Disaster Duo

"Disaster Duo" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Clover stares at the empty shelves, then at the piles of books sitting all around the room, and groans in despair. At the rate she’s going, she won’t be finished for another year–at the earliest. She needs help, and, well… Akkey’s busy, who knows what Asha’s doing, and she knows for a fact that William is busy helping prepare for the raid where he’s needed.
Which… really only leaves her one option, if she wants someone who she knows can organize the disaster that is Haligan’s library.
Muttering under her breath, she swings her cloak over her shoulders and sets off for Darien’s house. She takes a deep breath, lets it out, then knocks on the door.
“Oh, I am sorry, I…”
Darien pulled up short as he saw someone knocking on his front door, stopping behind her, and then it clicked that this was the woman he had traveled to Haligan with. Embarrassed, he pulled up the notes in his arms, trying not to drop them across the road. “Can I help you, Clover?” he said, a little worried. 
She whirls around to face him. “Ineedyourhelp,” she says in a rush, trying to get the words out before she decides that no, this is the worst idea she’s ever had, and she should just go back on her own.
“That’s been strangely common these days…” He scooted sideways past her to fumble the door open and quickly step inside, dumping his notes on the table and dusting his hands off. “Though,” he continued, winded from crossing the island and carrying his load, “not that I wish to offend, but…I didn’t think you would want to…” 
Darien hesitated and gestured vaguely, looking her cautiously in the eye. “You know.”
Clover covertly tries to smooth down her tail, which had fluffed out when Darien–appeared behind her. She refuses, even in the privacy of her own mind, to admit that he’d startled her.
With a sigh, she says, “Haligan’s library. It’s a disaster. I need help getting it into order.”
He took in a sharp, small breath and put his palms together, pressing the sides of his hands to his mouth. Oh, no. “What kind of…disaster? Is it destroyed?”
“No, it just has the least sensible organization system I’ve ever seen.” She sighs. “Well. It did. I’m trying to get it into one that does make sense. But to do that, I had to unshelve everything, and now it’s all over the place, and–” Realizing she’s been babbling, Clover cuts herself off. “I need help,” she repeats.
He could almost feel his hands itching at the thought of getting at so many books and documents and putting them in order. Why him? Hadn’t he ruined her life?
Darien put his hands on the small of his back and shrugged openly. “I have…experience, I suppose. Take me to this disaster.”
She lets out a relieved sigh. “This way, then.” She leads him back to the library, ignoring the itch between her shoulder blades that insists she should not, under any circumstances, put her back to him. Chief Grey vouched for him, the Warden vouched for him–if she can trust that the Warden changed, she has to trust that Darien changed, too. At least for the sake of the rebellion.
Clover pushes the door halfway open, and slips through the gap. She holds it open as far as it’ll go–which is, admittedly, not very far–for Darien.
Oh, I don’t like this already. He gave the door a few more valiant shuffles open before squeezing through–he was a little thicker now than he was in his youth–and huffed as he got inside, already smelling the dust and old leather that was built up from moving around so many books. “Thank you,” he sighed, starting to shrug off his coat and getting a good look at what exactly the problem was.
There are books on just about every available surface, except the shelves themselves; just enough space has been cleared for someone to stand near the doorway. Coincidentally, it’s clear that this is the area where Clover’s spent most of her time and effort on. 
“Some of the shelves towards the back collapsed, so I’m going to need to get new shelves, somehow. And when I got here, the books on dragon biology were next to the romance novels.” She puts her hands on her hips, surveying the disaster before them.
Almost in awe, Darien folded his coat over his forearm, tiptoeing his way to a chair that was just visible under the mess and laying his coat on the arm of it. “Why, I never…how did it get like this?” He roamed the titles that just lay in their immediate area, seeing that they were vaguely organized by stack, but even then, he could see the problem she’d pointed out to him. There wasn’t even a semblance of order in this gods-forsaken place.
“Never mind how,” he said decisively, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt past his forearm. “Is it just you cleaning all of this?”
“Akkey helped me a little,” she gestures to the few shelves with some books on them, “but yes, I’ve mostly been on my own for this.” Clover deftly twists her hair up into a bun, getting it out of the way. Having some help, even from someone she distrusts, makes this seem much less daunting.
