If he falls on a novel, does he become a Dust cover? [Visual, Open]

[mithrarin]

[The scroll opens with Dust standing in front of a shelf packed with books. He's in the library, which as he has been told, is a place where you can get books to read. Dust had managed to miss the part where Twilights live in the library, but truth is, he's unclear on the concept in general.]

[Falana had no libraries, you see, and Dust has technically never read a book in his life.]

This... seemed like a good idea at the time, but does anyone have any advice on where to start?

Comments

[action]

[marearcana]

[Might want to look behind you. Or, uh, around you. The bright light blue dotted line behind Twilight is kind of hard to miss.]

Start with what exactly?

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[mithrarin]

[Dust lets out a little noise of surprise as he rears back, Ahrah flipping out into a ready posture. He catches himself immediately, though, planting his hooves as the sword spins back to lie against his foreleg.]

Sorry about that... reading. Where to get started on reading as a hobby.

[Pretty sure he just said the magic words, huh, Twilight?]

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[marearcana]

[More or less.]

Well, theoretically it's as easy as just picking something out and sitting down with it, but it's a little harder to make recommendations when I wouldn't be sure what genres you like... or would like, if I'm getting that correctly.

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[mithrarin]

'Would' is the proper word here. I'm not really familiar with genres to begin with... I don't have much in the way of a background in it. What are the options?

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[pishirogane]

[If not working on her flying, Naoto is visiting the library, finding out as much as she can before the holidays. Today, she had a book in hold: cooking to be precise. She does pause when she sees Dust.]

Start? What do you mean?

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[mithrarin]

Reading. Where do I start to pick this up as a hobby? I'm... new to it.

[He can read, he's just, literally, never done it for the sake of doing it.]

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[pishirogane]

Ah... well, as a recreational hobby, most begin with fa... maretales. Besides that, there are different genre, fiction and non-fiction, research materials and periodicals...

[She might end up going on too long about this. Setting her book down as an example, she points with a hoof. It was a cookbook all about sweets.] A cookbook, for example. Beginners, intermediates, and advanced chefs will use it for research; so will people who enjoy cooking.

I'll grab a few things on various topics and you can have a look at them. Hold on...

[Action]

[mithrarin]

...Maybe I should stick to subjects that don't require practical application. [Learning to cook isn't his intention, that's for sure.]

[Action]

[pishirogane]

Of course.

[So she's picking off various books that are mainly action, adventure, fantasy, suspense, mystery, science fiction... haha, pony noir - she wondered how that worked. She also grabbed a history book.]

Give these few a glance... see if any of them catch your interest.

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[mithrarin]

Hmm. So this is all fiction, right?

[Dust picks up the first one in the list, then opens it up curiously. His gaze immediately falls on the inside fold of the cover.]

Oh -- it describes it right here, doesn't it.

[millionbitpipes]

Depends. What're you doin'?

[mithrarin]

...Trying to take up reading as a hobby. It seems interesting, just to learn without being in the middle of a battle for the practical experience, but somehow it never occurred to me I'd need to figure out where to start.

[millionbitpipes]

...okay.

[Weird. But this IS the kid Flare's friends with, huh.]

Well, what kinda stories do you like?

[mithrarin]

...Ones with happy endings.

[Sorry that suddenly got a bit PERSONAL there.]

[millionbitpipes]

Okay...

This'd be easier if we were on Earth, I don't really know too much about pony books. Maybe somethin' outta the fantasy section? [Not something he reads a lot, but hey.]

[visual]

[keepcalmandflutteron]

Usually at the beginning! Ha!!

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[mithrarin]

Ha ha, very helpful, Butterfly. [Okay, it does get a little smile out of him.] I'll remember that next time I'm tempted to just toss a big heavy book down without looking where I'm tossing it.

[visual]

[keepcalmandflutteron]

[If he could see the look on the bug's face, it'd have the smuggest grin you ever saw on a butterfly.]

[If butterflies could grin.]

[Hmn...]

So... you've never heard a story before?

[visual]

[mithrarin]

[Not being able to see Butterfly's expressions might be the reason he still is her friend.]

I've heard them. Never read them, before. And back in Falana, my exposure to anything outside of fighting was... limited.

This seemed like a good way to branch out.

[visual]

[keepcalmandflutteron]

Alright, then! Then it's time for you to hear a story...

[So this would be a time when she could be awful. She heard lots of different stories before of lots of different people. Some of the stories are ones her sister used to share just to annoy the other.]

[But this isn't not the story. No, this story is about a girl. A girl named Beauty.]

[vis] how did I miss this before, I needed to be here

[stormbroken]

...You know, I never thought to ask. You, uh.

You're literate at least, yeah? We don't need t'start you on 'See Spot Run'?

[That whole... thing about you not being originally one "you"? That seems a little... well, it muddies the issue.]

Assumin' you are, I'd say it depends on what you're lookin' for.

[vis]

[mithrarin]

...I'm honestly surprised it was you asking that and not Butterfly. Yes, Flare, I'm literate. The Sen-Mithrarin apparently comes with useful skills already learned.

[Though neither Jin nor Cassius had been big on pleasure reading. In no small part, his efforts to pick up this hobby are to differentiate himself from both of them.]

I'm not really sure what I'm after, beyond something that will keep me entertained.

[vis]

[stormbroken]

Not very often that being a warrior and being well-read are useful t'each other, though, unless you read Mule Tzu.

...Might actually be a good start if you want to read up on military strategy. Somethin' tells me you'd want to get away from that sort of stuff, though.

Try lookin' for the Daring Do books, they're usually a good start for Fiction. AK Yearling, if y'need t'look by author.

[vis]

[mithrarin]

Being a warrior hasn't done much for me here, has it?

If I'm supposed to be living a normal life and not just fighting all the time, then there needs to be more to me than being good with a sword.

[He'd thought about this a lot. Reading for pleasure was so low on his list of things he'd ever considered doing that it became the obvious choice for a new hobby. Try new things, they kept telling him. Keep trying.]

[vis]

[stormbroken]

[Flare nods. She figured as much. No Art Of War, then.]

Like I said, look for AK Yearling. Gonna want to start on The Quest for the Sapphire Stone, that's the first one in the series, even if they aren't all in chronological order.