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Post by Trevor Kraige on Oct 16, 2016 9:05:59 GMT -7
As per usual for a day in the library, there was a table in the library dedicated to one person, what clients came to him, and many, many folders. Trevor had a couple ways of getting goals accomplished. Simply put, the best way to eliminate a threat was to find a weakness and stomp on it before taking it to hold against them. For a great many threats that would approach him in Gardner, that weakness was their grades. He had simply taken it upon himself to control their grades completely. The folders each had a different signifying mark on them, denoting an owner. Most of these marks were simple things that kept the people anonymous whilst also keeping them distinguished. Some were repeated, there were several incidences of crosses and another common one was the same but upside down. Anyone with sufficient knowledge of things such as these could discern that each symbol was religious, but they were from a wide variety. Anything from Mayan to Chinese to Greek mythology could be seen. Trevor himself wasn't surrounded by folders, instead by papers. They were spread about in front of him, all completed and with no name put in. Occasionally, someone would rush over and grab one, awaiting a nod of confirmation from the shorter teen before ferreting away with their new work. Those were the people who only needed quick assignments done, likely from having missed a day, or struck by an episode of procrastination. The folders got carried off by messengers who would then disperse the completed works inside to the proper recipients. Overall, the table had just about anything someone could need. Trevor scooped up the spare papers and put them in his backpack, under the table, as he laid his head down to begin a nap. His hours for selling general papers were now over, and only those who had scheduled ahead of time would be getting what they wanted. Now, a noontime siesta. As he fell asleep, his bag fell over and let loose a few papers, mostly chemistry, pharmaceutical studies, and biology but also one particularly confusing one. It wasn't a worksheet, and was definitely not from the school or even the university. It was a sort of independent thing Kraige put his mind towards, and to even most teachers it would look like unintelligible nonsense. Most teachers wouldn't even recognize all of it, but that's because most of them wouldn't be able to identify microbiology, nanotechnology, and genetics all together. There was one person who might take some interest in it, though... Avaline Ophilia
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Oct 19, 2016 23:53:35 GMT -7
The first few weeks of school consisted of wondering why she was here and what she was doing with her time. The weeks after that consisted of were spent contemplating the stupidity of the whole system, why she was forced into it, and how to game it so she could be here as little as possible. The weeks after that were an empty acceptance of her fate to wander the halls and haunt the classrooms of the school once a week (or twice, if she wanted to see Tristan more) with the minimum amount of sleep required to make her legs get her from place to place.
Avaline was in that last stage and was operating on two hours of sleep, a breakfast muffin, and the most edible-ish looking sandwich she could locate at the cafeteria. Even then, she’d only bothered with half of it before discarding the rest and rueing the amount of empty space between the time lunch started and ended. The library, at least, would offer a place where she could actually find a chair and sleep without fear of being bothered.
Avaline shooted through the library, in search of, first an empty table, which in failing that, either an empty seat along the wall or table unlikely to bother her, and in failing that, a corner to sit in. She was making her way back to one such bookcase intersection when she passed by a table previously occupied with students in a rush (thus likely to bother her), and caught movement from the table to the floor in front of her. Avaline would’ve stepped over the piece of paper, let someone else aid the sleeping upperclassman, but what was written on the sheet was surprising enough it almost supplemented for an extra three hours of sleep. Almost.
Avaline picked up the sheet. It was advanced. Half these terms she only knew from her scholarly chemistry and biology books, read for her own research. A couple of them she recognized from research she’d carried out just earlier in the week for her company. What’s more, it was… good. Quite good, in fact. If she were to use her skills with it, she was fairly certain it would work as described. She looked the sleeping student over. He had potent skill, that was clear. This elicited further investigation.
But, she didn’t want to wake him, and she quite liked this idea of his. Avaline situated herself in one of the chairs at the table and pulled out a pen and sheet of notebook paper. After scribbling on her blank sheet, she considered herself content. She set the boy’s sheet on the table directly in front of her, crossing her arms over it so he couldn’t just slip it out from under her, rested her head between, and balanced her note between her forehead and the table. It was a matter of two minutes before she joined the boy in napping.
The message on the note was simple enough: “Please wake me when you do, I have something pertaining to this paper of yours I would like to discuss”.
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Post by Trevor Kraige on Oct 20, 2016 13:19:18 GMT -7
The nap was not to end with any swiftness, and Trevor would stay asleep until the librarian came to wake him up. It was an arrangement they had, mostly because he was a well behaved and smart kid who happened to enjoy naps, found himself on nightly excursions with an incredible regularity, and needed to know when the next class he would attend began. Normally he would just go to said class, but he seemed to have acquired a new nap mate. And she happened to have a very important, very advanced, very secret bit of research he had been working on at one point. Not moving from his position, he read her note as well. This was meant to be a simple nap and it had developed a plot without telling him.
