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 Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 11:18 am
Anthony Darrow was used to having students coming into the library near closing, desperate for some time to pull a last minute study session before class. It was always traumatic, having to tell someone well in over their heads that he couldn't allow them to stay passed closing.
Sometimes they got angry, which he could deal with just fine. It was when they got tragically depressed, to the verge of tears or beyond, that made him consider making them an exception.
It was rarer that a student came in early and worked all through the day, and even more difficult to tell them to leave as closing approached and they were still stressed about a project. He was a nice guy, and often adjusted the library's schedule around finals and midterms, just for the heavy student populace, but he was no miracle worker.
He was sure he had one of those cases on his hands now, as he walked around the library near closing, to make sure there were no people sleeping or camping anywhere. He had seen a young lady come into the library with a dutiful expression, but hadn't seen her in some time. He wasn't sure where she had gone, but he hadn't seen her leave while he had been at the front desk.
As long as a book hadn't fallen and knocked her on the head, he would be happy. One could never be too sure something like that wouldn't happen.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2011 2:51 pm
As a matter of fact, that precise young lady was still sitting in the microfiche room, auburn hair tucked back out of her face with a handful of brightly-colored clips. Though, she wasn't so much studying as she was collecting information. Doing research, more than anything: She had the hunt for the beat report and obituaries down to an exact science, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what exactly she was looking for. Comatose after a beating, dead later; she marked down the ones that correlated as they came by.
It was delicate work, requiring a quick mind and also neat handwriting, one of which Tate possessed and the other she did not. It was also engrossing work, giving her something to chew on in her head through long shifts of typesetting. Her fingertips were black as the sides of her fingers from lead dust and ink.
Looking at her posture, it was obvious she'd been there a while in the delicate way she held herself. The brunette was sitting hunched over on a table, back just straight enough to ease the ache between her shoulders. It was also obvious that, as yet, she had no intention of going anywhere.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:39 pm
Tony was in the habit of checking all the study rooms before closing. He even checked offices he knew were empty, most of the time, just because he had built the habit into himself. He couldn't help it, regardless of the fact that he often had to unlock the door himself just to look inside.
Maybe there was a student running around with a copy of the keys. Who knew?
Really, he wasn't that paranoid about things. It was simply a routine that he followed every night, or at least each night that he did the closing for the library. Poking into the microfiche room, which admittedly did not get used as often as many of the other rooms, he fully expected not to find anyone and to just shut the door. He was halfway out when he realized he had, in fact, seen someone.
"Hello," he said softly, clearing his throat in an effort not to scare her. He half wondered if she had molded herself to the chair and table, as intent as she looked on her work. It was a pain to interrupt, he knew, but it was also his job.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:18 pm
Tate's version of jumping up and away from the table was jerking her head up to look for the source of the intruding noise. Her hand paused in place on the notebook, and her eyebrows lifted at the sight of the middle-aged librarian she'd seen on the way in. At, like... four. What time was it, like... six? Why was he interrupting her?
She twisted her wrist, bringing the face of her watch into view. Her expression gave it away: She hadn't noticed the passing time. Probably hadn't cared to, since she was making good progress. The side of her hand was almost black with ink. "Oh," she said, coloring a bit. "Yeah. ... Is it last call already?" There was no sheepish smile, just an irritated look--at herself or the library, who know. She scrubbed the side of her hand on her jeans and closed the notebook, then fiddled with the microfiche reader until the screen went dark. It was a little annoying to be watched by someone while you tried to get out so they could go home, but Tate just took a deep breath through her nose so as to not mention it. She wanted this guy to like her so he'd keep letting her in the library, after all.
(Tate was definitely petty enough to keep someone out of her workplace if she didn't like them.)
As she rolled up the film, with a care to keep her spot on the tape in the right place, she kept slightly narrowed black eyes on the librarian. Was he going to yell at her or something?
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:27 pm
Tony was relieved, at least, to see the girl move. It meant she hadn't turned into some kind of book reading zombie, or gotten so overwhelmed by whatever work load she had brought with her that she fell into a research induced coma. Not that either had ever happened before, but he liked to make sure, just in case.
