The smell of aging paper and leather bound books was a pleasant scent to Caelum. Sometimes he would take a book out of the shelf just to flip through it's pages and take in the aroma, and to feel the course pages under his fingertips. It wasn't every day that he had no paperwork to do, so today was the perfect day to sit in the library and flip through some of histories greatest moments. Caelum took several minutes to investigate the shelves for anything that might be new or interesting. He had been around for a long time, but he had come to learn that there were always new things to discover. Maybe today he would find something in this fine library.
"Well then, this looks interesting.. and this. Ah, how about this?" After he had collected a few books he went and took a seat in one the soft armchairs. He placed his things down on the polished table beside him, and chose a random book to start on. As he read about the past he could only think of the things he had done in those days. He remembered how often he had been at the center of everything. Wars, advances in science and magic, the founding of entire nations. Yet, there were the times when he couldn't have been farther from it all. Alone in the unknown. Wandering the frontiers and lands where no one ever had dared to tread. Hmm... Maybe he should write a book someday. Caelum smiled at the thought and continued flipping through the pages of his book. Any book he wrote would probably be made confidential. The things he knew he wasn't suppose to share with the world. Not yet at least.
With one leg crossed over the other and his relaxed posture no one would ever think that he was a distinguished individual. He looked way too.. casual. Even when he was out on the job. Maybe it was his age? Hell, he wasn't even as old as some other people that he had heard of. Sure a few millennia changed a person, but for whatever the reasons Caelum acted like he hadn't a care in the world while he read that book. It was something about the re-structering of the Zaibatsu after some challenging times. A common occurrence Caelum observed. The Zaibatsu he had joined was not the only one to have spread it's influence these lands. He gave a glance at his other books. One on Architecture, another on magic and science and it's combined applications, and the last one full of poetry and philosophical text. Hmph. He wished this library had more fiction.
✦xxx✦xxx✦xx:x「xNoeinxKodoux」x:xx✦xxx✦xxx✦ I know it's true, Our sweat and blood, And armoured skirts crimson Story book, pretty soldiers As we grow up, There's nothing left. Bow and arrow in hand, Stand up, follow orders ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫✠┠━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Down the Rabbit Hole I
✧ Normally, Noein stayed away from the library but, in the last few weeks, she had more frequently. While the collection of non-fiction titles, such as encyclopedias and biographies didn't spark any interest with the ROOT executive, she had discovered there was no rules against bringing your own titles in and using the space to enjoy them. So, for awhile now, after training all morning and settling all of her daily work, Noein had coming here as a nice place to relax immerse herself in her own preference of books: Shoujo Manga.
Before, whenever she had tried to flip through her comic books in the ROOT lounge, someone would interrupt her or try to start a conversation, making it hard for her to continue. She had tried switching to reading it at home, where it was ensured no one would bother her but, by the end of each day, she was too tired to do anything but eat and sleep. However, finding the Library's lenient ruling on outside materials had started to bring Noein in every time she got a break.
She sat in one of the old armchairs, her legs criss-crossed while she flipped through the black ad white print of a series she was finally able to catch up with. She had a couple more chapters next and figured if she could finish by today, she could probably pick up the next volume on her way into work tomorrow.
A voice made her head pick up from the page of her book, and turning her head she could see a familiar face scanning through the walls of books she herself never dared to touch. "Ah, Caelum, did you finally get your paperwork done?" Noein casually asked, putting her manga back into her bag and leaving her chair. It seemed for her fellow Executive, he had to deal with more "office" assignments than what Noein did.
- |ROOT Executive| -
Iɴғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ✠XXX ROOT ExecutiveX Main Ability: Transportation and TravelX Sub Ability [1]: Energy ManipulationX Sub Ability [2]: (General) Physics or Reality ManipulationX Weapon - "Ah and Un"[X]X ROOT Codename - "Disappearing Rabbit"X former HuntressX Current Attire - Work Outfit: [X]X
Caelum was pleasantly surprised when his co-worker addressed him. It wasn't often that he got to see the young woman outside of his office. Her comment brought a wry smile to his face, and he replied with a little mirth. "Yes, all 1,792 papers have been filed. I've had worse weeks; you get use to it when you're as old as I am." Caelum had never told Noein his true age, and he didn't look much older then her. It was probably confusing every time he said something like that around her. Oh well. He set his book down in his lap and cocked his head while his eyes scanned Noein. She was dressed in her work uniform still, but then again, so was he. His outfit seemed pretty casual, but the black and white trench coat that he wore over it made him look more business-like. Or maybe it made him look like a mad scientist... Whichever people decided for themselves. He liked it at least.
Before he spoke again he shifted in his seat so his back rested more comfortably. They weren't visible, but on his back were a pair of black wings that spanned around 25 feet tip to tip. How did he keep them all scrunched up on his back comfortably? The answer was he didn't. It was pretty cramping to have them folded against his back all day. If he could he would let them out, but he had tried that once before and nearly broke half the furniture and decorations in the HQ. It was better to hold them in.