Obviously, he had every intention of waking her up. There were simply things to be arranged first. What papers were left unperturbed on the ground went back in his backpack but one blank sheet, and he wrote the librarian a note requesting he be awoken if he were to gain a stalker next time. A bit of friendly wording mixed with manners would suffice to keep their little deal going.
Next, he examined the sleeping girl at his table. Trevor did not perform well with people in general, let alone ones he was intimidated by. Setting aside that this one was also a female, which was not conducive to his personal conversation success. "Intimidated" might not be the right word, as he pondered the subject more. She was shorter than him, quite the surprising thing for most of the people attending Gardner, but she clearly had quite the intellect. No one to his knowledge could quite decipher the notes he had, that being his main defense against them finding such things, because they were all far too ignorant of the subjects one would need mastery of. Apparently, she had. A smaller hint was the word "pertaining," which he was mostly sure didn't exist in the students' typical vernacular.
Trevor shook her awake reluctantly. His mind was operating on complete autopilot because of his nerves, and he spit out something he never really expected to hear of himself again. "G'day." The old Australian accent he had came back in force, if only for the one word; he hated it with a passion. Kraige intertwined his fingers and set them in front of him as though he were about to conduct business rather than a conversation. His voice abruptly returned to its more American tone, a heavier trace than usual of his home still present but far more subdued. "My name's Trevor, though you may have already gathered that from your rummaging." He didn't sound offended by it, instead stating it as a simple fact. Social pretenses were idiotic. "You understand my research, which I wouldn't expect of someone from this school. What particular subject did you want to talk about regarding it?" For now, he wanted to stay on topic and get this finished expediently. Later, maybe, he could relax and be more friendly.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Oct 25, 2016 14:43:19 GMT -7
Time of rousing was sooner than she liked, but there was never a suitable time to wake when it came to school. Avaline drearily stumbled her way back into consciousness with the boy’s shaking, and began clearing the fog from her head as he went on. She could tell she was having a hard time getting up because for a moment there he seemed to have a much thicker Australian accent than he did when her mind settled and she sat up.
In doing so, the first thing she did was give him a look over. Her first view of him had been limited by the table and the countdown to her need to nap, and so this was her first time fully seeing him. He was ghostly pale, small frame, and probably had been called ‘skeleton’ by some kid who didn’t realize how much a bony fist can hurt, and she felt herself in like company, though she hid her own protruding wrists and ribs under thick layers of clothes (which, presently, were a thick skirt that reached down to her ankles, the first sweater she had found, and a green cotton scarf that didn’t match her skirt’s pattern but she didn’t care).
Avaline didn’t respond directly to his question. Instead, she lifted her small backpack onto her lap and began to dig lightly through the few contents. She pulled out a tan folder a few dozen pages thick with paper and set it on the table. She drew out the first five sheets of paper.
It was a small part of her own research, in finding an alternative medicine to a disease another company had solved and patented. The first time solving an issue was certainly difficult, but the second attempt required finding a solution that was different, and optimization wherever possible. Presently they had an outline as to how the current patent worked, but possible alternatives were still in the drafting stage. She slid them along the table towards him.
“Please give me your thoughts on this.” She stated simply.
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Post by Trevor Kraige on Oct 26, 2016 14:49:44 GMT -7
There was an almost imperceptible sigh of relief as it seemed she ignored, or didn't notice, his slip of the tongue. What examination she gave him was fairly returned, as he hadn't had the proper opportunity to asses her either. If there was a kindred soul in this building, she was most likely it. Neither was particularly large, and both, or at least it certainly seemed like both, worked off of their intellect for the most part. Trevor rubbed his temples, having developed a sudden headache. The situation with his research being held captive was just returning to him. Although it wasn't particularly incriminating of anything, it could give away a special little secret he'd had. What Avaline had was effectively a method of replicating the most recent dragon's powers. It wasn't really coming along very well, but if she had the familiarity to recognize that it was beyond anything this school would know then she might well be able to discern that much of it. The genes that were mentioned were denoted as the dragon's in a Caesar cipher, because when alternating between working on it and not one could lose memory of what these things represented. It was a simple trick that he knew could easily be solved, but it kept the details away from prying eyes.
What headache he had disappeared when he was presented with something to work on. Melting into something allowed him to lose focus on the things were more bothersome. Sadly, this work was not to occupy his attention for a very long time. "I was working on a gene therapy treatment that could help prevent cancer if a predisposition for it were spotted," he lied. "You have presented me with..." Trevor looked at the paper for a couple seconds before turning his eyes back up to her. "Medicine to treat bronchitis, but not that which one would normally find. Quid pro quo, what do you intend on doing with my research and myself?" It was a fairly simple medicine, but the motive was more complex. There was no indication as of yet to what she wanted him to do, though it likely had to do with him helping her do medicine stuff. He was fine with it, as it was his chosen career path anyway, but the research was of more importance. And regardless of what worries would befall him, his demeanor would stay the same, calm, collected one he had exhibit so far, and his speech remained steady and, thankfully, not very accented.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Oct 30, 2016 1:19:36 GMT -7
Avaline blinked groggily. She couldn’t remember what exactly the subject matter of the boy’s paper due to most mental resources being funneled into energy to move from point A to point B, and read it with her normal brain rather than her powered brain, but it had most certainly not been about cancer or gene therapy. She lifted the boy’s sheet of paper to give it a second read. Squinting, she moved it closer to her face.
