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Post by Yulia Sokolov on May 1, 2016 19:09:12 GMT -7
She was going to be late again! Yulia had a few odd habits, but she just absolutely could not stand to be cooped up inside all day. If she didn't spend some time walking around outside between classes she was sure she was going to go insane. Sadly, it's not like students had a lot of time to get to class between classes, so spending a little time outside was difficult. It couldn't be avoided though, she was sure bad things would happen if she stayed inside the school for too long. Her teachers were less inclined to agree. On in particular had started blocking the door to the classroom once class started so she couldn't get in at all. Yulia understood how the teacher felt, but this was just something she had to do. She wished the teacher would be a little bit more understanding about it.
It was a normal day, and thus Yulia was running late for that class again. There was probably less than a minute before it started and she still had a lot of ground to cover. There weren't very many people in the halls, but she still refused to run. It was important to be careful. The last thing she wanted was to bump into someone, and even if there weren't very many people about, it was still easy to miss them when moving at high speeds in these narrow hallways. She just had to go up one more flight of stairs and then about a third of the way down one of the hallways. She might actually make it this time!
The second to last stair cracked under her feet, and she didn't react fast enough to catch herself. Yulia went tumbling backwards, any further attempts to steady herself thwarted by her heavy backpack. She landed on her back, her head hitting the ground floor hard. Hard enough that she was seeing stars and couldn't get up for a moment. Even after she returned to her senses she wasn't feeling particularly inclined to get up. In her daze, the bell rang, confirming that it would be pointless to get up anyway. Yulia just sighed, covering her eyes with her hands. Why did this keep happening?
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Post by Justin Richter on May 5, 2016 12:51:24 GMT -7
Justin was annoyed by the fact that his schedule contained a study period. Most students might have been grateful to have an hour set aside for homework, study, or even just relaxation. But Justin was able to adequately satisfy all of those needs during the lunch break. He didn't really have time to travel home and back to put any of that time to better use, which left him with little else to do but speedread through the classroom's nonfiction books.
Some of them had some genuinely interesting parts, but most of them were only worth briefly flipping through before moving on to the next. It didn't take more than a couple of weeks before he exhausted the classroom's small bookshelf. Fortunately, the teacher for Justin's study period was willing to let him make a trip to the school library to swap some of the books for ones he might find more interesting. Justin's arms were full of books he was fairly sure he wouldn't be returning to, and he was on his way to the library to hopefully find some better choices.
However, there was an obstacle on his path. He vaguely recognized her, though he hadn't bothered to learn her name. She was presently sprawled on the stairwell, squirming in pain.
Annoying. She could at least have the courtesy to squirm off to the side and let him pass.
A taller boy might have been able to just skip the steps the girl was obstructing, but Justin was not tall, and his armful of books made that course of action even less viable. Setting the books down and then helping her up would take more time than it would save. So, instead, Justin simply stood there and stared at the girl until she moved out of his way.
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on May 7, 2016 18:26:04 GMT -7
Yulia heard footsteps from further down the hall. She groaned quietly. This meant that she couldn't just lay there anymore, but her body wasn't exactly feeling up to getting up yet either. She slowly starting sitting up, only for the footsteps to stop. Rubbing her head, she turned around and got a good look at the source of the footsteps. It was another student, one that she was somewhat familiar with if only because he always had these dark rings under his eyes that made him stand out. He always made her a little uncomfortable, and now he was just acting outright creepy. Why did she always seem to attract the creepy people? He was just staring at her with those dead eyes of his. Yulia looked away and started gathering her things as quickly as her body would let her.
"The-the stairs are...falling apart. They're not very strong. You should be careful," there was a hint of guilt in her voice. "Do you need any help carrying those?"
As much as she just wanted to get out of there, she didn't have anywhere to go. The classroom was probably locked at this point, and Yulia doubted the teacher would let her in. She figured she might as well make herself useful.
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Post by Justin Richter on May 9, 2016 16:29:24 GMT -7
Justin blinked as he considered the offer. He wasn't the strongest kid, and considering that this girl was about a foot taller than him, the odds were good that she'd have an easier time hauling books around than he did. He hadn't expected it to be worthwhile to bother asking for help, but as long as she was offering...
"It would be appreciated. Please stand up to receive them. Here are the heavier ones."
As soon as the books were secure, Justin continued on ahead, stepping carefully over the broken stair. He paid no further mind to the girl. It wasn't really his concern if she fell behind. He had already briefly considered dumping the books in the hallway garbage in order to make the trip to the library easier, but he weighed the possibility of getting in trouble as more inconvenient than the slightly increased difficulty of walking with an armful of books. In any case, his short stride made it easy enough to keep up.
