A Brief Calm (Librarian Shadow Mission/Solo)

MUSE

A small smile drew itself upon Gawain's face as he entered the familiar, peaceful room that he could call a place of respite; however, this time, he entered with a new purpose. Drawing himself to the front desk of the library, Gawain patiently waited for Mrs. Airan's attention to who was discussing matters about a book with another student: whether it was about the location of said book, the lateness of said book's return, or possibly even the subject matter of the book Gawain did not know. He only knew that he had a shadowing to do, and he hoped that the day would go by well for him: he, for one, enjoyed Mrs. Airan's company; despite her quirks and slight hypocrisy with her profession, she was there to help Gawain whenever he was on a search for a book.

Eventually, after some minutes passed by, and Gawain's patience was still alive, the Missus found Gawain off to the side of her desk, looking around the library and simply waiting. "Oh, Gawain, hello, sorry about that. Just had to settle a matter of yet another late book...But, what are you here for today? Need something?" she stated with a hint of fatigue, but with the same height of spirit she always had in her.

Gawain turned to the sudden voice with a light smile, taking out the notepad that he kept in his coat pocket after adjusting his satchel out of the way. From there, he gently removed his black pen from the spiral binding, turned to a blank page, placed the pad onto the desk, and began writing his response with a calm air.


Gawain turned the notepad towards Mrs. Airan and waited calmly for a response. For a moment, he pondered on what they were going to do that day, but his thoughts were soon replaced by an attentive nature when Mrs. Airan's voice arose once more.

"Ahh, so you're the one who's shadowing me today. I see," she stated with a slightly surprised voice before looking through the materials on her desk, pulling out a log of books that were being borrowed by which student, only to go through it. "To be honest Gawain, I'm pretty sure you know quite a bit about what I do already. You do come here often, after all." Going through her list, she scrolled down to Gawain's listing, noting his on-time returns and somewhat frequent checkouts. She smiled slightly at Gawain afterwards, only to place the log away soon after the quick look. Libra herself thought Gawain as an exceptional student, mainly due to his well-kept nature shown throughout his time at the library, and as such, her words showed that.

Pondering for a response to the reply Mrs. Airan gave, Gawain scratched the back of his head as he stared back and forth between the librarian and his notepad. It was quite true that Gawain knew some details behind a librarian's work, but he didn't know how to properly put into words what he specifically wanted to learn about her profession. So, there he stood in his common silence, thinking, pondering, wondering to figure out something, a valid reason of some kind. As for the Missus, she calmly waited and pondered herself for a bit, but that was short-lived as dictated by the sudden silence.

"Well, I'm sure there's something you don't know about a librarian yet. We can start with the basics and go from there. By the end of your shadowing today, I'm sure you'll learn something valuable from me," she kindly stated as she stepped out from her desk, her wings gently brushing against the edges, "Well, as a librarian, an important thing to note is the genre of books that are kept in one's own library. If you'll follow me this way-" Before Libra could properly finish her statement, the sound of precious, year-old books falling on the year-old floor announced itself across the entire room. Without a moment to waste, of course, Libra took off towards the direction of the noise with an angry tone and a mute boy in tow.

When master and student finally came across the scene of the crime, the path of destruction was evident and heart-breaking, mainly to the Missus than the mute. The heart-breaking sight for Mrs. Airan was further detailed by her cry of anger, "How could this have happened?! Who did this?! Who did it?! Who done did the thing?!" Her bat ears raised, her bat wings flapping, her bat tail wagging, it was clear that she was vexed at the entire case before her. She started stomping down the book-covered aisle, looking around for anyone suspicious that committed the horrid crime. As for Gawain, he simply stared at the mess that was left behind with a saddened, disappointed expression. Most of the books from one shelf, that was around half a meter high and spanned for the same width, lied still on the floor, crowded on top of one another. It was a sad sight for him, to say the least.

A few minutes passed by while Gawain started organizing books by name, stacking them accordingly, only to a height so they wouldn't all come tumbling down with a simple poke. Before long though, Mrs. Airan appeared before Gawain with a tired, disappointed expression that was quite apparent to most anyone: her ears, wings, and tail barely had any motion and seemed tired and dead at that. "Well, Gawain, you'll be helping me clean this mess. I can't believe this," she sighed and uttered as she took a look at the notations on the side of the shelf, noting the letters and numbers that were aligned with each section, "I guess this is one part of a librarian's job I can teach you about if you didn't already know: the genres and placement."

Gawain nodded his head at the new directive, or at least what Mrs. Airan was teaching that was essential to a library's management, or at least what Gawain assumed from his extensive time. "So, over here we have...an arts section. Ten shelves, so they are..." While the Missus started figuring out which shelf belonged to which genre, Gawain looked down at each of the books and started to try and sort them by genre to what he believed were the right sections. The titles of the books were a helping factor to settling which category which book belonged to, and before long, before Gawain could even finish a shelf's full of books, Mrs. Airan soon joined Gawain in the sorting with a light smile on her face.

