Encyclopedic knowledge (Marta / Tomomi)

Having done some work, and with the academy still having time before it shut, Tomomi went to his favourite place in the Seven Stars Academy: the library. Besides, he had a book to return before he chose to read his next book. So, walking up to the library desk, with his usual attire of having his jacket slung over his shoulder, the boy held out a book - a fairly slim encyclopedia on animals, specifically amphibians, before posing a question. "Um... Are there any books on... Caecilians?"

At this, the librarian on duty was completely confused, having no idea what the animal was, much to Tomomi's dismay. Still, he refused to give up, turning and deciding to look for himself. It had to be here... Somewhere...

Marta was relaxing in the library. He very much liked the soft carpeting in the library. So much so, that this was one of his favorite hang-out places. Largely due to a lack of other hang-out places. And he wasn't going to go back to "home" any time soon. So life was often a choice between staying at school or an internet cafe. And currently, school won out.

While scrolling on his laptop in a rather comfortable looking beanie bag, Marta did see a someone asking for rather particular literature. Marta immediately saw an opportunity to hawk some of his preferred literature, which was a rare opportunity for him. He waltzed up to the boy just as he turned towards Marta,

"Oh, excuse me, I hope I'm not being too forward here and I'm sorry for overhearing, but coincidentally, one of my favorite books ever is." Marta quickly spun around, took it from its very close shelf in the library, and walked back to the young student.

"I really do highly recommend this. If you prefer film, there's also a movie adaptation which I think is worth watching. As an aside, if you like music, I really like Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes."

Marta proceeded to hand the young student a copy of The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. A book, which despite its title, was not about animals. And certainly not about Caecilians, but rather Sicilians.

Tomomi felt himself nearly fall over as someone appeared the instant Tomomi turned. The surprise if nothing else, sent his anxiety through the roof, Tomomi leaning back slightly, only stabilising himself with the use of a nearby desk. There were things that didn't surprise Tomomi... But, someone appearing where he was turning and speaking were things that saw the list of what didn't surprise him, and jumped over to the list of things that did.

Still, it was clear the stranger meant well. And as he spoke, Tomomi's hopes got up. Was this person someone that knew animals well as well? He felt himself getting excited at the prospect of meeting another animal enthusiast. The book now in his hand, Tomomi looked down, now VERY confused by what the stranger started talking about and simply staring at the book, the excited expression still on his face for a moment, as his very body failed to register how disappointing this very moment was.

Still staring at the book, Tomomi just stood there, completely in shock for a moment, before speaking in a very quiet voice. "Um... T-thank you for the sentiment... But um... I meant Caecilian, the amphibian... Not Italians..."

Yikes, that was a mega explosion of disappointment, awkwardness, and just general uncomfortableness for the poor Tomomi, still holding The Leopard that was put in his hands.

Marta was immediately confused by Tomomi's reaction and honestly a little embarrassed. Maybe he had been too socially forward. The boy seemed briefly extremely excited about Marta's book. But then he seemed very disappointed by something. The boy's outgoing, excited expression, seemed to be replaced by a quiet voice.

Worst of all, Marta really wasn't exactly sure what he had said to turn the boy off so much. Largely because he had no idea what the boy meant.

The problem here of course, was that Marta had absolutely no idea what a Caecilian was. In fact, he didn't really know what an amphibian was.

soteric subjects like animals were for nerds. Nerds were mocked and bullied. In his younger age, Marta didn't go out of his way to mock and bully people, but he knew better than to actually go out of his way to defend them either.

Given time to answer "what kind of animal an amphibian is", Marta would probably answer "like a lizard or snake or something?" But Marta's immediate association with the word "amphibian" was amphibious vehicles, such as hovercraft, often used for recreation. He had certainly met people who regularly used hoverboats to go between their yachts and the land.

That being said, Marta knew that he was not offering something the boy wanted. He politely apologized.

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." Marta still wasn't exactly sure what the mistake was. An amphibian, non-Italian Sicilian? What could that be? His mind spun. Well, the island of Malta was part of the Roman province of Sicilia, so at the time of the Sicilian Vespers as featured in Verdi's opera, Sicily could also refer to all of the islands near the main island of Sicily, including Malta. Which was a popular yachting destination where one might use amphibious vehicles like hovercraft. Oh, so that's what the boy meant.

"I must apologize for my overly-forward presumption. I'm afraid that I've never actually yachted near Malta, so I've no knowledge to offer. Are you planning on stopping by Valetta's Grand Harbour?"

Truth be told, Marta thought yachts were a waste of money, but he certainly had the experience of being on OTHER people's yachts, so he couldn't say he'd never yachted at all.

