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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A kitten on his shoulder and a dog his heels, a vaguely disgruntled Kashaw stopped at the door to the library long enough to make it seem like he cared if he could bring the cat in or not. The cat was his. The dog was Regina's. Either it was on the trail of the same girl he was, or it had smelled the kitten on his shoulder that was currently hissing and spitting back at it.

No wards stopped either him or the animals at the door, so he continued inward in search of the girl.

Aesop found Snow first, trotting straight over to her for attention. And even with her nose in a book, Snow reached down with her free hand to rub his ears. "H'lo puppy," she murmured.

She didn't question why he was here, only turned a page and then resumed petting.

Aesop plopped down at his little mama's side and put his head on her feet. Kash watched a minute, amused, and then came over and sat down. Socks promptly hopped down off his shoulder onto the table. Once there, he nosed at the paper thing in front of Snow.

"Gathering a crowd," Kash observed.

"I'm popular," she said softly, which was ridiculous because she had practically been raised by wolves and acted it, could barely hold a conversation, and just generally didn't like people.

She reached out to run her hand down Socks's little back.

"With the people worth hanging onto," Kash agreed, probably a little perversely. Okay, a lot perversely. But it wasn't like Snow hadn't met him already.

"Socks was missing you."

"I missed him, too," she said, scooping her hand under the cat and bringing him into her lap. She set the book down completely, not bothering to pretend to read anymore.

Kash knew why she'd been scarce. She knew he knew. There was no need to talk about it. He'd come looking for her and that said everything that she needed to know about the fact that he'd missed her too.

"What's the book?"

Snow pushed it across the table toward him, a collection of Grimm's fairy tales. She supposed no book collection was ever complete without it. "Just stories," she said, scratching the kitten behind the ears.

Kash read a few paragraphs, flipped a few pages, and then passed it back to Snow. "Like the ones the dog's named after."

Just as it had the day she'd told him, the stories reminded him of Z. But it also made him think of Curnen now, and the Fairy-Feller.

"The story my name comes from is in that book," she said softly, and half to the kitten she was looking down at.

Kash drew the book back to him and began to search for the story. If Snow was telling him, it meant something to her.

"Is the story about you?"

"No. Yes." Snow shrugged. "I lived it, anyway. Enough of it."

There were two stories that had the words 'Snow White' in the title, so she clarified, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Kash didn't read fiction for pleasure ordinarily, but he obediently flipped to the page of, "Snow White and Seven Dwarfs," and settled in to read it.

A few times while he read, he looked up to confirm that she was still there and that yes, she was, in fact, saying she had lived this story. He kept on reading, because he found he needed to know what had happened.

Snow kept her silence as he read, quietly stroking the kitten in her lap. She knew how ridiculous it sounded. The surprise was that more people didn't laugh at her for her name. But it was all the name she had.

It was not a long story and Kash was not a slow reader. He finished and closed the book, returned it to Snow and then rubbed his hand over his face. He didn't know where to start with this or what to say.

"Your stepmother," he finally settled on. "She's dead?" Because if she wasn't, Kash was going to find and murder her.

"Yes," she said. Back around the time it had happened, Snow had been unable to speak of her stepmother out of fear that speaking of her would summon her, would make her arrival in the city real.

She spoke the word now to make this real. Another nail in the coffin. Even though she knew the woman was dust and ash.

"Good." If she had lived half of this story, the woman needed to be dead four times over. She reminded him of what he'd learned of Rockhouse and that made him hate her even more.

I know now. You don't have to tell me any of it if you don't want to. Why was it so hard to say something so simple? "I'm glad I know."

Snow stayed quiet for a long moment, her eyes focused on the kitten. Soft and warm and curled against her belly in complete trust.

"I don't remember my name," she said.

She'd just told him her name was in the story, so he thought that probably wasn't what she meant. His frowned, brows furrowing. Grief could have strange effects on people. "Snow?"

Snow shrugged, "Well yeah, but that ain't the name I was born with. My stepmother gave it to me. I was eleven when she married my father." She paused. "Sometimes I think it might've been Sarah, like my father tried to rename my mother. But I can't remember."

"Do you want to?" Mind magic wasn't his thing, but Molly could probably help Snow remember. Only if she wanted to, though. She didn't like magic and he wouldn't let magic touch her if she didn't want.

Snow's hand stilled in midair over the kitten's back. She could get her name back?

But then, what would that actually gain her? She had never actually been that distressed to lose it so much as hated the reasons that Mrs. H had given her this new name in the first place. It had been an insult, a curse. One that she's survived. She had not had an identity back when she'd been Miss H. She had been a doll. She would be dressed up, posed, moved about, and then put back in her cabinet again.

What did she want with that?

Eventually, she shook her head. "That girl's dead. And fuck if I want anything of my father's anyway."

"Yeah." Sometimes he wondered why he kept Vesh's name, so he could understand not wanting back a name given to him by someone he hated. But mostly he thought of his name as an advertisement and warning. Or full disclosure. As much as he hated Vesh, she was a part of him. "I get it."

"My father wasn't the worst man," Snow admitted with a shrug. "But he was useless. Small. If he wasn't taking something, he felt empty."

"He wasn't the best man either."

There was a hardness to his voice beneath the wry mirroring. Snow's story made him angry like Zahra's did. The people who should've taken care of her fucked her over. Yeah, he was probably angry at his mother and father in retrospect, too, but since he'd been swaddled in gold and taken from them at birth, it was hard to be pissed at figments in his imagination.

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