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 Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 9:52 am
The Librorum Prohibitorum, also known as the Forbidden Library. Everyone within the magic community knows it “exists” but few people if anyone knows where it is or how to get there. It is a massive repository for rare, powerful, dangerous, and forbidden books and artifacts and few things that are put down there ever see the light of day again. It is heavily warded from both the outside and within with high-level magical wards sealing the sections beyond the doors off from unauthorized entry. The wards on the doors are multilayered with polymorphic encryption, making them all but impossible to hack through or disarm while teleportation in and out of the place is impossible. There are four sections to the Librorum Prohibitorum.
The first section is the main hall or lobby, which upon entry appears to be a pristine dark grey-marble gallery with ornate carpets, plants, dark yet comfortable European-style couches and furniture, and heavy oak doors separating it from the other sections. It is dimly lit with lamps lining the walls along with a few sitting on the tables, giving the place a cool yet comforting glow. It is the perfect place to sit, chill, wait, or gather, though even a child could tell you something dark pervades the place just by staying there long enough. Those who find their way there without knowing exactly how they got there will find themselves trapped with no obvious way out (the original entryway, when opened will reveal naught but a solid black void, which will feel like a brick wall when you try to walk through it)
The second section is the main library at the northern section, which is directly adjacent to the main hall and separated from it by a huge pair of oak doors. The floor itself is marble while towering tiers line the walls, disappearing into the darkness above while stairways and foyers are built in to navigate the place. Each tier is lined with shelves stocked fully with books with study tables arranged neatly on each landing or foyer. The tiers along with their floors and ceilings, are made of magically-preserved hardwood, which remains strong, pristine, and resilient throughout the ages while sturdy wooden railings are present along the tiers’ edges to keep people from falling. Black iron lanterns with magical flames are also built into the tiers’ supports, providing good lighting and bathing each tier with a soft golden glow from within. It is also perpetually cool inside the main library and wind, like a cool night breeze, can be felt coming down from the darkness above once in a while…like the breath of a sleeping titan as a visiting archmage once put it. The air in the main library is also crisp and clean rather than old or musty and comes from an unknown source far above.
The third section of the Librorum Prohibitorum is the Keeper’s sanctum, which is located within the main library and serves as the living quarters for the library’s keeper. The Keeper makes sure no one enters or takes anything from the library without the proper authorization and the few thieves and intruders who managed to make it there never came out. The Keeper herself is an elvish baelnorn (an elvish lich) who appears to be perfectly alive and in her 20’s, but has actually been undead for the past 1200 years. She can easily be spotted by a red hooded robe with silver trimmings that she wears along with a wooden staff with an ornate lantern hanging from the end.
The fourth and final section of the library is the annex, a large and currently empty room accessible from the main hall. It currently serves no purpose, though it seems to have found one for the time being…
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 7:57 pm
(Dean Konoe, Axel, Setsuna, Chris, and company enter from the Dean's Office)
The deathly silent main hall of the Librorum Prohibitorum. As cool, serene, and pristine as the place looked, one could sense a dark undercurrent to the place and a palpable aura of power as they neared the huge oaken doors to the library's main section. But they weren't going there. While the dean himself had access, he rarely ever went there and it felt like ages since the last time he was down here. Instead, they were going to the library's annex, which was also accessible from where they were. The Keeper had disarmed the wards there and one of the KMA members slowly opened one of the thick oak doors leading in, prior to the others wheeling Axel in and opening the cage's door while motioning for Axel to go ahead and come out.
The library's annex, which was previously empty, had been decked out like a European-style study with shelves full of books and two tiers along the walls, desks, carpets, paintings, and other antique pieces of furniture, plus lamps along the walls; though the lamps themselves were out. It was a study with a set of temporary living quarters built into the lower tier and center. The upper tier contained the study while the lower tier and center was like a small one-story house in itself with an iron grill acting as the ceiling, preventing movement to the upper tier or escape. There were also two locked iron gates/grills preventing access to the upper tier from the stairs. However, the "house" section itself contained a large bed on the far side, a cabinet, a pair of shelves, a small kitchen and dining area with a table and a pair of chairs, and even a fridge while a rack of lights hung down just above the iron grill itself. Access to the annex's bathroom (which includes a port-a-shower) was also built in to one of the sides. The whole thing was a cage...albeit a gilded cage.
