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This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.
Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.
And the demon's gaining on her.
She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.
And Holly's not fast enough.
The mouth catches her.
But it doesn't hurt.
Where are we?
inourhead
eversomuchfun
"Some people here are named something that means something, but most English-speakers aren't, myself included."
inourhead
Holly nods. "We know someone from a neighboring country who's just named Namree because her parents thought it sounded nice."
eversomuchfun
"It wouldn't be odd to encounter a 'Holly' or a 'Crystal' here, but 'Book' or 'Lightning' would be strange. Why did Book pick his own name?"
inourhead
"Until we explained our parents thought there was only one of us, like most people when they're born and haven't started cohabiting with anyone else yet. So they just called us all Holly. Book picked himself a name and I named Crystal. Book moved out a while ago. Found a boy he wanted to look like, that's Lightning, moved in with him."
inourhead
"Yeah. It's really advanced. I might do it for a job - if I get home, I mean, I guess there's not so much call for it if you don't have klaonso."
eversomuchfun
"Yes. Transferring people from one body to another is not something we do a lot of around here. Can't say that I've heard of another case, in fact, unless you count what happens to vampires."
eversomuchfun
"Oh, we lose our souls. Replaced by some sort of demon spirit, is I think the going theory. We keep all the same memories, but our personalities change, usually not in nice ways."
inourhead
"Huh. Memories and souls are attached for us, we don't have Book's memories still now that his soul's in Lightning's body."
eversomuchfun
"It might be that the relevant thing in each case is a different thing, and they're only getting the same word because of limited vocabulary. Or perhaps your world has a different sort of soul. I wonder what would happen if your sort of person became a vampire?"
inourhead
"I don't know, but we don't want to try it. We have been eaten by demons enough. We wouldn't be a good test case anyway since we're unusual."
eversomuchfun
Sherlock giggles. "I won't suggest that you experiment, then. Does the cage full of mice serve some sleep-related function?"
inourhead
"Yeah. Trading off cohabitors fixes mental tiredness but not physical tiredness, so the mice take that. They're good if we have an injury or get sick, too. I could use more, a bunch of ours died when we killed the first demon we met. Then - the one with the - portal face."
eversomuchfun
"You don't, strictly speaking, need sleep-mice around here. But I could look for some, I suppose."
eversomuchfun
"I'd be more inclined to agree if vampires didn't catch fire in sunlight. Rather limits what I can do during the day. Sleeping is a nice alternative to boredom."
inourhead
Holly peers at the footnote for "day".
"You'd have a much harder time where we're from," she says. "There's usually at least one sun around. But we can stay awake and think at each other, and this book is turning itself into a Nlaaki-to-English textbook as we speak."
"You'd have a much harder time where we're from," she says. "There's usually at least one sun around. But we can stay awake and think at each other, and this book is turning itself into a Nlaaki-to-English textbook as we speak."
eversomuchfun
"It loses its content eventually, but the more of it there is, the longer it takes to fade," he says. "As I understand it. The book is not technically mine, I just happened to know it was here."
eversomuchfun
"Good question. We could always try asking. Well, you could; I have to be back home by sunrise, and the owner of the book is not likely to show up until well after that."
eversomuchfun
"The librarian in charge of this library, I believe. Many of the books belong to the school, but a lot of the good magic-related ones are his. I've never met him, but I've gone through his desk a few times. He seems nice enough."