Perhaps This Once

[Will Spencer]

There was a time and a place where one could find William at his most blissfully unaware state. Of course, his mood was always hit or miss, but the most likely place for him to be remotely pleasant, was sitting in the library with a new book or one of his favorites. He'd been in this library every single day since he'd first arrived at Bellefonte. He knew it inside and out, probably better than the librarian herself, though he'd admit she was doing a fairly decent job. He hadn't found too many things to complain about. In his spare time, while he was rummaging for new books, he often even took the time to make sure books were stacked and and in the correct order. He was an unofficial library aide, self-appointed.

Today he'd taken the time after his jog to stop in at the library as a cool down. He had recent shifted, so his body wasn't nearly as fidgety and he also found himself to feel sort of calm. There were few students in the library on campus at this time of the day, most were meandering, socializing or in their extracurriculars. The few that inhabited the space were completely engulfed in their studies and William felt as though he'd be able to enjoy his evening without any frustration caused by people.

As he walked around the library, he felt as though he were towering over everything. Gabriel was taller of course, but Will was still at eye level with one of the taller shelves that a vast majority couldn't reach without the ladder. His fingers brushed the spines of each book and he found himself even smiling. Gabe would have made fun of him, saying something along the lines of 'why can't you touch a woman that way,' or whatever else. It was a fair point of course, William cared for books more than he cared for most people. He'd happily die in a library, left alone to be surrounded by the musty smell of old books, the fresh crispness of new books. Will loved each and every part of books, not just their words.

Rounding the corner of one of the shelves, William let out and "oof" as he bumped into someone a titch smaller than him. "I'm sorry, you alrigh' there, mate?" His hand reached out to steady the person, until he realized he was still holding his book. "Sometimes I think these shelves ought' be a bit shorter, aye?"

[Kennedy Snow]

Harriet had been misbehaving, Kenny had put her hair up as punishment got get it to stop throwing books on the floor. Running her hand across the spines of a few books that had been left in the return bin She had felt the braille sticker that all the books had on the spines. Then Pushing up her glasses that had been falling down, that had no real use whatsoever, She walked gliding her hand across the back wall. She was counting in her head the amount of steps and reaching out and feeling each of the shelves as she passed them. 

Humming she strolled down the first aisle of shelves and reached up and ran her hand across the bottom of the books to find out where the first of the return books went. She found the spot and slid the book where it belong. Then she dragged her hand across the wood of the shelf itself that was holding up some of the books and she hummed some more and rounded the corner to put some of the rest of the books back into their rightful alphabetical by genre spots.

As she turned the corner she ran into somebody, the person must have been bigger than she was because she just bounced off and landed on her bum on the floor. She reached around for something to help her up then managed to push her hands down on the ground and get her feet under her then move to her feet and dust off her skirt. As usual she had been wearing the garments of a student. The books in her hand went flying from the impact. The person she had bumped into had apologized then made a joke about the shelves that she completely agreed with but as much as she wanted to smile she couldn't. Not while the books were on the floor. She pushed up her glasses then moved to her knees this might have looked somewhat seductive to the man in front of her had she not spoken.

"Its al..al..alright, I'm n..n...not h...hurt...But the b...b...books."

Not a very social person normally she would have tried to avoid the man. Not because he was not nice, he might have been for all she had known. But she was not great with words and avoided talking as much as she could before having to do so. When she got onto the ground she reached around for the books to find them and she crawled a little she found one. Then she knew what she had to do to get the others. But she really did not want to as there were people in the library that could see her and many found it weird. But she had no choice the books were on the floor.

Pulling her hair out of its updo bun bindings, she placed the tie into her pocket of her jacket then her hair fell free all 5'6" of it, and a lot of it. Then she was pushed to her feet by her hair and her hair reached around and made her lean in different directions as it picked up the books. Once she had them all picked up she walked back over to the guy that had bumped into her as she knew where he was because of the sound of his breathing.

"S...s...sorry about th..that..I d..don't like when the b..b..books are on the fl..floor..But I'm..cl..cl..cl..clumsy..I ap...p..pologize for r..running into y..you" 

[Will Spencer]

William was not typically the social butterfly type. Not ever. On occasion he would offer a greeting, he always spoke to professors and teachers, but the idea of conversing with other people often made him annoyed. He couldn't quite avoid contact and at least some small talk with someone that he had run into. Especially seeing as she was smaller than him and the librarian. If it had been another person smaller than him, he might have just said sorry and left it at that, but he liked the librarian and he enjoyed helping her, even if it was in a low key way that she might not notice.

Over the past twelve years, William had grown completely desensitized to weird abilities and the strangeness of mutants as a species. Watching her hair act as a person was hardly the weirdest thing he'd seen. He morphed into a big giant cat that liked to draw blood, frankly, he had no room to judge even if it was strange to him. He'd have offered to pick the books up for her, he even made to do so, but she was quicker.

