In The Library [Raivis!]

[Timo Väinämöinen]

Timo hummed to himself as he bounced up the steps to the library. He had eight hours between shifts today, and was looking forward to going home and sleeping. But first he had something to do. Smiling brightly at the girl at the desk, he bounded over to her. “Afternoon, Agnes! How’ve you been?” Timo didn’t have the time to come to the library as much as he’d like, and certainly not enough to be counted as a regular, but he was a personable man and made it his business to learn people’s names. At least his smile was infectious, and she smiled back at him.

“Can’t complain really. What about you?”

Timo beamed, thinking of Berwald. “Fantastic!” Rummaging through the pockets of his jacket, he pulled out his phone, flicking it open and finding a text, then passed it across to her. “The book I reserved is in?”

Agnes took the phone and eyed the text for a moment, before passing it back and going to look under the desk. She returned a minute later with a red paperback which Timo reached for. It was the next in a series he’d been reading before bed and he’d been eagerly waiting for this to come back in. “I’m going to have a look round too.” Timo said happily, as he tucked the book under his arm. There was something he wanted to look up.

He headed over, not to the fiction, but to the non-fiction. As he headed into the history section, for once his smile faded. There really was very little there. Perhaps he should have looked online, but there was little that he could do about that, not having the Internet or even a computer at home. Still… there had to be something. Timo pulled out book after book on WWIII, the flood and the old world powers. All of them looked interesting, but he bit back his curiosity for now. He could look at them another time.

Eventually he did find one book on pre-WWIII Northern Europe, and he smiled a little. That was more like it! Still standing by the shelves, he flicked it open. His curiosity was peaked by a chapter on the Vikings, but he pushed on, glancing over chapters that glossed over centuries until he came to a central sheet of old pictures, photographs and shots of artefacts that had been found before (and almost certainly lost in) the great flood. One of them caught his eye and Timo stared. That was him. There was no mistaking the sniper, bundled up in a white coat. He was the man from his dream. But how had he dreamt about a real man from Finland 200 years ago?

[Raivis Galante]

Raivis anxiously scanned the books on the shelves, wondering why it was taking him so long to find what he was looking for.

Since the start of all his strange dreams and visions he thought it would be a good idea to record them and see if they held any connection. Despite how vivid they were it was surprisingly hard to record them in great detail. Either he couldn’t remember the words said or the people present and sometimes the environment would change drastically between visions it was so easy to get muddled up.

That morning Raivis tried to write down one of the happier dreams he’d had. He didn’t remember the events much, it was more of a feeling. A good feeling, not like the feeling of dread or despair that normally came with them. He’d woken up feeling like he could do anything, an odd sense of self and the will to survive. As he’d written it all down, trying to remember the joy he’d felt walking down those city streets and knowing they truly belonged to him he hadn’t noticed as his hand casually inched towards the red pen on his desk. Normally he used it for underlining important bits of information but when he’d drifted back to reality he’d found he’d doodled several identical designs in the margin of his book. A rectangle split into three stripes, the top and bottom two had been scribbled in and the middle one left blank. It seemed so familiar but Raivis just couldn’t place it. As much as he tried to put it into the back of his mind it wouldn’t stop bothering him and it finally prompted research.

Judging by the shape and style it was probably a flag design. Most likely from the old world as he certainly hadn’t seen it used around Solus. Eventually he found the book he was looking for. Flipping through the pages he was quick to find the design he’d drawn. Three stripes, two red ones and a white one in the middle. It was listed under a country named Austria. With the book in his hands he mulled over his findings. Pacing as he thought he wondered why he’d suddenly become obsessed with this design. Were his visions from this old country? It seemed absurd to him. While Raivis hadn’t believed in reincarnation before he was starting to warm up to the idea. That or it was all some bizarre coincidence and this all meant nothing.

