Quietly Researching

Fingers ran along the cool bindings of the books that lined the bookshelves, unconciously leaving a thin trail of ice to accompany the dust already lingering there. The ice melted away only seconds after, sparse droplets of water the only sign of their existence. His eyes scanned over each book title that was at his current eye-level, dismissing one after another. He blinked once as he reached the end of the bookshelf, fingers pausing on the last book. Giving a small shrug, he began walking backwards, fingers tracing the same, now damp trail as his gaze fell down to the next row.

He wanted a book. Not a book on the evolution of mankind, nor 10 steps to writing a good essay. What he happened to be looking for was a book that would help him better understand both himself and what he was. A book that would, in a way, help him to gain better control over his gifts. It was unlikely he'd find one fitting his description perfectly, but there was always the off chance he could find something clos-

His eyes locked onto a rather large text seated near the end of the fifth shelf, the deep blue cover making the fading black font almost unreadable. Slipping the book off the shelf, he gave a small noise as he shifted the heavy book in his arms. It turned out to be much heavier than he had thought it would be. Turning the book onto its back to get a clearer view of the title, he offhandedly dusted off the cover and wrinkled his nose at the amount of dust. Evidently, this wasn't a very popular book.

The Miracle of Water, he read silently to himself. This... this would do. Personally, he preferred a text that would discuss the concepts of water itself and the science behind it rather then one that would attempt to teach you, step by step, how to control gifts related to elemental control. Those were no help, the ones he'd read had been vague and their directions had hurt him more often than helped him. The focus exercises were usually rather ridiculous and their end results were usually an unplanned nap on his part.

Every person was different, so obviously, the way they would command their powers would be different too, right? There was no one way to go about it, and the chances of finding someone who used their powers the same way as yours were slim; at least, that was his opinion. With a sigh, he shook his head and cleared his thoughts, making his way toward a nearby empty table.

Setting the book down unceremoniously, Altair slid into the nearby seat and opened the book. He shifted himself into a comfortable position, elbow on the table and chin resting in his palm as he flipped the book open, settling in for a comfortable read.

Water has often been called the lifeblood of all living things...

((Pardon the length, I'm experimenting with my writing style :x))

Miranda slowly creaked open one of the two library entrance doors and slipped inside. She was returning a couple of books she'd borrowed only a day ago, but was finished with them all the same. Easy Ways To Change Your Appearance was the title of the first one, and Monsters was the other.

Wandering over towards the librarian, Mir placed the two books onto the lady's desk and spoke quickly, yet quietly. "Sorry, They're just not what I had expected them to be." The dark haired girl said, staring at the ground. "I'll just look for myself, Thanks." And with that, Mir turned from the counter and was off towards the book shelves.

The first shelf she came to had nothing that sparked her interest, so she went onto the next... and the next... and the next. "Is there nothing in this libr-" Miranda paused, tilting her head sideways to read the title of an old book that, surprisingly, caught her attention. "Vampires and Famous Slayers?" The girl read aloud, arching her eye brow with a rather peculiar expression about her face. Oh this interested her all right, very much so.

Sliding the book off from the shelf in her grasp, Mir noticed it was damp. But only slightly. Must be a leak somewhere. She thought to herself, glancing up at the ceiling briefly before turning back to her book. "Fascinating, How they think they're so special 'cause they slayed something." The girl muttered to herself, rolling her eyes slowly just before looking around for a place to sit... Preferably one with a bit of company. Today Mir was in a rather social mood.

Finally spotting a boy sitting at a nearby table, Miranda wandered over. "Uh- Is this seat saved?" She questioned politely once she was standing beside him, motioning towards the empty chair at the table.


(( XD I adore your rping style, and length.))

..the human body, for example, is two-thirds composed of wate- Altair paused in his readings and lifted his head, looking behind him at the rows of bookshelves. He's sworn he'd heard a voice, female?, coming from one of the rows. Through the books, he caught sight of a flash of black hair but couldn't make out anything else. Shrugging it off, he returned his attentions towards the text before him, picking up where he'd left off.

It was probably just another student who'd decided to do some reading as well, it was something to be expected in a library open to the whole school. Turning the page, he settled back into a steady reading pace, mentally noting things that he felt would be helpful for his own development of power. Knowing that a good deal of the human body was composed of water, which was obviously the main component of ice, was useful. In a way.

