Roman Empire of Books (Terry)

[ADRYAN]

Adryan lay silently in bed perfectly still and unwilling to move as his body recovered from the warm embrace of sleep. By the lack of light behind his close eyelids he knew that dawn had yet to come. He'd been having an interesting dream, that much he knew, but the contents were beyond his grasp. However he distinctly remembered the smell of fresh grass and laughter. Perhaps he had just been dreaming of his weekend outing with his newest friend. The thought made him smile as he realized he had a true friend for the first time in his life. Far from a socially awkward child, Adryan had just never been the type who was easily approachable. He could thank his introspective personality for that, yet it didn't bother him much. He was quiet happy with the person he was. At least that's what he'd convinced himself into thinking.

Heaving a soft sigh, the harpy decided that sleep was going to elude him completely and sat upright in bed. Everyone else seemed to still be under in dreams and he was thankful for that. For the moment, with the thoughts circulating in his head, he wanted to be alone and there was only one place really he could acquire that. So after dressing quickly in a pair of jeans and a black and white stripped long sleeve shirt, Adryan quietly made his way to the library where he could get something productive done. It was utterly cliche but he was the type that typically thought that all problems and questions could be solved by reading. However this particular issue would require something less fictional. For now at least, right now he didn't require the services of one of his favorite fictional writers. He nearly cringed just thinking of it.

Once inside the library the sixteen year old boy made quick work of tracking down several books. Their titles ranged from developmental psychology, harpy development and growth, and even theories on the brain. In just under an hour he'd successfully scanned the sections of these genres and had two substantially sized stacks of books on a table to himself. Glancing at them from a distance somehow reminded him a roman empire. Not so much in structure but rather in diligence. Another smile spread across his lips at his way of thinking before he glanced towards the nearest window. It showed him a soft blue light creeping into view accompanied by fog. The grounds outside were probably covered by the dew the morning brought and that alone could tell him how early it was. Good, he though as he mentally chained himself to the table and sat down in a chair facing the libraries entrance. He reached for the nearest book on normal harpy development, convinced that he was home-free of any prying eyes. Briefly he wondered how it must look to see a young blonde boy among large stacks of books, holding a "normal" developmental book.

He shook his head and breathed out an oath to the abnormally quiet room, "Yeah I really don't want to explain this." He chuckled and leaned back more comfortable in the chair, his feet propped up and crossed on an opposite one. As he scanned the contents of the first book, Adryan idly reached into his pants pocket for his mp3, popped in one of the ear buds and clicked the shuffle option. Instantly one of his favorite songs started to play- Secrets by One Republic. He smiled at the irony of the song, secrets was definitely right. Choosing his chapter, he began to read.

[TERRY]

The school was a different place in the early morning the air was still, the world had yet to awaken from it's deep slumber and was only just stirring. The haze of the morning fog obscured all whom would be lost within it's chilly wispy embrace as the tendrils of the fog bit by bit began to recede. Slowly the blue light that crept along the morning sky was the symbol that day lights wake had begun, though most of the residents of the academy would still be deep in slumber. This was all in contrast to the usual bright day, bustling activity and overflowing energy of the student body.

The silhouette of a figure could be seen in the fog, a lean slender body that moved across the dew laden grass with stealth and finesse. Quietly the figure moved towards the library window, emerging from the fog was a young elven man in the guise of a human. He was a slender tall young man with deep blue hair and eyes that were not so different then ice, his pale skin made him look ethereal amidst the fog. Only his dark colored jacket and jeans allowed him to be recognized as a living creature and not a specter of some sort.

Terry sight to himself as he walked towards the library window, his face held a bored look and his hands were snug within the confines of his pockets. It was unlike him to be up this early, let alone moving around but the wounds his encounter with the woman named Yvette had made sleep a fleeting prospect. He had quite a few bruises hidden beneath the dark jacket that clung to his body, they were black and quite sore to every movement he made. Students weren't supposed to be out at this hour, which was the reason Terry was sneaking about and keeping silent as he approached the window.

Reaching into his pocket Terry pulled out a long piece of metal, as thin as a finger nail. There were perks to having the blood of a fourth generation master thief running through out his veins. Slipping the piece of metal into the very thin gap between the window and the frame Terry wiggled his tool against the latch on the window until it popped up with a click. He was happy that there were no real locks on the windows just a plain latch, otherwise he might actually have to expend effort in order to break in.

The library was Terry's standard place of solitude, he always came there when he needed somewhere to get away. Today he didn't feel like going to class so if he went to the library nice and early he would have the chance to stow away here while classes went on. Pushing up on the window until it popped open took a bit of effort since the window was raised up and almost out of his reach. It was important that no teachers or staff see him enter the library or they might send him to class once they started. With the window open he gripped the ledge, placed his feet against the wall of the building and pulled himself up and into the window.

