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Post by The Jenn on Dec 15, 2008 20:59:37 GMT -5
Ah, Esterberry. Parzifal hadn't visited the place in years, ever since his last visit with his former Master. For all that some of the residents were a real pain, he liked the region. It was pretty enough, the buildings were beautiful, and the libraries contained an absolute wealth of knowledge. He wasn't just some little three anymore, either. He'd worked his way up to the rank of a face Card and wouldn't get the same kind of Looks he used to when in nice places with Vren. Now he'd just get looks for being a foreigner. Eh, but he was used to those. No big deal. He walked along a cobblestone sidewalk next to a busy street, carriages and foot traffic passing him by. There weren't nearly as many people around as their would have been in other places, especially the Capital, so walking wasn't an ordeal to wade through the mob. Having his bipedal form also helped, especially the height advantage. He had his human as well, but he was traveling with Parsley and the squirrel hadn't yet gotten past his animal, so that wouldn't have been especially polite. Hands were nice, though. He did like hands. They gave him four limbs he could use to maneuver things. Red eyes scanned the buildings to his right, checking the street numbers while admiring the architecture. It was fanciful and unlike most buildings in either Corvistowne or the Capital, the two places he'd been most recently. Some of the flowering vines, carefully manicured to grow up the sides of the buildings, were also a nice touch. "Keep an eye out for seven-oh-two, alright?" he said absently to the Corvie beside him. "That's the one we're looking for." |
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 15, 2008 21:10:51 GMT -5
Esterberry. Filled with pricks and elitist who could recite the dictionary. It was a good place to double check research though, when you couldn't find it in Corvistowne you could find it here. This was the best place ever for useless and useful information. The squirrel trotted down the street besides his bird companion. They were both getting some interesting stares from the locals. Then again it wasn't an every day occurrence that a brightly colored fairy Corvie walk through the streets with a part Tulgey. It made him wonder what his sister went through.
"There it is. That pretty one with the vines in a heart shape. Geesh. They have some pretty interesting decorators in this place." Parsley said with a small shrug as he continued to pad towards their destination. It was one of the larger libraries of Esterberry. Probably the fourth largest, which did say a lot about the establishment even if they were in one of the smaller towns that littered the region. "I'm sure we'll find some interesting stuff in there." |
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Post by The Jenn on Dec 15, 2008 21:20:17 GMT -5
The bird caught sight of the building only a moment after Parsley and couldn't help a small smirk at the decoration. A heart? Probably the library founder's suit, if he had to hazard a guess. "A large library in a rural area? There's probably a university or academy somewhere nearby, if not two, to have that kind of information available. Bet you anything there are plenty of people about our age with egos the size of small moons."
He walked up the smooth marble stairs that led to the large wooden doors of the library, open for the day. A security guard eyed him and his companion but said nothing, as neither of them exuded a particularly threatening aura. They just... looked weird for the area.
This wasn't a library he'd ever visited before and his crimson eyes lit up a bit when he walked inside. The first thing to assault his senses was the overwhelming smell of books! The second thing was the sheer size of the shelves, taller than him three or four times over, with rolling ladders on each to permit access. "Oh yes," he agreed in a hushed tone, "we're going to find plenty of things in here." Like a true bookworm, albeit one who'd spent most of his life serving a scholar, he felt the magnetic pull of the books, just waiting for him to crack their covers.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 15, 2008 21:28:34 GMT -5
Parsley was rather thrilled by the sight of so many books in one place. He never really had that much to read in his parents house. He always enjoyed them, and always wanted more. In Corvistowne he had quite a few from his father's library but this was on a completely different scale.
His tail twitched. "All right. I'm going to head off for the mechanical section. I'll meet you up here in two hours... if I'm not eaten by the massive amount of books. If I don't end up meeting you in two hours I'll meet you back at the inn."
And then the squirrel was gone, hurrying into the building as fast as he could go without drawing more attention to himself.
After his departure a woman carrying a rather large ledger approached, watching his receding figure with a comical expression. She turned to the bird, trying to wipe the smirk off her face. It was a manned wolf, Two of Hearts. And like many Esterberries, if you weren't one of her kind you weren't worth the time of day.
But she had a respectable job.
"Can I help you find what you're looking for, sir?"
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Post by The Jenn on Dec 15, 2008 21:38:36 GMT -5
Parzi waved a wing-arm at the squirrel as he left, half in a shooing motion. "Alright, I'll see you. Probably back at the inn. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be devoured." It was a pleasant little inn, too, though he could have done without the large floral print fabrics. Apparently it contributed to the 'rural charm', but he just found it ugly. Reminded him of an old lady's hat. Rather, like the hat of the old lady at the front desk who had once been the manager's wife before he died and her daughter took over the place.
