we aren't reading the great gatsby, are we?

[RiceKrisp]

[Willa Kurt: Pregame Start]

Willa paged through the various books, looking for one with a catchy title and a pretty book jacket. A blue jacket laid limply over a chair nearby, the occupant of that chair being a green camouflaged-patterned backpack- her backpack. She was on an autopilot, following movement she hadn't made in a year and a spare change of months.

And it felt weird! Quarantine had been a different beast- a final boss crashing into the tutorial- and now it's just... over. Last time she was paging through these books was sometime in February, March 2020? Things had felt completely different, like they would never go back to normal- and now, just like a snap, that's in the past. She's a senior now, not the sophomore who last went through these books.

She pulled one out, Guitar Notes by Mary Amato, and read the book summary. Can't get anymore obviously romantic with that summary. She put it back and continued flipping through the books.

[Dr Adjective]

[Evie McKown, start!]

It felt weird, being back. Evie had always been one to take things in stride, she had a stellar support network and an irrepressible optimistic streak that made it pretty easy to adjust to new circumstances, but even so... it felt weird. She'd adjusted to the old new normal just fine, but that was just being home all the time. Now it's back to normal, but it's a different normal. Everyone's changed, a little bit. It's uncanny. Yes, these are the sorts of thoughts that ran through Evie McKown's head as she was utterly failing to focus on reading the book in front of her: her eyes had been on the page for several minutes now, but there weren't words there, just a blur of black glyphs in white space, refusing to come into focus.

Today, Evie was supposedly reading Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat, a deep dive into the famous Night Witches of the Soviet air force. But she just couldn't sustain her focus. She'd devoured even the dryest of histories over the lockdown period, but ever since things had opened back up, it was hard to get excited about anything remotely studious or indoorsy, she wanted to go back outside and interact with people again. Maybe interaction was just what she needed. Get her head right, before trying to force anything studious. So she finally conceded defeat and put her makeshift bookmark - a months-old receipt, so worn as to be impossible to identify now - back in place and closed the book. Time to find someone to make some human contact with.

Luckily, it didn't take long. A familiar face, well, familiar back-of-a-head, was idly looking through a bookshelf nearby. She looked to be at about as much of a loose end as Evie herself, too. She nearly called out, or waved, but realisation that you're not meant to do that in a library caught her just in time, and instead Evie just shifted to a more visible spot and waited for an opportunity to catch Willa's eye instead. Being that Evie was wearing her trademark bright-purple hoodie, that probably shouldn't be too hard.

[RiceKrisp]

Willa reached the end of the bookshelf before looking up. To be fair, she did skip plenty of books along the way because her memory of the area was- somewhat- coming back, but still. Fiction section is still pretty bland looking. Well, more... tasteless, the book spines are far too varied in color and shape to ever make anything aesthetic but- she looked up from that thought train, recognizing the new face in the mix- Oh! It's been a bit! She pushed back her hair a bit, repositioning one of the hairclips she had on today, and walked over with a small wave, picking her backpack up along the way.

"Hey Evie."

She sat down near the girl, leaning forward in her chair. Finally, someone that's not her family or a complete stranger! There's something about face-to-face talk that makes everything better. Tone, emotion, body language, something like that can't be replicated, enough said. Her eyes drifted towards the book Evie had. Sounds cool enough.

"Whatcha reading?"

[Dr Adjective]

Gesturing in a way that she hoped would convey a certain blaah sort of emotion, like a shrug with more pointless arm-wiggling, Evie gave an exaggerated grimace, before returning to a more neutral, genuine smile.

"Hey Wil. Not much of anything, I can't get my brain in gear, y'know?"

Except, no, that's not what she'd been asked. Apparently she couldn't get her brain in talking-to-friend gear before speaking, either. So Evie picked up the book, looked a little sheepish, before clarifying.

"It's about the Night Witches. Bit dryer than I thought it'd be. You heard of 'em?"

She probably had, Evie reasoned. Decent chance Willa was the reason she'd first heard of them, in some conversation she'd forgotten by now, in fact. But even so, making smalltalk was nice. Good to see and hear someone you know, in real time.

[RiceKrisp]

She snickered at the melodrama, and straightened herself out a bit, cracking a smile back at Evie.

"Well, same. At my aunt's I couldn't think straight!"

Right, her question was about the book. Night Witches... Sounds like something they've talked about before, but Willa's memory was a bit blurred there. Something, something, 'night,' 'witch.' So, no? Yes? Maybe?

"It rings a bell? A small one-" she made a bell ringing motion with her hand "-though it's probably the 'witch.' I've been refreshing on Salem lo- history, been a bit since I've read about the witch do-"

And then it occurred to her she did, in fact, talk about the Night Witches, specifically their navigator at one point. Dang. Well, she's already paused mid-sentenced, so might as well cut it off.

