It's a nice library, especially for such a small town, with plenty of everything, but a focus on science and poetry, a well-appointed children's' section, a nice selection of music and holovids, and comfy chairs offering varying amounts of privacy.
Right now, though, it's closing time; the announcements have been made, the final checkout rush handled, and now the librarian is making one last check before she locks up for the night.
Daisy takes his plate, and goes to wait for Pradnakt's. "Do you want to get started again right away?"
"Hmm? We can take a break, sure."
"All right." She puts the plates in the sink and goes outside.
He looks between the door, and Pradnakt, and then the dishes in the sink. He gets up and moves over to wash them.
Shes back after a minute, with a small paper shopping bag that she drops off on the table where his plate was. Then she goes to stand next to him: "I'll dry?"
And soon they're done. She gets the bag from the table and presents it to him: "This is for you."
He starts to reach for it, and the stops, looking up to Daisy, clearly not entirely sure what he's supposed to do.
He cautiously reaches out to take it. "I- uh, thank you?" he still doesn't move to actually look in the bag, looking a little wary again, a little bit like he's waiting to be told what this costs.
"-it's a gift, Nova, there's nothing dangerous about it. Here, come sit and see what it is."
He moves back over to the table, holding the bag carefully, like he's scared he might damage it, and slides onto one of the benches. He sets the bag on the table.
It takes him a moment to work up the courage (and ability) to open the bag, and see what's inside.
The bag holds five boxes, three of which have pictures showing their contents: a datapad, with a subtly sparkly dark blue case in comparison to the flat black of Pradnakt's ones, a pair of headphones, and a belt clip for the datapad. The other two boxes are smaller, each just a bit larger than a data disc, with large words set over photographs of unfamiliar golden objects.
He stares for a moment, then tucks his hands into his lap. "I- this-" It's wonderful, and he does want, but-
But it can't be-
He reaches out, cautious and careful, to pick up the box with the datapad picture on it. Looks up at Pradnakt and Daisy, opens his mouth, and doesn't know what to say.
"You did good, Love. Nova, do you want some help setting that up?"
He ducks his head slightly. Thinks about his answer.
"I- uh, that is- yes?" He doesn't sound entirely certain, and still a little disbelieving.
She takes the headphones' box, unwraps them carefully, and sets them on the table in front of him, then does the same with the belt clip.
He carefully starts removing the wrapping from the datapad, and sets it down next to the headphones and belt clip, and looks sideways at Pradnakt.
She picks it up and turns it on, holding it so he can see it while it boots up. "It wants to know who it belongs to," she explains, when it gets to the setup, "and I'm putting your name in - there. Now it wants to know if it should lock, so other people can't use it, do you want to do that? This one has a thumbprint reader, so you can put your thumb there and it'll look and see if it's you."
He shrugs - he doesn't- he doesn't have things that are his. Isn't entirely sure why she's offering - surely this is a way to keep secrets and... And surely she doesn't- even if he can't write-
He shrugs again.
"I think you should. It'll make it feel more like it really is yours." She taps on the screen and holds it out for him to put his thumb to.
He hesitates for a moment, but...
He cautiously reaching forward to press his thumb to it, keeping half an eye on Pradnakt.
"There you go. And the rest of this is just about how it looks; you can change that later if you want to but it's not worth getting into right now, I don't think." She taps through to a screen like the one her pad shows, but cluttered with more icons; she flicks all but two off the screen, then with a few taps, adds a third. "We can bring those back later, but for now this should be good to get you started. Here's the book reader, it's the same one as on mine, so you shouldn't have any trouble with it. This one is for music - that's what's on the discs Daisy got you - and it works the same way as the reader; you can ask if you have any trouble figuring it out, but I think you'll be okay. She'll probably get you some recorded books sometime, too, and the music player will work for those, too. And then this one is a note recorder -" she runs through how to use it, including naming the files by talking to the pad and having it read out the filenames or search for one by speaking the name.
He listens attentively, if a little overwhelmed. "I- thank you?" he says when she seems to be finished, blinking at the datapad (eyes a tiny bit wet, no-one- he didn't- this was-).
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