So absorbed in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed the other man in the non-fiction section until he’d walked right into him. The book dropped to the floor and he muttered all manner of apologies as he scrambled to retrieve it.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to walk into you.”

[Timo Väinämöinen]

Flicking through the book, it didn’t take long for Timo to find the section on the man, brief as it was. There was at least a little more detail on the war that had happened, and Timo head over what was there curiously. He’d never heard of any of this! If only they’d studied it in school. It was all so interesting! He knew a little of Russia from WWIII, so flicked to the index to see what else there was on them, his attention completely drawn. He started to walk over to the table as he read, his eyes firmly on the page.

Of course that meant he didn’t even notice the boy until after he’d walked into him. Timo let out a little yelp of surprise. He managed to hold onto the book in his hands, but the one tucked under his arm fell victim to his surprise, slipping out and falling to the floor. Timo reached out for it, but then paused, just stopping himself. If he had, he would have crashed into the little blonde. “No, no, I wasn’t paying attention.” He quickly said, waving his hands. He’d been reading his book rather than watching where to go, after all! Closing it now, he finally set it down on the table and reached down to grab his other book. “Are you all right? You’re not hurt or anything?” He quickly looked the boy over, worried their sudden collision might have hurt him.

Timo couldn’t help but notice the book that the boy had though, interested in it. Maybe that’d have a little more information than the one that he had, or even different things! If he had the chance he’d suggest a swap. He was curious as to what the boy was looking up, too. Maybe he was doing a school project? Timo still wanted to look up Finland in the book that he had, though. He knew a little about Russia from school, but barely any about any of the Scandinavian countries, and they looked interesting.

[Raivis Galante]

“Oh no! I’m fine!” he blurted out, holding the book protectively to his chest. The man didn’t seem threatening in the slightest, it was just almost a reflex action. “I’m really sorry” Raivis repeated, finally calming down a little.

It would have been easy to just run away and forget that it happened but the book the other had picked form the floor peaked his interest. It was part of a series he was familiar with, in fact he’d just finished reading that very same book a couple of days ago. Giving a slight smile he eyed it curiously.
“You like the ‘Time Dilation’ series too?” he asked with a hint of caution. If it turns out he didn’t it might make the situation more embarrassing for the two. Not that he didn’t feel a little awkward already for being so careless.

Normally Raivis wasn’t a big fan of science fiction but while the series was mainly based on time-travel and had a lot of sci-fi elements the main focus seemed to be more on philosophical ideas. Even if he found it a little hard to understand at times, he loved the characters too much to stop reading.

[Timo Väinämöinen]

Timo blinked as Raivis hugged the book in closer to him, but then just gave him a soft smile, trying to seem less threatening. Not that he was particularly threatening in the first place, but he suddenly realised what it was like to be Berwald, and felt a little guilty. He should stop being scared of him and treat him like he did anyone else. He was pleased to hear that the boy was all right, though. “Don’t apologise!” He said, still smiling. “If you’re all right, and I’m all right, then there’s no harm done!”

He hadn’t noticed his attention on the book, but perked when he asked about it. “I do!” He agreed quickly, holding the book up for him to see better. “How far through the series are you? I just got this one today, I’m going to read it when I get home. The last book was so good, though! And he left it on such a cliff hanger too.” Yes, he was definitely looking forward to getting home and starting this book. He’d been waiting a week for it!

“I’m Timo! It’s nice to meet you.” He said, happily. After all, making friends was always good, and they already had a good start having a book series in common, and maybe even an interest in history! That was good enough for Timo, anyway.

[Raivis Galante]

Raivis nodded along happily. He was so eager to discuss the series but as soon as Timo mentioned he hadn’t read the most recent book he was sure to keep his mouth shut. There were so many spoilers he could have just blurted out but being an avid fan of stories himself, he knew how much that could suck the enjoyment out of them.

“I just finished that book a couple of days ago actually,” he started. “I don’t think it was as good as the last one but I think that was mainly because revealing everything Anja had been through as an induced dream seemed like such a cop-out.”

