans, the ability to read in small amounts was a necessity. It was just, his eyes just couldn't focus on the text. It came with the whole snake eyes thing.
.. Of course, this was a well-kept secret. Not even Aziraphale knew -- hence Crowley's very small collection of books he'd been gifted. Presumably, it was just a thinly-veiled prod for him to start reading.
Crowley, of course, just took to audiobooks.
This is ... besides the point.
"I thought it'd be a few decades 'til I'd have to see this many books outside of a library," Crowley comments, amused. Almost on autopilot, he'd drifted over and hopped onto a step behind Wormwood. He hadn't even realized these guys could read, but he's long since given up on being surprised by any of the ongoings here. "It can't be that hard to just expand some rooms, can it?" He's trying to fish for something mildly judgmental to say, for his reputation, and fails. Because, honestly, Crowley has no idea how hard it would be, and is failing at hiding it. He just knows that it's a Very Unfortunate Thing for most book hoarders to have to give up some of their collection, and finds himself somewhat surprised that Wormwood has given up such a big box for whoever this Roy is.
Then again, not everyone is as obsessed as Aziraphale. So, Crowley hops down from the step, and circles around to the opposite end of the box. "What're you planning on doing with them?" Crowley's maw stretches in a somewhat disconcerting, unhinged yawn. It's just smalltalk, really -- it has nothing to do with any other thoughts bouncing around in his head.*
*Crowley has been doing mental gymnastic trying to justify every single one of his thoughts, lately, and is somehow managing to make it worse(better, really) than it'd been initially.

[selby roux !]

[align=center][div style="width: 51%; text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -1px; font-family: georgia;"]Books had always held a significant presence in Selby’s life. His fondest memories often included them, and many of them had helped shape his view of the world and how he wanted to navigate it. Needless to say, reading was among his favorite pastimes, though the time to do it had decreased radically in recent times. His medic duties took up a large portion of his time now; and Pastel’s death, only a short month ago, still felt new and raw and had gone largely unaddressed.

This particular afternoon found Selby taking a much needed break in the form of a walk. Despite the recent turn in the seasons, the weather was still uncomfortably warm most of the time. Today, however, the humidity was low and there was a pleasant breeze wafting through the territory. It seemed only smart to take advantage of this.

In the distance, he spotted a familiar face with one that wasn’t so familiar. Though his plans had not initially contained socialization, he hadn’t seen Wormwood outside of an emergent situation lately, so he decided it would be best to head over. When he got close enough, he recognized the odd figure as Crowley, someone who he hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know quite yet. "Hello, Wormwood, Crowley" Selby greeted pleasantly as he approached. "What’re you doing with all those books? They seem heavy." Craning his neck a little, the sawbone could spot numerous novels in the open container. Why would Wormwood be moving so many books? His mind flickered to his own bookshelf in his old house, mentally reminding himself that he needed to find the time to pack.

[wormwood.]

The first two people to arrive on the scene were Crowley and Selby, two that Wormwood enjoyed being around, and one that he was just beginning to get to know. When Crowley commented on never having seen so many books outside of a library, Worm snorted and shook his head a little, amused. He did have to admit that it could seem like he had been hoarding books as his life went on, but in all honesty he had read nearly every book in his extensive collection, with the only exceptions being the books that he had received very recently, and hadn't had a chance to read yet. When Crowley questioned how hard it was to expand his home, the hellhound glanced back at the wooden building before barking softly, "I'm not sure how hard it would be, honestly. Would probably be pretty easy if I had earth elementals, cause then I could just shift the wood to create more room, but unfortunately all I've got is my fire elementals... and unless I wanna burn my house down entirely, I doubt they'll be of much use." He then said, beginning to pull books out of the box and place them covers up so that Crowley and Selby could see what they were about, "I was gonna donate most of them to the library, but first I was gonna see if anybody wanted to take some of them. Might as well share with others before I just shove them in the old dusty shelves of the library, ya know?"

