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You'd think that living in Mayet for a little over a year would make it feel like home, or at least like he hadn't just stepped off the plane yesterday, but no such luck. Some days Joseph still half-expected his old man to call and give him another earful about what he was supposed to be doing with his life--silly thought, that, he'd had his father's number blocked since he hopped on the flight out here. Come to think of it, was there a typical adjustment period for that kinda thing?

Maybe he could find some kind of book on that while he was here at the library. What would it even be under? Some kind of self-help? Eh, he'd figure it out later. Right now he was more interested in searching through the shelves for something decent to read in his downtime. There was this pretty good mystery series; it was a long-running one, which meant it would normally be getting stale, but there was a supernatural angle to most of the stories, and an overarching metaplot that made it worth sticking with.

He was counting through the volumes to try and see if the most recent one was currently in when he heard a voice nearby. Huh, that was embarrassing; he hadn't even realized he'd walked up on someone until she spoke to him. Joseph blinked, hand stilling on the book he'd been about to pull out of the shelf, then shrugged. It'd been a while since he'd had much casual conversation outside of classes, so he had to take a moment to think over his answer.

"Depends," he finally settled on, "Decent writing, sure, but if you're looking for a mundane sort of mystery it's not going to be your style. If you like more fantastical stuff mixed in, though, you'd probably like it alright."

That could probably be the end of the conversation, if neither of them has much more to say, but--well, it had been a while. "...Name's Joseph; you interested in this kinda thing?"

"Eh, I just read what's interesting," Joseph said with a shrug as he shook the hand held out to him. He wasn't really expecting anything like a lengthy conversation to come out of this, but it was still nice to have the chance to talk to someone--or something other than his bike or his plants, in any case. They're good listeners, but they're not exactly able to talk back. Yet. A bike with an AI could be pretty fun, if it were more than a pipe dream.

"I'm not out to read the whole library, just whatever grabs my attention. And this series was one of those things." Huh, maybe his conversation skills were kind of rusty, he wasn't exactly sure whether to continue this or go back to what he was doing. But eh, he'd started this, no point in backing out now. Besides, this girl had a look to her that made him think she might be fun to talk to. You didn't get calluses on your hands unless you did hard labor or had some kind of interesting hobby, after all.

...Now that he thought about it, maybe she'd be able to help with that problem he'd been contemplating earlier? Not getting used to the city, no, but she might know of some places he could check out that would help make this place feel more like where he lived instead of someplace he was just visiting. "Hey, if you know this library that well--does this place have a local section?" Maybe if he learns a little more about it, he'd settle in better.

It was worth a try, right? If nothing else, it might give him an idea of things he could go and check out. (Even if they were defunct. Especially if they were defunct, so long as the buildings they had once been in were left behind. Why hadn't he thought of this before?)

"If you're willing to take on that kinda challenge, then more power to you," Joseph said with a grin. "Me, I'm content just reading whatever grabs my attention." Maybe it meant he read a little less than someone who was trying to work her way through an entire library, but that just meant he avoided reading something he couldn't pay attention to or didn't care much for. Not a bad practice, to his mind.

When she returned his question with a question of her own, all he could do was shrug again, turning to snag the book he'd been about to grab before he forgot that he'd been going to. "Not exactly? I moved here a little over a year ago; came for school and ended up too busy with that to really get to know the place. But I figured since I mean to stay here, I'd better start learning about it."

The kind of career he was training for could be set up... pretty much anywhere, sure, but Mayet was special in that it was thousands of miles away from both the family he'd all but disowned--because if his old man ever tracked him down, it'd just be to complain at him rather than any attempt to reconnect, and he was well aware of that fact--and none too close to the place he had been supposed to be going. Besides, from what he'd seen of it so far, it was a pretty nice city in its own right.

...It just... didn't feel like home yet. That, he was sure, was going to take some work. A little advice from someone who was visibly more settled here--he could see the bag on her shoulder that was dated 2004, and she was only a year or two younger than him at most, so she'd probably lived here most of her life--couldn't hurt, either.

"So if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears."

"Well," Joseph said thoughtfully, because it was a valid question and one that deserved a little thought put into his response, "I'm not a tourist, even if I haven't lived here that long; seeing sights is great and all but it doesn't really give you a feel for living in a particular place." Maybe tourist-y places weren't all that bad, either, but his goal wasn't to feel like a tourist, it was to learn how Mayet breathed--which in his experience was a very different sort of thing than just heading around to all the sightseeing spots.

Not that sightseeing spots were bad, or anything--they did usually have a lot of history to them, and could add character to a place. They just were the kind of thing you went to if you were taking a place in as a visitor, not someone who meant to stay. Places for people who were trying to get as much as they could from a place in a short time, basically.

That didn't really answer the question he was being asked, though, so Joseph shrugged. "I don't have too much of a preference right now, really--what would you personally recommend to someone who doesn't know the city well? Forget specific interests; it's your home. Think of it as a chance to show it off."

There--that would do; he'd get some ideas out of this and a good conversation, too. And it wasn't like he was the only one who was benefiting from this; anyone who'd decided to work her way through an entire library's contents no doubt had a lot of things stored away that they'd probably wanna share.

Besides, she had a pretty nice voice to listen to.