Expect the unexpected?
He was also relieved when she looked at her watch. True, her expression wasn't exactly happy to discover how much time she had clearly lost in her work efforts, but at least now he didn't have to break it to her. She probably realized the library would be closing soon, or the man in the vest and name tag wouldn't be talking to her.
"Unfortunately, yes. The library is getting pretty empty at this point. I'll have to lock up soon... i-if you don't mind getting your things together... uhh. A-are you close to finishing whatever you're working on?"
There it was. Despite his resolve, his guilt and conscience were acting up against him. Maybe he could keep from closing up and turning off the lights for a little while, if she needed the extra time...
He watched her as she readied to leave though, clearing his throat and hoping to stop her before she got too far into cleaning up.
"Uh... I mean... if you wanted to stay for a little longer, I don't think that would be a trouble."
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:16 am
Book-reading zombie, Tate was not. Newspaper-reading zombie? Sometimes. On the right phase of the moon. Generally on nights like this. Luckily, it was a temporary thing, and the interruptions of middle-aged librarians seemed to be the antidote. She still seemed embarrassed as she finished wrapping up the microfiche reel, and it only got worse when she shook her head at his question.
"Not really," she said, shutting her notebook and tucking it into her backpack. "I'm... it's not really schoolwork." Personal projects were never really finished, right? Especially when she had to check the last week's papers and then go back to... where was she? March of... last year, maybe. A long time ago. She shouldered her bag and shrugged a little bit. There was too much work for even a half hour to really make a dent, and she'd rather not lose more time. Already she'd missed out on a good hour of sleep... "Anyway. It's nice of you to offer, but I don't want to be an inconvenience. It's important that the guy who holds the keys to the microfiche room likes me, you know?"
She stood a little awkwardly, the reel of tape in her hands loosely, before she turned to tuck it away.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:38 pm
Tony looked surprised. A student aged kid in here for something not school related? That was rare, indeed. Almost extinct rare, in fact. Fabled, maybe. Like they didn't truly exist, and could only be read about in stories and faked sightings that perpetuated the wonder surrounding them.
And yet here one was, standing in front of him, doing work of their own design, and remaining so diligent that they lost hours to it.
He would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in what she was working on.
Tony smiled as she didn't take him up on his offer, nodding his head with some understanding to him. He imagined she was aware of how much work she could handle, and making her stick around and stress herself out further wasn't actually as nice as he thought the offer had been. He was glad she was ready to call it a night, hoping she at least got some good rest as a result of all the hard work.
Of course, he was only assuming she had been as diligently working as when he had seen her coming in. Not goofing off or napping the whole time, which had caused her to scramble. But he got the impression, and liked to think the best in people anyway, that she had been working and not faffing about.
"I guess that is something to keep in mind," he laughed, "though, I'm really easy to win over. You get points just by being in the library." He held the door open for her, standing to the side with his other hand ready to flick the off.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:30 pm
She slipped the reel into its rack and shouldered her backpack. Checking to ensure nothing was left behind was the work of moments; she glanced over the room and nodded to herself in self-satisfaction. Nothing left behind, not even a pencil or paper scrap. "Newspaper archives online don't hold the police beat," she explained as she scooted past him. "And you know, voting to renovate another part of the city between Sovereign Heights and DCU is interesting, but not that interesting."
The way she said it made it clear she did not actually find it interesting at all.
"I'm Tate Konstantin," she said after a minute, offering a hand to shake. It felt weird to just leave the conversation there, so she hovered uncertainly near the microfiche room's door. Possibly she also did not want to cross the cavernous darkness of the library on her own. Possibly she was actually serious about feeling like it was weird to just leave Tony right there alone.
Who knew.
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Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:35 am
Tony let her do her final checks of the room, glancing around himself to make sure nothing was out of place or seemed to be missing. Not that he didn't trust her, it was just part of his nightly routine to close the library down and get out of there in an almost timely manner. Which he never did anyway, so it was a mostly futile effort.
