diatu | [OPEN] The light that seemed to disappear

Who: Eleven and OPEN
Where: First District/Academy
When: September 3rd-ish
What: El has returned from his world, a bit disoriented by a mix of somewhat obscure visions/dreams, multiple sets of memories, and general time shenanigans.
Warnings: None.. at the moment, I think.

His feet hit the ground, and Eleven landed in a crouch. He held the stilled position for several moments, eyes focused on the shadows spread over the dirt a short distance from his fingertips. Then just as swiftly whirled on the person stepping up behind him. A civilian, he noted belatedly, and dropped his sword with an apology.

The newly forged Sword of Light gleamed in the afternoon sun. He rubbed his eyes and glanced up to clear blue skies above. Sunlight so bright that it seemed impossible. A spread of foreign scenery slowly resolved into distant familiarity.

Not Hotto, but Noa.

A world full of life, not yet fallen to darkness. A world ambivalent to the title of Luminary. Overlapping visions of two very different, yet puzzling dreams.

He'd regained his companions only to lose them again, but traded them for cross-dimensional friendships.

Hendrik. Yotsuyu. Isabel. Lea. Tenn. Isa. Kuja. Atem. A number of others.

Yet his feet hesitated to return, found himself caught between a strong desire to stay, and the compulsion telling him he should go. Mysteries and memories held him captive, conflicting, weighted, and scattering his focus.

He stayed.

It took a few days to feel ready enough.

When Eleven finally returned to Anastara, it was with a practiced smile: patient and friendly yet at odds with purposeful strides and drawn shoulders. He passed through the First District and into the Academy grounds with a polite nod to everyone he made eye contact with.

Nothing seemed terribly different from what he last remembered of the place. The people he thought he knew still recognized him.

"Has it really only been a few days..?"

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Eleven wondered where the man's faith came from, or if it was simply in his nature to offer encouragement. He appreciated it, in either case.

He couldn't offer any insight on reasons for being further than his own. That wasn't wildly useful information to anyone else.

"I love forging," he said after a moment. "In both worlds. Find something you like to do, for a job."

"Forging. Now that's a useful art." He sighed. Aziraphale had, at one time very long ago, been quite good at illuminated texts, but that was an art that had passed into antiquity long ago. All those pretty gold leafed edges, the elaborate letters, the finely crafted decorative borders. When books had been properly treasured, not text in screens. "My interests are books. I had a bookshop, you know. Antique books. Collected over the...years. I was quite good at that, finding old books, preserving them." Not selling them.

Another pouting sigh. He wouldn't make money with a bookstore, though. He wouldn't be willing to part with the merchandise.

"I like wine. But I can't say I can make it--" A laugh at his own expense. "I can drink it. And food, of course." Crowley would have a money making scheme cooked up in no time, he was sure of it. Crowley had a wonderful imagination and cleverness for silly things like that. "I'm not sure I have what the modern folk would call a...'marketable skill-set.'"

"You could open a bookshop here," he offered in the way of the obvious. Though it occurred to him that Aziraphale would need to own enough books to sell, or have a way to acquire them.

"Or.. work in one of the libraries?"

"Oh, no, I couldn't. Someone would want to buy the books and then where would I be?" Tempting as a bookshop would be, a little cash in his pocket was not worth parting with one of his horded treasures.

He opened his mouth to object, closed it, and considered.

"Do they pay to work in libraries? I always thought people did that for free."

Eleven tipped his head, not entirely sure of that himself. But the one dedicated library he knew of in his world was abandoned and overrun by monsters. He'd seen people working in the libraries he'd visited in this world, though.

"I remember I wasn't sure if priests earned an income, but they do. I don't see why librarians wouldn't."

Aziraphale, on the other hand, was well aware priests earned an income, sometimes even outside of their church stipend. Still, the amassing of wealth under the name of the Church was beside the point. He had rather thought librarians were above all that, given that they were providing a public service, and like teachers, he had imagined that they didn't make, well...shit, if anything.

