to all;

[stations]

Hey, guys. Good morning, or... afternoon. Evening? Does Abraxas have different time zones? I'm not actually sure how that works here, so I guess good whatever time of day it is wherever you are in the world. I'm Jack.

Some of you might have seen me around the libraries in Castle Thorne, and for good reason. That's mostly what I do. I'm a reader.

Well, and a blogger, and a gas station attendant-slash-owner, but I haven't really figured out how to translate those last two things over just yet. There's something especially horrifying about the idea of refueling horses at gas pumps, and I'm pretty sure none of you guys would like it if I slammed you with a wall of text in the middle of your day like I would when I updated my blog.

Which is exactly what I'm doing now. The irony is not lost on me. Sorry.

The point is, I'm looking for stuff to read. The libraries here are great, don't get me wrong, but the contents aren't my usual style. I'm more into the campy two dollar trash fiction of the sci-fi paperback persuasion, but I'll also take the classics! Agatha Christie, JK Rowling (at least, before she turned out to be a horrible fucking person), Tolkien. Anything from Chronicles of Narnia to Killer Clowns from Outer Space Visit Erin Brockovich 2.

"How are we supposed to lend you a book that isn't written here?" you may be asking. Well, as it turns out, I've been re-reading tons of old books in the Horizon when I find myself there. I just can't seem to summon up anything new. I guess it only works with memories, or something? Anyway, if you have anything to share, I'd really appreciate it if you could swing by my gas station. I'll give you a discount.

Thanks.

-GasStationJack

Comments

tl;dr

[thedevilwhorose]

GASSTATIONJACK? Really? That's the most creative your "blogger" of a self could come up with?

[stations]

I'm not sure where you got the idea creativity and blogging go hand in hand, but I can assure you that isn't the case.

[thedevilwhorose]

From the entire nattering of the human populace.

I didn't exactly have much access to the World Wide Web.

[stations]

Yeah, well, humans are usually wrong about things most of the time.

Blogging's just journalism for people who don't want to do actual research. It's only viable as a medium if you have a really interesting life, or really good recipes you hide in between long walls of text about your vacation with your mother-in-law to your distant relatives in Italy that one time.

( This is what we call the 8-Mile tactic. Good luck roasting him if he preemptively roasts himself, Satan. )

DM bc that's how he rolls

[ushiri]

How much of a story do you need to remember for it to work?

[ He'd like to repay Jack for helping guide him the other day. ]

[stations]

I'm not totally sure how it works, honestly. I can tell you I have maybe the worst memory out of anyone you've ever met in your life, and they still seem to work fine for me.

[ushiri]

I might be able to conjure up some short stories. Horror, fantasy, or both, I guess.

[ He remembers finding a stack of magazines dropped near the garbage the night before pick-up, outside the house in Nayeshi. The covers had beautiful illustrations, he couldn't understand why anyone would throw them out, but he had learned these printed items were a dime a dozen in that world. ]

[stations]

That would be amazing. I'll take whatever you got, honestly. All of it would be really great.

[scrappyjedi]

[ Cal has probably the least amount of knowledge when it comes to general entertainment. Maybe a game or two in the Academy when he wasn't training or studying, which was rare, but once he started to "settle" on Bracca he had at least tried to find entertainment outside of work. At least in his early teens. ]

There was this book based off a game called Gundark Trainer that sounds like it might fit what you're looking for. Called Taming of the Gundark.

It's about a group of hunters that want to train Gundarks to be domesticated. But Gundarks are some of the most aggressive creatures in the galaxy, so lots of limbs get torn off and people get eaten, all while trying to teach a Gundark to play fetch, or wear a ball gown, or have table manners. They find one Gundark that somehow can communicate with them and for some reason he's excessively polite and wears a dart flower on his head which is semi sentient and kind of a jerk. Anyway, he doesn't agree with his kin's violent nature and decides to help them. Then it all takes off from there.

[stations]

That is the most incredible thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

[scrappyjedi]

I thought so too when I first read it.

It's really, really, long. Hope that won't be a problem. Just when you think it's going to end it...doesn't. Never a dull moment, though.

[stations]

I cannot emphasize this enough: the longer the better.