Still, one thing off the checklist would save a little time, at least. If he were the kind of man to be satisfied by a cursory glance. Chances were he wouldn't be, and would come back to the room and look around in his normal fashion to make sure everything was just as it needed to be.
Habit turned routine, very hard to break.
He nodded his head as she spoke, imagining the physical archives were better than the online ones. More difficult to search through, maybe, though the library did its best, but still. That was the price of having more articles available, he justified.
"Anthony Darrow," he said jovially, taking her hand and shaking it without hesitance. He met people every day, after all. Unfortunately, they were always fleeting, behind the desk encounters, or, like this, when he was interacting with a patron during the natural progression of the day. It was when he was actually trying to make friends, or talk to someone with the 'I'm being a librarian' theme song playing in his head that he started to find himself completely up a creek without a paddle.
He made sure the door was closed before glancing at her, not sure why she was lingering, then smiling and motioning for her to follow him back to the lighted area of the front desk. The library could be creepy when it was empty, he'd been told.
"So, ah, do you have much research left to do?" He asked conversationally, hearing something groan, a shelf settling perhaps, and almost jumping. It was a familiar sound, but without the chatter of people around, the hum of electronics, it had caught him off guard.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 7:32 pm
For whatever reason, she followed him back; wary eyes kept to the shadows at the corners of the halls, and she adjusted the heft of her bag on her shoulder. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Darrow," she said, because she was twenty and he was probably at least a few decades her senior. She wouldn't go far enough to call him old enough to be her dad--unless he'd been on sixteen and pregnant, or whatever the nineties equivalent was.
Or else he had aged really, really well.
"A lot," she said, tucking her hands into her pockets. "I'm looking into the senshi and the Negaverse, you know, those gangs? I want to know why this is happening here. Whatever they're doing, it's really unfair to civilians like you and me. I don't like it and if I can find out what started it, maybe I can find out how to make it stop."
She closed her dark eyes, looking annoyed. "Of course, it's not going to lead anywhere. Who has no powers? It's me. But if I can get this information and give it to someone with powers, maybe it'll help. You know?"
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 9:29 am
Tony looked at her when she called him Mister. There was nothing strange about it, he was called that all the time considering, but there was a way she said it that gave him the sense that she had considered it first. He didn't comment, though, as it wasn't that strong an idea. Just a fleeting tingle in his mind that he often got while talking to people.
He talked to a lot of people. Most of the time for only a few moments at the counter, while they were checking their books out for the day. Sometimes they came back the next day. The next week. Whenever they were done with their reading, really, and the conversation would continue. He would sense things in them, true or not, his mind keeping itself occupied, from the way they spoke or held themselves, the way they were dressed that day, the books they were checking out
Little notes on people.
He froze in his steps, a sudden halt, when she mentioned the senshi and negaverse. Usually, no one said the names directly, or, really, seemed to know them. He looked at her in surprise, at once slightly worried and vaguely excited at the idea of someone like him. Who knew more than they knew what to do with, maybe.
"Ah... o-oh, yes," he said, nodding his head. "I. I see what you mean."
He cleared his throat, trying not to look any more suspicious than he already did. He walked again, reaching the sanctuary of the desk, then looked back at her. He knew quite a lot about things, though no where near enough. And he had to learn most things the hard way. Give information with someone with powers? He had senshi friends, but he was certainly not going to offer that information up.
He had to keep them safe. It was the only thing he was really capable of doing for them. Being their friend, supporting them, and keeping whatever secrets he ever learned.
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 10:43 pm
The library, by and large, was dark; and Tate, consumed in her thoughts, didn't notice the hesitation right away. Tony wouldn't know how strange that was for her. That was alright, because the tall brunette wouldn't want anyone to know. It'd let people think they could get away with things.