"You will be staying here until the moon phase is over," the dean told Axel. "Everything you need has been provided and you will be fed at regular times each day until you revert to your original form and the moon phase ends. If anything goes wrong, ring the bell on that side of the wall and one of the KMA members or the Keeper herself will come to assist you. Any questions?" he asked while petting Axel gently. Axel might not be able to speak back in that form, but his words could at least put Axel somewhat at ease.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 5:05 am
Axel looked around curiously. Large place...did anyone else even know about this place? He stepped out of the cage warily, as the Dean began to pet him and explain. Axel growled a bit, and nodded his head a bit in an attempt to say he understood. He wasn't too comfortable about having to go to the keeper or the KMA members, but that was mostly unfamiliarity. Using the same technique he used earlier that day to Setsuna to thank her, he etched on the floor the same kanji for a thank you, glowing with dark magic before it faded in a whisp. He huffed.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 5:27 am
"Whoa..." Setsuna looks around, a bit wide-eyed. Such a large place, right on campus. Something was eerie about it, in a way. Like some form of power slept here... strange. She looks over the area that is to be Axel's dwelling for the time being, grinning softly. "Wow, Axel-san. You'll be quite comfortable while you're here." She kneels near him, looking around still. Though, this didn't really solve the problem of him bring lonely, did it? If anything, he was even more separated, now... did she make the right move? At least people wouldn't be harassing him, here...
Her eyes turn back to Axel and she smiles warmly. "At least people can't bother you here, right?" She still wonders about him being kept company... will visitors be allowed? She'd hope so, but... looking at this place, she wonders.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:16 am
"You're welcome, Axel-san," the dean spoke with a slight nod as he petted Axel again and the KMA members wheeled the cage back into the main hall while others, including the Keeper, stood behind them by the door. "Axel will be safe here. Breaking in here is very difficult if not impossible to do. The KMA members will stay here in shifts while the Keeper herself is present 24/7. I will also give Sakurazaki-san the right to visit until the moon phase is done and I will check on Axel personally during that time as well. Until then, Axel will stay here," he spoke while gesturing for Axel to take a look around his new room. They set things up nicely just for him. Dean Konoe then stepped out into the main hall while the KMA members and the keeper prepared to close the doors to the annex. "We can leave as soon as you're ready, Sakurazaki-san. Say good night to Axel and then we'll go." It was getting somewhat late and it had been a long week for everyone. They could all use a good meal and some rest.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:58 am
Axel huffed and looked around, walking around in wide circles it seemed to look at his new surroundings. Setsuna mentioned something about it not fixing his lonliness, but teh dean told her she could visit as well as himself. Axel had a feeling they would be leaving pretty soon, so he stopped again by the dean and Setsuna. He bowed his head a bit to the dean, and turned to Setsuna and huffed again, nuding her shoulder lightly with his head. At least once day came back around he could feel more like himself, though he'd still be in this form probably. Thne one more night, and he would finally change back.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:39 am
Setsuna watches Axel walk around his new area, smiling as she does. When he comes back around and warps her arms around him as he nudges her shoulder, rubbing his back. "I'll come back sometime tomorrow, ok? G'night." She smiles at him and pats his back once or twice before letting him go and turning to the dean. "Alright, I'm ready to go, sir." She nods to him, adjusting her sword bag on her shoulder.
