Books books book... (Open RP in, yes, the library)

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

With the knowledge that L is willing to pay for any computer equipment he might need (which is a relief - he hadn't been looking forward to attempting to get his hands on someone's credit card while shopping with the world's greatest detective), Matt had gone to Hogsmeade and used the last of his money to purchase a wand.

Now he needs to find out what to do with it.

So, he's heading for the library. What he understands of wizarding culture suggests there isn't going to be much on cybermagic, but Matt isn't against figuring out things on his own.

Comments

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"Most likely not as directly as that. Unless it were in an extremely unguarded moment."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Right. Well... good luck with that."

This was too much. Matt stuck the wand back in his pockets and pulled out the box of cigarettes.

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

He knew it would likely set Matt off, but Near said it anyway. "Should you be doing that here?"

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Probably not. I'm a helpless addict. It's not my fault, I was orphaned."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps that is an excuse I should use from time to time. It might have saved me a detention."

Not that he regrets the detention, in hindsight.

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"It works. Gets more difficult to pull off the older you get, though."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"It would not have gotten us very far growing up."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Not at Wammy's, no. And it worked okay for a year or two after I left."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"I was... busy, then. Although I suppose I was cosseted in a way."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

Matt nods. "The SPK, right? Yeah, I can't imagine having to explain much to them."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"No, and they didn't need to know. Couldn't. I couldn't be human to them, or they never would have listened to me, not at that age."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Well, at least it worked." Matt thinks - not for the first time, or the last - that he would never wish being L upon anybody.

Which reminds him of something else.

"Hey. You were a dick to Ryuuzaki."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

It takes a moment for Near to call up exactly what Matt means, and then he lifts his chin slightly. "He used my name. The real one. I'm rather touchy about that... it was rather close for me, you know."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

Hmm. He hadn't heard that part.

"Well... okay, that was pretty shit of him as well. But still - there's a bit of a pattern emerging here, right?" And then, a curious look. "I didn't know. I was dead."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"Being easy to get along with was never a priority I was taught." And after a rapid glance around, he lowers his voice, because why not tell him? "I was nearly the last name Light Yagami wrote. It would still have been over... he was cornered and exposed before his own men and the SPK... but I was a single letter from death. I have no fondness for my true name."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

Matt whistles, lowly. "Jesus. No-one else saw it, did they?"

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"I destroyed it, and the page he got it from. But you can see why it would cause a reaction. And since he does not wish to know of the events in question, and I have no intention of telling him, I could scarcely explain why it upset me so."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Mm." And Matt can't explain that L had been pretty freaked out about what Near had said, because that would involve telling him about L getting drugged. Which he'd said he wouldn't. "Just... try to not get punched again. If you can."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"That depends more on the behavior of others than myself."

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"If was a one-off, maybe."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"I am who I am. Other people are who they are. This is unlikely to change." Near's expression didn't betray his inward wince at Matt's phrasing... after all, it was unpleasantly close to the way both Mello and Matt had described their 'encounter'. And the more he was reminded of it, the harder it was to convince himself to just let the matter lie.

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

Matt rolls his eyes, a gesture that's mostly lost when you wear goggles at all times. "Well, have fun with that."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

"Would you change who you were, if you could?"

[gamerspy.livejournal.com]

"Probably. Aspects, at least. And especially if people kept hitting me."

[cardarchitect.livejournal.com]

Near sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It's hard enough to sort out who I am without trying to care what other people think about it."