Welcome to Gaia! ::

The library was a pretty standard place to find one zomboil named Alexander Van Rotte. The undead boil just loved to read, almost as much as he loved to eat. Today, however, he was coming here not just to maybe check out a couple new books and return some others. Nope, he had a..manual of sorts to read. A guide towards his new job and what all of his duties would entail, though really, he could not quite figure out why he would need to read about how to properly clean a table...

Anyways, he wasn't one to slack off, at least not when it came to something like this. Shuffling his way into the library, he first took back the books that he had due to return before having a glance around for an empty table. He began to shamble across the library, passing the aisles upon aisles of books, when something, or at rather, somebody, caught his attention. A ghoul, who looked rather..lost, as she stood there staring at the books on the shelves in front of her. Perhaps she was looking for something in particular but was having some trouble finding it? Well, Alex practically knew this library like the back of his undead hand, so he changed course and headed directly towards her, hoping that she wouldn't mind the intrusion. He only wanted to help, after all!

"Excuse me?" He said, keeping his voice low so as not to get into any trouble, "You uh..look like you might need some help?" He hoped he wasn't being too presumptuous.

Complicated? Alex could certainly deal with that! Well, at least, it seemed like he was always having to deal with complicated things, anyways. He should be good at it by now. He returned the ghouls smile with one of his own, a friendly grin that spread across his entire face.

But then she said what it was that she was looking for, and while he still smiled, he frowned a little as well. "A book on studying? Not that I know of. I mean, usually you have a subject that you wish to learn about, and then you read the book related to that subject, right?" He thought that was pretty straight forward, really. And it was probably the best way to get get better at any school subjects that one might be having trouble with.

"I'm afraid you might need to be a little more specific." He admitted with a shrug, though what it really sounded like this ghoul might need was a tutor of some sort, or a study group at least. People she could work with to help her improve on whatever it was she was lacking in. Those thoughts gave him an idea, and since he was usually quite friendly and eager to help, he made an offer.

"If there are certain classes you are struggling with, I'd be more then willing to help you." Still smiling, but a hand came out of his pocket now to hold out towards the ghoul. "I'm Alexander, by the way. Are you fairly new here?"

"It's nice to meet you, Leo!" He said, adding his own enthusiasm into the mix. "And sure, I'd be more then happy to help, really. I...kind of love to read, and I seem to do really well in my classes." When he actually bothered not to be completely lazy and do his homework, anyways, he usually ended up with an A+.

Nearly two years? And..he hadn't run into this ghoul once in the seven months that he had been attending. That just seemed very odd to him, and while a few warning bells might have been ringing in his head, mostly to do with hunters in golem form, he tried his best to ignore them. He didn't want to end up crazy with paranoia and suspicion, and so far this ghoul had done nothing to show that she was anything less then somebody who was in dire need of help with her studies.

"Okay, well, what are the subjects that you need the most help in then? Human studies? Caring for minipets? History? Mad Science?" There were several more subjects that he could think of that he could probably help her with, and as long as none of them had anything to do with phys ed, he could probably almost definitely help her out.

Okay, so Human Studies, Mad Science, and History. Alex could handle that, and he was sure that he could be more then helpful. Not that he'd ever actually had much experience helping other people learn things (besides Yin, but he was practically a hopeless case when it came to many things), but he was sure it couldn't be that hard.

Mind you, he'd have to find time to do it between work and time with his boilfriend, and that might prove to be easier said then done, but he'd jump that hurdle when he came to it.

"Alright, well, in that case lets find you some light reading material!" Unfortunately for Leo, Alex's idea of 'light' would be what most people would consider 'moderate to heavy'. So, as he moved around the library, pulling out various books to hand over to the ghoul, it was not long before she might find herself clutching on to a quite a hefty stack. Of course, she could always tell him when she had more then enough, and then he would happily stop.

At some point Alex finally realized just how many books he had stacked up in Leo's arms, but it wasn't until he actually turned to address her, and noticed that he could no longer even see the top of her head.

"Woops!" He grinned, "Maybe you don't need quite that many. Here, lets go to a table and sort through them, and figure out which ones would be most useful to you." He...was pretty sure she couldn't really see him, so he lightened her load by reaching out and taking half of the books out of her arms to carry himself before shuffling off towards a table in a cobwebbed strewn and dusty corner. This way he could also decide exactly where she should get started as well.

"Ah, don't worry, most of these are beginners basics anyways, so none of them will be too difficult for you, I don't think." Unless she was on the same reading and writing level as a certain weremantis. Then this could really just be disastrous. He let the books down on the table with a heavy 'clunk', waiting for her to do the same before sorting through them by subject and making a seperate pile for each. "Hrm, maybe just two books per right now.." He mumbled to himself, before something she had already said finally sunk in.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about owing me anything! Well...actually, are you any good at fighting? I need to brush up on my training some time, and it's always good to find different partners to go up against. Different styles, you know?" And then another thought occurred to him, but it was a rather awkward one, and he wasn't sure if he should even approach it.

"I'm uh..also trying to save money right now, so I just got a job...." Actually, no, he wasn't sure he did want to ask a total stranger for payment for his help, help that he had initially offered without price, so he just let that sentence trail off as though he was making conversation rather then a suggestion.

Even while he spoke, he was glancing at book titles, frowning as though in thought before starting a new pile of 'maybe too advanced'.

Alex nodded along as she spoke, still looking speculative as he stared down at the books that he'd separated into piles, trying to decide which two from each subject might be best for her. Wait, what was that about a hunter?

"You fought with a hunter??" He blurted out, staring at her now, and not the books stacked up on the table top. "That can be...really really dangerous. Was it at that big old haunted house? I ended up there a couple of times now." He shuddered, remembering all of the times he had come up against them, and how many times he had dissipated at their hands. It was not a pleasant thought.

"Sorry I just...don't want any of my friends getting hurt." Did he consider Leo a friend, when he only just met her? Absolutely! Alex was pretty easy to befriend, and was generally a very happy and easy to get along with type of guy.

"Ok well..maybe no sparring until you feel more comfortable with it." He frowned, getting back to the business of the books, though now he was clearly distracted from his task.

"Hobby horses?" He grinned, looking back over to her now, though he was shaking his head at the offer of silver. "No no, it's fine, really. Unless you really really feel the need to pay me...I just, don't want you to feel obligated or anything."

"Oh, well...so he didn't attack you?" Alexander was just confused now, obviously. "And ya, I hear you on the house thing. I ran into a hunter there once, one that I'd actually seen before. He actually...didn't spend much time attacking me, mostly just seemed to defend himself before he got a phone call and ran away. Not sure what that was all about, honestly." He was slipping back into the memory of the time, a frown appearing on his face while he looked back down on the books on the table.

"Here, 'Mad Science: Weird Experiments'. That one should be a good starter for you." He put that one to the side, then picked up another.

"'Halloween: A History. I tried to get my boilfriend to read this one, once. I had to give him the abridged version instead and it still took him months to finish." He chuckled to himself, not realizing that he was likely passing out information that might actually embarrass Yin. Alexander just lacked common sense from time to time. "Still, I don't imagine you'd have much problem with it? Just skim over the more dry areas and you'll be fine." He thumped that one into the pile as well.

" 'Humanes: Inside and outside' and 'A Brief Guide to the Human World' are must's, I think. The first one has some particularly wonderful photo's of a humans internal organs." He grinned at that, his mouth watering at the thought.