Evan
*Morphos, hands curled around a book cover, sat—face buried deep into the pages, examining each word, carefully trying not to lose his pace with the book; he tended to wander off while reading sometimes, skipping lines of text and not quite following the overall story. He was continuing a book he was reading a previous day, before he was somewhat interrupted by one of his classmates: "Murder of Crows" By Anne Bishop. He sighed, rubbing his eyes; he obviously hadn't gotten much sleep. Not that it matters, he usually spends most of his day cramped up in the library, surrounded by books like the eye of a tornado. He kept hazily reading each word, struggling to keep reading as his eyes relaxed, nearly closing.*

*It was awfully quiet as he closed his eyes, a peaceful grin forming on his face as he fell asleep, his grip on the book loosening, dropping it with the page he was reading open. He softly snored as he fell right to sleep, clearly tired. He never liked sleeping in the day, he'd always wake up with a throbbing headache and a groggy feeling as he would try to wake himself up to no avail; splashing water on his face, jogging, etc... He wasn't necessarily a very tired and sleepy person, but when he didn't get enough sleep—it was clear he didn't get enough sleep. Though, he didn't really care—seeing as he was cold asleep, shamelessly resting. Atleast he looked blissful, on the slight brightside.*
Stanley
*With careful, slow steps, a girl roamed the many corridors lying in between each bookshelf, which were nothing more than wheeled, bare metal industrial-grade shelving units, meant to be bought in bulk and used in warehouses. That gave Nakanishi and everyone else in the library the benefit of being able to see all of the books and a small amount of area behind them, but they weren't exactly the most sightly. Nakanishi cared not, for she was in search of a book written in the only language she knew.*

*But every single book, even the thinnest, tiniest, most slippery books with only a few tens of pages, were written in something completely alien to her. The titles, the authors' names, all of the contents within the pages, she could read none of it. Nakanishi was growing more and more discouraged and sad by the minute. She hasn't stepped foot in the library for months after the Armando incident (the memory of which still terrifies her), but today she had finally mustered the courage to step inside and find something to read after she had already read and reread her Japanese books many tens of times.*

*Nakanishi paid very close attention to her hands. She even had the sleeves of her warm gray coat pulled down to make sure her wrists and arms weren't freezing, but so far, they've remained ice free. Just as Nakanishi was about to give up trying to find a book, she looks down at her arms one more time. For a split moment, her focus was taken away from what was in front of her, and her foot hit the leg of a chair, which jostled the sleeping person and caused Nakanishi to stumble with a loud gasp. Her arms flailed for a second before she managed to right herself, much to her relief, only to realize she might've disturbed the sleeper. She turns towards them, silently praying that they'd remain asleep.*
Evan
*Morphos laid (or well, sat) sound asleep, snoring softly and slouching over—dreaming about... Nothing really. Morphos was never a dreamer, literally of course; he'd always had aspirations, like being an author, meeting his favourite authors, etc—but when it came to sleeping, he never had dreams or nightmares. He didn't know if it was something he was mentally inadept in, or there was some more logical explanation to it. Personally, that was one of the reasons he didn't sleep that much; he always imagined it as a painful process, being plunged into darkness for hours on end in complete silence, with a weighed blanket crushing you. He found it baffling how others find it relaxing, and tranquil—because whenever he slept, the almost profound silence would only make this thoughts so much louder. Sleeping wasn't really his strong suit, but he seemed to be enjoying himself now.*

*That was until Nakanishi accidentally hit the leg of the chair, and jolted Morphos right awake from his peaceful slumber—his eyes opening widely in an instant as he did a quick yelp, nearly falling on his back before he waved his arms frantically—regaining his balance, holding onto the ground with his arms—like pillars keeping him structured; scaffolding in a way. He rubbed his eyes, and he didn't as tired now. He scanned the room for the source of the noise, seeing Nakanishi turned to face Morphos. He narrowed his eyebrows, tilting his head before remembering his manners.* "Hello!" *He said, smiling and waving politely at them. He clearly didn't want to cause a stir with this person for an obvious accident as trivial as kicking a chair—trying to atleast remain courteous. He noticed they had a seemingly cozy gray coat, which made Morphos subconsciously a bit cold, his grin wavering a little (coats are fashionable and no one can change my mind).*
Stanley
*Nakanishi jumped back a little bit when he suddenly began to panic and flail his arms. Her hands were held a little tighter to her chest, her fingers interlocked, as if she were trying to protect herself before the man steadied himself on the floor and gathered his bearings. The man could now get a full view of the Japanese girl: the gray coat with no visible buttons or zipper, seemingly meant to be put on as if it were a shirt. The sleeves looked a little short, but the girl did seem quite tall compared to him. Covering her legs were a set of slightly loose black pants reaching to her ankles, and a pair of white socks plus some black, professional-looking shoes were on her feet. Looking at her face, he could see a mixed fearful/worried expression in her black-irised angular eyes, and some jet-black hair covering the rest of her head, having a dull shine to it under the lighting of the library.*

