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Library, Sunday

Elsa had arrived to the library bright and early, hoping that the doors would be open already. And they were, sort of, though the extremely pale boy who had opened them a minute before her arrival seemed... anxious, in a way that she knew all too well. He'd asked her if she thought there were going to be many people about, and had only grown more anxious when her answer was an explanation about how there might be a few stopping by to research what was going on around the island lately, yes.

She'd taken pity on him, explaining that her family had an extensive library back home and she knew her way around one, inside-out, and if he needed to be somewhere away from people - his anxious muttering about it being not safe for him to be here seemed to confirm that much - then she would be perfectly happy to set things up for the researchers today.

There was a moment of silence before the usual Sunday boy nodded almost desperately, and then scurried off looking for someone named 'Sholeh.'

Elsa blinked after him for a moment, gave her shoulders a small shrug, and then set to work sorting out more books from the stacks that she thought might have anything to do with people magically becoming other people.

... Now, if only she knew how to work the coffee machine.

[Open!]

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Elsa... kind of was a natural disaster. She watched the creamers move through the air, and then turned wide eyes toward Dinah.

"I'm beginning to wonder if there's anyone on the island who doesn't have a power," she admitted. "They're far more common here than they are back home."

Dinah relaxed a little, tilting her head. "They're not too common where I'm from, but they're not uncommon. Where's home for you?" She floated a mug to herself, and added, "It's easier when the stuff here is something we can physically fight. Not all this research, trying to figure out what it even is." There was some real resentment for the situation in there, and then Dinah forced herself to relax again. "Sorry, this has me tense."

"You and everyone who has been around long enough to be aware there's a problem," Elsa offered, sighing. "It's frightening to think that I might not be me when I wake up tomorrow. Where will I have gone?"

She wrapped her arms around herself, hands on her elbows, and shook her head.

"I'm from a kingdom called Arendelle. It's fine if you haven't heard of it before. Nobody else has, either."

"Exactly," Dinah said through gritted teeth.

And if they fixed this situation, where was she going to go, hmm?

"I haven't heard of it, but half the people here haven't heard of New Gotham, either. My hometown doesn't exist in my partner's dimension, even though some other cities do. I'm guessing there's not so much electricity in Arendelle?"

And if they didn't fix this situation? There was no guarantee that she'd stick around, either.

"Not so much, no. Or cars, or space travel. I had to get Professor Skywalker to teach me how to turn on a radio the other day so I could keep track of people who have changed."

"Which is kind of subjective," Dinah said casually. "I mean, if I say someone has changed, how do they know I'm right? Or that I'm not remembering something that didn't happen for them?" She waited a beat. "Or that I'm not lying? There needs to be a way to check this... but everything we check could be compromised."

Except maybe the squirrels. They seemed to be pretty consistent. Dinah was tempted to track those furry little bastards down and ply them with rum until they told her what she needed to know.

"And is it fair, to make people go back to something, if they're perfectly happy right now?"

"I don't know about fair," Elsa admitted. "Not in this case. But we don't even know right now if we can turn people back. Maybe the best we can hope for is stopping this before it happens to someone else."

She would almost be happy with that, except that one of her only friends was dead right now, a hollow shell who had been destroyed in whatever life she had lived before replacing Eleanor.

Dinah nodded soberly, seeming satisfied with that answer. "After all, it's changing people, and upsetting them. But maybe it could get worse. There were vampires, once. All over the island. And the time we all disappeared--" That got a genuine shiver out of her. "Right, so. Coffee made. Cocoa next." She paused, then smiled. "I can always go to J,GOB for some donuts, if that will help."

"Donuts are the round ones, with the holes, right?" Best to make sure, here. "That might be a good plan. If people are going to be here researching, I can't imagine how many are going to forget to eat."

Herself included.

"... People disappeared?"

"Yes. And maybe some bear claws-- the ones with icing." Dinah smiled and then sobered again.

"Yes." She still remembered turning around and Priestly not being there and the way that had brought her to her knees. "They vanished one by one. Then in groups. The worst was that no one else remembered him, I was the only one who missed--" Some of the mugs on the counter rattled, and Dinah got a grip on herself, giving Elsa sheepish look. "People here fixed it. I was never, ever so glad of anything."

That happened. It was real.

Elsa watched the mugs rattle and bit her lip. The look she gave Dinah was a sympathetic one.

Yeah, she knew what that powers-struggle was like.

"I can't imagine," she admitted. "Even the people I've lost... at least someone remembers them. Even the ones here who have changed into someone else..."

"I don't think I could go through that again."

For herself, for Priestly. Either way, she would be devastated to wake up and have everything changed. Dinah rubbed at her forehead, then forced a smile. "Anyway. I'll keep checking in here, and bringing food. Maybe scouting the Island, while I'm here. We're supposed to visit home this week, but we'll be back."

"Is..." Elsa hesitated for a moment, and then steeled herself and barrelled on ahead with her question. "Is home the same as you remember it? Do we know if it's changing for people at all? I... I can't get in touch with the people in my own home as easily as most, so I can't check. I don't even know if I'm still the same."

Home was really a built-up warehouse space, with a giant bed, and Priestly. But home dimension....

"Yes, New Gotham's the same as I remember it." Still the same warrants out, that could've changed and she would've been happy. "We were back their last night for some errands." She gave Elsa a sympathetic look. "You could check with Portalocity, maybe. If they can still connect there, I'm sure everything's fine."

"I don't know if I trust portals at the moment," Elsa admitted. "My employer... or... her counterpart... at the Magic Box has me looking into those. There was something about rifts that had her concerned, before she changed into somebody else."

"Rifts," Dinah repeated, "and portals." That almost made a kind of sense. Alternate dimensions, alternate histories. "So if the rifts stopped--" Then things might go back to how they were. Or not change any further? She paused, and said, "That had to be upsetting."

"Confusing, mostly," Elsa admitted. "She was herself one day, and then somebody else the next, looking at me like I was crazy when I called her by name. She had no idea who I was."

"Let's hope you guys find the solution."

Or not.

Dinah poured a cup of coffee, then set up the coffee machine for cocoa. "And I'll keep you guys in caffeine and sugar until you do."

Edited 2014-03-24 02:08 (UTC)

Caffeine...?

Elsa was going to just go with it. Some other modern thing she hadn't heard of, no doubt.

"I'm certain everyone here appreciates it," she decided, smiling wryly. "It looks like we're a long way off from so much as a clue, at this point."

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