Lunar Boot Camp

[Ebiris]

Thwarted again... Rei thinks disconsolately as she examines her arm which is no longer occupied by Makoto. Her expression is firm though. A prize I don't have to earn isn't worth having, after all...

Leaning close enough that she's more or less rubbing against Makoto, Rei examines the photograph in the other girl's hands. "Yes, we do look very good together, Mako-chan," she agrees.

[Brian]

Makoto blushes, and offers the picture to Rei. "Would you like it?" she asks. "I think I can remember the way to the library, if we're done here."

[Ebiris]

Rei happily takes the picture. "I'll treasure it," she says, smiling at Makoto.

Giving a quick look around, the Martian Princess shrugs. "I can't think of any reason to stay here, so we may as well get going. Lead on, Mako-chan!"  she gestures for Makoto to lead the way.

[Corwin]

The princesses follow the surprisingly correct instructions they had been given, though at times Rei's gaze lingers on the attractive women in their path, and Makoto has to pull on her arm to get her attention. Eventually, slightly winded from their hour of nonstop walking, the duo arrives at its destination. They see a tall fence made out of pure silver stretch out for as far as the eye can see into both directions, ostensibly to prevent unauthorzied access to a massive oval building of the purest white they easily notice inside the closed off perimeter. While Rei looks at the fence, judging its height to be slightly over three meters, Makoto notices a guard walking in their direction from the right, on patrol.

[Ebiris]

Rei decides that she could easily clear that fence if the need should arise, but since she is here on legitimate business, not to mention her dress isn't really appropriate for acrobatic feats, she instead looks for a gate or other entry point to use.

[Corwin]

As Rei looks for a gate, the guard patrolling the perimeter reaches her and Makoto, and walks past them without a second glance.

[Ebiris]

Taking note of the guard as he walks past, Rei calls out to him. "Excuse me, we're looking to gain access to the St. Claire Library. Can you direct us to the entrance?"

[Corwin]

"Sure," the guard comments, turning around and giving Rei a dazzling smile. "Follow me, Miss."

After slightly over eighty minutes of walking, during which Rei notices multiple eroded signs hung on the fence and saying "Entreance Forbidden!", "Uber Top Secret Govermental Installation Here!" and "Nothing To See, Move Along, Citizens!", the guard, Rei and Makoto finally arrive at a gate to the compound. Another guard, dressed in the same simple, navy blue shirt and pants combination, waves them inside cheerfully, offering each girl refreshments.

The two enter the premises, both guards staying back at the gate.

[Brian]

"My, the Lunar people are certainly... er... hospitable, aren't they?" Makoto asks Rei, trying to keep her voice quiet enough not to let the guards hear. Raising her voice, she asks, "How old is this building?"

[Ebiris]

Rei nods. "The security is rather awful. I expected we'd have at least had to prove who we were..."

As the pair enter the building, Rei continues, "Well, my father always says there haven't been revolutonaries or anything like that for hundreds of years, so why bother worrying about things like that? I always try to convince him that they operate in secret for a reason, but no one ever listens to me..."

Rei doesn't have a clue how old the building is, so just shrugs helplessly at Makoto's louder question.

[Brian]

"Well, it looks pretty old, anyway," Makoto says, looking over her shoulder and wondering why the ever-helpful guards said nothing. "Maybe someone told them we were coming? Come to think of it, where did Luna run off to? I get the idea that she should be here, too."

[Ebiris]

"It's probably been around a good long while," Rei agrees, looking around to take in the interior of the building. "I somehow expect that Luna would offer us very little help anyway. I'm sure we can ask someone who works here to direct us to the top secret sealed records," she finishes, taking note of any other people she might have seen in her survey of the library.

[Corwin]

Not noticing anyone else outside the library, Makoto and Rei enter it, and take a look around. The building is vast, going for as far as the eye can see in every direction. There is a reception desk near the entrance, but it's unmanned.

The massive twenty-meter-tall bookshelves are helpfully labelled, however, and appear to be sorted by categories. Alphabetically. Anything in a five hundred meter radius from the two princesses is dedicated to literature on Acne.

[Ebiris]

"This is... thorough..." Rei gulps, a little intimidated by the sheer scale of the library, and the vast amount of information no doubt contained within. Dazedly walking over to the reception desk, she looks for a 'Ring for assistance' bell or something similar to summon a librarian.

[Corwin]

Rei indeed finds a button that does that function. A faded 'Out of Order' sign is draped over it lazily. The princess idly notes that Mars had stopped using the material it's made of half a century prior.