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Who: Krista & YOU
Broadcast: Video!
Action: For all library visitors!
When: NOW?

[the fleet's resident, soft-spoken teen goth shows up on screen... backed by several bookcases filled with books! and maybe a couch back there. she waves, awkwardly.]

Uh, hey guys. Good news, the Bishop's library actually made it through the whole space-fight thing pretty well. The electronic tracking system is still down, but that's why people invented pencils and stuff.

[she gives the camera a funny look.] --No, actually, I'm pretty sure it's... the other way around. ... So nevermind.

[she holds up a very... charred-looking book. it had a red cover, once.]

The bad news is that "The Romantic History of the Galactiplastic Sector 9" totally bit it. So, uh. If there was a waiting list, we're gonna have to put this one on hold for a while. Alternatively, if anyone would like to play a little funeral tune, now's the time.

[she just. drops it flat on the floor. it's dead to her.]

So, um, for everyone who doesn't know... Me and a bunch of other people around here have been putting together a little library in the spare room on the Bishop... The ship's still kind of a mess from the fight, but anyone's welcome to come in and read or check out books, or whatever. We take donations and basically whatever stuff people bring us.

And we've got beanbags. And little lights that go "wowowo..." [accompanied with a little finger-wiggle and a totally straight face.] So if you're into that. This might be your jam.

---

[alternatively, if anyone comes to visit the library--it's a personnel room that's been outfitted with lots of bookcases, a couch, a table covered in archival materials, and several beanbags that you can drag around and sit in...

the collection is still small, but there's a little something for everybody! fiction, nonfiction, history, magic, charts, maps, comic books, whatever. Krista's around, probably putting books back on a shelf.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There is an elf child who is somewhat curious about this girl. He waits until she's asleep to investigate, though. Belth, too, loves this library and often sleeps in it.

He leans over to peek at the titles she grabbed. He's mostly interested in magic books, but somewhere along the line he grabbed an epic poem (think the Iliad in space) and now he's sort of committed. He keeps that particular title firmly under his arm, and tries to read the title of the book she's cradling.]

[She has several things, a book on science, one of a history of a world she's never heard of, another some kind of mystery story. The book she's holding bears the title "Fairy Tales" and is by someone named Hans Christian Anderson.

Now, Syeira is not the heaviest of sleepers by any means. And the boy leaning over her isn't exactly being extremely stealthy. She wakes, but not abruptly. She can sense someone close by, and decides to just barely peek with one eye, still feigning sleep.]

[Belthazar doesn't notice that she's stirred. He's musing over the fairy tales title, but he's not about to take it from her. That's rude as hell. The first time he tried that, he got smacked pretty hard by his sister.

He straightens again and moves to leave, but in true awkward teenage fashion, trips on his own robes and goes slamming face down into the floor.]

... why.

[A pretty good question when applied to his life.]

[She sees him trip and reacts. It's not fast enough to stop him from falling sadly, but she does manage to throw her arm out and keep his face from smashing into the floor, ending up laying on her side with it pinned under him.]

That's one of the reasons I always preferred pants. You okay?

[Belth is surprised to find he doesn't have a broken nose. He pulls himself up to his knees and rubs at his face, childish features disappearing beneath big dark sleeves.]

I-I'm fine! I'm fine. [He huffs a bit. His robes allow him to move without impediment most of the time, but he is still growing into them. When he's sure everything on his face is intact, he lowers his hands and looks over at his savior. It's the very girl he'd been peering at earlier.]

I apologize for waking you. [His long ears pin against his dark hair. She might get mad...]

[She laughs lightly and shakes her head, sitting back up again.]

I'm glad you did. I'd have felt terrible if you'd been hurt and I was right here to help you.

[Aaaaand here comes the blushing. He straightens his robes a bit. Despite tripping on them just a few moments ago, he's got a pretty decent pair of boots on. Maybe some kind of adventurer-hopeful.]

... Are you an elf?

Half, yes.

[Poor kid. She'll just pretend he's not blushing.]

Half?

