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 Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:10 pm
The library was a sanctuary; not only because the piles of books were a comfort, because he could find anything, because it was familiar and friendly, but because it was well heated, warm, with quite a few places to sit.
On top of that, people rarely asked him what he was doing. Usually, he liked the attention, but right around now he needed a bit of privacy. Anywhere else, a young twenty-something dressed in a ratty t-shirt and a much-too-thin coat, boots held together with ancient duct tape and a very full bag at his feet would have been questioned. Here, no one seemed all that concerned that he seemed to have everything he owned with him -- or if they were, they didn't dare risk the furious 'HUSH!' of surrounding students.
So. He sat. Fished a book off the shelf, shrugging off ratty layers in the warmth of the familiar building, ran fingers through the crudely-chopped mess of his hair, and relaxed. Once he was reading, he'd be oblivious.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:29 pm
He really didn't -want- to brush so close to another person right now, but he was parked right in the way of reading the next book he wanted. He scowled for a long moment as though the weight of his gaze would in turn push the ratty, duck tape laden individual away from where he was sitting. Or perhaps propel him with great force out the nearest window just so that he could place his stool un-impeaded.
He glowered next at the over full bag, tempted to kick it but that wouldn't serve him well at all, the ratty-looking fellow looked -tall-, he didn't much care for confrontations with the 'tall', it normally ended up with the sharp reminder that despite his recent growth of an inch in height, that he was still distinctly 'portable' and 'locker sized'.
He was in such a sufficiently bad time that he didn't even TRY to ask the 'person' to move, rather he placed his stool as close to where he wanted to be and gripped the shelf so he could reach for the large paperback. For once he wished it were hard back, at least they had a better lip that he could have hooked his finger over, as it was he was expecting to loose his grip and send either the book or himself down on the grungy impediment in the chair.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:36 pm
Zac could fight for a while, all his glowering and scowling lost, before Ever would notice the twitching and fighting going on behind him. It started with quick glances upward, twitchy and secretive, a smile growing across his face. Slowly, it grew into a tip of his head, and then to a half-turn around in his seat so that he could get a good, solid look at Zac's struggle.
Only once he was really frustrated, mouth set and fingers wriggling [and Ever grinning up at him like an idiot] did he get a word, "How're you doing up there, then?"
It was innocent. Almost. Except for the smothered laughter behind it.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 4:54 pm
Zac gripped the shelf hard to keep himself from loosing his balance at the very idea of being addressed by 'the impediment'. He shot a glower at the white haired individual, it was furious and intense, but his stature and slight frame gave it all the intimidation factor of being threatened by a Hamster with a bread knife.
"Marvelously, it's tremendous fun, you have successfully placed your posterior AND possessions in the path of maximum obstruction." The laughter just smothered behind the 'innocence' was not lost on Zac, it would be fair to say he was -looking- for it, more so when he had noticed 'The Impediment' grinning up at him and enjoying himself.
He hooked one finger on the spine of a hardback and gave a considering and pointed -stare- before making another lunging reach for the book, the stool tipped dangerously and Zac had to smother a curse that would have come out quite a lot louder had he not been 'in library mode', after all, normally this was one of his little 'sanctuaries'.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:02 pm
A gentleman would have taken the hint, gotten up, and offered to help out. He might have offered a hand to Zac when the stool started to wobble, might have offered an apology, and definitely wouldn't have laughed.
Ever wasn't a gentleman.
Instead, he did the minimum he could -- twisting to settle his foot on the stool, closing his book and leaning against the back of the chair, fighting harder against that amused edge. Zac was adorable, his fury bouncing off Ever's indifference. It was hard to bruise someone's pride when they had none. "I do try."
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endejester generated a random number between
1 and 2 ...
2!
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:10 pm
((randomising a result for my own interest))
"SHI---" Zac said with some alarm and with a distinctly higher than inside voice volume as the stool flipped, his grip on the shelf was for a moment, stable, then it too slipped, he dislodged one hard back, his intended book and a plastic index card that marked the section down as well as himself and landed squarely in the last place he wanted to be... right in the lap of "The Impediment".
"b*****d!" He hissed through clenched teeth trying to right himself and tempted to grab the plastic placard and smack him with it.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:31 pm
From several tables over, they got a sharp glare and a definite 'shhhhhhhh!', furious and teasing. It was enough to keep Ever from bursting into laughter, at the very least. If only because he didn't want to get kicked out on his a**, into the cold, or get his library card taken away. So instead he mimicked it, pressing a finger to his lips and setting a hand against Zac's side to keep him from tumbling over more.
"Shhhhh!" His eyes were hopelessly entertained, pale brows raised in mock concern, and his knees were almost painfully pointy. "...you know, most men buy me a drink first..."
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:36 pm
Zac grabbed his book furiously, his eyes blazed in pale blue -fury- and with a moments unfortunate impulse, rather unlike him but for lacking sleep and perhaps a little sanity... smacked the flat of the book into 'the Impediments' face and scrambled as best he could out of the chair flushing a deep furious and embarrassed crimson.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:48 pm
A solid strike and Ever just thanked his lucky stars he hadn't bothered to fish out the expensive-and-rarely-used reading glasses from the bottom of his bag. He didn't have the funds to replace them.
It took a moment for the pain to kick in: not the first time he'd been hit there, and that was obvious from the slight bend in the bridge of his nose, and he held up pretty well. Both hands flew up to his face and he made a frustrated, sound, hissing as whoever-it-was hushed the pair of them again.
"...damnit..."
