June 27/Imagination/PG/ENDED

[miyaji]

Character(s): Atticus Finnigan, Rie Hanazawa, and anyone else!
Time: Late afternoon/early evening
Location: Library

"At the library, at the library~" Atticus sang under his breath as he sauntered in and out between the many bookshelves. "I wonder where it is..." he muttered as he scanned the area. The boy suddenly stopped at one of the bookshelves, a look of triumph spreading on his face.

"There it is!" he grinned and grabbed the thickly bound book from the shelf. It was brand new and never-touched, but it had a layer of thick dust on the cover. It was a book that had been sitting on that very shelf for probably as long as the school was around, and had never been touched. Not once... until now.

" 'All you need to know about Dugong stomach acid...' " Atticus read, "This is perfect. Just what I need for my next video." He tucked the book under his arm and headed towards the end of the aisle. He paused at the end and looked in both directions for the exit - but the only thing he could see were books. Books and books and books. No exit anywhere.

"...Oh, I think I'm lost." he said a bit loudly. However, the blonde wasn't nervous at all - this was just an opportunity for adventure. In fact, everything was an opportunity for adventure. It would be boring if there was no excitement involved, right?

[meera]

Rie slipped off both her brown loafers and relaxed further into the corner of the couch before placing her legs on the nearest table. She had no intentions of being rude, it just didn’t occur to the teen; the library was still a public place that called for formal manners. She had developed the habit of coming to the library reading area after lessons everyday, to catch up on musical notation studies. Needless to say staff didn’t appreciate her incessant humming and giggling, but felt better just leaving the odd ball on her own.

Rie turned to her side to pull out an A4 binder crammed with a mix of lyrics, sheet music and doodles and placed it open on her lap. She huffed animatedly and continued to hit her head on said item. In all honesty, she didn’t feel up to writing music today. Rather she settled with slipping out her phone to update twitter.
“no inspiration today then (￣~￣;;”

Smiling to herself, she continued tapping away on the gem encrusted piece of technology.

“Oh, I think I’m lost.” The announcement startled Rie enough to make her drop her mobile and look up like an alarmed animal. The backs of the tall males clad in Aozora academy uniform was all to familiar to the girl. What didn’t register was the messy blonde hair. Rie prided herself in being familiar with the back of most people’s heads in the academy. But not this head. No, this head was new.

So, what else was left to do other than introduce herself? “Need some help?” She called out, hopefully loud enough for the stranger to hear.

[miyaji]

I'm lost in a library. Anyone want to help? Keke, just kidding... anyways, I got a book on Dugong stomach acid like I said earlier.

Atticus sent the Tweet and slid the phone back into his pocket. God, he loved the internet. He loved the people he became friends with, and the people who watched and followed his videos, Tweets, and blog posts. But most of those people were across the world, and couldn't help him in his current situation.

What now? Well, he could either go right or he could go left. And then those both of those two options would branch out into a million different choices. No matter which way he went, something amazing was bound to happen, right? Atticus turned to his left and was about to start walking when he heard a girl's voice.

"Ah, help?" Atticus asked, clearing his throat. The girl didn't seem to be too bad, so Atticus nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I need help! I honestly don't know how I got lost in here, I usually have a good sense of direction..." he laughed, "I'm Atticus by the way!"

[meera]

“It’s nice to meet you…” Rie smiled , "…Atticus." she repeated under her breath, the name peaked her interest all of a sudden. Instead of replying to the eager fellow, she racked her brain for an answer to why the name rang so many bells.

The sudden ping from her phone shifted Rie’s attention. People usually never texted her, and the only time her cell sounded was when one of the people she watched on twitter updated. She picked up the device to read the notification. “--- updated: I'm lost in a library. Anyone want to help? Keke, just kidding... anyways, I got a book on Dugong stomach acid like I said earlier.”

Rie’s eyes widened when she realised what she was looking at, she turned her gaze to Atticus one last time before re-reading her phone screen. “Woah.” In a burst of excitement, Rie scurried closer to the male and shoved the object in his face.

[miyaji]

"Nice to meet you as well, uh, whatever-your-name-is!" Atticus laughed, but as soon as he spoke the girl's phone had beeped. He watched in silence as the other checked her phone. Her eyes widened in surprise. The blonde tilted his head to the side, genuinely curious about what was going on.