He fell forward just as Terry manged to get onto the window frame and prop himself up on his knees, losing his balance Terry tumbled face forward onto the floor landing with a thud. He lay face first on the cold unforgiving floor of the school's library, the most ungraceful entrance he could of made he did indeed make "Ow..." He said out loud. as he struggled to push himself off the ground.

[ADRYAN]

Scowling at the pages he skimmed, Adryan continued almost desperately to find exactly what he was looking for. Perhaps he should be reading slower instead of the skipping way that he was; however, there was one specific word he was looking for. Surely it would show up if any of these old tomes had the answers to the questions he so avidly searched for. There was so much going on in the boys head as he searched and he was barely making any progress with the first book he was on. Looking up at the stacks he'd made for himself Adryan sighed and contemplated skiving off class so he could finish them all. Perhaps if he just told any adult who interrupted him that it was for a project, perhaps he would be allowed to stay. He was hardly the type to miss classes for reasons beyond his comprehension. They probably stemmed from the fact that he'd never really had a reason to miss a class before- well this certainly called for it.

Deciding that he would try somehow to keep himself from class, Adryan flipped the pages back to the contents and searched again. He read titles like 'Early Development' and 'Hormonal Surges' but there was nothing close to what he was looking for. However he did learn quite a bit about early harpy development and discovering talents early on. Placing the book down and idly reaching for another one, Adryan rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Perhaps he could go talk to a school nurse or something. Yet his curse always was and always will be to discover things for himself. He opened the second book to it's contents page and starting reading titles. He didn't get very far as the sound of wood scraping made him pause.

Looking up from the book and over his shoulder, Adryan turned his mp3 player off and scowled in the direction that the muffled noise was emanating from. He'd heard a lot about the fights that when on at this school and quite frankly the noise was making his heart pound in anticipation. He'd never gotten into a fight in his life and even though he experienced the familiar surge of energy that led most students to lash out- he'd learned to curb those feelings by running off the energy. The rational side of his mind told him that there was no way someone would break into a library to start a fight. Yet the irrational side that tended to dominate his brain in the early hours said otherwise. He knew only basic information about the creatures that called this place home, perhaps one of them had tendencies to look for trouble. His certainly did.

Getting up from where he sat as quietly as possible, Adryan cautiously headed towards the noise. It sounded like someone was attempting to climb into the window. Who on earth would do such a thing? he asked himself silently as he turned a corner. He came face to face with a wall and rolled his eyes at his lack of judgement. He was just about to go inspect the rest of the library when the sound of a body hitting the hard floor of the library echoed behind him. Adryan jumped from the sudden sound and whirled around to find a male laying on the ground. The harpy rose both thin eyebrows until they disappeared behind his bangs. It looked like he had fallen through the window, at least he hoped he had because the alternative meant he was laying on the floor by choice.

"A-Are you okay?" He asked and approached the boy slowly. He seemed to struggle to get himself off the floor so Adryan knelt a little bit and offered him his hand to help him get up. The harpy's action were slow but then again whose wouldn't after witnessing someone fall in through an open window. Especially at this hour and in a library no less. In fact the fact that this man had broken in at all made him wonder if he, himself, should have been able to get in at all. He'd just walked in through the entrance, but perhaps it was supposed to be locked. His hand still outstretched for the boy to take so Adryan could help him, he decided to ask, "Why were you breaking in anyway? Doors open.."

[TERRY]

Terry groaned internally, his body was weighted down and he would be hard pressed to believe that there was blood in his body and not lead. The fight with Yvette, and him almost drowning had left his body battered for the worst. Under his ice colored eyes were dark ugly sand bags that showed a high level of fatigue and little sleep. These dark spots coupled with his sickly pale skin showed him to be of weak health, his body was in a bad shape but that wouldn't stop him from pushing it even further. Terry was tired and weak, but that had never stopped him before damaging his own body was something he was more then willing to do and the young man had proved it more then once.

Someone spoke to him, it was a concerned voice it didn't sound like a teacher because it held to strength and it was more of concern then it was 'what the flying f- are you doing here'. He looked up to see a young man who offered Terry a hand. Internally he cringed people made everything harder, but he wasn't the type to ignore one of the rare acts of kindness shown to him. He gently took the guys hand and allowed himself to be helped up, his bones creaked and groaned silently protesting the tiresome act of standing. "well...Thanks for the hand... I'm Terry" His voice was soft and gentle, he spoke quietly to not draw attention to him or the other guy, as he scanned the room.