"You know, people are dying, and it's not right that we should get dragged in. It's not just for us to become part of someone else's war. Casualties, that's what this is turning normal people into--and you know, I don't think there's, like, a Geneva Convention of superpowered warriors saying you can't do X or Y. Like, that coma? I don't think that was just some kind of dirty bomb or whatever. It had to be them. I just don't know how and no one has any theories--"
She had been pacing, and once she noticed it, she stopped. "I just want it to stop," she said, her tone almost pleading. "What I'm doing isn't wrong." Just possibly useless!
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 9:11 am
The librarian listened as Tate explained, doing his best to keep his thoughts off of his expression.
He looked at her, though, and shook his head. His eyebrows were arched in a skeptical way, and he looked like he might have scoffed if he were anyone else. As it stood, he simply shook his head.
"I think that is a very common feeling," he said carefully, "feeling trapped in a fight that is not ours. But there is always more than one side to things. I don't think about it in that kind of way. Yes, the casualties are something I would love to see avoided, but it's the fighting itself that..."
He cleared his throat, shaking his head. How could he explain himself without sounding like a crazy sympathizer, 'one of them' or just some guy that didn't know what he was talking about?
"I don't want to see anyone getting hurt," he said at last, sighing. They were at the front desk, near enough to the doors now to have a steady light to see in. He watched her as she paced, and then came to a stop, nodding his head.
"There are many people who want it to stop, none least of all those that are fighting, I'm sure. You seem to know that there are things happening in this city that have a different explanation than the ones we're being given by the media. I believe that, too. But I also believe that we are not the sole victims. We, the ones caught up in this war that's not ours, I mean. I believe... there is more good happening than we can see, though it's the bad that hits the papers, and the bad that's easiest to sink into fear of."
He sighed, not wanting to say too much about his views.
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Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:46 pm
He already did sound like a crazy sympathizer, at least to Tate. She was giving him a slightly disbelieving look. Trying to protect the ones fighting, when all they really had to do was stop? Oh, yeah, it was never really that simple. Nothing was black-and-white, crystal-clear, or clear-cut. But at least they could defend themselves. Why didn't they try harder to keep the civilians out of it, if it they were so good?
"I'm not afraid," she said, rolling her eyes. "As long as I know what's going on, there's nothing to be scared of." And she knew most of it, it was just the unknown that made her worry. She knew that if she really needed help, she could rely on Taranis or any number of senshi she'd met. Wolframite--she hadn't heard from him in ages, but maybe soon. "How is that even logical? We're not the sole victims, but we're the only victims who don't have any choice but to be victims. There's no reason to pity a senshi who can defend him or herself. And especially no reason to pity a Negaverser. They kill people, and they're not sorry for it." She shook her head, remembering her most recent encounter with Wolframite. "I'll feel bad for the single mother of two some Negaverser stole a starseed from for God-knows-what purpose."
She checked her watch and made a frustrated noise. "Anyway, I have to get home so I can get ready for work. It was nice talking to you, Mr. Darrow."
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:28 am
Tony smiled. At least there was that. He nodded his head.
"Well, knowledge is power," he said, though he hoped after it had escaped his mouth that it didn't sound as condescending as it... sounded to him. He hadn't meant it that way, but rather as a legitimate observation. If she did know what was going on, what was really going on, she didn't have to be scared of it all.
He looked at her as she continued, nodding his head. He knew it was difficult, as a civilian, to see anything but the losses they were suffering. And she was right, it wasn't fair to any of them, involved in the fight or not. It should stop, but he simply held in his heart that there was a way to do it that didn't end in more misery.
He had to hope that the senshi were stronger than that. They were suffering as well, in unfathomable ways that were impossible for the people they were often fighting for to even see. It was easy to hate them, for the collateral damage and for the war at all. It was like the people of the city hating a super hero simply because they brought the villains in, in their efforts to defend from those same beings. In a way, it seemed like they made things worse. And maybe that was a legitimate argument. Hell, it had to be. But for Tony, it wasn't enough.
"It was a very interesting conversation," he said, with a nod of his head and a friendly look. He moved to the doors, opening them for her since they had already locked automatically. "Enjoy the rest of your night."
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