Everybody’s Looking for Something

[{J I S A}]

I’M STUCK HERE IN THE MIDDLE
AT WAR WITH GOOD AND EVIL

Rows and rows of books and information and weathered pages in different languages spanned the space between the ancient walls of the library. It wasn’t exactly Jisa’s scene, technically. It had once been, over six long years ago, but not anymore. In fact, Ash would give her that thoughtful, quizzical look she so often gave. Ruefully, Jisa shook her head. Ash and Anya had become a part of her daily thoughts, and she knew what that meant. Just as she also knew that her freak panic attack couldn’t have been just a culmination of repressed thoughts and feelings. No, it had to be something more than that.

There were books in here, science journals, giant ancient things filled with overcomplicated jargon spilling across the pages. Not many of them, if any, would refer to any type of the effects of super-secret chemical experiments on technically mystical creatures such as Shape Shifters. But maybe there would be something on folklore that would be close enough to the truth about Shifters that she could at least begin to learn how to control herself. It was getting worse, and masking it just wasn’t going to cut it.

So for today she was going to try her damned well best to impersonate a college student and brush up on her research skills. If none of these old tomes had the answers then she’d try the internet, though that was more of a headache than it was worth, usually. The internet was so full of useless junk that it took hours and hours just to narrow down the search to something generally related to the topic of interest.

Sighing, she ran her hands along the bindings of the books, wondering why she thought she could do this.

DON’T WANNA SPEND MY TIME AFRAID OF DYING
I WANT LOVE IF LOVE WANTS ME

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[Deathy]

--- VINCENT DONN ---

I used to roll the dice, Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

Vincent had his legs propped up, heels resting on the shelf opposite him, one over the other, his back resting against the opposing shelf. It was a rather luxurious position he felt, relaxing after the rather hectic week he’d just experienced. When I meet those gentlemen again, well, Vincent showed teeth, he was always needed lab rats. The dust was thick here, this deep in the non-fiction shelves, were people and light seldom dared to wander. If it happened to coincided with his line of research, so much the better.

In the course of his research, in his dig for answers to questions that the weak cowardly dared not ask, Vincent had often found that the most interesting information, and by extenuation books, were hidden away, buried in the forgotten shelves, away from the light and sight of decent people. Information and knowledge that they wanted to stay forgotten, Vincent had taken it upon himself to act as a shovel, a tool through which unappreciated knowledge and wisdom could be found again.

He had no specific topic in mind today, he was in the mood for a wander, a merry stroll through the minds of men. His previous topic had come to a rather abrupt halt with the intervention of the EF forces, storming into his apartment and doing their very best to end Vincent as well. Warlocks are not to be tampered with lightly however. He’d sent half to the hospital and the other half to the morgue before he could make his escape. This exploitation of his power had left him severely weakened and he had fled to Clearstone in a desperate hope of a reprieve.

He wrinkled nose, the only problem with dust was how untidy and filthy it made everything. If only interesting and legally accessible things did not always have to be stored in such dusty places, and if they did, would it hurt for a cleaner to make their way through, once in a while.

It was the wicked and wild wind, Blew down the doors to let me in, Shattered windows and the sound of drums, People couldn't believe what I'd become

Lyrics from ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay

[{J I S A}]

I’M STUCK HERE IN THE MIDDLE
AT WAR WITH GOOD AND EVIL

The dust in this place was amazing. Back here in the place where books were exiled to when no one cared for them or bothered to search through them for any information, it was pretty much silent. Who else would be looking for information as obscure and unknown as she was, after all? Holding back the undignified urge to sneeze as she flicked through a random book she pulled from the shelf, she snapped it shut. Jisa wasn’t stupid, but she certainly hadn’t finished High School, and latin would have been beyond her even then. Why did everything that she needed have to be more likely to be scripted in a dead language or riddled with medical or scientific facts? It was making her head spin.

Replacing the book, she stood with one hand on her hip and contemplated giving in to the call of technology and condemning herself to mindless staring at a computer screen for the rest of her foreseeable future. At least searching through the library gave her something physical to hold on to and look through, instead of the move and click of a mouse and the tap of keys on a board.

Rounding the corner, light on her feet, Jisa made a beeline for the further shelf, starting when she found that there was indeed another inhabitant in this part of the library. Her surprised gaze flickered to him and away as she carried on her way to the shelf. Scanning the titles on the spines of the books, she glanced at him again, taking in his tall, dark form but trying to concentrate on the task at hand. What was he doing here? It was impossible notice such a stark figure in the room.

Of course, just then, the dust really got too much for her and she sneezed, interrupting the nearly dead silence of the room. Rolling her eyes at herself she gave one more glance toward the man relaxing at the other table.

”Sorry.”

DON’T WANNA SPEND MY TIME AFRAID OF DYING
I WANT LOVE IF LOVE WANTS ME

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[Deathy]

--- VINCENT DONN ---

I used to roll the dice, Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

Vincent raised his head from a theological text on the possible existence of angles and the possible concept of channeling their godlike power, written in ancient Greek.

