I Don't Believe in Superheroes

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Pacing back and forth in the library lobby, Devlin wasn’t quite sure what to do. He was off work by now, but his dog hadn’t shown up, so he had no way of getting home. He could still hear the storm outside, but had no way of knowing the power was out in the library. 

In a sudden flash, he felt a stab of pain run through his system, and for a moment he could see what was in front of him. At least, he assumed that’s what it had been. It lasted for only a moment, such a short about of time that Devlin figured nothing had actually happened. Just a flash of pain, a flash of sight, and it was over. 

And now, he realized, the storm was over too. He walked up to the library window next to the door and gazed sightlessly outside, wondering if his dog would return anytime soon so he could go home. 

[nadiarainier-blog]

The rain was just starting to get heavy when Nadia finally made it to the library, only to see a dog hovering just outside near the corner. Curious; she didn’t remember seeing a dog around campus normally, but the harness she wore told her that it was someone’s and not just a stray. She crouched down with a frown, reaching a hand out toward them. “Spooked by the storm, huh, buddy?” she murmured, waiting for the dog to approach before she heard a tap against the glass of the door, looking up to see a student standing there with his hand against the glass. Tapping against it a couple times to warn him she was there, Nadia pushed herself off her feet and pulled the door open. “Looking for a dog?” she questioned. “She’s hiding back by the corner there. I think the storm’s got to her.”

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

When he heard the taps, Devlin started and stepped back a couple steps, so the door could open in front of him. He stared sightlessly before him as he listened to what the girl had to say. “Marvel?” He asked hopefully, brushing past the girl to get outside. “Marvel?” he asked again, a little louder this time. The brindle dog approached, but when lightning flashed and thunder boomed, she yelped and ran off across the campus courtyard. Gone. 

“Marvel!” Devlin called after her as he heard the receding yelps. He didn’t understand. Storms had never bothered her like this before. With a defeated sigh, Devlin stepped back inside and shook himself out, trying to get dry. 

[jazlynisms-blog]

Jazlyn carefully turned the volume button, softening the chords Joplin was playing so that she could hear what was going on. Another voice was calling in the corridor. Someone named Marvel. She knew a bunch of people at school, but no Marvel. Standing up, she blindly searched for the power switch on the closest wall. The neon tubes in the corridor lit up, allowing her to see more than a few feet ahead. 

“Uh, I’m here?” she replied, frowning. “But my name’s definitely not Marvel.” She took a few steps forwards, staring at the person who had spoken. It was a boy, but he looked like he had no idea of where he was, and didn’t seem to see her either. It felt a little strange, just like when people’s gazes brushed over you without really acknowledging you.

“Can I help you?” She started to feel a little bit alarmed - and confused. Was that guy blind? That would explain a lot of things.

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Devlin jumped when he heard a voice. There was someone down here, after all. That made him relax a little, though, at least creepy music wasn’t just playing by itself in the basement. That would have been awful. The makings of a horror movie, even. 

“Marvel is my dog. A German Shepherd. Have you seen her?” He asked before realizing how rude that was. “I’m sorry. My name is Devlin. I should have introduced myself first.” 

He was too worried about his dog to do much more than introduce himself, though. He had plenty of questions, like what she was doing in the basement listening to music at this time of night for one thing, but the most important question had already been asked. Without his dog, he wouldn’t be able to go home when he got off work at 3. 

[dxrthe-deactivated20160321]

The umbrella that the boy had been holding onto so dearly as he made his way from the science department to the library hadn’t helped much in the rain. Shaking the tattered thing to rid it of excess rain droplets, Crixus attempts to dry himself in the entrance of the building, checking his phone and sighing as the time flashed across his screen. It would be a few hours before he could make it back home, but there are no complaints from him as he finally gets around to tightening up and wrapping up his umbrella. The unfamiliar figure that walks past him goes unnoticed before a voice rings throughout his ears and baby blue hues dart up to the other male, lips pursing as he shrugs. “Uhh I think of myself as more of a DC fanboy. Although Marvel does have Deadpool so I can’t be so sure.”

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Devlin jumped when he heard another voice. He had thought he had been alone. It took him a moment to get the comment, even though he was a comic fan, and Devlin gave a nervous laugh. “No, no. I meant. My dog. Her name is Marvel. I’m looking for her. Have you seen a German Shepherd around here?” A pause, and he added, “I can’t believe you like DC better than Marvel. I mean, DC has Batman, but that’s about all they have.” Now was no time to be talking about comics, though. He had a missing dog to find. A dog that without, he was completely lost, and he knew he would never make it back home without her.

[aliadamsen-blog]

“You want to duck outside together? We can stay under the awning and if you call for her I might be able to see if she’s out there.” She offered, watching the winds outside. Poor pup, if she was outside she was probably hiding somewhere trying not to be blown away. 