"Uh- Is this seat saved?"

Tair started slightly at the unexpected voice, his chin slipping from his palm as he looked around wildly for a brief moment before his gaze finally turned upwards toward the girl now standing beside him. He felt his cheeks heat slightly in embarrassment, offering a weak smile and shake of his head, motioning with one hand for the other to take a seat.

Well, that was smooth, he thought quietly to himself, watching the other student out of the corner of his eye. Mostly out of curiousity. She looked pale, almost sickly so, but she didn't seem unwell. She also seemed somewhat... delicate, weight-wise. By this point, Altair had taken to almost blatantly staring, not that he was aware of his own actions.

((Hee x3))

Miranda waited patiently for the boy to speak, but he did not. Uh- perhaps he didn't hear me? She thought to herself, arching a brow slightly before Altair shook his head as an answer. "Thanks." She replied hesitantly, pulling out the chair and taking a seat. Placing her book on the table, Miranda flipped through the first few pages. It was how she always read a book, skim through it once, and it if was interesting start over at the beginning. An odd habit, yes. But it seemed to work well with Mir.

After a few seconds, the dark haired girl glanced up at the boy across from her. Noticing his gaze was upon her, Miranda cautiously looked back down at her book. Great. She thought sarcastically, holding back from giving a depressed sigh. Knew I should've worn a cloak. Ah, how she hated being stared down. Always felt as if she was being watched, or gawked at.

Clearing her throat loudly, but not too loud, Miranda decided to speak. Since, obviously, he didn't seem too prone to talking while his eyes were too busy staring at her skin color. Or so she figured it was her skin he was staring at. "Well- uh- I'm Miranda." The girl said, pausing only briefly in the middle of her sentence. After all, she wasn't used to simply sturring up a conversation with someone, much less the opposite sex. "You're name?"

((Sorry for the delayed reply. T_T))

The clearing of a throat made Altair drop his gaze from the other girl's hair, it was a rather nice color, and look at her with an innocent blink. Belatedly, his brain reminded him that certain people did not, in fact, particularly like being stared at so intently without warning. Though, he doubted that asking a person if he could stare at them for the next ten minutes would work out very successfully.

"Well- uh- I'm Miranda... Your name?"

Altair opened his mouth as if to speak but paused and quickly shut his mouth, looking down at the table between them with a thoughtful look. The teen much preferred not to speak unless truly required, and this was a situation that didn't particularly call for his vocal abilities. Though, Miranda, as most other people did when he took to this form of communication, might think that he was simply 'showing off his gift'. He really hoped she wouldn't follow that train of thought; this was simply using his abilities to do something for him he didn't like to do.

Reaching a hand out to the empty space between their books, he began carefully tracing out letters upside down, or right-side up to Miranda. A trail of ice followed his finger and left a frozen marking in the shape of each letter. He paused a few times to make sure he was tracing the letters correctly, then drew his hand back once done. The word 'Altair' sat in slowly melting ice between their books now, reflecting the dim lighting of the library over the table. Glancing up at the girl through his bangs, he waited for her reaction.

Please don't be the bad kind of reaction... he thought to himself, unable to help a small shift in his position. There was a brief temptation to make himself a small ice cube, if only to calm himself with the cooling touch, but he quickly subdued the desire. He reminded himself that he needed to lessen his reliance on cold temperatures in order to calm his mind, another reason why he'd come to this school. Taking a small breath, he kept his gaze calmly on Miranda.

Mir waited patiently for the boy to reply, but rather than speaking... he did something that surprised her quite a bit. "Oh." She whispered to herself, watching intently as Altair slowly drew his name onto the table with what seemed to be ice. "Altair. I like that." Miranda absentmindedly said to herself with a smile, quickly biting the edge of her lower lip from embarrassment shortly after. "I mean, nice to meet you." She added hesitantly, only hoping the boy hadn't heard her previous statement.

Giving a rather deep sigh, Mir turned back to her book. Maybe Altair just didn't feel the need to talk. Maybe he can't. She thought to herself, allowing a lop-sided smile to tug at the corners of her lips while her eyes began to skim over the dry pages of her book. Perhaps I'm just boring to talk to? The girl continued in thoughts, now becoming annoyed, but only slightly. Maybe he just likes to draw with ice, go figure.

