strangetrip | [GP / EP] Welcome to the Madonna Inn Expanded Public Library

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[GP / EP] Welcome to the Madonna Inn Expanded Public Library

Freedom from her bonds had given Illyana more than freedom of movement. It had returned to her the use of her magik and her ability to teleport. These abilities had, in turn, allowed her to finish making ready the library for public use. It was less about collecting books and media from around the premises (and some from Limbo, or donated collections harvested from the Otherworlds) and arranging shelving and seating, most of which had been relatively easily done. It was more a matter of laying the appropriate wards, and negotiating the finer points of the old-fashioned catalog and check-out system, which included odd donated items such as sporting equipment and electronic devices available for rental. Xavin's espresso machine counter necessitated a mini-bar refrigerator, glass-domed cake stands for assorted pastries brought in from the kitchen, and various cafe sundries.

Repurposed from what had been the 'Garden Room,' the library space with its high wooden ceilings, chandeliers, and landscape murals over busy floral carpet still looked somewhat like a touristy banquet hall, yet the area was now also highly saturated with layered magic. The hodgepodge collection of random books and so on were fiercely protected by these magics. When needed and as possible, worn volumes had been restored. The books could not be damaged nor marred from here on out, at least not by coffee spills nor page-tearing or inconsiderate attempts at margin notation. Nor would they leave the boundaries of the library area without proper dispensation, simply stopping mid-air and dropping should the attempt be made at the threshold. Ask at the Desk for Assistance With These Items, prompted the signs on several glass display cases featuring certain perhaps unsettling curiosities within - books in arcane languages, skulls from indeterminate creatures, and artifacts such as a green glowing cube suspended on a chain. At said desk, a gleaming service bell sat waiting, should the staff be needed and not clearly present.

Illyana finished affixing the large engraved plaque to the wall beside the double-doors, and then returned to attend the newly opened library with little fanfare:

Madonna Inn Expanded Public Library

Established ~01.25.2018 Earthly Gregorian Calendar

Open All Hours

Volunteer Staff on Duty as Schedules Allow

Classes & Tutoring for Most Subjects Available Upon Request

Donations Encouraged

Disruptive Patrons Will Be Zealously Evicted

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It was the sound of activity more than anything else that drew Moana upstairs. She paused and puzzled at the sign on the door with the squiggles. Writing, she knew it was called, but what it meant, she had no idea.

She wandered inside, bare feet quiet against the floor, taking in each of the interesting sights. The skulls were fascinating. She couldn't imagine what the creatures they'd once belonged to looked like.

The books she glanced at, but left where they were, with a forlorn look.

Liz noticed the girl when she entered. She had noticed the barefeet too. There was something about the way the girl looked at the books that caught her attention. She took a step forward. "Do you, um. Are you okay?"

Moana looked over at the woman. About her age, she guessed, though it was impossible to tell with the way the people here looked. There was something peculiarly ageless about the pale skin.

She smiled. "I'm okay. Looking around. Every time I think I understand this world, something else comes up and I realize how much I don't know."

"Yeah." She nodded with a smile. "The Inn is, really strange. I've been here for a while now and I'm still trying to figure it out, actually." She shifted a book about biology to her left arm and extended her now free hand. "I'm Liz."

Moana recognized the gesture and shook Liz's hand without fumbling. "I'm Moana. Nice to meet you."

"Moana. That's, a really nice name." A lot more interesting than Elizabeth, but then she was used to her name.

"How long have you, um, been here at the inn?"

"Thank you. Liz is nice too. Everyone here has such interesting and exotic names." Moana grinned and counted back the days. "25 days, I think. Almost a full moon cycle."

"I haven't been here for very long, either. It's kind of felt like longer, but that might just be because there's not a lot of stuff to see other than the hotel itself which can get a little boring after a while." She grinned. "But with the library here now, maybe there will be a better way to spend our time."

(ooc: Ugh, sorry. For some reason I thought I replied to this!)

Kitty watched her for a little while as she looked around. She had a less guarded expression than Snow, and less fierce than Dani at that age. She knew better than to assume she would be like any of them, just because she was obviously not-white, but she couldn't help but see echoes of both women in the proud set of her shoulders and the intelligence in her gaze.

From where she sat, Kitty called quietly to her, "Moana, did you need some help?"

Moana turned at the sound of her name. Another pale woman with brown hair. Why did everyone look so much alike here? "What's the purpose of this room?"

Kitty judged her to be about fifteen, but if she were from a remote island, she might never have heard of a library. And she'd heard she might be from a more distant past. How to explain?

"It's a place to store knowledge, stories, and other shared resources," she tried.

Moana looked around again. There weren't the hanging tapestries that she'd have expected in that case, or the places for gathering to listen to elders pass on their wisdom. "How does it do that?"

"In the books." But of course, if she were from that distant of a past, she might not have seen a book before. She took one from the stack beside her, opened it, and pushed it across the table toward her. "In here. The marks are words. Do they have books where you're from?"

Moana shook her head. "Is that what they're called? No, we don't have anything like this." She picked it up and found it folded open into many leaves, each with the odd markings on it that were in many places in the inn. "How do you hear the words?"

"You make them inside your head." Kitty thought about this briefly and flipped a page in her notebook. On a blank page, she wrote Moana's name in block capitals.

"These symbols mean 'Moana' in the Common alphabet," she said and rotated the notebook to show the girl.

The symbols meant nothing to her, but she focused on the grouping of them, committing them to memory. "Moana." Her eyes lifted back to Kitty. "Everyone here knows how to do this?"

Kitty tore the sheet from the notebook and on the other side wrote her own name. "These say Kitty," she said and gave the paper to Moana.

"Almost everyone." She couldn't think of anyone offhand who couldn't, except Ignis, and that was different. "In your future, we teach it to children."

As before, Moana memorized the shape of the symbols. They were different than the ones that meant Moana, though Moana couldn't have said what that signified. "My grandmother would have loved this. She was our storyteller. The one who held our history. Getting the children to sit and listen was sometimes a challenge." Not for Moana. She'd always been fascinated by every one of the stories.

"I'm sorry she isn't here to learn it. And to teach me your stories." Kitty might be a scientist, but she was also a Jew. There were more than a few reasons hers were called the People of the Book. "If you want to learn, I can help you write down your stories so they're here in this world?"

Moana smiled, her eyes crinkling with warmth and pleasure at the honest sincerity in Kitty's tone. But a bit of mischief lurked there too, a secret that she had. "Well, you'd have to ask her yourself. She's in my room half the time I go in there. And in the sea when I go there. I'm sure she'd love to share all our stories, as often as you want to hear them."

"Your room ghost is your grandmother?" That surprised Kitty. She hadn't heard of any such thing. There had been whispers early on that Regina's ghost had been someone terribly upsetting to her, but she had never been stupid enough to ask.

"I would love to hear her stories." Her own grandparents had...well, there had been many complications there, including the Holocaust and the Nazis. "Would she like to help you learn to write them down?"

"You'll have to ask Gramma." But Moana knew the answer. Kitty needed Gramma Tala. There was a longing in her. "I can introduce you...when you're done here."

Kitty smiled. "That would be great." Maybe Moana's grandmother would teach her Moana's language, too.

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[GP / EP] Welcome to the Madonna Inn Expanded Public Library

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Kitty & Moana

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