For the love of books [Gabriel]

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Once upon a time, Lucien would have been hyper aware. He'd have seen the man coming long before he bumped into him. He'd been good at things like that--being aware of his surroundings, who was where. He'd know every escape route in every possible situation, spot people coming in and out of the area, and be aware of who was and wasn't a risk to him. He could size people up using little details that people missed, work out from the way they walked if they had a gun, and all of that had gone flying out the window over the past two years. He'd lost all those skills as they faded from disuse, his confident shot through the heart by a particularly cruel man.

When the man bumped into him, he jumped--the panic immediately hitting him. How long had it been since someone other then the twins touched him? A long, long while. He'd gone the majority of the two years with no one but Jun Shi touching him. Even Kun Shui had only touched him briefly, the lightest, most informal touches as they'd passed things back and forth. The staff had no reason to, and nor had the guards--he'd behaved perfectly, never once trying to stage an escape he knew would end in pain.

He wasn't the only one to jump--a tall, muscular Chinese man near the entrance stood up, not too far from where Lucien was. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't like it. From the corner of his eye Lucien could see him, and that had to be the first order of priority.

He rapidly dusted himself off, forcing himself to take a few deep breaths before declaring (a tiny bit too loudly) that he was absolutely fine.

"It's no harm. It was just an accident." Quick and easy, and after a moment the guard took his newspaper and sat back down again, as if he was nothing more then a worried bystander. Lucien was happy for that, and happy that he hadn't had any books on him--if he had, he would have dropped them. No harm, no foul, even if he still had no books picked out.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

The thought that the guard might have accidentally 'disappeared' someone hadn't really occurred to Lucien. Disappearing him, sure. Someone else? No. There would be no way to tell who someone was. They might have been someone important, someone whose disappearance would draw unwanted attention to the Weis. It would be a stupid risk, and while it was possible the guard was stupid, Lucien doubted Kun Shui would have left him leave with someone lacking basic common sense. No, if anything happened, he'd simply be escorted back to his glass tower, his little trip done for the day regardless of if he'd gotten any books or not. Entertainment was priority three, if that. The first one was the Weis, and the second was safety.

Hadn't he just said he was fine? Maybe he thought that was just a reaction. He shook his head quickly. "I'm alright. No harm done." He hadn't even fallen to the ground--just almost. His heart was pounding though, the simple act of talking with another human being being a bit more then he could handle. It was stressful, not knowing what to do. It wasn't like it was some horrible terrible decision to make or anything--he was just used to other things. He was used to dealing with Kun Shui, who was predictable as anything. He felt like he had Kun Shui all figured out, and while he'd later learn he was horribly wrong, it still seemed true enough for him.

Strangers were unpredictable. He knew nothing about the man or what he thought. He didn't know what he was doing there or why he was doing it. It was a horrible bit of uncertainty, and he forced himself to take a deep breath in through the nose, trying to force himself back to calm. It sort of worked--at least his heart wasn't pounding quite so much as the man asked his question.

The correct answer was 'no'. He had no idea. He'd never been in that bookstore before in his life, and he had next to know experience with books. He didn't know what it looked like or anything of the sort. For that matter, he was more distracted by the fact that it was a phone. He wanted a phone all of a sudden, even if he had no one to call and nothing to do with it. A pointless little thought from a life he'd been dragged kicking and screaming from.

The book, right. He was used to doing as he was told, to doing whatever he could. That was how he was supposed to act, and Jun Shi more then anyone had drilled it into him. Even if the man had no real power over him, it was still instinct, and it won out over logical thought.

"I- I actually don't. I could help you find it." Maybe it would help him locate books he liked. "What's it for?" Was it for actual reading, or was it a manual of some kind?

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

That hadn't really answered his question, but he supposed it was fine. Lucien had simply wondered if it was a novel or a textbook. He knew little of post secondary, having never attended himself. To him, much of what he thought of as 'college' was what you saw on TV--generally English majors reading massive plays and writing essays as thick as your arm. The thought of someone being into a degree like math simply didn't occur to him, although he was vaguely aware there were textbooks for that sort of thing.

"Then - Then I'll be happy to help you try and find it." the title was vague enough that he wasn't quite sure where to go. He glanced around, taking in the bookshelves. "Is it supposed to be around here then?" Probably. Why would the man be looking here if it was the completely wrong section?

He had used to love introductions--a fantastic way to show off his social skills, to impress others, to win, as much as being social could be considered as a game. He had been good at it, impressing those he met with ease, and there he was, struggling just to give his name.

"I'm - I'm Lucien." He gave the bookshelves a glance. "I don't know what I'm really looking for. Just leisurely reading, I imagine. I don't even know where to start with books. I don't really know what's popular or not." Which was the understatement of the century. He couldn't have named a single book that came out in the previous two years. He could barely name any popular books at all.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

The man was the sort of person that would have driven Lucien up the wall two years ago. He seemed scatterbrained and disorganized, a sharp contrast to the strict organization in Lucien's life. That wasn't even a previous trait--it was one that ruled his life even then. He had a small room with few material possessions, and with so little control over his own life, was forced to make do with what he had. He would sort and resort and reorganize a million times. He knew every book he owned inside and out, and had sorted them a million different ways. He knew alphabetically, by ISBN (for those that had it), by author and by genre. Everything in his room had it's own perfect place. he disliked when things were out of order, and he was almost obsessive about even slight changes.

At the very least, he told himself it would help him know if anyone else went into his room while he was gone.

