xavier_institute_logs | don't forget to source properly [open]

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alex rider: alex rider

don't forget to source properly [open]

WHO: Alex Rider & OPEN
WHAT: Studying... or trying to
WHERE: Library
WHEN: Thursday afternoon
WARNING(S): n/a

Hunched over a table tucked in a back corner of the library, Alex tapped the tip of his pencil against the paper in front of him. Several books were spread around him, open and marked with Post-Its covered in notes. He'd been trying to be a good student and get a head-start on his final paper for his history class, but actually getting started was always the hardest part.

Slowly letting out a breath, Alex started scribbling down an outline. He probably wouldn't actually finish the paper until the night before it was due, but he was going to make an honest effort.

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Krista isn't particularly interested in studying. Not particularly disinterested, but she has no real drive towards academic success, no great love for learning for its own sake.

But if there was one element of her life here that was familiar to her, it was studying. Mutant powers, making friends, that was all new and confusing territory, but books had always been a refuge from other people, so she rather welcomed the opportunity to study when she wasn't sure what else to do. The threat of final's week, in a bizarre way, was reassuring to her in that it was something she knew how to handle.

She was wandering through the library with a list of Dewey decimal numbers and abbreviated titles in hand, when she ended up in an aisle near Alex's table. She looked around, then up... and up, and up.

Oh. There it was. Now, how was she supposed to get to it?

There didn't seem to be any ladders or stools, and Krista... Well, she was about 4'9". It wasn't even that high up, not for someone taller... Why couldn't she have been one of those psychics with telekinesis? That would come in awful handy.

She looked around again, spotting the young man at a desk. Better to ask him than to try and climb the bookshelf, she supposed.

"...Excuse me?"

Alex was working on expanding his outline when he sensed someone drawing closer. Not heading toward him specifically, just moving in his general direction. He kept his head bowed over his papers as he checked the probability of of his being disturbed. Gradually, it increased, though at least it didn't seem like it would be a serious disturbance.

At the girl's voice, Alex looked up then pointed at himself, as if making sure she meant him. Even though he knew very well that she did.

Who else, she wondered, did he think she could be talking to?

"I'm really sorry to bother you. I was just... um... You don't think you could help me reach something, do you?"

Alex's eyes went from the piece of paper in her hand to the tall shelves all around them. Even he would need a ladder if he wanted to get to the top shelf.

"Sure," he said, pushing back his chair. "Which one are you trying to get?"

Krista glanced at her paper again, as she led him over towards the shelf. She pointed up to the second-highest one, to a thick blue volume near the middle of the shelf, then showed the paper to him to confirm the number.

"That one. The East India Company: Trade and Conquest. It isn't too much trouble, is it?"

It seemed like a bit of trouble, honestly, so the puppy eyes couldn't hurt.

The puppy eyes weren't really necessary, but had Alex been unwilling to help, they might have worked.

"Trouble? No, no trouble at all."

After all, he had a full foot on her in height.

"British Empire module, huh?"

Reaching up, Alex pulled the book from the shelf. Though he had to extend his arm completely, he didn't have to raise up on his toes to reach the book. Turning, he held the book out to her.

"Here you go."

Krista looked up at him, her smile small and grateful.

"19th century colonialism, but there's a lot of overlap, I'd guess.

"Thank you so much, um...?" She paused, as if waiting for his name.

"Alex. Alex Rider."

He smiles down at her. Not cocky, or trying to impress, just friendly-like.

"So what class is this for? World History?"

"Krista Lenz." Her name comes much more easily to her now than it did when she first transferred in at the beginning of the semester -- she's gotten used to using it.

Smiling back up at him, she nods.

"Yes, that's right. What are you studying for?"

Tiamaris slunk into the library, looking for a book and... it looked for all the world like the expressionless young man was holding his breath. His eyes were a dull orange was he walked past the tables, his foot falls loud and echoing through the library.

He just wanted to find a new fiction book he hadn't read yet and get out of there.... before something went wrong.

Alex felt it the moment Tiamaris stepped into the library. It was like someone reached over and swatted the back of his head, except it was a psychic sensation rather than a physical one. A very flux happy individual, though just what the probabilities were sliding between, he couldn't tell just yet. Either way, there was no way he could concentrate with the way the probabilities were rippling.

