[Brightshadows] Brightshadows Sorcery Academy - Student Library

[Aesha]

This location can be peer- or self-moderated without permission. Please remember to Timestamp your post.

Brightshadows Sorcery Academy Student Library

The library that lived on the campus of the Brightshadows Sorcery Academy was a small affair tucked neatly away from the crowds of students, situated at the back of the compound. It was built of marble, like most of the school's buildings had been, and was surrounded by flowerbeds that contained bright splashes over colour all year around thanks to the arcanical enchantment that had been placed on the school's flora. The entryway into the house of books was a simply oak affair that was usually kept slightly ajar during the library's opening hours in order to inform people that the books were available for perusal.

Once inside, the building was fairly light and airy, and not large. It was easily possible to see all the books the building contained just standing in the doorway, though all the shelves were crammed full of tomes. Since the school was one of arcana, the library had foregone many texts that weren't relevant to the subject, though it still contained many non-arcanical things too, such as histories of the empire and descriptions of beasts and aspects of warfare that involved the usage of arcana in some way.

At the back of the rows of books stood approximately half a dozen open archways that led to private study areas, wherein several students could seek the solace and quiet of the library in order to catch up on their studies and research, or even learn about things not required in their lessons. They were simply furnished, usually with two or three plain desks and chairs with a multi-purpose table in the middle. As per usual, at the front of the library stood a desk behind which the librarian sat.

The librarian seated at the desk did not look like a typical librarian. Instead of the crotchety old woman that one would expect to find, a young human man was perched there instead. He in fact, looked suspiciously like a Brightshadows student who was attempting to make a few extra crowns in his spare time. His hair was dark, not too long but looked in need of a good combing. His green-eyed gaze was intent on his current task, whether that was repairing a book, or idly reading a book itself. Whenever someone entered the building in pursuit of knowledge, he would look up and give them a lazy look.

"Serale, can I help you with anything this brightening?"

NPCs

Kyle Operjarum - A surly student of Brightshadows who works part-time in the library.

[Dak Tremaine]

Early second cycle, Melora, Spring, Era XIV post fractum.


Dak glanced about himself when standing outside the library. It looked... smaller than he had expected, he would have thought that an academic wealth of information on the arcane would take up great amounts of space. Apparently not he thought to himself as he pushed the door further open and stepped inside, sliding it back once past the entrance.

He glanced about at his surroundings, now understanding why it was such a surprisingly small building for a library. It had nothing but books on arcana, somehow crammed onto shelving that shouldn't have had so many volumes occupying them. He peered about the shelves, then saw the front desk, a man sitting at it, his nose buried in a book.

He stepped up to the desk and, once the librarian's attention had focussed on him, he handed out the note he had received from Ser'iya to him, offering a polite smile. "Serale, I was asked to give you this note. I am here about the clerk position that is open, I have been told to speak to the head librarian and that you could show me to her."

[Aesha]

The clerk frowned at Dak when it was revealed that he wanted more than just to look at a book. He peered at the note for a moment, then unfolded it and read the words that Seri'ya had written upon it. He then continued to frown.

"Another clerk? Hope you last longer than the old one did. I'll show you to the office." He handed the note back, and stood up, placing the book he had been reading down on the desk with an old strip of parchment betweent he pages he had been perusing. As an after thought, he added a friendly bit of advice. "Make sure you call her Mrs. Batty, or better yet, Ma'am." Kyle wasn't exactly fond of looking at people, or talking to people, but having someone to cover the extra shifts that needed a clerk would be advantageous even to him.

He made a small gesture of beckoning to Dak and began to lead the newcomer through rows of shelves to the back of the library. It was more or less a straight forward walk in a straight line, and Dark suddenly found himself outside a wooden door adorned by a brass plaque that said "Tatalie Batty - Head Librarian". Kyle paused to respectfully knock on the door, and was rewarded with a drawn out "Yeeeeeees?" From within. Kyle gave Dak a look that was unreadable, opened the door, pushed the student inside, closed the door and went back to his duties.

Which left Dak faced with Mrs. Batty herself. She was sitting behind a desk, and looked rather formidable. She was big - not just overweight, but somehow larger than life. She had evidently been studying some papers on her desk, and a pair of glasses were perched on the edge of her nose, attached to her person by a chain of small blue beads that was worn around her neck like a necklace. Her hair, which had obviously once been another colour, was now a soft grey colour that sat in a bun on the back of her neck. She regarded the intrusion into her office with steel grey eyes that didn't look very amused. Her dress was unremarkable - it was the dress of the older, more mature lady that most people in respectable classes in Daltina wore.