Flipping another page, a little louder than needed, Miranda glanced back up to see what Altair was doing. The boy was surprisingly hard to read, In Mir's point of view anyhow. She just couldn't tell whether he was agitated she was there, or simply didn't care. Hoping the latter, Miranda became silent. If he wished to talk, she was right there to reply.

Miranda's whispered words took him by surprise and caused him to blink curiously at her. He'd never really met someone who had said they'd liked his name before... he couldn't help the faint smile that crossed his lips at the idea. Though, Miranda had looked rather embarrassed about her whispered words, so Altair decided not to bring it up again.

He moved his hand out again, wiping off the melting ice and water and forming a clean ice cube. Looking concentrated, he helf the cube in one hand and used the melting water to write his next few words. It was much easier on him to freeze water already available to him rather than to have to collect water molecules in the air, condense them on his skin, then freeze it. When he had water near him, he saved almost one-half of the amount of energy it took for him to use his powers.

A pleasure to meet you as well, read the newly formed words now slowly melting on the table between them. He nodded slightly in satisfaction at the sentence and turned his gaze up towards Miranda, only to notice that she wasn't really looking at him anymore. His fingers twitched slightly before he drew his hand back, casting his gaze back down to his own book and missing the moment she looked back at him.

Perhaps she had been put off by his use of powers...

Still peering over at the boy with her head tilted curiously, Miranda noticed he was reading, which only led to her giving a small shrug. She had really expected him to say something by now, but it didn't seem as if he was any time soon. So the question on whether he was mute or not lingered in her head a few seconds longer before noticing something newly written upon the table.

A pleasure to meet you as well. Miranda read to herself, getting a little more comfortable with the messages Altair continued to write. After all, she had never met someone with such ability like his, and it sort of brought a toothy grin to her face. Which, wasn't necessarily a good thing, since the vampire fangs she possessed could be noticed rather easily when she grinned big.

Crossing her arms, Miranda stared back over towards Altair in hope of getting his attention away from his book and back on her. "Wh-" She hesitated, waiting only a second longer for his attention before continuing. "What else can you do?"

Mir snapped her book shut and set it on the floor beside her. She then crossed her arms once more and leaned them on the edge of the table, waiting patiently to see if there was anything else Altair could do to entertain her. Unfortunately, The book she had chosen wasn't as appealing as the boy currently sitting across from her.

"Wh-...What else can you do?"

Altair blinked once in surprise at the text in front of him then turned his gaze up to look at Miranda, who happened to be looking right back at him. The somewhat wary look he'd no doubt taken on was soon replaced by a timid smile as he closed his book as well, moving it to the side.

Very few people had ever wanted to see more of his powers. More often than not, they were more interested in getting him to talk, for whatever inane reason. He honestly didn't think that voices were a necessity, unless one was a singer, of course... He quickly cleared out the thoughts left behind by his own mental ramblings, looking back at Miranda thoughtfully.

What else could he do that wouldn't be too large or destructive for their current environment...? Tracing his finger in small circles on the table, he pondered over the things he'd been able to do with his powers thus far. He brightened slightly as an idea came to him in the form of an old memory and straightened in his seat.

Moving his fingers along the table, he traced out the shape of a star on the table then placed his palm over the faint design. Slowly lifting his hand up, water crystallized into ice and filled the shape he'd outlined, each layer of ice stacking perfectly on the last. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand away from the spot to reveal an inch-thick block of ice in the shape of a star. He smiled slightly then continued on to make other shapes, moons, suns, circles and squares, until at least a dozen of the little ice scupltures sat on the table.

As a little boy, this had been one of the training exercises his parents asked him to do in order to gain better control over his powers. Creating little shapes, perfect in design and identical with each creation, allowed him to manage the finer details necessary when using his powers. He wouldn't use up excess energy by making more ice than a situation called for or mess up by making less ice. At this point in his life, he'd perfected that exercise and could make dozens of inch-high sculptures, as long as the shape was a simple one, without over-exerting himself.

Altair rubbed his hands together slowly to get rid of the slight tingling he always felt in his hands after using his powers and glanced over at Miranda, curious to see how she would react. The demonstration wasn't a very glamourous or intricate one, but it was something he'd spent two years perfecting as a child and a technique he was rather proud of.