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Entry tags:

( Open )

who: Athelstan, OTA
what: catch-all
when: Throughout March
where: Around the City
warnings: n/a

( A. Park )

Often enough, Athelstan can be found in the park. He finds it a relaxing place to be and often he's sketching but every once in a while he is reading as well. Most often the books he reads are religious in nature, very often simply the Bible. He's been trying to read the newer versions than what he is accustomed too and not quite sure that he likes them all that much.

He's not particularly seeking out company in the park but he won't say no to conversation or questions about his drawings or reading materials. If someone settles nearby him he's very likely to greet you politely.

( B. Library )

It doesn't take long for the library to draw Athelstan's attention. He had had access to many texts when he was staying in Wessex with King Ecbert and when he had chosen to leave it was them that he found himself missing more than anything. Now, there were countless texts that he could look at and read and none of them that needed him to work on them. It's almost strange to think of reading for leisure rather than part of a job.

He's yet to discover fiction, really, sticking to religious texts for the most part and some historical accounts that he had found. Often he sits in the library for hours at a time reading through a new text or wandering the aisles in search of nothing in particular.

( C. Wildcard )

[ I'll match tenses and styles! Feel free to hit me with your best shot or hit me up via PM or on plurk at

poetanarchy if you want to plot something or want a specific starter. ]

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For being on a moon, Elizabeth had to admit that the parks here were lovely, and public, which added the bonus of not having to worry about trespassing. The weather wasn't the same as home, but atleast they were coming to something close to spring; it was also just nice to be out and walk in a way that had nothing to do with patrol duty or training.

Perhaps she should take up medication again. Goodness knew the exercise in mental focus would not hurt, and this place was calm enough to try it.

She stopped along the path with she spotted a familiar person on a bench just a few feet away. "Good afternoon," She tried to recall his name. "Athelstan, correct?"

[ It took just about every last one of Blue's skills, but after a good bit of questioning fellow city-folk and general exploration on her own, she had managed to find what seemed to be a pretty close equivalent to the chicken nuggets that she was familiar with.

(Which is to say that they were probably made of more real ingredients than the ones she's used to, even if they were alien.)

And, with the chicken nuggets in her possession, she fully intends on keeping her promise to Athelstan -- which Blue thought it to be a complete shame that he'd never before tried the deep fried delicacy.

A task that is much easier said than done, apparently. As Blue is currently stuck trying to fend off a small group of very curious goats, all quite interested in the chicken nugget loot that Blue's carrying with her. ]

No. Stop that. [ As well as bits and pieces of her eccentric dress. ] No! You can't eat that.

Ronan tried to keep a low profile whenever he visited the library. It wasn't just his reputation to worry about. If Adam found out he might waste their precious free time dragging him here. If he wanted to read some philosophy then that was his business.

Or not his business. As it turned on, religion and philosophy were shelved close together. He ran into Athelstan on his way back. He started to hide his book, then he recognized who it was.

"Oh, it's you."

"Hey."

Willa stepped up to Athelstan with a friendly wave of her hand. She'd been watching him sitting and reading the bible, studying the way his face shifted and changed with each passage. She didn't think the bible was a particularly good read but it peaked her interest. Willa was planning to keep the details of her interest to herself and straight up lie if he asked. She was a very talented liar.

"I get that you're reading but is there a Christian church around here? I saw the Church of Light or something like that but I was wondering what else there was. Given your reading choice I figured you might know something."

It's a completely innocent inquiry.

Athelstan looks up from what he had been doing and then smiles upon seeing Elizabeth. It had been a while since the time that they had met but she is easy enough to recognize. He stands from the bench, bowing his head toward her politely.

"Good afternoon, Miss Bennet."

She returned the bow with a nod of her head. "I have not seen you in a while. How are you settling"

She motioned to the bench, silently asking permission if she might join him. For once, she was in no real hurry to be anywhere; if he was in the mood for company, she would like a chance to sit down and just talk with him.

[ The sound of Blue's voice is what manages to get Athelstan's attention and he's soon coming out of a small building not far from the main house and where they keep the animals. That building is an art room and Blue might notice that his hands are mostly covered in various colors of paints. ]

Hello. [ He greets her with a kind smile and then quickly move to start ushering the goats into a closed pen area where they wouldn't be able to get at her dress unless she decided to go near them. ]

Athelstan smiles when he sees Ronan, giving only a brief glance to the book that the other had in hand.

"Is that normally how you greet people?" Athelstan questions with an amused smile. This boy isn't that difficult to recognize after the few messages that they had exchanged, his picture had been rather memorable as well as the conversation.

"You like 'hey, shithead' better?" Ronan glanced at Athelstan's book as well. Why was he not surprised?

After checking to make sure no one had somehow entered, Ronan turned his attention back to the only Catholic he'd met here. "Catching up on the latest interpretations of the Word of the Lord? You'll get a kick out of Martin Luther."

Athelstan gives it some thought. He hadn't actually seen a Christian church. Then again, he had not really looked -- strangely enough, he has become accustomed to living without one and communing with God on his own and through conversations with others about him. He smiles kindly in any case though.

