It was a good thing Zeus had picked Janet to go along with him. Mostly because he knew that she was already planning ahead far better than he ever would have. A place to regroup? He hadn't even dreamed of thinking of that.

"Yes," Kalen finally said, in response to all of her observations and question. "We.. yeah, we should do all of that actually." His eyes flicked toward the main desk, just a couple of feet to their right. "I think if we wait here someone should come to that desk," he gestured with his thumb behind his shoulder.

But it was... it wasn't not true. A librarian would know where most, if not all, things were.

"Or..." Kalen said slowly. "We find a bunch of books, go to the room and study together?"

That sounded like another good idea. But, it was also one of those things he'd run by Janet because clearly, she was the smarter one out of the pair. He was there to just probably look pretty, have muscles and that other thing he refused to even admit that he had.

Janet hummed quietly, taking a step towards the front desk, eyeing the little service bell considered hitting to see if she could summon a librarian like the visitors at her library. She was trying her hardest to think if there was a best way to go about this, but she wasn’t really sure if there was a ‘better’ choice since both options had their own perks and drawbacks.

“Well that’s up to you honestly,” She replied finally, turning away from the desk and towards Kalen again with a sheepish smile. “I’d like to think I’m pretty familiar with how the books should be categorized because of how much time I spend in a library, but I’m totally willing to ask someone here where things are and if we can use a room to study if you’d rather do that.”

Whatever Kalen decided would be fine with her, asking a librarian might end up being faster than just looking through the shelves by themselves in the long run.

Kalen dipped his head lightly. "I mean, most libraries use the decimal system anyways, right? Where it's like one point something is this section, one point another--something like that... I really didn't pay attention during that section of class, ha. It wasn't my forte at least. But it's some sort of number system that says what is what."

That sounded right to him at least. He just had to remember what was what but eh, that was a problem for later. "I think the only thing is if they have separate rooms to study in or if it's just one big communal space," he mused and glanced toward the bell.

The man had less hesitations and easily reached his hand out, tapping the bell once to let it ring through the quiet hum of the library. His green eyes scanned around, lifting up to see who all was there. The bell had gotten the attention of a few other occupants, a small family, a young man, a few elderly... nothing too big or dramatic.

He didn't mind stepping back, mentally, to let Janet exhibit her brilliance. If anything, Kalen felt far more comfortable with holding back and letting someone else be the center of attention. It meant less focus on him. He hoped at least that this would be a relatively quick mission, all things good and in order and whatever.

Janet tilted her head at him as he tapped the bell. “Do you mean the dewey decimal system? Most libraries use it, so it’d probably be correct to assume that that’s what they use here.” She paused before continuing. “But I don’t blame you for not knowing what’s what though, that took me a good month or two to get to where I didn't have to stop and think over it every once and a while.”

She shifted awkwardly on her feet as she noticed a few visitors glancing over at the two of them curiously after Kalen rang the bell. She wasn’t very keen on the idea of having people she didn’t know watch her, it made her nervous that she’d mess up whatever they were expecting her to do.

“As for the study area situation we could probably just ask them,” Janet said, nodding at someone in librarian attire walking towards them. “I doubt they’d say no to letting us use any they may have, but we might need to sign in or something to use it.”

Kalen bobbed his head eagerly as she referenced the thing he was trying to refer to. He knew the general name, the general idea but the details at least seemed to escape him.

"That's the one," Kalen confirmed with another nod and sharp smile directed toward Janet. His eyes flicked upward, spotting the librarian patron making their way to the desk. "Good afternoon," Kalen greeted with a warm smile.

"What can I help you with?" She asked in return, glancing over the pair. It then occurred to him that they would look slightly odd and out of place, but he waved it off.

"Oh Y'know, just studying for finals coming up. But we need a book that the school library didn't have. We were wondering if there's any study rooms at all or is it just a communal space?"

"We don't have any private rooms, sorry," the librarian replied gently. "But there are tables in that back corner," she gestured to the south corner of the library, "that almost never get used. You could probably have some privacy back there."

"Thank you so much," Kalen insisted, taking Janet's hand and pulling her toward the shelves. "Right, the Dewey decimal system, which you would've used since you worked in one right? I'm going to guess we are going to need history ... and maybe folktales."

Both would probably do well and, likely, have maps inside of them to show where these "myths" took place.

"Just relax," he murmured softly, almost under his breath. "They won't care about you and they likely won't ever see you again. What they think isn't important."

Janet stood next to Kalen and watched as he talked with the Librarian, listening closely to what was said. Although there weren’t any rooms they could use a table in a quiet corner and be fine. She had practice blocking out outside noise while reading a long time ago, she didn’t have the heart to shush the young kids that sometimes came to her library and were excited to read.

Janet gave the Librarian a quick word of thanks as Kalen grabbed her hand, surprising her slightly and dragged her off towards the shelves of books.

“Uh yeah, I know the system,” She replied, walking with him so he wasn’t pulling her along. “History and geography will be in the nine-hundreds and folklore should be under religion, so the two-hundreds if I’m remembering correctly.”

