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

[st_opsummoningme]

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

Comments

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

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?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"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."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"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.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"No," she agreed easily. "Only worthwhile thing he ever did for me was give me my gun." Snow felt very little in general about her father. He didn't interest her. There was a time he could have won her, had he ever held her close and given her a kiss. But Mr. H never gave his daughter kisses, only junk. And a gun.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

He'd wondered where the weapon came from that she held to it so tightly but it had never seemed right to him to ask. Still he was glad to know it and he nodded. "I never met mine."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"The experience is overrated," Snow assured him, since it didn't sound like he had any particular hang ups about it.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"I was taken from my mother when I was born to become a cleric," Kash told her, no particular bitterness about that. His early life had been good. The Brothers had been kind and had taught him well. It wasn't until he learned what Vesh was that it all went to hell. "Family was a mystery to me until I met...Zahra. So far, I'm not seeing much to recommend the biological version."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"I never knew my mother," Snow said with a shrug. She could not say it entirely without pain, but it didn't cut the way it used to. "But I wish I could have."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Me too." It was more Snow meeting her mother he was thinking of, but he did wish he'd had a chance to know his own. If only to know if she'd cared when they took him away. "You deserved better."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow ducked her head and mumbled something inane, turning her attention to the cat.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth when she ducked away like that. It was cute. "How does Regina fit in?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

She's the queen in the story. She tried to kill another version of me. "We met in Gotham, before we were here. She adopted me."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash didn't know what Gotham was, but he wasn't the sort to ask questions about things that didn't matter to him. What mattered to him was Snow. "How old were you?"

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Seventeen." She shrugged and just... kept going. "I ran away from home. Tried to find my mother's people. But then I wound up in Gotham instead. World like this, 'cept a whole city."