As much as Tomomi was not the most fluent speaker, this conversation was something that he felt would probably be confusing and taxing for literally any that partook in it. Yachts? Malta? Valetta's Grand Harbour? The look of disappointment was completely and well and truly replaced now with an appearance of bewilderment and absolute confusion, his head spinning as he tried to keep up with this strangers thought pattern. All Tomomi wanted was to look up information on Caecilian's to check if he could potentially find them in the city or nearby, not to have this... Really weird situation.

Still, this person seemed to... Really be out of touch with reality and assuming things which, to the unknowing Tomomi, seemed as if they were from another planet, or just completely no correlation to anything of anywhere. Still, he had to speak up. He had to... He had to...

But, being the anxious one that he was, Tomomi felt himself trying to think of how best to broach the topic to the stranger. If he tried to clarify, would this person just get... More confused?

"Um... I.. Uh... I don't... Um... Know where that is? Um..."

Yeah, that was a start, somewhere. "And, uh... Yachts? Malta? Um... I uh... Um..."

That was the point where Tomomi should have dropped the clarification, and explain what he actually meant. Instead, the boy was like a broken record, repeating the sounds "Uh" and "Um" continuously.

The response that Marta received...was not the one he was particularly expecting. The boy he had approached seemed to be remarkably reticent to the degree that it made Marta himself start to feel quite awkward.

"Eer, never mind, I guess? I'm not a particular fan of yachts either."

To be entirely honest, Marta was also not quite sure where this conversation had gone. He was used to very formulaic social interaction. Not this rather...confusing interaction. Well, the best thing was to probably stand back and hit the reset button and completely change the topic. It would be exceedingly awkward to just walk away from a crowd of ums and uhs.

That being said, when faced with such a situation, Marta usually felt that the best way to get out was to give an open-ended question that let the other person do whatever they wanted.

"Ah, besides that...you like reading, I suppose? Might have you perhaps recently read something worth recommending?"

Originally, as the conversation continued to be weird for a bit, Tomomi felt himself preparing to press the panic button, which in turn would result in the usual situation of: FLEE. However, to his surprise and relief, it was clear the stranger had picked up on such panicked cues, reverting the conversation to, well, an actual conversation by giving a far more answerable question. At it, Tomomi nodded, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically due to his relief at being asked a question he could answer. "Oh! Yes!"

Upon realising and remembering that he was in a library, the boys voice suddenly silenced a bit, quieting once more before continuing. "Oh, um... Yes. I do like reading, although usually just books on animals... So, um... I wouldn't really be able to recommend much other than science and animal books and encyclopedias? So, um... Unless that's the sort of book you're looking for, I'm afraid I can't really offer many suggestions, since I find things like fiction difficult to read and keep up with, while other factual books don't take my interest as much... Um, what about you? I'm guessing you like, um... Cultural books?"

Marta realized a great deal of the social awkwardness had dissipated after he asked the boy his question. Asking people questions that had a clear answer usually had a good way of moving conversations forward. That being said, Marta did not at all expect the words to come out of the boy's mouth.

Science books? Encyclopedias? People still read encyclopedias? In [CurrentYear]? He had never heard of such a thing. That was the kind of behavior that got kids shuffled off to therapy and drugged into a stupor. For a second, Marta was lost for words,

"Isn't all literature is cultural, I assume? Well, I suppose not some of the rubbish published today..."

Marta unconsciously went back into his culture zone, badmouthing other people's tastes, simply because he was so weirded out by the boy in front of him.
"Wait a second, encyclopedias?" Marta gave a rather ambiguous facial expression before he just look confused again, "So...just like books about animals? Um...what, why? Like, just because? Oh wait, do you hunt them or raise them or something?"

Marta held onto the glimmer of hope that the boy actually had a good reason for researching animals.

"Oh, right, yeah, I uh... I guess they are all culture?"

The seemingly judgemental nature of the questions caught Tomomi off guard, feeling himself shrink back and withdraw emotionally as the other boy began to query why without answering Tomomi's question regarding his own taste in books, beyond simply showing distaste for supposed rubbish. Was he talking about the sunrise saga, with the sparkling vampires and gay werewolves? If... If Tomomi was honest, he didn't explicitly hate the saga... Just didn't understand it as much as he did factual books.

Still, he couldn't avoid the questioning, not without everyone staring at him for running out of a library. So, voice now quieter still and barely a whisper, Tomomi shook his head. "I-I wouldn't hunt animals if forced to... I-I just have an interest in them... Don't have the space to raise them, but, I really love animals, so, I... I like to read about them..."

Maybe he could just slink away at this moment. Maybe. Hopefully. Possibly. Probably not.

