Xaviers!

Aaron wanders around the shelves in the library, looking through what's there and available. He occasionally pulls a book off the shelf and flips through it before carefully returning it to it's shelf.

[Open]

Vivienne sat in a reading nook, having learned she was not allowed to check out reference books. She had several stacked around her and an open dictionary laid out on the coffee table in-front of her. She was reading volume 3 of the Encyclopedia Britannica pausing only to look something up in the dictionary.

Aaron did the 'look at a book, look at the girl' thing for a bit before commenting, "I don't see many people reading the encyclopedia anymore."

"I have a few thousand years to catch up on. The volunteer librarian suggested the...computers, but she became frustrated with me and walked back to her desk to glare at me."

"Computers are a lot better for researching specific topics. Several thousand years, huh?"

"That is what she said but each time I attempted to duplicate her actions on the device, it..."locked up" and the image window became black." She set her book on her lap.

"I am Fey. I am the first in a very very long time to willingly cross the barrier between our worlds."

"No kidding?" He put the book in his hand away and leaned against the bookcase.

She smiled and nodded. "My mother is water fey, my father human. I would also show you, but liquids are not allowed and I believe the volunteer librarian already thinks ill of me."

"Yeah, the books react poorly to water and librarians react poorly to damaged books. So what specifically are you catching up on at the moment?"

"I do not think she would believe me if I assured her that the tomes...books would be safe." She gave a half smiled and shrugged.

"I am attempting to maintain events cronologically since the mortal year of my birth. I am now at year 642 AD, the great library in Alexandria burned. Some years have less significant events then others and for now I am just trying to pick up the general events and making note of any that interest me or I feel I may need to study further."

"That's... quite the span," he said.

"I was quite surprised as well. I knew time moved differently, but I was not prepared for how much time had passed here while so little passed there."

"Do many fey cross over?"

"Not since the barrier was erected. Those who have crossed since were exiled. Even then, only just under a dozen since my birth."

"So they use our world as a dumping ground?"

She nodded. "It is considered the most extreme form of punishment."

"Good to know we're a bad option," he said with a bit of sarcasm.

"For some it is the worst, I am finding it most enjoyable." She smiled.

"I am Vivienne." She offered her hand to him.

He took her hand kind of awkwardly and shook it, "Aaron. Nice to meet you."

"It is a pleasure, Aaron. Am I keeping you from something? Do you require any of these?'' She indicated to the hoard of reference books.

"No, I was just taking a look at what was in the library. Getting the lay of the land so to speak."

"They say the on in town is older and less "school" orientated. I have not been as of yet and I have not looked through the fiction titles. I have had little time for pleasure reading."

"One of those things I make time for, even with my other hobbies."

"Now that I have modern clothing and I am catching up on history, I am looking forward to more pleasure activities. What fictions do you enjoy?"

"Pretty standard Earth geek fare. Fantasy, science fiction, the occasional bit of alternate history."

"And you mentioned other hobbies." She picked a note book, turned a few pages and began to write.

"Any particular reason you're taking notes?"

"I am attempting to be more human and make friends. If it is common for humans to have hobbies then I too should have hobbies. It is also possible that having something...fun to do simply for the sake of being fun would be nice from time to time."

"Well, most of what I do is play games on my computer, but I'm not sure that means much to you."

She lightly bit her lip and looked over to the row of computers, three were now receiving attention from the IT department.

"I do not think that will be a hobby for me. Not until I can figure out why they behave so badly when I touch them."

The IT department left almost as soon as they arrived and the computers now had students at them. The volunteer librarian was glaring again.

"I believe it would be best for me to be elsewhere. Have you had lunch?"

"Not yet. I was going to go after I finished here."

"There is a cafe in town I saw the other day that I would like to try. Would you care to join me? I would like the company." She smiled. Sure he was cute for a human, but with her recent news, it was best to have "back up" while she was off campus. Regardless of what his particular gift was, a human with "fey-like" would catch any newly arrived fey off guard and that's all she needed.

"Um, sure. I think I could do that," he said with a nod. "Shall we go?"

She stood and gathered her belongings, she paused a moment before she made eye contact with the volunteer librarian and received a death glare. She was about to ask Aaron to help her reshelve the books, to be polite but she decided she might as well give the young woman something to really be mad about. She smiled at the girl behind the desk and turned to Aaron.

"Tell me, where in America are you from?" She lead the way out.

"Mississippi," he said, "It's one of the states in the Southeast. Generally kind of conservative, but thankfully my parents weren't a part of that crowd."