*Nakanishi's mind was immediately flooded with a tidal wave of worries. Was she about to be in trouble? Was the man going to be angry or upset at her? What would he say? Was he about to speak to her in that same cursed language which she didn't know? Nakanishi was always a worrying type of person, which wasn't helped by her anxiety (which I pray I am representing correctly). Holding her breath, she waited for the man's first words, or actions, fearing the worst...*

*...Only to be given a polite greeting and a smile. Thankfully, she did recognize that one word of English after having stayed at the Cradle for so so long now, but that was about it. Suddenly remembering her own manners as well, as taught by her parents back home, Nakanishi immediately stood up straight and stiff before giving him a deep bow, her hands clasped together, held low and to her body. She was forced to release the carbon dioxide building up in her lungs, which started shallow, quick breaths. 'Say something, say something, say something,' she repeated in her head. But, nothing came from her.*
Rene
I have to head to bed, sorry!! :(
Evan
*He curiously looked at her, his teal messy hair blocking his vision slightly, before he brushes it off with his pale, lanky fingers. He adjusted his glasses as well, they drooped down while he was sleeping—and looked a bit crooked; generously given to him by his brother (it has a couple scratches on the lenses, too). In comparison, the girl was definitely a bit taller than him, but not dramatically so. He was quite obscured, hunched over as he sat—but she could clearly see him wearing a blue coat and a white shirt; nothing special really, quite a generic choice of clothing, yet inoffensive. Another notable thing was his white hair-pin, added as more of an accessory, but it still looked good in his opinion. He kept his awkward smile, trying not to further scare the obviously anxious Japanese girl.*

"I haven't seen you here before, my name is Morphos!" *He began eagerly, unaware she probably didn't understand a word that he uttered, to her it most likely sounded like moon-runes or some alien language.* "What's your name?" *He asked, ending his unintelligible sentence to Nakanishi. He found the bow to be quite respectful, and he hadn't seen someone bow in a while; he didn't know if he should've stood up and done the same, either—not being very adept when it came to greetings, but he was getting the hang of it, trying to socialise a bit more—the people here weren't rude, after all. He decided to stand up in the end, and stuck his hand out, offering a handshake to the obviously shook girl. He didn't intentionally try to unnerve her, but he was trying his best to ease her.*
Stanley
*After a few seconds of bowing, Nakanishi stood up straight again and focused on the man's smile. That definitely wasn't something she'd expected, considering she had ruined his peaceful slumber and it was all her fault, and yet he wasn't upset with her at all. Why was that? His smile looked a bit awkward, but that didn't matter when all that mattered was that he was smiling at her. So, he probably forgave her, right? Riiiiiight???? A string of worries looped in the back of Nakanishi's mind. What if he was hiding his anger from her? Would he expect some sort of compensation? She didn't have any money on her. Not in her pockets, not in any nook or cranny in her coat, not even hiding in her hair or behind her ear. She feared that soon, he would crack and become upset at his sleep being ruined.*

*She saw his mouth move, and heard a voice come from it. It was an eager voice. A happy voice. Carefully combing over his tone over and over and over again in her mind, replaying his opening, she didn't detect a tinge of anger behind it. Despite the mounting doubts, that was a little relieving. But it was that same cursed language that everyone in this country of cold and meese spoke of. Did meese speak that language? She wouldn't be very surprised if she did. Or would she? Anyhoo. None of what was said could be understood. It was all just unintelligible garbles, like runes on Mars. Her mind raced, how was she supposed to respond to that? She hasn't socialized enough to figure out whether she should fall back to using a translator app, or if that would be too rude to a complete stranger. Now there was pressure to respond.*

*The girl murmured something, but after realizing her voice was way too quiet, she forced her volume upwards, but what came out of the girl's mouth was barely above a whisper.* "Dai... Da-Daijoubudesuka?" *She squeaked in her native Japanese language, which would be understood as "Are you okay?" Referring to his sleep being disturbed by accident.*
Evan
*Morphos saw she didn't quite understand what he was saying, taking subtle hints from her expression—it seemed she was internally conflicted or baffled. Maybe he was overthinking, but he did not think repeating himself was a good idea; he found people that constantly repeated the stuff they say to be passive aggressive, its a belittling tactic he found insulting, not that he's seen anyone do it in particular—it just sounded pretty rude in theory to him. He just crossed his fingers secretly and hoped she understood what he was saying, or didn't find him weird from how eager he was to talk. He was merely excited to talk to someone new.*

