[Solo] Rubble & Rebuilding

by **Euthisa** on November 18th, 2013, 4:55 am

5th of Spring 512 AV

Everyone had spent the last couple days locked indoors, as protected as possible from the Djed storm and its horrible effects as possible. Fear was rigid in the air and spread throughout the city like wildfire. Euthisa had cowered in her room, balled up under her blanket, knees to her chin, or eventually sleeping, waiting until word spread that it was safe to emerge from confinement. All welcomed the sunlight and new air, but were devastated by what lay outside their doors. The city was in shambles. Debris was scattered almost everywhere, buildings were horribly damaged, and the people shared a deeply rooted shock and level of fear with their feathered companions. Some areas were worse than others, the volcanic city was often protected by its’ location, but this had been inescapable.

Bolting to The Enclave, Euthisa’s worry rose with every step she took, as she made her way through the countless piles of rubble on her way to where she so often spent her time contributing back to her home and her fellow people. She passed dozens of people, some quiet and still in shock, others wailing with emotion, and others already set about clearing the messes that covered their beautiful city. The people were a determined race, there was no denying that, and their ability to pull together in times of need was amazing, to put it mildly. The bewilderment already possessing her to the core only intensified upon her arrival, pale hands covering her gaping mouth.

The Enclave was a disaster. The building was damaged enough on the outside, she almost dared not go inside, for it was surely just as bad. Pressing on, shoving aside debris to clear the door, Euthisa yanked open the door and stepped foot inside the entry way. Her face registered almost no emotion, as astonishment took over at what lay before her. Whole bookcases were toppled over everywhere, shelves of other cases were collapsed, and ink wells lay scattered and shattered leaving behind black, inky stains and shards of glass. Pages from countless texts were strewn everywhere, covering the floor, resting atop desks, and mixing with other pages to rewrite their own stories. Picking her way through the debris, careful not to step in and track ink, or step on books themselves, Euthisa made her way through as much of the library as she could access, assessing the full spectrum of the damage.

She picked up a few books that had fallen on the upturned furniture, bindings loose and falling apart, pages threatening to free themselves and join the others on their grand adventure of the library. Her heart ached for the damage. So much knowledge would be lost. It’d be impossible, or entirely close to it, to try and collect all the pages and put them back where they belong. It would have to all be collected and sorted, in hopes that when it came time to recopy the damaged texts, perhaps not all the information would be lost. Shelves would need rebuilding, debris cleared out, stains scrubbed as best as possible, the workload to getting the Enclave back on track piled in her mind. Her work was cut out for her.

by **Euthisa** on November 18th, 2013, 5:14 am

It was morning, and not wishing to put it off any longer, Euthisa set straight to work, right then and there. Gods only knew who else may show up to help later, but she was there already and it was as good a time as any to get started. Oh where to start though? The librarian pulled her long crimson hair into a ponytail, up and out of the way, hands returning to her hips as she stood in thought. It would be easier to clear debris and replace damaged and broken bookcases with a clear floor to walk on. That’s where she’d start. First order of business, clear the floor. Winding her way back through the Enclave, she reached the entry way, and began working. She figured she’d clear one room at a time and go from there.

She began clearing off the front desks first. It wasn’t the floor, but she would need a place to keep all salvageable book pages for later use. The desks were a good place for that. They were mostly intact, a few baring damage from fallen roofing. The rest were in full working order, providing a perfect place to lay stacks of paper. She carried all building debris to a section of floor near the front doors, where it would be easier to take elsewhere. Dust was wiped off with pale hands and pushed onto the floor, to be swept up once everything was picked up off it. Any books there were put in stacks along the front of the desks. She would deal with all of those later. When the backside of the desks were free of clutter, she set to work collecting the scattered pages all over the entry way.