“Alright, then. Boxes, we need boxes if we have them, or crates, or something, and…” He picked up a book off the nearest stack and it immediately limply fell into two parts in his hands, held together by a few strings of binding. “Oh, goodness. We need a bookbinder, if there is one.” He set the broken book down, clapped his hands together softly and squinted at the titles around him, pointing here and there and muttering wordlessly to himself. “What would you say the most important records that you have here are?” he asked Clover. 
She rocks back and forth on her heels as she thinks. “I brought the important ones with me from Perch Hall, you remember that,” she says. “I think…” She falters. “The most important records are… the casualty reports. From the first rebellion. The names of everyone we lost.”
Darien nodded thoughtfully. “Population records, then. Those are very important. They will be accessed often, I imagine, along with any written preparations for attacking the dungeons…ah, and legal documents, as well, treaties or contracts or anything of the kind. Something that could get Haligan into trouble if they lost them.” He chuckled a little, already moving stacks of books aside so he could reach the shelves. “I don’t know how much inventory the Chief keeps, either, but those were useful in Central, they had their own sub-section of the library, there was so much to keep track of…” He turned and peered further down the room, where there was a very similar mess across the entire library. “Not to worry, as soon as the heavy-use records are out of the way, most everything can go back as it was, assuming most of it is for occasional reference and recreational reading.”
Clover nods shakily. “Right, that makes sense. Should we have those closer to the front, or towards the back?” she asks.
“In the middle, perhaps?” He put his hands closer together, squinting an eye and looking at the shelves that stood by themselves in the center of the library. He caught her uncertainty out of the corner of his eye and smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Central’s library was bigger than this entire island. We’ll be on our way in no time.” He laughed at himself a little, putting his hands on his hips. “Of course, we have nowhere near even…even a sixteenth of the manpower, but…it’ll be fine.”
“Well, it’s a smaller library.” She sighs, swishing her tail back and forth. “I suppose we should start by… clearing a path to the middle,” she says with a wry grin.
“That seems like a place we could start.”
And start they did. Shoulder to relative shoulder, they began pushing and moving and scooting stacks of books to make a somewhat-clear path through the middle of the library, and began extracting the most important records to the island and placing them neatly upon the shelves in small stacks. They managed to clear a long table in the center of the shelves and Darien began using the clear space making labels on large pieces of parchment to place in between separate books to create sections. It was grueling busy work, but he enjoyed losing himself in something that wasn’t reflection upon knowledge that he once wielded to harm others. This was simple. This was inconsequential. And helpful, even. It felt pretty good.
Darien used his wrist to wipe a sheen of sweat off his forehead and looked up at Clover, who was occupied with organizing a section of the shelf across the table from him. She seemed quiet, and if he was correct in guessing based on the emotions coming from her, he knew what kind of records she was coming across in their work.
“Clover? Would it be time for a meal, do you think?”
Clover looks over at him with glassy eyes. Twenty-five years later, and the sting of losing her friends, the people who had practically become family to her, is still all too real while going through the records.
It takes her a few tries to find her voice. “Yeah,” she whispers. “It probably is.”
central-is-growing
He slowly got to his feet, looking down at his hands as they rested on the table. He cleared his throat. “Would you…want to talk about it, while we…?” He trailed off quietly. “Sorry. We should just take that lunch break.” She wouldn’t want to talk about her loss with him of all people. He was the one that caused this.
aroleplayingcephalopod
She stares at him for a long while, turning things over in her head. “I… think I might, actually,” she says softly. 
central-is-growing
Woo, okay, never mind. Guess I’m doing this.
He left and returned with a few sandwiches wrapped in linen, laying them out on the table and sitting awkwardly in front of Clover, tapping his fingers of both hands on the table, back and forth. “I didn’t want to make this an unpleasant task. You seem to enjoy being an archivist.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Going through the records would’ve been unpleasant, regardless,” Clover admits, her eyes tracking the movement of his fingers. “And… I do. It keeps me busy, and out of my own head.” 