"What exactly are you disturbing me for, young man?"

[Dak Tremaine]

Dak was swiftly coming to the conclusion that he didn't particularly like this fellow. He seemed rather anti-social and unpleasant, truth be told. He maintained his composure with him though, waiting patiently for him to finish with the note. Kyle's reply didn't do much to change his opinion of that thought, but he felt his eyebrow quirk slightly at the subtle advice. If there was one thing worse than proven assumptions, it was discovering those assumptions had more depth. Dak would have to get to know the guy better if he got the job.

He took the note back, then followed along after the clerk, finding himself standing outside the door of the Head Librarian. He glanced at the nameplate, matching with the earlier advice. He couldn't help but give the name a second glance, her name really was Batty. He decided that sticking with ma'am would be a much better idea, less chance of making a fool of himself. The outstretched yes met him, followed by Kyle staring at him impassively, and he knew that things wouldn't end well unless he kept himself in check, already stereotypical images were forming in his mind, it was almost too cliché.

Then the door was opened and Dak was stumbling through it before he even knew what was going on. He quickly righted himself and found his balance, a little advantage he had gained from his seafaring life, as the door closed behind him and, sure enough he was confronted by the sight of a mature woman with grey bun-tied hair, dressed in respectable clothing and, yes, a pair of glasses held around her neck by a string of beads. And oh gods, even worse, she was looking at him over them. He hastily stood up straighter and cleared his throat, composing himself and making a silent curse towards the clerk pushing him through the door like that.

"Sorry to interrupt, ma'am," he started, stepping up to the desk and handing over the note again. "But I was pointed in your direction by the clerk on the academy's front desk, she mentioned that one of your clerks had left recently and that there was now a position open. I would like to apply for it."

[Aesha]

If Tatalie had been peering at Dak before, what she was doing now didn't even have a word to describe it. She blinked a couple of times. Whether she appreciated the use of ma'am or not was unknown, since she made no reaction to it. On the otherhand, that was probably a good thing. She certainly looked like the kind of person that would never give praise, but let you know instantly if she was displeased.

She looked as if she was about to dismiss Dak immediately until he mentioned the job prospet, at which point she carefully placed down her quill in its stand and folded her hands on the desk in front of her, indicating that the luckless students now had entirely all of her attention.

"I see. Well there is indeed a position available for someone to work part-time in this established and exclusive library." The way she said 'established' and exclusive' indicated quite clearly that neither of those words in any way, shape or form could apply to Dak.

Tatalie peered again. "I suppose it might be possible that you could potentially work here. First, of course, I will need your basic details. Name, age, place of birth, family, previous experience. Are you a native of Daltina? how long have you been a student at Brightshadows? Do you have a liking for books? I should certainly hope so! Do you have any..." She paused to give a disapproving sniff, "undesirable bloodlines in your makeup? You agree to a wage of 20 crowns a cycle yes? An excellent wage. And you would agree to unpaid overtime should it be needed? Oh, and indeed, what sphere are you learning?"

It seemed that the 'basic details' included every bit of Dak's life story, apart from what his favourite colour was, and whether he prefered blondes or brunettes.

[Dak Tremaine]

Dak stood rigid before the stare, he'd come under much more unpleasant eyeballing, such as by a 350 pound slaver while naked. If you can take stares like that and in that situation, the disinterested or possibly reviled scrutiny of some middle aged librarian was nothing. He felt like he was on the losing side of the battle though, the odds seemingly stacked against him from the word go, and the sheer weight of the questions caught him off-guard, he hadn't been expecting to present his life story, least of all to somebody like this, maybe his lecturers, but not a librarian. He might have to shave choice sections from his story just to get out of the place without a job but his head intact.

His brow furrowed a little as he considered his reply, then started, firing off the replies with the same volume as he had received them. "My name is Dak Tremaine and I am 21 eras old, here to study elementalism. I was born in Fairwyn Moor, a village to the north of Narim. So obviously not a native of Daltina, in fact I have only been here barely a brightening which is why I am glad and lucky this job is on offer.

He took a brief pause to rearrange his thoughts before continuing on, since this was the selling point of sorts. "I have no true experience with libraries, but I spent a few eras working for a high ranking member of the navy in Port Alyxandria. He had a personal library that I was allowed access to in my free time, it is where I learned most of what I know, more than what I gained from schola. So you could say I have a healthy respect for books."

