'One chapter of a book, two chapters of a book…'
In the center of a room of pure white, a seventeen year old with twin tails of braided blue hair stood with her eyes closed, entirely silent save for the few times she'd clear her throat.
'Three chapters of a book, four chapters of a book…'
This was one of many of the mind exercises Angela had been teaching her to use over the last six years whenever certain things flared up within her head or when she generally needed to calm down; throughout her years, and while she had gotten more capable when it came to controlling her mind and emotions now, preventing the horrible monsters in her mind from popping up pretty effectively…she still slipped from time to time. Occasionally, she'd feel that same suffocating feeling closing around her once more, often coming out of nowhere and making her feel as if her mind was attacking her.
It was for this reason that she and Angela had come up with these self-regulating rituals for herself in order to take control of all of her mental faculties and stabilize herself against the demons and monsters her mind so cruelly conjures up at whatever time it deemed it best to try and screw her over, which was often when she'd be embroiled in a discussion with Angela or when she'd be doing some reading and reaching an emotional part of some Literature Floor book.
It was a bit of a mindless rhyme, not really that catchy and a little too long to be a quick tune, although that wasn't its purpose. It was simply meant to busy her mind and prevent it from manifesting those horrendous thoughts that overcame her every now and again, and with time, it became the teenager's go-to nonsensical rhyme to clear her mind and focus on the overly-long and mental-effort-consuming half-song. After all, in Angela's own words, every mind has its own pace and capacities, and depending on how those capacities work, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of a Heaven, and this particular rhyme wasn't meant to push it towards either result, merely keeping it stationary and semi-calm.
Of course, it was a little odd for a machine like her to know so much about psychology when she was, well, a machine for all intents and purposes, although Angela had two explanations: The first being that her mind was severely influenced and, in fact, scanned off of someone who had their own demons, she said, so she had some experience. The second?
"I was in my own personal hell for a million years. What other choice did I have to deal with that pain other than completely losing myself to whatever horrors my own psyche created for me during that time?"
She never questioned her expertise on the subject matter ever again, and hey, it worked for Powder so far. She couldn't complain when it seemed to be quite effective, even if it wasn't going to gain any catchy rhyme tournaments.
Clank!
Her thoughts on the past were interrupted when an all too familiar noise brought her back to her current situation, cracking her neck for a moment and licking her lips, tightening her shut eyes for a moment.
'Five chapters of a book, six chapters of a book…'
Suddenly, the blue haired teen felt swift movement around her, and from how it felt, there were multiple sources of said movement, getting into formation, planning on how to strike at her with maximum precision and efficiency.
Then, she sensed one of the figures break away from the unit and rush towards her current position.
It was at that exact moment that Powder opened her eyes, and despite what one might have imagined, she was entirely confident, smirking.
It had been six or so years since that fateful day she had her first encounter with 'Abnormalities', as Angela had called them. Six long years, although the passage of time was rather insensible in the Library when there was really nothing that changed; Angela had remained the same, her routine had remained the same, even the Library didn't change much, only gaining a minuscule amount of Light every day and forcing Angela to admit that they could only wait until…whenever the Light would allow her to make her oh-so-grand move.
Still, that didn't mean Angela had been remaining idle, at least after the muscle spasms got better, as proven when she started these training sessions a good while after the incident with the Burrowing Heaven, the name of the brain-eye-plant thing Powder came across all those years back. It was a little funny to think to that time now when she had so much more knowledge on the Abnormalities she awakened by accident, even if she hadn't seen them or any other Abnormalities since that day; apparently, they're awakened by having a heightened emotional state near them, and considering the young bluenette's state that day…she felt that she had fit the bill to awaken two Abnormalities at once.
So, as Angela bided her time when it came to her fulfilling her personal desire, her secondary goal over the six years was to make sure Powder was never so vulnerable against an enemy again - making it so that it was assured that she wouldn't be so defenseless like in that incident with the Burrowing Heaven and went out of her way to make sure her ward was as capable as they come in a fight. After learning from Powder herself of how good of a shot she had been back at her home during those long lost days with her siblings, Angela got to work over the years, personally crafting the perfect plan and environment to make sure that the younger bluenette's skills in battle were honed and improved to the best of her ability.
The fact that she used memories from her time finishing the Script to help aid in Powder's progress made it clear to the young Zaunite how seriously she was taking this, and not for one second did Powder take it for granted. She had been training for a while now under her caretaker and friend, and while she had a bit of a rough start with the combat training, Angela was nothing less than patient and supportive like Vi was before she ruined everything of her assistant, taking the time to make sure the Zaunite was as capable of they came in a fight, with Powder doing her most damned hardest to make sure her faith in her was well-founded every step of the way.
And she was still aiming to prove it so to this day, starting with taking out these fuckers.
Oooh, the privileges of grownup swears were simply deluxe. Maybe not worth the truckworths of hormones pumping through her, but you know what? She'll take what she can get.
