A chance meeting, once again

[blind_badass]

It had never occurred to Snake that taking a jaunt to the London Library would involve the use of several maps and a guide. He wasn't trying to take a hike over a mountain; just to check out the braille section and a few audio books. As he walked through with his guide, however, Snake fancied he felt the weight of the library's collection on his shoulders. He could perceive where objects were based on sound and move about well enough. This, though, gave him the impression of shelf upon shelf of books, stretching everywhere.

The whispered hush of pages turning, keyboards typing and pens writing on paper filled him with deep contentment. Here was a place Snake felt right at home. He sighed at his worrying guide. Yes, he could now find his way around, no he didn't need a cane, yes, he could manage stairs just fine. Either the guide started to get a clue about the annoyance growing in Snake's tone or ran out of questions as he left Snake to his own devices.

Good. With that distraction out of the way, he took a seat at a plush chair, set his chosen volume on his lap and began to read, fingers skimming over the braille.

Comments

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji was on his way out, a small pile of books under one arm, when he noticed a familiar-looking library patron sitting on one of the chairs. For half a second, he paused to watch the way Snake's fingers passed over the writing. Then he walked up and set his books on the nearby table.

"Light! That's you, isn't it? How've you been? Settled in yet?"

[blind_badass]

"Hmmm?" Snake canted his head toward his unexpected visitor. He frowned slightly; where had he heard this voice before? It took him a moment to recall the cafe he'd eaten at a week and a half ago. A personable waiter had convinced him to stop by and his name had been...

"Oh, you're Heiji, correct?" He thought that was the waiter's name. "I hadn't expected to run into you here. I take it you're off today."

[detectiveofthewest]

So much for promises. But at least he'd remembered Heiji's name. "Yeah, I've been steppin' down my shifts a bit to focus on other stuff."

"So what brings you here? Work?" Heiji leaned over the back of an empty chair to look at Snake, but did not sit down.

He hadn't really expected Snake to return to the cafe to begin with -- promises were cheap, especially those made to the wait staff -- but he had to admit he was a little miffed at Snake's attitude.

[blind_badass]

Snake closed his book and set it aside so he could pay full attention. Odd that in such a large library, let alone a city, that he ran into someone who knew him. Even if it was a chance meeting with a waiter at a cafe.

"My superior told me I needed to get myself set up with an account at this library for the research I will definitely be doing in the future. I...really wasn't expecting it to be so vast. At least that's the impression that I have." If the library was as big as his map told him, it rivaled the size of some zoos.

Now that he thought about it, he'd made a promise to come for a visit, hadn't he? He could be very short with people, but this man had treated him with courtesy so the least Snake could do was treat him in kind. "But you, Heiji, I recall that you wanted me to try out some Japanese coffee. I confess, my little trip to the library has been the first chance I've been able to relax for a moment."

[detectiveofthewest]

"It is vast," said Heiji. "'Bout a million volumes. Of course, the Library of Congress has 37.8 million. But that's still 15 miles of shelves open to the public. Not like a lot of large institutions."

Why should he be bothered that Snake hadn't remembered him? It wasn't like Heiji cared about the opinion of all those other patrons that simply stopped by once or twice and left.

It did bother him, though.

"Don't worry about it. It's not like we're at the cafe, anyway." That seemed like a safe enough thing to say.

[blind_badass]

Snake's ears practically perked up at the facts Heiji reeled off. Might he be mistaken? He'd assumed Heiji was just a regular guy. Just a personable waiter. What if he were something more, like a college student working and going to school? "You seem to know a lot about this place. Do you get a lot of books here?"

Did Heiji sound a little hurt in his tone? Snake could discern a lot of what someone felt by voice. "True enough, but we could fix that. I'm hardly going to make you go to work on your day off, but if you give me a firm date and place, I will be at your cafe. I've slogged through enough orientation that I'll certainly have more time to roam around."

[detectiveofthewest]

Do you get a lot of books here?

Infuriating. Who did this guy think he was? Heiji had probably forgotten the contents of more books than Snake had ever read. Or ever would read. He labored hard to keep a civil tone, though. Just... had to... keep it together...

"Of course. Like I said, they got miles of open shelves. Oliver Sacks's autobiography came out this year, so I thought I'd go back and reread some of my favorites."

And oh my god, was that pity in Snake's voice? That was it. Heiji couldn't take it any more.

"Oh, how considerate of you! As it turns out, my Friday night's wide open! Y'know, nothin' better to do than sit around waiting on random customers that think I can't read."

[blind_badass]

What in the world? He'd been trying to be civil and recall a promise but apparently, Heiji took his words and went in a completely different direction. Possibly somewhere deep in the Pacific.

He could certainly end the conversation right here, with a raised eyebrow at his behavior and a snide comment. He doubted they'd cross paths a lot in London.

However, Heiji had been the first person he'd really met in this town. Should Snake just cast aside someone so easily? What if he tried to straighten everything out instead? What would happen?

