[Nightmares]
Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )
AdamNight Owl Books is one bookstore. An Arch Key Books is another. The secret of them is that they are the same bookstore but they are also two very different bookstores. It sits on a street corner or near a street corner and there is an old library cart parked outside with a collection of one dollar books. Some are foxed, some are water-logged, some have spines that are peeling apart and most are damaged in some way. Because it has been damp, there by the alley is a little spill-over of water from weather and who knows where else and two mushrooms trying to grow a fairy circle so easily ignored in this city's escape this Rocky Mountain shadow city this dry scrub city this city. A narrow and very threadbare oriental rug lies across the threshold of the door, part of it beneath the overhang.
There is no chime. There are bells. The bells ring, they call, because it is that kind of bookstore.
The window that looks out on the street is low because one must go down a step or two to get into the bookstore proper. The windows are full of things like a clothing line above display books, pinned to which are advertisements for art shows or writer's workshops or retreats or concerts, some which are faded with time and a couple years gone but some which are current or forthcoming. Buttons of satirical or political nature: they're scattered, too. Look: a little brass lion, some book-ends: old musty looking stuff that matches the word antiquarian because Night Owl Books is an an antiquarian, fussy as Don Quixote himself. See there? Fascimile pages from 1th century folios next to a picture of Che Gueverra riding a My Little Pony (vaguely Rainbow Dashian).
Through the door: steps down.
Nearly straight back but not quite is a broad desk. The desk is a writing desk but it has a register perched atop it as well as a typewriter of the kind of mint-teal that makes one think of ice cream parlors. Behind the desk is a door that is closed. Employees only, gold curly writing, a thick museum poster from a 190s exhibition on Alchemy in Italian Renaissance Painting or Symbolism in the French Romantic Tradition or both. To the left of the space behind the desk a vague impression of tall businessy bookshelves stuffed with papers and a window that peeks into
The other half of the 'back' of the store which goes further than the desk and follows the wall which divides the employee area from the shop proper. Another step down. It's gloomily lit back there today and it is full of cloth-bound books: thick, reference, rare, five aisles and twilight always there. That place is only for the serious of heart. To the left of the front door there are middling high shelves that are locked and glass-doored books on natural philosophy and poetry or ghosts and hauntings and just beside the door there is a low shelf filled with children's books. Also: a staircase. It leads upward. It looks uncertain and narrow, carpeted and takes a sharp turn.
A loft level up there. Can see the rail.
By the stair there is a huge table with a big messy pyramid of books on art and photography and how to build a bomb and Anais nin's memoirs and a Polish grafitti artist's suicide letter photography set and a little box of zines and a gardening book or two lots of strange subversive things and a bench beside it someone dragged there to read.
But let's look to the right of the front door: another necessary step-down and an obviously put in place wheelchair accessible ramp and another oriental rug. Paperbacks. Science fiction. Fantasy. Oddments. Display of local talent and a few new books. Art books art books art books more like those found on the pyramid table. Criticism and travelogues and who knows what else?
A lot of books.
And then there's also the not very noticeable Adam Gallowglass, a youngish man with a thatch of dark hair that's always Dream-wild and messy, that's not seen a comb in as long as he's seen sleep, and he hasn't seen sleep for quite some time: look at him, he's pale with staying inside, pale with staying here in this shop at that desk reading or writing, or don't look at him. Many people don't remember Adam, he slips away from their memory like a shadow slips from light: hardly worth notice, could you describe it?
Where is this difficult to note [Oh, Mysterious--call him Arcane] but present quiet young man who is not a man? He is at his desk; he is always at his desk. Sorcerer at the root of his wood and aren't books full of leaves?
Leonard Cohen is playing over the store's sound system right now, but somebody's ipod is on shuffle: that can change.
[Advanced Warning Awareness!]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 9, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Elijah[and awareness]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )
ElijahHe had a need for books.
