Conversational Novelty (Private w/ Mica Lecent)

[Juniper Azurine]

June kept their steps near silent as they perused the shelves. Even the rustle of their clothes was stifled. This was supposed to be a quiet area, who knows what could happen if they made too much noise. In fact, the only sound coming from them wasn’t even from them specifically, rather the quiet clinking of Nox’s tags, and the tck tck tck of his nails on the tile floor. June couldn’t help but cringe at the noise, a beacon alerting their presence to everyone around, surely, drawing attention both wanted and not, they had to refrain themself from taking Nox’s collar off and stuffing it in their pocket to muffle the noise. That might draw more attention than the monotonous, rhythmed clinking did.

Nox kept pace by June’s side, service vest and all its various patches on show. He was working right now, knew to stay quiet and attentive when the vest was on. His leash was hooked to June’s belt loop, keeping him close and their hands free as they perused the shelves. Truely, they’d come in here to marvel at the high vaulted ceilings of the place, but the books and solitude were a nice bonus. Solitude. No one could find them and no one could see them and no one had to know where they were. Safe.
The books, of course, a bonus.

June trailed her hand across the spines on the shelf to her right, eyeing titles and authors. They hadn’t picked this aisle in particular, paying little attention to the organization of the library, and instead had simply wandered aisle to aisle with no particular genre or author in mind until they ended up where they currently were. She was pretty sure she was in some section regarding art history. Maybe? She didn’t know shit about art history, so she could be completely wrong. Regardless, they were determined to walk every aisle, see everything offered, before they left. That would make another room mapped, safe, plus it would give the option to find something good to read, so it was a win-win really.

[Mica Lecent]

Mica’s eyes were in awe at the sheer size of the library. No telling how much was fit in this room and yet somehow other worldly big. Somehow it was a fantasy that libraries would be stocked full of books from floor to ceiling with those ladders on wheels rolling from one end of the shelf to the other. Frankly, in all the times she has been to smaller school libraries and a public one maybe once or twice, it always seemed strange that the ceiling looked so barren. Vale’s signature green hard light banners hanging and little else looked often barren to the girl. Not that she knew about architecture but for a kingdom that still holds classical castle structures, Mica quietly kept her partially deflated imagination to herself when walking down the main open floor.

The given space of the open floor area with only two stories of books did make Mica wonder if this area was used for anything more. What do people of Vale do with themselves? They certainly like their free spaces. No table felt too close to one another to feel cramped to probably be designed to accommodate their team concepts if multiple were to crowd the library.

Why’d she come here though? Mica turned to one of the book end catalogs to browse what this section in-front of her held. Her hand tapping at the screen to search various options. “Where would it be under? Probably in biology and anatomy. Or would it be under Semblance?” Mica folded her arms and poked away at the buttons to find where either of these sections were. As the buttons pressed made the screen shift in the hard light displays, some sort of rhythmic jiggling reached her ears. Jewelry? And scratching. The girl looked around for the source as it seemed to drift further away and then back closer till her eyes meet with the head of a dog appearing from around the corner near her.

“What are you even doing here?” Mica voiced in reflexive surprise to see one and caution of the seemingly stray animal before taking sight of its owner, the service vest, or even the leash attached to it.

[Juniper Azurine]

“Looking at books,” June deadpanned. “Almost like this is a fuckin’ library.” They pulled a bright blue lollipop from their mouth as they spoke, which, honestly, they had forgotten about until talking. They knew full well the question had really been directed towards Nox. But. Whatever. They were answering anyways. It’s not like Nox could speak for himself.

June leaned one shoulder against the nearest bookshelf, twirling the stick of their blue lollipop between their fingers. “But you didn’t mean me, did you?” Their voice was tight, unimpressed, bitter; a halfhearted attempt at a smile, more of a grimace, flickered across their face. “You meant Nox. In which case you can go chat with the fucking headmaster if you need proof that my service dog has been approved by the school.” June stuck their lollipop back in their mouth, a silent signal that they were done talking. Who even was this random chick? Who the fuck did she think she was?

The brief thought that this person already knew them, somehow, flickered through their mind. After all, that remark could have been for them, wondering why they were there, not expecting them to be there because this chick knew they weren’t often in the library but- no- there’s no rational basis for that thought. June knows there’s no rational basis for that thought. Aside from the typical reasons someone they don’t know might know them; that wouldn’t be the first time, nor would it be the last. So. Whatever. It’s fine. They focus on the feel of the lollipop in their mouth, on Nox leaning against their leg. Today started fine and was going to end fine. This chick was just surprised to see Nox. That’s it.

June twirled the lollipop in their mouth, sucking on the tangy, raspberry flavor, gaze traveling idly over the girl in front of them, before promptly coming to the conclusion that yep, they were bored of this. Without a word, June straightened and nudged passed the girl none too kindly, shoulders bumping clearly intentionally, and continued down the aisle they had turned into.

[Mica Lecent]

Her brow twitched while refraining of touching the dog. Their dark eyes and fur given an extended search if the creature was probe to shedding. More closely she avoided getting closer to it as she reached to put her gloves on. “Didn’t see there was an owner attached.” Mica smoothed out her uniform out of habit while seeing who was this dog’s owner. As demonstrated by that other Faunus; Beacon lets just about anybody in. That should be relatively good to allow but Mica began to wonder why the encounter of some unsavory people of late in her first few weeks of arriving here. Hunter schools certainly have something different about their structures. Though Mica has yet to fully determine what that was among the brisk individuals.

