Quoting from the LRP wiki for Ollie - "And as I looked at him lying bleeding out on the floor and desperately hoped I could somehow tie up the enemy long enough to get him treated, I remembered why I was always so averse to genuine heroics; and so in awe of genuine heroes.""And as I looked at him lying bleeding out on the floor and desperately hoped I could somehow tie up the enemy long enough to get him treated, I remembered why I was always so averse to genuine heroics; and so in awe of genuine heroes."
The Secret World: Templar Journal extract; mixed with a bit of NWoD Mage.
Temple Club, Ealdwic, London.Temple Club, Ealdwic, London.
Someone is playing opera in the common room. The acoustics of the Library dome pick it up and let it swell into an echoing, flowing, song of pain and loss. A language I know the shape of, but not the words to. Italian, possibly? This music reminds me of a story I need to tell somewhere...
The Librarian's assistant in the occultists' book store.
Back in Birmingham, a few years ago; It was the early hours of the morning and I couldn't sleep. I was walking through Digbeth and the quiet streets between new-build apartments and yet-to-be repurposed industrial units.
Silver Sands under the Moon is an old book shop a little further back from the street down what might be charitably called a side-street. It's a cramped, twisting and apparently cluttered place that smells of old paper and fresh incense.
Jude; who runs the place with the help of a handful of assistants of varying ages, sex and persuasions; gives me a slightly odd look as I open the door and the bell rings. In hindsight it was probably the little Templar pin that got the look more than anything. I've paid in cash ever since I started wearing it.
A younger man, name of Ollie Shantors, was down the back of the shop. From what the local circuit told me; he worked for the estate of someone rich enough to stay incognito, but collect esoteria of varying types of power and providence. A private library or museum. Young Ollie was good at finding old books and restoring them. At the time however, he was reading some trashy fantasy paperback from the bargain bin.
There are moments before something changes a life forever. Moments where the world holds its breath and the spirits pause in curiosity. The stars stopped their dance for a split second....
Then Ollie fell off his stool.
The bell over the door started ringing like a clarion call, Jude started shouting for one of her assistants and the incense burner abruptly snuffed itself out. Ollie was having a fit of some sort - Posture locked rigid and eyes staring into a land that wasn't his. The book he had been reading had tripped a switch somewhere in the young man's brain. Power crackling around the room and looking for somewhere to belong.
The two shopkeeper's bodily carried him into a back room and I followed with the first-aid kit from behind the counter.
The back room at Silver Sands under the Moon is comfortable. There's a kettle and sink for the regular tea breaks and a comfortable sofa to sit down on. That's where they put Ollie.
I checked him over while Jude closed the shop and went to retrieve whatever it was he'd been reading.
Physically, he was fine. Breathing was normal, same for heart rate. No rigidity in the limbs, he'd relaxed as soon as he'd been put down; He was simply unresponsive. It was like his conscious mind had decided to take a short break. Had his eyes not been open, I'd have thought he was sleeping. The odd feeling of power or static electricity in the air was dissipating slowly.
"Ever seen this sort of thing before?" asked a pleasantly feminine voice behind me. Jude had walked in behind me while I was checking on Ollie. The paperback, I recall, had been put in a clear plastic bag.
I paused, with one gloved hand still feeling the back of the poor lad's head before replying "Only once, but that was an RTA. Lot of blood. Headwound. With Ollie... well, there's nothing wrong with him that I can tell. It'd be shock if I didn't know better" .
I got the feeling that both Jude and her assistant were looking at me with more than just the normal vision of a mortal before trading an odd look and a nod.
"He's magic sensitive. He just didn't know it till now." said Jude's assistant, a non-descript man with mousy hair that kept flopping over his eyes. "Probably was just shock."
The moment un-spooled as everything clicked into place. The bell, the odd looks and the need to pay cash because I was supposed to be part of the "Secret world" by wearing a Templar pin. Was the bookshop a front for something else? I wondered. Jude and her assistant were wizards, witches or whatever. That innocent paperback was probably a grimoire of some sort and had tripped something in Ollie's head.
"He's going to need - " I began, before being interrupted by a knitted woolen blanket being handed to me. This was their area of expertise. They'd both seen this before.
I got busy making sure that Ollie was comfortable for when he came out of it. Jude made a pot of tea and the assistant went back out to the shop. Poor lad was out of it for an hour or so, so I had a long and interesting conversation with Jude that afternoon.
That's best saved for another time though. I thought I'd seen everything up til then, not really knowing what I'd let myself in for with the Secret World and the Templars.
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