Well, no, he had a need for book. One book. One very particular book, actually, but perhaps he should be embarrassed that he is looking for antique children's books; he's not even sure if it's considered an antique now, instead of simply vintage. He wasn't sure what to do, how to find it- Jenn was usually the one who found these sorts of things, but his mother's birthday was coming up and somehow the prospect of having his room mate buy his mother's birthday present because he had no idea how to find them somehow nagged at Elijah in a way that was not unlike a mother. Loving but disappointed, and the disappointment ached the absolute worst.
So, he had come here, because if there was going to be somewhere that would have a copy of The Little Prince in French and more than a few years it would be a place like Night Owl Books.
He didn't know whose bookshop he was walking into, but he did know that he was walking into a place that had a good reputation for getting someone what they needed, and not necessarily in the mafioso sense. Not that Elijah had any qualms with buying books from mobsters, because books were books. And Elijah, when he walked in, for a moment when the bell rang and the smell hit him, he was overcome with a sensation that only comes when you smell paper. His lips turned upward in a grin and that perpetual delight crossed his features.
"Ohhhh sweet Mary, can I live here?"
AdamThe faint clamor, the tumultuous din, that is as distinctly Elijah's as is the scent of a rose to a rose or the scent of an apple to an apple (perhaps that is what resonance is to Magi, scents, sense, another sense certainly but think of it like fragrance) is something Adam 'hears' or 'notices' or let's just say is Aware of before Elijah opens the door and the bells herald his presence. The bells are not very good heralds when it comes to those who're Willworkers, no advance shouts, always belated; Adam's eyes wander from Elijah (where they'd paused for a second) to the bells and he wonders whether if they were to be coated with a certain alloy or if he were to replace them with other metals they might better catch and predict the coming of interesting visitors and if so which word would best transform them and --
But he's always thinking, Adam. Thinking about ways, thinking about means, and there's an Elijah, tumultuousness and all, grinning with perpetual delight and Adam has a heavy pen in one hand. He was writing in an journal, leather-bound and hand-stitched with heavy paper good paper paper the color of candles in certain rectories and the pen is not just a pen (the pen could be a wand), is it? Knight of Wands. Page of Wands. Suit of Wands. How many Wands in the book-wood? He twiddles it around knobby long fingers and he does not grin. But he stands.
Dark-haired young man, or not. Young? Or not. He's a name writ in water.
"Only if you turn yourself into a book first," he tells Elijah. "May I help you, sir?"
Kalen Holliday[Nightmares]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )
Kalen Holliday[And how distracted are we by Resonance?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Elijah"La Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, do you have anything pre-nineteen sixty?"
His French is beautiful. Not practiced, mind you, because practiced would indicate hat it ever did anything other than come naturally to him. In truth, Elijah's English was practiced. Littered with hints of the south here and there, spoken so frequently that it's easy to forget that, sometimes, sometimes he doesn't always think of things in English and would prefer to be anywhere else. The man did ask if he could help Elijah and Elijah could most assuredly use help.
With books. Because books.
He looks around and the delight doesn't leave his features, like he doesn't know where to begin, like he walked into somewhere miraculous and it does warrant Monsieur Gallowglass a second look, a longer look, a look that tears him away from the smell of paper and makes his eyes flicker- green and lively- from him to the journal and back again. His attention wants to be everywhere, so he decides focusing on a person is easier.
Kalen HollidayKalen had said that he would come by when the thought of coming anywhere was less exhausting. Of course, he still looks exhausted. He's barely slept for days now, and he's just spent from Workings after visions. Confrontations with gun-wielding lunatics...well...those are kind of invigorating, but that energy has long since worn off.
He comes inside and leans into the wall just inside the doorway as his sweep over the shop. Books. Gallowglass. Elijah. He doesn't seem surprised to see Elijah, but then he did give Elijah the address. For a few seconds he breathes. Because he's stepped into Gallowglass' space and it seems, as much as anything can, safe. Because the air here is heavy with relentlessness, with valiance, and for all those things are not precisely things Kalen embodies they are things that steady him a little. And, perhaps, because he does happen to be exhausted. He needs rest, for all he tends to be terrible at it.