( hmm strange, why does he feel a sudden disturbance in the force that sounds like a very familiar "that's what she said". )

My place is the shitty little gas station next door to the giant, seventy foot tall, unbelievably gorgeous sacred statue cathedral thing whenever you want to stop by to drop it off. Or I can go to yours if you have one set up?

[ordinar]

What was your blog about?

[Because, no offense, but the life of a gas station attendant doesn't sound super interesting. He tries very hard not to think this part into the message.]

[stations]

The things that happened at the gas station where I worked were pretty abnormal.

I don't mean abnormal as in "Travis from the trailer park once won six scratchy lotteries in a row and then lost all his money from them buying more scratchy lotteries", although that did actually happen. I mean more like ghost of Elvis, livestock with human faces, demons rising, end of the world abnormal. It makes for a pretty interesting read.

At least, that's what they tell me.

[ordinar]

[Okay, he stands corrected.]

Livestock with human faces? What, like cows?

You're sure you weren't just, you know

[Drunk? High?]

seeing things?

[stations]

Yeah, and pigs, and horses. I heard the chickens were the weirdest, though. One of them apparently looked almost exactly like Al Gore.

But to answer your question, I never saw them myself. It was a complaint call from a customer who bought some of our feed once. I know HE wasn't seeing things because the government swooped in about two days later and bought every single one of his animals, then made him sign an NDA.

Which I guess he totally broke, in hindsight. Not that it matters, since he died in that freak accident.

[godshattering]

[ When it flashes into his vision, his first thought is: that is a lot of words. Something Claude can respect as a User Of Many Words™ himself, really, but the real problem is that most of the context is lost on him other than the request for books. That part's good. He can help with that! ]

After reading this I have a feeling you and I are from very different time periods. Assuming that makes no difference in what you'd like to read from wherever or whenever, how do you feel about some epic tales about knights and the knightly things they do spanning several volumes?

Assuming the Horizon really does play into how the books show up, I'd be happy to give you some edited versions with better pacing and far less waxing poetic about... well, everything, unless you'd rather have the full versions in all their chivalric glory. I won't judge either way, the longer versions are decent enough as is.

[stations]

Trust me, length really, really isn't a problem for me. I read a lot. However much you're imagining 'a lot' to be, you could probably double it and get close.

I'll totally take the unedited volumes if that's easier. Whatever you're willing to share works.

[godshattering]

In that case, you're in definite luck with these books. I'd say most of them are pretty long since they're meant to be a saga separately, and together, of what all the founder of a country near mine did. I should be able to get those together for you.

Come to think of it, an old friend of mine just got here. I'm willing to bet he has a better memory of what they're like compared to mine since they're based on where he's from so I'll check with him. If no luck there, just let me know where to drop these off.

In the meantime, any interest in poetry or tales about the gods from a land near where I lived? That's probably the best of what else I have to offer that's not research texts.

[stations]

Yeah, actually, anything you have on weird gods might come in handy. Even if they're research texts.

[londonbound]

[ Okay, so. Rhy did not understand about 80% of that even a little bit, but the gist of it is clear enough so. He can try to be helpful to the poor lonely soul spending all his time in the castle libraries not actually wanting to read anything or even talk to anyone. Rhy should know. He's tried.

Maybe this is a subject that will actually lend itself to conversation. ]

There are bookshops in the castle town. Some sell fiction, fairy tales, even books of an adult nature if you know where to look. Surely something will be to your liking.

- Rhy Maresh

[stations]

Don't get me wrong, the stuff in the library isn't bad! It's just...

Practically all of the fiction I've been finding is high fantasy. Probably because this entire world is high fantasy. Which is great, I love fantasy! But man can't live on caviar alone. Sometimes you just really need some killer robots on Mars to shake things up, you know what I mean?

I'll still check out the shops, though. You can never have too many bookstores in your life.

[londonbound]

I do not, in fact, know what you mean.

Out of most of those words you wrote, I'm familiar with caviar, and it has nothing to do with books. Unless one counts some sort of fishmonger's ledger.

[dirtytrenchcoat]

Maybe you and I could start a book exchange. I enjoy reading in what downtime I have here and I've already exhausted the material available to me here in Cadens.

I'm starting to become more familiar with horizons and how they operate and between the two of us we may be able to prevent the need for additional outsourcing of literature.

[stations]

Wait, when you say you've exhausted the material available, do you mean like

You've read ALL the books in Cadens? Do they have like one bookstore or something?