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[highliber]

A nice little perk of working at the Union Central Library is that one of the best known coffee houses in town is right across the street, Cafe Marellia. When the stifling dust and quiet gets to be too much for Zarvora, she occasionally takes her work outside to finish with a cup of coffee or tea and some mindless chatter surrounding her like white noise. During such excursions, her fletchling, Charles, would dart around enjoying the comparatively open space and catching bugs out of the air.

Today Zarvora was extra focused on the book she had, occasionally adding to a huge sprawling flowchart of symbolic logic in the notebook lying on the table before her. Her brow is furrowed with what might be intense concentration and might be irritation at the couple seated at the table directly behind her, who are lost in each other's eyes, exchanging sickeningly adorable pet names in between rounds of noisy kissing.

At "My Sweet Fromage" she slammed her pen down and turned around to glare at the couple, who looked up in surprise. "If you're going to call each other names without having the decency of doing it in private, at least stick to ones that makes sense! Fromage isn't a kind of flower, it's an old word for cheese, but with how oxygen starved your brains must be by now I'm not surprised you didn't know that!"

She sat back down, surrounded by an aura of irritation that left her unaware of the rude looks she was now getting by about half the room, and tried to get back into her work.

Comments

[tobeahero]

"Maybe they really like cheese," Ashlynn said as she sat down across from Zarvora. Brom, the houndour, and Cake, the Scraggy, crowding her feet. The crowding didn't last long as Cake decided she absolutely had to climb into Ashlynn's lap so she could eat at the table and have first dibs on any of the sweets.

[highliber]

Zarvora put her pen down again and rubbed her face. Apparently getting any work done today was a lost cause. "Then they can go enjoy each other's company in a cheese shop. It's impossible to concentrate to anything over those noises."

[tobeahero]

Ashlynn smiled and gave a small shrug, "Well it is a public space. If you're looking for quiet, perhaps you should be over there. At the library. It's right across the way and there would be no shortage of quiet."

[highliber]

"There is such a thing as common courtesy."

This randomly lady wasn't necessarily wrong, but Zarvora was feeling irritable about the whole encounter so far.

[tobeahero]

"One could argue that it's common courtesy not to yell at a couple who are minding their own business. One could also argue that it's common courtesy not to assume everyone will cater to what you want when you're in a public space. And," Ashlynn chided while trying to remain pleasant. "one could assume that if you're in a public space where other people minding their own business can easily interrupt you... then you probably want to be interrupted. I could use some company. I need to get Cake here used to being around people. She's from the Old City. I brought her to Union just a few days ago.]

[highliber]

She ignored the pokemon for now.

"If a man chose to practice the bagpipes in the middle of a park, he would be minding his own business, but people would be irritated none the less."

[tobeahero]

She nodded, "And it would still be impolite to yell at him to shut up. Walking up to him and politely requesting he move his practice space elsewhere would be a far better solution. There's no need to be rude just because you're irritated."

[highliber]

"Perhaps in a perfect world. You will notice that they've stopped, though. I can concentrate on my work in a nice change of scenery from stacks of dusty old books and equally old and dusty old men in the library."

She raised an eyebrow at Ashlynn, "In theory I can concentrate, anyways."

[tobeahero]

"If you're an ends justify the means person, I suppose the result is all that matters," she sighed. "But I don't think venting your frustrations on others is at all healthy. They didn't deserve to be yelled at like that."

[highliber]

"And I suppose you are to be my new moral coach."

By her expression, this exchange was rapidly wearing thin. "I already have a lackey, as it turns out, and a lot of work to do. Why don't you go socialize your Cake with someone else?"

[tobeahero]

Ashlynn looked decidedly disappointed, "I wasn't trying to be a lackey, but to help you gain perspective. You're obviously stressed and I thought that perhaps reminding you that there are things outside yourself would ease it by putting it in perspective. It's how Jasper always helped me when I was upset. He'd point out that while it's fair for me to be frustrated, it's not fair for me to take it out on those that aren't related to it. It's not a matter of morality. It's a matter of understanding what's actually causing your mood and focusing on fixing that. I suppose I'm not as good at this as he is."

She shoo'd Cakde off her lap and stood, "I don't think that couple is related to your stress, but that they are a convenient target and an easy one to blame. I think you should take some time to examine what is the cause so you can actually fix and be a happier person. Everyone deserves to be a happy person. Thank you for listening to me. I do hope you have a better day."