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 6:00 pm
There was a great deal of temptation to go and deal with the elusive 'husher' as well. Something 'permanent' was becoming an increasing temptation though which meant it was time to take a breath. He didn't want to be booted out, that would be humiliating.
he tucked the book under his arm and turned to leave "The Impediment" to clean up the mess that HE had made, Zac felt of course that he had been an unfortunate victim to the miscreant.
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 8:45 pm
Anthony Darrow was having a rather nice day, all told. The library was quiet, and he was getting a surprising amount of work accomplished at his desk. This was a rare treat, as he usually distracted himself from such work, imputing new books into the database and the like, by focusing on the day to day work instead. The stuff he just ‘couldn’t possibly’ put off, or it would just stack up too quickly. Shelving books, checking them in, doing in house pick ups and counts, rough sorting and, of course, helping people at the front desk.
But the hired help, the students who came in and out to get some credits and earn a little bit of money each term, were actually doing a very good job this month. They stayed on top of the incoming books, and the shelving. Hell, they even had time to go out and do one of the most tedious jobs, and even Tony admitted that one, shelf reading. It was rather nice, though it threw Tony’s schedule off a bit.
So he was at his desk, surrounded by books, typing in barcode numbers and double checking lists to make sure everything was up to date. This really should have been one of those ‘couldn’t possibly’ jobs, the ones he knew better than to put off, but it wasn’t. And now he had to pay for being lazy about it.
He would be there for hours with this, he was sure.
At least he had a nice cup of cocoa. Usually he went for coffee, though it was gross, but this season had been particularly cocoa-y, in feel and appearance, so he opted to stick with it. Anyway, it was a nice excuse to have something sweet, chocolate and marshmallows, in the middle of the work day. He was taking a sip when a loud almost-curse, though it was missing a letter at the end, reached his ears. It made him jump, and he managed to dump cocoa on his coat.
“Damn!” he said, his well-practiced library voice still in place, despite the accident. He tugged off his jacket and looked around, then tossed it on his desk. He had to go investigate where the noise was coming from. There was a lot of scuffling and hushing going on, and by the time he reached the scene he was in time to see one boy trying to scurry away while another was holding his face in what was clear to Tony to be the ‘I was just hit here’ pose.
“What is going on here?” he asked in his normal tone, not having to be quiet because he was the librarian and he was the boss: a louder voice meant authority. He looked from one boy to the other, making it very clear that the smaller one, with the book in his arm, was not to go anywhere until this was sorted out. Or, as it would turn out, until Tony ordered them to follow him.
“Come with me, the both of you,” he said, motioning toward the front desk, wanting to get away from the studying students, and leave them in peace. They seemed to have been interrupted quite enough. “There’s no fighting in the library: I’m going to have to ask the both of you to leave.”
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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 9:15 pm
Ever was still holding his nose, prepared to add something else, just sliding toward an edge of frustration, when Tony appeared. The sudden change in his demeanor was surprising, almost funny: the start of another annoyed comment dissolved into wide eyes, not-quite-puppy eyes. He might not have been a gentleman, but neither was he a proper delinquent, either. At least not when hot librarians were concerned.
"Um." He dropped his hands after a moment, eyes flashing to Zac and then down to his bag. Ever moved to grab his things quickly, jacket hooked under one arm and a 'yessir' gone halfway mumbled under his breath. He seemed suitably chastened, and at least he wasn't bleeding.
Perhaps Zac would appreciate that he didn't argue that none of this was his fault. Or perhaps he'd get pissed at the almost-meek way Ever trailed after Tony, showing him up. Whichever it was, hopefully he wouldn't notice the genuine touch of embarrassed flush around the edges of Ever's cheeks.
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:37 pm
Zac's cheeks flushed a bright red on their own, humiliated.
Kicked out?! Of the LIBRARY... him... of all people, it was all... no, it wasn't -all- the obstruction's fault, but he considered quite a lot of it to be all the same. He shot a look back that said as much, which probably made for an interesting expression for it to say, this is our fault but MOSTLY yours.
So much for renting the book today, he dropped "Flags of our Fathers" onto the chair in a moment of further pettiness and followed as meekly as his currently seething temper would allow.
Oddly this put them in a whole new 'game', where the obstruction was now a fellow humiliated comrade in arms... didn't mean he liked him any better but it was perhaps a start.
"a**..." He swore as soon as he was passed the heavy library doors back into the cold.
"If you hadn't flipped the stool!"
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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 7:55 pm
Ever's meek expression slipped away as soon as the door had closed and Tony was out of site, his eyes flashing onto Zac with a definite edge of annoyance. "You self-righteous brat!"
He dropped his bag at his feet with a rather loud clunk of books and belongings together, faintly-muffled by a couple changes of clothing, and set to pulling on his battered old jacket. It was too thin for this weather, with a hole at one elbow and fraying near the hem his sleeves. On someone else, it might have been a fashion statement, but on Ever it just looked...old.
"I was going to spend a few hours there. Now I have to find somewhere else warm and free..." He twitched up his collar and fumbled with his zipper, shaking his head. "All you had to do was ask, you know."
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:05 am
"Oh don't pin this on ME you smirking arrogant p***k, you could have OFFERED TOO! But all YOU did was SMIRK and make things WORSE."
It wasn't till after he raged again that he really took the time to assess the "a**" whom would forever be known in the back of his mind as "The Impediment."
He snorted derisively and marched down the steps with the impatience of 'wounded virtue', at least in so much as he felt the need to save face.
"Come on then Impediment...Warm and free is this way."
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