#ft. kipper

[amescastaignede]

SELF PARA - SOMETIMES, IT’S NICE TO NOT BE QUIET.

Summary: Amélie has hidden in the library to read and hide from Felicity for the day when a librarian named Kipper finds her and makes it his sole mission to find out more about her. A sweet tale of friendship. 

The first time Kipper ever saw Amélie was in the darkest part of the library, where hardly anyone ventured. She was curled up, book in hand and a look of such deep sorrow he’d wondered what novel was taring her heart apart. 

He adored books, had found his own comfort in the written word when his entire world felt like it was falling apart. However, there was something about the woman that caused him to pause mid-shift, books stacked in his arms and he watched. Just for a moment, and wondered. There was something about readers that always had him asking the question --- why.

Why did they read? To escape, to learn....to feel? Kipper knew he had to find out. Placing the books down carefully, he wandered over, a look of intrigue, while hands were delved deep into pockets of his suit pants.

‘‘I’ve never seen someone read so intensely.’‘

She jumped, eyes wide, looking up at the stranger that had found her. Heart thumping, she shrunk into her oversized brown leather chair. Did she want to talk to anyone? Always finding the quietest place so she could read undisturbed. Mostly because Felicity knew where she lived. 

And being found was not on today’s agenda.

‘‘Oh. Me? You’re talking to me?’’ She looked flustered, startled that someone had approached her, and instantly he was taking a step back with hands lifted. His own version of telling her she was safe. That there was nothing to fear.  ‘’D-Do you watch everyone?’‘

‘‘No..’‘ Kipper chuckled, bemused at such a question. 

Then silence followed, like she’d completely tuned him out instantly. Kipper didn’t even realise he rolled his jaw to stop the smile spreading across his lips, turning and falling into the chair beside her. It took no time for her to jump, slamming the book closed between her hands. 

Kipper may have been a quiet soul himself, but he had no issues in attempting to make friends with the girl that obviously wanted him to leave her alone. He saw it as a challenge, as always.

‘‘I read that particular book a few times myself.’‘ Kipper continued. 

Amélie’s brows furrowed for a moment, peering down at the book that was practically falling apart at the seams. It’d been read, more than a few times and for a moment she wondered about the strange boy who’d found need to talk to a girl who so obviously wanted to be left alone. 

The book was littered with little annotations, underlining's and scribblings, even the odd doodle of flowers. She’d often found herself reading over the markings, wondering who’d found such passion for words, waiting for the next. One, however, had stuck out. 

‘‘Page 134.’‘ The words had read ‘Sometimes to be human means to feel the most uncomfortable of feelings and still love that we have the capacity to feel them.’ --- written in such beautiful cursive she’d found her fingers running over the small indents wondering who had thought those intense words and found the need to leave them for the next reader. 

‘‘Yeah---’’ He reached up to scratch the back of his head, a light laugh falling from his lips. ‘’That was me.’‘ There was also pride in his words,  to which he turned in his seat with a shit eating grin. Oh, so he was cocky, she thought. 

‘‘Don’t you think annotating books is like defacing art?’‘ Amélie asked meekly, she held the book up in her hand, towards him. Worry etched into that sweet face.

He retorted almost instantly. ‘‘I mean---’’ He leant forward, forearms rested upon his knees ‘’--- Don’t you think not letting the world see the inner workings of the brain is to spit in humanity’s face?’‘ 

And she fell silent, running her hands over the book before she opened it and began to once again read. Maybe he’d leave her alone, allow her the peace she was so badly craving. However, that seemed like a tall dream when he once again began to speak.

‘‘What you listening to?’‘ Kipper asked, chin in hand. She’d never felt more uncomfortable

‘‘I-- look...I come here to read and be alone..’‘

‘‘And I came here to talk to you.’’ He challenged.

‘‘Y-You what?’‘ Amélie stuttered.

‘‘I don’t mean I literally came here to talk to you. Jeez, I’m not a creep.’‘

‘‘...’‘ Would he not go away?!

‘‘Well?’‘ He pushed.

‘‘Radiohead --- Talk Show Host.’‘ She barely managed to get above a whisper, shrinking in his company at this prodding energy she wasn’t used to. Why was he talking to her? She knew she repelled people; so who was he? Why was he here?

And why would he not freaking leave.

‘‘And here I was expecting you to be listening to Taylor Swift.’‘

She snorted instantly, an unattractive trait, she was aware. 

‘‘I...I definitely think you’ve got what kind of girl I am mixed up with someone else.’‘ 

Little did she know, he’d become one of her all time favourite people. 

[amescastaignede]

KERAGAN ‘KIPPER’ TOUSSAINT  | LIBRARIAN | NPC

‘’They are the villains with a point, the heroes who will cross the line, the ones who will make the difficult decisions.’’  