"Ah, right. I did talk about them at one point."

[Dr Adjective]

She couldn't help it, try as she might to supress the smirk, Evie had to smile a little as she watched the proverbial cogs turn. It hadn't really occured to her until now, the link from Night Witch to Salem's own history of witchcraft, but it made sense as a short-circuit to be getting stuck on. When light eventually dawned and Willa recalled the Soviet aviators, Evie grined and nodded affirmatively.

"Haha, yeah, probably was you that turned me onto them in the first place. A few real flying women make a good change from our home grown witches, yeah?"

Even so, she was very much finished trying to read for the time being. So under the desk she went, with not-insignificant trouble given her height versus that of the furniture, making a brief but rather loud time of fiddling with her bag at that awkward angle. Probably would've been wiser just to pick the bag up and do the whole affair up on the tabletop, but Evie McKown had hardly ever been the sort to do something sensible when she was already committed to a more poorly-thought-out course.

[RiceKrisp]

Homegrown, like native plants doing their own thing and thriving. In the Night Witches case, at least. The Witch trials was more like the native plants were being treated like kudzu and, like kudzu, being destroyed for it. Willa smiled at the nod.

"Yeah! Shame you didn't find a good book on them. I, uh, don't remember where I first heard about them, can't help there."
Note: Avoid Wings, Woman, and War. Unless it was just Evie- no still avoid it.

Willa stood up when Evie went to put the book away, thinking at first Evie wanted to move or something. That was not what she was doing, so Willa was now just awkwardly standing above her friend. Evie's around-the-bush-instead-of-through planning was normal, and Willa really didn't expect to be able to help out anyways. Instead, she held onto a backpack strap, looking around, hoping that the noise wasn't attracting unwanted attention. She backed up a bit to let Evie get up easier at least, and started talking again.

"Have you seen anyone else? I've been looking around for quite a bit," she shook her head before continuing, "No one else recognizable."

[Dr Adjective]

Extra space or no, it's water that Evie's graceful in, not libraries. After opting to bring her bag back up with her, she managed to slam the back of her head into the underside of the desk with a sound that probably wouldn't have been nearly so loud were it not in such a quiet space. She bit back a curse certainly not suited to polite company, and eventually emerged looking sheepish and rubbing her head tenderly. Naturally, Evie was all too eager to pretend like it didn't happen and move swiftly on.

"In the library?"

Beat.

"Nah, not seen anyone I know but you."

The tall girl continued to rub her head, slower now, and briefly bit her lip, furrowing her brow in thought about... something.

"What were you lookin' for, anyways?"

[RiceKrisp]

Willa winced at the sound, putting a hand out reflexively. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Evie is, pretty much literally, an otter when you haven't seen her in a while. It comes back in an instant though. She put her hand back down when Evie's stance made it clear she was fine.

"Got sidetracked. Old habits die hard?"

Willa nodded to Evie's response, and gave the library a last sweeping view while replying.

"Ah, that sucks. Been wondering where everyone's been since I got here. I'll try to catch them later then."

She gave a sheepish laugh and a shrug. She didn't really know why either outside of habi- oh, here's an answer, here's an answer-

"A new book. I've been reliant on the good old internet lately for that stuff. E-books don't have that same charm as an actual book, though I forgot that the books here were largely slumps. What about you? Why'd you come into the library?"

Well, it was true. That's why she always came here- or basically everyone else for that matter.

[Dr Adjective]

Evie gave a half-shrug, more in her expression than her shoulders, not really bothered either way but a little disappointed she couldn't try to help. No sign of anyone familiar, and no specific book she could help track down. Maybe a random suggestion would be in order? It'd taken a while for Evie to learn that most other people found her unusual passing interests, well, unusual, but Willa wasn't most other people. The two were oddly alike, maybe she would be into...

Maybe she'd be into asking why Evie had come. Answering questions, that's a polite thing to do when your friends ask them. Evie shook her head a little exaggeratedly, shaking loose the imaginary fog or cobwebs from before.

"Just for the quiet, was gonna try to read, buuuuuuuut,"

Another vague shrug and non-committal expression.

"Didn't really pan out. Guess same goes for you?"

[RiceKrisp]

"Yeah. Oh, right!"

She then lit up a bit, remembering something. Willa slid her backpack off as she went onto her knees, and began searching through it. Where was it... ah! She pulled out a small case, and unzipped it to reveal a small portable camera. Willa held it close to her, looking down at it with a smile. The small thing held a lot. Even if it wasn't her first, she still held it like it was worth everything she was.

