☆ // and i'm back with a madness

[burninglight]

Who: Ardyn + open
What: Hiding out from station drama.
When: Early May, after Everything Happens So Much
Where: The annex's library, like a nerd.
Warnings: None yet

[So, this place was one shitshow after another. The longer it went on, the more Ardyn was painfully aware of something very important that was still missing. And the more aware he was, the more he sought out a distraction.]

[This particular day found him in the library, wandering the shelves in some interest; though he could be found anywhere, mostly he stuck to the magic and science wings with his nose in one book or another. Sometime around late afternoon, he took up a chair in the center lounge for more writing of whatever he kept in that notebook, as well as unloading all manner of largely useless books from the Armiger into the 'to be sorted' bin'--mostly varying romance novels that looked like they came straight out of an airport gift shop.]

[...By early evening, he was stretched out across the same comfortable chair in a mess of long arms and legs with an open book on his face--'The Dream Oath' by Gabranth Malheur.]

[Which probably had nothing to do with the red pen dangling out of Ardyn's hand. Probably.]

Comments

afternoon

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai walks up to the pile and picks up one of the new ones . She stares.]

Are these good.

[burninglight]

I admit I've only read one or two. [Ardyn pulled a couple more out of the Armiger, idly examining and paging through them.] It's an interesting study in galactic entertainment, at least.

[nojohnyouare]

Oh. So what they like aside from us. Because it leads to why we were there? Or just because it's different.

[She starts to read the garbage intently.]

[burninglight]

Just because it's different, mostly. I kind of enjoy the study of a range in alien cultures and customs.

[nojohnyouare]

Oh. [She continues reading as she speaks.] When you escaped the first time. Did you see a lot of planets?

[founderinglight]

[Tucked behind a shelf in the magic section, there's a chair that matches even less than average to the rest.

And curled up in his chair, snoozing as usual, is Izunia, a pillow under his head and a book in his lap. From the page it's open to, it seems to be something about ritual magic.

Zzzz.]

[burninglight]

. . .

[When one is an older brother who finds their sibling asleep and defenseless, there is only one thing that can possibly be done.]

[Very carefully approaching.]

[With a marker taken out of the Armiger.]

[founderinglight]

[Zzzz. Yeah, he's pretty much out of it.]

[burninglight]

[Well.]

[Really, this is just the consequence of falling asleep somewhere the real Champion Petty-Ass Bitch could find you.]

[Don't mind him drawing a comically large pair of glasses and curly 'stache on your face in a nice signature bright red, snoozeboy.]

[founderinglight]

[His face twitches, but -

Either the Lucis Caelum fatigue or the instinct that it's just Ardyn keeps him down.]

evening

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Astolfo kind of squints at the sprawled out Ardyn across the chair. He doesn't find telling the difference between he and Izunia too much of a struggle, but he still has moments.

Giving him a quick glance over, he takes note of the book.]

That good of a read, huh?

[burninglight]

[zzzzz]

[sorry astolfo, he is a sleepy lucis caelum]

[riderofcharlemagne]

[Well, it's nice to see the familial resemblance is more than skin deep.

He's not really sure what to do now with the sleeping Ardyn, but he does want to have a look at that book. With about as much delicacy and grace he can muster, he attempts to peel it off of Ardyn's face.]

[burninglight]

[While Ardyn is very much asnooze, Astolfo will find that at a glance, the book has a lot of notes written in red, and that it doesn’t look like it cane from this library. But it tells a story about two warring armies, east and west. The princess of the west and the hero of its army, Maria and Draco, are deeply in love. But with Draco’s apparent death and the loss of the war, Maria is forced into betrothal to the eastern prince, Ralse. Her laments on this are heart-wrenchingly written, if a little too verbose in text. That part in particular seems to have a lot of markings and arrows in red pen, with handwritten editorial commentary on how to improve it.]

[Paging through it further would reveal that Draco was not in fact dead, leading survivors from the western army to attack a grand ball and dueling Ralse for Maria’s hand. It doesn’t look like the editing got quite that far yet, but looking through reveals that Draco wins and there’s ultimately a happy ending.

Afternoon

[letsplayer]

[ Marla picks up a vampire romance novel and stares at it disapprovingly. ]

Oh- Oh no.

[burninglight]

Hm? What's wrong?

[letsplayer]

...I think this is the one where the girl breaks her spine having a vampire baby.

It's kind of shit.

Afternoon

[thoroff]

[Like literally any other day of the week, Wren's also in the library. She's seated with several magic books of her own at hand, but the one she's currently leafing through is a rather well-worm tome with an illustration of a dragon on its cover.

Her glance happens to wander up at the right time for her to see Ardyn, and she nods politely to him in silent greeting.]

[burninglight]

Hello. [Ardyn answered with a small wave of his own, tilting his head in slight interest.] Are you studying magic?

[thoroff]

Ah, yes... well, right now, I'm taking a bit of a break.

[Yep, her idea of a break from reading is... to read something different. She lifts the book in her hands slightly to indicate it.]

This is something I found in the Fissure.

[burninglight]

Oh, really? Do you mind if I ask what it is?

during the day

[nightcure]

[ You know, Noctis isn't as big of a reader as Gladio, but... the library here is pretty impressive. He can't help but be interested. And there's a pretty large selection. There are even some books that Gladio really likes, the books that Noctis tried but could never get into. ]

... Huh. Gladio'd be right at home here, [ he says, not even noticing Ardyn there. ]

[burninglight]

You think so?

[even if you did not notice him, space hobo uncle noticed you.]

Honestly, I was a little surprised to find out he wasn't just all muscle and no brains. He puts up quite the image.

[nightcure]

Shi--

[ And Noctis jumps so badly that he ends up knocking half the books off the damn shelf. He turns to Ardyn, his breathing much quicker than usual, and it takes him a while to calm the hell down. ]

Do you always sneak up on people like that?

[burninglight]

S-sorry--

[Ardyn stepped back, holding his hands up defensively.]

I thought you saw me, I wasn't trying to startle you.