Marta honestly had no idea how to deal with this young boy. He largely only dealt with two kinds of people: the highly ritualistic kind. Or the highly social kind that would go out of his way to talk to him. He really didn't know how to deal with the reticent. Then again, did anyone deal with the reticent? He guessed he never really wondered what they did with their lives.  

For one, he had no idea what this young boy meant about animals. Did he like researching them? Eating them? Dissecting them? Doing horrifically lewd things to them? Marta hoped not the later, but he had recently begun to learn that people in this city were really strange.

"Ah. I see. I can't say I've ever been too interested. Just from lack of experience as an urbanite..."

His mouth did seem to curl a bit as he seemed like he was thinking about something, "Though I must admit, I am often rather impressed by the knowledge displayed by those involved in animal husbandry. Or agriculture in general. Being a veterinarian is apparently quite difficult and intellectually rigorous."

Marta gave a frown, "Which is why I suppose the drop-out rates are so high. Bored suburban trophy spouses who find out that caring for animals is actually difficult. Since they imagined they'd be playing with purse-sized emotional support dogs all day when in reality, the job is more sticking arms up bovine anuses." It was unclear if Marta's frown was more a reaction to naive would-be but failed vets, or just the vague mental image his words were giving off.

Once more, Tomomi was speechless, staring in disbelief. Was.... Was this person trying to actively dissuade Tomomi from the path of animals? And... Simplifying veterinarians to simply fisting a cow? It wounded the poor boy so. Once the frowning boy had finished, Tomomi paused, trying to find the words to try refute the strange stranger. "Um... W-while I'm not sure if being a veterinarian would be a path that would be suited for me, it's, um... A bit disrespectful to assume that most vets would be so... Um... Naive? While there are turn over rates, it's not too much higher than those of other intensive courses and careers... Not to mention, um... It's a bit uh... Misrepresentative to describe images of vets as only one of those two extremes? A lot of people that become vets do so out of passion for animals and a want to save their lives, and will do many things varying from um... Bovine anus acts, to simply testing an animals weight. Furthermore, for your um... Rather disgusting implication, if a vet did not specialise or have an education that supported knowledge of farmers animals, they would not do stuff such as, well, that... It depends on the type of vet..."

Realising he'd rattled on for a bit, the boy shook his head. "A-anyways! Um, w-we're in a library, so, um, I-I'll go look for that book I was a-after on my own, s-so that we don't disturb anyone that's trying to, um, read... Or study..."

As if on cue, there was a resounding "SHHH", leading to the boy lowering his head in response.

Marta started lightly chuckling at the boy's horror at what he described as "bovine anus acts."

"What? You think saving animal lives and bovine anuses are different? Cows are one of the most common animals out there and they have ruminant digestive systems, so they come down with more intestinal problems than any other animal. Rectal exams for cows are probably the most common, and important thing the average vet does."

He smirked as he wondered how the tuition process worked, "Actually, it's not even a bad thing. The kids who like the idea of animals because of some silly cartoon they saw, but are horrified by the actual details, drop out. Leaving behind all kinds of wonderful tuition money that subsidize the other students."

Muttering beneath his breath, Tomomi just let out one last "Like I said... Um... Never mind..." before letting out a heavy sigh. For a boy that struggled with people normally anyways, this was... Overwhelming. I mean, he did say he knew that that was a part of the job, but didn't he also explain that if someone was say, a vet in a city, there was unlikely to be any cows or such nearby, meaning such an issue would not occur? Plus, someone unqualified trying that could deal equal amounts of damage to the cow as its poor digestive system could.

"Um... U-unless there's something else I think I'm just gonna... Grab my book..." Added Tomomi, slowly inching himself away from the eccentric other.

Marta nodded politely at the boy's desire to find his book. However, Marta wasn't sure if the boy actually knew where to find the book. It would be polite to at least ask him where he was looking for books.

"Ah yes...you have that to get to...That being said, do you know where to find such book? At the very least, I could help you uh, find your Sicilian animal book. I would not be much of a trouble."

Roughly gesturing with his hands to a certain area of the room, Tomomi nodded with a hint of uncertainty. "I uh... I think I know where it is... It should either be classed as a biology book, so, um, over that way... Or classed as a nature book, over in the other corner... In either case, I'd have to look for a book on amphibians, since the animal is so little known about that, well, um, as you know, it's not a big topic, so, um, yeah, thanks! Really thanks for the offer, and the try to help! But, um, you know, I think I got it. Plus I'm sure you have your own thing to get on with, and I wouldn't want to cause you to have wasted time when I don't need to worry too much about finding the book anyways. But thanks again!" He declared, before moving off to go take a look in the biology section first as it was closer.