Editing Callum

{{Infobox Individual
|species           = Posthuman
|job               = Novice
|affiliation       = Plume Coteries
|origin            = [[Plume Coteries' Library]]
|first             = White Canvas (novel)
|appearances       = [[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}
}}
'''Callum''' was a [[Novice]] of the [[Plume Coteries]], native to their [[Plume Coteries' Library|infinite Library]]. Alongside fellow Novice [[Maritsa]], he became a fugitive from his own people to save [[Coloth]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})

== Biography ==
=== Origins ===
Like [[Callum]], Maritsa, as a born member of the [[Plume Coteries]], was "[[human-ish]]", that is to say, a [[posthuman]]. Though mostly [[human]]-like in biology, this involved a few discrepancies, such as the native ability to read any [[language]]. He became a [[Novice]] and, at some point, acquired a [[Callum's map|map]] of the [[Plume Coteries' Library|Library]] which had been created by [[Auteur]] during his stay in the Library centuries prior. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})

=== Rescuing Coloth ===
At some point, a teenaged Callum and fellow [[Novice]] [[Maritsa]] became aware of [[Coloth]], one of the subjects of the [[Plume Coteries]]' programme of [[Time-Ladle|Time-Ladling]] dead eyewitnesses to historical events out of time, transferring a [[biodata-print]] of their [[consciousness]] into a [[holo-cube]], and then interrogating them. Normal procedure would have been to destroy the cube once Coloth's interrogation was done, but Maritsa and Callum felt strongly that this would be wrong, particularly as Coloth had been killed before his time in his original lifetime. The two eventually conspired to "check him out of the restricted section" and then "never gave him back". 

Originally, the trio were meant to quickly meet and befriend a dimension-travelling [[Birdhemoth]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}}) [[Rich (Sonnenblumen)|Rich]], ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|Sonnenblumen (short story)}}) but [[Sixteenth Auteur|Auteur]] interfered with this, retroactively deleting Rich from existence. As a result, Maritsa, Callum and Coloth instead spent over three [[month]]s as fugitives within the Library itself, camping out in unexplored floors and using [[Callum's map]] to find [[vending machine]]s and [[bathroom]]s from which they could salvage [[food]] and [[water]]. They gradually grew closer in the process, despite their uncertainty about the future. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})

=== Auteur and Naimon ===
Eventually, their camp was found by [[Master Librarian]] [[Naimon]]. He wounded Callum in the thigh with a [[crossbow]]-bolt, and eventually managed to capture the three. Naimon searched the Novices, and found Callum's map, on which the kids had earmarked [[Floor 899,167,435,042]] as their next destination. As this Floor had been incompletely explored by Naimon's ancestor [[Master Librarian]] [[Roland (The Cactus and the Corpse)|Roland]], Naimon decided to use the map to finish the job and reap twice the glory before he brought his captives back to the [[Plume Coteries]]. On the way, taking advantage of his overconfidence and self-inflicted poor eyesight, Maritsa and Callum tricked Naimon into walking into an empty elevator shaft, killing him. With [[Coloth]]'s help, they made their own way down, still intending to take advantage of the "[[village]]-sized" [[bathroom]]s to wash and restock on [[water]]. 

After getting there, they discovered that the map was incomplete because Floor 899,167,435,042 was where Roland had confronted Auteur centuries prior; Roland had ended up burning the entire Floor down in an effort to kill Auteur. The blood spilled by Naimon's death allowed Auteur to [[Regeneration|create]] a [[Seventeenth Auteur|new body]] for himself. After blithely telling the teenagers about the ways in which he had interfered in their lives according to his sense of what made for a better story, he attempted to complete the ritual Roland had interrupted centuries prior, which was meant to summon [[the Bookwyrm]], a "[[god]]-[[serpent]]" deeply rooted in the structure of the Library. He succeeded, only for the Bookwyrm to reveal it had no intention of being controlled, and eat Auteur right in front of the baffled teens. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})

During their brief encounter, [[Seventeenth Auteur|Auteur]] admitted that his retconning-out of [[Rich (Sonnenblumen)|Rich]] had been a "rushed job" which probably wouldn't "stick", predicting that the teenagers would find him again sooner or later. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})

== Physical appearance ==
As a [[Novice]] [[Bookkeeper]], Callum wore simple [[brown]] [[robe]]s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cite source|The Cactus and the Corpse (short story)}})
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[[Category:Individual posthumans]]
[[Category:Members of the Plume Coteries]]
[[Category:Librarians]]
[[Category:Criminals]]