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Entry tags:
in my head there's a greyhound station
Who: Yoshio Koutarou (Jirou Sakuma) and Michi Yamashita (Yuuto Kidou)
When: Monday, May 22
Where: Green Valley library
What: Studying was the idea.
There's a small figure with silvery hair slumped halfway down in his chair, textbook propped up on the table in front of him so he doesn't have to sit back up. It's a free period before school ends -- when the bell rings he's got swim practice, but until now he's just trying to get some homework out of the way.
Except it's really difficult, because Yoshio keeps finding himself fighting nodding off. Sleepiness is winning right now -- it's with much effort that he forces himself back into a proper posture. He rubs hard at his visible eye, squeezing both shut, then lays his book back down normally. He hasn't been sleeping well at all, no thanks to Applenet. Even when it isn't doing something weird, giving him headaches, waking him up, it's on his mind enough that he lays awake for hours. It's cutting into his daytime productivity.
He picks his pencil back up again, clicks the button on the side to extend the graphite cartridge another quarter centimetre, and stares down at his notebook. His face and the page are equally blank.
When: Monday, May 22
Where: Green Valley library
What: Studying was the idea.
There's a small figure with silvery hair slumped halfway down in his chair, textbook propped up on the table in front of him so he doesn't have to sit back up. It's a free period before school ends -- when the bell rings he's got swim practice, but until now he's just trying to get some homework out of the way.
Except it's really difficult, because Yoshio keeps finding himself fighting nodding off. Sleepiness is winning right now -- it's with much effort that he forces himself back into a proper posture. He rubs hard at his visible eye, squeezing both shut, then lays his book back down normally. He hasn't been sleeping well at all, no thanks to Applenet. Even when it isn't doing something weird, giving him headaches, waking him up, it's on his mind enough that he lays awake for hours. It's cutting into his daytime productivity.
He picks his pencil back up again, clicks the button on the side to extend the graphite cartridge another quarter centimetre, and stares down at his notebook. His face and the page are equally blank.
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So instead, he snaps his book shut and looks around the room for something else to do for a while. Studying just lets his mind go right back to that app, and ... everything it's done so far. It's just not an option right now. Not today.
Two things come immediately to mind. There's someone else who looks just as done with the day as he feels, and he makes a snap decision. He gets up, walks over to that table, plunks himself right down across from the guy. That'd be... shoot, what was his name. Yoshio? From the swimming club. Right. Just in case he's wrong in remembering that, he foregoes using a name at all.
"So, I've been wondering something," he starts in, as if they're far closer friends than they are. Could it possibly be about algebra? Or some question about science? Well... no. He uses the first question that comes to mind that could possibly spawn a long debate about absolutely nothing relevant to creepy apps. Something frivolous.
"Why do books have blank pages?"
He'll either get the guy to answer, or be told to go away. In which case he'll have to keep hold of that question to ambush someone else with.
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Michi Yamashita has decided to sit with him.
Yoshio's mouth drops open and for a moment he just stares over at Michi stupidly -- but his question has good timing, because it just looks like his reaction is to that, rather than to Michi's presence at all. Yoshio forces himself to stop gaping... and instead just looks confused.
"Is this the leadup to a joke?"
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"No, it's an honest question." He figures he just startled him, really. With a random question like that, that's about to be expected. That was kind of the entire point, though he can hope Yoshio doesn't pry too hard into why the hell he decided to do this. He really can't answer. "Didn't you ever wonder?"
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"I haven't," he says finally, and sets down his pencil. He's not getting anywhere with this anyway -- so he might as well just go ahead and indulge him. "Tell me why books have blank pages, then."
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Really though, that's why he's asking. Would he ask if he didn't? Michi doesn't get back up, though. Instead, he slings his backpack off his back and onto the table, leaning onto it with folded arms. Whatever the reason, he's installed himself here now. That returned smile cements it - his attempt to jumpstart something - anything - paid off.
"It just hit me suddenly, so now I'm curious."
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There it is, that weird app, presenting itself to him on every page of his home screen, but he ignores it for the browser. Yoshio finds a search engine, types in the question, then holds it out so that both of them can see the screen. "This'll tell us."
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"Here, I can't see like that."
- and make that whole thing a lot easier by leaning on the table on Yoshio's side. It was an excuse question, but he's genuinely curious about that answer now. He's encountered "This page intentionally left blank" pages on several books by now, and even more that just don't have anything at all printed on a few blank pages at the back. But why? It seems so wasteful. And he didn't really think about it until he asked.
Michi reads it aloud, because of course he does.