He says nothing to interrupt them, though Gallowglass gets a nod in greeting. And Elijah, if his eyes stray from the books gets a wave and a faint smile.
Adam
He closes the journal and puts down the (wand [stave]) pen. Elijah's attention wants to be anywhere; that's just fine. Whatever it is in Adam Gallowglass which says he walks in Mystery, which says he walks in Shade, which erases the sound of his name and the shape of his cheekbones and works over his words like a tide across sand-drawn shapes, is just fine with Elijah's attention being elsewhere, and it is just fine when Elijah binds his attention onto Adam more closely--then the journal, which is much more interesting. Was he talking to -- ? Oh yes.
A person. Dark hair, boring. Something eyes, something jaw. Surrounded by books, their keeper. Certainly. His eyebrows shoot up, because Gallowglass does have a pre-1960s edition of Le Petit Prince one of only 250 signed and numbered from 1943, as costly as a small house or a downpayment on a large house--
Why? Assocations. Antoine de Exupery's fingers were here once. Maybe it flew with him over wind, sand and stars.
Kalen opens the door and enters as Adam is saying, "I do. I might have more than one," pre1960s. He doesn't clarify his own thought processes; Adam is intent and relentless, look. "Does it matter terribly," whisper-ghost of an accent that slips away before it can be pegged, just on that one word, "to you what condition it's in?"
He doesn't give Kalen a nod but his eyes do shift, all nuance of expression, in acknowledgment, a suppression of something like a shared joke translated as a troubling of shadow.
He's awfully (arrogant.) self-assured.
ElijahHe has no idea.
Elijah Poirot himself is not worth as much as a signed copy of Le Petit Prince. It's the truth, he has a life insurance policy, and even if he were to die in a freak accident that was completely not his own fault, he would be worth maybe eighty percent of that book. He didn't have a good life insurance policy, but that policy had a certain room mate as a beneficiary and that was neither here nor there but certainly Jenn would be morbidly flattered to know that if Elijah ever died he wanted to give her the entirety of his net worth.
And his cell phone. Because even if he'd broken the screen on the nice one, Jenn's phone was a piece of crap and his phone was still better than her phone.
Kalen does get some attention, a smile, a little wave, but there was business to do and a hunt to be on and books to acquire. Well, book. Singular. A very specific book that, if Elijah accidentally stumbled in incorrectly could actually cost a small fortune and an abundance of disappointment.
"Preferably having most of its pages and at least half of those pages being legible?"
Wow, he really doesn't set the bar high, does he?
Kalen HollidayKalen drifts over to the counter and leans into it, Solid. It is not as solid, perhaps, as the scent of metal and the weight of armor. But he is close enough for now. From his new place, his eyes scan over the shop, looking for a shadow-quick flash of fur, The tips of ears. The disappearing swish if a tail as Ruse climbs through and around and over things. Books. Chairs.
They are talking about the books still, and this place is for books, so he lets them continue. Their introductions can wait for a moment or three. there is time enough for books and for secrets and for....
His eyes drift mostly closed and for a second, just a second, there is the scent of books and the sense of Gallowglass and he could be somewhere else entirely. It is not, at least for the moment a memory overwhelmed with searing light and the crashing of marble. He is not breathing in the memory of smoke with the weight of time and knowledge. He half smiles, and his eyes open, watch Gallowglass and Elijah. Part drowsing cat. Part simmering intensity. Part wistful.
Adam[I think Perception (People Specialty, ahaha?) + Alertness to like... take in Elijah's likely networth based on DETAILS. *grins* Before Adam commits to this version or that.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 8, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 ) Re-rolls: 2
AdamRuse! Where is Ruse? Ruse is the shadow in the night! Ruse is the rustle of a page! Ruse is the slinksome, slinky-hop, hop-hop little wiggle long to the ground shadowsome darling of Night Owl and never a Night Owl to trouble him long sniffing nose silvery mask around dark bandit's certainty and sharp little ears? Where is a Ruse? Ruse! There is a Ruse.