Satisfied there was no other presence to disturb the pair he looked at the guy who had given him a hand. "Honestly...I'm gonna skip the day of classes and if a teacher saw me enter, they would be sure to send me to class..." or the nurses office he added mentally. The extent of his injuries definitely required a look over by someone with actual medical experience, but there was no way Terry was going to do that. If anything he just looked really tired, all the evidence luckily was under his shirt where most of the beating had taken place.

Terry dusted himself off, his jacket had absorbed most of the dirt on the library floor that had stock piled over the night. "And why are you here?" He asked lightly finally taking the time to size up the person who helped him. His quiet observer nature led him to naturally gauge the guy quickly, he estimated between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. There was no apparent threat from this guy, no obvious weapons or anything of the sort. After spending so long observing and judging people from a distance Terry had at least some level of gauging a person from first experience, it was probably the only thing he was good at. Whoever this guy was, it didn't seem likely that he would attack Terry for any reason.

The library was as it always was, so quiet and filled with a relaxed atmosphere that could only come from a room that held great tomes of knowledge and stories. Text's both new and old that contained a a wealth of information or uncountable worlds yet to be explored by Terry. The latter was his preferred style of book, to be lost within it's depths to escape the harsh and cruel world of reality where the blood on his hands felt as fresh as the day he had been stained. Books were probably the thing Terry loved most in this world,so a library was the obvious place for him to be, coupled with the endless pounding of music from his earphones if given the chance Terry would be content to stay here for a long long time.

Someone like Terry could spend months in this room never to be bored, just absorbing all of the information stored between the covers. So far this room was where Terry spent most of his time since being exiled by his family to this accursed academy. A guy with no friends and no real drive to make them, a guy who kept his headphones on and faded into the grey of the world where no one would take notice of his flickering presence. A presence that was fleeting, and when someone did make contact with Terry it was short, ephemeral as he moved through the world leaving little trace behind rarely did anyone ever notice him enough to care that he was gone.

The way it always was and the way it always would be. It was the way it should be... at least in his mind.

[ADRYAN]

Standing there with his hand held outstretched for the other male to take, Adryan began to wonder if his help would even be accepted. As someone who was naturally accident prone with the things he got himself into, he'd become the type of person who wouldn't walk away from another without at least seeing if he could help. It was quite contradictory to his quiet nature but there was the other part to his double-sided personality that wanted to be outgoing. An outgoing introspective- now wasn't there an oxymoron. However he would never call himself as such as Adryan was sure there were people who were much worse in that category. Is issue simply stemmed from the fact that he'd hardly grown up around other children other than the few down the street and even then he'd chosen a quiet life rather than the norm.

However when the boy did take his hand Adryan gently helped him to stand before stepping back and giving him some room to steady himself. He acted like he'd been through the mill and one quick look told Adryan that he probably had. Yet the circles under Terry's eyes, for that's how he introduced himself as, told a different story. Being a victim of insomnia himself, he could take a good guess that perhaps that's why he looked so beaten up. Then again with all the rumors circulating about fights, who knew.

"I'm um, Adryan." He answered back with his own named and watched as the other male dusted himself off. It begged the question of when the last time the library had been cleaned was. Yet as he looked down to examine it, he also took the opportunity to take in the appearance of his companion. Other than looking fatigued, he guessed that Terry was older and held an odd aura of don't-mess-with-me. Well Adryan would certainly listen to that instinct.

"Oh." Was all the sixteen year old said to Terry's answer about why he was here. All of a sudden he felt guilty for thinking that it had been something less innocent than that. For a moment he had figured that anyone who would break into a library was a screaming example of trouble. As it turned out he just wanted to skive off class just like Adryan had decided. How judgmental of him had that been? Adryan internally kicked himself with the thought and smiled a warm, inviting smile with his response, "Same thing I guess. I had a bunch of personal research to do so I figured I'd just skip class too and say it was for a project if I was asked to go to class." he shrugged and looked sideways in the direction of the table that was loaded with books. Then again now that he thought of it who was going to believe a teenager when most kids used the library as an excuse to skive.

Rubbing the back of his neck with that thought, he did something extremely out of character and gestured towards the back of the library that was least used.

"Would you like to share a table or something? Now that you've mentioned it, I don't feel like getting called into class either."

[TERRY]

Arms folded Terry listened to this person's story about why he was here. There wasn't much to say about that, personal research meant personal something Terry should pry into. Everyone had their private secrets if this fellow was the type to share he would share it of his own free will, otherwise it was a safe bet that personal meant private. It wasn't so uncommon in this school, a place were outcasts of human society gathered the stories were commonly tragic. All of this made Terry sure that he would not pry without further prompt by this guy.

