[AW] The Fascinating Wonders of the World

[Atlaas]

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
Everything you want's a dream away

Each day that came, came with a fresh breeze of hope, washing away past worries. Birds chirped, and Atlaas had merrily left the perimeters of the Dawn Court before the wake of the sun for a brisk stroll. Joyful steps were taken without a care nor sense for direction, the stallion was about to get well and truly lost and he would love it.

Passing winding streams and countless trees, light began to splatter the ground and he craned his horned crown above to the sky, eyes following the intricate ways the branches had begun to weave together. Light broke through, painting the worn ground from the crisp blue sky that was beginning to disappear. A sense of magic tingled in his stomach, and the further along the path he continued, he noticed how the trees seemed to cut paths in the forest. Then lights like faeries began to dimly come into focus, guiding the walk. Subtly the stallion lengthened his stride, quickened his pace, gracefully covering more ground with eyes glistening in anticipation. Yearning within, curiosity pulled the stallion further into the winding corridor, captivated by imagination as he wondered who walked this halls many years ago.

A library.

Fascination stretched his pupils as he witnessed true treasure. Shelves calved into the walls, inhabited by lightly dusted books, as he stood in a cylinder room, paths ripe with riches beyond what any gold was ever worth. He was captivated, stolen by awe. His jaw gently dropped an inch and he began to pace the room, cocking his head to one side (careful of his horns) and reading the dozens of titles. Atlaas had travelled countless miles, through many a land, but never once had he stood in something so magnificent. Imagination couldn’t have create something so perfectly designed. He wonder if nature took shape itself, or if the library was moulded thousands of years ago and he remembered why he loved the world so much and why everything raw was just so perfect.


ooc: 
tags:

Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape

[Andras]

ANDRAS DEMYAN

who would believe the fantastic
and terrible story of our survival?

The library is quiet today. No long, black and white faces with bags of bird seed. No kings. No birds. Just Andras, alone in a pile of pillows, flipping diligently through the yellow pages of a book so worn he's afraid its bunding might unravel in his hands. Each page he gently dusts off with the tip of one inky wing, perhaps the only loving gesture of which Andras is capable.

He has found it finally, he thinks. Some book about old magic (magic like Isra, like the roar of the sea and the rumbling of armageddon) and older gods. Its words make a home in his stomach, wrapping his bones in ink and old songs, words so ancient that Oriens himself wouldn't recognize them.

Andras smiles, and the roar of his blood grows louder, louder, until he cannot hear it. He thinks he must feel like Isra, tangled and black, so full of something that wants out. Something that breaks him open each day in a new seam. Something that crackles under his skin like electricity.

He wonders if this beast in him is magic.
He wonders if there's a way to get it out.

Steps in the corridor, steps rounding the corner to the room in which Andras is curled. He is waiting for the rhythm of someone diligent, someone in search of some old scroll or maybe even Mathias, coming and going as he does - but the sound is disjointed, chaotic, just a creature drifting from place to place in rapt silence except for the ringing of his hooves.

Andras leers over the top of his book, over the top of his glasses, and when he meets Atlaas' eyes it is not with a kind and welcoming smile. "You look new." he says, and almost laughs. Almost. Andras sounds more bored, than anything; no clenched teeth, no tense and angry laughter. He tucks the book under one wing and lurches to his feet.

"Is this the first time you've been in a library, or just this library? I'm Andras, by the way."

@Atlaas

[Atlaas]

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
Everything you want's a dream away

He needed to see more.

Picking a corridor, he began slowly down a Northern path where the arrangement of lanterns suggested a room standing at the end. Eyes wider than the moon, he continued with a cocked cranium to spy the dozen of book titles spreading before his beaming orbs, ears tippef impressively forwards. Fiction and non, fables and collections of fairy tales, scrolls scribed with true riches and wealth. The stallion had hit the jackpot. Not a place could suit his ticking mind more than this and he almost dared to take a book from the shelf but hesitation paused him. The leather hide covers were delicately sown together, the parchment inside likely old and well used, thread binding the covers and papers probably well worn. He couldn’t possibly dare to touch the precious cargo without any sort of permission, the risk carried too much fatality with it.