"My mother died of a freak illness when I was young, and my father died at sea, so no family." he unconciously grimaced a little as he mentioned that, quickly skipping onto the next sentence to avoid dwelling on how and why his father died. "As for undesirable bloodlines, I would not even know what an undesirable bloodline was, let alone whether I had one. 20 crowns a cycle sounds perfect, and while the overtime does not, objecting to it will do me little favour so I will do anything as requested."

He finally stopped, looking at the librarian with an unreadable expression, one that mostly suggested submissiveness more than anything. He couldn't help but feel that the job was not his, the disregarding way the woman had spoken suggested there was a myriad thousand other students more likely to take up this job.

[Nimh]

The woman listened with a pinched look of disapproval set over her face. Prim was perhaps the best way to explain it and she certainly didn't seem at all impressed by anything he'd just informed her off. As he concluded, she stared at him a moment longer, silently, eyes expecting, mouth set in a thin line. Was...she expecting more? It seemed that way?

At length she drew in a deep breath, a brow quirked. "You don't know what an undesirable bloodline is? How can you not know?" She looked...and sounded...quite incredulous. She sat back in her chair again, looking down at the papers on her desk and picked up her quill again, the tip scratching over the parchment.

She was silent for a few ticks of time...as if she had already dismissed him and his application. But finally, Tatalie set her quill back into its pot and looked back up at him with that cool, impassive look. "Overtime is little in comparison to what you might learn while you are here. If you can't get accustomed to that, then we don't want you."

She sniffed disdainfully, picked up some papers and shifted them around on her desk. "We could give you a trial run, but I don't expect that you'll be able to handle it if you think overtime is a bit much. One brightening to prove to us that you are worth time. Tomorrow. Be here four candlemarks after the suns are up. If you are late, you will be told to go home."

And then she went back to what she was working on, head bent as she scribbled away.

[Dak Tremaine]

Dak stood rigid before the stare, he'd come under much more unpleasant eyeballing, such as by a 350 pound slaver while naked. If you can take stares like that and in that Things didn't seem to be going Dak's way, he was getting some distinctly unpleasant looks off the woman, joined with some rather harsh words and what seemed to be her completely ignoring her. He didn't budge though, waiting to be dismissed or responded to rather than piping up about what he was to do next. He could quite easily back-chat about the overtime, since she had distinctly misunderstood him. He had no problem with overtime, it was the unpaid aspect that had bothered him, but that would do him even less favours.

But then he was caught by surprise, blinking at the mention of a trial run, even if the offer was envenomed. He offered a bow towards Tatalie, "Thankyou, you have no worries for me turning up promptly. I am glad you have given me the chance." Since the woman was now bent over her desk once again, fully focussed on her work, Dak decided it best to leave, slipping out of the office and closing the door behind himself. He stood for a moment, letting out a relieving sigh. He'd somehow been given the job, to a lesser extent, even though he was starting to have doubts whether it was worth it. If things kept going this way, he could well understand why the other clerk had left.



The following brightening.

Dak walked up to the library around a quarter of a candlemark before he was supposed to arrive, he couldn't help it, he was an early riser and had a predisposition towards getting things done before it was wanted. He'd learned the very hard way what happened if he didn't. He stepped inside and glanced about, then walked up to the front desk again. "Serale, I am here for the trial run that Miss Batty has asked for me to attend."

[Nimh]

The next brightening, Dak returned to find himself staring at Kyle, whose eyes were quite foggy with sleep. Sleeping in was clearly his preference for he glowered at the new-guy with evidence of sleep deprivation in his red eyes and slightly puffy cheeks. Or maybe he just needed to learn to stop drinking late into the nights. That was highly probable.

"Right," he muttered and gestured Dak to follow him to a table where many short stacks of books had been piled. "See these books? You just have to go and put them all back into place. That's all. Read the title, it should give you an idea of where it goes. Library is broke down into sections by subject. Nature, politics, law--stuff like that. You'll figure it out."

And then the lad left him there with a pile of books, the first of which was labeled grandly with 'Principles of Arcana--All Things Strange and Abnormal'. All around him there were book racks stacked full with books. The sections were clearly indicated with plaques in such a manner as Kyle had described. Nature. Politics. Law. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their placement.

ooc: sorry - I forgotses