Betterment of the Self (Susan & Joseph)

The library. Susan's natural environment. She had spent the totality of her childhood immersed in books for various reasons, often for study, equally as often for enjoyment. The businesswoman enjoyed books and everything about them, the scent of an old unopened tome or paper as fresh as a spring rose brought back nostalgia to her. They were full of knowledge of unknown and foreign topics or filled with the vast wonders of the imagination, and through both one was unlikely to be bothered at all. Today she was here for the former. Being a Cadet held certain perks and one of them was access to the school's vast wealth of books through the library. Being an adult and not affiliated with the school she would normally not be allowed admittance to such a place, however as a Cadet she had reason to be here and it was quite convenient. It was... abstract in its importance but it did happen to be situated between work and home, as well as allowing her to borrow rather than buy her books though she would likely purchase some through the library book availability program.

Moreover, the library was a haven. It was a quiet place where she could explore the books, unlike at home where she would be distracted by responsibilities. If she could control her time here she could get much more done than she could becoming diverted. Currently Susan sat reading quietly among a fortress of books piled to eye level or close to it, calmly flipping through the pages of such. It had became... apparent... to her that she must seek to grow in certain areas if she were to become worthy of the title "Cadet" rather than just showing up day by day as some had, and more specifically she needed to excel in qualities that were desirable. She had noticed that among the ranks there existed many "A-type" personalities, those that were keen to be superior to others and forceful in their dealings. Unsurprisingly many of them were athletic as the job requires and she supposed she should be as well, however she would wager that not many had been keeping up with their tactical acumen outside of the training simulations. Thus she had taken it upon herself to shore up the weaknesses of the current team and become the expert they lacked, and one could only do that with knowledge.

Surprise, surprise. It was your average day. Just like every other day it was a footnote in life that wasn't ever worth mentioning. Like the rest they can easily be summed up in a several choice words. Freaking boring as hell. Cadet work was always boring as a chore. Get up, walk around, patrol around, and go back home. There was nothing ever interesting in this line of work. Save for the few instances when they had to slap down some annoying Psyche-Terrorist along the way. Regardless, each day was anything, but interesting.

The library was just one of his favorite haunts. Quiet and every idiot who disturbed the peace were told to f*ck off elsewhere. He was only here for the newspaper this place always had in stock for some reason. It felt noticeably busier than he expected. This only meant less free space and less open seats. But the only true grievance he ever possessed was that stack of books over there at a seat someone was occupying. Oh damn, it's that office lady nerd. Of all places she had to be in the same place he was. Great, did she fuck up the company server that a techie angrily told her to stop opening obviously shady spam mail? And what's with all these books? Is she trying to compensate for her intelligence? What a joke.

The Cadet rolled his eyes and took a seat at a distance away from Susan with the newspaper spread open to see what was the current going-ons in this city. Naturally his choice of reading and Susan's stack of books would camouflage him from her sight. At least, he hoped. Or otherwise, he'd need to find a better spot elsewhere. Joseph wasn't in the mood for nonsensical pleasantries.

One by one the small woman would flip through the pages seemingly non-stop and without pause. She hadn't actually been reading many of her books, of course, that would be impossible and she had better uses of her time. However, she would need books useful to what she wanted to learn. It was true that knowledge was important and all unknown things valuable in some way... but some of those ways happened to be incredibly minor or of little consequence. For instance Susan did not need to read the biography of a general officer's memoir in which he delves into his life experience and personal anecdotes more than the actual structure of both training and battle. It was a waste of her time, the worst thing one could ever waste.

And so she filtered out the books by useless to useful, her "book fortress" less of an impenetrable wall of anti-social behavior and more of a messy filing system of her own design. "Must reads" on the left starting in order of actual manuals and delving into theory and examples, none of them mixing and moving farther right with a space separating them from the opinionated time thieves. And as such... she had not seen Joseph for a good while with her nose between the pages. Having sorted out her books she sought to return the rest to their places on the shelves, though she would need to make a few trips with the amount she had acquired. The businesswoman silently stood from her seat and began to gather an armful of books to return, and nearly walked past the young man as she dutifully went about her business. She was slightly surprised to see him there although not taken aback, honestly impressed he would choose to spend his time becoming acquainted with current events. She stopped for a moment, it would be rude not to say anything despite her own self-assigned task.


Her tone was low so as not to disturb the peace of the library and fairly neutral, lacking inflection of any sort. She did not wish to bother him during his reading but was aware it would show poorly to not at least give a greeting. And she went on her way to return her books as she had decided to do. With her brief stop Joseph would be able to easily notice the titles of such books, all of them centered on warfare. The Warrior Elite, 9 Rules of Engagement, and American Sniper were among them.