trans_9 | In Comforting Academia [OPEN]

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In Comforting Academia [OPEN]

Since the podpop, Thom had kept to himself. The crew quarters were crowded and noisy, so he spent as little time there as possible, stealing back to his quarters when the ship seemed to be sleeping. So far, no one had either noticed or asked about the Gift-sickness he still bore.

The signs were all still there, of course. Most of the frequented areas on the ship were brightly lit enough that the glow from his skin wasn't visible, but the fever was omnipresent, and in dimly lit corridors it was always a possibility that it might be noticed.

Thom resolved to figure out how to cure the taint in his Gift as quickly as possible, so he could put the problem behind him. To that end, he was holed up in the media library. At his left elbow sat a prodigious stack of tablets he had yet to peruse. At his right elbow were two more piles - one, neat and tidy, were the tablets whose contents looked interesting enough to read in full. The other was a haphazard pile of discarded material.

He skimmed through the current tablet with his face set in a mask of fierce concentration.

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Sandry had been busy seeing where different routes led her. While it was comforting, knowing that Daja was close enough to speak to mind to mind, she really did enjoy the solitude of exploring on her own. Especially since she and Daja weren't exactly from the same point in time, which made conversation a struggle. As she wandered, she found herself in what looked to be a library. Tris would like this, she thought to herself, before quickly putting it out of her mind. It was better to focus on what was in front of her, rather than people she couldn't see.

Although, the redheaded boy she came across definitely looked enough like Tris. The same fierce look, almost the same hair color...it was strange. Of course, they couldn't possibly be related; Tris had mentioned that her relatives couldn't care less for learning, unless it was worth something in the business. Habits were habits though, and Sandry couldn't help but interrupt.

"What are you reading?" She called, just loud enough to be heard. "It looks interesting."

After long years in the City of the Gods studying, Thom had learned to keep an ear out while he was studying. Skimming the contents didn't take very much brain power, so while a truly engrossing text would have made him miss the voice entirely, Thom actually did hear that there was someone speaking to him and responded.

"Magical text," he said shortly. "The Gaze of the Eye of Nädära, some kind of theoretical composition on the Sight." Thom tossed it into the discard pile. Theory on something so basic wasn't going to help him.

Definitely a Tris, she noted. This didn't bother her; she was used to warding off angry looks and petulant remarks when disrupting someone's reading. She took a chair next to him, looking through the discard pile carefully. None of them looked particularly interesting to Sandry, though she was sure that someone would read them eventually.

"What's the Sight?" She continued browsing the book he had discarded.

Thom grabbed another tablet off of the yet to be perused pile and began skimming its contents. So far, the discard pile was much larger than the pile of potentially useful texts, but that was to be expected. The wealth of worlds was here, and he fully expected that this was only scratching the surface of what was available.

Sandry's question made him pause mid-scroll. "What is the Sight-" he said it like he couldn't believe someone would ask that question. When he glanced at her, he scooted his chair away fractionally, unaware that she had gotten so close to him. "It is one of the three forms of mortal magic. Various applications include seeing magic in others, detecting lies, poison or godhood, knowing when you are being watched. There are others, but those are the most common abilities, and it's rare for the Sight to be found with any kind of strength."

The explanation was dry and academic as Thom resumed his scrolling.

It really wasn't his fault, you know. It'd taken him quite some time to get used to his crude prosthetic--in fact, he'd still been adjusting when he'd gotten taken by Stacy. Then there'd been the automail, which, while far more functional, had taken even more time to get used to.

During the mission, while in that fake life, he'd had an entirely different prosthetic yet again, not unlike his first (though lighter and better crafted) and his muscle memory was all messed up now that he was back to his automail. It wasn't that bad, but it still meant he was tripping a little more often (again), especially when distracted. Right now, he was reading a book he'd downloaded as he walked, and that counted as distracted.

Cue a spectacular trip, in which he slammed a flailing arm into Thom's pile of unread tablets and scattered them in...3...2...1... Action.

Trip! Flail! Scatter!

"Oooh. Whoops."

In what must have seemed like the calm before the storm, for the first few seconds Thom neither moved nor spoke, frozen in the act of putting his latest tablet on his 'acceptable research' pile. Then he turned slowly, like if he turned slowly enough his eyes would not present him with the sight of his meticulously selected tablets spilled all over the floor in a haphazard pile, with a scruffy child picking himself up out of the middle of them.

Thom had already wasted enough time figuring out how the damn things worked, then scouring the library for titles that might be useful, then going through the contents, then skimming the pages-

"You - You - imbecile!" Thom roared, standing up out of his chair. He didn't precisely mean for his magic to blow the offending piece of furniture away like a twig on the breeze, but he had to admit that the halo of amethyst-and-blood-colored magic was both theatrical and intimidating. In his anger, he had no interest in controlling it. "Look at what you've done - it took me hours to gather all of these!"