"Thank you Gawain. It's nice to know that you do have keen eye when it comes to managing resources," Libra stated with a calm voice, gathering the books that were sorted so far by genre and name into their right shelf. As for Gawain, he gave a simple shrug on the note and a slight smile, staying humble as he was; from there, he continued with their duties to clean up the mess that was left behind by someone. However, pondering for a moment on Libra's words, Gawain realized that she was slightly right when it came to him being able to manage resources. He was neat, usually kept clean and tidy compared to most others, unlike someone else with their dedicated corner in the library. His mind kept on that note of management throughout their cleaning process, wondering what else there was to the skill.

The hour passed by as Gawain and Libra continued with their work; it was more tedious and arduous job, one that Gawain wasn't expecting to deal with, but in the end, the deed had to be done. However, in the mix of the sorting and placing, Gawain came across a particular book that clearly interested him, a detail that Mrs. Airan noticed when there was a slight delay in sorting; considering that Gawain kept a steady pace through his sorting, only for a sudden lag in sorting to replace the consistent pace, Mrs. Airan didn't waste a beat when it came to finding the cause of the impediment.

"Gawain, you're taking longer than usual to organize. What's wrong?" she curiously asked as she came fluttering down from one of the higher shelves, landing on her feet calmly as she stared at Gawain for an answer. For the boy's reply, he exhaled in self-disappointment, only to pull out the book that he was keeping by his side as he showed it to the Missus. He kept his head down for moments onward as he continued with the sorting of the books that they had to complete. However, he was surprised when Mrs. Airan's voice didn't show a hint of frustration, but of calm intrigue.

"Hmm...Well, we can talk about this later. For now, let's continue with our job, shall we?" Closing the book and placing it off to the side, close to another bookcase, Libra began sorting books that were still lying around into their proper genres in order to help Gawain hasten the process. As for the mute boy's reply, he was surprised at the response, tilting his head curiously, but continued on the duty they had, although at a slightly slower pace still; his mind was on what they were going to talk about after all.

Well, when the deed was done, finally, Libra sat Gawain and herself down at an open table in the main area of the library, with the book that Gawain recovered from the fall of the books. Gawain was disappointed in himself that they needed to discuss the matters on why Gawain was taking time away from cleaning a mess that needed to be dealt with to read a book which wasn't a bad thing but was a certain lack of priorities. With his head lowered and off to the side, Gawain had his notepad and pen on the table on his side while he waited for Mrs. Airan's berating, lecturing tone; however, he was surprised when he received a conversational one instead.

"Gawain, I remember you checking out a few music books a while ago...Is this your reason for taking some time to yourself?" she asked calmly, flipping through the pages one by one at a slow pace as if she was reading them. Gawain was clearly surprised at her response and slowly drew his hand to his pen and notepad, writing slowly. He didn't know why she was being so kind, but, considering it was a question she asked, he had to answer.


With his apologetic response, Gawain gently slid his notepad, turning it around to her, as he waited for her response, keeping his head down to his lap as he waited for her response. Surprised at her calm tone of voice, Gawain wasn't sure what to do, so he continued with the same mannerism and waited. He hoped that she wasn't going to be too harsh though.

MUSE

"Well, if it furthers your knowledge, then it's all the more better for you in the end," she replied after taking a slight glance at the note, closing the book and sliding Gawain's notepad back over to him, much to his surprise when there was no hint of a lecture or berating, only a tempered voice. As such, after taking a moment to comprehend Gawain's expression of shock, she raised her voice once more, deciding to take things on a more serious note for him. "Gawain, my duty as a librarian is to insure that all students are able to enhance their learning experience in their desired field, be it schoolwork or not. Even though you are shadowing me today, you show capabilities of being one yourself; you understand the role of a librarian as far as I can tell."

Gawain blinked his eyes at Mrs. Airan's words. She was kind in her explanation, holding no grudge, distrust, or disdain at Gawain's lack of attention, only what appeared to him as understanding. Taking his pen from the table, he drew the notepad from halfway across the table and began writing in it, wanting for himself to understand Mrs. Airan's motives.


Sliding his notepad back across the table, he placed his pen back down before receiving a direct response from the librarian in the calm, studious manner she had. "Gawain, that was just one incident. Through your studious nature, from what I've seen of you, you're not the type of child who would dilly-dally on such tasks often. You just caught interest in a hobby you partake, that's all. We all lose track of things sometimes, and we just need a little push." Standing up from her seat, she maneuvered her way around the table with the notepad and book in her left hand, handing it to the child that sat before her with a curious look on his face. "Being intrigued is sometimes a good thing. It simply means that you're curious, and in this case, it's a good thing. Just, don't beat yourself up over it and learn from it, okay?"

Gawain held his notepad and the music book in his hands, looking up at Mrs. Airan with a thankful face, showing off a kind smile reminiscent of times in the past. He was always troubled by matters when he had to be pulled aside by his teachers in any way or form, but this one incident slightly enlightened his thoughts on what was good and what was bad. Nodding his head as he stood up, he started collecting his things before Mrs. Airan started on a note and began leaving on that note as well.

"Well, Gawain, I think you're good for the rest of today. I'd say that you learned a bit today, and well, you'll learn more if you quell those quenching thoughts of yours. I'll check that book out for you, so you won't have to go through the processing, but just make sure you return it on time as always, okay?" she said in a friendly, instructor way if there was one as she began leaving to her desk with a dignified smile. As for the boy that was left alone, packing his things, he left on a happy note, knowing that there were things that he shouldn't be afraid of and that knowledge was simply a friend that he needed to attend to as well.