As she came to stand in front of him again, he folded his arms across his chest, the book still in his hand. The benefit of talking to someone who couldn't see things was that he didn't have to force a smile. He didn't even have to look mildly interested in what she had to say. Of course he would be because he thought she was a decent human being and he sometimes liked to pretend that he was one too. Only in some cases did he actually try to keep the snide and brash remarks to himself. "That's quite alright. I can understand the bit about the books, not much of a klutz myself, but things li' that happen."

He cleared his throat, "D'you need help with anythin'? I've got some free time that I'd be more than willing to use for helping out." William figured he might as well, he could read in his own apartment, as he would be doing anyway.

[Kennedy Snow]

She had a light smile on her face from him asking to help her. She recognized his scent as he had transferred it to some of the books that he helped her put away in the past. He had already helped her for this she was grateful. But actually she might have something that he could help her with after all. She cuddled the books she was holding tight into her body then her hair bounced and the elasticity made it appear as it was shoulder length, wavy and curly. But it still had subtle movements that people would notice it almost appeared as there was wind catching her hair but the windows were all closed and no breeze could be felt.

"Ac...ac...actually...I h..h..h..have a group of k..k..k..kids coming h..h..here to th..th..th..the library...Its like a f..f..field trip...I am sup..sup..supposed to m..m...make it fun f....f..for them...B...b..but I'm n..n..not good at t..t..talking too m..m...much"

Truthfully she was not sure why she even agreed to it. She adored kids. But it was hard enough to talk to adults that wouldn't really have problems understanding her much less children. But it was a field trip to a big library in a bigger school. So she was happy to let the kids enjoy the books she had enjoyed for years. But she wanted to do something fun for them. Like have someone read a book to them or make her hair create puppets and act one out for them. Course she would have to bribe her hair to do that with the luxury shampoo it liked that was expensive but it was worth making the kids smile even if she could not see the smiles.

"C...c...could you h..h...help me may..may...make it fun for th..them...pl..pl..please?"

[Will Spencer]

Children. A bunch of gob shites. Ankle-biting little beasts. They were almost as bad as ducks, though he wouldn't go quite that far. Will liked to pretend that he hated children, couldn't stand them, was terrible with them. It was a lie, through and through. What little time he'd spent with his family, he'd been quite the babysitter for his twin sisters. He always read to Lottie when she was young, it had helped her sleep, just as it had when he was young. If he were to be honest with himself, he'd have loved to do it, would have accepted immediately without question because he believed that children needed to understand a love for books. Without books, creating your own fantasy world was practically impossible. It was always created for you.

But William couldn't help but lie through his teeth to the sweet librarian in front of him. It wasn't anything against her, but he had to make people believe that he was the monster that he knew he was. What would happen if something triggered him to shift? They'd scream in terror and never come back. Or worse, he could hurt one of them. "I, uh, I'm not quite the best with children. Never 'ave been, probably never will be. I'm sure you can handle it, or perhaps recruit one of the other teachers, an English or Lit teacher maybe?" Because although he was declining, he couldn't just leave her to hang out and dry.

Will just couldn't risk being around so many small people who were much more frail and vulnerable than the mutants around this place. And Gabe was nowhere near him to calm the beast before it had any time to react. Things might have been different if his best friend were there to make things go smoothly, but Will hated relying on the security of Gabriel's ability.

"I'm sure you could even find a student or two to offer some assistance. I can't be the only one who comes in here during my free time," Even though he knew it was almost a lie because free time meant time he wasn't studying. And people only ever really came in the library to study.

[Kennedy Snow]

"Th..th..th..thats ok...I c..c..can ask someone e..e..else...m..m..m..maybe I'll g..g..get a costume g..g..group to a..a..act out the b..b..books for th...th..them maybe the dr..dr..drama cl..cl..cl..class."

She was not angry or even disappointed that he had declined. She herself was not great with children either. She loved kids and wanted to take them on literary adventures showing them that imagination still has a place in this world. But she was awkward and she knew it, much too shy, her stutter made the kids laugh and made her feel bad, she couldn't turn down kids coming to the library however.

"Wh..wh..whats your n..n..name?"

Perhaps this situation would not be in vain, she could make a friend that could possibly help her set up for when the kids do get there. She felt bad asking as she did not really know the man though he smelled oddly familiar. But he did sort of offer to help and it might help her make a friend and be normal. she had been trying to make friends a lot lately to shake the "weird librarian" persona. Some had worked some hadn't. She brought up her hand and covered a light smile as her eyes showed sadness despite their lack of usefulness they could still convey emotion.

