Good Reads [Xavier/Shouhei]

Xavier looked through the isles of books. It was a weekend, meaning it was optional for him to take a break from the Farm. He would normally use this day to partake in some part-time job in order to keep himself busy. However, with much of his obligation to the farm severed with his father in the hospital, he could now take the time to work on his own social skills. It was a department he knew he was very weak in. He still didn't care for it much, but it was something to try.

He titled his head at particular title; Mind Control: Dark Psychology. He reached for the book and retrieved it from the shelf. He examined the odd book, with a picture of an eye on it, one that would give a gloomy and empty gaze at him. It was almost a reflection.

He dragged himself to sit at a table. Tossing the book on it before sitting down and opening up to the first page.

This was one of the last places Shouhei expected himself to be. The public library, a vast expanse of knowledge, somewhere he found himself lost in. Which is exactly what he felt at the moment. If only he hadn’t slept and avoided his first hour history lessons, if only he had put in some effort, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Making extra credit in the form of a book report only lead to more work and effort than had he actually put into the class.

First of all, who was this Dewey, and why did he implement some sort of system involving decimals. Why was it crucial to finding books. Secondly, who were the MLA, and that they needed citations on research from books? Weren’t they familiar with data over the internet, and that books were close to obsolete?

After nearly an hour of trying to figure out the Dewey Decimal System Shouhei finally found a book. All that time being upset caused him to angrily sit down in the first seat he saw, loudly and with a huff. While he didn’t throw the book down, he dropped it loudly enough to echo throughout the silent library. For several moments he let the rage subside, and he noticed himself sitting across from someone digging into their own book.

“...Sorry. I was getting heated over nothing, I… didn’t mean to interrupt your reading,” abashedly Shouhei whispered to this stranger, not realizing his own dialogue was interrupting their reading.

Xavier looked up at the odd person sitting across with him, his expression as blank as ever. He places his book down. He had to be honest with himself, he believed that most of the book was utter bullshit. "Yeah...yeah..don't worry about it." He picked his book up to start reading it again. It talked about attaching feelings to objects in order to mesmerize others, like how those stage acts would use to work with pocket watches. He shook his head. "I gotta find something else to read." He went up to look for something else to capture his interest. His search led him to something that would catch his eye more than others. It was a superhero graphic novel. He shrugged his shoulders. He had only read a few in his life time, and it was only for a short period of time.

He grabbed it and walked back to his table. Reminding himself he wanted to increase his social aptitude and social interaction, he looked over to the one sitting across from him. "So what are you reading?"

Thankfully the stranger didn’t mind Shouhei’s little outburst and kept reading, until he wanted to find something better.  Out of the corner of his eye Shouhei noticed the comic book, and silently appreciated the stranger’s tastes.  Meanwhile he annoyedly started his book report proper, taking notes so he could paraphrase the text.  But the stranger seemed talkative, and it gave Shouhei an excuse to procrastinate a little more.

“...It's some crap about the War of 1812.  It’s about as fun as it sounds,” Shouhei flipped his pencil needlessly onto his notebook and met the stranger’s gaze.  He pointed to the graphic novel with a tiny smile.  “You on the other hand, look like you got something promising to read.”

Oh this? I don't actually have the time to read much. Lots of work to do. This is a book where it takes the point of view of the villain called...The King?" Xavier looked at the cover of the book and saw that there was a villain with a chess piece as a logo, a red cape, and a crown. It was pretty obvious his shtick was chess. He looked at the synopsis a bit more thoroughly. 'Hello. My name is The King! I bring you this story. MY story. You will be able to see the world as I do, rather in the eyes of that dimwit Captain Fucktown. I'll be taking the wheel for a change…'

He skimmed through the pages. Getting a general idea of the character. From the looks of it he was as hammy as can be. And apparently he lacked superpowers and relied on robots that represented chess pieces. Xavier was genuinely intrigued by the concept of the character "Yeah. This seems pretty interesting. Do you read stuff like this?"

An eyebrow of Shouhei’s raised itself when the stranger mentioned they were busy, but were reading comic books instead.  Maybe he was an artist and it was research?  It made sense when they said they had found the book interesting.

“...Yeah, I used to read stuff like that all the time.  Not too much nowadays, though.  But while I was living in Japan, we called them manga- and depending on the publication- they could range from weekly to monthly.  Last one I read was actually an American-based manga, named ‘One Punch Frost,’ made by a guy who lives in this same city.  You familiar with the name Gabe Gatsby?” Shouhei asked sincerely.

"I saw a few Manga online. Thew were all pretty weird. A girl was getting sexually violated by some squid looking monster. Found out that a lot of them have that sort of thing. It is what it is."
Xavier sunk back into his book, splitting his mind between listening to the person sitting before him and reading his book. Xavier was getting into the origin story of a chess playing over achieving nerd who would become The King. Along with chess he was a robotics expert. The book was very predictable, to say the least, yet entertaining.

I don't know a Gabe Gatsby. I know of a Raphael Gatsby, who runs a museum.

“...Uhh, I think you should broaden your search topics for manga and other stuff, not narrow them,” Shouhei slowly blinked several times before adding, “But you do you, man.”

However the mention of Raphael Gatsby brought a more common ground between them; it was a shame the stranger hadn’t heard of Gabe.

“...You for real though?  That dude runs a museum too?  I thought Raphael was just one of them Indianopolis Jones types, you know?  The guy that just raids tombs.  Figures he’d run a museum too,” a brisk shake of Shouhei’s head brushed away his brief incredulity.  “I take it you met him at his museum?”

"I'm pretty sure there's a lot of Manga stuff out there that isn't porn, but I never have time to look into it. Busy."
He dug back into his book, looking at an epic fight between the King and a group of superheroes.
Yeah. I met him yesterday. He's a pretty interesting an eccentric dude. And no. We met at the hospital. My father got into an accident on the farm. No word from the docs since I left. It was pretty bad. Doubt he'll make it. But that's the way it is.

Shouhei’s face could only scrunch up in confusion momentarily.  This stranger seemed to be a bundle of contradictions.  First he was busy, but looking up porn?  Now he had a dying father in the hospital, but was reading comic books in the library instead?  

“...Ah, my condolences,” somberly Shouhei replied.  The stranger’s almost clinical detachment in the way he spoke about his father was concerning, however.  Shouldn’t they be spending time with their loved one if they had not much time left?  Perhaps all of this was their way of grieving.

“...I don't mean to intrude, but don’t you want to check back up on your dad?  Keep tabs at the very least?”