[PRP] Just Download It (Zac & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

the rain is raining all around; it falls on field and tree
it rains on the umbrellas here - and one the ships at sea

His grandmother's old son rang in his head as he debated the dash from his car to the bookshop. Horace was already damp - his umbrella rested lovingly in his home. Decidedly not here, where he needed it. It was a day off, so at least he wasn't ruining a suit. Instead he was dressed in a pink shirt, khaki shorts, and a green hoodie. Shorts were superior in rain:no wet hems.

Regardless of the rain, he needed to go in. The school bookstore was out of his textbook and wouldn't get another for over a month and he needed it now. Taking a deep breath, he opened the car door and sprinted to the store. The door opened with a cheerful little tingle as he entered and Horace looked around before making a bee line to the counter and what seemed like am employee. Maybe.

"Hi," he said, breathing heavily from his dash in the rain, Horace looked harried, like this shop was his only hope. "Can you help me?"

endejester

 

[endejester]

Zac Blinked, not really surprise, it was a shop after all; just the harried tone took him off guard.
“I’ll do my best? What is it you’re looking for today?” He said putting a smile on his face.

He glanced the new patron over, trying to see if he could hazard a guess towards what was needed by what he was wearing, and his general posture.

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"Oh good. I was worried you didn't work here and I'd just accosted a customer." Horace wrinkled his nose good-naturedly and produced a list (miraculously dry) from his pocket. "I just started at Rider-Waite and, well, they are out of the text I need and won't get any for a month." It was his fault, he'd enrolled late, the syllabus had only come out on the first day of class, and he'd had work the next day and couldn't pick up a textbook. By the time he could, they were all gone. Apparently, more than one class needed the book and the night class kind of got the shaft.

He held out the paper. "I was wondering if you could get this and how quick?"

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[endejester]

Zac made a small distressed sound at the word ‘text book’, those were always ‘fun’ to deal with, and by ‘fun’ he meant ‘something like hell’ in his experience so far.

“Well, let’s… see, and we will cross our fingers alright?” He offered.

“If you don’t mind, just following me over to the computer. And um… if it does NOT have any options within a reasonable time frame I promise I will help you find some kind of way to work around this. Alright?” He gave a small nervous smile with raised brows.

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Horace winced. He figured textbooks were a nightmare, but Zac's small sound only reaffirmed that assumption. He followed Zac over obediently, quite prepared to just give up on it all. He should have asked someone who'd taken the class before what text to get since the professor didn't release the syllabus. Ugh.

"Anything you can do for me and you'd be like an angel, okay. Wings and all that."

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[endejester]

Zac laughed “Don’t say that… around here you never know.” He made he joke without thinking and turned red after he said it.

He typed the information into the computer to cover his tracks and worried at his lip. “… If, they haven’t already started work on a new edition it looks like, well, with the time it would take them to actually ship it if they WOULD send it I don’t think we’d be looking at much better a turn around time.”
He let out a breath.

“But!” he said holding up a finger and pulled up a browser instead, pass wording into the broader internet.

“…there is this site. It’s not really well advertised, but it’s really good for students on a budget.”

He typed out an address and pulled up a web page. “let me see if they have the right edition. They sell books by chapters. Sometimes if you have a teacher who jumps around a lot its the best thing to do. Not so good I think if you’re a medical student but, heck, English, History… that kind of thing.”

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"You're tellin' me you're already an angel? I believe it." He grinned if only because Zac had turned so red. But his smile fell as he looked up the textbook. Horace couldn't even be mad at the business admin professor anymore. This was his own fault for not being prepared. That's what he would say and he'd be right.

"s**t," he cursed emphatically, and then bit back the rest of his sentence as Zac continued. The website wasn't one he'd seen before and Horace pushed up his glasses to peer at it. "Wait, is this even legal?"

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[endejester]

Zac nodded “…they’d have shut it down if it weren’t… proceeds go to the source. But obviously its not well publicized because people want you to get the whole text. I tend to do it with math classes because they -always- skip chapters and the buy back is awful. I mean, we’re a book store. We are here to sell books, and some people do better with a physical text. Printing out a whole chapter can…get pricy. But not always as pricy to be fair.

“AH! Here!”

He found the page he was looking for and tapped the screen.

“They don’t -always- have the same edition you need, but even then you run a fairly low risk of it going too weird on you. Uuuunnnless it IS a math book then you turn in the problems and 5 of them don’t match.”
He spoke like it might have been personal experience.

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actually my mother has used a site like this so

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Not every illegal thing gets shut down, though." This was a good idea, though. Horace chewed his lip for a second. "Do you think it'd be cheaper to buy a couple chapters, and the full book - or buy it all and print it out?"

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[endejester]

“Honestly? … chapters.” He admitted. “I mean, yes we are a bookstore but, they have it, and it’s the fastest way, plus you probably won’t use all the chapters. I wish I could say whole thing but, school books can be prohibitive.”

He did wish he had another answer, but there it was.

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"Hmm. I hate the paper waste, though." He did appreciate Zac's candid assessment, even if it meant technically losing a sale for the bookstore. "Is it in a format that I can just read it on my iPad?"

endejester

 

[endejester]

Zac tipped his head, glancing over the file types and bit his lip.

"I think so? Worst case I'd lay money that there is something that could convert them to the right file type. Then use your computer to sync them over."

That would also work well if you're like me and study well by writing out notes. Then you aren't wasting paper you're just writing out the points you need. "

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"I usually don't take note - have an eidetic memory, but only for words I've read. Pictures and diagrams, no dice." He looked at the website again. Horace would remember it.

"Look, I really appreciate your help and you're not even gettin' a sale. Can I tip you?"

endejester

 

[endejester]

Zac shook his head but he smiled all the same. “This is my job, I enjoy helping. I’m a little jealous of your memory though; I get… so worried that I’ll forget things that I kind of write them down compulsively.

He admitted. “I’m just glad we found you a viable option though! I hope you’ll come back if you need anything else!”

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace frowned as Zac talked and tried to stealthily pull out his wallet. "Picking up a habit of writing things down isn't bad." He pulled out a twenty and tried to inch it along the counter towards Zac.

endejester