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 6:48 am
Dean Konoe smiled through his ancient features as Setsuna said she was ready to go and bade Axel farewell and good night. "Good night, Axel-san. Let's go, Sakurazaki," he told both Axel and Setsuna kindly as they stepped out and the KMA members closed the doors to the annex, sealing Axel inside where he'd be safe. "Give him some tea. It would be rude of us to send him off without any," he told the KMA members as well as the keeper regarding Chris. He then opened the door leading out of the main hallway, showing a dark void beyond it before leading Setsuna out. They then appeared back in the Academy hallway with the sound of a janitor's vacuum cleaner far around the corner. "I'll be heading home soon," he told Setsuna. "Do you need a ride home or would you prefer to go by yourself?" He'd known Setsuna since she first arrived at his son Eishun's place as a child and the bloodstained bond she had with Konoka pretty much made her family to the Konoe's. Therefore, same courtesy he'd extend to Konoka extended to her as well.
(The Dean and Setsuna exit to the hallway outside the Dean's Office)
(If Chris is not aware of magic, the KMA members and the Keeper could kindly offer him some "tea" which is actually a special brew made to knock him out and make him forget everything he saw that night. He'll wake up in bed like nothing happened the next morning. However, if he is aware of magic, he can detect its magical nature and refuse)
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:58 pm
Setsuna nods and follows the Dean out, shaking her head at his offer. "Ah, no, sir. I can walk. Thank you." Such courtesy... to a half-creature such as herself. She wasn't even wanted by her own tribe. She didn't really deserve such kindness, though the Dean is a very generous man to extend such a favor toward her. She couldn't burden him with it, though, not any more than she already has. She looks at Chris. Whatever happened earlier was... quite annoying. She doesn't know what that was, though, needless to say. In any case, it's getting late, and she should get back to her dorm.
[Setsuna leaves with the Dean.]
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:42 pm
Axel was bored. Of course at leats in here he wasn't about to go wandering off again because of it. Internal timing tells me...it's day now. He could also tell because he felt completely in control of himself now. He sat in the middle of the room, laying on the floor and breathing steadily--what was considered steady in his demon form, which was about the same speed a dog breathed--his tail flickering around. The keeper...he hadn't really seen this keeper yet. Apparently they lived here, in one of the other rooms. Maybe I can ask for a book or something. Or something to work on. He was a bit limited for things to do in this form.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:25 pm
 The shadows of the moon are cast over the land
When no light shines from the Moon Goddess tonight
She abandons me for sins at fault of my father
I suffer the same as he had, I fall to my knees
My anguish fills the air in the scream of my father's pain and my own
In the pain my mother suffered in her own blood
I become the terror I never wished to becomeAxel was running around the floor, aimlessly. He eventually stopped and wandered around again, sniffing around. He clawed at the floor, until a presence made him look up. The Keeper? Well, hooded figure...he figured it was the said keeper. She walked over to where he was fearlessly, and placed something down that was wrapped in a loosely tied cloth, before nodding to him and leaving him be again.
Axel looked at the tied sack and smelled it, before tugging at the knot with his claw. He pulled it open, head drawing back. Gadgets...It looked like a really old rod-like contraption. He could sense magic in it too. So it was some abandoned or broken artifact of some sort? He picked it up and looked at it. It was odd, seeing this large beast examining the objects before him, but now Axel had something to do. Genuine distracted interest in his green eyes, he sat down and sifted through what the Keeper had given him, in full faith they wouldn't aide in any kind of escape or harm to another individual.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:22 pm
The shadows of the moon are cast over the land
When no light shines from the Moon Goddess tonight
She abandons me for sins at fault of my father
I suffer the same as he had, I fall to my knees
My anguish fills the air in the scream of my father's pain and my own
In the pain my mother suffered in her own blood
I become the terror I never wished to becomeAxel, genuinely interested in rebuilding the artifact, was entirely focused at the task at hand. He let out soft intrigued growls as he worked, using his magic in place of regular scientific elements, which seemed to work since it was already a magical item in the first place.