Ruse playing in a patch of sunlight over behind a chest over by the stairs twisting through the uncertainly solid stair-balustrade and Ruse looking bright-eyed at Kalen and Ruse bounding onto a stack of books and bounding across the floor skitter soft on oriental rug.
There is a Ruse. Going straight for Kalen's pantsleg.
"Hmm." The dark-haired Magus looks at Elijah: takes him in, the way he carries himself, the creases in his clothes, the thickness of his damned wallet, signs which could mean nothing, signs which might mean something, ready to be wrong, and then he says, "I might have one from the 50s. Some wear and tear, inscribed by the family which owned it and, erm, hold on a moment let me see if I can find it."
He leaves his seat and the desk and he goes to one of those glass-locked cases. He has keys, you know, many of them, a little ring of them in his pocket and he takes the little ring of keys out jingling them as he looks first there
nope
and then there
nope
and then in the other aisle and: "Here we go." Unlock the shelf, take it out. The book is worn and hardbound and there are straying threads tattered at the top; it could use a repair, but it isn't quite so bad, just scuffed, just this faint curve to it like it has aged. He flips it open to look at the frontis page and says, "Right. This is the one that was inscribed a few times."
Where is Elijah now? Adam will hand him the book.
ElijahThere are many things Elijah Poirot has going for him. he is tall, he is relatively handsome. He smile easily, and has a manner about him that is at once likable and present. What he does not have going for him, though, is this: Elijah Poirot is a broke, broke young man.
He waits patiently while Gallowglass goes and fetches the book, his eyes flicker to Kalen and the grin on his face widens like a child at Christmas. Well, or a child at a normal Christmas. Elijah looked back in anticipation, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and feeling his pulse quicken with anticipation, here we go Adam says .
He takes the book when it is offered, holds it more carefully than one would think a young creature like Elijah could hold things- like a wounded bird. Like blown sugar. He carefully looks at the inscription and… and it doesn't seem to turn him off. That grin becomes a smile, something fond for the book that has clearly been loved by whomever had it once upon a time.
"Someone loved you," he says idly, flips to a place in the book where he knows by heart and finds it's easy to flip there if only because the previous owner had loved it, too. He knows the places where the spine would wear in his own copy, arguably a much newer one that would not cost him a week's pay, but that's neither here nor there.
"I don't know how to repair books yet," he admits. Yet being the operative word.
Kalen HollidayThere is Ruse! Kalen smiles and reaches down, his hand and his forearm near parallel to the floor so that Ruse can jump up, can be lifted high enough (perched on Kalen's arm more like a hawk than a furred creature) to jump to Kalen's shoulder. He is not cautious or hesitant, he makes no sound to coax the creature, he is as familiar with Ruse as he is Gallowglass, or nearly.
His eyes travel then to the book, to Elijah's delight and care with it. And then Elijah says he does not yet know how to repair books yet and Kalen smiles a little. His eyes scan the store again, but it is quiet. Castles for knights. Stone. Swords to guard the walls outside. He needs swords to guard-
Focus.
"I thought you might teach him. Though perhaps after Trent teaches him how to behave in polite company." Kalen's eyes flash with amusement for a second. "I rather expect he'll land in Shaea, and I think such a skill would serve him well enough. And, once he's properly trained, you might like to have someone to free up some of your time." He does not expect, even with someone to ease some of the mundane pressures of running a store, of repairing and perhaps watching over the store itself, that Gallowglass will sleep. He is so impossibly driven. But perhaps it will ease the stress of needing to be here and not there, give him more time to focus where he wants to.
He has told each of them about the other, and so he does not offer them lengthy introductions. Gallowglass heard about Elijah only days ago, he needs no further indication really, as to who this is. And if Elijah needs Kalen to point out that Gallowglass is one of his oldest friends...Elijah cannot be that distracted by books. "Gallowglass, Elijah. Fae, Gallowglass. Ruse...." Here he reaches to scritch lightly over Ruse's neck. "People who clearly exist only for your amusement."
