MCA #7 - After noon

[light_a_spark]

Having the day off, Roy was reading through a book on Earth weapons. His chess board was on the dining room table, set up already for a game that he intended to win. He would need his uniform to get cleaned after it got cake on it after all. For now, he was actually wearing slacks and a white shirt. He could do casual.

((Open for a certain delivery for now. Will open up for people to gawk later if they want. Open if you want to check out what all the moving around was!))

Comments

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

Moist knocked on the door. There were already a reasonable number of boxes around his feet, with more coming as Gladys stolidly plodded up the stairs and deposited another pile.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Assuming it was Aly, Roy closed the book and dropped it on the coffee table as he got up to open the door. Aly was either very good at disguises or it was someone completely different. He was going to go with the latter.

"Good day, sir," he greeted, only now noticing the boxes.

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

"Good afternoon," he replied brightly, his best I am a law abiding citizen smile firmly in place. "Would you be Sheriff Mustang?"

Gladys set another pile of boxes down and disappeared back down the stairs.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"I am," he nodded, distracted by the boxes. There was only one thing he could think of that they might be, but it seemed to soon for them to already have arrived. "How can I help you?"

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

"Moist von Lipwig, Fandom Postmaster," he said by way of introduction, "and these," he waved a hand around, indicating the boxes, "arrived for you today. Actually, they kept arriving most of the morning. There's more on their way from downstairs."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"A pleasure to meet you, mister von Lipwig," Roy said, stepping into the hall to have a look at the boxes. He smiled softly when he recognised Hawkeye's handwriting on them.

"I was planning on giving you a warning that something like this might happen, but I didn't expect them so soon. My staff and the post here seem to work faster than I thought."

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

"We at the Post Office pride ourselves on providing a quick and efficient service." Helped along by the Sorting Engine. "Gladys, which is her," he pointed as she returned with another pile, "can put them wherever you want the . Gladys, this is Sheriff Mustang."

"You Have Many Boxes."

"She's a golem. They're not chatty."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

A golem? Roy couldn't help but study Gladys for a moment as he'd never met a golem before.

"I have a lot of books," he explained. "Would you mind putting them in the study? If they fit in there that is."

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

Gladys nodded. "Before Or After I Bring The Rest From Downstairs?"

"She's not technically a her," Moist added. "The dress is a long story."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"After's fine," Roy assured her, figuring he could start bringing some of these in already.

The added information made him blink and stare at the dress for a second before he caught himself. "Not technically?"

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

Gladys nodded again and plodded back down the stairs.

Moist watched her go before turning back to Ray. "Golems don't have a gender. They're just big lumps of fired clay, walking around. Practically indestructible, absolutely obedient, and powered by a chem in their heads. They'll do anything you tell them to do, forever."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Huh.

"They don't have a mind of there own?" Roy asked, looking towards the stairs. "What exactly is a chem?"

[norglomofnit.livejournal.com]

"That's where it gets a bit complicated." Understatement there, and he scratched his head. "The chem is a scroll of paper, with words inscribed on it. You can flip their heads open, pull it out if you need to change the words, and they just turn off," he explained. "Free golems have what you could call a mind of their own, but they still live to work. Gladys is owned by the Post Office, so she does as she's told." No need to mention it was the Ankh Morpork post office.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly hadn't heard the books being moved because she'd been out plotting having lunch. But that didn't stop her from tapping at Roy's door afterwards, ready to win this game of chess.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

Roy had started unpacking the boxes. He'd carried three of them into the living room and somehow there were currently more books on the ground than there were in his bookcase. He'd gotten distracted, trying to remember if some of them had mentioned anything about the Gate.

It was a far shot, but maybe...

The knock pulled him out of his thoughts and he placed the book open on the ground as he got up to open the door, this time only remembering the chess game when he found Aly there. "Miss Alianne."

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"General Mustang," she said with a smile, noticing his distraction. "Did I interrupt you?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"No, that's quite alright," he said, already stepping back. "Anything can be interrupted for chess. If you don't mind the mess that is."

She'd been to his office, though, this wasn't anything compared to that.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

She followed him inside and grinned at the mess on the floor. "I don't mind in the slightest." Glancing at the boxes, she read the labels quickly. "Had a sudden need for books from home?"

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"You could call it that," he leaned down, picking up the book he had been reading and closing it before placing it on a shelf he'd started to fill. "An empty bookcase just felt wrong," he said lightly.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Never one not to be nosy, Aly picked up a book herself, looking at the cover then flipping it open.

"I can't disagree with you. But I think you might need more bookcases now."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"There's another one in the study," he remarked, raising an eyebrow as she picked up a book. At least it wasn't one on human transmutations.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"Gods, this reads like my brother's books on magic," she said with a grin, noticing the raised eyebrow then turning a page deliberately.

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"Alchemy isn't magic," he reminded her. He was tempted to take the book from her, especially as he was pretty certain there was a challenge in there, but it was just an alchemy book.

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"You've said," she agreed easily. "But what's alchemy in one world is magic in another? Maybe."

[light-a-spark.livejournal.com]

"If gods are actually real to you," Roy said with a shrug, he didn't like the idea, though. Alchemy was a science and that was all there was to it.