Lost-Alikes {ENDED} (871 views)

[Blue]

With Audrey's words, Sweet humbly and solemnly enters the archivist's office. The voice of the archivist can be heard, welcoming the invisible Neopet warmly as she stepped in.

"Yes, it's good to see you again too, Finneus," Sweet replied, in a well-mannered and formal tone, with a faint smile. "No, no, my brothers aren't accompanying me today..." Their conversation began to fade slowly as the Gelert went even further into the office.

It has been years since Sweet and three of her brothers, a few of the Neopians, helped restore Altador to its former glory. They had been through the challenging quest together, solving puzzles that unraveled the mystery hidden within and have witnessed what had become of the Darkest Faerie's statue before it had been shattered to this day. The council has praised them for their services as well.King Altador even permitted them to return to claim their reward when available. This is why Sweet visited them a little while back before she met Audrey at the park. The archivist and Sweet's family had been acquaintances for a long time now. Even all the notes from the clues Sweet's brother collected were still there.

From outside the door, Sweet and the archivist's faint voices were heard. Minutes later, Sweet exits the office. "Alright." she called Audrey's attention. "We're allowed to enter the library." she pointed at the closed door at the other side. "This way."

[Otter]

Audrey placed her hands on her hips as Sweet entered the archivist's office, not at all interested in their conversations. Instead, her eyes drifting to the sun her mind wandered back to her concerns about her own family. Immediately her impatience kicked in and she slowly paced around the area. "What's taking so long..." she grumbled, narrowed eyes staring into the office. From the distance she could see parts of Sweet and the archivist talking to each other happily, seemingly acquainted with each other. Audrey snorted, her pacing slightly kicking up in speed. "Hurry uuuup...!" She stopped pacing mid-growl, turning her head towards the door to the archives. Before she could finish contemplating going in, she heard a familiar dull voice and almost threw her hands up in the air.

"Finally," she spoke, as if exasperated. Without waiting for Sweet she led the way and unclipped the purple ropes that denied them entrance, holding it up for Sweet to hold and re-clip back. She opened the door.

Cool air drifted out of the beginning room. Audrey smiled and took a deep inhale, remembering the dusty smell some of the more far-off rooms had simply because they were hardly ever reached to. She could even taste the smell. "So, lead the way," she said to Sweet, turning back with a smirk. She thought Sweet would get them lost.

[Blue]

"Hmm." Sweet shrugged. Still she spoke emotionlessly. She walked into the library and started searching in one of the book shelves. "I'll look here." Sweet took one book and skimmed it. "The archivist doesn't have a very clear memory of where it is--" She looked at Audrey, believing the Grarrl would get annoyed or displeased. "Pssh, don't get too upset about it. He did say it's very rare to find now, though he does remember a little bit about the book cover: gray-like with polygonal geometric symbols and a yellow text label that says 'Time Travel'..." She paused. "Okay. Pretty straight-forward." She cleared her throat. "I'm sure we'll find it..." She returned the book she was skimming awhile ago back into the shelves and continued searching. Within minutes, Sweet stood in the middle of the library staring at the book shelves surrounding them. "...eventually."

Sweet took a deep breath and let out a huge sigh. "Well. This is going to be a long day." She remarked sarcastically. "You know what they say, 'Time is an issue, but patience is a virtue'." She gives her companion one last look. "Don't get mad at me," Then looks away. "I'm already helping you." She added, trying to sound comforting.

[Otter]

Quietly Audrey watched Sweet with a smug grin on her face. She wasn't disappointed, in fact, by the archivist's aging memory; she was enjoying Sweet's apparent failures just a little too much. Wordlessly she watched and followed her invisible acquaintance, listening to the floating clothes' words and chuckling whenever Sweet seemed down. It was Sweet's last words that finally broke Audrey's condescending mood and brought her grin to a frown. She couldn't tell if she felt annoyed or not, but her body decided to make her slightly the former.

"Oh yes, I'm well aware of that," Audrey responded, her tone somewhat calm yet with a hint of irritation. Immediately she lost the need to be unreasonably angry and sighed, a wave of guilt washing over her. Now she just felt irritated at herself. Finally deciding to help Sweet in the search, she thought about the description Sweet provided. "Isn't there an index or something to look for books under alphabets or genres or something?" she questioned, folding her arms.

[Blue]

It has been going on for hours. A few books had been scattered on the floor. Along with Audrey, they continued searching. Sweet remained determined even though with a blank expression. The Gelert read every single label of books she passed by from top to bottom of every bookshelf in the room, except for one more. B would've found that book by now. He's a fast reader. Sweet thought to herself.

While Audrey was asking a question, the Gelert was too busy scanning through the shelf. "Yeah, there should be..." Sweet answered offhandedly to the Grarrl. "Did you find where the catalog is--Hmm?"