Though that library he had located in the school might be a nice place to work, the fire and ash aside. After all, the chances of being bothered with actual guests was fairly slim.

"I suppose. I guess I just thought that their role was tending to the books out of a joy of doing so. I hadn't considered they might actually be paid. To be honest, I'd never really thought to ask."

He smiled.

"I'll hope it goes well for you, then. I'm sure you will be good at it, if you've already run a bookshop before."

The two probably weren't that different, except that the books weren't sold exactly.

"If you do start to work in one, I could ask you for recommendations."

"Thank you." There was still the issue that people would be TOUCHING the books and possibly getting things on them, and that they might not actually RETURN them, and then some Divine Wrath might have to occur, but other than that, no, the two were not much different.

"Of course. And if you have requests, too, I do enjoy a treasure hunt. What sort of subjects are you interested in? I had the pleasure of locating a nifty library on the grounds recently and I could see if it has anything you might need." Assuming books could be checked out of there. Regardless, the shelving system left much to be desired in terms of organization--all the better to deter patrons. A place after Aziraphale's own heart, truly--but it just made finding things all the more rewarding. "It has some rather esoteric topics, so I'm afraid it'd be no use for just general knowledge. But if you're looking for something specific..."

Eleven opened his mouth to respond, closed it, then considered.

"There was something I researched several months ago.." he said slowly, attempting to tease the memory free. "Something about- about dragons."

His head whipped around, turning to stare in the directions of the caverns that lay beneath the school. The ghost dragon. He shivered.

"I wanted to know more about the period of time when dragons enslaved humanity; how it began and the reasons for it." His brows furrowed. "I remember I didn't find much. ..I don't think I was meant to."

Edited 2019-09-08 23:48 (UTC)

Aziraphale serenely folded his hands over his stomach, followed the young man's gaze towards the school, as he considered the ramifications of this venture.

Dragons had once enslaved humanity, though the history and context of that were hidden. The nugget of knowledge had been revealed to Eleven and then limited to that simple teaser. Terrifying, but fascinating. The world they were living in was expanding with discovery.

"I can look for that for you, of course," he offered. "If that is truly something you want to know. But I should warn you, Eleven. If you eat from that Tree of Knowledge, there may be no going back to Eden. Or, as the more universal saying goes, Ignorance is bliss." Knowledge was power, however, and Aziraphale strongly believed in understanding the world in which you existed. Still, he presented the choice, because temptation was a heady drug and informed consent was important--even if information was limited. "There may have been a reason for that knowledge being withheld. Once you know it, whatever it is, you cannot un-know it, and that information might have consequences."

Eleven turned a sharp look on him, but he took a moment to consider how keenly he still wanted to know.

The ghost dragon's threat felt far away. This world felt far away, despite being in it.

"It isn't unprovoked," he said finally. "The consequences of ignorance can be just as steep."

"Indeed, especially willful ignorance."

Then, in a much more chipper tone, he added, "Righty-oh, well then, you let me know what you know already and I'll do my best to expand on that information for you. Unless you'd like to come along to the library yourself, but I must warn you...it is a rather hellish place. Fire and all that. The air is pretty disagreeable."

Eleven's brows rose.

"That doesn't sound safe for the books." Or anyone, really. "..Is that really a place you'd want to work as well? There are other libraries."

"It would certainly cut back on the number of patrons I'd have to put up with," he said, practically giddy with the thought of no customers to chase away. "And the books seemed perfectly content there, even if they do seem to get caught up in a few whirlwinds. The fire hasn't appeared to so much as singe even a single one that I've seen."

It all was a great deal obvious why that would be an appealing place to be...the threat of possible discorporation aside...right?

Though Mr. Fell seemed sincere enough, Eleven remained unconvinced.

"Well, as long as you're sure they're safe, I'd like to see it, I think."

[OPEN] The light that seemed to disappear

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