to know the unknown

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WHO Sefton, blessddrgntamer, swatwithdragons and motherlanders.
WHAT ^P_KM_NT_RN_R Sefton needs a place to go after ecoterrorism goes way too far out of hand in Hoenn. He retreats to find his half-sibling in Blackthorn, whom he only knows about through the news and his mother's stories.
WHERE Blackthorn, in the Johto region.
WHEN Early 1994. Sefton is 11½, Lance is 20.
NOTES Continues over in the live-action pokémon musebox.

The road was beginning to give way, path widening into something more respectable and well-traveled. He was so close. So close to safety and finally finding the other half of his family. Not that his mother had ever let him down or did less than her best to raise him, but something had always been missing as he had grown up. Maybe he would find it here.

For that, Sefton was almost grateful to Teams Aqua and Magma for their insane plots that were literally destroying the Hoenn region in an effort to make it more habitable for pokémon. Who cared if all the people living there wouldn't be able to adapt or survive all the rapid changes as long as the pokémon were happy, right?

Sefton grunted disdainfully and picked up the pace. Glalie hovered behind him, matching his speed and watching his back. They were both exhausted from the journey, evading the authorities on the off-chance they would simply deport him back to Hoenn if they discovered him, not to mention fighting off all the wild Pokémon in the area that wandered too close. At least the nudge in the back of his mind usually gave them advance warning...

They were almost there. Just needed to make it toward the gym, announce his intentions to seek shelter with the clan...

"So close," he breathed.

Comments

[swatswithdragons]

"Good." Lance stepped further into the room and beckoned at the boy to come closer. The area around the door was broad, with a big rug to cover the stone floor; the bookshelves only started a little way in.

"There are work-desks over there." Lance nodded toward the windowed-wall. "And on the other side, reading chairs. No computers; it's too hard to get the wiring this far. Some people bring in their handhelds, though."

They stopped at the nearest aisle so Sefton could peer down it. "None of the aisles are marked," Lance admitted, "since most people who come here already know where everything is. What are you interested in?"

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Sefton moved with Lance, but didn't get overly close. He turned his head at the indications, then looked down the aisle as was expected, even stepped inside so he could take a gander at some of the titles of the nearest books before turning back to Lance. "Are there stories?" he asked, tentatively. "Like... fiction."

[swatswithdragons]

"Some, I imagine," Lance admitted, glancing down first to their right and to their left, "but I'd have no idea where they are, and this isn't exactly a library for fiction."

He didn't exactly read a lot of it, himself. He nodded toward the desk. "Why don't you go ask?"

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Sefton waffled, looking between Lance and the archivist at the desk, leaning slightly as if to move away, but then he frowned and thought better of it. He turned to face Lance entirely. "What d'you like reading?" he asked, earnest in his curiosity. Maybe they could head down that way and, if he got lucky, spot the fiction along the way.

[swatswithdragons]

For whatever reason, Lance wasn't expecting that question, and he blinked. "I don't read," he said without thinking, and then clarified, "I don't read for pleasure. I don't have time."

It was true. Reading was a means to an end, and always had been. He found it easier now that he had reading glasses, but it had never been something he indulged in for its own sake.

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It made some sense; Lance was part of the Elite Four, after all. They were probably super-busy all the time. On retrospect, it made the fact that he was here at all (hanging around with Sefton, even!) something of a guilty treat. That didn't make his lack of enthusiasm for reading any less sad, though.

"Oh," he said, nibbling on his lip in thought. "Can I show you a book I like? If it's here...?"

[swatswithdragons]

"Of course. We can ask the archivists, if we can't find it on the shelf." Assuming he even knew where in the library it was. He came here for research, not to loiter, and he usually asked for directions or for the staff to bring the books straight to him.

Besides, this was a learning experience. If Sefton liked reading, then the sorts of books he read would tell Lance more about him.

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"Let's look, first," Sefton suggested with the tentative beginnings of a smile. It would give him that much more time with Lance, even if he was still unsure about the man as a whole. Sensing him on a regular basis wasn't going to work, so hanging around was his next best option... as long as the man didn't mind him being nearby.

(Of course, they would still need to ask about the fiction section as a whole, but he wanted to extend the process as long as possible without being obvious about it.)

[swatswithdragons]

Lance considered that, considered the fact that it was inefficient--and then shrugged, with a faint sigh. "Alright. Which direction would you like to start out in?"

If they were going to look, they were going to look. It would be a good opportunity for the boy to realise just how big the library was, to wander around and get a grasp of where all the sections were and how the books were sorted. It would give Lance the opportunity to observe.

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Sefton hesitated, then smiled to himself and turned toward the large array of shelves. After a moment of consideration (playing eeny-meeny-miny-moe in his head), he pointed somewhere near to the far end. "Over there?" he asked, looking up at Lance for permission.

[swatswithdragons]

"Alright. Over there it is." Part of Lance was wondering what he was doing, giving a child a tour when he had work to do, things he had to follow up on. And yet he still started down the line of shelves, turning toward Sefton to make sure he was following.

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Trotting eagerly after Lance, Sefton immediately turned up to look at the book spines as they passed. They weren't fiction, as far as he could tell, more like how-to books. Some of the titles seemed interesting, but he couldn't well stop in the middle of his specific search just to start pulling out books at random, could he?

"D'you see anything interesting?" He looked over to Lance, curiously. Even if he didn't read much, Sefton was still curious what sorts of things the older man might find neat or eye-catching.

[swatswithdragons]

"Hm?" Lance looked down at Sefton with a blink. Truthfully, he hadn't been paying attention to the passing books. He'd just been looking forward. Walking at a clip slow enough for Sefton to be able to keep up and yet still look around, yes, but he hadn't been looking around himself. "I wasn't looking."

He looked around now, though, eyes catching on the spines. "Oh, these are research and reference books. Most of the time, they're only used by the students here. You'll probably find them useful."

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"School books?" Sefton translated, turning once again to inspect the titles. Interesting! Were there teachers in the clan, as well, or were the books simply here to help any of the children who went out into the town for education? "You ever have to read any of these?"

[swatswithdragons]

"On occasion." No need to mention that he didn't do a lot of reading back then. Hard to read when you couldn't see the letters and didn't realise there was a reason for it. "History books, mostly." They were the ones he recalled, at least.

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It was something, which was better than Sefton had a few minutes ago. "D'you like history?" he asked again, hoping to figure out something he could talk about with his brother, something they could try sharing. Assuming Lance even wanted that in the first place.

[swatswithdragons]

"It's not bad, I suppose," Lance admitted without looking around at Sefton. "But it's usually for a purpose. Research. You can learn a great deal from history, and the history of the Clan is particularly rich compared to other places. Fusube managed to retain a great deal of its past."

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"What kinda history research would you need to do?" asked Sefton, brows furrowing. He sort of understood the importance of it, but there begged the question of why it would be interesting to someone on the Elite 4 — you would think he would be invested in different topics... right? What could Lance glean from that and not something more to the point?