[amescastaignede]

Audition Paragraph 001.

Amélie wanted quiet, could even have begged for it earlier in the day when she’d been sat in the office; it’d been alive with phones ringing off the hook, paper scattered everywhere and frantic journalists trying to get the final story together before the deadline hit. Her straight mousey brown hair fell in front of her face, eyes of poison ivy scanning the lines of the oversized book that was devouring her dainty fingers, each adorned by a different style of ring. Each page turned felt like an accomplishment, delving into the worlds of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Amélie’s interest in Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 had brought her to his work, and she’d never regretted a single second. She found his work to be enthralling. For some, they found this kind of pleasure in doing things that caused drastic rushes of adrenaline. But not her, no. This was her form of fun, taking her to far off places that she’d never get to visit, see, or experience.

But peace? That part seemed to cause a rumble in the pit of her stomach. Peace did not fit into her life anymore. Instead, every word she read seemed to relate back to something that was happening in her life. Mathais. Her chest heaved as if about to sigh, but she held it there, holding her breath to stop those feels clouding her heart. It’d been this way since she found out about where he’d been sneaking off to and the things he’d been doing.

Amélie could admit that she’d never been coy, in her eyes there was allure in the inability to hold a conversation with a stranger without the need to look like a deer caught in the headlights. But there were few she’d managed to make close bonds with, and one of those few was stood before her in minutes with a grin spread across his face, two cups of coffee in hand.

‘’You are a rather demure character, aren’t you?’’ Kipper, a local at the library she often frequented sat opposite her in the chairs which were hidden way in back, away from people. But Kipper? She didn’t mind him all that much, especially when he pushed a cup of coffee in her direction. She gasped almost instantly, reaching out for it.

‘’I now remember why I always liked you.’’ She giggled, hiding her smile as she kept her eyes to her lap. It was a shame, honestly, that she kept them downcast so often, with such captivating eyes that told stories of an old soul trapped in a young persons body.

‘’You like me for my coffee.’’ Kipper mused, pulling out his own book which read Beyond Good and Evil. Instantly a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, which he caught. ‘’What?’’ He questioned, raising his own brow in response. Still with downcast eyes, a larger smile grew, pretending she was still reading her own book.

‘’Nietzsche, really?’’ She teased, to which Kipper snorted under his breath.

‘’I think it gives a very good insight into good and evil’’

The comment alone had her biting down on her nude painted lip, brows furrowing together. Good and evil, the concept alone had her baffled. That she’d seen that very evil rip through her home like a virus. The image of her parents when they’d found out what he’d come, willingly.

‘’An insight? There are two sides, you pick one. You’re either good, or evil.’’ Amélie muttered, pretending to settle more into her chair and read. But it was useless now, her mind was contemplating questions that she didn’t have the answers too, not yet anyway.

Kipper dropped into his seat, shaking his head. ‘’You always see things so black and white.’’

‘’I just think people like to sometimes complicate things that are simple.’’

‘’Such as?’’ He retorted instantly. Instantly her lips locked, while Kipper was a friend, he was also someone who she did not know extremely well. There were parts of her life hat she kept to herself, more so for her own safety than anything other reason.

‘’Evil is evil, good Is good--- yes, we all love a morally grey character. Especially in literature but in life? ---‘’ She closed the book in her hands, resting it in her lap, sitting to tuck her knees beneath her as she cuddled further into the chair. ‘’--- I just think you’re either a good person, or you aren’t. Make good decisions, treat people nice and do a job that brings happiness and joy instead of letting it tare families apart.’’

Her family.

‘’Writing about other people, their lives--- that’s good? That isn’t morally grey?’’

‘’How so?’’ She questioned, cocking her head to the side, intrigue and disagreement etched into her expression, but there also seemed to be amusement.

‘’Some people believe journalists to be nothing better than paparazzi on paper, you write about people that don’t want to be talked about. In their life, you are the villain. You are the evil.’’ Kipper tapped his hand upon the book with every word, as if making his words to the point and final.

‘’But I’m not?’’ She scoffed.

‘’In your world, in your life, you’re good. But in theirs? Their vision of how life is meant to be is dependent on who they are, how they were brought up. Can you really class some of these people as evil when it was merely them trying to survive, or because of the hand they were dealt.’’

‘’You sound like one of them.’’

‘’No, I’m merely someone who doesn’t group everyone together in a category---‘’ He looked her over once before shaking his head. ‘’I think you’re a great girl, Ace, I just think sometimes you have to think outside the box a little. Maybe try and look at it from a different perspective and you might find some peace in what ever it is that Is eating you alive.’’

It was enough for her mouth to shut, falling involuntarily inwards. There was something about their chats that always left her thinking and Kipper seemed to get the same idea, picking his book up again and opening it to the page where he’d left off.