The marble statuary at the door of Written in Water is well crafted and of excellent quality, if a bit ostentatious. An angel and a serpent overlook the entrance, a river depicted between them, real water cascading from a fountain set in the stone of the door itself to flow down river stones flanking the entrance. The slight mist rising from the trickling water gives the air a refreshing quality, clearing the mind and waking the senses.
Invisible to Sleeping eyes, sigils written in High Speech adorn the solid wooden door. They declare the space open to all Awakened who come in peace. The aura of the sigils match those placed around the city, directing the Awakened here.
Inside, sound is muffled by the lush carpeting and the tasteful tapestries hanging on the walls. This gives the space an intimate feel despite its generous size. The front half of the establishment has a ceiling that soars up three stories, large arched skylights letting natural sunlight stream down in a warm curtain. To one side of the entrance there is a café, comfortable couches and tables making it a perfect place to have a drink and chat, a small stage set up for impromptu performances. To the other side of the entrance are rows of privacy alcoves with computers for public internet use. All of the computers have headphones to spare the intimate atmosphere for the other patrons.
The pride of place, though, is reserved for the three floors of bookshelves that take up the back half of the store. Books line each level from floor to ceiling, tomes of every imaginable topic, some sections kept behind glass. Tightly packed shelves form dim corridors in which one could get lost for days.
Sweeping staircases connect each of these levels and the upper two overlook the rest of Written in Water from balconies protected by wrought iron fencing. More tables and seats line the edges of the balconies, and signs politely ask the customer to refrain from bringing food or drink into the stacks.
Looking out from the balconies, one can see that the entire front wall of Written in Water is taken up by a beautiful mural depicting great libraries across history. The Library of Alexandria is portrayed prominently, ringed by scenes from other cultures: the Moorish empire, the Chinese empire, the Ancient Greek forums of learning.
Hidden in these images are more sigils, visible only to the Awakened, that spell out the rules of conduct. Written in Water is declared a safe zone, allowing no spells on the premises. A footnote loosens the restriction for the various spells of Unveiling known collectively as Mage Sight.
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Welcome to the Meet and Greet Thread! This is a Sticky Social Thread, which means that it will be left up here for players to enter any time they wish. It will be considered a little aside from the main continuity so it doesn't interfere with the main time line. Please use this as a meeting place for your characters to socialize with each other, any more significant action should be taken outside.
Also to keep things orderly, please take conversations off to a more private area by starting a separate thread and linking it to the Meet and Greet thread in a post. You can represent that by having your character ask the proprietor of the café for a key to a private room.
Edge of Darkness runs on player involvement, so use this as an opportunity to socialize with other characters and further YOUR plot. Storytellers will also use the Meet and Greet to introduce plot, but we are not WOW quest givers with stories to automatically hand you.
As always, please be respectful of other players. We want you to play your character, but we also have a nice setting going on here. Don't mess up our sandbox just for kicks. If you're not sure if something is respectful or not, ASK. We love to chat and help people out, either in the Out of Character forums or in Chat. You can also PM an ST. Click my user name and you can send me a PM.
Sitting at one of the tables in the bookshop is a young Asian man dressed in business casual wear and reading a book. A few more books are stacked up on the table around him and an empty mug sits on a plate in front him him. For those with the Sight to see, his aura clearly marked him as one of the Awakened, and a spell of some sort marks the currents of magic around him.
The thrum of the car engine was almost comforting to Leo. He much preferred the backseat of a limousine, though moving to a new city meant having to exist as the proletariat do. As unpleasant as the idea was, it was necessary, which gave no reason for Leo to complain. His eyes scanned street signs for the right road. As he found it, he turned onto it and continued until his destination was found. Parking his car, he got out, straightening his suit coat and fixing his tie. He extricated his cane from the seat next to him and moved across the street and into the store, smirking slightly, to himself, as he passed the opulent entrance. He took a half moment to admire the intricacy of the threshold and pushed the wooden door open, crossing into the building. Shutting the door behind him, he inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of books and eyes lavishing on the tasteful decor of the store.
