fandomhigh | Library [Saturday]

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Library [Saturday]

Mac wasn't entirely awake when she wandered into the library early Saturday morning. Which is probably why it took her a good while to realise that after a couple of minutes sitting behind the desk, she was wearing a pair of way-too-big-for-her blue and white striped pajamas. Pajamas that weren't hers, and that she hadn't been wearing when she walked in.

"Hey!" Mac hissed (no yelling in the library) in the direction of the ceiling (because obviously that was where the entity that was the library should be addressed). "Give my clothes back!"

The library did no such thing.

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"Not usually," Mac replied, rearranging her own outfit as she stood up. "I'm hoping it's just a phase... A really, really short phase."

Smiling a little, Leto replied: "So is this one of those strange things I've heard about?"

"One of the many," she confirmed with a smile of her own. "And this is actually pretty tame."

"Are you new?" Mac assumed he probably was, but thought it better to confirm.

"I am. My name is Leto Atreides." He glanced around the room. "I know nothing of this world, and thought it best to learn at least the basics. Geography, an outline of history, contemporary politics, philosophy, technological level."

"Then you're definitely in the right place," she told him with a little chuckle as she reached for a library card application for him. "I'm Mac."

"Hello, Mac," he said with a smile. "And that is reassuring to know."

"What I'm here to do," she said, sliding the paper over to him. Those eyes were really kind of mesmerising. "Uh, just need to get details, and I can give you a card, let you take things away and all that good stuff."

A Card? So that was how a library worked here. He filled out the form, smiling to himself as that was something he had never had to do before. Returning the paper to Mac, he said. "The eyes, yes. All my people have them. The sign of spice addiction." He was getting used to explaining this.

"They're unusual," she remarked with a smile. "Even for around here."

"What world is it you're from?" Mac asked. Not that she'd be likely to know, but, curiosity.

"So I've noticed. And I'm from Arrakis." No, Leto didn't expect her to have heard of it. "And you?"

"California, which is this world," she told him as she filed the form. "This country, even. Didn't have to travel nearly as far as a lot of people, and somehow still manage to hardly ever get back there." Which was no bad thing as far as she was concerned.

"Does that mean you prefer this place to your home?" he asked, observing what she was doing.

"Neptune is... a little divided," she shared. "It's a lot nicer atmosphere around here, even if we do get invaded every few weeks."

Mac started pulling up some details on the computer as she set up a card. "And I've been here so long, it's kind of like home to me anyway."

As text appeared on the screen, Leto leaned forward, watching with curiousity, almost not hearing what Mac said. "Is that a thinking machine?" he asked, eyes wide.

Mac smiled, shaking her head. "Not exactly. It's a computer. It's where all the library databases and student information is all stored."

"Admittedly, it may actually have more thought processes than some people," she remarked with some amusement.

"I guess you don't have this sort of thing on your world?"

"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind," Leto said, quoting the Orange Catholic Bible. "You mean the whole library is ruled by them?"

Did Ghani know this?

"I was mostly kidding about that part," she clarified. "Not that there aren't people trying on the AI thing."

"It's not ruled by them, just helps us. The library rules itself. Trust me." Anyone who'd stepped foot in special collections had to know that one for certain.

Leto still looked suspicious, and memories from long dead ancestors were vivid in his mind. The Butlerian Jihad had been a war between humans and machines, which humans finally on the winning side.

"And this is necessary for me to get a card?"

"Sorry," Mac replied with a twist of her lips. "Everything goes through them these days."

She offered him the card a few moments later. "But it should be all set up and ready for you now."

He accepted the card with a nod. "And can you point me in the direction of the right shelf?" Leto asked. He was still a little unsettled, which caused him to sound a lot more like the heir of Muad'Dib than he usually did.

"Yes, I can," Mac said with a nod. "Which of those subjects was it you wanted to look into first? Because you'll find they're sort of spread around. Big place."

Clearly their system for organising books differed from what he was used to. "I might just discover their location by myself," he said. "I need to learn this anyway."

"Dewey decimal system," Mac told him. "It should be pretty easy to catch on to once you've looked around a bit. Used in libraries across America for a good reason."

"Thank you," Leto replied. He had never heard of that system, but this was a good time as any to learn.

"No problem," Mac told him with a smile. "You need anything, I'll be around. Just yell.... Not literally."

He smiled back. "Thank you," Leto repeated, then disappeared among the shelves.

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Library [Saturday]

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