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Book of the World, We Cannot Author its Pages, but We Can Get Our Names in the Margin

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  1. #1
    Ruby's Avatar

    Ruby
    Ruby

    1
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    Ruby leads Trench through the wood-paneled halls, around corners that the physical constraints of the building dictate shouldn't exist. Ruby directs Trench to stop in front of an unlabeled room, and beyond the door's small opaque window and heavy wood she retrieves a thickly bound book, several folders, and a steel box. She struggles with the weight but makes no indication that Trench may carry or touch these items.

    Moving again, she leads Trench to her office. She places the items on her desk.

    "Close the door."

    Ruby's hand weaves upwards, taking configuration to mimic the horn of Pharos.
    The room floods with invisible fibers, which press outwards and flatten against all boundaries of the room. Trench's body shivers as the ripple of power flushes through and behind him. Within this web, sound remains scuttled away from the outside world.

    "Take a seat, dear."

  2. #2
    Ruby's Avatar

    Ruby
    Ruby

    1
    PRE

    Trench watched as Ruby lugged that book around with her.. He was starting to wonder if his own books were a little too light for him to start complaining. He followed her to the office and closed the door after him.

    Just as he was about to take a seat, he felt that shiver that he was begining to associate with magic. He took a deep breah and placed his books onto his lap. "Uh, thanks...What is going on?"

    "We're just getting started, that's all." Ruby seats herself, drawing upright and pulling the top folder into her lap. She pulls out a pen and places it to a form. "Trench, is this the name you have chosen to be your own from this day forward?"

    "Um, yes. It is." He stuttered slightly, feeling uneasy about what was going on. Is this some sort of registration thing? Trench wondered as he tried to get a better look at the massive book.

    "Trench, reality of modern life is you may yet require legal dealin's in mundane society. Have you thought of a last name to match your new first?"

    "Not really...It took me awhile just to come up with Trench in the first place." he said, starting to wonder if he did something seriously wrong with his selection of shadow names

    Ruby looks up from the form with a reassuring look. "That's not one of the questions, it's just a problem I've had myself. Helpful to worry about that later."

    "Now, let's see... what was the date you came to the Tower, and which Path took you to it?"

    "Ummm...I think back near the end of may I awakened. i've been told the path I'm on is Moros, though I really don't know much about it."

    "Beyond what I saw anyway."

    Ruby's interest seems to pique. Not necessarily excitement, a more neutral reaction. "I studied under a real accomplished man under that sign. You probably know, the Sentinel walks the same path too."

    "Several good folks."


    Trench nodded "Yeah. I've met him. Friend of mine that was awakened took me to him when he managed to get my path pinned down."

    "Have you had any formal trainin' yet? Studied magic under someone else?"

    "Not yet. Anything I know about it has been done by me trying to cast something in my spare time away from anyone. Bit haphazard, but....Not much in the way of someone teaching me anything."

    "Well, good. Shows initiative."

    "Now, our little book club's been around a long time. Longer than you or I likely can imagine. Especially considering how folks seem to love mucking up Time his'self in our line of work. In that time there are plenty of things that have got forgotten, or NEED to be. We find these things, sort 'em, catalog 'em."

    "Makin' sense so far?"


    "Yes." He said with a nod

    "Bein' a part of what we do here? It's about a lifelong dedication to learnin', and a responsibility to recognize what we're not ready to know."

    "Tough to balance."
    She studies Trench for his reactions.

    I feel like I'm at a Job interview. Trench thought before saying "Sounds like it. Learn what we are meant to know and not take up the things we are not ready to know. Does sound like a balancing act."

    "Some folks take a long time to understand that. Some folks are all to antsy to forget it once they put their hands on real power."

    "Like with some scientists and weapons research?" He ventured.

    "Far as I'm concerned, man's figured out more'n enough ways to kill each other. Workin' on more doesn't do nobody any good."

    "Yeah. That's an area I think we've learned enough about but some people just keep trying to find more ways."

    Ruby pauses, wondering whether the young man is agreeing with her genuinely, or telling her what she wants to hear. Under her probing look, Trench seems confused. He could have sworn she wanted his opinion.

    "Well, let me tell you what we can offer you, as you join the Book."

    "Uh, sure." He said, feeling a little thrown off all of a sudden.

    "Access to certain resources in the Museum, tutelage in Supernal truths, a reasonable amount of support while you transition to a new lifestyle."

    "Uh, new lifestyle? Does this mean I have to leave University?"

    "Now that's a tough question. The more active you become, the less safe your old name an' your old life are." A lesson Ruby would do well to learn herself. Sully's goin' to be a heap of trouble if he doesn't learn quick that he needs to behave with discretion.

    "I was warned by some guardian that I should change my name, leave Sac U, change my appearance and a whole host of other things..." Trench said, starting to look worried about this whole thing.