AdamIn faded pencil, written sharply in the upper-most corner, a 25. There are too many flaws to make it worth much and it is only from the 1950s, not the coveted '43 or '44 editions, which even unravelling would fetch the prettiest of pennies.
Ruse does not want to be swayed from his original goal of Kalen's pantsleg. Ruse is feeling cold today and it is rather chilly in the store, air-conditioning in over-drive, frost-giant breath put to service of book-wood.
Ruse begins to climb over Kalen's arm but then Kalen's lifting it and the ferret humps its back and then the ferret jumps to Kalen's shoulder and then it investigates Kalen's ear with sharp sweet warm little breaths and briefly a nibble as if expecting there to be a treat hidden in the ear.
Meanwhile, "Do you intend to learn?" the bookshop clerk asks. Does he notice Kalen and Elijah know one another? He does. Does he break the spell of politeness, of the simple ritual of transaction which is occuring in order to acknowledge it? No; he does not seem to. His expression is as self-assured as he is.
"Oh?" When Kalen speaks. There.
"The damage isn't so bad. It would make a decent practice book for a journeyman, but if you want this copy and you want also to have it, erm, repaired, I can take it to a guy I know."
Because of course a place like this would probably have a monk stowed away somewhere, an anchorite whose sole purpose is to fix up books. A book golem. Kalen. Kalen who thought that Adam might teach Elijah how to repair. Adam rubs the bottom of his jaw. He has not shaved in a couple of days, and while he can grow a healthy beard, it takes him a few days to do so; the shadow of dark hair arrives by degrees. The beard'll be thick soon and need a trim. Scritch, scritch, scratch, scratch.
"So this is the apprentice, is it? The 'for real' apprentice I believe is how you put it." Or not; his tone says inaccuracy will be forgiven at this moment in time. "Hello."
He doesn't sound cold; there is automatic courtesy and it can be warmth in the smile which carves lines almost-dimples into Adam's cheeks and crinkles the skin around his eyes. Maybe that's why he's growing the beard in more thickly than usual. Dimples do no man favors when it comes to authority.
Elijah"That's me," he said with a smile. Not the borrowed one, but the for real one who was probably going to be stuck with Kalen barring any major disasters or anything of the sort- which could not be ruled out. Elijah Poirot felt like a disaster. A real, honest walking disaster waiting to happen. the kinetic energy, the potential for a mess. The passion, the thrill, the turbulent everything.
It's no wonder someone has to teach him to behave in polite company, because it's taking everything he has not to shoot off into the depths of the book store and just park somewhere to read and do whatever it is that Elijah does. No one can be quite sure what it is that he does, "it's nice to meet you, I've heard pretty awesome things about you." Mostly just that he was awesome, and that was the predominant thought on Elijah's mind. He offers the man a hand, because you shake people's hands when you meet them and that seemed to be a courtesy that he did remember.
Elijah wasn't people inept by any means, but heavens he did not understand how to do anything remotely formal. Luckily, this was not formal; this was three men in a book shop with a ferret.
…waitaminuteaferret. Ruse. The ferret.
Elijah blinked.
Kalen Holliday"Yes," Kalen says with a smile. "That one."
He is content to keep petting Ruse while they shake hands or figure each other out or whatever it is they are going to do. In fairness, he seems like he'd be content to just lazily pet Ruse while they did most things right now. There is no gunfire, no monster, no threat. Perhaps some people are and remain on edge with Gallowglass, but Kalen does not.
But then he does raise an eyebrow at Elijah's surprise about the ferret. Glances at Ruse. "You picking up weird other-world characteristics on your little jaunts into extra-dimensional spaces looking for treats? Nope...four paws, one head, two eyes that clearly say you are up to no good...you look pretty much like always." Yes. Kalen Holliday. Totally a sucker for ferrets. Or at least this one.