While she mostly just stacked them in the crook of her arm and kept collecting, she stopped to glance at a few. They were all mixed together, pages of history attempting to tell a new story with pages of flora and fauna, while deity information mingled with hunting basics, and so forth. Realizing that reading what she was picking up only made her dread more and more the task of putting it all back together, Euthisa went back to simply collecting the scattered pages, running back to the desks to stack them alongside others when the bundles grew too much in size to handle efficiently.

Any more debris was pushed with nimble feet or carried to the door, piled with the rest to be removed later. Books were stacked with the rest in front of the desks, and any pages too ruined by tears or the broken ink wells were put in piles next to the debris at the door. When the debris, pages, and books were picked up off the floor of the entrance way, she set to work carefully making piles of broken glass from the ink wells. When the entrance way was as clear as she could manage alone, and with no equipment, she moved on to the first part of the library, to repeat the process, as she would have to do for the next few days to get the Enclave back in decent shape.

by **Euthisa** on November 27th, 2013, 1:51 am

The next room was in worse shape than the entry way had been. The same scattered disasters of the first room were present here as well, but this room held dozens of bookcases, all of which were either damaged or fallen over. Deducing that once more, the floor would need to be clear in order to assess the bookcase damages, she set to work repeating the organization process she’d begun in the other room. The first few bookcases of this room originally housed the random books traded in from travelers as well as the Enclave’s selection of fiction, both Wind Reach originated and not. The center set of cases held all the fact-based books of Wind Reach, the ones most often used, as they were for study. Wind Reach’s history books as well as the full set of encyclopedias housed there, coupled with The Enclave’s oldest documents and books, were shelved in the back, partially for safer keeping.

She made stacks of debris, pages, and books at the entrance to this room, just as she had done in the entrance lobby. She attempted to salvage what parts of the bookcases as she could. A few shelves could be rearranged and put back into place, though most were broken and would need total replacing. She next began trying to stand up the cases that weren’t totally destroyed, and now devoid of the books usually cozied upon the shelves, were much lighter for her to lift. She was able to stand up most of them, and what ones she couldn’t, she left to have picked up by the Dek who would be arriving soon to clean up the library.

Next, she began straightening the upturned furniture. Couches and chairs were lain on their sides or backs, tables were leaning, broken, or completely upside down, more glass lay strewn about, and the many candles that were always in use were either broken or had rolled off and sat in places they weren’t supposed to be. Hours had passed, it was around mid-day now, reminding Euthisa that others would soon be arriving to assess the damage and help clean. Once straightening the furniture, she made her way back to the front lobby, waiting for her help to arrive. Moments later, a small group of Dek entered the Enclave, awaiting duties. Euthisa split them up, telling two of them to begin removing the debris and glass from that room, and ordered the others to work on the shelves in the next room. The first two were also ordered to repeat the same process in the next room when they finished with the lobby. As a team, the remaining Dek would be able to stand up the book cases that Euthisa wasn’t able to on her own, and from there she could further assess the damages.

Another hour or so passed, and Euthisa found the Dek had done a fine job of completing their assigned tasks. Walking through the Enclave, still far from up and running, but in much better shape than when she’d arrived that morning, Euthisa made notes on the Enclave’s damage and what internal supplies and structures needed replacing. Inkwells, bookcases, and candles would need replacing, and many more bookcases would need to be removed and repaired. It was very apparent to Euthisa: The Enclave would be inoperable for a while, and she would slave away inside it to see it running properly again.

by **Euthisa** on December 2nd, 2013, 4:41 am

Getting back to repairs and cleaning, Euthisa ordered one Dek to begin work on scrubbing the ink stains in the floors from the broken ink wells, and of the remaining Dek at her disposal, they were asked to accompany her to the classrooms in the other side of the Enclave to start cleaning in there. It was just as disastrous in there as it had been in the other rooms, a tired sigh escaping the librarian’s lips. Beginning to start standing up and straightening all of the furniture, a couple of Dek were ordered to start stacking any and all books and materials near the front as in the other rooms, and the others were asked to start gathering all the loose papers and book pages to put in separate stacks. They willingly complied with her directions, working diligently and straight away. This was a relief to the librarian, the last thing she needed was more stress and a bigger headache from unruly Dek. She’d enforce her authority if necessary, but she dearly hated to do so. Her mother had always treated the Dek fondly, and she’d been raised the same way. If negativity and violence was avoidable, then it should very well be avoided.

