thisavrou | Audio

Attention Former Crew of the Moira--

Former Head Librarian Elizabeth DeWitt, in case I needed introduction. Now that we're all... more or less settled into things here on Thisavrou, I have time to turn my attention back to the Moira's collection. As some of you may know, the collection began out of Captain Thán's personal collection and grew as we traveled. Or as the Ingress spat out various items for me to scratch my head over and catalog somewhere.

The point is, even with my new position at Kauto's public library, I don't feel comfortable handing over our collection wholesale without some discussion on the matter. Not to mention I imagine there are some personal items that landed in there that some of us might not feel comfortable being shared with the universe at large. Those will go to the parties involved without question, and I'll hold them until I hear one way or the other.

Should any of our collection go to Kauto? The other option is I house the collection personally and anyone can come and use it if they contact me ahead of time. We don't have to give it up if I'm... the only one hanging onto this.

So? What should I do with all of these materials? It's up to all of us, not just me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A public library?

[This sounds like a good idea.]

How many books do they have there already?

The Kauto public library? Probably thousands, maybe ten thousand? Maybe more. [She's only been on the job a few weeks.]

The Moira's library has three thousand six-hundred and forty-five items, including discs, films, voice recordings, and folios. [That's her child.]

I wish I could have seen the Moira's library. It sounds like my father's.

Do you think the Kauto library needs the Moira's books?

It was beautiful. I suppose we saved the heart of it, but I'll always miss the rooms it grew up in. So to speak.

I suppose it's not a matter of need, but all collections benefit from additional materials. Who knows, the places we found ourselves in could be completely unknown to these people.

...plus I do have quite a few volumes from Caducus Primary. They could be rare at this point.

They could be?

[That sounded ominous, new book-loving friend.]

...They probably are. The planet was destroyed.

[Sorry, new book-loving Second Elsa She's Met, the news is indeed ominous.]

[Elsa isn't exactly distraught, but her relatively bright tone from a moment earlier is gone and replaced by something much more sober.]

That's terrible. Are the books... all that's left?

There were some refugees who escaped, people who evacuated in time, and some glass statues made it on board. But that's all.

[Yes, Elizabeth is carrying the weight of that still-- even after being killed by the people of Caducus Secondary in retaliation. One would think she'd have called it even at that point, but not Elizabeth DeWitt, no.]

So I suppose the collection does represent more than just some materials I collected during our travels. It does feel... wrong to just hand it all over to someone who doesn't know what it means to us.

Maybe you could dedicate a memorial to them, somehow. Do you know if anyone here has ever heard of them -- anyone who wasn't on the Moira?

Oh yes. The people of Caducus Secondary paid us a visit to take revenge on their fallen cousins. They still know about them, despite the Moira's crew dispatching their attempt to board and kill us.

I hesitate to even bring the subject up. It's caused us enough problems. The last thing we need is... Caducus Tertiary or someone else deciding we haven't suffered enough.

You're right. It doesn't sound like a public memorial would be a very good idea.

But you could have a private one without explaining it to anyone.

Is there anything else like that in the Moira's collection? I'm sorry... Riptide told me that I was on the ship, but I can't remember anything about it.

Somehow I doubt even a private memorial could go over terribly well with the rest of the Moira crew. Not with the way they attacked us. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, Elsa, I'm just saying it's... been a while. A lot has happened. A lot of people just want to move on.

[Not her, of course, she'll shoulder those days forever probably.]

I did a study of the "space whales" on Ceta. They were being hunted by the people there, I wanted to study them though, since it seemed like the hunters weren't very interested.

[That wasn't the kind of memorial she had in mind... but it doesn't sound like even the kind she had in mind is a good idea, not right now. Just that the books constitute a memorial of their own, if they're kept together.

Can she imagine the kind of rage that would cause someone to attack people like that, intentionally, for revenge? It would be nice to be able to say no and have it be definite; instead, pondering the subject is slightly uncomfortable. She moves on to Elizabeth's other topic.]

What did you learn about the whales?

I steered away from the...anatomical kinds of things that most researchers might be interested in. I drew them, mostly, made notes on their behavior.

They were gentle, and curious, and luminescent. They had family-type groups from what I saw, and... they tended to not leave each other behind if one was in danger.

[It made the hunting of the creatures even more heart-wrenching, in her opinion.]

I have a painting, actually, that I did of the whales and the landscape behind them. It has to be on one of these pacdiscs somewhere...

I think you should keep them.

[Because she knows Elizabeth and knows that library is basically her baby. They've lost the Moira and it doesn't seem right to take this last thing away from her.]

It doesn't seem selfish to keep the collection away from Kauto?

[Sharing information is the purpose of a library, after all, even if she loves the collection like a child. But she trusts Wanda's opinion, of course.]

It isn't selfish when it's ours and they wouldn't take care of the same way you do. They weren't there when...

[Well. She hardly has to say any of it but the point still stands.]

And it's important to keep something when you've lost your home.

...when all of it happened. [The collection is, if anything, a record of the places they went and the things they came up against and learned from. To anyone else, it's just a collection. To the crew, it's a history.]

[She lets out a rough, short laugh.]

You really know how to hit the nail on the head, Wanda. [She has no library to manage, no ship to be First Mate of, no quarters on the lower deck, no Ivan. Everything she knew has been shaken up, and she's not sure she's alright with it this time.]

How much longer do you think I can cling to this before it's just pathetic?

I have some experience. Both ways.

[It had been infinitely harder to start from scratch, and Wanda's not sure she could have done it at all if she didn't have so many people she owed her best efforts to.]

And if it's pathetic, then so am I.

It's a difficult decision to make. But considering how transient our own presence here is maybe leaving it in hands you know won't disappear wouldn't be a bad idea.

There might be a compromise. Maybe Kauto's library would be willing to offer a sort of "special collection" space that you could run.

I like the idea Miller brought up. Have you spoken to Kauto's library staff? The idea of a special Moira collection corner could work well. Maybe we could chip together, raise some money, if that's what it takes.

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