quiddity [FALC]

[Forte!]

quiddity \KWID-ih-tee\ n.
1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing.
2. A hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble.
3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.

Books. Books. Books. Old books, new books, books with dog-eared pages and battered spines. The place even smelled of books, of paper and ink and all of the people who had lovingly fondled the cream-colored pages. Or spilled coffee on them. Whatever. Rowan trounced along the rows of books, glancing at each one in turn with looks of nostalgia, disgust, or even brief curiosity. Whenever it was the latter, she would slide the book out of place, flip through a few pages, and invariably sliding it back into wherever she had gotten it from in the first place. She was kind of picky about her reading material, obviously, and, at the moment, didn't have a single book tucked under her arm to read. She made her way out of the isle and went to the next one systematically, making her slow way through all of the fiction books.

She came to a halt again in front of the various Sherlock Holmes collections, with a slight smile on her lips. She had loved those books as a child, even if they were slightly far-fetched. She could take that, up to a point, at least. She lifted one of the volumes off of the shelf and began to read, standing there in the middle of the isle with a little grin on her face as she read over the familliar lines. She still remembered how they all ended, which was both a gift and a curse. She had trouble reading books more than once, but it had led to a remarkable success in English class. With a sigh, she placed the book back on the shelf and made her way over to the non-fiction. She had more success here, and within moments came out bearing a book by one of her favorite authors, Bill Bryson. She checked out and left the library, sitting down on the sun-bathed concrete steps and looking out over the garden that stretched out in front. It was gorgeous, so much so that it drew a sigh from her lips before she opened the book and began to read.

[FalconX]

Going to the library probably wasn't the best idea for Marcus. He always was a bit to loud for that kind of place. Not that he really had a choice, he was taking classes online to finish highschool, and he was failing one of his classes. Which meant, study time. What fun. The blonde teen stopped his skateboard by putting one of his feet on the ground, just as he rolled in front of the library building. He raised and eyebrow at the large, imposing structure. With a smooth movement, he flipped the board up and his hand caught the top. With an over dramatic sigh, he walked up the stairs and through the doors.

The silence in the room was awful, and not exactly welcoming. He rolled his eyes and grinned at the people whispering amongst themselves. He walked through the isles but gave up after about five minutes of searching. An older lady walked over, apparently she was one of the librarians. After politely asking if he was looking for something he grinned! "Finally, service!" He exclaimed, earning him several annoyed looks and a 'shh' from another librarian. "Just need a math book.." He mumbled sheepishly.

After she handed him the book he was looking for, he walked out, trying to be as quiet as he possibly could. He still was yelled at once more, but other than that, he was pretty sucessful. He walked out of the doors, and just as he was walking down the steps, he spotted a girl, reading. He smirked, and walked over towards her. "What's cookin' good lookin'?" Cheesy, yes. But in all honesty, he wasn't trying to flirt with her, he was just joking around.

[Forte!]

Rowan had hardly got thorugh a page when she heard someone clomping noisily down the stares behind her. Normally, she wouldn't have even lifted her gaze to take notice of anyone, but this time was different. She watched Marcus out of the corner of her eye as he seemed to come towards her with purpose. Oh, for goodness' sakes! Could she ever get rid of these people? His comment brought a thousand scathing replies to her tongue, and she turned around with an expression of anger and disgust on her face, a classic glare. It said very plainly: "stop that or I will find out where you live and subsequently proceed to ruin your life in more ways than you can think of." Or something like that, at least. Maybe not in so many words. The expression was pure acid.

"Won't work, you jerk," she replied, but there was hardly any malice in her voice, compared to your gaze. She said it with an equal amount of cheesy cheer in her voice, which was somehow scarier. Internally, she shuddered. She hated internal rhyme, and it had been lame anyway. Normally she would have laughed at herself, but now she barely quelled a twitch of her facial muscles as she stared at Marcus. She almost pulled it off, but somehow a rather amused look managed to flit across her face for a brief instant before it was replaced by the same steely glare, which seemed less sinceire at this point. Why, when she was on the cusp of achieving perfect (if somewhat badly rhymed) sarcasm, did she always have to muss it up by grinning? Was she really so fundamentally good natured that she couldn't feel anger for more than half a second without finding amusement?

[FalconX]

Marc stood near the girl and grinned, one hand holding his book, and skateboard tucked underneath his other arm. He shifted his position, so that most of his weight was on his right leg. His blue eyes sparkled in amusement as he looked at the girl, who seemed so enthralled with the book that she was reading. He saw her look up and watch him, but instead of looking happy to have company or anything of the sort, she looked annoyed. He raised and eyebrow at her, but it didn't stop him from trying to strike of conversation. That's just how he was. Set out to make people laugh, then again, she didn't look like she was anywhere near laughing.