The sneeze had ruined the silence of his sanctum, shattering it like so many glass windows, splinters and shards spinning out in every direction, beyond repair.

He studied her, through eyes with about as much feeling in them as a dead fish, pale lifeless and blank. Vincent took in her height, her hair, and her eyes and the possibility of severe bodily harm, and made the decision that currently, the young woman standing above him in the dim, faded lighting, wasn’t a threat.

“Sorry”

Vincent almost spat out his tongue, sorry?, how was sorry going to cut it? She’d broken his silence, destroyed the bubble of peace that he had constructed around himself, in defense against the world, and all she could manage was sorry? He barely stopped himself from letting out a long suffering sigh, after all sighing was such an undignified thing. And Vincent hated being undignified. Deciding that someone, someone who felt that sorry was an adequate reparation for destroying peace quite, was not worth his time, or metaphorically speaking his money.

Vincent lowered his sight back to the page, eyes flickering through sentences, looking for the point at which he had been interrupted by the sneeze.

It was the wicked and wild wind, Blew down the doors to let me in, Shattered windows and the sound of drums, People couldn't believe what I'd become

Lyrics from ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay

[{J I S A}]

I’M STUCK HERE IN THE MIDDLE
AT WAR WITH GOOD AND EVIL

Jisa felt the dark, tall man raise his eyes from his texts accusingly, as if she had personally offended him by doing something as horrifying as to sneeze. Doing something as undignified as that rarely happened and as a rule she didn't really apologize to people for things she could not control. The fact that she had stretched her rigid introverted ways to accommodate someone other than herself was amazing in itself, but to see it being disregarded totally by some gothic scarecrow was a shock, really. He sized her up with disdain, as if she were just about as unappealing as something dead and rotting in the middle of the library. Okay, so disbelief made her exaggerate sometimes, but Jisa didn't think she was inflating this by much. She slowly turned her head to return the favor, placing her piercing blue eyes right back on him. Aiming to put just the right amount of steel, attitude and danger in her look, she raised an eyebrow at the man sitting amidst the shelves of books.

He turned his attention back to his reading, and Jisa knew that she should really just leave the whole thing well enough alone, but did people really have to be so superior and hateful like that? Reluctantly, and with the limits of her resolve being severely tested, she forced herself to resume her search. However, she couldn't concentrate on looking for answers when she could feel the metaphorical elephant in the room just pressing her buttons. Biting her tongue simply wasn't working anymore.

Slapping a book shut, she placed a hand on her hip and turned to look at the man. "You know," she said, feigning thought. "Generally people will just accept an apology when it's given."

DON’T WANNA SPEND MY TIME AFRAID OF DYING
I WANT LOVE IF LOVE WANTS ME

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[Deathy]

--- VINCENT DONN ---

I used to roll the dice, Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

Vincent could feel the new comer string at him, wielding her solid blue gaze like a pair of frozen icicles, attempting to pin him to the floor with them, and cut him to the bone. Vincent had never taken well to being the subject of experimentation or examination. He choose to block the girl and her attempts to pin him in her metaphorical butterfly collection.

Vincent channelled his awareness of the world back into the text of the book, moving through the words, feeling the way that they followed and moved, why they went this way, why they had been phrased like that, what that was meant to achieve.
The book itself was fascinating, if pom pose in tone, being written by an ancient Greek scholar this was no surprise, all the Greek authors that Vincent had managed to research had all sounded like pom pose gits, or that could just be the langue. Having never meet one personally the hypothesis was up for debate.

The snap of the book covers slamming together followed the same path as the sneeze, breaking the new barrier of awkward silence that Vincent had erected around himself with an abrupt finality that offended Vincent and began to lay siege to his inner castle of silence. Well one small army of indignation isn’t going to get down these walls, awkward social situation or not.
And then reinforcements arrived to support the snap of the closing book, in the form of "You know," and "Generally people will just accept an apology when it's given."

[/B]

The mulling and reflective tone ruffled Vincent’s metaphorical feathers, “Most people choose to stick with a pointless and dull system that demands set answers to any given situation or action” His voice had taken on a lecturing tone, and his body language had shifted from relaxed, insolent slouch, to scolding parent, just short a waving finger. “This well-established response ruins the ability to create interesting and stimulating human interaction and drives one into a social rut. Also, the apology was not truly meant and I do not believe in apology that are merely spoken to ease a social itch.”

He eyed the book that she was holding, an interesting volume, if slightly bizarre in its presentation of the thesis and facts. He had enjoyed the text, but it had been useless to his particular line of research. “Now if we are quite done with pointless social protocols I would like to return to my book”[/font][/center]

It was the wicked and wild wind, Blew down the doors to let me in, Shattered windows and the sound of drums, People couldn't believe what I'd become

Lyrics from ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay

[{J I S A}]

I’M STUCK HERE IN THE MIDDLE
AT WAR WITH GOOD AND EVIL

Jisa fought the urge to roll her eyes. This was obviously a man who spent a lot of time reading books with the unnecessary vocabulary he was using. It did nothing for her view of him, such a pompous, superior snob, or so it seemed. He didn’t exactly come across as Mister Popular, though who was Jisa to judge? She wasn’t exactly winning best friend of the year either. At least she made the effort to be well-mannered, against her better judgment apparently. Next time, maybe she should just not bother. Then again that could be what made this guy so annoying and Jisa did not really want to be like him. Prejudgment or not, he was rubbing her the wrong way. The dark, tall man didn’t even look up from the monster of a book he was holding. That was a reaction that baffled Jisa to the fullest. And she thought she was dismissive. This guy owned it.