When the furniture was fixed, albeit with much of it needing repairs, Euthisa added the damages of the classrooms to her list and headed back into the main part of the library. She rested in one of the bigger chairs, closing her eyes and picturing the Enclave up and running again, and imagining the immense feeling of pride and accomplishment she would feel at having been such a large part in its recovery. The thought was a warm one, filling her with a friendly fire that would fuel her efforts in seeing her dreams come true for the place she often called a second home. Pushing on to keep working, Euthisa stood to check on the Dek in the classrooms. They were still working, and the classrooms were slowly but surely coming along. Adding to their orders, when they were finished piling and sorting things, they were directed to remove debris as they’d done in the other rooms. That should occupy them long enough for me to do a few other things before calling it a day, she thought to herself before returning to the lobby. Both there and in the main room, when stacking the random books, she’d strategically placed the badly damaged books in separate piles from the ones just missing pages.

Grabbing the first stack of badly damaged books, Euthisa placed them near the large chair she’d been sitting in moments ago, and went to the supply closet in the back of the library. It was surprisingly mostly devoid of damage, and its contents were surprisingly protected. Thankful, Euthisa grabbed the glue, a stack of the thin wooden covers kept in there, and the roll of twine and returned to the chair. She would take the time to do some book repairs while the Dek finished up and before she sent them home at the end of the day, which was approaching ever closer.

by **Euthisa** on December 2nd, 2013, 4:58 am

Now comfortably sitting in the chair, the stack of damaged books on the floor to her right, and repair supplies on the table next to her, Euthisa began work repairing the books. Many covers were cracked and broken, while others were ink stained and damaged. A good number had their twine coming undone, and virtually all of them had missing pages. Sorting and replacing all the of the thousands of pages that’d been scattered literally everywhere inside the Enclave would be a project that would stem over the next couple weeks, as would the repairing and replacing of book cases and shelves. She refused to even consider how long it would take to repair the damaged roof and windows as welll, once again noting how daunting and drawn out it would be to get the Enclave back in the shape it had been in before.

The first book she started repairing had the twining coming undone and pages now slipping out. Unknotting the tangles in the twine, Euthisa unbound the book, making a separate pile of the old pieces to be disposed of. Once unbound, Euthisa retied the twining of the pages with new twine, and once held securely together, she picked up the glue. She used this to attach the bound pages to a pair of new covers, holding everything in place until it dried to ensure it stayed. When it did, the librarian formed yet another stack of repaired books next to the pile of damaged ones. Ticks, chimes, and even a few bells flew by, and before the Chiet knew it, she was surrounded by the piles before her. It was early evening now, and the Dek finished all she’d asked of them. Euthisa thanked them for their help, bringing smiles to their poor faces, and sent them home for the night, asking them to dispose of her pile of damaged book pieces on their way out. She left her stacks where they lay, and she too closed up the library for the evening. Tired and sore, Euthisa took her time going home, and once there, lay down atop her bed and was out like a light in just a few moments. She’d sleep hard tonight, and continue tomorrow.

by **Skerry** on December 20th, 2013, 11:43 am

Grades

Euthisa

Skill	XP
Leadership	2
Observation	4
Organization	4
Planning	1
Repairing	2
Writing	1

LORES :

Notes:
A very good thread. I’m glad to know that you can put prompts to such good use.

Just a note, Euthisa. You mentioned buildings a few times but you have to remember that Wind Reach is a cave system so you can’t have buildings in the traditional sense. Just something to bear in mind for the future.
Remember if you have any questions or problems with your grade then feel free to PM me.

Flashback [Solo] Rubble & Rebuilding