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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The word of a library opening pulled Percy's attention from his sketching at breakfast and upstairs to the Garden Room. He read the sign and nodded in approval. A good library should be more than merely a repository for books.

He stepped inside, his notebook tucked into a pocket and gravitated immediately toward the locked cases for a closer look.

"The potentially hazardous arcane collection," the woman explained on approach once she'd seen the white-haired figure staring into the display cases. She peered in beside him to look for herself, but conscientiously did not crowd into his personal space. "They are valuable resources to have at our disposal, but they must be handled with care to avoid any painful incidents."

"Mm, yes. Important to keep such things out of eager and well-meaning hands." Those were the types, in Percy's experience, that lead most often to dire unintended consequences. He turned and looked at the blonde woman. A hazy memory offered up another image of her around the inn, wearing some kind of shackle. No such thing was in evidence now. "I see you've solved that problem you were having."

"If you're referring to my bonds, then yes, I have," she straightened. The others involved had, technically, although she had advised. "It took two mages and a technological genius to remove them without killing or substantially injuring me."

She openly took in his old-fashioned clothing and what appeared to be an antique weapon holstered at his hip. "Are your hands eager and well-meaning with dangerous items?"

"More like cynical and well-practiced." He didn't so much as flinch at the open assessment. Animus was on his hip because it was the safest place for a weapon that could damage the wielder or invite a demon to offer you vengeance. There were few people that Percy would trust with Animus and even then he'd keep a close eye.

"How did you come to be in that situation?" He wasn't judging. He'd been clapped in shackles a time or two himself.

She was in no way shy or ashamed of how she'd ended up in the X-men super-max facility. But neither did she think it was the business of any random stranger that might care to judge her.

It was his manner, she supposed, that encouraged a forthright answer. "I saved countless lives and averted world-rending disaster. This happened to require an amount of manipulation and deceit of my allies. They were not highly appreciative of my methods."

Percy nodded. He was familiar with those choices. "That is often one of the consequences that one must be ready to accept, for those sorts of actions. I suspect it's one of the reasons most people won't take those actions when necessary."

He didn't sound as though he either approved or disapproved.

"A very diplomatic answer." She tipped her head at him slightly. Marksman of a bygone era. Well-spoken, almost courtly in his air of cool reservation. She had seen him in briefest passing, but he clearly didn't feel the need to make much of a showing at active socialization. Cynical and well-practiced hands. "I am Illyana Nikolaevna Rasputin. And who are you?"

"Percival Frederickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, of Whitestone." He gave her a short bow. "You can call me Percy."

It was, she knew, inherently ridiculous to cling to the titles and formalities of their previous lives. But she could privately admit there was a measure of charm in his introduction. "And what is the product of such clearly exceptional breeding doing smudged with grease and openly armed in our polite common areas, Percy?"

That occasioned a faint smile from the white-haired man. "I was having breakfast and I saw the library was open. I'm fond of libraries." He was not, so far as he knew, grease smudged. Soot smudged, perhaps. The ventilation in his room left some things to be desired.

She was beginning to reconsider the nature of the smudge as he answered, but his wisp of a smile was far more interesting. As was his non-answer of the question as intended. "Mn. And as a library enthusiast, what do you make of our humble collection?"

"It seems to be a good beginning." He gestured to the display case. "Are these intended as reference materials or museum pieces?"

"They may certainly prove useful for reference," Illyana agreed. "Perhaps more importantly, they are all in one secure location, where many pairs of eyes and mage-senses ought notice should they be improperly tampered with. The wards are substantial and would alert me to most security breaches, but demonic and otherwise unstable magics are in need of special vigilance."

She reached out to touch a single fingertip to the face of the glass case as a demonstration. Previously absent etchings of light crackled suddenly into being, illuminated glyphs on every surface appearing with near-blinding brightness. The ceiling above them and open entrance sizzled with the same energy, not seeming to have any harmful effect as of yet, but humming with readiness.

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"Percy!" Lillith sent, using her Message spell, from where she sat drinking one of Xavin's lovely espresso drinks. The sorceress would not appreciate her calling out a greeting in her library, and this way she need not temper her pleasure in seeing her dear friend here.

"How nice to see you out of your workshop!"

Percy turned from the display and found Lillith at the cafe area. He gave her a nod of greeting and replied the same way. I do that sometimes. Vex insists. Well met, Lillith.

He left the fascinating display case and went to join her.

Lillith gave a soft laugh at Percy's explanation for why he was out and about. It was the sort of thing that dear Kashaw might say.

"What have you been working on that Vex has had to pry you from?"

"Architectural design, actually." He adjusted his glasses. "Pike and Vax are building a temple. I'm trying to figure out how to do that without anything like reasonable materials."

"Oh, yes." She had heard of this project. It seemed to her a very good one. "You will have considered archways and pillars, yes? Or desert clay? I have seen many clever buildings of that nature."

"Yes. A book on local architecture would help me understand how the indigineous people built their society. I'm still not quite sure what the walls in this place are made of." The rock in the bedrooms was imported, he was almost sure. He'd never heard anyone mention a quarry nearby.

"I have not seen such a book, but I have seen structures built out of baked clay brick," Lillith countered thoughtfully. "Is it not tradition for a temple to be made of a substance either more dear or requiring more effort to utilize to show devotion?"

She knew something of religious structures from her time in Vassalheim and the research she had undertaken on the history of Sarenrae's temple as a surprise for Pike. Yet this was speculation.

"Perhaps, but we haven't the luxury of either of those things here. Our range is limited and so are our options. We need something that we can feasibly accomplish with the materials at hand." Percy drew in a breath and released an annoyed sigh. "Unfortunately, I haven't the foggiest what that would be. Hence, library." He gestured at the books around them.

Lillith nodded and reached for one of the books that Percy had selected. "Given appropriate base materials, I can learn to make the ones we need. I have been working on a Fabricate spell for a long time now."

She had had a scroll once, and almost completed the copying but then she had to cast it. Now she had her memory of the spell and two-thirds of it written. It had not been a priority, but if it would be of use, she would bend her mind to it.

"Had you the will," she said with a playful smile. "You would make a fine wizard."

Percy snorted. His opinion of magic was well-known. "I prefer things that make sense."

Magic was something that other people did, and he was perfectly willing to let it happen - over there. Away from him.

Lillith laughed, warm and easy. Percy was not Alec to disbelieve in magic. He simply preferred the logic of machines to the mysteries of the weave.

"Then it is as well that I appreciate hard logic almost as much as magic."

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

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Lillith & Percy

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