"I took some pictures! I saw some birds near the harbor earlier, I have some pictures from back in spring, those things. You want to see?"

Willa began flicking through the digital photos while waiting for the response. What would be the best photo to show... She kind of knew that the conversation was taking a down turn at that point, so Willa found it preferable to switch topics. What better way than photos?

[Dr Adjective]

With a literally audible gasp, Evie's face immediately shifted from mild disappointment in an otherwise mediocre day to genuine, childlike joy. Nothing made her smile like animal photos. And from spring, no less? That meant a reasonable chance of adorable babies, right?

"Show me show me show me!" she demanded without a moment's hesitation, before remembering that she was indeed still in a library, and lowered the volume accordingly.
"Do you even have to ask?"

Concerns of looking like an oversized child or invading personal space clearly took a backseat in Evie's mind where Willa's photography was concerned, judging by her increasingly goofy grin and haste to lean in and look at the camera.

[RiceKrisp]

Willa accommodated for Evie, giggling.

The current picture on the digital screen was of the harbor. It had been a particularly overcast and dark day, but despite that, some seagulls were converged at the center of the photo, sitting on the boardwalk.

"Those are the birds I saw. Funny they were on the boardwalk." She gave a small laugh before continuing, remembering what went on. "They were ravenous. Tried to steal my food, in fact."

She went through a few photos, which were summer photos. Flick! Picture of one of her cousins posing for the camera. Flick! Some photos of the sky. Flick! Picture of the park. Summer was generally a time Willa cast photography aside as a main hobby, and mainly did it more to chronicle things. Flick. It wasn't really anything that Willa thought would interest Evie.

The next few photos were spring related, and Willa slowed down through the photos. The second photo was taken on a very bright day, in comparison to the one she had taken at the harbor. It was still a picture of birds though, this time being of a duck and her 4 ducklings walking down a road. Willa had taken it right outside her house.

"Oh, this one! They were a bit far from the lake area, think they were exploring."

She was completely in her element, with a massive smile as she showed off the photography. Always absolutely amazing when someone is so interested. Willa had missed that energy quite a lot. She hadn't gotten to the bugs though. Those were the next few pictures.

[Dr Adjective]

It quickly became impossible for Evie's smile to grow any wider, even with how annoying they could be, she couldn't bring herself to dislike seagulls. Their characteristic squawk had long since blended into the Salem soundscape, no longer an irritation so much as a reminder of home, more specifically of adolescent afternoons at the Willows Arcade. God only knew how many hours and quarters she'd sunk into that place in middle school. But what was that Wlla was saying, something about the gulls being hungry?

"Feed them!" she exclaimed, irrespective of the fact they were some distance away in both space and time by now.
Or, maybe not. Making them dependent on human interaction probably wasn't a great idea. One of the first things she'd learned about wild animals, around the same time as the crushing disappointment of learning she couldn't in good conscience keep a river otter.

"Actually... probably don't..." Evie muttered, less enthusiastically, while Willa flicked through some pretty landscapes.

Sure, they were nice photos, and on an objective level she could appreciate that they required more talent and effort than one might think. Great pictures, sure, just... not the funny animals she'd signed up for. So she smiled and nodded and made positive sounds, right up until a family of ducks appeared on screen.

"Quackers!"

Clearly, Evie had no particular concerns about how childish she sounded. The volume, though, did give her pause shortly after, and she continued in a slightly quieter tone.

"They're so good, lil' fluffy downy babies,"

She stopped for a second, before looking around the library furtively. A few sets of eyes were on the pair, unsurprisingly.

"We should, uh, probably carry on outside?"

[RiceKrisp]

Willa's smile became sheepish. The seagulls didn't get ALL her lunch, they tried! No actually they stole her crackers. Made a mess of them on the boardwalk Willa had to clean up. Seagulls lost a solid 5 reputation with Willa that day. She wasn't going to bring that up though, and she got a nice picture despite that! So HAH! It's a tie, seagulls!

"Quackers," she mimicked, for no real reason other than she thought it was cute, like the ducks! Also it sounded like crackers.

And then Evie made the suggestion to leave. Willa frowned. But they just got here! Yeah sure it's a bit stuffy, but they still just got here. They can stay a bit longer, right? Breaking her last promise of only looking around one more time, she took a glance around, kind of like that saying. Monkey see, monkey do? She caught the eye of a few of the people watching, before abruptly turning back to the camera. They were being a bit loud, weren't they?

Mm. Evie may be onto something about leaving.

Willa turned off the camera, and put it back in the case. She didn't put it back into her backpack, instead cradling it in her hands. Looking at Evie hopefully, she returned to the sheepish smile.

"You want to go outside?"