Library, Thursday

[genesishero]

Evan really wasn't certain what to make of the library, today. He'd walked in, and, thinking that maybe he was going to actually get work done, had been met with a stack of cookbooks on the desk to be shelved. And so, naturally, he'd shelved them! Only to come back to his desk to find that there were more, all opened to pages about homemade candies. He did the requisite glance around to be certain there wasn't somebody looking for photocopies or something, and then looked down at the book, eyebrow raised, and set about shelving them all over again.

And again.

And again.

By around noon, he had given up and was looking through the recipes. There was one for salt water taffy that had caught his interest, mostly because it was the one candy in the book that he had a distinct, stretchy-limbed advantage with while making it.

[Open!]

Comments

Re: Talk to Evan

[genesishero]

His face made it more difficult in ways that she couldn't even imagine. There was no escaping for trouble. Powers or no, he looked like who he looked like and that was something that he couldn't change, no matter how good he was at changing the shape of his arms.

"I don't know if you've gotten a good look at me," Evan said, his voice still soft and he didn't dare look up, now, "but I'm not exactly the kind of mutant who can hide, unless I move down into the sewers or something. I'm not ashamed of what I am, Karina. I don't have any reason to be. I'm just not like you. That's all."

She was right about one thing, though. The world was cold. So, so much colder than anything he'd ever known back home in Kansas.

He wanted to go home.

Re: Talk to Evan

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I’m not like you," Karina said, her voice brittle and cold at the same time. Like a thin layer of ice. That was the only hint of her powers and even that, only she knew it was a tell. She’d always had good control over her powers so her temper didn’t touch them much. That kept her safer. She had to get out of here. "At all."

She wasn’t a freak, she wasn’t. (Except she was.)

"I didn’t come here to start a fight," she said, still in that chilly voice. "But I think you’re making a mistake. A big one."

There was a difference between hiding from shame and hiding because it was dangerous. It was dangerous. Didn’t he get that?

Re: Talk to Evan

[genesishero]

Evan got that. He understood it as that boy who had gone to school with people whose families had thrown them away for being different. He understood it was that kid whose classmates had bullied him until he couldn't take it anymore, until he had to run to a new school because he wasn't even like those people that he was supposed to be accepted among.

He was still refusing to look up. He watched her feet as she stepped back, hesitated, and then moved even farther from him still. And he listened as she spoke, eyes still glued on the floor, hands frozen in place on the newspapers.

"I'm just here to do my job," he said softly, his heart beating in his ears like thunder. "Do you want these papers, or would you rather come back another day?"

Re: Talk to Evan

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

"I... I'd better come back some other time," she said quietly, a horrible, uncomfortable mish-mash of fear, anger and, yes, shame.

But she couldn't bring herself to say sorry.

Karina hesitated for a long moment, half-turned away before saying, "I don’t care if you do weird things around me. But it’s dangerous and that... don’t do that."

It was stupid to practically invite people to hurt him by using his powers. Karina could only think of what happened to many NEXTs back home who were that careless.

They usually paid for it.

People would hurt him.

How could she say sorry for telling him so? For warning him?

She couldn't. But it meant that she'd hurt him too and she'd have to live with that.

Re: Talk to Evan

[genesishero]

"There's nothing I can do that isn't dangerous for someone like me, Karina." He was pulling himself to his feet again, finally, but he couldn't quite look up even then. "But I appreciate that you don't want anybody to get hurt. It's... a nice thought."

He nodded down at the newspapers.

"Any other day of the week should be okay for you to visit to check these out," he added, soldiering determinedly on. "I think I'm about as weird as the library staff gets at a glance, so you won't have any more troubles on days that aren't Thursday."

Re: Talk to Evan

[notacokeperson.livejournal.com]

She hesitated and thought about pointing out that it wasn't his weirdness that was the problem but the lack of care that he acted with.

But that would just make things worse and, truthfully, Karina just wanted to get out of the library more than anything else.

"Fine," she said softly. "That's clear enough."

For both of them.

Re: Talk to Evan

[genesishero]

"Great," Evan muttered, taking a few steps back himself, and then starting off toward the desk. "I suppose it is."

He thought he'd been homesick over Christmas. Apparently that was nothing compared to being yelled at for being... well... comfortable with what he was.