Xenonight2

((Rejected, jabor. The OP clearly states to PM me first. If you can't even be bothered to read the OP closely, I don't think you'd be very good in this RP.))

__________________

Alexdude1255

Xenonight2

Hedge looked up from his book at the short young man before him. He was skinny, and had an almost childish glint in his eyes. Hedge's eyes trailed up and down the man's body, sizing him up a second time for good measure. His hair was a dark brown, probably dyed to prevent a glare from light. The skinny man's shoes were soft, and the colors he wore plain, besides the black cloak which covered most of his body. The man was grinning at him.

"The going is good," answered Hedge mechanically. "Are you the man Gordon sent? What's your name?" He didn't need to say his name.

Hedge already knew he was, but decided to ask anyway. The skinny man reminded him of when Hedge was a boy, making his living in the streets of Jarr as an orphan and thief. Hedge folded his book and put it back into the shelf.

__________________

Alexdude1255

Alexander nodded, but it kind of gave him a chill when Hedge "checked" him out.

"Yeah, I am the one Gordon sent," Alexander replied, "I was given information by an informant here a while ago.. you needed someone that knows connections and can do a lot of scouting? If thats the case.. I'm your man. Thing is.. what exactly am I getting out of this?"

Xenonight2

Hedge nodded. "Yes, we need someone with expertise in..." He paused, weighing different words, "Stealth. Scouting, connections are part of that, but we need someone also skilled in hiding and sneaking, and connections as well. Your coming from the attic instead of the front door shows this well." Hedge glanced to the stairs, looked back to Alexander, "However, the rewards in this, um, endeavor won't be very large. I have enough funds, secured from a reliable source, to feed us and clothe us rather well, and any miscellaneous funds, but most of it will be spent on plane travel." He watched Alexander raise his eyebrow. Plane travel was very uncommon, and supposedly dangerous. No one did it without great cause. "Ah, yes, plane travel. We'll be doing a lot of it. Now, I won't be able to say exactly what we're planning to do at this moment since I don't trust you. Rest assured, Alexander, that this cause is very noble, and your name will live forever in history." Hedge smiled pleasantly. "I'm Jakalin ((pronounced Yahk-ah-len)) Maccabeus, but you can call me Hedge."

Hedge wasn't joking about the history part; in fact, he was dead serious. He hoped that his seriousness wouldn't scare off such a mischievous young man. Hedge tried to change his posture so he wouldn't over-power Alexander with his greater height, but he knew that Alexander had much confidence. He didn't want to convince him with force of personality.

__________________

Alexdude1255

Alexander raised an eyebrow, this seemed to be no mere task. He pondered if he should really consider joining in this endeavor. Not only that, "Plane" travel seems kind of risky. But then again... maybe Alexander can find out about his parents.

Alexander said "Alright, I'm in... but hopefully I can find 'some' treasure in this adventure."

Xenonight2

Hedge smiled. "Oh yes, you'll fine treasure. Most of it, however, we will actually use beyond selling." Said Hedge cryptically, "In fact, that's why we're here right now." Hedge looked around, and flagged down a librarian.

The librarian wore a dusty and wrinkled coat, with messy hair and dirty pants, but his spectacles were surprisingly clean. "May I help?" Said the librarian, exchanging hands holding the books under his arm so he could push his spectacles back.

"Ah, yes," Hedge undid a button in his coat and reached inside. He fumbled around a bit and pulled out a piece of paper. "The History of the Arbitrarium," said Hedge, saying it slowly as he read the paper. He folded it and placed it back into his pocket, and said while re-buttoning his coat, "Do you have it?"

The librarian frowned, and said, "May I see the paper?" Hedge apologized, and quickly unbuttoned his coat again and got the paper and handed it to him. The librarian studied it for a full minute and said, "Wait here a second, please, I'll need to show this to the Loremaster." The librarian walked off quickly and quietly, his steps portraying a mixture of urgency and nervousness.

Hedge smiled, and turned back to Alexander. "So, Gordon tells me that you grew up on the streets. I find this interesting because I did as well, but I was eventually adopted by a priest. Living on the streets is very hard. What unfortunate circumstance required you to become, a... Ah... Urchin?"

__________________

Alexdude1255

Jabor_

I'm not taking it personally, but:
Also, nowhere in the OP does it say to PM you anything.

If you don't like my character, or just plain don't want me in this RP for you own reasons, then fine. I can accept that, and if you just don't want me, then I'll leave it. What I can't accept is you just randomly making up reasons to kick me out.

__________________

Xenonight2

"I see," said Hedge, nodding as Alexander told about himself. "I used to live on Jarr. Are you aware of this Plane? It's a pretty place. Well, I lived on the streets there as an orphan, and when I was nine years old a kindly priest took me in. He taught me theology and philosophy, and how to think and act. He was my father, no pun intended." Hedge smiled again. "Well, when I was fourteen, I was chosen by the Church of Audux to become a Paladin. Yes, a Paladin! You wouldn't think me to be a Paladin, would you? Marching across the Planes, in dazzling golden armor, waging war against evil... Well, I didn't like it. I didn't want to fight for the Church. I loved the Church, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to fight for something entirely- Ah!" The Librarian returned.