*He raised an eyebrow as she spoke in the foreign language, unfamiliar with what she said.* "What?" *He replied, thinking he misheard her, or there was a mispronounciation. There was also the possibility she was speaking another language, which kind of linked back to Morphos's theory she didn't understand a word he said—but he wasn't certain. He didn't have any translators on him, but if he really needed to, they were in a library and there was likely some book for it. He still wasn't angry by any means, only a bit confused about what she had said.*
Stanley
*'What?" Was a word she heard quite often in the foreign language, so it was also one of the few words that she could understand. When she heard the blue-haired man standing before her utter it, she realized that he didn't understand her own language either. Maybe she was speaking too quietly? Maybe she didn't use the right tone? Whatever she thought of what she just said, she too wouldn't dare repeat what she had just said; she was worried that repeating her words would carry a negative tone or message or something across and start herself off on the wrong foot, which was the last thing she wanted.*

*He still didn't seem angry, but the anxiety coursing through her entire body led her to think that he was about to become mad at her if she didn't do something quick. What could she even do by this point? She didn't understand his language, and he didn't understand her language. She could just run away, but what good would that do? She'd make the other person feel bad, which would make herself feel guilty, and she would completely embarrass herself. But, she did still have her translator app on her phone, which she had been using to communicate to her best friend, who seemed more like a big brother to her now, Mamoru.*

*Slowly, she separated her hands and dug into her coat pocket, praying she had her cellphone on her. And she did, thankfully. Pulling the black Samsung Galaxy A20 from its pocket, which seemed to have some wear on it by this point, she taps the power button and the screen immediately comes to life. Since her gloves, which she used to prevent herself from freezing everything she touched in ice, were too thick for the screen to function. So she used her wrist, awkwardly tapping her skin against the glass to input a simple passcode which had been set by her parents when she first received her phone. She then opened her translator app and enabled the dictation feature.*

|
*Then, she brought her phone up to her face, almost as if she were covering her face with her own phone. She had to close her eyes because of the brightness of the pixels combined, but then she spoke, barely above a whisper at first before forcing her volume upwards just enough for her phone to pick up her meek voice. Finally, an English translation was outputted. She then turned the phone around and showed Morphos the screen, with both what she said in Japanese and the translation shown in separate boxes. She held the phone lower so as to cover only her nose and mouth, holding the phone by both of its bottom corners with shaky hands.*
Evan
*He saw her internally process his sentence—or well—his singular word; "What?". He didn't mean to be rude, and it was more of a polite question than a violent one, atleast in his opinion. She didn't look upset, she looked more entranced, taking a long while to respond while she thought and internally fought herself, asking a barrage of questions that would overwhelm anyone. She seemed nervous to him, that was his only real get-away from her silence, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions. Maybe she was just having a hard time understanding what he said, the same way Morphos did!*

*He wasn't angry at all, infact he was delighted to be awoken to someone to talk to—since he moped around most of his time with his nose buried into books as he read each word intricately. He observed her silent conflict with herself, and was admittedly a bit weirded out, but maybe she was just a bit anxious from the encounter. That would explain it, atleast. He observed as she took out her worn cellphone, tapping it with her wrist and bringing the screen close to her face. She repeated the same phrase he didn't understand, and showed Morphos the screen. Morphos took a good hard look at the formatting of the application, and realised she was speaking Japanese, and this was a translator app. It made sense now, she was a foreign speaker! Morphos chuckled awkwardly, reading the translation. He tapped the application himself, switching the language prompts and speaking into the microphone, from English to Japanese.* "Yes, thank you!" *He said, letting the app do its work.*
Rene
Unfortunately it is quite late right now so i don't think i'm up for responding right now, sorry! :(
Stanley
*Despite her nervousness, and perhaps even fear, she remained patient with the man, understanding well from being Mamoru's "Little sister" That he sometimes would have a hard time reading the text on the app from a distance. The default text size was a bit small as well, but as she silently observed the man in front of her, a lightbulb seemed to light in his head when he read the translation provided by the app. He then pulled his own phone out and did the same thing she was doing. He spoke again, that same set of jumbled mumbles of which she couldn't even come close to understanding, but then the app wrote out "Yes, thank you!" In Japanese. As soon as she read it, her muscles relaxed a little, like a huge weight had just been taken off of her.*

*Communication had been figured out. He didn't seem mad or upset or uncomfortable around her, but instead looked quite joyful. Maybe he was a person who liked to talk to people? And her accident had seemingly been either forgotten or forgiven, but Nakanishi fell back to what her parents taught her about respect and politeness. After a moment, Nakanishi turned the screen back towards her face and spoke again. This time though, her voice didn't seem as forced. She wasn't straining her lungs and her vocal cords to speak as much as she was a few moments ago. Because of this, it didn't take as long for the phone to translate her speech, and once that was done, she turned her screen around and showed him an apologetic message, accompanied by a light bow.* [I'm happy to hear that. I'm very sorry for bumping into your chair, it was an accident.]