orientation ♔ just quiet steps away from your lead

[rationalizes]

♬ Reasons Why - Nickel Creek

WHO || Jeanne Gar, Martha Jones, open if people want to bang into them, just threadjack wherever.
WHAT || Gar meets with her squire
WHERE || Knight's HQ, the Library
WHEN || Friday evening
HOW || Actionspam

[Gar had asked Martha here to meet her here, assuring her that the library was easy to locate, just around the corner from the lab where they'd been yesterday. Plus there was the fact that it was gigantic, easily close to the same size as the opulent ballroom. It's laid out with shelves on the walls and stacks in rows, scattered through with desks and tables, as well as a second floor balcony area with staircase access on either side of the room. Smaller reading rooms and specialty areas line the back wall.

It probably takes a little bit of time to find Gar, who appears to have forgotten anyone was meeting with her at all. She's busily examining volumes from a ladder on the balcony, looking entirely lost in the process.]

Comments

[aproperdoctor]

[Martha, being Martha, shows up a few minutes early. She's thoroughly impressed by the ginormous library; she's never been a bookworm, precisely, but she's spent enough time studying that she quite likes books and libraries. She starts her search for Gar on the lower level, then works her way around, trailing her fingers over leather-bound spines (and pausing to look at a few that definitely aren't bound in any sort of leather she recognises - or written in any familiar language).

She spots her when she gets up to the second floor and coughs to draw her attention; since it's a library, and quiet anyway, the noise carries to the other woman.]

[rationalizes]

[It probably takes two coughs to catch her attention, and she does a double take after glancing over and realizing someone's there. The book she was tipping off the shelf just above her head starts to fall towards her, but she reaches up just in time to catch it awkwardly against her chest]

Oh! Hello, I'm sorry, I... got a bit caught up.

[aproperdoctor]

[Martha grins at her, clearly amused.] Don't worry about it. This is a fantastic library - I'd probably get distracted, too.

[rationalizes]

[That brings a huge, bright smile to her face, as she tips the book back into its place] Oh yes. It's extraordinary isn't it? [A flush rises in her cheeks as she makes her way down the ladder] And for all the cataloging that's been done, there are just as many volumes that have been placed inside with no record. You never know what you might uncover.

[aproperdoctor]

I'll have to check out the medical section sometime. [She smiles a little, watching Gar.] I collected antique illustrated anatomy books back home - some of them are just gorgeous, you know. And it'll be interesting to see how techniques differ here, especially with the use of magic.

[rationalizes]

Well, medical knowledge is certainly no less important, particularly because of the unpredictability of the eldritch tides. [Wait. Use English.] The, er, rise and fall of magic. We have no idea when it might just ... disappear again.

[aproperdoctor]

[Yeah, Martha looks a little confused when Gar starts talking about eldritch tides and whatnot.] Wait, magic isn't always there? I just sort of figured it was.

[rationalizes]

Not at all! An understandable mistake. But it operates, as I said, in sort of a tidal format. There appears to have been no pattern dictating when magic will rise or fall, but I suspect it has something to do with the nature of eldritch energy - magic - itself. It gets sort of... used up, you could say, and has to recharge. And during those times, the Veil seems to seal up [she makes an accompanying motion with her hands suddenly] like it's been vacuum packed, and nothing falls through. Magic fails to work, which means that some creatures that depend on shapeshifting magic to function in society go into hibernation until it's over.

Sometimes it causes a terrible ruckus, when people come to rely on magic too much. It certainly puts a lot of people out of a job.

[aproperdoctor]

[...Martha is definitely slightly lost. She thinks she understands the general principle, but the whole magic thing is, as a rule, still a bit weird and incomprehensible to her.] Uh...huh. [SO MANY WORDS ABOUT THINGS. It doesn't help that, for just a moment, she feels like Gar reminds her of someone, but she can't remember who.]

