night of the meek

Florencia had been spending most of her days in the library, comforted by the familiar din of pages being turned and faint coughs as students fought to keep awake. Even though she didn't interact with many people, she still enjoyed being in the midst of the student body. She hadn't gotten the hang of making friends here yet, and was still a little shaky on those terms.
She dragged her favourite novel in this afternoon, intending to read about the adventures of a man who made it his goal to give to the less fortunate on Christmas. She had visited this story world a couple times, enthralled by the kind-hearted man that is originally painted as coarse and unfeeling. She made friends, and fell in love with the personalities of each character. That was the biggest problem with being able to turn stories into life-- the side-effect that one might want to stay in that world. She had always wondered what would happen to her if she stayed in a story, whether people would search for her, or if her presence would be completely erased from the minds of all who had known her.

Settling down at an already occupied table, Florencia quickly ducked her head, mumbling a short hello. She didn't bother to look at the stranger sitting at the table, trying to open her book as fast as she could manage. As her fingers pulled the well-worn copy open, the front cover ripped off, and she gave a short cry of dismay, pausing with book and cover in either hand.

Looking up helplessly, Florencia whimpered softly. She didn't really know what to do in this situation, never having ripped a book in half before. Her hand wandered up to her forehead, gently tracing the ridges on her horn. Her nervous habit, she hoped that her output of glitter wasn't increasing. Though, it probably was. It had a habit of getting worse in situations with high stress.

"U-uhm... Do you know... What to do?" Holding out the cover and book, Florencia looked timidly up at the male stranger, wide eyed and rather close to crying. This was her favourite book, and she hadn't ever seen other copies in stores before. She would know, she looked often enough.

Florencia returned the boy's smile shakily. She wanted very much to believe him when he said that everything would be okay. Everything was going to be just perfectly fine. Nothing to worry about! Despite her miniature pep-talk in her mind, Florencia began to shiver a little bit. "T-tape... Yeah." Florencia glanced at the librarian's desk, currently manned by a funny little blue haired woman. Shivering at the idea of speaking to anyone in her fragile state, she glanced back at her book for reassurance, and stood suddenly, trotting quickly to the desk, squeaking at the librarian and swiping the tape quickly, before any questions would be asked.

Plopping back down in her seat, Florencia held out the tape to the stranger, staring at him with wide eyes. She didn't know where to start taping, and she was rather afraid that she would mess it up even more. "Um... Would you...?"