AdamThe dark-haired Hermetic considers a smirk; his expression slides toward one, but the sharpness of it does not reach his eyes. His eyes are simply focused, observant, reserved, on Elijah who is an honest walking disaster waiting to happen, a mess, a turbulence of passion hold on to your seat make sure the belt is fastened. He shakes Elijah's hand. His are callused here and there. A scar on his scrawny, raw-boned wrist, something that looks like it was caused by teeth. Not ferret.
Ruse meanwhile folds his arms and clears his throat and opens his sharp little mouth to say, My good sir, Kalen, you know by now that I keep my other head strictly under wraps, for this is the one that has all the good ideas! -- or he does that in some alternate universe. In this universe, Ruse makes a little sound then reaches a paw out for Kalen's collar-bone. No, that way seems dangerous.
He'll go around the back of Kalen's neck instead to get to the other shoulder, then perch eyes even brighter drops of dark dark ink star-riddled than before to stare at Elijah. When Ruse notices Elijah looking, he gets excited and squeaks, scrabbling at Kalen's shirt like he's going to fall. He isn't. It's just what he does.
"He doesn't bite," Adam says, of Ruse, for Elijah's benefit. Is this a moment for getting ferret-treats from the desk? It seems like such a moment; he moves back to the desk and opens a drawer.
Mysteriously, all the ferret treats have disappeared, though the tattered remnants of a bag remain.
"It's nice to meet you, too. Why does Kalen think you'd be good for House Shaea?" A pause; the crinkles around his eyes are still there, although he is no longer smiling. People don't smile and smile; it's unnatural. And Adam is reserved, isn't he? Not to be mistaken for shy. Simply self-controlled. "How much homework has he given you?"
Pop-quiz, Kalen and Elijah.
Elijah"I haven't had to pull an all-nighter yet?" but has he pulled an all-nighter yet?
Yes, yes Elijah has. That, however, was entirely of Elijah's own volition and trying to balance having a social life (especially one as active as Elijah's) and having a magical study time meant that Mister Poirot didn't get to have much in the way of restful sleepy time. Which, if one asked him, was just fine, thank you very much. "We've had a lot of history lessons, and meditation, but mostly history- which is fine because the history of magical society in the context of, you know, everything else is really pretty cool but kind of makes me rethink being a French major."
The ferret doesn't bite, and Elijah reaches out and he is cautious- there is a story there. Once upon a time, he'd interacted with a ferret. Jenn had a ferret, mostly because Jenn had all sorts of weird animals and this was well before she had Roman the sugar glider. he reached forward tentatively to put the little thing, and while he was expecting for it to latch on and give him another scar on the inside of his ring finger (Like Beuford did- Elijah had not liked Beuford). There was a question to respond to, and this was a pop quiz and he knew it was a pop quiz.
Elijah always took the whole time he needed for these types of things, even if he was the last one to answer. Why would Kalen say he'd be good in House Shaea? "Because… well… they're a house who exists for the sake of knowledge and the preservation thereof, if you're learning then someday you're gaining wisdom if you're doin' it right. I think… I think the answer is because when he asked me what I wanted to learn first, my answer has been everything, and I really do mean that I want to learn everything, even if that isn't possible there's no reason not to try. I've pretty pursuit of knowing through experience at the moment, but experience can really only take you so far sometimes, and there's- there's this quote, one of my friends sent it to me, but it says What an astonishing thing a book is. Its a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
He realizes, at this juncture, that he is rambling. The young man took a second and inhaled, because this was one of the few things he had remembered from meditation practice (before falling asleep) and it was that he needed to find something and center himself if he was ever going to get anything done.
"Anyway. The pursuit and preservation of knowledge for its own sake is incredibly important."
Kalen HollidayKalen sort of loses the thread of what Elijah is saying to a thread of sound partway through the rambling and forces his attention back just before he finishes speaking, less because he remembers this time and more because Ruse moves on his shoulder. Why can't Gallowglass have the kind of bookstore filled with armchairs? Aside from that being nothing like Gallowglass...soft edges instead of shelves, rest instead of charging onward, warmth...Kalen and Ruse have that in common today. They could both use warmth. Hammocks and blankets, Gallowglass. Your half-tamed Flambeau and your ferret need them.