Hiccup wasn't exactly sure if he'd been blasted backward by the--the whatever that was (magic maybe?), or just if he'd scooted backwards so fast on his butt automatically and unconsciously that it seemed like magic.

Probably a little of column A and a lot of column B.

Either way, he wound up his his back to the wall and his hands in front of his face (as if that would do any good).

"Would it help at all if I said I was sorry? Because I really am sorry. Really, really as sorry as you need me to be for you to not do that again."

The media library was a location of great interest to a dragon with such curiosity and thirst for knowledge as Celena, often taking trips too and from her lair with stacks of borrowed tablets, read in her spare time then returned for another batch. Such as it was a the dragoness strode in, a few such tablets floating along beside her.

It did not take her long to slot the tablets back in their resting places even as she took a look around for those who had decided to make use of the library that day, her gaze brushing past a few before settling on a somewhat unfamiliar face. One of the new arrivals she would assume, her curiosity caught by the stacks of tablets and the pile of what looked discarded tablets.

Sliding the last of her tablets away, almost contemplating leaving the other to his reading as she walked closer. That is until the strong sense of magic emanating from his direction put the thought of leaving him be out of her mind, even as she approached the sense of magic felt almost sickly, tainted perhaps it was hard to say, very interesting indeed.

"Quite the bit of reading material I see,"

Hiccup was very lucky that at that moment, Thom was much more interested in restraining his magic, which had been more or less unleashed by his anger. Otherwise Hiccup might have ended up across the room with his head through a bookcase.

"Be quiet," Thom snapped, taking a deep breath through his nose. The riot of amethyst-and-blood was slowly sinking back under his skin as he struggled for control. He was not so stupid to suppose that no-one would care if he turned this child into a tree, clumsy and babbling as he was. "Do you realize how many hours of work you have set me behind in? I had everything organized by subject."

"More than I possibly could have wished for," Thom said absently. He had not yet looked up from his tablet, which was the only reason why she hadn't gotten an extremely surprised reaction. "The knowledge of a thousand worlds."

It was the kind of thing he had dreamed of as a boy, making some vast discovery that would catapult his name into fame or infamy for all of time.

Was that why you raised Roger?

The thought was in his mind only briefly before he shoved it away. He had already forgotten that the other person was even there.

"Why are you asking me questions if you want me to be quiet--wait never mind that, to answer your question, well, yes--yes, I did figure from the entirely disproportionate rage that it probably was more than just knocking a stack of books down--"

Sarcasm. Sarcasm was going to get him killed. Why was he using sarcasm? As far as defense mechanisms went, sarcasm was like covering yourself in bacon fat and doing a dance in front of a group of hungry dragons, I.E. really no defense at all, and in fact, something more of a provocation.

"--and I should stop talking. I really should stop talking," he babbled in terror, "but before I do, I would like to point out the parts where it was firstly, entirely an accident, and secondly, it was an accident I am very, very, very sorry for. Pleasedont'tcurseme."

Edited 2011-01-13 13:12 (UTC)

"Indeed, more than many could wish for," Celena replied with ease after a short moment, dipping her head as she padded to a comfortable distance, "Many a time I've spent sifting through the knowledge here, one could spend many months and still only take in but a small portion,"

She had no objections to his seeming forgetfulness of her presence taking that moment to take a better look at him, noticing when she looked in detail he had the faintest of glow's about his skin, what she could see of it.

"If I may, what manner of topics might you be currently delving into?"

"It was rhetorical, you babbling nitwit," Thom said. "Is your mouth at all divorced from your brain or did the failsafe break at some point when you scattered my research all over the floor? Nevermind that," he said, lest the boy start trying to answer him again. Mithros' balls, the last thing he needed was more babbling. His brain might ooze out his ears in protest.

Thom stalked over to the chair, picking it up and dragging it back to the desk. A year ago he would have simply summoned it with a twitch of the fingers, but he wasn't so sure of his control anymore and didn't want to test it with his temper so close to the surface. He sat back down in the chair and folded his hands on the table. "You may pick up everything you knocked over now."

"Thamaturgical literature," Thom responded, slowly pulling his eyes away from the tablet as if reluctant to leave its subject matter. "Specifically on the subject of- Great Mother Goddess, you're a dragon!" Thom yelped, having finally looked over to see Celena craning her head over his shoulder. Thankfully, the instinctive jerk backward that followed didn't knock any of his tablets over.

...Well he did knock it down, and he would've picked it up anyway, just to be polite, but now he really didn't want to, with this guy's attitude.