"Well, well," he says, eyes finally resting on the man at the table, "it's very nice to be in a new town. Refreshing, if not slightly offsetting." He slowly walked over to the man at the table, the end of his cane thumping softly on the rugs.
"My name is Leo Rex." he says, his voice heavily layered with a British accent. "Who might you be?"
The Asian man looked up at Rex’s greeting, smiling pleasantly. He set his book down, unhurried, and placed a bookmark in the page before closing it and standing up. This took a moment, and the young man took the time to study the newcomer, his face expressing slight apology. He wasn’t very tall, so he had to look up at Rex even after standing up, but he didn’t hesitate to smile and extend his hand in greeting.
“I’m Qadesh,” he said, “and welcome to Sacramento. Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee or,” he noted the man’s British accent, “tea?”
Leo Rex chuckled lightly. "Only if it isn't too much of a bother.." he says with a smile. "I love the decor, by the way. It's nice to find a place of refined taste in a new city. It almost makes me feel right at home."
Leo looked the man over with a Mage Sight. After seeing the myriad sparkles and magic on the man, his smiled widened.
Alexander walked, as best he could, up the steps to the store, clutching a small piece of paper with the address on it. His cane rang out every step as he made his way up to the...interesting entrance. A not-unimpressive display, if ostentatious. The Moros found himself admiring bits of pieces of the craftsmanship more than the overall aesthetic. After that moments indulgence, he resumed his somewhat labored climb and made his way inside. This was his first time at this particular location. He'd been recommended it by a friend in the Mysterium, so he'd managed to make his way over after he'd finished teaching his final class for the day. He hadn't had time to change, so he still sported his slightly out of date vest and pants. Combined with his face looking to be in its early fifties and a frame that looked like it had been chiseled crudely from stone, he looked like a relic from days gone by. He didn't notice. It was how he always was. He looked around once he got inside, resting his weight on his cane to get a good look around.
Hmm... There were restrictions on magic being cast? Good, though Alexander did not suspect everyone would follow them. He found himself once more wishing he had shown more aptitude with the Space arcanum, but shrugged the sensation off. His own talents should be developed first. Still, it would keep at least some of the metaphorical fireworks down a touch. He liked that. Examining the different divisions, he decided on a glass of tea prior to perusing the surprisingly extensive collection of books. It was so like his young friend to send him to a place filled with books. Not that he was at all adverse to the idea. His profession rather demand frequent work with them. Still, he couldn't quite recall ever seeing her without some piece of literature in her hand. It was remarkable that she could do so without seeming offensive.
Upon receiving a glass of pipping hot orange pekoe tea (with a large amount of sugar, one of his few culinary indulgences), he sat down and made himself comfortable. He could hear the nearby conversation Rex and Qadesh, but made no move to interrupt. He kept to his own drink, pulling out a small cutting from a local paper before starting on a sudoku puzzle to pass the time between sips.
Leo Rex looks to the chairs around the table and selects one, pulling it out and sitting down.
"You finest blend, if you wouldn't mind, with no creme and 4 drops." he says, perfectly comfortable with having Qadesh serve him. "And if it isn't too much a bother, would you use a French press? It's the only way I'll drink it, as it's the only way that leads to a superior product."
Qadesh gave the very handsome blond man a smooth smile and said, "I'll see what they have."
If Leo chose to look, two of the books Qadesh was reading had their covers showing, the titles read "The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism" and "Servant Leadership : A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness."
As he walked toward the café counter he considered the newcomer. He seemed accustomed to commanding what he wanted from others, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Manners like those took training, so he was either from money or really wanted to seem like he was. Qadesh arranged for the wait staff to bring a French press out to the table.
On his way back to his own table, Qadesh noticed that the other newcomer was also one of the Awakened and stopped a polite distance from where the man was playing sudoku. (
Reathin
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"Sorry to interrupt, but I noticed that you're wide Awake," he emphasized the word with a slight nod of his head, the Precept of Secrecy preventing him from speaking about the Mysteries with the Sleeper patrons of the store around, "so you don't need coffee, but maybe you'd like some conversation?
He waved a hand toward his table and the other mage awaiting his return, an invitation to join them.
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