Suddenly, the other girl flung herself closer to him and stuffed her phone into his face. Atticus, suddenly feeling excited as well, leaned forward towards the phone to read --

his own Tweet.

Huh? What was so exciting and shocking about his own Tweet? Did this mean the girl loved dugong acid as much as he did?! Did this mean that someone else in the world actually knew what a dugong was?! "Wait a moment..." Atticus began as he slowly started to understand what was going on, "You follow me on Twitter? You know about me?! I haven't met anyone in this school who knew about me yet... oh my god! Aaah, this is amazing! I love you, whatever-your-name-is!" Bouncing happily on his feet, the blonde brought the girl into a quick hug. "This is so amazing!" He repeated, clapping his hands together as the grin on his face widened even more.

So getting lost in the library was worth it after all. Maybe I should get lost more often. Atticus thought cheerfully.

[meera]

Rie had been following Atticus for as long as she could remember, his tweets and youtube updates always educated her so much on the things other people deemed her stupid for caring about. "Gonna' have to force him to follow back later.."

After clapping to herself and laughing at his shocked reaction, Rie was about to hug the male herself, but was surprised he proceeded to do so first. She squeezed him tightly as he brought her in his embrace. Finally, someone who understood her (to a degree)!

The girl pointed to herself as she spoke with a giggle in her tone, “Rie Hanazawa”. The smile threatened to break her face as she emphasized each syllable of her name.

[miyaji]

"I like your smile." Atticus suddenly said, pointing a bit at her cheeks, "It's so wide that it looks like it might split apart your face." He demonstrated his description by pulling at his own cheeks, laughing all the while. "It's a good thing, of course." he added as reassurance.

It seemed nice to finally stumble across someone in this school who didn't seem nervous of his very presence. Sure, he had met several kids who were actually very friendly to him - but he had never seen anyone who actually knew about Atticus's reputation online. This was definitely something that he could get used to.

"Nice to meet you, Rie Hanazawa. Surprised you know about me! I would love to follow you on Twitter or somethin', that'd be really cool. Although... communicating in person would probably be healthier for us." Atticus laughed.

[meera]

“Fank yuh!” Rie’s muffled response sounded as she pulled at her cheeks, copying Atticus’ action and laughing. Her face stretched so far one would think her skin was elastic, after letting go she shook her head vigorously to snap the usual curious expression back in place.

As Atticus continued to speak Rie listened diligently, all the while smiling genuinely at her new friend. He was actually quite fluent in Japanese which pleased her. Although comfortable with the English language, the only time she used it offline was for singing.

“Fufu, you're right. I would like that.” She replied to the lad then turned her attention to the thick book in his hands. “What you got there…?” She tried to gently ease the item out of his grasp. Sticking her nose in other people’s business was Rie's forte, and Atticus was definitely no exception.

[miyaji]

“What you got there…?”

"Hm?" asked Atticus, slightly confused. He then glanced down to see Rie easing the book out of his grasp. "Oh, this!" he laughed, handing the book over to the girl, "It's a book on dugong stomach acid. Uh, dugongs, I found out abuot them about half a year ago. They're some really exotic water animal, sorta like a manatee. It's dubbed the 'seacow'. I don't know, apparently their stomach acid is really valuable or somethin'. That's why I got a book on it, to blog about it! Some of my viewers are really interested in them, don't know why."

Almost everything in Atticus's current life revolved around his life on the internet. He woke up everyday to a phone filled with Twitter and Facebook notifications. He got huge amounts of Youtube video comments and views. The boy was still surprised how much of the world loved his videos, even though he talked about the most oddest things. Whether it was about exotic sea animals or just about his day went, there was at least someone interested. Atticus loved that.

And it was a bit funny to see that one of these very people was standing right in front of him. The last time Atticus met someone who knew about him was right before he left for Japan. Back then, he wasn't as popular. He was much more distinguished on the internet now, but mainly in English-speaking countries. Seeing someone who knew about him felt dreamlike. This was wonderful.

Atticus suddenly brought out his phone and snapped a picture of Rie.

"Hope you don't mind," he said cheerfully, "but you're special! Just letting you know."