    "Might be extreme, might not be. Remember, world didn't change. Just you did. Need for secrecy depends on how you behave from now on, how much attention you draw to yourself."

    "Well, I don't draw that much attention to myself...at least I think I do anyway. Don't I mean." he corrected himself.

    "Well for now, think of it like bein' a Super Hero, like they've got in the movies. You can keep on goin' to school under your old name, but you'll work here under your new one." Boys always seem to like this part of the deal.

    "Oh good." Trench said, literally taking a sigh of relief. "I really don't want to do the whole government witness protection program sort of thing."

    Not yet anyway, Ruby thinks in pity. How long has it been since she's seen her family? Her friends from back home? REALLY, how did Sully find her?

    "You mind want to ask yourself though... what you're planning on gettin' out of school. This thing, it's goin' to change your life. You ain't likely to take a normal job anymore... Just somethin' to think about."

    "I'm. Okay." Trench said, starting to stay calm, though panic about the future in the back of him mind. "Is there anything else I need to know?" He asked, hoping to get this thing back on track.

    Easy mannered, Ruby folds her hands over the pages in front of her. Intuitively, she senses his worry so she takes on the gentle authority of a helicopter mom guiding her child through life decisions he can't yet comprehend.

    "Only that we're here for you while you figure things out."

    "Thanks." Trench said with a smile. He quickly realized that his fingers were starting to drum against his books and forced himself to stop. "So... that's it?" He asked, looking a little confused about what just happened.

    "Not at all," Ruby sighs, reaching over and grasping at the box. It pops open and reveals a set of bizarrely shaped brass instruments, as if Tesla had shat out his mistakes into a single container. It seems to hum, and Trench feels an indescribable tugging sensation at his core.

    Trench peered into the box, trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at. The strange tugging feeling and the humming didn't help either. "Ummm...What the hell is it?"

    "Well, this business here will help me examine you. It's standard stuff, not to worry. Oh, and I've had this happen before," Ruby warns him, "so I'd best tell you now you can keep your shorts on."

    The first instrument goes in hand, and Ruby stands. She moves to Trench and draws the device, with its whirling internal mechanisms, in a circular motion about him. "Got to check for possession, soul damage, abyssal intrusion, mind control, you name it."

    "So, metaphysical health check up?" Trench guessed from what he was told.

    Pause. Ruby retraces a motion with a momentary look of worry on her face. It quickly vanishes after the second pass. "That's right. Better safe than sorry." Each tool is stranger than the last, some making sounds, one clearly a Lightsaber toy that someone must have put in the box by mistake. The last instrument is simply a misshapen bell, which Ruby rings for just a moment as if she expects Trench to have an epileptic fit.

    "Looks good then."

    Okay...That was weird. He though, but didn't bother saying. "So I check out?"

    "Yes, you're fit as a fiddle as far as magic goes. Now," she says, with a hint of finality, "you just need to sign in. Placin' your name down makes you a probationary member. You'll be set to help with an ongoin' investigation, privy to th' benefit of an assigned mentor, and then durin' this time you'll be evaluated for full membership."

    She pulls the heavy book out in front of her, flipping it open only to the sixth page. "Would you like a pen? We usually don't have folks sign in blood so early on in th' process." She offers him her own.

    "Yeah, thanks. I wouldn't agree to this if blood signing was involved." Trench said as he took the pen into his hand. "Sounds too much like something from Faust." With that, he scribbled his name into the massive book. "There." He handed the pen back to Ruby,

    Trench feels a strange sensation as unbeknown to himself he has signed away authority for the Museum's arcane systems to monitor and record key moments in his activities.

    Trench shivered again, not really sure what happened. "Is that normal?"

    The moment passes, but somewhere in a strange room an image appears, drawn out; past and future recorded and re-imagined and recorded again. "No," Ruby says. "But few things will be from now on."

    "I guessed that from what I've been told just meant that I get the chills for signing things from now on?"

    "Well as general policy, I think it'd be good sense from now on if you avoided signin' anything we don't approve first."

    "OK, I'll keep that in mind." Trench said as he tried to relax himself. "So, now what happens to me?"

    "I'd like you to come to this address," Ruby plucks a pink stickie from her desk and neatly writes the location of her Studio as well as a date. "And we'll get you started on your first job. But now you're free to go."

    "Thanks" Trench said as he looked at the little sticky, trying to get the details hammered into his head before folding it in half and slipping it into his pocket. "I guess I'll see you again soon then?" He asked before gathering his things up.

    "Lookin' forward to it, dear." Ruby slowly begins to set things away, and waves her hand dismissively to cancel her magic over the room before giving Trench a more sincere wave goodbye.

    Trench nods as he got up and made his way out. He still got the annoying feeling that there was something Ruby wasn't telling him, but he guessed there the would be a lot of that going around from here on out

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