"Book pages are often printed in large sheets. A group of 8, 16 or 32 consecutive pages will be printed on one large sheet in a way that will automatically put the pages in the correct order when the sheet is folded and cut. This group of pages is called a section or a signature. Books printed like this will always have a set number of pages that's a multiple of the number of pages in a signature. Therefore, unless the book is printed in the exact number of pages, blank or placeholder pages will be added. Huh. That makes an annoying amount of sense."
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The mystery is solved and he tilts his head just slightly, frowning. "That's kind of anticlimactic, though, isn't it?" It makes sense, sure, but... it's kind of boring. "There's no real other reason I can think of for them, though..." He sets his phone down on the table, folding his arms over his notebook. "Well... what else is a mysterious normal thing?" Now he wants to know more useless information. "What about -- did you ever see how cranberries are harvested?" Yoshio's seen pictures of it, but it's so strange...
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"Cranberries...? No." He leans back down onto the table. "I never thought about it. I didn't even wonder what they grow on, either. Okay. Look up cranberries next."
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"Look." He's pulled up a picture. "Apparently they grow in bogs, so before they pick them, they flood the bog so the berries will float. Then they agitate the water so they release off the vines." It's clever, or at least, he thinks so.
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It turns out to be a little harder to generate an interesting fact on the spot than he'd initially thought, but he comes up with something fast enough. "Weird. Hey- did you know that volcanoes can make lightning?"
Please don't know that one, Yoshio. But he's already spinning for other things related to lighting. He did a report on this one a year ago, he's got some ammunition there. Especially since he got curious and ended up wasting hours on wikipedia... There's ball lightning. There's st. elmo's fire. He can run with that tangent until he links a few more. As long as he keeps thinking constantly for something else, he isn't going to be caught flatfooted again.
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He certainly did not. He grins, pushes his hair over his ear before starting to search again. "No. Let me see..." Yes, he's looking for pictures. Before he finishes his search, though, he looks up at Michi. "Pull your chair around," he says softly. How is that comfortable? It can't be. If Michi moves, he'll scoot his in the direction of where he was just standing -- if he puts him on his left, he can actually see him while they do this.
In the meantime, Yoshio's interested in the volcano thing. This is something he's never seen ever... he doesn't really take the time to consider volcanoes much at all, really. And now that he's considering it... Michi's trying to one-up him, isn't he? Well.
He smiles, setting his phone down flat on the table, to consider. "Did you know sharks can't swim backward?"
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Mission successful... now to win this.
"No, but I know you can stop a train by putting chinaberries on the tracks."
He plunks the chair down backwards next to Yoshio and sits, using the back as a support to fold his arms on top of.
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That's really weird and he's never heard that. Which... he's fourteen years old, and he feels like it's all right if he doesn't know quite everything. Michi seems like he has all sorts of weird knowledge, but this is the boy who joined the swim club for about three weeks and left again. He wouldn't be surprised if he were as well-rounded with facts as he is with clubs he's been in.
"Hm..." Yoshio pauses to consider, folding his arms thoughtfully. "What about... do you know there are birds who live on cliffsides whose eggs are really pointy so they won't fall off the cliff?"
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"My uncle told me about it. If you line them up on enough of the track, it greases the wheels all the way down the train so they won't get traction, and it'll stop."
As for why, he honestly has no idea why someone would do that. Probably because they could. He for certain never would want to try it.
"I know there's birds on cliffs, but..." but not that factoid, no. "What birds?"
And when he gets his answer, he's instantly got a followup. "By the way.. did you know they're working on building another pyramid?"
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As for the birds, he hums. "Some kind of gull, I think." It's a murre, actually, not a gull at all. Now he has to find out, though. While he types 'seabirds with pointy eggs' in, Michi drops another fact on him and he looks up at him, eyebrow raised. "Really? Why?" Now that he thinks about it though, what are the pyramids even for?
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"It's some worldwide project. They're making a time capsule, I think."
The things mentioned offhand in history class, sometimes, are more interesting than the things he's supposed to be focused on. Michi's got a long list of little things he's written down in his notes that don't have to deal with the subject directly; knowledge is there to be learned.
The timer's running out on him; he needs another fact to lock out Yoshio from winning this. But he won't say anything right away, just to give him a chance.
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"Did you know penguins sit on their heels with their toes off the ground to keep from losing heat?" As soon as he says it he makes a face. Why are all his facts biology-based? He'll find something besides that, with any luck.
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"I even know they can adjust blood flow in their feet so they stay warm longer. Did you?" Know that, he means.
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That's not really going to count as an interesting fact. He has to come up with another fact. Michi is not going to lose his title of penguin fact king, never mind that he just assigned himself this title just now. That doesn't matter. What matters is defending it. "Did you know penguins don't have hollow bones like other birds do?"
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