Dusty Bookshelves and Whatnot (Lucia)

[russia]

Most people would have expected something of a loud sneeze from a tall, intimidating figure like Ivan. It's always amusing how people are almost surprised by a soft sneeze which wouldn't be surprising at all if anyone else had sneezed it besides himself.

He finds a tissue to wipe his nose with and proceeds to scan through the room which would be open had it not been for bookshelves full of... well books. (Not to say that they were all good books- things ranged from advanced textbooks and ancient classics to the hidden porn magazine.)

Ivan's rough hand glides through the books in the psychology section. He had a paper about the effect of computers on people's attention span due in a week (a fairly easy topic- everyone already knows that computers make you more ADD,) and he needed sources. He pulls out a book, but puts it back in because of the amount of dust that flew out into the air and caused him to sneeze again. Does anybody actually use the library for books anymore? Students nowadays usually just plagiarizes, hires nerds to be ghostwriters, or uses something like Sparknotes or Cliffnotes. Ivan's been tempted to go down one of these paths, but (somehow) stayed resilient with writing his papers fair and square (and making sure others pay if they try to cheat off him.)

He finally finds some books published recently enough to be used as "sources." Ivan's already written most of this paper- he already knows enough about this subject- but unfortunately couldn't write "my background knowledge" for the bibliography. He feels the scarf starting to slide down his coat slowly so he readjusts it before getting away from the old dusty bookshelf and starts to look through the fiction section. He's in the mood for some Gogol today; hopefully he'll be able to read a short story or two today if he has time.

[kitkat]

Lucia doesn't expect that she has to do any socializing in the library. It's her one solace in school grounds when she can't have the dorm to herself (she's trying to think of a way to build soundproof walls around her corner of the room without doing anything illegal.) Most of the students here are probably pretending to research or are forced to come here. Ugh, high school students nowadays. It's worse with the heroes, since they think they're all that when they aren't. Such arrogance makes Lucia want to squish their head to watch all that self-confidence get squeezed out of them. Unfortunately she doesn't have that power.

The library doesn't have that many books which are of her interest- most of the "classic" books they have are English classics, the majority barely two-hundred years old. This has allowed Lucia to look into other books besides her very narrow preferences. She'll always prefer her old Norse literature, however.

She doesn't pay much attention to her surroundings besides the columns of books in front of her. She scanned down the titles and authors' names with rapid accuracy. Some of the books are just appalling. Twilight? Dear god, no.

When Lucia accidentally bumped into another student, she didn't notice until a second or two later. She looks up at the much taller student in front of her who was holding a psychology book. There was a moment of eye contact, but she averts her eyes almost immediately.

"Sorry for that," She says through her telepathy before her mouth had a chance to open,"I wasn't paying any attention." Her eyes kept averting the person next to her. She came to the library to avoid social interactions, not to start any new ones. This person didn't even seem like the warmest one in this school. Then again, that could be a good thing- the person might not start a conversation then.

---
Notes:
italics means talking through telepathy, if you haven't noticed

[russia]

Ivan looked down to see the blond girl who had just bumped into her. Was he hallucinating, or did the girl talk to him through telepathy? He hoped it was the latter, "Ah, it's alright," he thought back, "Are you looking for anything? I'd be glad to assist you." He has a feeling that he's seen the girl before in the distance. She always seemed to be alone... Is she a loner by choice or force?

"My name's Ivan," He offered his hand to her, "I assume that you are telepathic? Do you have another ability?" Maybe it wasn't the best idea to ask the other what her powers are- some people can be a bit sensitive about the topic for reasons Ivan doesn't know about. He noticed that her eyes were purposely averting his. Perhaps Ivan was being a bit too upfront? Nobody else that he met acted as if they wanted to get away in such a calm, avoiding manner. Sure, there is the occasional student who acts like a nervous wreck around him, but they're always like that.

The dust's getting into his nose again. Isn't there supposed to be someone cleaning the library, or does nobody really care about this place? He scratched his nose slightly. Maybe he's allergic to dust. Then again, isn't everyone allergic to dust to some point? But there are some people who...

He forced himself to stop thinking about dust. It would probably make him more likely to sneeze anyway.