fandomhigh | Library, Sunday 11/06

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

library

Library, Sunday 11/06

Raven was actually an hour early for her shift that morning, because daylight savings time was confusing. She was actually glad to have an extra hour to clean up because the botany section had decided to sprout flowers. It was actually quite lovely, and the flowers did fill the air with a pleasing scent, but the overgrowth was making it difficult to move through the section and into the next.

After persuading the plants to keep the aisle open, Raven returned to the front desk. She had her laptop open to a Rumor Gal website, but her thoughts were decidedly elsewhere.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She just might have convinced the Black Baccara roses to bloom closer to the front desk.

"... Flowers?"

It had been a long while since Jono had wandered into the library, yes. Not that he'd exactly forgotten that it had its stranger days, no, but sometimes these things just needed a moment to percolate before Jono could just take them as a given. Even after the unhealthy dose of madness back in his own reality.

"I don't need to be worried that th'library is trying to woo you away from me, do I?"

"It is doing a very good job with these," Raven teased, touching her hand to the so-dark-red-they-were-almost-black roses that were climbing up one side of the desk. Of course she'd like the gothiest roses.

"Good morning, Jono," she said, giving him a warm smile. "It is good to see you."

"Good morning, Sunshine," he greeted in turn, nodding a little and working on a return smile from somewhere under his scarf before leaning over slightly, inspecting those flowers.

It was good to know what sort Raven liked, really. He couldn't remember ever actually getting flowers for her, outside of Valentine's day.

Had he gotten her flowers on Valentine's? Lord, it had been so bloody long ago...

"You know, I got about halfway through disconnecting old wires on one end of th'Boards this morning before I realized that I didn't actually have printouts of th'building code for when I got back to rewiring?" He at least had the grace to look a little sheepish as he continued. "So this isn't entirely a social call, I'm sorry to admit. But unless Troy is in some great hurry to switch on the office computer again, I'm not really in one, myself."

If Jono didn't want to spend time with her, he could have just run extension cords to the other end of the building, after all.

"Then I will take my time helping you," Raven said, not minding that it wasn't entirely social. She was supposed to be working, after all, though she enjoyed the day more when she got visitors to help pass the time.

It wouldn't have to be a stretch to take her time anyway because "building code" and "rewiring" were far beyond her realm of knowledge, and she hadn't the slightest idea of where to start looking.

She shut her own laptop and pushed it aside so she could pull out the library computer keyboard, then gave Jono a quizzical look. "You want the specific code for the theater, not something more general, correct?"

That got a bit of a smirk out of Jono, yes. Oh, Raven.

"If you can find something of th'sort," he agreed, nodding. "There are usually specifics for different sorts of buildings, after all. I'll need to keep a more particular eye out for the theatre, mostly because we're hoping to be able to seat a fairly decent number of people, both upstairs and down."

A pause.

"I'm pretty certain that Fandom has its own specific adaptation of th'building code," he added, helpfully. "Because of exactly how much these buildings need to survive on a regular basis. International Building Code doesn't exactly worry about how well th'roof holds after a shower of tiny creatures made of snow, and such."

"If this is something to be used to construct or repair buildings," Raven said, frowning as she tried to puzzle it out, "then why is it in a code? Would it not make more sense for it not to be encrypted in such a way?"

Oh, Raven, indeed.

She typed a few keywords into the computer, hoping it would point her in the right direction as it usually did when she was confronted by a topic she didn't understand. "There is an archive of 'blueprints' and other documents for all the buildings in Fandom," she said when the screen displayed the information. "That seems to be the place to look."

"It's in code because nothing drafted up by th'government was ever intended to be comprehended by anyone without a bloody legal degree."

Sometimes- very rarely- Jono found himself strongly resisting the urge to reach out and pinch his girlfriend's cheeks.

"But that does sound about right, yes. What I'm looking for is actually a list of... safety regulations, I suppose. Rules regarding things like exposed wires, fire escapes, wheelchair access. I'm just working on the electricity at th'moment, since we're expecting a good deal of new equipment in, but the rest'll come in handy shortly, I'm certain."

Growing up in Azarath had spared Raven a great many things. It wasn't her fault Earth was so confusing at times!

"Oh, I think this must be it then," Raven said, spotting a likely title in the list on her screen. "Fandom Island Construction Safety and Health Requirements, Including Additional Guidelines for Otherworldly Invasions, Unforeseen Natural Disasters, and Other Interdimensional or Supernatural Activity, Volume Two: The Town. That would seem to cover most everything."

