After a lot of flying and a little walk Anise found her way into the dark labyrinthine alleys of Augustine. This was the area they didn't show you in tours: the gritty side of the saintly city. The cobblestones were worn and the walls were too cold to grow vines on. In their place were comets of rust hanging in their places in time so far away they held a permanence in their framed passing; and they illuminated summers when kids ran about with holes in their socks because they were cooler than way; winters when some of the old ladies opened their windows for a spell while baking to let the nice old bums have some heat bounce around their "homes;" when Anise first came to this place and thought this was the most beautiful town she'd ever seen.
Five minutes in and there was no sign of any market, just a maze folding in on itself again... Again... Wait! ... No, more folding. At one point there was a box--table--used for card tricks and the old "which cup!" routine to dust of cash off the tourist's shoulders.
"Hello?" Her voice echoed like a diner order in the concrete corridors. "Is there a... Flea market here?" Sure she was unsure of it, but who wouldn't be with all this shiftiness in the air?
The caravan children stopped what they were doing, and all peeked their heads out in unison, down the dark alley. Each of them turned to each other, and grinned mischievously. "Welcome, visitor!" they chimed, and ran towards Anise. The Caravan woman slowly walked down the alley, and motioned for the woman to follow her.
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:20 pm
Abilities on: Born of Light+
Inventory: Reverberator
Health: max Energy: max
Well, that's not creepy at all...
Anise walked up to the little crowd--horde really--but stopped as she saw they were all coming at her with lightspeed; and in her mind time even dilated!
"Hi~!" She said shakingly cheerfully. "Can you guys tell me where your mommy is??" She had talked to kids in a while, creepy little things, so needless to say she was off balance here. Even more so when the mom she was looking for found her.
"Oh, hi! I'm looking for a flea market... Hey!" At this moment the angel realised her watch was gone. She scanned back over the waste-high waters of sugar-infused madness to find a sea of whodunit. Her head looked back to the lady.
"... Never mind. Ok, what do you want?" Said Anise losing patience.
(Not trying to rush you, just letting you know I'm still here. lol)
The woman guided Anise down the dark alleyway, and into their small shop. It was full of antiques and many, many gems. She simply sat in a slightly dusty chair, and looked at the woman. Her clan of caravan children came running and tumbling down the alley, but she snapped, and a small force field of sorts blocked the entry way. Smiling softly, she held a gem in her hand, running her fingers along it's jagged edges. "May I help you, dear?" she asked politely, in a thick accent
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:23 pm
Abilities on: Born of Light+
Inventory: Reverberator
Health: max Energy: max
Ok, how did that movie go--did they steal the stuff on the way to the crystal ball or...? Eh, I'm not too worried about it. What do I even have on me but some worthless crap? ... Well, it's not worth anything to me, anyway.
Anise found herself standing in a place without chairs; sitting in the same setting would need to lean on more familiarity to stand--sit. Whatever. It was at this point she realised again how free children were, without counting the obviously limited ones behind her who made funny faces on the forcefield, in those years before society's standards crept in.
"I'd certainly hope so," said Anise unable to help looking around: the shelves with a lot of bark on the trim, the glasses--crystal, assuming--the actual crystals and gems holding clandestine but thundering parliaments about subjects ranging like wavelengths from trough pithy comments about Anise's clothes to peak summits on angelic accords and the assimilation of unlucky gods.
"I'm trying to learn more about djinns, but the school has some, well, shallow texts on the subject. It's kind of annoying." Another look would tell Anise the place was utterly invisible without proper guidance. This look was through her perfect hindsight, of course.
The caravan woman nodded her head. "I take it, you mean Augustine Academy?" she muttered, placing the gem back on the dusty old desk. She looked up at the woman, with a sly smirk on her face. "And what exactly do you need to know about Djinns, dear?" she asked, curiously. The woman simply stood, and walked over to the ancient bookshelf, looking through each book, and periodically moving one back into it's assigned spot.
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:41 pm
Abilities on: Born of Light+
Inventory: Reverberator
Health: max Energy: max
"Yeah, that's the one... I don't know; it's a good library in that the y have a lot of material on religion and anthropology, which is good for me, but that can only get you so far back. I need a," she waved her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose, "you know, bridge, a common ground were all these things converge... So, you know, anything you have, really?" The thirst for knowledge is strong with this one. And how had it been since this place saw a duster!
The woman nodded her head, slightly skeptical of Anise. She simply sighed, and walked over to the bookshelf on the far side of the room. "Hmmm... Let's see, let's see... What could I possibly have? Oh wait, there they are!" She began to pull out book after book. Some paperback, some hardback. One was a scrap book type thing, and she had an old tape. The woman walked over to her, with arms full of dusty books, and set them on the table. "Okay. So this is basically all that I have on Djinns, genies, whatever you want to call them. Everything from the origins, history, and powers of a Grand Djinn. It would be wise to keep these from any Djinn race or being at that Academy. I'm sure most of them do not know the evil truths written on each page." the woman looked at her, her eyes now glowing bright. She then smiled softly, and handed Anise an old key, and a magical type box. She placed all of the books and the tape into it, watching them seem to disappear into the never ending bottom. Finally, when she was done, it sealed shut. "They will appear when you unlock the box. Pull them one by one, and replace them all when you are done. These are not to be found." she repeated, carefully.
Anise had an incredulous look on her face and a hand on her hip as she waited for the old lady to dredge up the reading materials.
You're kidding me, right? There's no way this oldie has anything on that shelf I can't find in the bloody LIBRARY OF CONGRESS! ... Then again. I haven't found it anywhere yet, and they have translated those old Orthodox texts from the first century. Those weren't in the LoC before that... Huh.
"Oh! *cough* Wow, that's really dusty." A few blinks later... "Thank you though. This should at least tell me something!" She took the key and turned it, not seeing the glowing eyes bit. There she held a book in her hands in the center of that crowded gypsy storage house reading things she couldn't yet correlate to any language save the most ancient she could think of; and of course that needed decoding with a chart handy, which necessitated coffee--a good session at the library with her cross references.
"Hm... Not bad, gypsy girl. Not bad." She took a look at her as she closed her book and slipped in back into the box. "I'd ask how you got this, but something tells me that'll cost more than these books, which are free... Right??" She winked, sure the old custom reigned true and lamenting for a moment the sure loss of something from her pocket in exchange.
Thank you." She offered this instead, bowing out and taking steps toward the door. The kids seemed to be bored, because they weren't hovering like they once were. "I'll put 'em to good use!" Said the angel as she started up her teleportation.
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