A voice then greeted him at the end of the corridor, and the stallion halted in the entrance, horned crown tipped to one side.

Ebony stroked and flashes of white, a stallion peered over a book with an almost judging eye. For a small stallion himself, it was strange to be the taller of two for once. “Atlaas!” A merry response met the Pegasus now named Andras, as he rose, the painted Unicorn shaking his head and chuckling. “Certainly not the first time I have entered a library,” He gazed round, eyes still beaming in complete awe. Like a child at Christmas, he was giddy with the luscious smell of old books and he looked around the room, happily sighing. “I’ve just never entered a library that’s so…Well, so truly magnificent,” 

“Were you reading?” He indicated with his horns to the Andras’ wings, where he had noticed an object to be tucked. “I hesitated,” Atlaas admitted, his voice a little more relaxed now since before, his tones had been bubbling with adolescent excitement, it had almost been infectious. “These books seem old, I didn’t want to take one with any sort of knowledge that I am allowed to read them,” Slowly his gaze travelled, before falling back on the stallion before him, hopeful that he may be able to provide an answer. “Is this library…public?”



ooc: eeee I love Andras' profile!
tags: @Andras

Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape

[Andras]

ANDRAS DEMYAN

who would believe the fantastic
and terrible story of our survival?

Andras hates that look in his eyes. Peace.

He wonders what it's like, to feel anything worthwhile, to feel anything that isn't this choking anger with its entire hands stuffed in his mouth. It must be like singing. It must be like rain outside the library windows, rain in the dead of night, rain on his back and his face - cold, but not too cold, with a thumping that echoes that of his frantic heart - except all the time.

The black horse would reach for it, but he doesn't. Andras is  tired of disappointment.
Andras is tired of almost everything.
He shifts the book's weight under his wing to hold it more safely - an act of settling, an act of rest.

Magnificent, Atlaas says. Truly magnificent.
"Sure," answers Andras, the way someone might take a backhanded compliment, or give one. The undercurrent of spite is swift and strong and it is so easy to get carried away. Here they are, opposite sides of the same charmed coin. Andras runs his tongue along the back of his teeth.

Were you reading? Again, "Sure. That too." but he doesn't offer anything else. Andras is a man on a cliff, watching a conversation trip off the edge, and he is too busy wondering what it's like to fall like that, to fear something so entirely, to snap and crack at the bottom in a chorus of pain and apocalyptic suffering. He forgets to hold out his hand at all.

Still he is touching his teeth with his tongue. Still he is wound tight, a grim expression carved into his face as if it had been there for centuries.
"Well, it is a library. I think most of them are. Unless you think I own it, in which case--wow, nice, but also inaccurate."

Andras smiles. It's as pleasant as he can manage, which is to say not pleasant at all, but stunningly neutral. "I'm curious how a person gets here without knowing what they're looking for. Viride isn't exactly easy to navigate."

@Atlaas
ooc: thank you <3 I love Atlaas

[Atlaas]

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
Everything you want's a dream away

Differing vibes came from the curious ebony Pegasus, I didn’t quite understand. How was he not in awe at the world carved around him, the creation of magnificence he nestled in. Speeding through the currents of adventure, the wind calling my name were the desires that called me. I wanted to see space, to dive to the depths of the ocean. My heart yearned to know what no one else did, to discover the treasures of the world unwitnessed before, to find true adventure in the heart of this impeccable globe.
Oh, how I dreamed.

But Andras cool tones were almost humorous, I couldn’t so far help but think fondly of his curious mannerisms. I shrugged off the apathy that greeted my enthusiasm, and continued in the same fashion I always had.

