#checked how to spell referend and apparently the current standard is to not call something a referend

[dozenbeginnings]

The Itching Powder Book

Chapter 2: Hating Libraries

A chapter about Barry K, who probably hates his job but it's also probably his life passion, so whatever. General audiences.

Barry K was excellent at research. Because of this skill, Goops had asked him to learn more about a handful of artifacts that Goops needed to know more about. The research involved a small amount of time on the internet, finding weird sources and looking up unusual terms, but for the most part this exact branch of research involved a lot of work in literal, physical books - moreover, books that the Poplar Wood Complex owned. As a result, Barry K had spent most of his waking hours for the past two weeks in the library.

Barry K abhorred the library.

Irene and Barry K both had the strange disease of contrarianism. Barry K hated libraries, and he hated research, in part because he was good at them, passionate, even. Barry K had once told Irene that he loved library research, felt like he was fated to do it for the rest of his life, could really see himself making a career out of it.

He had said it like he was talking about a military draft. He said it like it was a rare disease.

Probably, Barry K had his own reasons for this dual love and hatred of libraries and research. Probably, Barry K had a complex internal life that involved a lot of mixed feelings and sense of external pressure. Probably, Barry K was quite insecure, or scared, or in some other way motivated to feel this self-destructive sense of hatred for the things he loved, or obligation to the things he hated, whichever it really was.

Irene had never bothered to ask because she did not care. Barry K was not Irene, and Irene made it a matter of personal principle not to care about anything that was not Irene.

Barry K, on the other hand, is also of no help, because Barry K made it a point to only care about things aside from himself.

Goops was the paterfamilias of this little compound, and he was ultimately the one who made decisions, insofar as there were decisions to be made. Irene was more or less a student of his that he was tutoring, but Barry K was closer to being an employee or an intern at this point. Goops had given him a set of instructions a long time ago that amounted to build yourself a portfolio and practice the skills that you think are most valuable, and as vague as those instructions had been, Barry K had managed so successfully that Goops hadn't actually done much more than check in on him occasionally since then.

It went approximately like: Goops comes up to him, still sweating from the sun after fishing or exercising, and say "well, how do you feel you're progressing, boy?"

And Barry K would say, "Well, yesterday I finished...." and give him a detailed project description. "But I'm still working on..." and give him an equally detailed set of project plans. "But I know that it's not worth the effort unless..." and describe, all by himself, what the holes were in his studies, and how he was going to fix them.

And Goops would do the closest thing Goops did to smiling, and it would be very obvious that he was proud and impressed, and they would make pleasant but unproductive conversation for the rest of the time that Goops had allotted in his calendar for checking up on Barry K.

And, every now and then, because Barry K was extremely reliable and good at his job, Goops would ask him if he could work on something for Goops.

And, because Barry K like d Goops, and because Barry K appreciated having something specific to work on, and because Barry K wanted to, Barry K would say yes.

And then, because Barry K hates libraries and hates research and on some level probably hates himself, he would spend several weeks swearing in his brain at all of the nonsense that he is putting himself through, while hiding how miserable he is to the best of his abilities. Barry K was not aware of the fact that he was an extraordinarily bad liar who was never able to hide the crankiness and hate. However, as a general rule, if you are annoyed all the time but keep doing the thing that annoys you, everyone just assumes that you're Like That, and won't take it personally, and won't dig in too deep at your hidden motives. As a result Barry K just assumed that he had everyone fooled, when the reality was that his fellows at the Poplar Wood Compound just respected his privacy.

---

Barry K hated libraries in part because he loved them so much; in his odd little twist-up brain, those two emotions were somehow the same thing. On the other hand, he had no idea what to feel about Irene. She went to great lengths to annoy him - intentionally, he knew it was intentional - and it was like she made an art of finding the exact worst ways to intrude on his space and time so that he was as distracted as he could possibly be without actually, truly being angry. Or maybe she was trying to make him angry, and was just bad at it?

No way of knowing.

The thing was, not-hating her and not-ignoring her made Irene something resembling his best friend. Yes, he liked Cook, Cookie, Teensy, Nougat, and Bottle. But Irene had embedded herself in his awareness so fast that he had actually learned her name.

