In This Day and Age [P: Grace] [Sep]

[Catalina Dominguez]

Catalina brushed her fingers along the edges of the books, searching the titles for the book that she was interested in. She could use the school computers, of course, but those only had access to the Underweb. Sure, the Underweb had plenty of useful information, but whenever she tried to find current information, the websites were always blocked. Whether they be news sites, social media, or anything, they were all blocked. The only sites that really seemed avaliable to students was the school forum and old archives of information, like news articles from twenty years back.

Finally, she came across a title that matched what she was looking for: State of the Unicorn Community: A Critical Examination. Taking note of the book around it, Catalina snatched it off the shelves and moved to a table, flipping gingerly through the pages. It had a relatively small font, and used several words that Catalina was relatively unfamiliar with. Here and there, there were a few pictures in black in white that portrayed major events in the unicorn community. There were the celebrations when the unicorns finally gave in and joined NASGO, their first representative elected to the High Council, things of that nature. However, none of the events seemed particularly current.

Catalina flipped to the front cover, skimming it for its year of print. Five years ago, she noted, So it wasn't written all that far back. Some part of her just wanted to know more about the supernatural community, and she could not find much current information. Perhaps she could approach one of the teachers or other staff members, sure, but adults intimidated her in a way. She returned the book to the shelf, resigning herself to ignorance, for now.

She dug into her purse, pulling out a pen and paper and laying it on the table. She began writing down bulleted notes, in Spanish- nobody needed to read what she was writing. Suddenly, Catalina heard the sound of chair being pulled outward. Immediately, she snapped her head up- a person had taken a seat at the same table. She swiftly shoved her pen and her notes back into her purse in way that almost certainly seemed suspicious.

[Grace Maxine Powell]

Grace Maxine Powell was scanning through the books of the library, wearing her newsboy cap and a jacket. She looked over the collection of books with an increasingly worried look. Reaching forward she plucked a textbook off the shelf and looked towards the cover. It was titled 'The Supernatural's Guide to Art History'. Grace gulped.

Why does it have to be a supernatural's guide?! Why is that different from normal art history?

She gave the cover a hesitant stare before folding it under her arm with a sigh. It'll give her a new perspective, at least. Surely there's information on the real world in the library somewhere, and Grace just never managed to find it. Perhaps against all odds she was stuck to this supernatural world like glue, and it kept becoming more and more unavoidable, even in her books. Thats what it felt like, at least.

At least the math and physics books will always be the same. The laws of the world doesn't suddenly change from one world to another. Barring magic. Ugh. She continues to walk down the isles, picking out books relevant to her classes, and some others that might be interesting. A stack of books build her her arms, a collection of mathematics and art and chemistry text book and some novels. She, of course, would try to find some more human novels. Luckily she managed to find some classic Hemingway among the isle.

I guess that kind of fame can get you even here, huh.

Precal, chemistry, I have a lot to study for. She gave a slightly audible whine. And not to mention the supernatural courses I have to take. How will that even help me?

With an exasperated sigh she set her books down at her usual table and pulled out a chair, evidently not noticing the other at the table. She blinks and after a moment of hesitation looks to the other already sitting there suddenly changing, her cheeks cycling to red.

"Oh, Sorry, uhm, was this table already taken?" were the words that managed to stumble out of her mouth.

[Catalina Dominguez]

The other girl didn't appear to be suspicious of Catalina's sudden panic- indeed, the other girl didn't seem to even notice it. Catalina breathed an audible sigh of relief, and pulled a brush out of her purse, running it through her long white hair. It wouldn't be particularly convincing, sure, but if the other girl had really been that oblivious, she might just assume that Catalina had really just needed a brush.

"Oh no, don't worry, it's fine. There's only a limited umber of tables after all." Catalina said, placing her brush on the table and tucking her hair behind her shoulders. "I mean, I was just brushing my hair, I'd be more than happy to have a bit of company."

Catalina took a moment to inspect the other girl. None of her physical traits seemed to really indicate a particular species; there were no characteristic fangs, gray skin, white hair or anything. Catalina chose to forget about it, and instead shifted her attention to the pile of books that her fellow student had placed down on the table. A particularly title taught her attention: The Supernatural's Guide to Art History. It was a longshot, but perhaps maybe that book contained just a little bit of the information that she was looking for. Maybe the other girl would let her borrow it for a moment.

"The Supernatural's Guide to Art History, huh? Interesting perspective. I wonder why it's the 'supernatural' guide specifically, though, art history seems a bit too vast to relate to the supernatural community specifically." Catalina remarked. "Does it cover the various supernatural species specifically, do you know? Like, does it discuss tapestries and murals of unicorns and dragons or something like that?"

[Grace Maxine Powell]

Grace Maxine gave a soft exhale as the other girl spoke and then tried her best to offer a smile, though it probably seemed awkward, as if she wasn't awkward enough here already. "Coming your hair, right." Grace of course didn't want to snoop in on any of someone else's business. She places her hands on the table, glancing at the book at the bottom of the stack.

