# [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has devised another activity to occupy her days. By the calendar's reckoning, the start of spring is roughly a week away. Between her and Tress, they've got the outline of a plan for the next Dark, and Susan is happy to rely on people who've got greater interest in and skill for growing things insofar as agriculture goes. But the growing season here shall be longer than usual, and Susan should like to have some idea about what that might mean for the ecosystem,

This is her flimsy excuse to pardon the latest stack of books she's currently carrying out of the library. There is a marginal off-chance that preparatory reading on soil biota could, potentially, be useful. Perhaps she might even talk someone else into reading on the subject as well, so that they might discuss it.

Comments

[futaille]

Grantaire, on the other hand, is heading to the library with half a mind to find a book on bees, but fully willing to grab anything else that caught his fancy instead, when Susan emerges. "Oh, hello. You managed quite the haul."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I believe the library is working double-time in the wake of Dark," says Susan, wryly. "Hello Grantaire."

[futaille]

"Clearly it wants to make up for lost time. Libraries yearn for readers and if if has no books of note, what is there to entice them?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps," says Susan. She scoots to the side so that Grantaire can pass. "What have you come for?"

[futaille]

"Bees." He shrugs. "Or if something more interesting than bees rears its head instead, then that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Bees!" says Susan, shifting - she's got a general entomology textbook in the pile somewhere - "Whatever for?"

[futaille]

"They came up in conversation the other day and it remained in mind, so why not bees?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose." Susan has found the textbook in the pile; she goes back into the library so that she can set the books down and work it out of the mix.

[futaille]

He trails behind her into the room. "One never knows if one might be asked to give a lecture on bees, after all."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is coming in as she's going out, since his own stash of romances is getting low, and he narrowly avoids a collision. "Hello."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh! Galahad," says Susan, peering at him over her pile of books. She wedges herself against the door, holding it open for him. "Hello."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Thank you." He pauses. "Do you need help?" Her arms are probably stronger than his now, considering the archery, but he doesn't think not to offer.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has it handled, but it is rather unwieldy if she's to avoid running into anyone in the halls. Another set of arms would be helpful. "Only if you're not busy."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad shakes his head. His task isn't urgent.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Then I should be grateful for your help," says Susan. "Perhaps if you take the top half of the stack?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Carefully, he selects the top five books. It isn't precisely half, but he's still learning the limits to his strength and he doesn't want to have to call a halt. "What are you reading about?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Brightly - Galahad is a budding scientist; surely he'll grasp the joy of a new research spiral - Susan says, "Dirt, generally speaking. Specifically soil biota, which are the organisms which live within the dirt."

[az_fell]

Where there's a library, there's a mediocre angel¹ wandering his way in with his head rather typically in the clouds. He brightens a bit when he sees Susan -- it's been quite some time, aside from across various large social gatherings, but he does recall that he found her accent comforting. "Ms. Pevensie!"

¹One with a rude narrator, apparently.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Why must mediocre angels happen to magnificent women? "Hello," she says, pitch-perfectly polite.

[az_fell]

"Aziraphale," he supplies helpfully, in case she's forgotten or some such. "How have you been getting on?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, just fine, thank you," she says, still politely. "And you?"

[az_fell]

"Much improved, with that wretched month behind us," admits Aziraphale. "It was noble of you to administer the liquor. What are you reading?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It had to be done," says Susan, who doesn't think much of an angel who didn't help during a time of need. It should go without saying that she's still perfectly pleasant and polite, of course, and will continue to do so unless otherwise noted. She holds up the stack of books so that he might read the spines.

[az_fell]

"How... specific," he says, but in tones of genuine interest, "but I suppose spring is, hopefully, coming. I was quite curtailed, you know." He's circling back now to the first thing she said. "Couldn't do a useful miracle for the life of me."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No?"