”Oh, I’m sorry,” she retorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ”I didn’t realize I was daring to be so mainstream with a hipster genius.”

The tone and posture he had taken with her continued to amaze her. Just who the hell…? Instead of anger, Jisa now felt sincere curiosity toward the strange man that had barely taken notice of her and had treated her as if she were a child that did not understand.

”How would you know that it wasn’t meant? I was actually sorry for that, I know how much I hate it when my space and quiet is intruded on,” she reasoned, unsure of why she was even trying to do so with this guy. ”But of course, I forgot that you were an all knowing being and I’m just a some girl that has no idea what’s going on, right?”

At this point, Jisa didn’t really know what she was doing besides thinking out loud and admittedly trying to get a reaction out of the strange statue sitting just beyond her. Mystery was excitement, and this type of mystery wasn’t life threatening. Just time threatening. She didn’t know what to say to his obvious dismissal of her, so she turned back to the bookcase and began her search again. Her mind wasn’t on it anymore, but she had to at least try.

DON’T WANNA SPEND MY TIME AFRAID OF DYING
I WANT LOVE IF LOVE WANTS ME

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[Deathy]

--- VINCENT DONN ---

I used to roll the dice, Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

The book was irritating Vincent. Due to the lack of references and citations the text was sounding inaccurate, unbelievable even, and thinking back on some of the research he had already done in this area it was sounding more like a lunatic’s fervour dream more than actual researched fact. Could no one tell the difference between real mythological phenomena and the stuff that made up children’s tales?

A hipster what now?, Vincent frowned, the tone she used the word in suggested that it was meant to be an insult. Word inflection was something that Vincent enjoyed using himself to confuse and upset others. Having it turned on him was a surreal and unusual experience.

He glared back down at the tome, his knowledge on this particular subject was vague at best. Possible need for more reading of other texts before he condemned this particular volume to the, I would burn you if it wasn’t difficult and likely to get me thrown out of the library?

The woman was still talking, her words by meaning intended to be an apology, but her tone suggesting she would like nothing better than to drown him in a bath tub, preferably one filled with acid. An exercise in opposites if Vincent had ever seen one run by.

“Comparing me to God is an exaggeration, if not complementary. However,” he held the cover of the book up toward the woman so that the author was visible, “How much of this scholars work have you read? I was willing to put the inaccuracy down to Greek pride but I am beginning to feel that he truly had little knowledge on this subject, would you agree?”

It was the wicked and wild wind, Blew down the doors to let me in, Shattered windows and the sound of drums, People couldn't believe what I'd become

Lyrics from ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay

[{J I S A}]

I’M STUCK HERE IN THE MIDDLE
AT WAR WITH GOOD AND EVIL

Jisa felt the awkward moment when her clearly genius wit fell on deaf and unsuspecting ears. Who was this guy? Did he live with his head inside old books to block out the outside world? And then, by looking at him, Jisa realized that her question was definitely rhetorical and she was glad that she had saved herself by not speaking her thoughts aloud. Taking some solace in the fact that he frowned- my god, a show of emotion, he wasn't actually a statue- Jisa braced herself for a retort. He hadn't backed down at this point, and he clearly had things to say. She found that she was actually enjoying this back and forth thing. It was refreshing to be battling with words rather than in the literal sense for once. It was more challenging, to be sure.

She almost laughed at his matter-of-fact tone of speech, taking what she had meant as a rebuff and turning it back on her. Well, good for him. It was still amusing. Jisa's incredulity was unending and she found herself leaning against the bookshelf, arms crossed and one ankle over the other, completely engrossed in the conversation. And it had gone well, considering, up to this point. He held the book up and Jisa could see the author's name, but she hadn't a clue who the hell they were or what they'd write about.

Jisa wasn't stupid, but she wasn't a student or a scholar. Her strength was possibly in killing things and most definitely in getting herself into impossible situations. Reading and research just really was not her thing. Once upon a time, maybe it could have happened, but that ship had long sailed and Jisa's time was spent hunting and trying to learn to control whatever was taking hold of her. Oh right, and trying to find the next best way to roast her enemies on a spit so she could stop being such a dark apparition of her former self. Because seriously? That was getting ridiculous.

"Sorry, you're out of luck," she replied, genuinely apologetic. "I'm actually not the whole research type- actually, this is the first time I've been in a library in years. Never graduated high school. You'll find me more often than not... working and attempting not to find myself in hot water."

She had the sneaking suspicion that this man wasn't of the human species, not entirely, but the precautions on her choice of words were a necessary evil anyway.

DON’T WANNA SPEND MY TIME AFRAID OF DYING
I WANT LOVE IF LOVE WANTS ME

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