When Selby questioned what he was doing with all the books, Worm awkwardly scratched the back of his neck with a paw, remembering that it hadn't exactly been like Roy had publicly asked him if he could move it. Still, it wasn't as if the young tiger would want him to keep it a secret. After all, the whole reason that Roy wanted to move into Worm's house wasn't only because he wanted to become closer to his adoptive father, but also because he wanted to be around the rest of the town some more. Deciding it would he fine to share, the male mumbled as he flicked his paw over some of the book titles, as if showing them off, "Roy wants to move into my house now that he can actually live in town, so I'm getting rid of some of my books so that we have more room. He doesn't exactly have much with him right now, but I still want him to have space on my shelves for when he does get things as he gets older. If you wanted any of these you can take them. I've noticed that you're a lover of books too." The books that Wormwood had dragged out were of all different shapes and genres, ranging from informative books made for teachers and students, to simple story books that were just for feeling happy for a while.

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[torren]

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K a l o n . n.
In the relatively short time the youth spent among Tanglewood, a fairly sizable portion belonged to time in the library.  The place stood quietly more often than not, a silent refuge with air tasting of dust and biblichor.  A place his mind now associated with a pair of heterochromic eyes - the ice blue of winter and soft amber of autumn.  Despite lacking the grandeur of his kingdom's library, Torren felt a growing attachment to the old building.

Finding a great deal of books outside the building presented a pleasant change of pace however.  Growing curiosity drew the wildcat towards the trio.  A brief image of those eyes surfaced in his mind, thoughts turning in the mild wonder of whether he should find their owner.  In light of possible tensions, the prince decided against actively seeking her, but kept her in the back of his mind.  A few new books in her personal collection may improve her mood.  Well, maybe I'll just pick something we'd both be interested in and I can share with her.

"If I may," the boy began politely, inclining his head briefly, "would you have anything astronomy related here?"  History or myth mattered little, as he fondly recalled sharing the night sky with Kiira.  "Regardless, I'm also happy to offer a paw moving the books wherever they need to go, should you need one."

[wormwood.]

Yet another person arrived on the scene, and it was none other than Torren. Someone Worm didn't know particularly well, but found that he did enjoy the younger male's company, since he was surprisingly refined and kind, and they even had the fact that they were both princes in common, not that Wormwood knew that, since it wasn't as if they had just sat around and discussed princely duties. In addition to that, Worm wasn't even sure if he still counted as a prince anymore, thanks to his parents being dead. If he was back in the pride, he supposed that he would be king now... the thought made his stomach roll, since he didn't particularly want to be the king of the pride anymore. It had been his goal for ages back when he had been a cub, but now the thought of returning to a group of lions that had hated and disrespected him for so long, instead of just staying with the people in Tanglewood who now felt like some of his best friends and his true family... he would never return there. He'd take Tanglewood over being pride king any day, he was sure of it. If he had known about Torren's status, he probably would've wondered what Torren thought of his lineage and his life... perhaps being a prince was a dream for him, rather than a nightmare.

The male realized he had been zoned out for a long moment, and he quickly shook his had to chase away his wild thoughts, a small smile gracing his muzzle. When Torren asked if he had anything astronomy related to read, he blinked and nodded, the hellhound turned towards the large box and beginning to root through it, being especially careful not to rip anything up. Eventually he was able to find a couple of books on stars and constellations, ones that he used to remember fondly, since he had used them to stargaze with Poetking... now they just sort of made his heart ache, which was why the male had decided they would be added into the box of rejects. Pulling them out carefully with his toothy maw, he moved to place them down in front of Torren before barking softly, his tail wagging from side to side at the thought of his books going to someone who would really appreciate them – evidently a couple of someones, although Worm himself wasn't aware of it, "I've got these, if that's what you're thinking of. They can help with stuff like stargazing, or just knowing what something is when there's a weird star in the sky."

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