It's only words (Dominic)

[Tristian]

The Library was a domain that was normally a no go area for Prince Tristian Pendragon of Camelot and of the having much better things to do with his time than waste it in the dark recesses of some library. It wasn’t that he didn’t read, it wasn’t that he didn’t study, it was simply that he preferred to do such things in the comfort of his own home and room, and when it came to books, why would he borrow something when he could just as easily purchase it and keep it. It also meant that whilst he was studying if he happened to drop any manner of foods and drinks on it he was not fined and scolded by the incredibly grumpy librarian.
 
However on this particular occasion he found that the book he required could not be purchased and in fact the only place it was available was in the school library. Biting the bullet and putting on his best clothes (as always) he headed down to face the dark dank place. The librarian had all but hissed at him when he entered and he had rolled his eyes before smirking and walking up to the counter. “Hello, I’m looking for a book-”
 
“It’s not here.” She said immediately and began stamping the books loudly.
 
“You don’t even know what I’m looking for yet,” he said through clenched teeth.
 
“I don’t need to, whatever you are looking for, it’s not here,” she said with another loud stamp to punctuate her point.
 
Tristian opened his mouth to speak and thought better of it. Trading barbed words with this woman was a waste of his time and intellect, he would find a better way to revenge her. He scanned the tables and the students sitting around them studying, reading, before a young blonde caught his eye. He smirked, yes he would do nicely. He crossed over to him and said as charmingly as he could, “Excuse me, I wonder if you could help me find a book.”
 
“Dominic!! Don’t you give him anything!” the librarian shrieked.

[dominic]

Dominic hadn't even noticed the commotion as Tristian tried to argue with the librarian, it was actually quite hard to get his attention when he was engrossed in a book - and he was certainly engrossed right now.
Charming as Tristian was attempting to be, Dominic didn't actually look up until the librarian yelled his name, and then he had to backtrack mentally to work out what she was talking about and what relevence it had to him.

"Well, he's not actually asking me to give him anything, just help him locate a book. I suppose technically you could describe that as a request for services, and I would be 'giving' him my time... but I am afraid I really can't refuse anybody in the pursuit of knowledge, please don't think too harshly of me for it, I very much enjoy being able to come and study in here." He explained to the librarian - he wasn't trying to be cheeky, wasn't even trying to be overly polite, he was simply speaking in completely detached, totally academic terms.

"What book is it you're attempting to locate?" He asked Tristian calmly.

[Tristian]

The librarian adored Dominic, the boy who loved to read, who treated books with the utmost respect and spoke in a way that was always extremely logical. Which was why when he made his request not to think harshly about him she couldn’t refuse him. Having Dominic is the library, and happy to read, was worth the sacrifice of a couple of books coming back with infinite amounts of tea stains and assorted foods, with the pages bent in the corner. Sitting back down her chair she continued to stamp with one last genuine smile at Dominic, and one last glare for Tristian.

Tristian watched the exchange with complete confusion before turning back to look at the boy in front of him. He smirked a little and said, “looks like you have her wrapped round your little finger. Good work.”

He sat down in the chair next to the boy and said, “I’m look for ‘Theatre Medieval; A Jesters Tale.’ I have to write an essay on what theatre was like back then and must reference relevant sources. Apparently personal experience doesn’t count.”

[dominic]

For a moment, Dominic's brow furrowed in confusion, and he actually glanced at his hand as if expecting to see the librarian there, before realising that Tristian wasn't speaking literally.

"I believe," he said, after Tristian made his request "That the idea is to give everybody equal footing, and allowing students to utilise personal experience would be an unfair advantage against those who did not have such experience. However, since each person is blessed with different levels of intelligence, dedication and resourcefullness, the idea of a level playing field to begin with is inherently flawed. Students should be allowed to use every tool at their disposal regardless of whether or not other students possess them, since that is arguably a much more useable life skill than the ability to reference."

Despite being an intelligent and bookish sort of person, Dominic wasn't a fan of referencing, if a question was posed to him he liked to be able to answer it himself, and while his own knowledge may draw on other people's writing as well as his own logical reasoning, he didn't like the idea that he had to use only what has already been discovered and written down by other people.

[Tristian]

“How very interesting, I suppose you have a point there, or rather two, looking at it from both sides of the argument,” said Tristian, smiling, “however sadly it matters not when it comes to the curriculum for we are slaves to the will of those who aren’t always as smart as you and I.

The boy reminded him of someone else which was why in the face of someone who spoke so logically…he actually had a lot of patience for him, something which many others wouldn’t have expected. In a way he liked the logic, the way people like the boy in front of him thought, if more people thought like that the world would be a much better place. He couldn’t think like that himself, he had to hot a temper to think rationally, but he liked it in other people…so long as it wasn’t being used against him to annoy him, upset him or generally just cheese him off.

“Thus I must make my references from this book,” he said sitting back in the seat, “so, Dominic was it, do you think you could help?”

[dominic]

Dominic nodded vaguely, for once wisely staying quiet despite being tempted to point out that he'd yet to see any evidence of Tristian's intelligence, and couldn't possibly comment on the intelligence of the lecturers in comparison. Despite being mostly socially awkward, he was beginning to learn what sort of things people tended to take offence to, and tried to avoid saying them.

Of course, there were still a lot of subtleties that he liked, and he'd yet to master the art of putting something delicately, usually just saying things exactly as he thought them. He didn't intend to be mean, but sometimes he came across rather blunt.
"Have you tried looking for it?" He asked simply "It should be in the drama section, I imagine."

[Tristian]

Now, ordinarily Tristian would have rolled his eyes and questioned the boys knowledge of the who’s who of Tintagel, but since the boy sounded and looked like he lived most of his life in this place the words, ‘look for it? I have people to do that for me’ died on his lips and never surfaced. Not even the sarcastic smile, not even a roll of the eyes, his patience with this young man would not be wavered. Instead he smiled quite genuinely and said, “Yes that would be very good advice if indeed I knew where the drama section was in this vast library.”

He gestured towards the rows upon rows of bookshelves that towered up to the extremely high ceiling. Feeling that the young man would require further explanation he continued, “I purchase all of the books I need for my education so that I may mark them and use them at my own will, so that they will not be defaced for other borrowers of the book.”

“And because I do not allow him too borrow them after the state of the first book he ever borrowed, when he returned it, three months late,” screeched the librarian who had been eavesdropping.

[dominic]

Dominic wasn't completely unaware of social convention, and he didn't naively assume that everybody he met was going to be nice (unlike his mother), but unfortunately he was unaware enough of it to realise when what he'd said had the potential to offend, add that to the fact that he didn't know about Tristian, and it all added up to him not being remotely surprised when Tristian responded with equal, calm honesty.
He knew that he could offend, sometimes, but generally assumed he wasn't going to right up until someone pointed out he had.

"Oh I see, well the drama section is just this way," he pushed himself to his feet and motioned towards the section in question, about to move when Tristian spoke again, and the librarian added her 'helpful' commentary.
He paused, uncertain about this. While he considered annotating books sometimes incredibly helpful, there was a certain wrongness about it, if not done in the right way - whether it was your own book or not.

"When you say 'defaced'," he began slowly "How, exactly, do you mean?"