He turned when he heard a voice speaking in his direction. Sure enough, copper eyes were focused on his face. He felt self-conscious everywhere, but never so much as he did in the Highlands or Esterberry. Growing up in the Tulgey, you'd think he would be used to it, but realm or suit elitists always made his skin prickle unpleasantly when they looked at him like he was scum. It wasn't his rank anymore. It was just him. "Ah yes, that would be appreciated. I'm currently searching for documents on the War of the Wall, particularly the magics related to the war. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be appreciated."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 15, 2008 21:52:06 GMT -5
"The War of the Wall?" She said with a raised eyebrow. "I'm afraid that section of the library is rather small. You probably should have gone to one of the larger libraries for that. Just walk down the first aisle, turn right when you find the books on mythology turn to the left and there you go. Have fun." She said giving him a rather critical look.
It was about a fifteen minute walk, assuming that he didn't get lost. When he arrived he would find several large leather bound books on the subject matter he was looking for. Several were written in Esterberry only, but others were in common and different regional languages.
Of course, by small it meant there was several shelves that Parzi would have to wade through. On the bright side there was a table a few feet away where someone could sit down and read what they had found. A man was already sitting there with his face obscured by a book. The table was littered with various scrolls and objects, along with a tall pile of books. If Parzi wanted to sit there he would probably have the ask the man to move a few of his things.
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Post by The Jenn on Dec 15, 2008 22:07:19 GMT -5
Her comment was slightly discouraging, but in such a large library, Parzi was reasonably sure that something useful existed to be found. "Thanks much," he said with a polite bob of his head and proceeded to wander in the direction she'd indicated. Maybe he would end up in one of the larger libraries if nothing panned out with this one. Parsley could clean his own house again for a few weeks, couldn't he? Or maybe not. It had been an absolute wreck when they'd arrived. His mother or father must have done most of it when he lived with them.
After wandering for about twenty minutes through the shelves after a wrong turn, he found the place he needed. Ahh, the Esterberry version of small. He couldn't help but wonder if it applied to more than books, which made him cough to hide a sudden laugh. A guilty glance in either direction showed that there wasn't anyway to pay attention to him besides a man with his head behind a book, and he didn't so much as twitch. Good. He always had the insane urge to tiptoe in a library, so strong was the imposed air of silence and age.
He walked over to the shelves and spent the next ten minutes examining titles and flipping through indexes. It pained him to overlook so many, but he wasn't familiar with the Esterberry script. He found four on the first shelf that looked like they had a glimmer of promise and walked towards the table, staring at it for a moment. There really wasn't any way around it, was there? He tapped on the surface of the table. "Excuse me, but I was wondering if I could steal some of your space for a little while."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 15, 2008 22:16:42 GMT -5
The man didn't respond at first. He seemed to be too engrossed in what he was reading to realize that there was someone standing there wanting his attention. He did notice after two minutes or so when he found that his light was being blocked. He looked up from the book with a weary expression. The man blinked a few times when looking at the person in front of him. What was it with Tulgey's lately? He'd seen another one in Esterberry before... it was just odd. This one was a mix though. Harold looked down at the pile of books that he himself had scattered around the table. A frown graced his face. "I'm sorry about that," he said leaned forward, grabbing several off the books a scrolls to make room for the bird. One of the scrolls decided that it wasn't fond of being moved, and rolled off the table onto the floor next to Parzi's foot. The Esterberry didn't seem to notice as he continued to look at his book. He was obviously a busy person. |
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Post by The Jenn on Dec 15, 2008 22:27:03 GMT -5
Well, that was an odd expression. The man looked like he hadn't slept in a very long time, and he seemed to regard Parzi as some sort of hallucination. That was all the bird could get out of his face, and human expressions were hard, so he could be completely off. He just knew what the bags under the eyes meant.
"Thanks much," he murmured, setting down the three thick books and one scroll he'd managed to find that would be serve as his starting point. The man seemed busy, and important to have his human form. His marking was obscured by his shirt, so he couldn't catch his rank, but it was probably high. It made him wish he'd changed forms before entering the library. The more magically adept human form was always looked on better by the inhabitants of Esterberry, for a similar but different reason than it was in the Highlands. There, they saw it as power. Here, they saw it as achievement. Not quite synonyms.
He planted himself on a stool facing one of the shelves, not across from the other man and not next to him. Shifting, his foot knocked against something and he glanced down. A scroll... probably one of the human man's. He picked it up and glanced curiously at the title. The Intangyble Exystence of the Mental Playne. That was... new. "Are you a mentalist?" he blurted out in surprise, and immediately wished he hadn't. Only once had he been lectured for interrupting an Esterberry's reading. That had been one time too many.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 15, 2008 22:37:36 GMT -5
Harold jumped in his seat from the sudden exclamation. He did, however, finish reading his sentence before responding to the young man. "Yes and no. I suppose. If I told you the truth you wouldn't believe me." He said as he took the small ribbon that was part of the book and put it in it's bookmarking spot. He might as well entertain this person if they were going to randomly blurt things out.
The Esterberry glanced down at Parzi's books. Well now. It wasn't every day you saw someone reading about The War of the Wall. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the bird curiously. He wasn't good at reading birds. Ugh. This would make things difficult.
"That's not light reading you have there. It's not every day someone picks up reading about that, let alone someone who isn't an Esterberry Scholar." He was curious now. Tired but painfully curious. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table while he waited for a response.
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