Modern Monsters

Stolik the Goblin

Female Reader x Male Monster

Usually, I work answering phones all day and repairing computers and the like from the comfort of my own office. I've seen it and heard it all, I've dealt with the irate to the innocently naive. I've fixed mouses that kids have tried to feed and computers with so many viruses I'd rather set fire to them. Anyways, that had been my job and for the most part I enjoyed it. I was able to keep to myself and could talk down even the most heated of clients.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take on a special assignment at the local library. New computers had been donated and were needing to be set up as well as help get the system within the library updated and to watch over while things get settled. I hadn't been to the library since I was a kid, so you can trust my shock when I saw the same computers from then still active in the computer hall.

The head librarian was a surly looking sort. He was a goblin with glasses that he set at the tip of his nose. He would walk by the computer hall while I was working, tilt down his glasses, look at me, and walk on by. I didn't mind getting checked up on, but there was something about this librarian that set my teeth on edge.

His name was Stoilk, not sure if it was his first or last name it was just what he gave me. I didn't like talking to him, he always seemed short with me. Well, he was short with me. I was always pretty tall, but even more so around him. Standing straight Stoilk came up just about to the bottom of my bosom. Anyways, he didn't seem to like me, at all.

One day after getting all the computers set up in the hall and getting all the wires organized, neat, and out of the way, I went up to his desk.

"I've just about got everything ready in the computer hall," I tell him. "Now I need your wifi password as I can get them all set up."

His brow cocks up and he looks at me over the rim of his glasses. "We don't have wifi here."

I'm not sure what sort of face I made, but it must have been the same as someone who just learned they traveled backwards in time.

"This is a library." He waves his hand about his head. "Not a coffee shop or mall."

I've definitely gone back in time. There is no way Stoilk and I are anywhere near the same age.

"People come here to read, find books, study, and not get on their cellphones and shit the day away." Stoilk sniffs and looks back down at the work on his desk. "We have just regular internet."

I am beyond baffled. "What is..." I hesitate as I try to find a way to word this question in a way that didn't come off rude. "What do you consider regular internet?"

Stoilk sighs and rolls his eyes. "The kind everyone has."

"That's..." I'm trying my hardest to be kind. "That's wifi these days."

Stoilk scoffs and waves me back. "What am I paying you for. Come back here. I'll show you."

I walk around the front desk and stand behind Stoilk. He clicks on his antique computer's web browser and as it logs in it makes the ancient mating call of internet days of yore. The screeching and squawking sound makes me want to die a little inside. I didn't even know this type of internet still existed in this day and age.

I stop the madness and interrupt the connection. "You do realize this is out of date and extremely slow?" I ask. "Once I update this computer with one of the new ones-"

"No such thing!" Stoilk snaps at me. "You will not be touching this computer."

"It's far too old. You're at risk of being hacked and everything in the library could be in trouble." I snap my hands to my wrist. "Everything will be updated and much better. Your network will be safer and you will be getting wifi. These new computers won't even take this...regular internet."