Work Text:
An archivist assesses the quality of and researches records and documents to determine their importance and potential value. They then preserve and catalog these materials so people can access them in the future, making sure they're not lost and forgotten.
Technically, Simon is not the traditional definition of an archivist and more of a librarian, regardless they have to do both jobs themselves with utmost joy and dedication. (zzz…)
They didn't mind being a librarian and an archivist, he argues that it keeps him away from having to spend 15 hours in the vicinity of his “bossman” and in return him, sane.
Until everyone decided they were busy and didn't need distractions and he hasn’t even seen them for over 10 minutes at a time. Seriously, at this point he’d cry on the spot if Tristan came by and decided to annoy him.
Simon could not put the feeling that hung over him into words, a sinking pit of loneliness and boredom he further spiralled into every second he spent without any social interaction of any sort and in his rather uncomfortable chair that simply refused to let him stretch out his legs without an extremely loud and awkward creak as its screams of protest under the torture it faced with his weight.
He knew everyone had things to do in life, the operation to bring down EdEN ended a whole year ago, but then the lack of incidents went from reassuring to just downright boredom.
The golden glow of the lanterns in the library section seemed overly blinding to the slimelike being as a sigh escaped their mouth while their arm stretched to reach for a glass of water, the sound of their pen being put down in the sea of documents being the only sound amongst the silence that was spread around their surroundings like a thick fog.
In a few seconds, the full cup of water reduced to barely a few drops, and yet neither Simon nor the headache that was coming on felt relieved. Glancing at their to-do list and the clock showing an absurd time in the middle of the night, Simon leans back in their chair and groans in frustration.
With the heavy feeling of frustration and exasperation for everyone and everything slowly snowballing inside of his nonexistent heart, he calls out to the empty, desolate halls of the Archives with no care for whatever micro-sized inhabitant would be living between the pages of the books stored in the classically-designed architecture. "Man, I wish someone could interrupt my work right n-"
And just at this exact moment he yelled at an imaginary figure in the sky and in the general direction of Cycles, a familiar face burst into the wooden doors of the Archives, sending a large bang throughout the hall, reverberating in the empty halls, nearly shattering the fragile-formed eardrums of Simon’s.
"SIMON I WANT YOU TO WATCH THE KID" Foxine runs up towards him at a shockingly fast pace, her footsteps loud taps against marble and drops Mnemosyne on the marble floor, the heavy thump of matter hitting the ground jolting him out of his self-deprecating vibe.
Simon watches the borderline hysterical fox’s limbs do a comically cartoony bend as she rounds the corner and bolts towards the direction of whence she came. "Foxine, what the he-" He shouts after Foxine, still running and never stopping.
"I gotta go now!" Foxine didn't even bother waving before running out the door. "Man, that kid is creepy as hell…" He heard her mutter, which nearly brings out a loud snicker from him.
Sighing in annoyance for what seemed to be the hundredth time today, Simon looked towards the kid, Euterpe and Tristan’s apparently new kid, sitting absolutely confused and disoriented on the floor.
Simon narrows his eyes at the child, a wave of irritation and fear building in his gut. “This is no kid.”
"Sup kid, have fun being reborn as the kid of my bestie and his super annoying and insufferable husband who is somehow also my boss?" He grins with as much force as he can muster looking at the God of Memory, the (previous) Ruler of Athavale.
"I wish that all of the citruses on the Tree fall on you and you die." Simon chuckles at the scowl on Mnemosyne’s small, chubby face, her mint-cyan cheeks puffed up in a pout he cannot simply not laugh at.
"Sure, 4-year-old." Simon shrugs with apathy. "Not me who decided you needed to come back or whatever.”
"You seem very irritable today." The cyan eyes of the child stared at Simon, and he gritted his blade-sharp teeth at the comment. "And no, I am perfectly fine with it."
"Sheesh, that's hard buddy." Simon picks up Mnemosyne "You looking for the Timekeeper?"
A nod, he sighs for the umpteenth time today.
"Well, they aren't here, here’s a tip– he hasn’t even gone outside of the Kronos Temple since Cycle 7." Simon turns to flick at a few switches, and his eyes finally pinpoint a specific button and a spindial. "So I'm just going to leave you at Clover's house, I am not in the mood to deal with gremlins today, and your dads are busy.” He presses the button and spins the dial, satisfaction as he spins to the correct coordinate for their house with a series of clicking sounds from the dial getting spun.
"Hey! Aren't you supposed to look after me?!" Mnemosyne yelped as Simon pushed them through a conveniently placed portal to the doorstep of the assassin.
"Nope, it's because I just don’t like you kids, and I wish not to be disturbed today by some god I have little to no association with." Simon rings the doorbell "So kindly stay here and wait, tell your dad to phone me up if he comes back, yeah? I’ve got some things to discuss with him."
"HEY! WAIT A MOME-" The child's voice was cut off as the portal snapped shut as Simon slams the off-switch. Now with the kid gone, Simon for once enjoyed the return of the library-archive's silence as if it were his mistress, sliding to the floor in relief against the wall.
He grumbles a few curse words, before he turns to look back at the printed results of a few radar scans he ran through the Citrusverse.
Tristan was either going to kill him, or kill himself. Simon stares daggers at a specific magenta dot that was sky-clear against the dark-blue graph paper.
"Tough day, old friend?" Simon rubs their eyes and readjusts his glasses with an air of annoyance before realizing the identity of his newest visitor.
"Citrus?" The skykid's stature seems shorter than before, and Simon cranes his head downwards to look at his coworker, sure enough, chibi mask. Simon opts to be friendly for once. "Great to see you, finally got out of your realm?"
"Took a bit" Simon raises an eyebrow as Citrus dusts himself off. "I am not the greatest at chibi falling and drifting against wind barriers.
A few laughs echoed throughout the empty library "I remember that yeah. I went off somewhere to do something for a few seconds before, did you wait long?"
"Nope," Citrus readjusts their hat "-only arrived a few minutes ago and was a bit confused where you were."
Simon finally puts down the anxiety that simmered within himself. "Well, since finally someone who didn't want me dead once before is here, want some tea?"
"Gladly." And at that, Simon gets up and turns to the door, and Citrus follows.
The duo vanishes into the pantry.