"Follow me, and quietly please." The Librarian said in hushed tones. Hedge nodded, and motioned Alexander to follow. They walked through the Library, and the Librarian grabbed a torch on his way. He came to a locked door near the back of the great hall, and kept on trying different keys on his large keychain. Finally, he found the right one and opened the door. A musty draft blew from the door, and the Librarian stuck the torch through. Stairs leading downwards became illuminated, spiralling downwards into the depths, and Hedge could see cobwebs. He shivered.

"This way, please," whispered the Librarian, "it's only a little ways." He was right, Hedge only walked down the stairs for a little bit until they came upon a door, which was already open. They walked through the doorway into a very large and dark room, with a few librarians walking with candles among huge mounds of books, hundreds of volumes high. The Librarian put doused his torch in a bucket of water, and produced a candle and lit it on one of the dim candelbras which lined the room's walls.

"Too much light can damage some of the more delicate scripts," the Librarian explained. He motioned them to follow him again, and led them through the mountains of books to a small table, which a large leather book with "ARBITRARIUM HISTORIUM" written on the front. The Librarian set the candle down next to the book, and left them.

Hedge checked the book, first its cover, then its back, and finally its binder before opening it. A plume of dust came out, and Hedge sneezed. He could feel the glare of one of the librarians on his back. Hedge cleared his throat, and began searching through the book. Hedge was fluent in a dozen languages, one of them being Ancienti, which this book was written in. Thousands of years ago, all of the civilizations of the planes spoke and wrote in Ancienti, although few manuscripts written in the language survived. Hedge was pleased to see that this was a real edition, and not a copied one. The History of the Arbitrarium was a rare book, and much sought after by scholars. Libraries usually kept their copies secret and safe due to their delicacy. They couldn't allow every random scholar with an interest in theology see it, so they only gave it to the few they allowed. It took a few bribes with the Loremaster, but Hedge was able to finally get it.

"Do you know much about theology, Alexander?" Hedge whispered, then added a moment before Alex could reply, "It doesn't matter, I'm going to tell you anyway. This book describes with amazing accuracy how the original gods, the Arbitrators, came about and how Man was created. It's an extremely interesting read if you're unknowledged, but only that. It takes a literate and learned mind to read it with any fruitation, because you need to sort the fact from mere fiction." Hedge explained quietly, as he skimmed through the pages gently. "I've read this book before. Three times, in fact. Once for when I was in the Church school, another when becoming a Paladin, and a third for enlightenment and pleasure. However, the original version, and the copied versions, are different in sizes. The scholars left some things out of the new versions to save room. When it was first copied, paper and ink were a commodity, and they couldn't copy the whole thing. Nowadays, though, where paper and ink are common, the parts left out haven't been added in since they just copy from the new versions. It's a true shame, but it doesn't matter right now.
"The book is full of beautiful poetry, and you really need to read it some time if you haven't, but I'll paraphrase it for brevity's sake. In the beginning, which can't really be considered a beginning since time hadn't yet been created, there was a single entity in the universe. In fact, he WAS the universe, since matter hadn't been created, and neither had the dimensions. His name was Aeternus, and he simple was. Well, Aeternus did not like being alone, so he split himself in two. This was how the universe became, because instead of a single entity, there were two, and now the universe had dimensions and matter, and so forth. Anyway, these two gods were equally powerful, but they both had different traits of Aeternus. Some traits they shared, though. Tormentus, the Bitch Queen, was the feminine side of Aeternus, as well as the hateful, vindictive, betraying, and general all round nasty part of the First God. At least, by our standard. The other was Audux, the masculine, and righteous, optimistic, loyal, pious, and all around good guy by our standards. The two hated each other at first look, and fought many wars with each other. Their power was immense, but eventually they grew tired. Time still hadn't been created yet, since these beings were timeless. Well, they decided, rather arbitrarily, that they should use their powers to create more beings. This is where they got their name, because not only are they the arbiters of the laws of the universe, but they're also rather... Arbitrary in their way of deciding to do things.
"Well, then Man was created. The Human Man, to be exact. However, the Arbitrarium did not want to give up their immortality to create us, so we became mortal. Mortals require time to exist, so as an effect of our creation, Time was made. Time is currently very debated by philosophers, and I can't really explain it. We think that time passes, but it's really us that pass through time. It's irrelavent right now, though, all we need to know that whatever Time is, Time is. Well, man had both aspects of Tormentus and Audux. We were both good and bad at the same time. However, unlike the Arbitrarium who did not think about morality, but rather about how different they were from each other, we decided that the Tormentus side was bad, and the Audux side was good. We promoted the Audux side because it benefited each other, and although living on the streets that this must not happen often, but being helped by another person is a truly wonderful thing. The Tormentus side, however much it benefits us, only hurts others, and so people condemn people who commit Tormentian things, because they're the one hurt. Understand? Well, the History of the Arbitrarium explains the creation of Gods, Man, the Universe, and the Planes. It does not explain magic, which came much later. Oh, I wish Samuel were here, he could explain magic very well. Well, one of the parts mentions something called 'the Anarch.' It's supposed to be part of a device that somehow sums up the whole universe. Intrigued, are you? Aha! Here it is!"

((Hmm, you're right, it doesn't. Sorry, my mistake, either I forgot to add it in and thought I did, or I got confused and originally omitted it for a reason and then promptly forgot about it. Either way, I don't like your attitude about it, and still won't be accepting you. I still apologize, though. My bad, really. However, you're still going to have to accept it, because this is my RP, and I'm the host, and I can pretty much do what I want with it. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but your attitude is something I don't like. I probably am coming off as a jerk to you, but whatev.))

__________________