Slowly, she reaches out to grab one of the sandwiches, and takes a small bite of it.
central-is-growing
“The apology still stands.” He took one of the sandwiches as well, but merely placed it on the table in front of him, considering it. “Was there anything in particular that bothered you?”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“I-I found the record for Tezz,” she whispers. “We–I never got his body back. I couldn’t even give him a proper funeral.” She swipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Seeing it written down like that, it just… made me remember everything.”
central-is-growing
He puffed out his cheeks in a slow sigh, linking his fingers together and pressing his hands to his mouth, staring down at the table. “I heard about that,” he murmured. “The…half-breeds carry word fast, especially concerning something like that. He was a hero to them. That…incident…paved the way for Kezia’s death many years later.” He moved his thumbs along with his shoulders in a sort of shrug, looking up at her. “At least some good came from tragedy.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
When she speaks again, Clover’s voice is bitter. “And how many more did she kill in the meantime?” she asks. Then her shoulders slump. “He was a hero to me, too,” she says quietly.
central-is-growing
He made a slight grimace. “I know. I’m sorry.” He took a bite to fill his mouth and the silence, chewing thoughtfully while he looked out the window. Darien wasn’t uncomfortable, per se, but he was puzzled by the atmosphere in the room. “You didn’t have to come get my help, you know,” he said quietly, when he was finished. “I know I probably bring up some mixed feelings…”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“I…” She takes a deep breath. “You do,” she admits. “But I’m trying to remind myself that you’re helping the Rebellion now, not working against it.” Clover manages a weak smile. “And I really couldn’t do this alone.”
central-is-growing
“I do the best I can, given my position.” He looked sincerely at her over his glasses. “As long as my being here gives closure instead of the opposite.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
His words bring her up short, and she takes a bite of her sandwich while she ponders how to answer. After she swallows, she says, “I… didn’t expect it to. But I think… I think it might be.” Looking down at the tabletop, she murmurs, “Tezz saw something in you worth saving. I trusted his judgement, I don’t see why I should stop now.”
central-is-growing
He fumbled his hands together, his meal forgotten again. His face felt a little warm and his eyes were itchy. “Between him and the Archon, they got me to believe there was some good left in me. But I believe there is still more work for me to do before I consider any of it recompense for what I have done in the past.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
Clover hums thoughtfully and glances up at him with a small smile. “Maybe, yes, but… what you’re doing now, for the Rebellion, that’s a good start.” 
central-is-growing
He gave a slight laugh. “Hopefully.” He pressed a hand to his forehead, rubbing it a little. “I haven’t been around this many people since…gods, I don’t even remember when.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
She laughs quietly. “It takes some getting used to,” she agrees. “It’s so odd, seeing how much people have changed over the years.”
central-is-growing
“You’re telling me,” he said in exaggerated exhaustion, picking up his sandwich. “Rebels growing up and having their own children is twice as much trouble as before,” he said good-naturedly. “I don’t know what we’re going to do when we break out all these prisoners. Surely they can’t all stay on the island.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“I’m sure Chief Grey will work something out,” Clover says, sounding like she’s trying to convince herself. “There’s space to build more homes, if necessary.”
“I might have to help with those,” he said through a mouthful, peering through the window of daylight again. “That is, if we ever manage to get out of here again. A dungeon of our own making. The rest of the island may never see us again.”
She smirks across the table at Darien. “There are worse dungeons to be in. At least we have books.”
“Hmm. Books.” He gestured with the sandwich in his hand. “I do enjoy books, but I never realized how terribly they replaced the outdoors. I was gone for so long but it was only because–well, I was running away, of course, but there was so much of the world I hadn’t seen before. High Central seems so small now.” He laughed at himself a bit. “And yet I still couldn’t stop myself from writing it all down.”
“Yes, but there’s something to be said for being able to escape the horrors of this world, to immerse yourself in a world someone else created,” Clover says. “I would like to travel someday, when things are more… settled,” she muses.
“A created world?” He blinked and finished up his sandwich, looking at her bemusedly with one of his cheeks full. “Do you mean…novels? I haven’t read many of those, actually.” Darien looked over the messy library, noting the several stacks of books with odd titles. “I guess I never…understood the point? Our literature was unkind towards half-breeds, anyway.”
Clover’s eyes widen. “You–oh my gods,” she whispers. “You are missing out on so much.” She halfway starts to rise from her seat, before remembering the sandwich in her hand. She sits back down and takes another bite of it while she scans the stacks of books for any of her favorites.