He lets Elijah answer the question, for all he knows Gallowglass is judging both of them by the answer and lets his eyes slide over to Gallowglass. Waits, because Gallowglass will judge because it is what he does. But then he will also speak, and Kalen, fir all he and Gallowglass can disagree values his council. He might not always take his advice, but he always listens.
AdamHe makes a Heh in the back of his throat, this almost chuckle, when Elijah says he rethinks being a French major.
The dark-haired Hermetic (sleepless Hermetic, Hermetic with shadows around his eyes and no ferret on his shoulder, sleeplessness is to Hermetics as honey is to bees) doesn't seem to find Elijah's answer to be too rambling. He listens; he is intent and still. His arms are folded. Ruse sniffs delicately at Elijah's fingers but does not otherwise sproing from Kalen's shoulder at him or sink his sharp little needle teeth into flesh and rend.
Adam does speak. He asks another question. "How do you think knowledge gets lost?"
Elijah"Ton of ways. Inadequate record keeping the first time around, failure to fully explore the topic on conception, thinking you're done when you get the first of it taken in? That one's huge, thinking you've explored a topic so completely that it doesn't need to be explored anymore; knowing everything is nearly impossible, but trying to learn everything is a completely worthy pursuit." He's thought about this.
That's saying something, because Elijah spends time thinking; it doesn't seem like it, sometimes. It doesn't seem like he thinks about much of anything, given how damnably impulsive he can be but it is moments like this that he seems almost contemplative, or at the very least seems capable of showing off his own moments of contemplation.
"Some of it is human error. Things being destroyed, records being altered, but I think more often then not it is failure at the source and a lack of empathy in trying to see every angle of something."
Kalen HollidayKalen settles onto the floor, resting back against a bookshelf. He's careful not to smush Ruse.
Things being destroyed. The books, and more importantly the people with the knowledge...Gallowglass and Kalen have felt the sting of losing both. He looks up and his eyes find Gallowglass' for a second; though, today, that is less because he's looking for comfort so much as because solidarity. He does need Gallowglass today, but only so far as he needs to feel safe enough to let his guard down enough to rest. Exhausted, yes. Drained, yes. Barely capable of focusing, yes. Horribly emotionally vulnerable, no.
He watches Gallowglass test Ellijah. Lets that go on without seeming at all concerned he should stop it. Elijah will face more intimidating Magi eventually. Possibly Gallowglass, but older. Wiser. Kalen does hope his friend will relax as he ages, but they both know that is...perhaps not to be expected. So. Yes, At some ater juncture more intimidating Magi, who may, or may not include a later juncture version of Gallowglass. Sparing him now does him no favors.
AdamKalen's eyes find Adam's eyes. There is something about being watched; something in our reptile brains, in our lizard self, or perhaps just intuition; but Adam's eyes shift to compass Kalen as well and he smiles faintly at him (charm, rumpled, valiance on his shoulder). Ruse starts to climb up Kalen's head but abandons that pursuit for the exploration of under-Kalen's-shirt. "Do you want tea? Erm, both of you," absent.
"And ...How do you think magick fits into that? Records altered, things destroyed, failure at the source, trying to learn everything a worthy pursuit etcetera etcetera."
Elijah[Elijah, do NOT say that!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )
Elijah"Well, when you're-"
Nope. Not gonna start there- besides there was tea, and the little ping pong ball of an apprentice perked up, "oh, tea sounds great, actually."
He rolled his shoulders and, finally, put the book down because he had been holding it this whole time and trying not to moon over it and it gave Elijah something to do with his hands and soon enough he needed to be able to gesture and think about things and gesturing helped and-
Inhale.
He inhaled deep and reminded himself that he needed to be centered. He was having a conversation with people. People he'd just met. Not everyone has the energy to handle Elijah being… Elijah.