This guy did something that quite surprised Terry, the initial meeting he understood the common courtesy of offering a hand and the awkward conversation that usually followed, but when he was invited to join the guy at a table. "Uhm.." he paused thinking it over there was a good advantage to joining this guy, if a teacher accepted the excuse of working on a project Terry could be assisting, that would certainly be easier then his initial plan of when things got hot he could slip into the vent. When you spent a large portion of your time skipping off in a place over and over again, you learned tricks to avoid teachers. Instead of hiding in a cramped dusty dirty vent system he could deal with hanging out with some random guy who at least seemed nice. "yea alright sure I'll come back with you"

He wasn't sure where this would go, he was incredibly poorly versed in actual social situations. He spent more time avoiding them then the did actually in them, experience was what he lacked so social situations became awkward situations and Terry hated awkward situations so he avoided them so he never gained experience, it was terrible downward spiral that made his head spin. So this move was a risky one at least in the soft spoken young mans mind, but it was something he was willing to try the guy seemed nice enough, and if he was skipping off in a library he might have an interest in book.

If a fight did break out, as always Terry was armed to the teeth, blades lurked within his clothing ready to spring out upon request like a predator waiting for it's prey. With any luck he wouldn't have to use them, but he felt wrong without some sort of defense. He had been assaulted at just about every turn in this school, mostly by girls surprisingly the dastardly and malicious females of this school. A female had given Terry a working over battering his body quite harshly, though in the end she had been a really cool person so it was worth it, the only social situation that he would consider a success had been a big fight.

Terry had two choices, risk an awkward silence or settle into a definite awkward silence. "So..how old are you? I have not seen you in any of my classes" He asked while he moved towards the back of the room, he looked towards at the guy, not directly at him but in his direction. Eye contact was a strange thing in Terry's messed up mind, he didn't shirk it in a offensive manner, just he didn't wish to risk making a possibly awkward scene worse. The age question was innocent, they had never met before so they weren't in the same class the guy might be a little older or younger then Terry or even the same age just a different class and he didn't mean A, B ,C classes those kind of questions tended to strain student relations worse then most.

[ADRYAN]

Adryan waited with perfectly masked apprehension for the other boy's answer. It wasn't like him to be so forward with initiating conversation or let alone asking someone he barely knew to basically hang out with him. However he had been steadily growing tired of his lack of companionship and ever since meeting Rosie he'd grown to crave only one thing: friendship. So upon hearing that Terry would join him he let out the brightest smile he had given while at the academy yet. Perhaps his actions made him appear young but when one spent a lifetime struggling with two very opposite sides to a personality, it just felt good to actually socialize once in awhile- even if Ady was complete shite at it.

"Neat," he said with smile still blazing in place and turned his shoulder towards the table he had been reading at, "Give me a moment to grab my bag? I wont take long." he added and made his way back over to the table adorned with its towers of books. He quickly pulled his messenger bag over his shoulder and turned to walk back. Yet it wouldn't exactly make sense if they both claimed to be working on a project and there were no books in sight. So Adryan sucked in his bottom lip and scanned the titles for something that wouldn't look too suspicious. Wouldn't that be a great second impression, to appear like someone who seemed manic over one type of species. Then of course if his race did come into light then it still probably wouldn't look so good.

So Adryan grabbed three books that talked about races as a whole so he could pass it off as a project on races. If there was any chance at something friendly coming out of this he didn't want to screw it up by appearing unstable- Adryan was anything but. Returning to Terry's side he gave him another quick smile to say that he was ready and started taking small steps towards a table in the back. He didn't want to be the center focus of any teacher or librarian who might come in- not right away at least.

"Sixteen and only just." He said in response to the other male's question and surprised himself to hear how forward his voice sounded. Usually in conversation he kept a quiet tone that almost always welcomed silence. "I don't know if I've seen you in any of my classes either but I usually keep to the back of the room and don't so much." He shrugged and chanced another quick once over his companion. He looked like he might be older than Adryan but then again a lot of people said he looked a good two years younger than he was. If anyone knew the lengths of how deceiving appearances could be it was him.

"What about you? You don't look much older but I've been wrong before." he asked and placed the books in the middle of the table he was closest too. It was hidden slightly behind a bookshelf but not entirely safe from wandering eyes if they looked for life. He wasn't sure if he should be saying more or even what kind of questions he should be asking. From his observant behavior he'd always noticed first encounters went one of two ways. Either it started out with the awkward questions like favorite colors and whether animals were had or it went so law-breakingly easy. While he waited to see what approach he should take with Terry, Adryan pulled out his mp3 and wrapped the earbuds around it to put away. Call it a nervous habit but as long as his hands were doing something the harpy could keep his nerves mostly at bay.