InsaneJournal

Who: Dani Moonstar, Tate Langdon
What: A little chat about library upgrades.
When: Recently!
Where: Urdnot Ranch 'Library'.
Ratings/Warnings: R for mentions of some things Tate did in his dream past. Warnings for the same?
Status: Complete!


As far as libraries went, Dani thought that the space that Wrex had given them really lacked a certain… something. Something that said ‘this is a library instead of a spare room’, maybe. That was a good start, anyway. Like a front desk, someplace they could process actual checking out and checking in of books from. And real shelves along some of the walls. Maybe some tables and comfy chairs.

She’d been in the process of making a list before Wrex had gone. Now that her girlfriend was in charge, she thought maybe she could add few more things to it. Like getting an actual carpenter in to fix things up. But first, she wanted to run her ideas by Tate.

Because seriously, the library had been his idea to start with. So she headed into the library one afternoon, waving the list in the air, “Hey Tate. I’ve got some ideas. Where are you hiding?”

The library was quiet, even when Tate looked around the corner of some shelves and grinned at her.

"Hey." He was looking her over with large, dark eyes under unruly blonde hair, like he was wondering how she was feeling and trying to find some visual confirmation that she was well. He was also pretty curious about those ideas. "I was reading some poetry. What's up?"

"There you are." Dani grinned a bit, and waved him over to the place where she liked to take a seat and camp out. It was a desk chair that they'd pulled up to a coffee table, and the table itself was stacked with the books she'd been working on labeling lately.

She sunk down onto the chair like a woman who desperately needed to sit, but otherwise seemed to be in good health. Or at least, in good humour, "What kind of poetry? Anything good?"

"Classics. Blake and Byron," was Tate's reply, as he pulled over a chair and sat down. He put his elbows on the table, folded his arms, and rested his chin on them. It made him look a lot younger than he was. He grinned and looked at ease, nothing like a teenaged psychopath. "You look like you're feeling ok today. That's good. Hope it stays that way."

"I hope so, too. It's all kind of up in the air, but hey, I'm just taking it one day at a time." Dani smirked and pulled the little cap off of her head, "Want to rub my head for good luck?"

She waited a bit in case he did, then replaced the hat and pointed at the list in her hand, "OKay. You did a lot of great work getting us books for the library, and now I want to see about making this space feel more like one, too. I know a carpenter guy who does really good work and might be staying here for a while. He's my ex, so this ought to be interesting, but I trust him to do the work and do it right. It's hard to find good contractors, you know?"

"So I've got a list here of stuff. And I have a small budget I'm going to talk to Shepard about. For things like... comfy chairs and tables. I thought we could put in some real shelves along the walls, and then set up a real circulation desk. What do you think about the size of this place? Because there's this empty room next to ours and I'm thinking of asking Shepard if we can tear the wall down."

Tate looked at her head and then shook his head. He thought Dani was a strong person, going through all the medical stuff and still trying to tackle a project like this.

"Yeah, I don't think I need to do that," was his reply, with a light chuckle. He listened to everything she said and looked pretty thoughtful about it all. He definitely didn't want the place to look like a school library or anything, so it was a good time to speak up or forever hold his peace. "Make sure it's really comfy. I killed a bunch of kids in a library, so the last thing I want is it to look like a high school or anything. I spend almost all of my time in here. It feels safe right now, but if it ended up looking like that...." His voice trailed off for a moment, before he shrugged it off. "...I think, yeah, maybe bigger, comfier. I think I had my stuff in that empty room but, c'mon? I'm a ghost. How much stuff do I need?"

"Well I don't want to put you out..." Dani replied. She wasn't sure how to react to the idea that he'd killed a bunch of kids in a library. This wasn't really the place to judge anyone for doing anything in the past, though, and she figured he was trying very hard to be a better... ghost. Guy.

"If you're living in that room, then that's your space. We can think about an addition, maybe, or knock out one of the other rooms. I think the important thing is... yeah, avoiding that whole uptight 'school library' thing. I'm thinking something cozier, where kids really want to come an read. And I want you to feel comfortable, too, instead of being reminded of shit you did in the past."

"Yeah, I've been trying to kind of stay away from that. Not something I want to revisit," Tate admitted with a little reluctance, since he was still trying to feel out how much he should talk about. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but he hadn't exactly felt like he was in the right state of mind in those dreams. At least now he had made his mistakes and learned from them enough to want to be better. You make more friends, even as a dead guy, if you don't shoot people or axe them in the gut. "That sounds cool. More like a coffee shop or reading room than that stuffy shit. I figured out that it was better to sit on the floor than to sit in those hard chairs, because it made your ass fall asleep after a while."

He also shrugged a little, after looking thoughtful regarding the space. Tate really didn't have a lot of stuff to lug around. Everything he owned was in an overstuffed backpack.

"Dani, it's cool if we need to knock out that room. I don't mind. I stay out of trouble more if I'm in here reading, anyway. And the kids here seem ok. They aren't that obnoxious when they come in and ask for stuff. Put a couch in here and I'll sleep on it."

"Are you sure?" Dani asked, arching an... well, if she had eyebrows, she'd be arching them. Instead that area of her forehead quirked a bit, and then she shrugged a shoulder.

"OKay, you look pretty sure. Let's knock that area out and we can make a comfy sitting area out of it with a couch and some reclining chairs or something. And maybe I can talk Tyra into giving us a little coffee area, too. Post up signs though so that the kids know if they spill and ruin the books new ones are coming out of their allowances. What do you think about that?"

She scribbled some notes down on her list, "It'd be more like turning this place into a barnes and nobles, only you read the books and never buy them. We'd still have a front desk area but we can make it more like... a counter. You can get tokens to get coffee with or check books out to take to back to your room for a while."

"Yeah I'm sure. This sounds great. All of it," Tate agreed. "It should keep them from wrecking shit and make it a lot more comfortable. Plus it's not like I won't be in here most of the time anyway. I like it. It's quiet."

Before he got ahead of himself with the approvals, Tate made sure to tell Dani, "Make sure the couch has enough room for me to sleep on, and we're cool."