*Is a library minion without a decent title* on Library

DiAnna Diaz

October 12, 2011 11:57 AM

Library minions! by DiAnna Diaz

It was a classic scenario: at the end of every term, the library was in a state. DiAnna could understand the causes, the main two being students avidly studying for their exams, external or end of year, and books being returned ahead of the holidays. Unfortunately, understanding the cause did nothing to prevent the problem. So it was, the penultimate day of term - the morning before the Midsummer Ball - DiAnna had gathered together all her monitors and assistants to help her sort it out. The monitors this year had been Rachel Bauer, Samantha Hamilton and Renée Errant, and assistants were Daniel Nash, Russell Layne and Cherry Bosko, all of whom had been a magnificent help while DiAnna had continued to teach Divinations classes. She gathered them round her desk - one of them, at least, for the last time - and offered a grateful smile.

"I know you guys all want to go and get ready for the ball, and finish packing," she assumed, as these were things that were on her own agenda, "so thanks for dropping by this morning. As you can see there are loads of books that need sorting, and I'm not convinced everything is in its right place, either," not to mention the furniture, some of which was strewn haphazardly rather than neatly placed. "I promise I won't take more than a couple of hours of your time, but I'd really appreciate your help in getting all this sorted." She wouldn't be heading home until it was done.

"So, pick a job, and let's get cracking," she smiled, hoping good humor would help. At least thwy didn't have classwork or homework assigments to worry about any more. "If you've got any questions, just give me a shout," DiAnna advised before picking up her list of outstanding books to see whether any had been returned without her notice.

(OOC: If anyone wants to post in the library at a time set earlier on in the year, feel free - it's what we like to call fuzzy time!)

Subthreads:

*Is a library minion without a decent title* by Russell Layne

*Is a library minion with an awesome title* by Daniel Nash

*Is a library minion with a copycat title* by Samantha Hamilton

0 DiAnna Diaz Library minions! 0 DiAnna Diaz 1 5

Russell Layne

October 13, 2011 12:36 PM

Is a library minion without a decent title by Russell Layne

He hadn’t been expecting it, thinking that it was going to happen and just wondering when, but when the summons to the library came, Russell wasn’t surprised. He didn’t stay planted in it the way some Aladrens did – he kind of preferred, this year at least, to read in the Cascade Hall; the noise gave him something to look at every now and then, and he felt better around people even if he wasn’t really ‘with’ them, and his room was close enough to the library that he didn’t even have to bother sitting up to study if he didn’t want to – but he had noticed that the library was a lot more crowded than usual lately. It was the end of the year. People started catching up on stuff and studying for finals and all that at the end of the year. It was like leaves coming down in autumn or snow piling up in winter or his mom’s allergies being terrible in the spring: inevitable, inescapable, part of the natural order. There was almost no way he could think of that it wouldn’t happen.

He had not, though, expected to hear about packing. The ball had been lingering in the back of his mind for some reason, perched a little uneasily amidst the other thoughts and due dates he kept there, but packing…hadn’t. He didn’t get that. He had been thinking about going home and being glad to see his due dates all done with and all that, but…somehow, that hadn’t translated into packing.

Now, after rubbing his eyes because he’d overslept and had been feeling a little foggy until this came up, he was thinking about packing, and, indeed, wanting to get to that. Had she used Divination to know that they were all going to want to get to packing right now, or was it just a good guess? He thought it had to be the latter, because why a professor-librarian with all the duties of both would waste her time Divinating nobody second years was beyond him, but he had to wonder, sometimes. He could see someone doing something like that just because they were bored, if they had time to be bored and were a certain kind of person. Russell didn’t have an objection to Divination, as such, and was considering taking the class next year just for something to do, but the thought of someone using it on him wasn’t quite comfortable, somehow.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, smiling briefly before pretending the moment of attempted humor had not happened in case anyone thought it was weird, when they were told to go pick a task. Because he was not one of the taller people, he decided to go for the furniture rearranging. If something was heavier than he could easily move by himself, which he didn’t really think it would be, he could always Levitate it. Or he and a partner could. Moving around a table was a little easier than moving a book to a high shelf, since it usually didn't require the same amount of precision of placement, and he didn't really like climbing ladders too much.

“So, anyone else want to work on the chairs and tables?” he asked. It was uncomfortable, putting himself out there this way, and he expected to feel pretty thoroughly mortified for a minute or two if everyone immediately walked away, but he’d forget it in a day or two – between packing and the ball happening, he wouldn’t have time to think about stupid stuff like this – and then they’d all go home and he really wouldn’t recall by the time they got back in two months, so it would all end up with no harm done. The actual putting himself out there was done, and that was the hardest part anyway.

16 Russell Layne *Is a library minion without a decent title* 183 Russell Layne 0 5

Daniel Nash

October 17, 2011 9:20 PM

Is a library minion with an awesome title by Daniel Nash

Daniel arrived at the library promptly. He was sure his brain was at least seventy-five percent mush after two weeks of RATS exams, so he hoped he wasn't going to be required to do anything requiring too much intellectual thought. He was not sure he was capable of even minimal decision making right now; he had been staring at his empty suitcase for the twenty minutes before coming out to the library - he hadn't been able to figure out where to start packing up the last seven years of his life.

Fortunately, though, it was just cleaning up the post-exam chaos (at least some of which was Daniel's own fault). He'd been putting away library books for long enough that he could do that on full auto-pilot. He sat down in front of a pile of unsorted books and started dividing them into piles by subject.

Later, he would not be able to remember a single title that went through his hands, but seven different piles for each of the main subjects taught at Sonora slowly grew in front of him. Once, the original pile had vanished, he got up and carried the Charms books over to that part of the library to start putting them away.

It was brainless and relaxing and he could slowly feel his brain regenerating. With luck, it might be back on line in time for the dance tonight. Alison, at least, would appreciate that.

1 Daniel Nash *Is a library minion with an awesome title* 130 Daniel Nash 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

October 18, 2011 12:38 PM

Is a library minion with a copycat title by Samantha Hamilton

Yes, she did want to go and get ready for the ball and finish packing, Samantha thought as Professor Diaz (she'd started thinking of her as such now she seemed to be their permanent Divinations professor) greeted them. She would ideally have spent the entire day getting ready for the event - bathing and beautifying, from cuticles to curls - but she found herself dutifully carrying out her final task for the year (she sincerely hoped) as a library monitor. She didn't really bemoan the work, and was actually quite glad for the excuse to longer in the library during the rest of the year, but if she could get this over with quickly then all the better.

Russell set to work on the furniture, and Daniel had already begun to sort the books, so Samantha headed over to the fiction section, which she'd already seen was in a state of disarray, with books and other objects not in their proper positions. "I could use a hand in fiction," she said off-handedly as she passed the other monitors and assitants, in case any of them wanted to help her there. She wouldn't mind if not - there wasn't so much to do that the six of them would be there very long. It might even be soothing practise to get something properly accomplished before she set about getting ready for the evening.

Nobody had asked her to go with them to the ball, but Samantha wasn't discouraged. It wasn't like she carried a flame for any of her yearmates. She would have gone with someone just as friends, but as she had friends who hadn't been asked, either, there wasn't much point in them going together when they'd be just be there together anyway. Or something to that effect. She had her shoes laid out, dress hung up, and jewelry yet to be selected waiting for her in her dormitory. Just some books to clear then she could go and pamper herself in peace.

0 Samantha Hamilton *Is a library minion with a copycat title* 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5