He watched her glance through the books as she finished eating. “Where do you even find these? Who writes them?” Darien couldn’t imagine someone spending time on writing about things that didn’t even exist. Full books, too! It sounded so odd.
Around the last mouthful of her sandwich, Clover says, “Bookshops in the largest cities, usually. And anyone who wants to, really. It’s fun.” Back in the Bunker, there wasn’t much to do at times, so she had tried her hand at writing–though she’d never really liked the results. It was fun, though.
Rising to her feet, she wipes her hands on her pants. “Most of my favorites are romance stories,” she admits. “There are some adventure stories I used to read to William when he was young, though. He had me read them so many times, I think I have most of them memorized.”
“Well, you make me feel a little foolish for not knowing much about these stories.” He gave a self-deprecating smile and got to his feet, as well. “Maybe you can point me in the direction of some introductory material.”
Clover’s eyes land on the very book she’d been looking for, and a grin spreads across her face. “Here we go!” she says brightly, scooping it up from the top of a stack of books. She flips it open to the first page and begins reading aloud with all the confidence of one who has read a story many times before. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing it it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
She looks up again. “When William was small, he would hold onto my arm and look up at me with this expression of wide-eyed wonder. Even when he was a bit older, he loved when I read this to him.”
“It’s a children’s story, then?” He looked at it closely; it had been written in a careful hand, and although it was aged, it was in good condition, neither did it look like terribly heavy reading. “What’s it about?”
“It’s not necessarily a children’s story,” she says slowly. “It’s a story that children can enjoy, but it has some elements that don’t really click for them until they’re older.” She has to gather her thoughts before providing a summary–she could probably describe the whole plot at once, if pressed. “Well, it’s about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. He lives a peaceful life, until a wizard named Gandalf turns it all upside-down, and he goes on a quest with a company of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home from the dragon Smaug.” Seeing Darien’s puzzled expression, Clover elaborates, “Smaug isn’t like any of our dragons, really. He can talk, for one, and he’s… well, evil. There’s no other way to describe him. Hobbits and dwarves are both made-up races, but you’d almost think they’re real with how much detail the author describes them with.”
He was reminded of the Night Fury he’d met while he was up north; he wondered if she had made her way to Haligan, too. “I tend to believe anything is possible, nowadays.” He held a hand out to her, asking to see the book. “Perhaps it’s something I can start reading over meals.”
She hands the book over with a smile. “I’m not sure if you’ll enjoy it or not, but… I’m always going to have fond memories of it.” 
He took it carefully and smiled down at the cover, then looked back up at her. “You really don’t have to be so nice to me, you know.”
Clover’s smile falters. “I…” She swallows and tries again. “I’m trying to let go of old grudges,” she says softly. “I’m so tired of being angry all the time. I don’t… I don’t blame you for… what’s going on, anymore.” The dungeons may have been his project all those years ago, but… it’s not his fault anymore. She looks into his eyes intently. “And I appreciate your help, with this.”
“I understand. You’re welcome to borrow my, uh…extra manpower whenever you need it.” He looked behind her, at the records that were still strewn across the shelves. “I can take over those, if you’d like,” he offered.
She shakes her head. “No, it’s alright. I can do it,” she insists. “I appreciate the offer, though.” Clover rocks back and forth on her heels, trying to think of something to fill the silence. “So, er, do you have anything you’re needed for, today? If you don’t, we can just… keep working on this.”
He laughed. “Oh, no, no. If anything, this would keep me out of everyone’s way, for the time being.” He didn’t want to admit it, but staying away from everyone else sounded all right to him for the time being. The island had an established social structure that he was happy to stay out of.
“Things are a bit hectic at the moment,” Clover agrees. “Though I can’t say it’s any calmer in here,” she adds with a wry grin, gesturing to the piles of books still surrounding them. “Anyways,” she claps her hands together, “let’s get back to it.”
Darien sat at the table while she moved to start organizing again, lingering for a few moments with the book she’d given him. He let it fall open to a page, and his eyes caught on a few of the words near the top. 
“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” 
Well, maybe this book was about to teach him some very valuable lessons.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Darien Whiteland
Category:Clover Rose