[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: Butters -- OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

"My friends say the same thing." Which was why, back home, Harry knew nothing, and Karrin didn't know how much, Butters had been experimenting with Bob-powered magic gear. It was a good thing on several levels that Bob wasn't here. "One of them would be up to his ears in those cases, though, trying to work out how all the different worlds' magic works together."

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Your friends sound like interesting sorts," Sunny said. She turned her attention to him fully. "How'd you get mixed up with wizards?" They were kept so separate where she'd come from. The times she'd crossed that boundary, she'd been punished severely.

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

Butters laughed. "Oh, wow, that's a complicated story. The shorter version is, I'm a medical examiner in Chicago, and there was a fire, and some of the corpses in the fire were vampires, and I refused to toe the line about how they were really just people whose bones got twisted by the heat. So then I got all the crap assignments, and I ended up doing a lot of work with the police Special Investigations team who got stuck with all the cases nobody wanted to admit were supernatural. And SI hired the local wizard as a consultant, even though a lot of them thought he was just a weird stage magician. And then things happened continually all the time."

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Damn." Most people noped the hell out before they got that far. Jibaku had seen Sunny's spirit face and that one small thing was enough to scare her off completely, and then deny even more completely. "Are wizards living openly in your Chicago? My friend from there did public magic once and he got caned and sent to Nigeria."

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

"Well, one of them is. Harry's in the phone book under 'wizards.' But he's kind of a law unto himself, and I think most of the other wizards think he's a dangerous nut." Butters frowned. "I don't think Harry's wizards have an actual rule about doing magic in public--more like a very strong guideline--because from what I've heard, if you break their actual rules they mostly just kill you."

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_igmatized]

"I'm sure that at some point they just kill us, too," Sunny mused. "But when you're a kid it's some combination of caning and a demon-infested basement. I spent three days with a djinn when I was thirteen. Either you prove you're not an idiot and you live, or you really are an idiot and it kills you. Fun times."

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

Butters' nose wrinkled with disgust. "At thirteen? That's bullshit. Everybody's kind of an idiot when they're thirteen. What is it with secret magic societies and being draconian jerks?"

Re: Butters -- OTA

[st_igmatized]

"I terrorized some men who were hurting my brother," Sunny said, quiet, but with something hard and almost cold at the center. She would do it again. In a heartbeat. "No, that's an understatement. They were going to kill him. It was the right thing to do. But there are rules. I couldn't just do whatever I wanted to Lambs. If I didn't survive, it was because I was too stupid to respect the forces I wield."

She shrugged. "Or such is the argument anyway."