Actually, with a title like that, Jono would have a difficult time figuring out what it didn't cover.

"That would have to be it, I should think," Jono agreed, slipping behind the counter like he belonged there (old habits died hard) to peer over her shoulder. "... Huh. There's a minimum requirement for th'space between walls, so that gremlins don't tangle themselves up in th'wiring. Who knew?"

"That is a very kind consideration given the chaos that those creatures cause," Raven said. It was almost like the island was encouraging the gremlins to make themselves at home. "I would rather they not be within my walls. I do not wish to be under the effects of their venom ever again." Once was decidedly enough.

"Or perhaps it is just resignation that there is no way to truly be rid of them," she decided. "In that case it would be wise to build so as to prevent the problems they may cause."

"Not to mention th'smell," Jono noted.

... Look, having rotting gremlin in your walls probably wasn't terribly good for public health in general. He could be pragmatic about these things if he wanted to be, damn it.

"Either way, I suppose that shouldn't be too much of a worry, I don't think. Th'Boards presumably passed code requirements before I ever came to the island, after all."

Raven wrinkled her nose at the thought of rotting gremlin -- and at the thought of crispy rotting gremlin if it got itself fried when it became tangled. Eww.

"I think we can just make copies of the portions you need, rather than checking out the entire book," Raven said, "for it seems to be quite large and heavy." And taking the time to copy would mean he'd have to stay longer, which was a win in her book.

And that he'd have to come back again later, if he conveniently forgot how to double-click .PDF files!

"That works for me," he decided, nodding a little. "Not that I'd have too much trouble carrying it back with me, considering th'boards is only a few streets down. But, you know, no sense monopolizing the entire thing if all I need is th'bit on wiring, for now."

Yes. That made all kinds of sense!

Raven couldn't push back her chair with Jono behind her, but she could spin it around so she could look up at him. "Very well, I will copy the section on wiring for you," she said with a smile. "Is there anything else you need while you are here?"

"Not so far as books go, really." Jono shrugged, stepping back and edging out from behind the desk again so that she could stand. "I'm not interrupting anything important, am I?"

If he wasn't, he might linger around a while longer. Partly for the company, partly for the nostalgia.

"Not at all," Raven assured him. "I am very glad for the company. It is usually very quiet in here on Sundays as I rarely have visitors. If there are not books to shelve I spend most of my time browsing the web."

She pushed herself up to her feet. "But I purposely requested Sundays as my shift, and I knew that it would likely not be busy at all."

"Oh?"

Huh. Jono always remembered Sundays being fairly busy in here. But then, he'd had Raven in visiting on a regular basis, and Didi before her. Not to mention people like Sherlock, who had stopped in on a few occasions just to try to figure out what made him tick, and Faramir, who'd been trying to learn the Roman alphabet...

Didi and Sherlock weren't around these days, Faramir had probably learned to read by now, and Raven could hardly pay herself any visits. The island had settled some, since he'd left.

"Well then, I might have to keep you company for a while," he decided. "See if we can get th'botany section to settle down before local wildlife starts to see it as an invitation."

Edited 2011-11-06 18:09 (UTC)

"I would like that very much," Raven said, almost shyly. "It reminds me of how I used to visit you each week." Only a few months ago for her, but years for him.

"I had managed to confine the plants to just that section earlier this morning, but I fear it will be not long before they attempt to claim the life science and zoology shelves again," she said. "It looks very pretty, at least."

"It does, at that," Jono agreed, glancing that way. "I suppose we don't really need to start worrying until we hear kookaburras and jaguars inexplicably in the same soundscape."

Usually somewhere in Africa. Because that's just how sound effects worked.

"Kookaburras?" Raven said, repeating the strange word. "What are those? That does not even sound like a real word."

She shifted a little to pick some of the roses climbing the side of her desk, carefully avoiding the thorns. They had little scent, but the coloring was beautiful, and she definitely wanted to bring some back to her room.

"Little Aussie birds that laugh," Jono replied with a shrug. "They use their call for... monkeys or something, presumably, in films with jungles in. No matter where it's really set."

Jono was a wealth of useless information like that.

"... I'm not going to try to copy their call, though."

Just so they were clear on that.

If she's there.

Dun wanna be at work. Frakking flowers.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 11/06]

Mod the Library [Library 11/06]

Talk to the Librarian [Library 11/06]

OOC [Library 11/06]