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Magus of the Library; [Trent, closed]
Topic Started: Jan 24 2016, 10:01 PM (606 Views)
Supnitle
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Monika Apologist

With Suki at work for the day, Haru found themselves without anyone to follow or anything to do for a day. Their mother, like usual, was also at a job, leaving Haru the only one in the family not doing anything productive. They sighed, adjusting their bag strap and looking ahead to the building in front of them. On slow days like these, Haru always went to the library; there usually wasn't anyone who wanted to bother them, and as a regular for most of their life, Haru felt comfortable being there without Suki. Humming a short tune to snap themselves out of the mood they had placed themselves in, Haru stepped through the doors of the library, glancing around once they got inside. A few of the employees, recognizing Haru, smiled and waved silently, a gesture that Haru quickly returned.

Someone else caught their attention: a black-haired older-looking boy standing behind the desk with an icy demeanor and what looked like bags under his eyes. Haru knew most of the names of the library's employees, but this one had only started working there recently. Haru had thought about saying hello a few times, always wanting to be polite, but he never looked like he was in the mood to be spoken too. Today didn't seem any different. Haru's smile wavered as they walked past Trent, a little bit intimidated. Wah, scary.

Haru perused the aisles for a few minutes, picking out an old-looking text from one of the back shelves. It was a collection of poems, and one of Haru's favorites. They'd checked it out many times and read it repeatedly, savoring all the clever ways the authors made the words dance along the pages each time. Situating themselves at an empty table, Haru opened the book and... had the cover promptly fall off. Haru blinked, then tried to close the book, but the cover still wasn't attached.

Their eyes shot wide open and they immediately started scrambling to somehow stick the cover back onto the book's broken spine. "Oh no, oh no," Haru whispered to themselves, color starting to drain from their face. They looked around rapidly, praying that no one had seen them with the broken book.
Edited by Supnitle, Jan 25 2016, 07:26 PM.
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theredarcana
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Work went by as usual for Trent Proctor as customers entered the library and left them, some of them greeting him, some others not even regarding him with a glance as they went about their business. Although the job was pleasantly quiet, he was paid and people hardly disturbed him, it was still fairly boring and it left him alone with his own thoughts startlingly often.

While he was tending his spot near the entrance of the library, he had some time to ponder several things, mainly stuff that was changing in his life. Nobody ever noticed how lost he seemed to be within his own mind because he always looked distant and dead inside, which was something that people seemed to be aware of, as some customers actively attempted to avoid him. It wasn't like it was something he could avoid (he totally could), nor was it something he particularly cared about.

However, there was one thing that always managed to take him out of his thoughts every time - a person that greeted him every time they entered the store, someone with brownish-red short hair and a rather slender figure, who just happened to be infectiously happy, something that had no effect on him. Trent, however, was somewhat mystified by this person, since they looked far too androgynous for him to actually think of them as a male or a female...

Whatever. It's none of my business. After the usual greeting, Trent just returned to his idle state, awaiting a customer to just walk up to him and begin asking him questions about different things or something to fill in the void of his mind...

When he heard a small thud. He was taken out of his thoughts as he looked to the side, and he saw the same extremely happy, short-haired person now freaking out about something having happened to a book. Slowly, Trent walked over - menacing, empty stare on his face as always - intending to see what it is that had just happened... as he realized the book this client had been manipulating was a poetry book whose cover had fallen off recently. I knew I should have told my boss to just have it fixed before someone found out...

"...hey," the pale young man spoke, his already low and husky voice accentuated by the silence permeating the library. "...that book was already damaged. You didn't do nothing, so stop fr--...um, don't worry too much about it."
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Supnitle
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Monika Apologist

Ohgodno, that scary-looking employee from the front desk was walking over, and man, he did not look happy. Haru froze up, slowly shrinking down into their seat as they saw Trent heading towards them, mind racing to think of an explanation. The book was just really fragile? Someone came over and broke it? Maybe it was a recent art trend to have books with busted covers? Haru bit their lip - no, it was better to just be honest and explain the truth. As Trent walked over, Haru stood, looked up at him (wow he was tall, and was he a foreigner or something?) and immediately started babbling, "I, um, well, I got the book and I tried to open it but I don't know if I broke the cover or if it was already broken and I really didn't mean it, I'm really sorry if I damaged it, I'll - oh."

Haru blinked. Apparently it had already been damaged. They let out a huge sigh of relief before catching themselves, remembering where they were and slapping a palm over their mouth. Quiet! Haru let out a slightly smaller, softer sigh of relief, and then looked up at Trent with a sheepish grin. "Oh, gosh. Thanks, I was really worried I'd messed it up." Haru started looking down, staring at their own feet. They brought a hand up to their mouth, and said, "Honestly, money's tight this month and I was really worried we'd have to pay for repairs or something, or... oh, I'm sorry, what am I saying?"

The tinge of color on their cheeks grew as Haru spoke. "You don't need to hear this. I'm really sorry for the trouble, um... sorry, what's your name?"
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theredarcana
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For a moment, Trent blankly looked around as Haru let out that large sigh. He didn't really care about the noise, but maybe another customer did, and it could get ugly fast... Luckily they caught themselves before it could be completed.

And then they sorta just began telling several things about their life as though they'd known Trent for a while now. Or maybe she... he... they just happen to be like this with everyone. The exact opposite of me.