The problem with Gabriel's question, which Lucien mused over as he checked the shelves for the author's title. He didn't know. He had read very few books recreationaly. Most of them were old classics, and it was particularly difficult to tell if he liked them when he had little to compare to.

"I actually don't really... I mean, I'm not sure what I like. I never read before." Not as a hobby, anyway. "It's a new thing for me."

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Lucien was certainly not developmentally stunted. He'd actually been quite smart--still was really. He'd been cunning and sly and and manipulated more people then he could count, running his operations with an iron fist and a silver tongue. He'd simply been focused on the real world. Why go off and read about some fantasy land that didn't exist when you had real work to be done, and real pleasures to enjoy? He'd never cared for reading or TV, never cared for anything but reality, and it was only when his own reality had fallen apart that he cared about the escape that books offered.

Not that Lucien thought that there was anything particularly wrong with it. It seemed like plenty of people didn't really read. People liked video games and smartphones, not sitting down with a good book. He was just as normal either way. Books were no longer some major factor.

"That would be -- that would be good." People generally wanted some guidelines for recommendations, but Lucien had so little of an idea he'd simply have to work off other peoples. See what they liked, try them out, and then branch out based on similar books. "Really, anything you could suggest..." And he was having zero luck finding the man's book.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Lucien had heard of Harry Potter. It would have been particularly difficult to grow up in France without having heard of it. He'd never read it (or seen any of the movies), but at the very least he knew the gist--something about teenage wizards and a magic school or some bullshit.

Even so, if it was good, it was good. He turned slightly to look Gabriel up and down. If he was saying it was good, then Lucien would simply have to trust him on that. He had no scale to measure by, nothing to compare to.

"I really... well, I really don't know what I want. So anything is good. If those books are good, I'll get them." He eyed the shelves for a moment before recognition hit him. He stooped down, reaching forward and grabbing a book from the top. Not on it's place--just on it's side, out of order on top of a stack. Drawing it out revealed what he'd thought he'd seen--that it was the book Gabriel had said he was looking for, and he held it up relatively triumphantly. Not exactly jumping up and down, but certainly pleasing with himself for having found it.

"Is this it then? The one you need?" He held it out for him to take.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Lucien's assumption was half right. He simply assumed the man had found a genre he liked and stuck to it. He supposed that was normal enough. People did that with all variety of media. They rarely branched out, instead sticking to what they knew and thought was good to begin with. People liked specific kinds of movies or television, and while Lucien had never experienced it himself (not being a particularly media-oriented person), he knew of it well enough that it was his first thought.

He gave him a little smile just the same, even if he didn't feel like he deserved to be thanked. It wasn't as if he'd gone far out of his way to help him. He'd just looked a bit and found it. It wasn't a big deal, it wasn't important, and if anything, it made Lucien feel slightly uncomfortable to be thanked. People hadn't offered him thanks for real for more or less his entire life.

Of course, that didn't make him as uncomfortable as the prying question did. He stiffened slightly, no longer any good at disguising his emotional states. He was obviously defensive, clearing his throat for a moment before answering.

"It was just nearby. I don't have a car, so I had to walk, and this was closest." He really didn't have any idea the sort of things he was revealing in that one sentence. It revealed just how close he lived to the bookstore, only a few blocks away. Hell, from the door you could see where he lived, if you looked up enough.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Offended. Was he offended? He didn't feel particularly offended--just nervous. He didn't like the idea of anyone finding out his situation, let alone someone he'd literally just met. There were too many things that could go wrong. What if someone, god forbid, reported him to the police? What if the police actually raided the Wei apartments? What would he do, put in a small room with a police officer and asked his situation?

He really didn't know what he'd do or say. He wasn't sure what Kun Shui would say either, although he knew what he should say. Nothing. He should say nothing at all, not even his name, and wait for Kun Shui's lawyer to rescue him. That was the correct course of action, with the only question being if he was able of staying quiet. He wasn't sure he'd be able to handle the pressure, something he'd have previously have been quite confident in.

"No, it's fine. It's really... really fine." There wasn't anything wrong. He'd insist that forever. Because if something was wrong, it meant there was something to be looked at. Better to avoid any attention at all.

He really didn't have any areas of focus, either. Even if he could understand Cantonese, he absolutely couldn't read any Chinese, which put learning more through books out of reach. What else would he read about? So many things people thought of as fantastical and out of the ordinary were just normal life for him.

"No politics. I don't really have any preferences otherwise." Really, his lack of a preference was just making it harder.

tagged: gabriel. time: may 9th, 1pm. notes: rp swap.

Lucien had never really had hobbies. Hobbies were for people to fill their time with, and while Lucien had plenty of time, he'd always had things to fill it with. His days were filled with work of one kind or another, be it hearing reports or organizing groups. He did a lot of things, but none of them could be counted as hobbies. Was torturing a traitor for information on what he'd told your enemies a hobby? Was removing someone's finger bones as a punishment a hobby?

No, nothing he'd done could have really counted for a 'hobby'. Any books he'd find on the things he'd done would generally be true crime books, and he didn't want to read any of those either. After a moment, he decided to include that. Better to avoid it entirely.

"Nothing... true crime or horror. I don't deal well with gore." Which wasn't quite a lie. He'd used to have been fine with it, but at the moment he didn't think he'd able to take it without drowning in guilt from it all.

"I really don't have any hobbies though." Probably best to be up front about that, as strange as it was. Surely there were people out there with no hobbies, weren't there? It wasn't that odd, right?