"I have not seen or heard of one here," he admits.

"I have been doing well," Athelstan smiles at her, shifting to make sure she had plenty of room to sit beside him and motioning to the spot. "Please, sit."

He closed the book he had. "What about you? Have you been settling well?"

Willa's lips tug into a bit of a frown. She found one church, surely there are others. "Really?" She sounded legitimately surprised. Every city she'd been too had a church of a different denomination every block or so. They were like gas stations or banks, if you tripped you could run into one.

"Have you not looked or are there no churches in Quarantine? The locals must believe in something."

She took a seat next to him. In truth, she was rather glad of the relaxed formality within this world: she understood and respected propriety as much as the next person, but it was good to know a woman could sit and talk with a man and no one would think much of it.

"I am well. It is odd, being able to actually earn a respectable living, but I do enjoy it." For certain, the shifts she had could get boring, but she often reminded herself that boring meant safe. "What of yourself? Have they given you employment or did you search on your own?"

Athelstan raised a brow. Ronan reminds him a bit of Ivar, which with Athelstan is actually a good and sometimes strangely endearing thing. He shakes his head. Greetings aren't so particularly important.

"Martin Luther? I have not come across him yet. Who is he?" There are so many different versions and figures he wonders if it is possible to catch up.

Athelstan studies her expression curiously and is a bit intrigued. He had found that most people here did not seem all that concerned with religion if they believed in anything at all they did not seem to go to a building, at least as far as he knew. But he did not know all that many people.

"I must admit that I have not searched very hard. I have become used to not having access to one before."

Athelstan had long since stopped thinking about whether things were proper or not due to gender. His time around Lagertha had been most insightful and he had stopped thinking about what might or might not be right for a woman to do.

"I work at the farm, as they recommended, and also a bit on my own. It is not much different from what I have known back home. What is it that you do?"

"Only the guy who gave the Pope the middle finger and broke away from the Church... then other churches broke away from him and then-- you get the idea." Ronan started to gesture, but he didn't use his free hand, so instead he ended up waving his book around.

"Protestant Reformation," he concluded, pointing his book at Athelstan. "Put it on your reading list."

"Perimeter guard," She answered, pleased, but more grave on the matter. She never expected that sort of duty to be glamorous, of course, but it was still a matter of duty she took seriously. "Sort of like what I did back home, but that is less about patrolling and more whenever anyone took a journey to some place."

The last part she said with a slight smirk, but not entirely mirthful. Anyone who went out back home needed a weapon or some sort of guard; to go without was almost asking for an attack.

"What sort do you do on your own?"

Willa figured that she should have expected this. Those who are faithfully religious are often blind to the world around them. She found it interesting that he hadn't even sought out his own religion. Willa hadn't either but then, her views were very particular and if there was part of the gypsy family here, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"I guess I'll have to keep looking." She was a little sad that he didn't know anything.

Athelstan looked surprised and then he smiled. He supposes it had only been a matter of time before things had changed in such a way and perhaps that did explain all the different versions of the Bible.

"It was probably a good thing that someone did such a thing. I will make sure to look into this 'Protestant Reformation.'"

[ The proper thing would have been to somehow inform Athelstan of her visit prior to her sudden arrival -- and run-in with slightly unfriendly goats -- but Blue had, as the saying goes, been in the neighborhood and thought it easier to just drop in.

(Granted, Blue's version of being 'in the neighborhood' required quite a bit more travel than most, but these were all minor and unimportant details. There was no distance too far in the name of chicken nuggets.) ]

Oh. Hi. [ She gives a somewhat awkward wave of her hand, quickly looking down at the newly made holes in her dress -- which she'd later call fashionably distressed. ] Thanks, I think they like me a little too much.

"Yeah, you can say that. You've never met a fundamentalist. Crazy assholes." He shook his head in disgust. There were some things about Henrietta he didn't miss.

He went to find a place to sit. "So, you learn anything interesting in your private Bible Study?"

Athelstan looks a bit confused about the other's comment. "What do you mean?" he questions, fundamentalists and crazy assholes and all that.

He studies Ronan as they settle and then he glances down at the book he's reading now. "I'm still processing the Bible having been translated into English and many other languages," he admits. He had never thought that there was a good reason for it not being done but then again his work as a transcriber and illuminator might or might not have been important had it been. It's hard to say looking back and it's been many years over since he had been working in the monastery now.

Athelstan nodded slightly. He knows quite a few Perimeter guards. He thinks it is fine work, but he wouldn't find himself suited well for it. He's much more comfortable with the farm work and the time he spends doing art. He doesn't know much about what Elizabeth is referring to in her home but it doesn't seem an odd thing that protections are needed for travelers and the like.

"We have a small farm as well and I do spend a good deal of time drawing and the like. It is not really work... at least here it is not."

"I have become accustomed to living a very solitary faith," Athelstan says with a small smile. "I am sure there is something here for those who want it. This place appears to have nearly everything if one goes searching."

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( A. Park )

( B. Library )

( C. Wildcard )

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