vivarium | the library

T H E L I B R A R Y

Yet another day, yet another round of everyone's favourite Ambidex games. Except... wait, where's the rude morning awakening? The screeching mouse with the megaphone? The whole 'get your test subject bottoms up to a new floor and get to work' kind of nonsense? There's none of that and characters are even left to sleep in, should they want. All they find is a crudely written note on the first floor lobby that reads:

library is open
go use it or whatever
don't trash it or else!!!!! (♯｀∧´)
i got my eye on you!!!
brb later
~ ᘛᕐᐷ

And with that, the previously locked library on the first floor, sandwiched between the sleeping dorms and lobby, is open. It appears the same as it did back during the blackout, asides from the fact that it's much tidier. Being a small library that one might find in a home, it's not as grand as one might like it but when is Zero ever that generous? At the very least, there're enough shelves and books that cover a wide variety of subjects and genres for everyone. Fiction, non-fiction, dictionaries, textbooks, and such on. The only downside of all this is that everything seems extremely outdated. The most recent book is still years old and some of these are even dated decades ago. There's a thick layer of dust covering most of these books, suggesting that this room hasn't been used in a while, but hey, free reading materials?

basic info ✖ mingle

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Heiji laughed. "That I remember, anyway. But I heard this piece before somewhere, and I can tell where it's a little different from the version I'm used to hearing."

He scooted a bit closer on the bench. "So, you wanna read one of these books? We can blow an hour or two."

Oh, would you? It would be nice to listen to a new story. I'll let you pick whatever you want.

*With a piano permanently part of their usable rooms, Snake would be definitely practicing daily.*

"Sure!" Heiji plucked one of the fiction books off the shelves, which turned out to be about a series of mysterious deaths in the New York Museum of Natural History. At least at the outset, it was unclear whether the perpetrator was some sort of serial killer or a wild animal.

The former option was the more disturbing one, as the killer's modus operandi was puncturing the victim's skull and removing part of the brain. How romantic...

Heiji was clearly enjoying reading it, however, and did so quite animatedly, including the parts with the toughened New York beat cop and the eccentric FBi agent from the deep South.

Goodness, this is quite involved. However, I like the accents you give the characters. It does help me picture them clearly.

*Romantic indeed, but at least he got to lean on Heiji while his boyfriend read aloud.*

Heiji beamed happily at the compliment and gave Snake's forehead a little kiss, notwithstanding how much his bangs tickled. Snake's smile really was the cutest, he definitely did not think because he was not moe garbage. Heiji read for about twenty minutes in total (this was a real page-turner, apparently), before plucking another book off the shelf.

"Oh, this one's about science. But I ain't sure it's something you'd be interested in. It's about ESP."

*Snake hid his feelings a lot better but sensing Heiji being happy really made him quite adorable.*

ESP? This should be fun. It might have a chapter or two about the brain and I'd enjoy hearing that. *Even if he probably already knew a lot about his favorite body part.*

Heiji read along for a bit, and it surprisingly wasn't about winning success with your mind. Instead, it detailed a number of experiments studying ESP.

"There's a passage about a guy named Daryl Bem from Cornell University. 'pparently, he thinks it's possible that the future affects the past -- so something you're going to do in the future might leak back in time and affect your actions now."

"So he set up a computer quiz with 100 people. Then each of them were asked if they were going to be shown something normal or some e... erotic imagery." Goodness, what kind of book was this? Heiji turned just a bit red. "The idea was that the future version of each subject would be, um... affected by the imagery and that effect would resonate into the past. The resulting guesses were 53% correct."

So if I understand you correctly, the fact that someone might look at a couple having sex in the future might affect what they think they'll be shown in the present, which is technically the past of the future? *Snake snorted.*

I find this hard to believe and that experiment wouldn't work on me unless the pictures had lovely textures.

"Yeah, I don't really buy it. But it also says that the deviation from random chance was repeatable. Also that the .2 correlation in the study is about the amount of correlation between takin' aspirin and a decreased rate of heart attacks or the link between secondhand smoke and lung cancer."

Heiji gave Snake an appraising look. "...What kind of textures?" He could understand other things Snake was attracted to, of course. Like voices or personality. But he still wasn't too clear on what sort of surfaces it was that Snake found interesting. Maybe he should give it some thought...?

Well, if they gave me a choice of pictures with certain textures, I'd like smooth over rough. If you couldn't see and were trying to feel something that you'd like, you'd rather touch silk than sandpaper, right?

"Silk is kinda too soft. My fingers get caught on it," said Heiji. "And some sandpaper feels pretty nice, but I wouldn't wanna rub on it too hard."

He glanced again at Snake. "You have... a pretty nice texture, though."

the library

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