He watched anger and then disgust flash across her face, in turn, a glare, eyes flashing. Her words were taken lightly, it took more than that to make him upset. He mock winced, "You wound me. Oh how thy words pierce." He exclaimed dramatically, thankfully not getting in trouble this time. Thank goodness he was no longer in the library. "Scathing words diminshes thy beauty." He commented with a grin in her direction. Instead of walking away like any sane person, he sat down next to her. Encouraged by the flicker of a smile on her face.

[Forte!]

She hadn't realized that it had been a joke, and it dawned upon her slowly, visibly crossing her face in an instant that seemed drawn out ad infinitum. Slowly, her look of disgust changed into a curious gaze, the corners of her mouth twitched up at his light banter. She did, however, noticably scoot to the opposite edge of the steps when he sat down, under the apparent premise that she was moving to better look at them, although acutally it was sheer discomfort at his closeness. She didn't really like being so... near... to other people, so close that she could feel the static off of their arms or the heat of their bodies. "Ah, 'tis but a flesh wound." she said lightly, her voice taking on a lighter air. Somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped that she got the Monty Python reference - sometimes people didn't get her jokes...

She gave an outraged - but faux - snort at his next comment. A brief letting out of breath that caused her curly locks to shift across her head and fall into her peripheral vision. She rolled her eyes, the hazel shade easily slipping in color depending on what sort of light it reflected. "And pathetic jokes diminish thy handsomeness. If any such thing lurks behind that goofy grin of yours." She replied quippily, but the beginnings of a smile were tracing her lips, and she waived the premise with a collapse, leaning back slightly, no longer combative. It wasn't that she didn't like the company of others - sometimes others simply didn't match up to her standards. "Rowan Kennis. You?" She said after a moment, reaching out a hand to shake.

[FalconX]

He watched with interest as her face began to change and she didn't look quite so mad. In fact, she looked almost curious about him. Geez, her moods changed quickly. When she responded to his jokes, he grined and chuckled at what she said. "I didn't take you for one that knew of Monty Python, fair lady" He said with a grin. When he sat down, and she slid away, it did not go unnoticed. He raised an eyebrow. But decided not to make a comment. She looked like the typical kind of girl who didn't want any guy near them. It didn't bother him though, it's not why he came over to talk to her. He set his book next to him, along with his skateboard. Leaning back and grinning, completely relaxed, as if he was sitting in a reclining chair instead of on a concrete step.

He laughed at her words. At least she knew how to joke around. Some people just needed to lighten up. "Some would say it's charming" He joked, not at all offended by her comment. He stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles, still watching the girl. She looked prettier with the light smile resting on her lips, even if it was just barely there. "So I now know the name of the one who denies me." He said with a smirk, reaching out and shaking her hand. "Marcus Laney, darlin'"

[Forte!]

She waived off his comment at her knowledge with one hand. "Oh. I'm omnipresent, omnipotent, and definately omniscient. I know more than you think," she raised on pencil-thin eyebrow, a rather dubious look crossing her face and a chuckle quivering at the cusp of speech. She laughed too much, she knew that, so she tried to keep it in check. This time, she managed to stifle it without making any sort of crazy half-sound. She watched, slightly fascinated, as he relaxed. She never could bring herself to relax around other people. Whether it was inborn caution or learned from many betrayals, she did not know. All that mattered was that her caution, was, in fact, extant, and a contant air of wary indifference haunted her reserved frame. She had decided, for the moment, to let his name-calling go on, although she wasn't exactly appreciative of him calling her 'darling' or 'fair lady' all the time. The rain in Spain falls mostly on the plain. Blah blah blah.

She rolled her eyes at his next comment, and didn't even justify it with an answer. "And now I know the name of the one who throws around terrible pick-up lines at my expense," she replied easily, but without any malice in her voice. "Pleased to meet you, Marcus." She drew her hand away, shaking it at the wrist slightly as if she had dreaded the touch. She hadn't, in fact, it was kind of a bad habit. She was something of a hypochondriac, and knowing roughly how many germs there were on every square inch of human flesh didn't help her much in that regard. She glanced at the book he was holding. Math, huh? She liked numbers. Numbers didn't lie, didn't play tricks on you like words did. But she hadn't taken Marcus for a numbers sort of guy.

[FalconX]

"Okay, okay, I officially believe that you know more than any person I've ever met" He threw his hands up in mock surrender but the playful grin on his lips showed he was joking. Though he had to admit, she was smart, even if he had just met her. Well, his intellect certainly paled in comparison to hers. He grinned as it looked like she was trying to supress a laugh. He wished she would at least laugh if she wanted to. He was never one to stop himself from doing something, or feeling something. The sounds of footsteps caused him to turn his head, watching a person walk down the stairs briefly, before turning his head and looking back at Rowan with his usual smile on his lips. One would hardly, if ever, find him without a smile, or acting serious. His father always told him he needed to grow up, he always shrugged it off and laughed. But it hurt, being told you were an idiot of a son, never responsible. Which wasn't exactly true, he took care of his little sister, when his father was always at work. He cleaned, he grew up, but he held on to what he had left of being young.