"All right, all right, calm down for a moment, if you would." Snake held up his hands. "I wasn't implying that you couldn't read, Heiji. My next question, which you actually answered, was what kind of books you were interested in. My other thought was that did you get a lot of books to read for fun or did you come here a lot to study for college, if in fact you are a student." Because Snake certainly wouldn't know the answer to that unless Heiji told him.

[detectiveofthewest]

Snake's tone still kind of pissed him off (wow how dare he tell Heiji to calm down, Heiji could tell him where to stick his calm), but at least now he had the benefit of having let off a little steam.

"...I'm not a student. I work at the cafe sometimes because I like talkin' to people and sometimes it gives me inspiration to put in a story. I read because I like it."

It didn't help that he'd been genuinely excited to see Snake, either. How embarrassing...

[blind_badass]

Well all right, now they were getting somewhere. Snake had thought his words were honest enough but perhaps he needed to make himself clearer so as not to be misunderstood.

"Oh, you're a writer? Do you write for a particular genre or just whatever strikes your interest?"

He supposed it made sense that for someone as personable as Heiji, working in a cafe would be enjoyable. How different they were. Except he did enjoy reading. Something Snake also enjoyed highly.

"I enjoy reading a lot too. Or listening to books or other people read to me. I've been accused back home of practically living in a library. It's just...there's so much you can learn and it's all out there for you." Snake started for a moment. He'd gotten a little too enthusiastic with his love for books. He doubted Heiji was interested, considering how annoyed he sounded.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji ignored the question about whether he was a writer; he didn't want to nail down his cover story too much, after all. Besides, it wasn't as though Snake had told him much about his own job.

"Me, too," he said, getting a little sucked into Snake's story despite himself. "Lately I been reading about Morgellon's disease -- though most of the medical establishment dismisses it as delusional parasitosis. It's hard to nail down the real cause, since it's often present in people with complicating factors, like drug use. In at least one case, though, one of the sufferers ended up being the victim of mites."

[blind_badass]

With one quick summation, Snake's opinion of Heiji rapidly changed. Heiji was intelligent and enjoyed building on that intelligence with reading. His tone changed to genuine interest at sharing a topic with someone who understood.

"That's the disease where people think they have insects crawling on them or fibers, right? You're right that it would be difficult to pin down." He tapped his finger on the cover of his book. "On the one hand, it's basically a symptom of psychosomatic illness. On the other, there's the potential for it to be a separate disorder. It's quite remarkable what can go on in the human mind."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Exactly!" Heiji had apparently forgotten about his annoyance with Snake for the moment. "The usual treatment is to give the patient some topical medication for parasites to win their trust. Then the physician prescribes antipsychotics. Unfortunately, from the patient's perspective, he doesn't need antipsychotics; he needs treatment.

"And the more he insists that there really is something wrong with him and tries to submit proof, the more convinced the doctor becomes that there's something wrong with his mental faculties. So even if there was something genuinely wrong -- neuropathy, maybe -- it's difficult to disprove the original diagnosis." Why he was so happy blabbing on about some horrible disease was anyone's guess, but Heiji seemed to have cheered up at once.

[blind_badass]

"So on and on goes a spiral; the patient insisting he's not psychotic and the doctor increasingly believing he is. Most of the time the doctor is correct, but for the people who might just have a singular condition, they get misdiagnosed. Then distrust appears." Snake shook his head.

"I believe medical opinion is still on the fence if it's a legitimate affliction or a symptom of another. It's quite fascinating what the mind might perceive. If I had had the time, I would have majored in psychology."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Well, regardless of whether it's a legitimate affliction, the fact is that patients are suffering. And even if they do get one or two researchers publishing articles on it, the medical community isn't likely to much more than dismiss 'em until they reach some threshold of respectability. That's just how the establishment works, even with theories that turn out to be true. I mean, look at Ignaz Semmelweis, the man who proposed that doctors wash their hands to reduce the women who died after delivering. He ended up disregarded for decades."

At the mention of Snake's major, however, Heiji remembered that he didn't like this guy he'd just been merrily conversing with. Dammit. He looked away, mouth resolutely shut.

[blind_badass]

"True. I can't imagine doctors not washing hands now." What would have happened to his own traumatic surgery if someone had failed to use soap and water? Perish that thought.

Heiji grew quiet though. Snake couldn't see his expression and wondered at the silence. He hadn't expected Heiji to be so well read and...fun to converse with. Perhaps he'd been too quick to judge. His sister had accused him more than once of looking down on people not in academia. Besides, Heiji sounded like he could be a friend, something Snake didn't have a lot of at the best of times.

He tried hard to school his expression into something contrite, just so the other man could see his sincerity, as well as hear it. He didn't have nearly as many facial expressions as a sighted person so he had to make a conscious effort for what came natural to everyone else. "Heiji? If I've said anything that besmirched your character, it was out of ignorance and not ill intent. I apologize for offending you."

[detectiveofthewest]

"...Seven," said Heiji. He still wasn't looking at Snake and thus not talking at him, either. Maybe something in his voice had relaxed slightly.

