He's looking for books. Not grand, clever, meaningful books, nor yet the cheesy inspirational sorts of books--like Chicken Soup for the Soul--that you might imagine someone as silly and nice and silly as he is might read.

He's looking for joke books. Yes, I realize this is silly. But he's a silly, and we'll let him have his little foibles. It's cute, anyway.

Anyway.

Relatively tall, with the loose jointed kind of grace that makes him look like a dancer. (Or not human, but most people wouldn't think of the second option.) He isn't. He's a doctor. He's actually got a few other abilities that involve healing, but he doesn't know how to control those. It generally involves fainting.

White hair, but he's not old. It's long and pulled back in a ponytail and rather shiny and silky. He has nice hair. Pale skin and long face, and he really doesn't look like he ought to be human. Exotic isn't the word. Strange might be.

Especially those big blue eyes that look a good deal older than thirty two, and a good deal younger at the same time.

He's a paradox. His name is Alan.

The tall woman, leaning casually on a bookcase, is eyeing Alan with not-so-obvious interest. Blame her sunglasses for making it not so obvious - that and the way she was half-turned away from him. She was smirking, and appeared to be flipping through a book on how to cheat at poker.

Incidentally, the bookcase she's leaning on, and 'unintentionally' restricting others' access to? It happens to contain most of the humor section.

She needs to read a book to cheat?

Alan clears his throat.

"Excuse me. Can I get by here?"

No reason to be impolite, but no reason not to say anything. He can tell she's not human, but that's more because she doesn't actually have any of the physical feelings that humans do.

Any mortals, really. He only notices them when they're not there.

Of course not, it's just for show.

"Certainly, hon," she nods, smiles, and steps aside for him, but hovers nearby, almost close enough to be breathing down his neck. After a few moments of this, she inquired innocently, "What are you looking for?"

"Just something I haven't read before, that's all."

He glances over his shoulder, slightly confused and slightly annoyed and slightly intimidated. Does she have to be that close?

"Oh, really?"
She glides over, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep herself balanced (ha!) while she reaches for a book on a shelf above her head. She plucks the desired volume out, and holds it out to him. "Here you go, hon. This one's good."

"... thanks."

He accepts the book and flips through it briefly, a small smile twitching the corners of his lips as he verifies that indeed, he hasn't read this one before.

His eyes slant to her hand and one white eyebrow lifts curiously.

"You're welcome."

The hand, with its lacquered nails, still rests on his shoulder - which she is now reading over. She's smiling as if the book is new to her too - not that jokes are really her sort of thing, you understand, but she likes surprises.

He draws away, looking mildly offended. (It's Alan. Everything is mild, with him.)

"Excuse me, ma'am. I think I'll go and pay for my book now."

She raised an eyebrow at him, with a mellow sort of smile on her face, and withdrew her hand.
"Lighten up, Alan darling. No need to get all huffy," she said teasingly, resting a hand on her hip. She leaned on the bookcase again. It teetered a bit, but not so much that it looked like it would fall over.

He blinks, once.

"How did you know my name?"

In his defense, he's always been absorbed in his studies and now in his work. And in the problems of anyone who happens to cross his path, actually.

"You told me when you introduced yourself," she said,sounding contemptuous like she couldn't believe he'd forgotten so quickly. Of course he hadn't told her - she was just playing. Alan looked like fun,... felt like he'd be fun to toy with.

"I never introduced myself."

He's suspicious, now, and the whole bit where she doesn't feel of all the physical things that normal mortals do is making him more suspicious. (Even when they aren't thinking about it, people feel hungry or cold or thirsty or tired, you know.)

"Didn't you? My mistake." She shrugged, grinning at him as if he'd just said something wildly funny. "I guess you mustn't have gotten my name, then, either. How silly of me. How very silly of me. To think I could forget that."
She turned away from him, perusing the shelves of joke books, and humming to herself.

He frowned.

"What are you, anyway?"

He's curious. He also has a bad habit of not expecting harm from anything or anyone unless they make overtly threatening moves.

"Now, now..." she giggled like a schoolgirl, "Let a girl have her secrets, hon. It's no fun if I just tell you."

She must like Alan - not once has even a hit of bitchiness crept into her tone (yet).
...but what kind of girl doesn't like unicorns, anyway?

Sigh.

"I suppose I'll have to live with that." That can't be too bad. Except, oh, he's curious now, and he'd really like to know.

He's a tad sulky. It's funny.

"Yes, sweetie, I'm afraid you will," she cooed, turning to give him a mock-sympathetic pat on the back. "And maybe you'll figure it out. Eventually."

"I'm no good at figuring things out," he argues. "Can I have a hint?"

Like a name. A name would be good. It would be something he could look for and think about.

"Mm,...I suppose so." She ponders for a moment - a name would be something of a big hint, but she's out to tease, not to frustrate. "Okay. Here's your hint, darling."
She glides up to him - too close - and whispers her name in his ear, then slips away, beaming.

His eyes go wide (wider, actually, since they're naturally rather wide and innocent looking) and he blinks again.

"Goodness."

He's never met a being of her sort, before. it's a tad intimidating. And a tad invigorating.

She giggled again (giggling really doesn't suit her,by the way, but you'd never think it).

"Ooh, so close. But the word's not 'goodness', it's...something else. I'll let you think it over, shall I?" she smiled amiably, and with a ballerina-like twirl, set herself in the direction of the stairs.

He watched her go and wondered if she'd really been there. It was such a strange encounter... Aside from the fact that she was not human or mortal and said she was Fortuna, which has all kinds of implications that confuse him, she flirted with him.

He thinks. It's a rare enough occurrence--as far as he knows--that he isn't sure.

Women don't flirt with him. Usually.

He is confused.