Computers vs. Books

[UPstart]

Ever since the morning, Carter had tried to avoid people as best as he could by exploring the mansion on his own and looking for the places that were least likely to have people. He wasn't really sure about the people here, although he did like Liv since she was really nice and funny. He had been disappointed when that other boy came and made him run off quickly. He wish he could be brave and courageous just like all those heroes in the comics that he read.

That's what made him go to the library for the evening, since he'd been doing a good job of avoiding that jerk of a roommate that he was forced to have and he didn't want to chance running into him in the evening. He was sitting at the computer in the farthest corner of the library, away from the fireplace and all the places where people usually would go. Carter was reading online comics, admiring the art and totally immersed in the story. His favorites were the comics that they wrote about Captain America and Spider-Man. Of course he knew that the stories that they wrote in here were probably nowhere near as awesome as the things they did in real life.

Carter decided he liked hiding out in the library. He wasn't a big reader in anything other than comic books, but this place even had a section on comic books and graphic novels. He already had a pile of them next to him on the desk. He already decided that this was another cool place that he could hang out to avoid his roommate and all the other jerks in this place. Jerks usually don't hang out in libraries, so he figured he was pretty safe here.

[Sketch]

The place was huge. Beyond huge, it was a labyrinth. He kind of expected David Bowie to pop out from around a corner and Muppets to start giving him directions via group musical numbers. He’d stumbled across the cafeteria, the rec room, the kitchen, not bothering to speak to anyone if he happened to pass them. Max was rather stone faced as he explored this new place, a sketch book that he’d nicked out of the art room tucked up under his arm, a case of pastels in hand, and his sharpie clipped to the collar of his shirt. He was looking for a room that he could just sit and unwind in, maybe draw a little bit just to pass the time until he was tired enough to deal with Dorian. Part of Max ached to go outside, just because it was still a new sensation, but the light was gone. His eye-shine would offer a bit of illumination, but he decided he would be better off just finding a large room someplace where he didn’t feel closed in, and just unwind.

The library was the solution. He forewent the tables. Too many chairs meant the possibility that people might sit near him and to be frank, he was feeling a touch overwhelmed by ‘people’ since his escape from Seattle. Maybe tomorrow, he thought, turning into the stacks. He walked through the fiction seeking something specific. He smiled when he saw the narrow black and gold spine of The Giver and sat down against the shelf, crossing his legs and balancing the sketchpad on his knees. He meticulously arranged the pastels, making sure they sat perfectly aligned and in color order. It had been a long time since he’d been allowed the luxury of colored pencils and his hand hovered over them a moment. The corner of Max’s mouth curved up, his face loosing its stoic harshness as he uncapped his sharpie. First things first.

He was hungry.

His eye-shine glimmered and there was the sandwich, resting on his paper. It wasn’t pretty, but he hadn’t drawn it to be pretty. He’d drawn it to be delicious, and that’s exactly what it was. Max chewed thoughtfully as he flipped the sketch book to a new page. He’d had something in mind since his arrival at Xavier’s and he took up an orange pencil. He was silent as he worked, considering this new place and what he was in for. He couldn’t imagine that a school full of super powered teenagers being meant smooth sailing. He’d seen it first hand when his brother tried to instigate a drag race between him and that kid with the Bugatti.

A ‘win’ button… Max snorted at his brother’s incomprehension. As if Max could just make things happen like that. He could create, manipulate, not draw the future. Shelly just didn’t get it. As pure as Shelly’s intentions were, he missed the mark entirely. “Your kind.” Max scowled down at his drawing, pushing his family out of his head. He took his time, totally concentrated on the task at hand, shading and thumbing the colored dust until his hands were filthy and his page was filled with color.

“Don’t burn anything.” Max’s voice was little more than a whisper, his strange eye glistening. The lines on the paper glowed brightly with the same unnatural light as Max’s left eye and the phoenix rose slowly from the paper. It was almost painful to look at and Max quickly dropped his sunglasses from where they were resting on top of his head to settle on the bridge of his nose. She was beautiful. She wasn’t engulfed in flame, she was flame, but cool to the touch. Max touched her tentatively and the fire bird snapped at his fingers as she tugged her way free of the page. The air around her was intensely warm but, like Max had ordered, she didn’t catch anything as she unfurled her wings and rose into the air.

Max wiped his dusty hands on his jeans, grinning as his drawing flew gracefully overhead, letting out the occasional triumphant SKRAAAW. “Not bad,” he muttered, leaning against the shelf at his back. “Not bad at all.”

[reMOVE]

After leaving the head mistress’s office, Vincent walked the halls until his eyes caught a glimpse of massive amounts of books and computers. His eyes lit up and he went into the library and went to find the classics. It had been so long since he sat down and curled up with a good book. After the incident with his last school and getting expelled his father made him do non-stop yard work, so when he found a copy of Midsummer’s Night Dream by Shakespeare he quickly plucked it from the shelf and found a chair. Lost in the words of the bard he smiled and read. Vincent loved the classics and felt it was a shame that modern day literature was void of such passion and style.

Vincent sat quietly and read, looking at other students when the passed picking up on muscular twitches not picking up anything really worth copying from others, so he read on. Lost in the pages of the book, he dropped his guard as he read on. Once he got to a good point to stop he placed a small piece of paper in the book and set it aside. With this done Vincent got his laptop out of his backpack and fired up and searched for a Wi-Fi connection. He looked around and slipped a flash drive from a secret pocket in his jacket and plugged it into the laptop. Once it was detected, he double clicked into the drive and launched his password cracker. His eyes flicked around, he had done this enough time in his old schools that he had gotten used to checking around for snoops. Once the cracker did its thing, he closed out and pocketed the flash drive into the secret pocket and began surfing the web.

Vincent didn’t go into anything related to the school; he kept his digital tracks rather clean at least for the time being. He went to his blog site and did an update for his readers.

Greetings readers, from my new school, I am sure you all used to me saying that. Because I have changed schools multiple times since I started this blog. The trip here was a smooth and beautiful ride. There are a lot of good looking girls here; I had best get over my nervousness around females if I hope to survive. Just figured I would give everyone an update before I go to find my room and my roommate. Here is hoping that my roommate is just as tidy as I am.

With his blog updated, he didn’t really do much else on the web so he clicked out and shut down and put away his laptop and played a game of cards by himself and looked around to see if there was anyone interesting to talk too.