“Nox. I see. I don’t encounter many animals,” she tilted her head to see any name tag but couldn’t get a better look without coming closer. Her eyes then moved to the odd student who seemed predetermined to be chatty about something after making an eye roller of a comment about a library being a library. So much for any amaze about Beacon. Who knows what it was when she kept on about unrelated topics. Mica sighed with all this akin to typical customer work and their overly entitled clients. And here she thought to have gotten away from that to be her own person.

“I do have other topics about Beacon but you certainly seem to have more to talk to the Headmaster over. Although, based on what you have shared, speaking to the Headmaster may be a waste of my time if you haven’t gotten far with them with your own set of concerns. Hope you find what you’re looking for though,” the girl shrugged again. The person did sound upset to state the painfully obvious. For whatever reason they were a ting this way, suggesting to talk to the head of this school wasn’t going to do anything. Either that or this girl and her dog Nox has long since given up efforts with the Headmaster.

Deeming their chat has ended, the dog’s owner resumed their stroll. As the other girl moved closer, Mica noted the odd shift in their weight to draw closer. She raised a hand to catch the shoulder and pushed back off the countering weight. The brush was too deliberate to consider as an accident. “Careful with your balance,” she cautioned out of keeping pleasantries with a serviceable stock worker phrase before returning to the catalog for her search of Semblances. Hopefully this student did continue their tour and depart without further incidence.

“Let’s see if I can narrow down this to a handful of books. What’s a good keyword.” Mica attempted to resume her previous study as she typed in Faunus and genetics and tribes.

[Juniper Azurine]

Watching the way this chick seemed wary of Nox, June half wished they could sic Nox on her, just to freak her out more. But, unfortunately, service dogs were held to higher standard than a pet, and Nox could lose his license if he bit someone. Bummer.
June blinked, twice, slowly, at the girl’s words. Did she just have a stroke? Is that what a stroke looked like? Had this girl not been listening to them at all, or was she just dumb? Probably both. Fuckin’ dick.

“Are you-? Nevermind, not worth it.” June changed their mind halfway through their question, they honestly didn’t give a shit how or why the girl had misinterpreted them so badly, not their goddamn problem. Plus, making the effort to spell out I was being rude to you, you idiot would take away far too much power from the statement.

June grit their teeth as the girl pushed them back. Fuck her.

“Oh suck my dick, you wanna fucking go, huh?” June snapped, whirling back around to face to girl, eyes flashing with anger. They didn’t typically start fights, at least not physically, but like hell were they going to sit down and let this random fucking chick shove them around.

[Mica Lecent]

“So loud.” Mica adjusted her glasses and looked past the girl. A few eyes from some study groups looked their way but remained as a peanut gallery. Disappointing. Does this place even have a librarian or probably stepped out. Seems like once more has Mica found herself confronting questionable students in Beacon.

She pressed the screen on a book about heredity and semblance for the shelf location before addressing this chemically imbalanced student. “A fight? It looked like you had a lapse and nearly fell over, miss. Maybe your footing was imbalanced or perhaps you were feeling light headed and dehydrated.” Mica tried to keep a service attitude but this girl, like others in the school, certainly seem to have issues with placidly living. Maybe she should have stayed home and kept the store from robbers.

“If you’re going to continue browsing the library, carry on at your leisure.”

[Juniper Azurine]

June, to their credit, did not punch the girl in the face. That would bring them far more trouble than satisfaction, sadly.

“Do you make an effort to be infuriating or does it come naturally?” They hissed, the sound of metal clinking softly as their hands curled into fists. Nox, sitting behind their legs, nudged the back of their calf with his nose. Hard worker that he was, he was getting pretty good at reminding June to not their anger get the better them them. And fuck, the dog was right. Throwing hands here, in a goddamn library, wouldn’t do anyone any good.

June hated letting someone else, especially someone so stuck up and pretentious have the last word, but they also really couldn’t be bothered to stand around any longer, they had shit to do.

“Fuckin’... whatever…” June sighed with a shake of their head, before spinning back around and marching off down the aisle, Nox following dutifully at their side. With any luck, they’d never run into that girl again, if they did, they might actually punch her.

[Mica Lecent]

Waiting for them to leave her peripheral vision did Mica left out a tired groan. Customers that complained to the store was one thing but who goes threatening people in a library? A library! She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked to the other patrons. Whatever the case, or maybe just the noise, she saw more glares and annoyances from them as if more of that other girl and her dog were around. The girl couldn’t tell what they wanted or if they were annoyed to be robbed of a fight in the library.

Again, how barbaric to even think that! Mica never thought to view herself as some hero or to have done anything worth it but certainly barring that student was far better than swearing up a storm and causing a bigger scene. “I’ll never understand these people,” she grumbled. No matter how it turned out, Mica may as well have been lumped with that pet owner on equal level. Made her feel sick and dejected. These people… this school….

Clawing a fist together on the hard light monitor, Mica quickly memorized the book she wanted and went to hunt it down to find somewhere to research in peace. Today wasn’t a day to have spent isolated in a library. Mica hoped to looked exactly how she felt when checking out the book and returning to her dorm. Glaring at everyone around her just as much as they did to her.

[end]