Once at the library, Justin turned in the books he was holding, explained the situation to the librarian, and then began browsing through the shelves without so much as a word of thanks for the girl. He judged it unlikely that a gesture of gratitude would have any future payoff with this person he only ever met through random chance.
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on May 14, 2016 17:53:58 GMT -7
Yulia almost thought he was being polite until he decided to shove all the heaviest books onto her. There was a bit of an awkward disconnect between his words and what he was actually doing. She grunted under all the sudden weight. Her arms were pretty much thin, bony noodles as far as limbs went, and she wasn't actually all that strong. When she said 'help' she didn't mean 'do the bulk of the work,' but she supposed she should have been more specific. It took her a second to adjust the books and get used to how heavy they were. Unloading all the hard cover ones on her was just cruel though.
He started walking off before she started moving. Fortunately, his legs were so tiny that his pace was slow compared to hers, so she had no trouble keeping up despite the weight of the books and her late start. In fact, it was easy enough to keep up that she even had a chance to look at some of the books he was carrying. Yulia wasn't quite sure what he was even doing with so many. Did he have time to read all of these? She couldn't make sense of half the words on them either. Just trying to sound them out was making her head hurt. Rather than trying to talk, she spent the entire trip to the library with her eyebrow furrowed as she tried to figure out how to pronounce 'Naegleria Fowleri,' the title of the small book at the top of her stack.
Once at the library, she sat her stack down next to his and started looking around at other books. Yulia glanced back towards the book she was looking at on the way there, still curious to know what it was about. She still had about an hour to kill before her next class, so maybe it'd be okay to ask? If he seemed too bothered, she could always grab a book of her own.
"If you don't mind me asking what's..." she paused for a moment as she tried to figure out how to pronounce the word again, "Nay--Nayg-lay-ree-uh Fo-ler-ee?"
She was pretty sure she butchered the pronunciation horribly, but hopefully it was close enough that he'd understand.
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Post by Justin Richter on May 15, 2016 14:13:02 GMT -7
"Naegleria Fowleri," Justin corrected without looking up from the book he was considering. It was less a matter of teaching the girl the correct pronunciation than it was of washing the annoyance of hearing it pronounced incorrectly from his mind.
"A single-celled organism of kingdom protista," he continued, taking the opportunity to test his memory. "Freshwater thermophile that thrives at moderate pH levels. Notable for its ability to survive in temporarily hostile environments by forming resilient cysts.
"Normally survives by eating bacteria, but is also capable of subsisting on human neural tissue. Most common vector of infection is the nasal cavity, specifically the olfactory nerve. One week after exposure, the infection begins progressing toward the brain. Two weeks after exposure, symptoms include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting. Four weeks after exposure, prognosis is death.
"Treatment requires excision of the olfactory region as soon as symptoms begin to present, followed by cloning and replacement of the excised neural tissue." Justin blinked. "This treatment is not yet possible with modern neurosurgical technology."
Justin quickly went back to perusing more possible books to bring with him back to the classroom, hoping that this girl wouldn't ask any more questions that might cause him to forget himself for a moment.
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on May 18, 2016 18:22:17 GMT -7
So that's how it was pronounced. Yulia briefly wondered why the people that discovered these things picked such difficult things to call them. It seemed like it would be easier on everyone. Those thoughts were interrupted by the explanation itself. It took everything she had just to somewhat keep up. Were half those words even real words? What was he even trying to say? Her jaw hung open a bit, and she blinked several times as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. She remained silent for a moment once he was done talking, while her brain attempted to process what she just heard.
"What?" she eventually said, not quite sure what else to say. "I-I mean..." she paused, her face flushing a little from embarrassment as she tried to think of something to say. "S-So it eats peoples' brains? Scary...Why were you researching something like that?"
She only hoped it was for a research paper.
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Post by Justin Richter on Jun 7, 2016 7:39:43 GMT -7
"Because I have nothing better to be doing." Justin's voice carried a clear sense of annoyance. "Or at least, nothing that is practical to be doing in the window of time I have available. I am required to be here before my study period, and I am required to be here after my study period, so it falls to me to find the least mind-numbing task possible to be doing in that time. Since my classwork has already been completed, virtually anything would be preferable to just staring at the wall for an hour."
Justin paused. Well, that was the reason that he had considered reading the book in the first place, but it wasn't the whole story. He had devoted more attention to that book than most.
"That said, I do find naegleria fowleri to be a more interesting study subject than most. We humans tend to think of ourselves as creatures of pure thought, making our own choices with unbound free will. And yet our thoughts are driven by material machinery, machinery which is so fragile that simple life forms can work their way inside and devour it in a matter of weeks. That such things are possible is... thought-provoking."
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