Meeting Metody

[zippyknowsbest]

It was a busy day at the New York Public Library, as indeed most of them had been since the economy started to tank. Zippy scowled as she worked through a pile of books sitting on the reference desk counter, which some patron had abandoned there without so much as a 'I decided not to get these, could you put them back?' People. Bureaucracy.Library

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[totheb0ne]

Metody had spent the past few weeks haunting Comparative Mythology and edging his way towards something related to a claustrophobic panic. It wasn't just that this world lacked a few things found in his own. There were whole countries gone, entire religions erased, creatures that never existed. A brief sidetrip into the hard sciences had confirmed that even the rocks here were different.

He'd known that Hans' world was nearly barren. He'd never realized how very hollow it was. Or how very different - everything he knew was so alien as to be meaningless in the framework what little he understood about Hans' world.

Metody's original quest had been to find out if there was anything else like him in this place - surely, somewhere in the teeming population of an entire world, there had to be other bone creatures. Cousins, if not brothers. But now he'd found something else he ought to learn about.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" He smiled sheepishly at Zippy. "I'm looking for something on - " Damnit, word, word. " - comparative world

[zippyknowsbest]

By good fortune, Metody had chanced on a combination of words likely to arouse Zippy's profesional and personal interest both, which did something to distract her from her brewing bad mood.

Her brows climbed above the gold rims of her glasses, and she mustered a smile for the pale young man before her. "Comparative world philosophies? Hmmm, Ninian Smart's World Philosophies is a good introductory text--" Zippy was already grabbing a call slip and starting to scrawl the book's call number and title on it; she'd used the text often enough herself that it was memorized.

"--if you haven't gotten to it already. There's a reference copy on the shelves in the Reading Room, so you don't have to wait for it to be brought up from the stacks. Are you looking for religions too, or is this an assignment strictly about philosophy?" she said, peering over the top of her glasses at the young man. And having already assumed he was a college student.

[totheb0ne]

He was relieved that she already knew the name and title of a good reference; it meant he wasn't the only one in the whole world to have this sort of problem. It had to be downright common, even, if she'd had a chance to memorize the call number.

" - religions, too, especially the more common ones. Um. And if there's maybe something that examines contemporary American and world culture, that'd be very helpful as well, please. Though I guess the world culture one doesn't have to be very in depth. Right now, I'm looking for a framework to build on later." He knit his fingers in an anxious gesture, color starting up in his cheeks. "I'm sort of - sort of approaching from a position of complete ignorance. It's a - it's a personal project." The color rose, showing easily through Metody's pigmentless skin, turning his cheeks red and his ears hot pink.

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy tapped her chin with the pen she had in hand. "Another book by Smart, then-- Dimensions of the Sacred, let me check if that's in the reference or not--"

She turned to the computer and takka-takkad at the keys briefly. "Ah, no, that's in the stacks. You'll need a call slip for that..."

Zippy scrawled the call number and title down on this one as well, then looked back to her computer. After typing in a few search terms and watching the hundred on hundred of titles start racking up, she looked back to Metody.

"Mmmmm... That is a pretty broad request, contemporary culture," she said cautiously, noting his apparent awkwardness when asking about this. "Looked at through the lens of art? Literature? History? Architecture?"

[totheb0ne]

He looked a little more cheerful now. Suddenly, his largely empty and often frustrating days didn't weigh so heavily on him. There would be things to read and think about. Maybe Hans or Val might even like to talk about the stuff he was going to learn.

"Ah...sociological. Preferably something that has a tabula rasa approach? Ideally, it would be something that would give me an idea about the assumptions of the authors of the other books, and my own assumptions." He grins a bit crookedly, feeling a brief twinge of pride at that last scrap of excuse for his lack of knowledge. "Is there An Idiots Guide to Americans?"

[zippyknowsbest]

"Hmmm," said Zippy, and returned to her keyboard.

After a few moments she wrote down Key Contemporary Concepts : From Abjection to Zeno's Paradox on the sheet of paper, followed it with The American Culture Wars, added call numbers. More typing, and then in quick succession three more titles were added to the sheet of paper.