Small smile, high spirits, and even higher hope.

I chuckled at the idea that me might own the library, with a small shake of my shaggy mane. “But it’d be nice to own, right?” Imagine! Whole entire worlds encased in sweet leather covers, inside parchment detailed with delicate scripture. Centuries of the past, written to never be forgotten. All that history, all them creations, your very own to read for vast amounts of hours and days, and if you wished to share, you could enlighten entire populations on just how fascinating the earth we stood upon really was.

“Oh, isn’t it?” My eyes circle the room again, and I shrugged slightly with no weight upon my sturdy shoulders. “I just wander until I find somewhere that looks interesting,” I was sure to soon be found burrowed under covers with my mind entangled in the good words of a brilliant book and though my keenness to explore was overwhelming I stayed with the stallion, curious how a young creature was so blasé about the wonder of the world. “What do you read? I intend to find something on nature but, I wonder how long it will take me to find that section,”




ooc: Really sorry about the change of person! Much prefer writing him in first!
tags: @Andras

Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape

[Andras]

ANDRAS DEMYAN

who would believe the fantastic
and terrible story of our survival?

How is he not in awe, Atlaas wonders.
How can he stand in this hall of arcane knowledge and not be moved the way the earth moves, hurling at dizzying speed through black and empty space? Andras wonders this, himself.

He wants to say, yes. He wants to say, I wouldn't call it home but it's the only place that makes me feel real. He wants to say, I would die for this library and this country and I don't even really know them. He wants to say, I would die for anything.

He says, "I guess."

Oriens help him, he has never felt more alone than he does now, guarded against an amicable stranger, charmed in spite of the fact that he wants to rip that awestruck look right off his face. His smile is a tense line that does not break to show his teeth - he must look like a spring, bunched together and trembling with the enormous effort of not combusting where he stands.

And when Atlaas shrugs the little black pegasus forgets he is a little black pegasus and becomes some nameless beast with a heart like burning coal and teeth clenched so tight he worries they might break. He feels sick and hot and whatever is bubbling in him is louder than the wind, than the ocean, than his own voice saying: "Whatever I can get my hands on."

Andras opens his wing, now, and the book that had been tucked beneath it floats to the table, where the other can see it. "This is a book on magic. It's as vague as it sounds." At the same time he points toward the back of the room, where another archway opens into a room rimmed by the same sturdy shelves and waving lantern-light.

"Your nature books would be back here, probably." A moment's hesitation, and then, "What - I mean, what are you looking for? I could help, if you want."

[Atlaas]

Turn your magic on, to me she'd say
Everything you want's a dream away

“Are you okay?”


Tension creased his features. My features creased in turn. A frown appeared on my maw but one that folded my skin with concern and I lower my head an inch, trying to gage the peculiar stallion. Anxiety delightfully greeted me in my stomach as I wondered, had I pushed the stallion into conversation too much? I observed. He almost twitched, and at any moment I expected the coil to erupt into something, but what, I didn’t quite know.

“Magic, that sounds interesting, do you have any yourself?” Trying to regain the track of the conversation, my features turned once more to their usual curious stance. Whatever he was feeling, I didn’t care, it wasn’t about to dampen my mood. I had stumbled across one of the greatest pieces of art I had ever witnessed, one I could stand in and gape in awe at. I still couldn’t believe my luck.

“Sure,” I smiled earnestly to him. “I’d love for some help, perhaps something on differing seeds – I’m still not clear on my trees from my plants,” I turned and waited for his approach, knowing how nurdish I sounded but not caring. Nature was my passion at it always had been, and I would hone my knowledge until I died. I began to walk, slowly through the corridor with my head cocked to one side, scanning the hundreds of titles that there were. “I feel like I could get lost in here and never see daylight again,”

ooc: Sorry for the poor post, didn't want to leave you waiting longer!
tags: @Andras

Under this pressure, under this weight
We are diamonds taking shape