“Liar.” She knew exactly what this was. How could she forget, after she ran it through her mind, how many times? This, she had later found, had nearly been her downfall during the dragon attack. Trickery in the writing had not made it fully clear when she’d first read it - it’d registered as vaguely familiar, but placing it fully had not been possible with her then level mental functioning, a feat impressive in its own right - but there was no mistaking the strange pattern.
The real question was how this boy had even the smallest amount of information related to the dragon.
He was, however, correct in his brief assessment of what she’d offered him. Avaline nodded to his response, but again didn’t provide her own answer to his question. A quick glance around the library revealed it to be near empty. Class had started, meaning she was missing yet again. This was fine by her, as she had already decided she was going to pass on this period today, and it meant the only occupants of the library were the two of them, the librarian across the room at her counter, and another student who had also decided to skip in favor of reading in one of the library’s corners.
She motioned to the sheet of his paper in front of her. “How did you obtain this and why are you studying it?”
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Post by Trevor Kraige on Oct 30, 2016 21:40:49 GMT -7
Trevor's face was straight for one second, but the next turned it quickly to a mischievous smile. Out of all the expressions that ran across his face, this was the least common. But watching her wake up, realize her mistake, and examine the paper again was enough to incline such a smile. Compounded with her calling him a liar. It was amusing, seeing a tick of mistake in someone else's thought processes. Avaline also seemed like the kind of person such things didn't happen to often.
"I am a liar, but you didn't bother looking at a simple cipher; see the situation how you will." Regardless of how incredible a feat it was that she could read it, it was easy for him to as well. They were equals, and that's what really made it amusing. Alas, that portion of it came to an end as it seemed Avaline was getting to the center of the matter. It was also no simple feat to gather what he had on that sheet, the data and information it contained. Trevor's eyes followed her hands motion to the paper before flicking back up to her eyes. "Quid pro quo, now. I told you my thoughts on the medicine, you tell me what you intend on doing with my research and myself. Then I will see about answering your question." He had a certain grip on the situation for the moment, and didn't intend to let it go too far out of hand. This was certainly the most interesting event to have befallen him in this library, and it would turn to be profitable for one of the two parties if not both. Trevor's smile turned from mischievous to nonexistent, but his left eyebrow stayed inquisitively raised.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Nov 6, 2016 6:08:28 GMT -7
She looked up at him, watching him carefully. His smile struck her as a gaming one, and his words likewise. This was going to be a will battle, or something of the sort, wasn’t it? Avaline adjusted herself in her seat. She may be smaller than him, and hardly loud enough to be heard even in the silent library, but she held herself like she was the owner of this school. Albeit a very sleepy one.
“Mm, no, I hold the cards in this conversation.” Avaline said, stifling a yawn. Turning her head slightly to the side and gazing again at the paper, she elaborated, “I am still deciding what exactly it is I want to do with you and your research. If you answer my questions, I can come to a decision. Then I can answer yours.”
She let that hang in the air, but not so long that she couldn’t add, “A cipher and a lie makes you a double liar.” She spoke objectively; there was nothing reprimanding about her tone or expression, whatever her words might suggest.
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Post by Trevor Kraige on Nov 6, 2016 15:08:55 GMT -7
The eyebrow lowered itself to a normal position, and Trevor nodded. This was good, she had responded in a most favorable way. There was no real bother to be had from him, and if this conversation was going to continue there was a very easy pattern it would likely follow. She would ask, he would answer and maybe ask, repeat. However, if he were to make it look more like there was a conflict, she would react accordingly and give him a better read on her.
"At least we've very nearly came to the same conclusion. We both have something the other wants, in my case answers and in yours my research. Equal cards." He had shifted entirely back to business and curtness. "From an overall aspect, that's what I have worked out regarding the situation and it came from me. If you would be referencing the information therein, it would suffice for me to say I have rather interesting methods best left undisclosed." It was a simple statement, but spoken in a lower tone. The reason he was originally allied with the librarian, after all, is what she heard. This was best kept out of earshot. "Any particular interests in what to do with that paper and I yet? Depending how well acquainted you are with this sort of information, I could see quite a scientific opportunity for both of us."
"A cipher just makes me paranoid, but neither that nor being a liar means anything. I think we both have our fair share of ciphers and lies."
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