Wait, did he just say that?

So much for not revealing spoilers.

Feeling flustered at what he’d just revealed he quickly busied himself staring at the patterns on the floor.
“I-I’m Raivis, It’s nice to meet you too” he mumbled, not making eye contact. Hopefully introductions would be enough to distract from the subject. He really hoped that Timo wasn’t angry at him. He didn’t mean to say it it just sort of fell out before he could stop himself. It seemed to happen much more than he wanted it to.

[Timo Väinämöinen]

Timo was encouraged that the boy seemed so enthusiastic about the book, and chuckled softly to hear that he’d just finished it. Bearing in mind when he’d been told it had arrived back in the library, it was almost impossible to imagine that it wasn’t the same copy. Timo had probably been trailing him the whole series. He didn’t seem angry at the accidental spoiler either, just looking excited. “Is that was it was? Oh! But that makes everything make sense!” As he thought about it a little more, his expression did fall a little. “Mind you, there wasn’t much foreshadowing for that. Maybe he intends to expand on it in the next book? He did that before when her son suddenly turned up.” He looked down at the book in his hands now, even more excited to find out exactly what happened and how.

Looking up again, Timo saw how upset Raivis looked, and quickly moved a little closer, wanting to reassure him. “It’s all right!” He said, patting his shoulder. “I would have found out sooner or later, and now I get to find out how everything happens rather than what, and that’s just as exciting!” At least honesty was never a problem for Timo and he really did look excited about the prospect.

“You probably had the book just before me.” He told Raivis to try and distract him from the slip up. “Are you here to get the next one, or… working on a school project?” He asked, looking again at the reference book that Raivis was carrying. He looked about the right age for that, and briefly Timo felt a spike of jealousy. He missed school a little.

((I'm so, so sorry this is so late. I've had a lot of things going on lately, and I didn't mean for this to take so long. I'm back now though!))

[Raivis Galante]

He flinched as he felt Timo pat him on the shoulder but his words seemed earnest. Daring to look back up he saw his smiling face, not an ounce of anger in it and he couldn’t help but smile warmly back.
“Sorry about that,” he mumbled sheepishly.

Raivis felt somewhat relieved that he wasn’t angry. It was almost just in his nature to assume that people would react badly to him, which was odd considering they almost never did since he’d left school. Speaking of which he was suddenly alerted when Timo mentioned some kind of project. Looking back down at the book in his arms he’d almost forgotten that it was the whole reason he came in today.

“Uhm, no I don’t go to school...” he said quietly. Explaining it sounded like there was a strange reason behind it but he felt like he could trust the other person.
“I’ve been keeping a dream diary lately and when I was writing something down I zoned out and scribbled all these patterns in my book. They kind of look like flags,” he explained, flicking through the book to find an example of the design since he’d left his diary at home. Finding the page with the Austrian flag he turned it round to show Timo and pointed.
“Like this one.”

[Timo Väinämöinen]

Timo did blink when Raivis told him he didn’t go to school. He looked far too young to have finished already. But… well, maybe he was older than he looked. Timo couldn’t really judge anyway, since he’d never finished school either. Still, the explanation was interesting enough, and Timo eagerly leant over to look at the flag. “That’s really interesting. Did you really dream about this?” Gently he tugged the book over so he could have a bit of a better look. The flag looked faintly familiar, to be honest. Maybe he’d seen it in school on in the book that he’d been looking through.

Flicking through the book, he looked at the other flags. “Was it just that Austrian flag or others too?” Timo was a little nosey, he couldn’t help it. He was curious and he was eager to help Raivis. Maybe it was to do with the weird dreams that he’d been having recently. Speaking of which… Timo had been casually flicking through the book, and he blinked as he reached a page with Nordic flags, his eye instantly drawn to the Finnish one. He’d always liked those colours…