She didn’t think anyone would just let a dog run out the door, but people could surprise you, and she turned and looked around the library, wishing someone would just give the kind of shout that would hint they’d been surprised by a dog… safe and sound inside the building. 

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

“I...I don’t know.” He replied, “I’m not sure I want to go out there. Besides, you don’t have to do anything to help me. I’m not about to make you stand outside with me in a storm to look for my dog. She’ll come back eventually, she always does.” Devlin wasn’t too sure about that, to be honest. This storm was pretty bad, and he wasn’t positive his dog was anywhere near here. Hopefully she hadn’t gotten hurt outside, if that’s where she was. She could simple be inside hiding somewhere too, and he just hadn’t seen her, for obvious reasons. 

“I should check down in the basement again,” he offered, “She might be hiding somewhere, being too quiet for me to find her. I don’t know though. I’m at a loss.” 

[the-colossal-dork-blog]

“Huh?” Will’s eyes lit up with a ray of hope. Maybe his lap-top wasn’t actually a lost cause after all, but all too soon his hope turned to confusion as the other guy started talking about computers. “Errr…” He stalled, honestly not sure he’ ever cleaned his files… or how on earth one would go bout checking their hardware, but he still held his hand out and took the flash-drive. “How… how exactly would I disable firewalls?” Will gave a shaky laugh, frowning slightly as he watched the other guy reach for the chair with the sort of hesitance that made it look like he couldn’t actually see it clearly.  “I’m Will… and for the record technology hates me, so I think I know like, half of what you just said? I’m rubbish with technology, so it could be any of that I think.”

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Devlin couldn’t help but laugh at the response he got. Too often he was stuck with people that had no idea what they were doing with technology, and it just made his job all that much harder. He couldn’t actually see what he was doing, so getting the computer working from this point in was going to be difficult. 

“Just put the flashdrive in, Will,” he offered, “And if it doesn’t work, then we’ve got to disable the firewall. Your antivirus should pop up once the flashdrive is in, if it’s enabled, so it’s not a problem. We’ll just disable it from that screen. Let’s just hope its not a hardware malfunction, and that cleaning your system will fix the problem.” 

Devlin was leaning against his hands, eyes staring blankly toward the computer. He could hear it whirring, and it sounded bad. With luck, Devlin would be able to fix the problem within the next 30 minutes, though.

[the-colossal-dork-blog]

Will looked up with a start as he heard another person’s voice, and grimaced automatically - he’d disturbed someone, hadn’t he? Blinking in confusion, he looked around though as the other student spoke, as though expecting it to turn out the dog was right there all along. “Umm, no sorry… I’ve not seen any dogs tonight,” he answered slowly, still a bit confused. “Over-heating, melting down, refusing to let me see all of my stuff that I need for this assignment,” he sighed, waving a hand at the screen. “You name it, this lap-top’s doing it, anything but working properly.”

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

“Well lucky for you,” Devlin commented, “I work for IT. Let me see if I can help.” He pulled a flashdrive out of his pocket and handed it over. “Have you cleaned your files recently? Checked the hardware? This program will do both. Your computer firewalls will think it’s a virus, so you’ve got to disable them first, but once your security is down my file will do the rest. It should fix your computer. You’re going to have to put it in though, and if you read to me what’s on the screen, I’ll walk you through it.” 

Devlin reached out and let his free hand flail for a minute before it latched on to the closest chair, He pulled it up and sat down in it carefully, first touching the seat to make sure there was nothing sitting in it. 

“Unless, of course, your hardware is just shot. Then I’m not sure I can do too much for you. I can always check it by putting it in another laptop. Do you think your computer has a virus? Ah, I’m Devlin by the way. Devlin Livius.”

[aliadamsen-blog]

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment before realizing he couldn’t see her. There was a brief deliberation in her head whether or not to apologize and thus draw attention to it, or gloss over it, and as per her usual type of choices, she chose to gloss. 

“German Shepard, how cute! I haven’t, her name’s Marvel? I’ll help you look if you want she’s bound to be around here somewhere I doubt someone let her out and didn’t think to comment to someone somewhere.” She babbled easily, wondering if she should offer a hand or let him do it on his own, and hovered in indecision waiting for him to make a move. “Is there somewhere you two like to be? Maybe she was freaked out by the storm.” 

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

“Yeah, Marvel. Thanks.” He replied before turning his head back toward the door, as if it was going to help him find his dog. “She only ever leaves my side if she has to go to the bathroom and I don’t notice. So I figured someone let her out and she couldn’t get back inside, so she’s out there in the storm somewhere. I hope not, but I don’t know.” 