This is gonna be fun.


Inwardly, the pale boy sighed. He was well aware of the fact that socially awkward people were somewhat difficult to deal with - he'd lived with himself his entire life, after all. "...Trent Proctor." He paused for a bit. "...so, what's your name?"
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Supnitle
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He didn't run away! Or yell at them or anything! Haru felt an irrepressible smile emerging on their face, sheepish expression melting away for a genuinely happy one. They'd introduced themselves to each other! That meant they could be friends now, right? Haru paused - wait, they hadn't actually introduced themselves yet. Right, that was probably important. Still smiling gleefully, Haru extended their hand and said, "I'm Haru Amachi. It's really nice to meet you, Puh... puh-rock-tah-san." They said Trent's name slowly, still trying to sound it out.

They looked up at the older boy. "D-did I say that right? That's not a Japanese name, huh? Where're you from?" They tilted their head curiously. "I see you a lot here at the library, recently, but I haven't actually talked to you yet." The broken book laid on the table, practically forgotten. In Haru's mind, getting to know a new pal was much more important than studying up on poems they'd already read a thousand times.
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theredarcana
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For a few moments, Trent hesitated taking Haru's hand but then concluded that refusing a handshake in a public place wouldn't do him any good. Slowly, he took their hand and shook it slightly. Haru would very possibly notice that Trent's hands were cold to the touch, almost to an unnatural degree.

Then, Haru horribly maimed his name. He had to admit that he was impressed, since it was the first time someone mispronounced it so badly. "From outside. A place that isn't Japan." His answer couldn't have been more blunt or vague.

The pale young man took the book, put its cover into place and put it inside a shelf to hold it together. "...so, do you just speak to random people you see or...?"
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Supnitle
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Haru was torn between snatching their hand away from Trent's freezing-cold fingers or cupping their other hand over Trent's, since he must have been very cold, somehow. Figuring the former was rude and the latter was creepy, Haru opted for just naturally retreating from the handshake, shaking their arm slightly and not saying anything about the cold. Trent didn't seem to note it, after all.

He didn't seem to note much of anything, actually, as he gave an incredibly vague answer to Haru's question. There was a pause before Haru nodded knowingly, replying, "I see, I see." They didn't inquire further - if he didn't want to talk about it, that was fine with Haru. What wasn't fine was Trent's response; the boy didn't seem to be very into this conversation. Haru nodded. "Eheh, yeah, sometimes. I like making friends, but, uh..."

They bit their lip, fingers fidgeting. "Feel free to not humor me; I mean, you must be busy with work and stuff..."
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theredarcana
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The pale young man did, in fact, notice how the cold in his hands seemed to have some manner of effect on Haru, but he merely decided not to say anything about it. After all, it was something that he was somewhat used to, and it wasn't like bringing it up in the conversation would be beneficial to either of them.

Merely a few seconds later, the short-haired person somehow seemed to sense Trent's intentions and offered to let him shy away from the conversation. Wow. He had to be honest - it was the first time something like that happened to him, someone simply letting him go away to go back to his own business. It was a rather enticing offer, but... but nothing, there's actually no reason for me to keep speaking to--but that would be incredibly rude and it would end this thread prematurely so Trent chose to stay, dammit.

"...well, it's not like someone's actually gonna notice I'm missing over at the counter. My boss hardly comes around and clients generally just mind their own business, so I guess I can just stay here and speak with you." As much as he tried, he couldn't come up with a possible conversation topic. "...so, do you come here often?" That was a horribly stupid question - of course they came here often, Trent saw them every time. "Erm... what books do you like to read?"
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Supnitle
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Monika Apologist

Haru's face lit up as Trent decided to stick around and have a chat. He didn't seem super into the idea, but was agreeing to talk to Haru anyway, so they figured they didn't have any complaints. Maybe they could even be friends; Trent reminded Haru of Suki when she was talking to people who weren't Haru, all cold and quiet. People like that generally needed more buddies.

Trent's question didn't register as stupid at all to Haru, and they quickly nodded and replied, "Yeah, I come here all the time. You're here a lot too, actually, although I guess that makes more sense since you work here?" On the subject of books, Haru paused and brought a hand up to their chin, thinking. "Uhm... I like to read a lot of books, but I'm really into poetry. I've been reading up on Akiko Yosano recently, and her work is super fascinating for the time period. Have you heard of her?" They asked. They weren't fully expecting Trent to have heard of Akiko, though - she was a semi-obscure japanese poet and he seemed to be a foreigner, so it seemed unlikely.
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theredarcana
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legal now binches | i like dudes | <thinking emoji> | <eggplant emoji> | inappropriate most of the time | dogs are blessed
Although he had met a fair share of people ever since he'd begun living in Nagashima, none of them had been quite as friendly as Haru was. It was actually quite remarkable.

"...yeah, I need to come to get money and survive." A laconic and blunt response, fitting for a laconic and blunt person. Once haru began to talk about the books they liked, Trent began thinking. "...I'm sure we have a Yosano here. I've only sorta overheard other people talking about her, but I know she did some rather controversial things in her writings... Sorry, I don't actually read things like poetry, so I don't know anything else about her." Trent looked around for a bit. "I think we have Midaregami here. Uh, are you interested in it?"
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