(Untitled)

[the_grayman]

At one of the bar tables there is a white-haired boy with a book, which he is reading aloud to himself with painstaking effort.

He is not a good reader. Please, distract him. He'd probably appreciate it.

Comments

[will_scarlett]

Will isn't a good reader either, he's gotten better but recognizes how hard it can be. So comes over with a tired smile for the young/old man,

"Eve, sir, readin' somethin' interestin'?"

[the_grayman]

Allen looks up. He seems a bit ... dazed.

"Hmm? Oh ... I-I'm not sure," he admits, studying the book with squinting eyes.

"I can't quite read it and understand at the same time," he admits with a laugh.

[will_scarlett]

"Oh aye, sir, I understand, took me a few months 'fore I got to that point. Though found good people 'ere who teach me an are patient with me while I try."

Will looks down, trying to see if he recognizes the title or language.

[the_grayman]

It's in English, and it's Paradise Lost.

Fairly new, in Allen's world.

"I imagine it gets better with time." Allen still looks chagrined about attempting to read more.

[haven_in_books]

Rose is seated nearby. She's having a bit of a struggle, too, with her current project. There's a miniature cauldron on the table in front of her.
Faint wisps of purple and white smoke are coming from it. It smells rather pleasant, but judging by her glare at the cauldron, that's not what it's supposed to do.

[the_grayman]

Allen and pleasant smells should not be in the same sentence, because if it smells pleasant and it might be food, Allen is there.

"Hullo, what's that?"

Allen is glad for the excuse to stop reading.

[haven_in_books]

Rose looks up, smiling. "Hullo. It's a potion I'm trying to make; but it shouldn't smell like vanilla if I've gotten it," she admits.

[the_grayman]

Allen is intrigued by this. "A potion? For what?" he wants to know.

[undevoured]

"Is it a good book?"

Harvey's sitting at a nearby table, and, well. The white-haired boy is rather attention-getting.

[the_grayman]

Allen looks up and blinks at the child.

Allen doesn't have the best of luck with kids, although he likes them well enough.

"Well, I'm not certain," he says. "It takes me such a long time to read each line that I don't entirely understand it!"

He laughs awkwardly.

[undevoured]

Harvey blinks.

"But you're a teenager," he points out. "You should be in highschool at least."

[the_grayman]

Allen's ... unusual in that respect. He also lives in the early 1900's in England and an orphan, so he probably would have been a child laborer, not in school.

Still.

Allen laughs, albeit embarassedly. "I've never been to school. There wasn't really any oppurtunity to do so."