She couldn’t remember what sub-digit it may be but it was a start, which was what they needed for the moment. The two topics would most likely be separated by multiple shelves devoted to the other categories between them, so they would either have to split up or go together to both.

Janet was distracted from her thoughts as Kalen mumbled something about relaxing, tilting her head and trying to figure out if he was talking to himself or her. Was she really that tense or was he just reminding himself for some reason?

“Are you okay?” She asked quietly, looking at his face trying to read his expression and giving the hand that still held hers a gentle squeeze. “Um, what do you mean?”

Kalen continued, his footsteps strong and deliberate across the library. He didn't dare slow down until they had put bookshelves between them and the other library patrons. A deep breath lifted his chest before he nodded briefly. Everything was fine.

Until Janet squeezed his hand, startling him out of his thoughts. "I--I'm fine," he said softly, waving his free hand, as if brushing away the cobwebs of something in his mind. "Just... reminding myself that I don't have to care..."

But at the same time, he couldn't shake how the other people had been looking at them. There was something about their innocent gazes that seemed... sinister instead.

"Well," he paused for a moment, pacing back and letting go of Janet's hand to glance at the bookshelf placard. 500. Closer to the history and geography than--

His eyebrows furrowed almost immediately. The library patrons were gone. Gone gone.

Like there were books left open on the tables but no people.

Kalen slid back into the safety of the bookshelf and carefully walked toward Janet as his chin lowered, keeping his green eyes on a swiveling sweep.

"I don't mean to alarm you," he whispered, keeping his voice low and calm. It was a much lower, dangerous sort of volume, that relayed urgency and a touch of uncertainty. "But the people that were in the common area... are not in the common area anymore," the words he spoke had a chill to them that even Kalen could feel. It wasn't the type of chill he enjoyed either.

Janet stiffened, not liking the way Kalen was responding to her question. He had waved it away as if it was nothing a little too fast, but she decided to shrug the feeling of growing unease off for the moment.

“Okay, if you say so,” she mumbled, looking over the books in front of her.

Janet scanned the shelves around them, noticing that they seemed to be in the middle of the science section, but one book in particular stood out to her. The book seemed to be misplaced so she reached out to pull it from the shelf as Kalen dropped her hand and paced back toward the way they had come, back towards her as he looked over the common room, which Janet couldn’t see from where she stood.

She was just about to open the cover of the book for a better idea of what it was about when Kalen came back, capturing her attention when he whispered the words ‘I don’t mean to alarm you’. Now those words were not the best choice to keep Janet calm, instead making her tense up and glance around her surroundings like something would run at them from around the corner of a bookshelf as he continued.

“You mean they left, like for lunch or something right?” Janet asked, eyes widening in an oncoming wave of fear. “Please tell me you mean they just walked out of here like normal people,”

She was trying to stay calm and suppress the earlier dread that was returning ten fold with the hope that nothing was wrong.

The demigod of Hermes squared his shoulders, lifting his head up slightly, pulling books out just slightly to peer through the spaces in between spines and pages. He wished he could tell her that but considering the state of the open books, bags left on the floor and the likes?

The clues weren't adding to her answer, on the unfortunate side of things. If anything the evidence was pointing toward the opposite. The only problem was the eerie silence that had drawn over the library. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears--feel the pulse in his nose as well.

Kalen managed a wane, half-hearted and clearly fake smile toward Janet. "As much as I would love to say that they just headed out for lunch... one usually doesn't leave their purse on the floor beside their chair if they're going to go get something to eat."

He paused for a moment or two and glanced toward Janet fully, far more serious than before. The smile was gone, determination and focus etched in his warm skin. "You..." he started and then stopped, letting himself think.

"Did you get any sort of weaponry or blessing from your godly parent?" Kalen finally prompted. "I don't have any weaponry but I do have at least something," it was stupid and he hated it, but he had it at least. If she, however, had something better then he would gladly work with that rather than his pitiful attempt at abilities.

"Y'know," Kalen added, mostly to settle his unease. "Just in case."

Janet hesitated before going to look at the common area for herself, taking in the belongings of the patrons left unattended. She hated to admit that Kalen was right about this, but something was definitely wrong here. No one would purposely leave all of their stuff here if they were leaving the building.

As for his question about her abilities, nothing that she could do really stood out to her that could be considered very helpful at the moment. Neither had a weapon that she knew of, so any combat advantage she could offer wasn’t doable, leaving her with trying to plan something that would keep them as safe as possible.

“I guess I have a blessing from my mom,” She replied nervously, stepping back into the relative safety of the shelves. “I can strategize and can use blades pretty well. Nothing else that would be very useful right now to my knowledge unless you have a knife or something,”

After she had finished speaking there was the sound of something hitting the floor that echoed through the quiet air, causing Janet to almost jump out of her skin and drop the book she was gripping when. The noise sounded like it was at least half a dozen aisle away, but it was still close enough to make her look around quickly to check that they were still alone for the moment.

“So… what’s the plan?” She asked quietly, meeting his eyes. “If we can’t fight then we have to run, but should we just make a break for the doors or cause a distraction?”