"Oh, I have no idea, actually,"she said, interceded by an unsure chuckle, "I only grabbed it because I couldn't find any normal Art History books."

Grace nearly bit her tongue. She's yet to come to terms with the new 'normal'. Generally, Grace felt that the world normal here is better left unused. She straightened out in her seat and pushed the thought aside. Hopefully she wouldn't notice anyways. Who was this girl? I think I've seen her before, maybe in one of my classes or something.

She couldn't really remember anything about it though. She pushed the Art History book out from the bottom of the stack and slid it towards Catalina gingerly. "Take a look, if you want." She didn't seem to be reaching much else anyways, but Grace wasn't much sure what passed as an academic text here. When you start adding unicorns and dragons to things, it, well, starts not making a lot of sense to her. Another thought to be pushed aside.

She folded her hands for a moment before feeling the need to open a book of her own. Her hands stumbled to her book pile before picking one of the Hemingway novels from the top and opening it to the first page. She hadn't planned to read 'OId Man and the Sea' first, but it seemed to be happening now, if for anything to distract herself.

[Catalina Dominguez]

Catalina nodded appreciatively to the other girl, pulling the book out from the pile and sliding it over so she could read it. Catalina opened it to the first page, sliding her finger down to check for the date of publication. Three years ago, she noted. That seemed to be the most recently that any book in the library was published. She flipped through a few of the other pictures, trying to make it seem as though she had an actual interest in the contents of the book. There was no rule against questioning the dates of print, but Catalina had a feeling that the staff wouldn't like it.

"Thanks for letting me look." Catalina said, sliding the book back over to the other girl.

She pulled her purse up on the table, taking a glance at the notes she'd taken. Oldest book I've found: Romeo and Juliet, dating back to when Shakespeare wrote it. Newest book: Dating back three years. Catalina glanced up to see if the other girl was watching; it appeared that she was reading a book. With a shrug, Catalina decided to make some small talk before she left. She didn't want to risk coming off as suspicious.

"Hey, I'm Catalina." She introduced herself with a smile. "You look a bit familiar, what's your name? Are you that dragon from my PE class by any chance?"

[Grace Maxine Powell]

Grace kept her eyes pasted onto the book. She wasn't really reading at it, rather giving the ink a rather hard stare that surely would've been uncomfortable could the pages think. To her, the idea of having a dragon in a PE class seemed inherently unnatual, but that is a consequence of going to a school surrounded by things like that. She took a breath and gathered her confidence to respond. She turned her head to face the other with a tried smile.

"N-No, I'm not a dragon." She desperately wanted to say that she was a human, but if that were the case, she obviously wouldn't be here. "I'm Grace Maxine. I'm a sylvan actually." She said this, though all of the features that would have identified her as a sylvan had been concealed, and she didn't really have an intention of showing. It crossed her mind, but she decided against it.

She gulped, as internally and subtly as she could. It was her turn to make a conversation now. Oh God. "What sort of information are you looking for in those books?"

[Catalina Dominguez]

The other girl's expression was strange, and the way she breathed and stammered seemed strange. Catalina decided not to question it, nodding at the answer. What confused her was that silvans almost always had some sort of feature that marked them as silvans. Catalina couldn't see any- well, the girl was wearing a hat, so maybe she had antlers or something underneath it. And maybe the other girl's hair was white too, but dyed.

"Oh, I'm a unicorn myself. I guess I ended up with more visible features of that than you did for being a silvan. Funny how that works." Catalina noted. "My name is Catalina."

When the other girl responded, Catalina was nervous about the question herself. She decided to come up with a random rant- assuming Grace was American and not Canadian, she'd likely be lost in the early part of it. "Well, you know, I'm Métis, and I'm actually fluent in spoken French. And I'm a bit curious about my French heritage, and you know, the oldest organized group of supernaturals is from France. So I was curious about whether or not it really touched on the art of France and how the supernatural community participated in it. My mom once told me about a sculpture the supernatural community commissioned from a famous historical artist, and I was really curious about that."

Catalina sat back and pretended to dig through her purse. "So, what've you thought of the school so far? I dunno what grade you're in, sorry."

[Grace Maxine Powell]

Grace Maxine gave a stunned blink. She expected an answer, not necessarily a rant. Perhaps working with this girl would require some tactful wording and social techniques. She gave her a patient, perhaps somewhat awkward smile. "That's very interesting."

She considered the question, rolling it in her mind some. The school wasn't bad, for sure. Perhaps out of context, its an amazing school. It certainly seems to offer more than a lot of other high schools, if you were okay with a boarding school. On the other hand, it felt almost prison like. She wasn't allowed to leave without a watchful eye, she couldn't write or use the internet without going through filters. She couldn't stand it. Not to mention that the amount of supernatural things has certainly proved to be overwhelming, even in the bountiful fount of knowledge like the library.

Conclusively, she still thinks she'd prefer to be a normal, human high school student in Vancouver instead of being separated from the people she knew to come here. she offered a shrug to Catalina.

"It's all right. Just takes some getting used to," she said with a practiced smile. "What about you?" She wasn't sure if that needed to be asked, but at this point it merely seemed polite.