He rose his eyebrows at her with a grin. "Aw c'mon, you know you like it." He said with a smirk, sitting up enough to poke her in the side playfully. Marcus watched her curiously when she shook her hand, as if hating the fact that he had touched her. His brows furrowed, but it passed quickly. She had her reasons, and he wasn't about to question her and get all 'serious' on her. "Well, I would say it was nice to meet you, Rowan, but I'm still feeling a little hurt about your rejection." He pouted, giving her puppy eyes, before grinning. He could act if he wanted, but he didn't really feel like it. He noticed her look towards his book. "Rowan!" He exclaimed like a happy child in a candy store. "You're smart, right? Well of course your smart! You can help me" He grinned, holding up the math book, and grimacing at it.

[Forte!]

Rowan grinned in earnest at his next comment. "You better believe it," she affirmed with a nod. She glanced over at him, thinking that he just seemed to be a barrel of smiles. That was okay with her. Friendly people tended to make her more talkative, even though she was a touch reserved and aloof, her aversion to people stemming from her long-held dislike of idiocy. And you seemed to run into idiots everywhere these days. She was glad that Marcus at least seemed to have the hang of witty banter, something she enjoyed. She let out a tiny chuckle at his next comment, folding her arms in front of her. "Well, maybe a little..." she said, raising an eyebrow in mock skepticism. She noted the look on her face at her elbow wringing, but didn't bother to explain. It was just one of her little quirks, after all, something that she considered perfectly perfunctory. She chuckled again at his faux puppy eyes and punched him lightly on the shoulder (actually, more of barely brushing him and them pulling back abruptly, surprised at herself). "Oh, quit," she said, with mock sincerity, brushing a lose lock of hair away from her face and tucking it under the frame of her glasses.

She stared at him for a moment, uncomprehending, when he brandished the math book hopefully. He needed help? She remembered doing that stuff back in her freshman year of high school... But then again... "Well, yes..." she said, still trying to grapple with the fact that he had asked her for help with this. It was almost demeaning. "They're only numbers, after all..." Then, seeming to put the whole picture together swiftly, she snapped back into the real world and sat up a little straighter, closing the book that was still open on her lap. She hadn't even gotten through the first page. Oh well, she had plenty of time for that sort of stuff later. "Yeah, I'll help. What's stumping you?" she asked, sounding a bit more sure of herself now. This was, after all, her territory. The territory of things that were concrete and made sense no matter which way you turned them. Math was hardly challenging - numbers were an open book. They didn't lie, didn't change on you all of a sudden, and all you had to do was stick to the formula and never, ever, ask why.

[FalconX]

Marcus grinned at her reply. "Oh I assure you, I do." He winked teasingly at her directly after speaking. He let out a contented sigh, he really was relaxed, even if the hard steps weren't exactly the coziest things he'd lounged on. He looked out towards the peaceful streets. The small town was a drastic change from the cities that he'd grown up in. And for that, he was thankful. Afterall, he wasn't forced to move to a small town. He wanted to, and so, he arrived here. The perfect place in his opinion. He just had to get horse riding lessons. He glanced over at Rowan, seeing her looking at him, not that it bothered him. She lived in the horse centered town, perhaps seh could give him lessons in horse back riding. He was sure to get ridiculed and laughed at by some, just becaue he was a city slicker, but you have to start somewhere right? It wasn't like you could just hop onto a horse and automatically be a pro at riding it. Things didn't work that way. After all, it took him years to master surfing and skateboarding, why should it be any different with horse back riding? And to add to that, horses had a mind of their own, which definitely made the leaning how to ride them harder. They weren't machines, they had free will, and sometimes, they just didn't want to do what you asked them to. He snapped his mind back to the current moment, just in time to catch her reply to something he said. Holding up his hands in surrender, he grinned at her from under shaggy dirty blonde bangs. "okay, okay, just for you, I'll stop."

At her affirmative to help him in math, he smiled, almost serious for once, then, his usual grin broke through. Oh well, the moment had passed. With a smirk, he opened the book, and groaned when he realized it wasn't the right math book. "The librarian gave me the wrong one. Or I grabbed the wrong one..." He trailed off, obviously pondering what had gone array. "Oh well, I'll go back later. Besides, I'm to excited to sit down and do math." He grinned at her, before snapping the math book shut with a satisfying 'thud'. "Sorry for the... Inconvenience?" He paused, not sure if that was the right word, but shrugged it off after a moment of questioning his vocabulary skills. "Okay Rowan, you live her, obviously, so that means you ride horses right?" He asked, hopefully. Then again, she could be like him, another city slicker who came to a horse loving town to learn. But he honestly doubted it. "Because, well, I don't know how to ride." He confessed, lowering his voice a bit, as if divulging some secret of great importance. He was called over dramatic for a reason.