Figuring the loud footsteps had started about the same time Alex had felt swatted, he pushed back his chair and went in search of the source.

Still trying not to breathe, Tiamris walked the shelves, looking at the books. His face was an expressionless mask, seeming to have no emotion, but the dull orange of his eyes paled closer to gold as he reached for a book to examine it closely.

He just wanted to find a book to read and go. He wasn't particularly angry at the moment, but he still did not trust himself, did not trust that anger was the only trigger that might make his breath turn to flame, and of all the things he's burned in his life...

...it would break his heart to burn books. He loved them for being an escape, for being his last and only connection to his mother, and... for being the one thing that had always been there for him.

He read the back of the book, trying to figure out if this was what he wanted to check out, because as dangerous as it was to stand here, having to come back would be worse. Right?

Rounding a corner of some shelves, Alex finally found the sources of the ripples. What it was exactly about this guy that was causing the huge fluctuations, he couldn't tell. Leaning against the shelf casually, he studied the guy for a moment before speaking.

"Looking for something in particular?"

He hesitated, then looked away from the books and the other person taking a small cautious breath. Then he turned to the unknown man. "A new book or two to read," he said quietly, his eyes a dark dull orange.

He knew that just talking to someone else wasn't a guarantee that he would loose his temper, that things would go badly, but he still felt nervous. He didn't want to do anything, ever, to hurt the books in here...

"What sort do you like?" Normally, Alex wouldn't bother with something like picking a book, but his instincts were telling him that something was going to happen here unless he acted carefully. He could try to push his precog, but without knowing what he was even getting into, that could end up being a waste of both time and effort. "Mystery, sci-fi, classics?"

She shrugged a bit, the non-expression never changing. "Anything I haven't read yet usually."

He hesitated then "stories about friends, recently."

How else was he supposed to learn how to keep up with the things that kept happening between him and Alric? He... didn't want things to go badly again. He... was tired of loosing control, of turning into... that.

His eyes deepened from a dull orange to a color that was almost a dull red.

Alex didn't miss the shift in eye color. Interesting.

"It's a little difficult to make suggestions without knowing what you have read, but... off the top of my head, The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman."

He turned to the shelf to look for those three. It did not occur to him that this was a place where one would say thank you, or that Alex might have it in mind to talk some more. He found the first and pulled it down, then began to hunt for the second, walking away to trail down the aisle, hunting, carefully trying not to breathe on the books.

Usually, that should be the end of the conversation. Except Alex had the feeling he couldn't leave this guy alone just yet. Reaching into his pocket, he dug out his phone and started flipping through the apps.

"By the way, there's this site that can give you book recommendations based on what you've already read. If you have a smartphone, they have an app."

It wasn't that Alex was a big reader. Between schoolwork and everything else, he only managed maybe a book a month. But Liz liked using the app, so he had it too so he could see what books she was currently chewing through.

"I.... do not fully understand how to use the phone they gave me," he admitted, carefully holding the books to one side, and aiming his head down as he breathed, as he spoke.

He didn't quite want to admit that he had half melted the phone and it only worked a little now.

"Ah, first smartphone? Well, there's always the website. Here, it's called 'Goodreads.'"

He holds out his phone so the screen can be seen.

"See? Those are all recommendations based on books I've already read. It doesn't mean I'll necessarily like them, but it's an easy place to start."

"First phone..." he admitted, looking at the screen, holding his breath carefully. "And" he realized he should have leaned away, so he did so, careful to breathe on anything but himself, "And the library has all of these books?"

Alex could not make sense of this guy. His breathing was all wrong, as if he kept holding his breath, and the way he'd keep tilting his head away from things...

"Probably not all of them. You'd have to cross-reference with the library catalog, but at least you wouldn't have to aimlessly browse for new things."

He hesitated, nodded, looked down to his chest to breathe, then looked up again. "I will remember the names, and look them up next time, you have my gratitude," he said carefully.

"Don't mention it."

Alex turns to go, then stops and turns back.

"Are you all right? You should go to the infirmary if you're having trouble breathing."

A hint of red flashed into his eyes. I'm not sick," he said a bit too sharply.

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don't forget to source properly [open]

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I'm so sorry, I fell out of my tagging zone for... like a week and a half...

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As easy going as Greg is, meet someone on the other end of the spectrum.

oooooo fun~

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