Book Haven, Wednesday, April 30

[not_a_moonie]

Alana had stomped into work, shaking water out of her hair and stomping her boots like a deranged snuffleupagus. (Sesame Street was awesome at teaching her how Earth worked. She'd been watching it for months before she realized it was for little kids.) She was still muttering about how much she hated rain as she stashed her newly broken umbrella behind the cash register and turned every light in the place on as bright as it would go.

Still, it was a good day to be inside with plenty to read, and by the time she'd dried out her hair and started a pot of tea she was verging on cheerful. Even if she didn't get any browsers today, even if getting to work had almost drowned her, at least she wouldn't be bored.

[OOC: Open shop, no OCD!]

Comments

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Living upstairs meant that Rosalind heard the stomping. She waited until it had died out before venturing downstairs with a cup of coffee in hand.

"Bad day?" she asked mildly. "Hello, Alana. I'm sorry I missed stopping by on your shift last week. I missed the post had to go off-island unexpectedly."

[not_a_moonie]

"I don't like rain," Alana admitted sheepishly. "I didn't mean to disturb you, I'm sorry."

She tucked her hair behind one ear. "Hi. I made tea. Want some?"

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"No, thank you," she said, smiling faintly. "I just came to see how you were doing, and if there was anything you needed help with."

[not_a_moonie]

"So far I think I have it under control, other than being pissed at the weather," Alana told her. "I dunno. Is there anything in particular you need me to take care of?"

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

One of Rosalind's eyebrows inched upwards slightly.

It was a strange to feel vaguely superfluous in her own store.

"And how would I know that?" she asked dryly. "I missed your first shift, and came to check on you now. Unfortunately, radio is hardly an indicator as to if you had any problems last week."

[not_a_moonie]

"Not to mention they got it wrong," Alana said dismissively. "They made it sound like I shelved the books by color, which would be dumb. I just made the displays prettier."

She leaned back against the counter, resting on her elbows. "You're right, though. I don't really know a lot about the shop yet. I don't even know what questions to ask."

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"If the island sorts the books by colour, I'll now know who to blame," she commented. "Though it's better than chocolate books again."

That had been a fun shift. Though Rosalind supposed that was a place to start.

"Do you know much about the library up at the school?"

[not_a_moonie]

"... there are chocolate books?"

That sounded sort of awesome to Alana.

She shook her head in response to Rosalind's question. "Not unless 'they keep the books there' counts," she said. "I've been in, but I haven't explored or anything."

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Only if you wanted to eat the merchandise instead of read it!

"There were chocolate books. For a day. They turned back to normal the next." Rosalind had checked, just in case any had melted overnight. Eww. "The books up at the library have a tendency towards sentience."

In a small, bookish way. Which probably didn't help explain it very well.

"They tend to react to stimuli, or rustle around on their shelves, or present themselves to be read by the library aide," Rosalind elaborated, picking a few of the things she remembered from having been in the library. "The books here, in the store, do not generally have that sentience. The island, instead, seems to prefer... redecorating. Or re-arranging."

[not_a_moonie]

"Re-arranging," Alana repeated, in disbelief. "You're telling me the books here sometimes move just because they feel like it?"

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Rosalind said rather dismally. "I'm afraid they do. Or turn into chocolate. Or an aisle will go missing..."

[not_a_moonie]

"So what do you do when something like that happens?" Alana wondered. "Seems like you can't just close for the day and say the books aren't feeling it."

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"We open anyway," Rosalind said, amused at the very thought. "And do our best to carry on like normal. If there's something that's a danger to people, put up a sign to warn them of it and then let them make their own decisions."

[not_a_moonie]

"So we just kind of work around it?" Alana asked dubiously. She'd thought working in a bookstore was a low-risk proposition. "How bad does it get?"

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Rosalind gave Alana a long, considering glance.

“We’ve never had any injuries,” she said finally. Getting singed last week didn’t count since Rosalind had been playing with the fireball shooting plants. “If you believe you’re in danger of getting hurt, don’t open the shop. Call me to say you’re not going to be in. If it’s just strange, or odd, or you think it’s safe enough for you to be in—yes, just work around it. If we closed every time something was unusual, we’d never be open.”

[not_a_moonie]

"Oh, okay, that's better than I thought it might be," Alana said, relieved. "And home's got a higher threshold for weird than the island does, too. I'll be fine."

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"Oh? How high is the threshold in your home?" Rosalind asked curiously. "... And what were you expecting for the store?"

[not_a_moonie]

"Well, the store I figured would just be ... you know. A store. With books that didn't move," Alana said, hands in her pocket. "Home's weird compared to here just because everyone here kind of looks the same. There are a bunch of different sentient species back on Landfall."