His tail waved around over the floor as he could spot the Keeper watching him sometimes, from time to time, though all he was doing was building what was starting to look like some clockwork style Rod Staff.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:48 pm
The shadows of the moon are cast over the land
When no light shines from the Moon Goddess tonight
She abandons me for sins at fault of my father
I suffer the same as he had, I fall to my knees
My anguish fills the air in the scream of my father's pain and my own
In the pain my mother suffered in her own blood
I become the terror I never wished to becomeAxel huffed happily as his tail hit the floor with a solid thump. The Keeper looked at him for a moment as he held up and examined his finished product. He pointed it at the ground in front of him as a noise sounded and a small cannon like gun appeared near the tip of the rod. A beam of magic that was bright red fired out and hit the floor harmlessly, but that was juts because of the magic of the area protecting it. This meant that it had worked. Axel managed to rebuild the artifact. His tail thumped as he stood up and walked over to the Keeper. He growled and handed it over, looking at her expectantly, as if wondering if she wanted it back now that it was rebuilt and functioning. She shook her head. "You keep it. I gave it to you to see if you could rebuild it, in full intention of letting you keep it if you wished." Axel huffed again, his ears pointing up in surprise. Then he nodded with a grin and walked off with the rod in his claw. he sat down again, tinkering with it, but he was clearly happy he was allowed to keep it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:40 pm
The shadows of the moon are cast over the land
When no light shines from the Moon Goddess tonight
She abandons me for sins at fault of my father
I suffer the same as he had, I fall to my knees
My anguish fills the air in the scream of my father's pain and my own
In the pain my mother suffered in her own blood
I become the terror I never wished to become16 years...
Axel twitched, having fallen asleep in the middle of the floor still with a hold of the rod artifact in his hands.
"Sixteen years, and you still have no hope of breaking your curse." Axel looked around. It was a completely white area, and he was in his real body again. In front of him was a really faint transparent figure, with some sort of...powerful energy flowing from it. Her. Flowing from her. Axel's eyes got wide. Was it really her? "You're the...moon goddess." She'd only had her come into contact with her dreams few times before. "Indeed, it is me. I was simply checking on you during your time through moon's shadows, Ariel." Axel frowned. Ariel. He just wasn't used to be called that anymore. She wasn't used to it anymore. Ariel was no longer her real name. "Breaking my curse? I-I'm only human. You don't know what you're asking..." "Yes I do. I'm asking you prove yourself stronger then your father's blood and be true to your word when you say you will do something you say you will do. He broke his word. I wait to see if you will do the same. Can you love someone, genuinely, unlike your father could? I cannot tell yet. For all I know, you are just as bad as your father is." Axel frowned. "No! Why are you judging me before you even know me? You cursed me at birth like you already knew I'd be something horrible! it's your fault I'm something horrible..." Axel grimaced and looked away, stepping back. "Then you must prove it to me. You will work for my trust, Ariel. You remember, you are mine. If I wish you to do something, you will do it. Whether you wish to or not. It's best to remember that, for I can kill you with a single word if I wanted to. All I would have to say...is Die." Axel knew she was right. She looked at the gunning rod in her hands, then pointed the tip under her chin. Fear gripped her. She was at this form's mercy. It was all true. She couldn't upset her, or...her finger began to pull on the trigger.
Axel's tail whacked the ground hard enough to leave a bit of a thin line as he woke with a start. Axel whined, curling up and gripping his head with his green eyes sueezed shut. The whines weren't hostile like every other sound he made in this form. It sounded more like he was...crying.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:20 pm
The shadows of the moon are cast over the land
When no light shines from the Moon Goddess tonight
She abandons me for sins at fault of my father
I suffer the same as he had, I fall to my knees
My anguish fills the air in the scream of my father's pain and my own
In the pain my mother suffered in her own blood
I become the terror I never wished to becomeAxel finally uncurled, merely laying on his side on the floor of the vast space. The Keeper was nowhere to be found, perhaps having left him alone to weep. He whined as his tail curled around him and he wrapped his arms around himself best he could. This was horrible. He knew he never liked this part of his yearly life, but never did he realize how bad it ruined him until he was here at Mahora, going through it, having to be contained like some wild creature. Isn't that all I am? Some uncontrollable freak? I'm never going to get rid of this stupid curse...
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