[rationalizes]

[Annnd she completely misses the glazed look in Martha's eyes, oops.] What we don't understand - among, well, many things to be quite honest - is how magic recharges itself. Where it goes and what forces draw it come back. That's actually a project of mine and some of the other scientists here, trying to find a way to actually measure and record arcane energy fields. If we can understand them, perhaps we can even duplicate them.

Wouldn't that be exciting? [Her face is flushed like she's talking about the single coolest thing in the entire world, and she smiles widely.] But I suppose you aren't interested in any of that.

[aproperdoctor]

Sounds a bit like magical physics or something. [Martha gives a slightly apologetic shrug.] I think it sounds interesting enough, but I don't really know anything about it, so it's all going over my head, I'm afraid. Is there some sort of 'Magic for Dummies' book I can read?

[She's only half kidding.]

[rationalizes]

It rather does, doesn't it? [She chuckles at that] I've taken to joking about calling it 'arcane physics', which sounds like... a bit of an oxymoron, perhaps, but seems the best way to describe it.

I'm certain it will all make much more sense when you're immersed in it than when you're reading about it. [Though she sounds more like that's just something someone told her once, and she's personally doubtful that reading about something isn't just as valuable as experiencing it]

[aproperdoctor]

Arcane physics? That's pretty awesome, I have to admit. I'm better at natural sciences than physics, but it still sounds pretty cool.

Yeah, maybe. [Martha looks a bit dubious] I just hope I don't make any huge mistakes. There was this one bloke at the squiring ceremony who was convinced that I really don't fit in with the rest of the Knights.

[Though Martha is typically a pretty damn self-confident person, this has done a bit of a number on her with self-doubt; everything here is so new, and it really is a sort of militant order - she has a gun and everything, and she doesn't want to carry it, but she knows she'll have to, and it's all making her rather worried.]

[rationalizes]

[And now Gar looks severely affronted on your behalf, Martha. 8| ] Who would say something like that? Why, what nerve, really.

Don't listen to whoever it was. Some of the Knights around here could do with a good lesson in manners.

[aproperdoctor]

It was that other squire, Ethan - you know, the Sir Captain Ethan whatever? The good-looking one who wore an RAF uniform to the party? He kept going on about how this is a military order and trying to find a peaceful solution to situations to avoid harming others was a civilian's way of looking at things. [She gives Gar a small smile.] He also seemed to think that my mentor would, in his words, 'set me straight' about how things are.

[rationalizes]

That man certainly is difficult, isn't he? [She frowns crossly, making it obvious she's had her own run-in with him] I don't think he quite understands what sets our order apart from the military yet. He was quite impertinent about our protocol for training.

[aproperdoctor]

[Martha hides a grin at that.] Well, hopefully his mentor will have a few words for him to help him get adjusted to the order.

[She also really hopes that she won't end up on any missions with him. THAT WOULD BE BAD.]

Everybody else I've met so far has been perfectly nice, though.

[rationalizes]

Well, most of our Knights have a sense of comradeship and unity that at least... allows them to all get along.

[aproperdoctor]

Most of them? [OOOOH Gar do you know awesome gossip about the Knights? Because you should totally share.]

[rationalizes]

Well... there are of course.. exceptions to every rule... [/AVOIDING EYE CONTACT]

[aproperdoctor]

So, ah, who's an...exception?

[rationalizes]

Ohhhh I'm certain you'll... see.

[aproperdoctor]

Right, so, training. What am I going to be doing, exactly?

[rationalizes]

Well, that depends on your interests, of course! We suggest some means of self-defense for everyone, but you're free to define what that means for yourself. We do, however, encourage all Knights to stay physically in shape, and we have a gym to that effect.

[aproperdoctor]

Well, I'm definitely fine with that. I just started taking kickboxing classes back home, but I like all sorts of working out - though I might have to get an iPod and some music. Think that falls under appropriate use of my credit card?

[SHE IS TOTALLY JOKING, GAR. Mostly. Why can't you remember that your mentor has no sense of humour, Martha?]