Post by Sinopia DeStellanova on Jan 5, 2021 22:45:47 GMT -5
Apparently some weirdo showed up on their doorstep and Alina needed help...acclimating this person to life in Mistral for lack of a better phrase. It was the kind of story that sounded made up, but since Alina verified it as much as she was able to, Sienna was willing to go along with it for the time being. The girl seemed nice enough, if a bit clueless, so if this was a long game to do something to Alina it was a really weird one.
Alina wanted to take the newcomer to the library to help her learn about the world and to hopefully let her pick a decent name for herself. That was a task that Sienna would be great for. Not so much the learning about the world part because she still had no idea what she was doing, but on the naming part. Names were interesting to her. They were words, but held so much more meaning than ordinary words. Even though for most people names were decided by their parents before they were even born, they still held so much of a person's identity with in them. Coming up with ways to express a person's identity in a single word was fun and so much easier than explaining anything else. When she said a name, especially some of the weirder ones, some caught onto the meaning immediately, but even if they didn't she suddenly had a clear way to express her motives and desires because she could relate them to the idea behind the name rather than trying to explain something from nothing.
She still thought like this even though she actually liked her name. It was a bit obscure and long, but it had a lot of history to it and it was the only connection to her parents she had left. Her first name came from a naming tradition on her mother's side. They always used whatever specific color matched the child's eyes and would often change it after the first year if the child's eye color changed, as was common in babies. They had this tradition even before the Great War made color-based names common. Her mother's name was Bayern, for her bright blue eyes, and she was named for the bright burnt orange eyes she had. Her last name was apparently as made up as it sounded because a distant ancestor moved to Vale and they found it completely unintelligible. Rather than tell people how to pronounce it, he picked a name with similar meaning in something they could pronounce. Or something like that. She had no idea what the original name was, but if that mouthful was better she would hate to know what it was.
If her real name was her past, her aliases were her present and future. She put what she was doing and what she hoped to be doing into them. In Vacuo it was Dawn, the beginning of a new life for herself and hopefully a lot of other people. In Kerch, it was Powehi, the first photographed black hole. An entity of destruction named after creation. In Mistral, it was Sienna and Red, two names she felt little connection with and picked because they were generic and would attract little attention. It kind of sucked that she was stuck with Sienna, but she at least kept dawn in her fake last name -- Hajnal.
Giving the newbie something like that seemed neat. If she was as clueless as Alina described her, she may not find anything good this time. Being able to find that connection and direction took time, but they could at least get started today.
Before they left, she offered the newcomer some of her clothing if she wanted it. Some basic jeans and a T-shirt seemed more comfortable than whatever the hell the girl was wearing before, and they would attract less attention. The newcomer was a bit bigger than she was, but her clothes were way too big for her anyway. They should be able to fit someone of the girl's size. Though if Lunar didn't want to wear them, she wouldn't force her and would only cringe a little bit on the inside.
Sienna decided to go to a smaller library in the Wind District rather than the giant one in the Cloud District. Some place quieter and less ostentatious display seemed appropriate for a personal journey. This library was only a single story, but the building was still pretty big. Far too big to be mistaken for a house. The lawn was mowed, and it had several trees with benches underneath them and some paths leading to those benches, but that was the extent of the landscaping. The inside was pleasantly carpeted with walls and rugs of various shades of brown. The windows were large and let a lot of light in, and there were several tables and couches they could sit to get comfortable. This library still had more books than she could count, so it should be enough for their purposes.
She lead them inside and towards the non-fiction section, figuring that would be where Lunar would want to go first. There weren't many people here today, which was nice and would give them better access to all the books. It'd be less of an issue with so few people around, but she figured she should start with a bit of library etiquette just to make sure.
"Here we are," she spoke softly to avoid disturbing anyone else. "Did you have a subject you wanted to start with? If not, try grabbing a random book and see what you get. Just try not to make too much noise. The other people here are trying to read too."
---
959/959
Alina wanted to take the newcomer to the library to help her learn about the world and to hopefully let her pick a decent name for herself. That was a task that Sienna would be great for. Not so much the learning about the world part because she still had no idea what she was doing, but on the naming part. Names were interesting to her. They were words, but held so much more meaning than ordinary words. Even though for most people names were decided by their parents before they were even born, they still held so much of a person's identity with in them. Coming up with ways to express a person's identity in a single word was fun and so much easier than explaining anything else. When she said a name, especially some of the weirder ones, some caught onto the meaning immediately, but even if they didn't she suddenly had a clear way to express her motives and desires because she could relate them to the idea behind the name rather than trying to explain something from nothing.
She still thought like this even though she actually liked her name. It was a bit obscure and long, but it had a lot of history to it and it was the only connection to her parents she had left. Her first name came from a naming tradition on her mother's side. They always used whatever specific color matched the child's eyes and would often change it after the first year if the child's eye color changed, as was common in babies. They had this tradition even before the Great War made color-based names common. Her mother's name was Bayern, for her bright blue eyes, and she was named for the bright burnt orange eyes she had. Her last name was apparently as made up as it sounded because a distant ancestor moved to Vale and they found it completely unintelligible. Rather than tell people how to pronounce it, he picked a name with similar meaning in something they could pronounce. Or something like that. She had no idea what the original name was, but if that mouthful was better she would hate to know what it was.
If her real name was her past, her aliases were her present and future. She put what she was doing and what she hoped to be doing into them. In Vacuo it was Dawn, the beginning of a new life for herself and hopefully a lot of other people. In Kerch, it was Powehi, the first photographed black hole. An entity of destruction named after creation. In Mistral, it was Sienna and Red, two names she felt little connection with and picked because they were generic and would attract little attention. It kind of sucked that she was stuck with Sienna, but she at least kept dawn in her fake last name -- Hajnal.
Giving the newbie something like that seemed neat. If she was as clueless as Alina described her, she may not find anything good this time. Being able to find that connection and direction took time, but they could at least get started today.
Before they left, she offered the newcomer some of her clothing if she wanted it. Some basic jeans and a T-shirt seemed more comfortable than whatever the hell the girl was wearing before, and they would attract less attention. The newcomer was a bit bigger than she was, but her clothes were way too big for her anyway. They should be able to fit someone of the girl's size. Though if Lunar didn't want to wear them, she wouldn't force her and would only cringe a little bit on the inside.
Sienna decided to go to a smaller library in the Wind District rather than the giant one in the Cloud District. Some place quieter and less ostentatious display seemed appropriate for a personal journey. This library was only a single story, but the building was still pretty big. Far too big to be mistaken for a house. The lawn was mowed, and it had several trees with benches underneath them and some paths leading to those benches, but that was the extent of the landscaping. The inside was pleasantly carpeted with walls and rugs of various shades of brown. The windows were large and let a lot of light in, and there were several tables and couches they could sit to get comfortable. This library still had more books than she could count, so it should be enough for their purposes.
She lead them inside and towards the non-fiction section, figuring that would be where Lunar would want to go first. There weren't many people here today, which was nice and would give them better access to all the books. It'd be less of an issue with so few people around, but she figured she should start with a bit of library etiquette just to make sure.
"Here we are," she spoke softly to avoid disturbing anyone else. "Did you have a subject you wanted to start with? If not, try grabbing a random book and see what you get. Just try not to make too much noise. The other people here are trying to read too."
---
959/959