[Will Spencer]

Drama class? William might have snorted if it was anyone else, but because it was Miss Snow, he decided against it. It would have been rude and although he often was more than rude, he didn't feel comfortable being rude to a woman who cared for books as much as he did. Still, it was a ridiculous idea to have people who probably didn't even understand the meaning behind the words of these books attempt to act them out. Perhaps Will wasn't giving his peers enough credit, but he just didn't quite see any of them doing the classics justice. Maybe they could manage to act out Romeo and Juliet, a pair of two stupid teenagers who fall in love after a day of meeting and then die because they didn't think things through. Yup, sounded like something his classmates could handle.

"That uh, that sounds like a wonderful idea, ma'am," William said as convincingly as he could manage. As long as she couldn't see the look on his face, he figured he was alright to lie. His voice was much more convincing than his expressions. Something he was often thankful for. Especially with her being blind and all.

As she asked for his name, William considered lying. With his name came some preconceived notions that he was a terrible person who nobody could be around because he was impossible. Most of those notions were correct, as he didn't like people and didn't pretend to. But there were situations that he found himself being true to who he'd been before he manifested and it was most definitely not the man he was today. He'd been nicer then, a little sarcastic and perhaps too big for his britches, but he'd been kind. No one knew that little boy though because he'd died just as his parents had mourned him. William had hardened and become a completely different person over the span of thirteen years.

He decided that he didn't care though. If she believed the rumors, she wouldn't be the first. And if she had a problem, he simply wouldn't offer his help any longer and would remain to himself as he usually did. "Will Spencer, miss. I'm in 'ere quite a bit so you might recognize the voice around," He laughed shortly and rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't offer to shake her hand as he couldn't tolerate the idea of physical contact, but he did hope that she would hear the friendliness he was trying to convey in his voice. It was hesitant and a little strained, but there was something there.

[Kennedy Snow]

Bringing up her hand she covered a smile when he said his name. From lack of eye sight she did hear a lot of rumors that went around about people. But she ignored all of them and preferred to develop her own opinions on people because she felt that most of the time rumors were false she found this out many times in the past. Usually with rumors saying that different boys liked her. Then when she found out it was false she was shattered. She refused to be shattered anymore. So rumors went in one ear and out the other. She barely paid attention anymore and thus had not even really heard of the name Will Spencer.

"P...pl...pleasure to m...m...meet you W...w...will....can can can I c..c..call you W...W...Will...or d..d...d..do you prefer W...w....William or W...w...Willy...or Mr. Sp..sp...spencer?"

Kennedy had this bad habit of touching people. It was not to get on their nerves. It was more to paint a mental picture of the person using her sense of touch. Sometimes she would just touch people but usually she asked first. She wanted to touch him. To put contours to the voice that she actually was familiar with from hearing it around the library.

"M...m...may I t...t...touch you?...w...w..weird thing to as..as...ask I know b..b...but it hel...hel..helps me.."

[Will Spencer]

"Will. Just Will," He said shortly. There were only a select few people that he had ever been okay with calling him that. As a child, he hadn't mind it much, but once he detached himself from his family, it was only reminder of what he'd left behind. His mother had called him William, his uncle James, too. Lottie had always called him 'Lam-lam' which was her way of calling him William. The reminders were endless. It wasn't until he met his best friend that he had even accepted the full name again. And it was only when he was being a curmudgeon that Gabriel ever called him by his full name. Anyone else who decided to use it, usually were met with a very rude comment or was ignored completely. He refused to answer to it when a teacher or academy official used it. "Please," He said after a while, attempting to rein in his attitude.

Her next question that she struggled to get out had him frozen. He had been afraid she would ask. He'd known that as a blind woman, it was the only real way she could understand who she was talking to and what they looked like. And he respected that. However, touching was off the table for him. The idea of physical contact made his skin crawl and his stomach churn. The last form of physical contact that he'd had was the day that he scarred his mother for life. He couldn't control himself and he couldn't promise anyone's safety.

William cleared his throat and stepped back, "I'm sorry, I just...I don't feel comfortable with contact, ma'am. And it's probably safer if you did not touch me." It was nothing against her, in fact he was certain she would do it in such a way that wasn't intrusive or creepy, but that didn't make him feel any more confident in his own control.

[Kennedy Snow]

She could understand not wanting to be touched. It was a weird request anyway, she is surprised that he didn't run away. A staff member asking to touch the students must seem very weird. Nothing was meant by it but she did know how it sounded. It was hard for her to talk to people and make friends even if it was making friends with students. But she wondered if she could break the ice using books as she did know that he liked books as she recognized his scent and his voice in the library many times in the past. 

So maybe if she struck a conversation about books. She still had about an hour and a half before the kids showed up. So talking about books would be fun, if he didn't mind her speech impediment. But what should she ask? how could she start the conversation. Perhaps the classic?

"Wh...wh....what are you re..re..read...read..reading right n..now now...?"

With a smile she asked him. it was kind of a vague question but she was not really good at this kind of thing.