(He knew everyone's name now, of course. It had just taken him a while.)

(Goops didn't count.)

---

Cook (that is to say, Chanlix) was making dinner when he wandered in. Cookie (Tiffany), who was about two feet tall and might honestly be a literal god, was sitting on the spice rack, surrounded by drying herbs, chewing on a piece of raw ginger root like an animal. Cook was prattling on about something or other. Barry K didn't really bother to listen to what it was as he slipped into the pantry for some crackers.

"Oh, Barry, love!"

Cook tended to shout when she was talking to him. The clank and clatter of cooking implements had paused, but she shouted anyway, as though he might, perhaps, not actually be hearing her. Mentally, Barry K cringed at it, steadying his ringing skull as best he could.

"Barry, have you seen Irene today?"

Slowly and deliberately, Barry K stepped out of the pantry, facing Cook so that she would know that he had heard her and she was being acknowledged and, if he was very, very lucky, that she could stop shouting.

"Not today, no," he said, deliberately quiet in a vain effort to prompt a sympathetic volume change. "Why do you ask?"

Cookie was grinning at the two of them. Cookie tended to be grinning at any given time, but she didn't talk much. It was like she had a secret that was very funny and that nobody else knew about. Barry K honestly, legitimately did not care what it might be, and was relieved that he did not have to know. Cookie was perfectly happy, self-sufficient, and undemanding.

"You know it's like I barely see her at all these days, except for meals," Cook said. She was now turning away and chopping efficiently away at a pile of root vegetables. "She only came by once tomorrow. She didn't even notice when I was baking on Thursday, I think she was off on the other side of the yard."

"She might just be busy," Barry K said. "So you haven't seen her at all this week?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, every other day she's been in my hair, it's just today and Thursday." Barry K stifled a sigh. Barely see her at all, Cook had said. Those two had the sort of relationship that neighbors three miles down would know about. If he took half a second to think about it, he knew very well that Irene had only been "missing" for five days in the past two weeks, because Barry K kept pretty good documentation of his schedule, and those were the days when he hadn't been interrupted in the middle of a project by resonant shouting.

"That is a bit odd, though," he allowed, mostly to be nice. He took a handful of crackers while Cook hummed tunelessly. "She might just be settling in."

"Now, I don't want to believe that settling in would make the poor girl go awol," Cook said.

Barry K bit back another word of exasperation. Talking to Cook always felt like he was missing half of the data in the conversation, like Cook had a whole different basis for reality than he did. He turned to Cookie, desperate to get out of the conversation, but also desperate not to look rude.

"How is the painting going, by the way?"

Cookie gave him a thumbs-up and kept munching away at her ginger.

"Did the aged egg white work out for the gilding?"

Another thumbs up.

"I think I might have found some more reference images that fit what you need. Not sure if they're still valuable to you, though."

Cookie nodded vigorously and her grin spread wider. Barry K nodded once and gave her a small smile.

Cook cut in. "You're working too hard, love. Tomorrow you're taking a three o'clock break for tea. Tell me what to make to go with it by breakfast, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cook did this. Barry K didn't fight it. Imperative tea time was just an occasional reality.

"Oh, and the man was asking about you," she added. She didn't need to call him Goops. She didn't usually call him Goops. There was only one person that they could all talk about without any sort of name or referend. "He was worried you haven't learned how to set up good boundaries for your time and that you're working too hard." Cook put down the knife, turned all the way around, and stared at him at a funny angle, like she was peering over glasses - which she didn't wear. "I told him you were doing fine," she said, pointedly.

Barry K made eye contact and nodded very deliberately, made it very clear that he understood.

As much as she annoyed him, this is why Barry K still liked Cook, would always like Cook. She wasn't a narc except for the boss. She had Goops's ear, but if she thought something needed an authority to step in, she was going to be that authority her own damn self. Once, she had marched up to Barry K and told him to tell Goops what he just did. Barry K had done it, but he never did forget how it had ultimately been his own action to take. Cook was not going to say anything for him.

"Three o'clock," Barry K said.

Cook nodded, just as deliberately, and turned back to her vegetables.