"Magic fits into it like this- you have reality and what people think it is. You have what reality actually is, and what the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that it's malleable, because that's what magic is. It's saying these are guidelines and tapping into-" he paused "-you don't really wanna hear what I think reality is, do you? it's gonna get rambly, but I swear it ties in."
Kalen Holliday"Please," he says quietly to Gallowglass. There is a smile with it though, all grateful warmth. Because Kalen is not in a place to beg Gallowglass to come closer, to be near enough to touch, but he is always a little charmed when anyone offers to bring him things or make him things. Spend the right decade or so looking after yourself, and offers of tea seem so much more important. Offers of anything, really.
But then he goes quiet again, save for a faint mutter to Ruse to be careful with those tiny claws. Gallowglass is testing. And making tea. And this place, of all places feels so safe. Perhaps not exactly peaceful, but peaceful places...wide and tranquil and lovely only leave Kalen on edge. There is no sense they are defended. And so he has to watch them and guard them in ways he doesn't feel as compelled to do here.
Adam"Ramble away," Adam says. He hangs out with Leonhard. Elijah doesn't seem anywhere near that -- he wouldn't use the word 'bad.'
But to ramble away, Elijah may feel the need to follow Adam. They both want tea. He knows what tea Kalen will have, or he just chooses from the options he knows Kalen will have, but Elijah is a mystery.
"Kalen, why don't you turn the sign to 'closed'?"
Adam opens the employees only door. Break-room and back-room both. Does Night Owl / An Arch Key books have staff? It does. There's a schedule for them there, some photographs. A table with chairs. And a kitchenette, and boxes. A lot of boxes. The kitchenette has an electric kettle which Adam tests before turning on. Water's already waiting.
While he's waiting for the waiting water to boil, he listens. He even rests against the counter to listen.
Elijah"The world is generally a beautiful, wonderful, horrible place," he starts, "and I say horrible because, for awhile, I really just thought it was horrible but it's hit me recently that the horror is part of the wonder so you just kind of have to take it for what it is. If you subscribe to the idea that the world has begun and ended and begun and ended and begun and ended like it always does over and over again, and people reincarnate then it stands to reason that knowledge and experience could be accumulated over lifetimes and there's a good chance you might actually know a lot about a particular topic and think you know everything about it because you've experienced it. Which is-"
and he is following along and walking and talking, "a logical fallacy. Thinking that you've experienced the world, learned the world, and been around enough times sometimes gives someone a false sense of knowing. It's almost like ignorance-induced stasis, which is kind of freaky when you think about it- having learned so much that eventually you kneecap yourself?"
" But anyway, not the point, the point was the actual world itself. We have this world that is amazing, but it plays by rules that the majority of people set and magic is basically saying no, I'm like English grammar and you're trying to convince the universe that you're the exception to the rule and occasionally reality gets all no, there is no U in the word color and it gets pretty mad when you say No, sometimes there is a U in the word colour, and then show it otherwise."
It is at this juncture that Elijah realizes that he probably shouldn't be likening magic to weird spelling differences between versions of English. He was getting off topic, so the younger man inhaled, and tried to remember the question to get himself back where he was supposed to be.
"How that fits into the whole thing is that magic, sometimes, can help you either recover things you missed, because time is kind of bull-" don't say bullshit, this isn't Alicia "-when you think of it as just a linear thing that goes onward and forward and can only go forward. But, it would be kind of dumb to think that just because it doesn't go forward only that it isn't something that can be doctored or colored differently and perceptions of it can't be altered to mask the actual truth, which I'm pretty sure could be a thing."
Adam[Ack. So! A friend just called to say they will be here in fifteen minutes, because I guess I forgot we had dinner plans. D: I am going to have to bail. Do y'all want to pause and pick up later? If not, like, Adam can totally get suddenly swamped in work and fade him out.]
Kalen Holliday[We can pause! :)]
Elijah(Pausing works for me!)
Adam[K! *zips off*]
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