Still, it was his fault, right?

Bending down to a crouch was fortunately much easier with the automail being back again, so he did just that, and started picking the tablets up.

Unfortunately for Hiccup, Thom wasn't quite done making himself into a sorcerous menace. He watched the boy with a critical eye as he began picking up the texts - of course getting them miserably disorganized. "Give me that," Thom said, snatching the last tablet Hiccup had picked up right out of his hands. It had been at the top of the pile, the one he was reading next.

"If you have any sense at all you won't sort the Necromantic with the Elementalist texts," he said in an utter deadpan before fixing his attention back onto the tablet and completely ignoring Hiccup's existence again.

"I have to sort them?"

Srsly?

Celena nodded at his reply as he began to turn around, wondering just what this ones reaction to her would be. She could only watch on with amusement at his rather startled reaction to the fact that yes, she was a dragon. Very observant Thom. Have said dragon watching you with some amusement.

"That I am indeed, Celena Vantari a pleasure to meet you," She gave a dip of her head giving him a moment to recover after the shock of a dragon standing not a few meters a way from him.

"That's the idea," Thom said in a nasty drawl. "They were sorted before you knocked them over. Although I suppose I should count it as a blessing that I only got a single sentence before your mouth decided to run over. Look," he said, yanking another tablet away from Hiccup. "Necromantic. Having to do with sorcery worked on the dead and undead." He set that tablet on one clean space on the table and picked up another tablet. "Elementalist. Having to do with elemental forces of magic that shape the world." He picked up yet another tablet. "Arcane. Having to do with the forces of high magic put under thamaturgical law by man. Keep the stacks separate."

He set both tablets down at different spots on the table, then turned back to the tablet he had been reading. Honestly, Hiccup should be grateful he bothered to explain at all.

Observant was not something Thom was very good at when his head was buried in some mystery of the magical universe.

But here was a mystery of the magical universe standing right in front of him. "By the Gods," he said, rising from his chair like someone who had seen a miracle. And by all accounts of his world, he was. "Locked away centuries ago and now here? It can't-"

Thom stopped mid-sentence, perhaps realizing that he was beginning to babble or perhaps realizing that 'it can't be' is a ridiculous statement when prove otherwise is standing right in front of you. Thom made a small bow, like one nobleman would make to another. "Lord Master Thom of Trebond, Celena. The pleasure is mine, I'm sure." If all else failed, at least his nobility never failed to kick in at the right time.

Except for the part where explaining was a little important when he had to sort things without knowing what they were--whoa, hold on. Undead?

"Sorcery worked on the dead--and--and undead?"

Like draugr?

"You--you do that? On purpose?"

Did people actually try to create things like draugr? Yeah, more terror now, as he realized he'd just tripped his way into pissing off someone that thought "How to Create an Undead Unholy Army" was proper reading material.

The Norse did not mess about with their dead, really. There were the pyres at sea or there were the burials with all those little important bits, like the open iron scissors, twigs and straw hidden in their clothes, the big toes being tied together...

Lots of superstition there, Thom.

"I only did it once," Thom said, like it was no big deal. "I advise you don't. It requires an enormous amount of power and the lasting ramifications are... difficult."

Although Thom may have seemed absent, he was perfectly aware of Hiccup's fear. He was, in addition to being hopelessly arrogant and frequently mean, fond of watching people trip over themselves when they realized how dangerous he was. He didn't wear the black robes of Mastery for nothing.

But he hid his smirk by keeping his head down and his eyes fixed on the tablet.

Yeah, he'll be trying to organize those tablets now. Quietly. Quickly.

It was, despite his intelligence, still somewhat difficult, given his complete lack of understanding when it came to magic.

"What if something falls into Elementalist, but goes into thamaturgical law?"

A fact that can be quite forgiven in Celena's mind after all, one can't be blamed with such vast wealth of knowledge at hand.

Celena couldn't help but give a curious look at his reaction, she gathered the clues of his reaction, she could only guess that his world had indeed had dragons, perhaps not the same as her but 'locked away' she couldn't guess how or to what reason however.

Celena held back her amusement for a friendly smile, dipping her head in imitation of a bow in turn to his own, Lord Master Thom of Trebond, quite the title indeed you have there Thom, "Quite the interesting topic you have chosen to study I see, my apologies if I interrupted you,"

"It's discussing the applications of thamaturgy as they relate to Elementalism so it's an Elementalist text. Just sort them by the subject and try not to ask me inane questions. I realize it may be difficult for you, given your regrettable tendency toward excessive speech."

Thom had apparently never heard that the first impressions were the lasting ones. Or he just didn't give a damn.

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