The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture and American Popular Culture : A Guide to the Reference Literature were jotted down, Zippy muttering as she did so-- "These are both in Reference as well, so right there in the reading room for you... Oh, and there's Speak American-- it's more aimed at people learning to speak American English, but it's got a lot of cultural tidbits in there that you might find useful

[totheb0ne]

He waits patiently, eyes roving curiously over their beautiful surroundings. He likes these old buildings with their stone and wood and sense of time. It's much simpler than what would be at home, but also more peaceful.

"I love cartoons. And that sounds wonderful." Metody grins impishly. "I'm a little short on burgulars to stun, thank goodness. Um. Is there any way to check some of this out, perhaps..?"

[zippyknowsbest]

"Ah," said Zippy. "No."

A semi-apologetic spread of her hands; Zippy'd lost track of the times she'd had to break this bit of news to a disgruntled patron. "Everything here in the HSS building... sorry, the Schwarzman Building now... is non-circulating. Doesn't leave the premises. Howeer--" (she glanced over at her screen, verifying there were duplicates of the titles she'd selected) "--the branch libraries, of which there are 35 in Manhattan, do let you take books home, and you can request duplicates of these titles sent to your local. Where do you live, hon, I can find you the nearest branch?"

She wrote down the 'Cartoon History' titles while waiting for his address.

[totheb0ne]

"Oh. Drat." But the building was beautiful and there were lots of comfortable looking places to read, at least.

Metody shuffled his feet a little, hands twining in a habitual gesture. "Manhattan. Um." It still felt strange to admit he lived in a place so very nice. "I don't mind taking the train, though."

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy took a patient librarian breath and adjusted her glasses.

"Yes, hon. Where here in Manhattan, so I can figure out which of the 35 Manhattan branches you'd be closest to?"

[totheb0ne]

"Oh." He twisted his fingers again, so far that it seemed like they ought to break. His cheeks burned - back home, a person could walk across a neighborhood in a day, if not less. The neighborhoods here were the size of whole cities. "21 Astor Place."

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy didn't notice or chose not to notice the young man's blush, busy consulting the libraries map. "21 Astor Place, huh? Swank. I know someone else who lives there," she said without any judgment attached

[totheb0ne]

"Oh, really? Wh - oh - " He scrambled for his notebook, his question forgotten in his need to get the directions scribbled down. Later, he would print off a map of the area with the route highlighted in pink, and alternates in yellow, because if there was one thing he had a horror of, it was getting lost.

"German, really? Do you know if they have kids books? I'm learning it, but I kind of suck at basic grammar." He'll just keep the books hidden from Hans. Somewhere.

"I...guess the computer would be best. I can just request what I don't read today, and that way, no one has to haul around books I've already read."

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy gave the young man a sympathetic smile at his scrambling for the notebook. "I can print you out the address, you can Mapquest it. I'm just saying, it's not that far from you. Ottendorfer's not too far from me, come to think of it. North for me, east for you...

"Ah, erlernen Sie Deutsches?" she asked with a smile, more wry this time. "Yes, they should have some kids' books in Deutsch. I can't promise a huge selection of kids' titles, but there should be something. And you can always request anything from any other library be sent there."

[totheb0ne]

"A printout would be great." Tangible relief rose from him. "I'm not so good with directions."

He twisted his face up in an oh-no grimace. "Y - ja, meine mann erler- wait, no, um - unterrich...te? mich und ich habe einer bucher, aber ich bin nicht so gut."

It was the longest statement he can manage, and oh, thank God German has about the same joining words as English does. Where would he be without 'und' and 'aber'? And memorized phrases. Lovely, lovely memorized phrases. He'd feel less happy about the sentance if he knew how thick his American accent was.

He grins. "I'll definitely keep that in mind."

[zippyknowsbest]

Zippy's warm smile edges towards polite confusion at his attempt at German, but she works it back towards encouraging.

"Well, like anything else, you get better with practice. Fahren Sie fort zu arbeiten," she reassures the young man. She turned back to the computer and tapped a few buttons to generate a print-out of Ottendorfer's hours and location. Astor Place was indeed visible on the map, just two blocks westward.

Zippy handed this over, then held up the call slip filled with titles. "When you're getting books here, you give the title and call number to one of the service desks; they'll have the books brought up to the reading room for you. If you want to start on some of these today, I can put in the request now for you, but just so's you know for the future."