With blue eyes narrowed and ready, Powder scanned the seemingly empty pure-white room she was in, another kindness of Angela; it was a room she summoned specifically for improving her fighting skills and techniques, the walls and floor still being solid, although they were far less hard than wood, stone, or any other material for that matter, even dirt. It made for a room where the now-teenage Powder still needed to note her surroundings to avoid any obstacles while making sure she wouldn't hurt if she was slammed against a wall or had an unlikely slip, finished with a small booth where her blue-haired caregiver could note the battles and stop them at a moment's notice if anything went awry.
Of course, as with almost every other room in the Library, it was nonsensical and eerie in its absolute white void. Unless you bumped into the walls, you might've even assumed the room was infinite, much like the Floors themselves were, and this same logic-defying room could also manifest various obstacles and the like should Angela have willed it to whenever Powder wanted to work on her evasion and environmental awareness skills. How it did so, Powder still didn't really know. She simply wrote it off as 'the Light doing whatever the heck it does, although today the room had no such obstacles, for today was a different sort of training: direct combat.
Usually, the Library Director wasn't the one to suggest this type of training in particular for semi-obvious reasons, the most notable of which was that she didn't want her assistant to get unnecessarily crippled in these self-defense sessions and then be unable to work for her in the Library and there were no other ulterior reasons or motives, thank you very much. It was in fact Powder who did so after a casual conversation with Angela one day on how the Library would function after its grand inauguration sometime in the future when the older bluenette had mentioned that there would be some battles taking place in the Library according to her plans for it.
After that, it was only natural for the Zaunite to get interested in such a declaration; she had been, in the end, greatly interested in self-defense and offense back when she was in Zaun and hadn't yet killed three-quarters of her family, often looking up to ol' Vander, Mylo, and Claggor when they fought, and most of all, of course, Vi most of all. They had all been capable fighters in their own right, with her always being the damning exception, and she did want to at least carry some of their legacies. It was the least she could do after, well, everything that happened.
Besides, she was almost thirteen when suggested the more direct and offensive combat lessons to Angela; she was more than ready to start learning even if she wasn't certain of what she would exactly do whenever the Library would open. She knew she was still going to inhabit the Library, obviously, but she wasn't really certain whether or not she'd take part in the unavoidable violence that was expected to occur during Angela's journey, but it was better safe than sorry, right? She didn't know who they'd fight either, but she assumed Angela had enough of a moral compass to not make her regret anything…or so she hoped. She had a lot of trust in Angela that she acquired over the years now, so she was semi-sure she was going to support her in her endeavor to get some revenge after so much torture from her still-unnamed - to Powder - creator. She just hoped Angela would make that support well-deserved.
…But first, Powder had to make sure the reverse was true as well. Hence, her attempts at being combat capable enough to be at Angela's side.
With reflexes honed by recent years of work and effort, Powder ducked underneath the attack from her would-be assailant, and before it could turn around to strike again, Powder unsheathed a bronze and white pistol gun from her person glowing radiant amber color, and without shot an arc of yellow lightning.
"Krrgh- CRAAAAAAAH!"
Her conjured-up opponents for this round were none other than Sweepers: a being that inhabited the City surrounding the Library, as Powder had learned. Metallic semi-organic beings with hooks and knives in place of hands and a gas mask where their face would be, complete with a tube that came out of their mouths to connect to a so-called nutrients tank on the masked monsters' face. What these 'nutrients' were, Powder didn't care to remember, as while Angela's information on these creatures was limited, it was, unfortunately, expansive enough to remember that they had a taste for flesh, and not one that belonged to animals.
They were some of the enemies she dreaded facing most; just the dead atmosphere that surrounded them was enough to send shivers down her spine, and even knowing that they were all under Angela's control and weren't at all real didn't bring her much comfort when she went up against one of the monsters herself; indeed, these versions had been summoned by Angela, apparently a vestige of the Corporation she said she worked in during her past. She had quite the collection of monsters, machines, eldritch abominations, and other such horrors, which certainly made Powder question just what sort of enterprise she had been working for, but she supposed it was yet another delightful 'quirk' of the City.
To be honest, persuading Angela to actually summon them had been the most difficult part of fighting them. The older woman had been quite reluctant to expose her younger assistant to any of the horrors during her time at the Lobotomy Corporation, given how mentally fragile her ward's state of mind has proven to be - which was…respectable enough, Powder supposed - although after seeing her admittedly clumsy moves develop into more confident combat stances and capabilities against the weaker foes she could summon, she hesitantly started summoning progressively tougher enemies, and the results were astounding; Powder had been a fast and efficient student when it came to fighting, and her current display was a testament to the prowess she gained.
The lightning hit the black figure of the Sweeper, causing it to twitch uncontrollably as it emitted a gurgling scream before falling face-first onto the floor, motionless.
Hah! Another victory for her self-made - or, well, self-tinkered - weapon: Zapper! See, she named it that way because, well, it zapped things really well and- look, she never claimed she was good with names, okay? The point was that she managed to modify a regular gun into an electricity-wielding machine of carnage, and she was quite pleased with the results she managed to achieve after a few mishaps with the earlier iterations exploding in her hands before she managed to perfect Zapper. If she hadn't been grateful for Angela's healing powers before, she would've been on those days.