[meera]

“Dudong stomach acid…” Rie muttered under her breath. Although unfamiliar with the subject, she felt more fascinated than confused. She averted her attention from the book’s cover to listen to Atticus’ explanation on the aquatic mammals. Feeling further interested, she flicked open the book and coughed a little as the dust flew out. Focussing again, Rie saw pages and pages of small writing accompanied with labelled diagrams and photos of Dudongs in action. “Ah, they’re so cute!” Her eyes lit up as she lifted the book to show the internet celebrity.

“You work really hard on this stuff, don’t you Atticus? I super admire you, like, your videos are always the best of the best!” By now she was jumping lightly on her feet as she edged closer, only to be met with the flash of a phone camera.

It took a few blinks to get her vision back to normal. What Rie heard next shocked her a bit. "Thank you Atticus…If you ever need help or something, I wouldn’t mind. I mean, it’s the least I could do.” She handed the book back to him and smiled.

[miyaji]

"You think they're cute?" asked Atticus, glad that Rie was interested in the subject. Atticus was completely sure that he could trust Rie as a friend now. Even if people were willing to talk to him, they were always slightly weirded out by the different topics Atticus liked to talk about -- exotic marine animals being one of them.

A light blush sprawled across Atticus's face when Rie complimented him. "Aw come on~" he said, shaking his head, "I'm not that great!" Still, what she said made the already happy boy feel considerably more cheerful than before.

As Atticus received his book back, he suddenly gave a laugh. "If you don't mind, I sort of need your help right now. Do you happen to know the way out of here?" he grinned, running a hand through his blonde locks sheepishly.

[meera]

“Oh yes, I can help with that~” Rie sang as she turned on her heel and skipped to the end of the towering book shelves. Poking her head round again, she wiggled a finger to indicate Atticus should follow.

“All of these book shelves have labels on, right? The numbers printed on should help you get to the stairway, since it’s always close to row one…” she looked up at the blonde to silently check what she said made sense. Almost nobody ever asked the Rie about anything, it felt weird trying to give an explanation. “…I’ll walk you there.” This time she started to lightly push Atticus forward, both hands placed on his back.

[miyaji]

Atticus scratched as his head as Rie explained what to do. He wasn't sure if her explanation was just hard to understand or if he was just easily confused. "Uh--" he began, but the girl had already started to push him forward, guiding the way. "Oh, thank you." he said, rather pleased. Rie really was generous, wasn't she?

"I don't know what I would have done without you," he said as he walked, "I'm pretty sure I would have been stuck back there forever." he laughed.

(OOC: maybe we can end the thread after we both post one more time?)

[meera]

"That wouldn't be so bad." she began to think out loud as she lead the way down the stairs . "They have everything here. You could sleep in the sitting area, eat the crumbs from the floor and read up on all the mammals you liked… Until the library workers got you. There’s even free wireless here!"

She checked that the lady at the desk wasn’t looking as the two stood next to the exit. "One last thing…" Rie huddled close to Atticus and held her phone out far in one hand. "You’re special too, right? Fufu…” She grinned as her camera took the picture. “Say cheesu~"

(ooc: sounds good!)

[miyaji]

"Oh, you're right~" Yousuke sang, suddenly pausing in his steps, "I guess I can just live here then. The wooden chairs are just a little bit more comfortable than my bed." He laughed, shaking his head. When she mentioned free wireless, Yousuke gave a dramatic gasp, "You just made this place sound like a paradise!" He continued allowing Rie to guide his way forward until they reached the exit. He quickly checked out his book and turned around to see Rie still standing there.

"One last thing..."

"Hm?" he asked, but before he could say anything else Rie huddled close to him and held her phone out. Surprised, Atticus merely just placed one arm around her shoulder and held out a peace sign with the other as she snapped the photo, "Cheesuuuu!~" Atticus sang, and then stepped away from her, heading out the entrance. He stopped, turned around once more, and looked at her. He really was glad that she had met her, and his happiness was apparent in the wide grin he wore.

"Thank you again!" he said, and gave her a cheerful wave, "I'll talk to you again, yeah?" he then turned around and headed out the door. It was a good idea to go to the library. he admitted as he left, A really good idea.

END.