Something caught her eye. Was it the book they were searching for? Sweet dusted it off, but soon revealed that it was a shiny blue book, with 3 golden spirals holding it together. "Oh. It's just a spell book." Sweet placed it on the floor next to her. She gave it quite a stare until she snapped out of it and continued searching again. "Have you found the catalog anywhere, Audrey? I'm pretty sure you can remember better than I can."

[Otter]

"Actually, I was trying to get your attention..." Audrey stated with obvious irritation. After asking about the catalog she went off to locate it. She hoped her memory here was still accurate--and, thankfully, it was. It was a rather enormous book, apparently recorded with every book available in the archives by the archivist himself--or so she assumed. It looked nearly impossible to carry, but she couldn't help but try; after a few tries she found she could lift it off the rack, but with her arms struggling under the weight she immediately gave in and placed it back down. She took it as a victory nonetheless.

"Time Travel, Time Travel..." she said to herself as she tried to look up the book. "Here. It's deeper in the archives!" She yelled the new information to Sweet.

[Blue]

The invisible Gelert overheard Audrey and approached her. "My apologies. I was fascinated over the spell book I found." Sweet came to take a close look at the book Audrey found. "Anyway, how about you lead the way this time?"

As Sweet followed Audrey further into the archives, the Gelert felt like she was too cold towards the Grarrl. She began talking. "Listen. I know we got off the wrong track and being sore at each other. I guess I can be a little too serious." Sweet scratched her head. But still with that dull tone of hers, no one could tell what she was really feeling.

[Otter]

"It would be my pleasure," the Grarrl responded with a very broad smile, going through the door nearest them. The room next door, as expected, seemed exactly like the one they left. Because of her experiences here, however, Audrey knew the maze very well and continued through doors without any worry. She was silent the whole way, focused on navigating through the correct path; even if they did end up lost, however, she'd find their way back.

Audrey perked up as she heard her companion speak. Her alertness quickly died of irritation towards Sweet's lackluster voice. Thankfully they had reached the correct room to locate the book, so she quickly turned around to face the floating clothes. "I can't even tell if you're being honest. It'd help if you didn't sound like a robot all the time." Her eyes narrowed. "We're here. Let's get to lookin'." Audrey turned towards the nearest shelf.

[Blue]

Sweet does so as well and began searching again. The shelves seemed to be covered with dust bunnies. Suddenly, she began clearing her throat and coughing. It echoed around the room. The gelert pounded her chest. But while doing so, she accidentally grabbed a book, covered with a lot of dust, and dropped it on the floor.

"Ugh..." She coughed. "Don't mind me. I just caught something in--" she cleared her throat once more. She ignored the book that was on the floor and continued searching. It seemed that the drop had caused some of the dust to come off of the book. On the cover it reveals the label that reads, "Time Travel". Still, Sweet did not see that, but at least she stopped coughing.

[Otter]

The dust in this part of the archives was ridiculous. Audrey also fell into a bout of coughing, snorting every now and then due to particles tickling her inside nostrils, though it wasn't as bad as Sweet seemed to be taking it. She'll get used to it, she thought as she conducted her search.

"Make sure you're putting the books back where they belong," she called over to Sweet, blowing a whirlwind away from the book she was holding. She remembered the pile they left in the last room they were in and she felt bad; the archivist would have to clean their mess later. Seeing the book Sweet dropped, she narrowed her eyes at the invisible Neopet and walked over, picking up the dropped book and blowing it clean. She stared at the title.

"Hey! Here it is!" she cried with a smile.

[Blue]

Sweet overheard Audrey and turned around towards the Grarrl. "Hmm? Ohh!" The gelert's tone of voice sounds to have a bit of emotion than usual. She approached Audrey, though she felt awkward and cleared her throat once again. "I mean... oh." She reverted back to her serious self. Sweet must not want to express her excitement towards the discovery of the book. It might had been some experience back in her early years to why she was so cold or acts emotionless most of the time.

"What does it say? And how did you find it?" Sweet asked, however not so monotonous than before.

[Otter]

The small glimmer of emotion from Sweet startled Audrey, who turned towards the approaching floating clothes. She had long since believed that Sweet was born a robot, but now there was hope!

Her eyes narrowed once she remembered who she was dealing with. She had just finished sweeping the book fresh of dust. "'Time Travel, like you said. And I found it on the floor." She launched her arm at Sweet, half hoping she wasn't hitting her in the face. "You left it there. Don't do it again."

She folded her arms. "So this is it, right? That's it? So now we just have to get to your brother? Where do you guys live again?" She tapped her foot anxiously. Now that was was invested in this, she was hoping it wasn't a complete waste of time.

[Blue]

Of course I won't do it again; it was an accident. Sweet sternly thought to herself. "It was an accident." She replied to Audrey. "We should return the other books we scattered in the other room back to the shelves before leaving." Sweet skimmed through the book. "I'm not sure whether magic should be involved at all, but I suppose my brother can decipher this." She looked around, clueless to where they should exit to the first room. "I'm sure you know the way out right? And we live in Maraqua. Can you swim?"