fandomhigh | Library, Thursday All Day

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Library, Thursday All Day

The library was pretty tidy, and there was actually not much to be done. And, with free time came Evan doing what he could to be productive all the same, pulling books off the shelves that spoke about some of the powers that his fellow students had displayed yesterday in the Junior Achievers club. It would do him some good, reading about how people went about training with those powers, to strengthen their control or to hone their skills. And while he was at it, he was going to pick up a pencil and paper and he was going to take notes.

He was halfway through the first book he'd picked up when he looked at the page of notes he'd taken, and he blinked at it. The page had rearranged itself in a weird font, not unreadable, but definitely more blocky than his usual handwriting and about half the size. It was... a bit of an adjustment, to say the least.

Evan shook his head, idly wondering just what kind of weirdness this was supposed to be, and then went back to taking his notes.

If nothing else, at least he could fit a bit more on one piece of pa--

-- Oh. No, the paper was expanding to allow for more notes without him actually having to turn the page manually. Maybe... Evan would just check the books out and try to take the notes in his room, later, where the library's daily weirdness would be likely to leave him be.

[Open!]

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"I did not even realize we had a pool," Yeul confessed. "Do most schools?"

"Probably not," Evan replied, shaking his head. "But yeah... there's one in the dorm building, I'm pretty sure. I've only heard mention of it, on the radio. I've never really taken the time to go down to check it out personally."

This possibly had something to do with how utterly ridiculous he looked in swim trunks.

Or how he'd really rather just stay in and read.

Both of which were excellent reasons!

Yeul gave that a bit of a shrug. "I was just surprised," she said, "though I am unsure why I would be. I suppose this island has most things from what I've gathered."

"I guess it would kind of have to, to be able to support a school and a whole town without much contact with the mainland. Especially since there are so many people here who... might stand out a bit if they were to cross the Causeway into this reality's version of Baltimore."

Such as... himself. A bit. Kind of.

Unless he tried to pass himself off as a mime.

Yeul tried to remember if anyone had told her how people might stand out on the mainland, she really did.

If anyone had mentioned it to her, however, she'd forgotten. "Is standing out a bad thing there?"

"I guess that depends on how similar the mainland is to my reality, in some ways," Evan replied, holding his hands up in a little shrug. "There are a lot of people where I'm from who don't really take too well to things that are different. Or... people that are different. Things that they don't really have a frame of reference for might frighten them."

"I suppose a lot of things might frighten people if their differences matter so much."

Yeul did not sound like she understood why those differences might matter.

And Evan noticed that, and couldn't help but smile a little.

"Fear of the unknown," he explained, a little more softly. "Or of something that might be stronger than them, that they couldn't hope to protect themselves from if it came to that. People can have a lot of different reasons for not liking what's different."

Yeul looked at her hands.

"I know that," she said, looking back up to try and meet his eyes with her steady, serene ones. "I am well aware of the many reasons why people might not like those who are different. But being aware of the reasons does not lead to understanding them and understanding that fear escapes me."

"Then... maybe that's for the best," Evan offered, a little more quietly. "If you don't understand that fear, it means you really don't have any reason, yourself, to be afraid. I mean... no reason to be scared of people who aren't the same as you, or something."

Edited 2012-09-21 00:49 (UTC)

Yeul felt like she was making him feel worse, since he got quieter every time, but she didn't know what to say to make it better.

"Evan," she said very gently, "I will never be afraid of you."

He was not overtly talking about himself but Yeul thought that was what, underneath it, drove his mood.

And even if she was wrong, perhaps it would do him good to hear it.

They had called him a monster, at his last school.

They'd mocked him when they thought he wasn't listening, and they had mocked him even more cruelly when they knew he could overhear.

She couldn't have been more right if he'd told her outright just what was bothering him about being different.

"... Promise?"

"No matter what happens, no matter what you do, I will not fear you," Yeul said it as solemnly as a vow. She looked very calm, very confident, leaning against the library desk.

Then she smiled reassuringly. "I promise."

Oh, Yeul. If Evan knew you any better than he did now, he'd be diving in for a hug.

As it stood, he looked half-tempted anyway.

"Thank you," he murmured, smiling back at her, looking relieved and thankful and about a million things in between. "I promise, I won't ever be something that anyone around here should ever be afraid of."

She'd be surprised but she would not mind. Yeul minded very few things really.

"All right." It was easy to approve of something like that. "Even if something does happen, however, my promise will not be broken. You have my word."

Her smile went slightly wry. "But I think both of us shall hope nothing happens."

Evan was very much wearing a smile to match.

"Definitely hoping nothing happens," he decided. "Everyone gets to be happy, that way."

She laughed. "For a little while at least."

Yeul glanced at his study materials. "Would you show me what the library was doing to your notes?"

Why not? She was curious.

"Hm?" Evan glanced down at his notes, and then offered her a wry smile, reaching for the elongated sheet of paper that he'd been writing on. "I haven't really decided if it's neat, or just weird. But it's just... when I start writing..."

He picked up his pencil and started to write, putting to paper some of the things he'd read about telekenesis over the past hour. And as he wrote, his letters shrank and shifted, until they were in a weirdly angular font. And the page itself stretched out to accommodate more, so that he wouldn't have to turn it over or grab a new one.

Yeul watched as the page stretched out. "Do you think it has limits?" she asked curiously. "What an odd thing for it to do. The lettering would be hard to read after a bit as well."

"Yeah, it's all... small and weird and blocky," Evan agreed, frowning down at it. "I have no idea how long the page itself is able to reach. I just kind of figured I'd memorize what I could, instead of taking a bunch of notes that it'll just hurt my eyes to read later, you know?"

"That does make sense," she agreed, giving the page another long look. "Is there much that you wish to memorize?"

"Well, Billy and I are running a club for people with powers who want to get better with them. So... I thought that maybe understanding as much as I can about the powers that people have let me see so far would be useful, you know?"

He tapped the page, which was already full of copious notes in that tiny, tiny font.

"So the more that I know, the better for everyone."

"If they want help, then this is an excellent idea," she said quietly. "I would imagine that at this age, many people are still learning their powers."

"Some are afraid to use them at all, yeah," Evan confirmed. "Which... I don't think is fair for them. If their powers are a part of who they are, of what they were meant to be, they shouldn't feel afraid of that."

"No, they shouldn't."

How many lifetimes had it taken her to learn that lesson? Yeul honestly couldn't remember.

"It is something that takes time to learn though. Especially if they discovered their powers under traumatic circumstances."

Library, Thursday All Day

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