"I hope you're enjoying your time off. I've seen you training every morning and then working most the afternoon. You work pretty hard." Caelum sometimes wished he had more time to go and "train" with the others. It was true that he lacked any decent hand-to-hand combat skills, and he was only average at swordsmanship, but his powers gave him... an unfair edge against most of the others. Sure he could switch some of them off, but there were others that were harder to control. Like his body heat. In combat the adrenalin always made it hard for Caelum to hold it back, so sometimes when a punch connected to him his skin would give his opponent a nice little burn on their knuckles. Another time when he was first being brought in to the Zaibatsu organization he was getting pummeled pretty bad and accidentally through his training partner through a wall. All in all training was something that Caelum rarely did. He mostly sat at his desk all day and copied files, alphabetized records, and signed paperwork. Caelum had an abundance of patience, but he had begun to get that itch for action again. Maybe he'd get sent into the field sometime soon. That would be fun.
✦xxx✦xxx✦xx:x「xNoeinxKodoux」x:xx✦xxx✦xxx✦ I know it's true, Our sweat and blood, And armoured skirts crimson Story book, pretty soldiers As we grow up, There's nothing left. Bow and arrow in hand, Stand up, follow orders ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫✠┠━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Down the Rabbit Hole II
✧ It amazed Noein how two people with the same title and responsibilities could differ so much with daily tasks. Though she supposed it might be possible for most jobs to have some differentiation with employees, she had no prior experience to compare, as ROOT was her first official job. That wasn't to say Noein was without any paperwork to complete herself, but the six or seven reports she filed through the week were probably scribbles compared to Caleum's 1,792 pages.
For Noein, her tasks as an Executive were more physical. She didn't spend a lot of time in her office like Caleum but instead, could be seen in the training center for much of the day. Majority of the time, she was a combat instructor, teaching the operatives underneath her the skills necessary for potential missions. When she wasn't training others, she was training herself and making sure her skills were polished for moments notice. After a day of sweat and activity, it was no wonder she would crash each night after coming home.
"I enjoy working hard but, it is nice to sit down once and a while and know I don't have to move around." She replied, referring her skill set which was almost entirely devoted to physical movement and speed. "But out of the two of us, I think you deserve more free time than I do. Or at least some breaks." She was still having a hard time imagining 1,792 pages within a single week, being that she sometimes struggled on the small amount she was required.
- |ROOT Executive| -
Iɴғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ✠XXX ROOT ExecutiveX Main Ability: Transportation and TravelX Sub Ability [1]: Energy ManipulationX Sub Ability [2]: (General) Physics or Reality ManipulationX Weapon - "Ah and Un"[X]X ROOT Codename - "Disappearing Rabbit"X former HuntressX Current Attire - Work Outfit: [X]X
Caelum was genuinely flattered that the girl thought he deserved more free time. It had occurred to him before that maybe he worked too much, but he didn't need a lot of rest. The paperwork was good mental exercise, and time in the short term just kinda seemed... irrelevant. In any case, Caelum found Noein's personality quite refreshing. It was... honest. A quality that was as good as gold no matter what century you were in.
His curiosity about his co-worker was growing quite a bit at this point. This was probably the longest they'd ever interacted outside of the workplace. It was very different seeing her in this light, it made him think more. What was this person really like? "I don't really need many breaks. It's probably why they give me the bulk of the work. If I wasn't here they'd need five more workers to fill my place," Caelum chuckled. With a glance at her bag Caelum gave her an inquisitive look. "May I ask what you came here to read? If it's from outside the library I feel like it must be a thousand times more interesting then what I have at my disposal."
✦xxx✦xxx✦xx:x「xNoeinxKodoux」x:xx✦xxx✦xxx✦ I know it's true, Our sweat and blood, And armoured skirts crimson Story book, pretty soldiers As we grow up, There's nothing left. Bow and arrow in hand, Stand up, follow orders ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫✠┠━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Down the Rabbit Hole III
✧ When asked about the contents of her bag, Noein's face become flushed with embarrassment. She was afraid her colleague would look down on her for having something as childish as comics. She thought about making them disappear into her dimensional storage, a task such as that would only take split seconds for her but, she didn't want to make Caleum suspicious that she may be hiding something important. Trust was everything in ROOT, and it would be much easier if she came clean.
"It's just a story I've been following since I was a kid..." Noein gulped, reaching into her bag and pulling out one of her many volumes of Sakura no Arashi"It's probably nothing that would interest you. It's something high-school girls and anime enthusiasts read. But, it helps me unwind at the end of the day, kinda makes me wonder if I had that kind of leisurely life..."
She began to trail off near the end, becoming drawn into the thought of what her life would look if she had never joined ROOT, it was a thought that came in and out, not just when she was reading but every time, it always ended when she realized she wouldn't want to anything different than what she was doing now.
- |ROOT Executive| -
Iɴғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ✠XXX ROOT ExecutiveX Main Ability: Transportation and TravelX Sub Ability [1]: Energy ManipulationX Sub Ability [2]: (General) Physics or Reality ManipulationX Weapon - "Ah and Un"[X]X ROOT Codename - "Disappearing Rabbit"X former HuntressX Current Attire - On-Mission Outfit: [X]X
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