An Encounter at Socrates' Antique Books (Private w/ Jack)

It was a rather quiet Saturday for Aetheria. She had no classes today, so she had a totally free schedule. Initially, Aetheria had planned to spend some time in the library of Syne Academy writing a fanfiction she was writing. However, she soon changed her mind once she discovered that her favorite spot in the library was taken.

“Well, looks like it is time for me to resort to my backup plan.” Aetheria thought quietly to herself as she left the library. Her backup plan for today was to pay a visit to a bookstore called “Socrates’ Antique Books”. Aetheria had heard that that particular bookstore had a wide variety of books ranging from the mundane to the most unusual.

After taking the airship to Central Bellmuse, Aetheria then quietly walked towards the bookstore while avoiding contact with anyone along the way. It didn’t take her long before she arrived at the store. It was a rather beautiful building. The doors were made of solid mahogany and the windows were well-maintained. After admiring the exterior of the store for a bit, Aetheria then entered the store.

“Good Morning, Miss.” An old man who had white hair and rather large thick rimmed glasses greeted from behind the front counter. Aetheria didn’t say anything, but she responded with a nod before she began exploring the bookstore. However, her attention was soon drawn to the Mythology/Occult section. A few moments later, Aetheria began looking up and down the aisle and started examining the various books.

After an entire night and the entire morning so far, Jack had been running from place to place on the hunt for someone he had been tracking for some time now, and he was now on his last chance to find them.  Bat in hand, the chicken-masked man kicked open the door to a book store, "Socrates' Antique Books," one of his target's favorite places to hang around.  If he didn't find them here, his hunt would have been for nothing, and by the looks of it, that seemed to be the case.  Jack ran up to the man behind the counter.  If anybody bothered to listen, to the details, they'd hear him ask the man if they'd seen a shorter blonde person, only to get a startled "no."

"That's just... that's great, you know?  That's...  Oh my god, I'm really tired now."  Jack sighed deeply and walked around the shop, searching for a chair.  Slumping down in a wooden chair by a table, Jack looked straight up at the ceiling in defeat, lowering his shoulders and holding his bat in his lap.  This was his very first failure in his time on this island, and while some might find comfort in there only being one failure so far, Jack couldn't feel satisfied at all in this scenario.  Jack sat up straight in his chair, contemplating what to do now that it was too late to get some sleep and he was now done working for a while.

Suddenly, he saw her.  Some girl with purple hair and a wicked looking staff.  Whoever this was, they probably had something interesting to say, right?  Jack certainly hoped so.  In order for him to get over how bummed out he was having lost his target, he'd need someone with something cool to say to keep him distracted.  Besides, if he didn't have anything to do soon, he might just pass out from exhaustion right in his chair.  "You there, with the staff!  Do you have anything cool to talk about?  Come on, help a guy out, I just lost out on some money and I need something else to think about."

Jack's shoulders fell as he was completely ignored by the person who he thought would be able to provide him with decent conversation.  As far as he could tell, he didn't do anything too bad, and nothing that would warrant getting coldly ignored.  Maybe she was just too busy?  No, she didn't seem to be doing anything incredibly important.  Maybe she was just being rude for no reason.  He didn't like to believe that people like that existed, but he had no other solid explanation for what just happened.  Jack stood up from his seat to walk towards the stranger, hoping that maybe they just didn't notice him somehow.

"Hey, I was talking to you, y'know.  Do you normally ignore people when they talk to you?  Not the best way to make friends."  Jack spoke with a bit of humor in his voice, making sure that she didn't think he was being outright hostile so suddenly.  "Now, let's try again, huh?  Do you have anything interesting to talk about?  That book, maybe?  I need to distract myself right now.  Oh, and you're supposed to answer this time."  Again, he wasn't completely upset about this, but it wasn't exactly fun to be ignored by somebody, especially when one is already in a bad mood.

As the owner of the store was finishing up with her, Aetheria put away her money pouch. As she did so, the man that she walked past earlier walked up to her in a somewhat irritated fashion. He was stating loudly that he was talking to her. in addition to this, he commented that it was rude to ignore people and that is was not a good way to make friends. Finally, he demanded that they restart the conversation and this time she had to answer.

Aetheria scoffed mentally at the sight. The young man hasn't picked up on the fact that she wasn't the type that spoke much. Aetheria didn't say anything in response to the young man's suggestion. Aetheria didn't like being forced to talk. She only talks when she feels like talking. Instead of replying to the young man, Aetheria took the books she bought from the owner.

"Hey, Lad. Stop bugging the lass. If she doesn't want to talk, don't force her to talk." The shop owner commanded loudly at he stared at the young man. As he did this, Aetheria turned around and smiled slightly before walking towards the front door of the shop. As she walked away, she walked past the young man without even looking at him or acknowledging him.