[blind_badass]

"Seven?" Snake repeated, nonplussed at the seeming non sequitur. "I don't believe I follow."

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji turned back to Snake, using one finger to scratch at the upholstered back of the chair. "You can come by the cafe this Friday, at seven."

You did remember which cafe it was, didn't you, Snake? In any case, it seemed that Snake's admission had done the trick. As long as he didn't forget his appointment, anyway.

[blind_badass]

Snake blinked his eyes in surprise a few times before closing them. "I will be happy to stop by," he said. The unexpected pleasure at stopping by to see an acquaintance that could become a friend made him smile. He'd have to double check on the route from his apartment but he'd definitely make the time.

[detectiveofthewest]

The sight of Snake's smile made Heiji uncomfortable for some reason; he looked away again, though not as sharply as before.

"F...fine, then. Don't be late." Of course, if Snake was late or ended up standing him up, that was a whole other kettle of fish.

"Didn't you say you had to get a new account? Or did ya do that already?"

[blind_badass]

"I believe it's being worked on now. I assume being a foreigner makes things take longer." Which, truth to be told, was why he sat down to read a little bit. That and being in libraries tended to be soothing to the mind. Keeping his mental shields tight for long periods of time gave him tension headaches. In a library, he could afford to mentally relax. Even if a person unintentionally projected a thought, it usually had to do with reading.

"I anticipate digging into the science section with much relish."

[detectiveofthewest]

Well... maybe Snake wasn't so bad. Heiji took a seat in the chair, propping one elbow up on the armrest.

"Is it a problem accessing the written materials? Not everything's available in Braille or audiobook." He was actually genuinely interested in the subject, since there was a lot that the world took for granted about what a person should and should not be able to do.

[blind_badass]

Oh, Snake could go on a rant about being shafted for all the reading material he'd really like to get his hands on. But he wasn't one to complain (much) about what he couldn't do. Still, the question deserved a proper answer.

"There are things I would like to read but can't. If I'm lucky, someone can read it to me and I can absorb it that way. For things like scientific papers and written material online, I have a lot of text to speech programs that help. I even have that on my phone so I can text someone." Never mind that those programs weren't exactly cheap.

"It's a shame, though. I had heard in Britain that they were working on a unique kind of tablet." He ran his fingers over the cover of his book. "It would have a screen that one text appeared, would convert it into braille that could be felt to the touch. Obviously not permanent but that would have been amazing." He sighed, shaking his head. "The project got abandoned. Not enough money in it, or so I heard."

[detectiveofthewest]

"Yeah? That's gotta be frustrating. I'd hate to not be able to read somethin' I was interested in." Though they were getting better about getting written materials online, by no means was the task complete.

"I didn't know they had those kinda apps for your phone. Well, I figured they did, but I've never really used one." Most of the ones he was familiar with talked in that computery voice, which he wasn't too fond of.

"Do you like it here in London so far?"

[blind_badass]

"I do like it here so far. It's just trying to memorize so many routes and places and voices at once. Still, I'm sure I'll be fine in time. The work is stimulating and challenging." Memorizing where things were was the hardest part. Especially bus schedules. He didn't have a superhuman memory; remembering which bus went where came with effort.

"For the phone, it is amusing to a degree. If, for example, someone were to text me with a sentence that sounded angry, it's rendered into a robotic monotone. It's still a little rough with pictures." Good thing his sister had gone over a lot of what the various pictures and emoji meant.

"What about you? How long have you been in London, Heiji?"

[detectiveofthewest]

"I been here for a couple months. Originally, I wasn't sure if I'd like it at all. It's pretty different from back home. But there are some nice people around. I..."

Heiji trailed off, realized he'd been about to talk about Osaka -- not in the cheery terms he usually did, but tinged with a hint of homesickness. "I was thinkin' of going back for a little visit. But I do feel like there're things I could learn here. I... guess I miss it a little."

[blind_badass]

Truer words were never spoken. He knew Heiji was Japanese but didn't know specifically where he was from. England was pretty far from Japan as it was from Seattle.

"I can certainly empathize with that. It's just so different here from...hmm?" Snake tilted his head as he heard his name from a librarian behind him. Apparently his card was ready and he could check out his books. "Well, it would seem I need to take my books." He smiled. "It was very nice running into you again, Heiji. I promise not to be late for coffee."

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji looked up at the sound of the librarian's voice, then stood to grab his own haul of novels.

"Yeah. And, um..." He looked away again, rubbed at the back of his neck unconsciously as he spoke. "Sorry about gettin' mad at you. I guess I'm just... not used to not bein' remembered."

[blind_badass]

"It did take me an honest moment to recall your voice. While it's true that I have met a lot of people in the last few days, I did make you a promise. I should have noted that in my phone so I wouldn't forget." Snake nodded his head. "Now I'll never forget your voice, Heiji. Until then..." Satisfied that he had rectified the situation as best he could, he walked off to join the librarian.