[Now, that's interesting. His blush lessens as he slips more into curiosity and is distracted by it.]

I've... never met a half-elf before. Obviously you are not one from my world, but they're rare regardless.

[That's the second time someone's thought it was very interesting that she's a half elf. But then this one and Adrasteius share similar features, meaning their ear ratios and the glowing eyes.

She tucks her hair behind one ear, showing him a far more delicate and small point than his.]

I'm from a planet called Toril. But half-elves are not so uncommon there really.

My people have always been reclusive. A union with a human isn't completely unheard of, but it's far more likely to happen in human lands than elven.

[Yeah, he's like a rabbit in comparison. His ears pin against his hair slightly, an unconscious sort of gesture.]

Are you good with magic?

I know some spells, yes, but I'm not a mage or a priest.

[... Then what the hell else would you be? He makes a face.]

A... paladin?

[She chuckles and shakes her head.]

Oh no, no. I don't have remotely that kind of religious fervor. And plate armor is so clunky. I'm a bard.

I wasn't aware tavern-singing was a legitimate profession. But you know magic, too. That is very interesting.

[He sits down cross-legged a couple feet away.]

What kind of magic is it? Rangers know a little nature magic, sometimes.

Where I'm from it's a common trade skill, but few are true masters. I'm better than many. I own a theater that's rather successful.

Now the magic. Well I know a little bit of this and that. I know some healing spells, some utility spells, some spells to enhance my performances. Like this.

[She makes a few gestures, and then there's about ten lights floating around them suddenly. They resemble will o'the wisps.]

This is called Dancing Lights. Very useful.

[Belth is... slightly impressed. Anyone can make a trick of the light with magic, but her use is inventive, and the lights are rather pretty.]

And here I thought bards were all drunk vagrants. You've certainly changed my mind.

[He holds his hand out and wiggles his fingers a little. He changes the colors of the dancing lights to a soft purple, and they begin to chime like tiny bells.]

Well, gosh, and I haven't even played anything for you ye-

[He changes the lights and her eyes get wide. Okay nope, she's more impressed. You made the lights musical.]

I...need to know how to do that.

[Belth's smile grows. As it turns out, he rather likes things like this, and he likes the look on her face.]

It's a matter of manipulating the threads binding the spell. Touch them in just the right way, and...

[The tiny lights wink out in little puffs of sparkles.]

You can do almost anything with arcane energy.

[If he keeps showing her cool tricks like that, he will probably see the look a lot. Maturation period speaking, she's not much older than he is. And learning is sort of her thing.]

What's arcane energy? I mean, I know what arcane means, but this sounds like a specific thing.

It's mana-- raw magic-- given a specific form by a spell or enchantment. In its pure state it's immensely volatile and unstable, like a tangled-up ball of thread. But when you cast a spell it draws those threads into a shape.

[He demonstrates by conjuring a little ball of arcane magic. It's purple-blue, and the energy swirls around it and inside it like a slow sweep of sparkles.]

The largest threads run through the world itself, and they're the lifeblood of everything that needs magic to live. Those are called ley-lines.

[Utterly fascinated, she reaches out a hand towards the swirling ball of energy. It's pretty. She only thinks about the potential problem of doing so when her finger is about an inch from connecting.]

Is it safe to touch this? I'm not going to lose a finger am I?

[Her hand hovers because she'll wait for an okay, but she totally wants to touch this.]

[He huffs.] It's safe. I wouldn't conjure an explosive spell in the library.

[She'll find, when she touches it, that the magic hums. It feels a little like touching a plasma globe.]

[She grins.]

I would have. Once.

[When she was little and liked casting whatever spell she could get her hands on. Good times.

She touches the energy and it feels so strange to her. It's power, that she can tell, all the way down to her bones. She takes her hand away. She's probably going to get an annoying dream about this later tonight.]

That's incredible. And you say there are things that live off this?

[That phrasing-- things-- makes his expression flicker for a moment. He closes his palm around the magic and absorbs it again.]

Not just things. People, elves, like myself. Magical creatures, like dragons and mana wyrms.