He paused with a sigh before explaining, “She’s a seeing eye dog. She wouldn’t just get freaked out by a storm, that’s the thing. Even really bad storms, she stays by my side to make sure I’m okay. It’s not like there’s something different about this storm or anything. It’s just a storm.” 

[aliadamsen-blog]

A guy was heading toward the front door with carefully measured steps, but they didn’t give her any sort of realization why, and she hopped up from her table where she was studying- or at least pretending to- and trotted over to him, curious about if he was thinking of braving the storm raging outside. She left her things sprawled across her table, coming up behind him as he spoke. “I don’t think even a superhero can save us from the storm, but I admire the thought.” she laughed playfully. 

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Devlin jumped when he heard a voice and turned around, one hand still on the glass. His eyes were wide as he looked around automatically, but when he replied, they were focused past the girl. “No...I’m looking for my dog, actually. Have you seen her? She’s a German Sheppard.” He couldn’t really describe what a German Sheppard looked like, but he could tell her how soft and warm his dog’s fur was, or the way she smelled like moss and mud on a rainy night like tonight. 

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

“Marvel?” Devlin asked as he made it to the front of the building. He placed a hand against the glass of the front door, hoping no one was trying to get in or out, and listened for a familiar bark or whine that meant his dog needed back in. He had hoped she had just had to go outside and go to the bathroom, and had left his side to do just that. Maybe someone had let her out with them as they left the library and she was stuck outside now? But no, he didn’t hear any sounds that would indicate his dog was outside. Where had she gone?

[jazlynisms-blog]

Jazz had actually never been in the library’s basements. All she knew was that they kept some old records there, archives as well as old stuff - the kind that wasn’t considered totally end-of-life, but old enough to look bad in a building full of computers and modern stuff. With the storm raging on, the place was a little dark, a little gloomy - she noticed that some of the lights were out. It was creepy, with each of her footsteps resonating around her. But it also had some kind of an…inspirational atmosphere. She could definitely write scary/horror photoshoot down on her list. As well as some places suggestions.

She lit up her phone’s screen, her eyes dropping on a kind of old wooden box lined with cracked golden gilding. Jazlyn carefully tried to lift it up, and - failed. She was glad no one was there to see her experiment with it. Although it had a lock, the box was easy to open, and revealed an old turntable. 

It took her a few more minutes to find some old vinyl records, but she finally found a whole pile of them, jazz, some disco too… She ended up choosing Scott Joplin’s Piano Rags and carefully placed it on the turntable. As the tone arm lowered on the disc, the cheerful piano melody began playing, making her feel a little less scared. 

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

The Library’s Basement was where the IT lab was confined. They were open nights during finals week, and Devlin found himself picking up the phone when it rang as he worked the front desk. Because of this, he didn’t even notice the footsteps going past. It wasn’t until he heard music playing that he looked up and then slowly stood up, reaching for his dog’s harness.

“Marvel?” he asked as he realized the dog was gone. Wanting to find out what this music was, and where his dog had gone, Devlin stood up and slowly followed the music down the hall, letting his hand slide against the brick wall as he did so. 

“Hello?” he asked as he discovered the room the music was coming from, “Anyone in here?” The lights were off, but Devlin didn’t even notice. His world was already dark. “Marvel?” he called out his dog’s name again, as if she were the one in charge of the music at the moment. 

Devlin would never admit to it, but he was a little frightened at the moment. He hadn’t heard anyone come down, and yet there was now an array of music coming from one of the back rooms, when he had thought he was alone. 

[the-colossal-dork-blog]

“No… no. no-no-n-n-no. No. Nooooo,” Will moaned loudly, before letting his head fall forwards onto the text-book he’d been searching through as his computer screen began to flick wildly between different windows, his music skipping and jumping wildly as the out-dated machine spiralled into one of it’s much too frequent crashes. He didn’t have time for this, he knew, turning his head to stare at the raindrops scurrying down the window. That project had to be finished by the end of the month, and the last thing his Mom needed to hear was that he really needed a new computer. Lightning slit the sky for a second, and Will felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle as he lifted his head slightly. “Come on you piece of junk, please,” he whined, tapping desperately at keys

[devlinlivius-blog-blog]

Devlin was on his way to the library’s main desk when he heard someone. The subsequent “No’s” made him wonder if that meant there was a dog in the nearby area messing something up, and he quickly changed his direction to the voice. “Excuse me?” he asked as he approached the person he guessed was a male based on his voice, “Have you seen a dog around here? I seem to have lost mine. German Sheppard. She responds to Marvel.” That was when he noticed the whirring of the computer. “It appears your computer is overheating.” he pointed out, although that was most likely obvious, “Are you having difficulties?”