Although she had struggled a bit at the start with these beings, collectively referred to by Angela as 'Ordeals', she eventually managed to find the right pace for her movement; the right moments to dodge, the correct ways to dodge without spraining something, and most importantly, making an arsenal of weapons that was effective against both hard steel and flesh, as some of the creatures Angela summoned had been…weird, for lack of a better word.
Angela had said something once about them being the manifestations of someone's very twisted and scarred subconscious mind and memories that used to appear in the Corporation she worked at due to an inherent instability in the electronic systems there, and although she went into great lengths to explain them, Powder didn't manage to grasp much more than that considering she often had no clue with regards to what the Corporation was or how it worked. What mattered to her was that they were controllable by Angela and yet very useful for honing her combat skills.
Oh, and she also cared about how she could kick their sorry teeth in.
Turning to face the rest of her opponents, Powder grinned most excitedly when she saw the other recently-summoned and soon-to-be dead Sweepers raise their blood-red hook weapons, ready to avenge their fallen brother - or sister, she didn't discriminate - charging as Powder once more raised and took aim with Zapper.
'Game on!'
Powder giggled for a moment, her own response to stressful situations that was significantly better than crying and curling into a ball, and charged. The initiative, she had learned through much trial and error, must always be in her hands, as she shows by preparing another shot from Zapper as the four remaining Sweepers rushed towards her, their speed quite surprising when one of them must've been at least 200 kilograms with how heavy its metallic armor must've been. Of the four, two had knives and two had hooks in the place of their hands, and all of them were aiming their weapons directly at Powder's vitals.
Good; they were far too overconfident.
Powder's legs slid on the pure-white floor as she let her body lean downwards, skidding to avoid the collective swing the four Sweepers threw at her, passing between the largest knife-wielding Sweeper's open legs and shooting an electric flurry of sparks right at its groin, letting it howl in torment as it twitched and the black goo in its nutrients-tank boiled, dooming it as it fell to the ground, lifeless. Admittedly, Powder didn't really think that these particular enemies had the weak spots a regular human would, but it was good training for whenever she'd need to give a good kick to any human -or organic- enemies in the future.
The bluenette turned her skid into a roll just in time to dodge a blood-red hook to the head that slammed into the ground instead, jumping to her feet with a sly smirk as she stared at the three remaining Sweepers. She still needed a moment for Zapper to fully recharge again, and she hadn't brought the rest of her arsenal today, wanting to fully familiarize herself with Zapper like the others. Looks like it was time for some good ol' fashioned acrobatics, heh!
Taking the initiative once again, she charged the rage-filled Sweepers, not lowering herself this time to jump over the razor-sharp blades pointed at her, instead deciding to rebel against gravity for a moment as she managed an impressive jump to dodge a particularly nasty swing from another knife wielder. She knew that she'd be healed and saved from any injury she might receive, but she neither enjoyed getting hurt nor did she like making her caretaker worry about her. While she was mid-air, Powder twisted the knob on the center of Zapper, causing the gun pistol to glow a bright azure, and before she landed, shot a blue arc of lightning.
"CRAAAAAH!"
Stunned into an unmoving state, the remaining two Sweepers would've never foreseen what she had planned for them next. The one she just hit fell onto the floor, blacking out on impact, although she couldn't pay attention to it as she carefully planned her landing, her thoughts running at a million miles a minute, preparing her legs for impact as they crash onto a hook-wielder's stomach, making it tumble while she grasped its nutrients pipe, squeezing it and cutting the flow for a moment.
"Crrshkkkkk! Crr- Crrik-"
Luckily for it, however, Powder relaxed her grip as she got it to kneel momentarily, grinning as she climbed off its back and allowed it to stand up again, vainly attempting to swing at her with its arms as she now stood on its back, watching while the other Sweepers went for a few stabs which she easily dodged with nimble movements. She didn't even need any backflips this time! Were these Sweepers getting easier by the day or what?
"Easy there, you two! If there's one thing I won't tolerate, it's rowdy fans! Can't a girl like me just have fun in peace without all of this commotion?!" She taunted, feigning offense as she scoffed at the growling, shrieking indigo-clad monsters beneath her. She didn't know if this taunting had any value, really; Angela said that the enemies she fought were mostly blank slates with only fighting on their mind, but she at least liked it. She deserved a little fun amidst all the fighting "Though I guess it's time to put an end to this show! Here comes the finale!"
Turning the knob on Zapper once more, the tube in the center of the gun turned amber once more, taking her time to aim at her gun pistol at the slowly approaching, still dealing with the stun of effects of the blue lightning it was hit with.
"Bye-bye!" She waved mockingly at the second-to-last Sweeper with an even wider grin, firing her electric-gun and watching as it twitched for a couple of seconds in agony before falling to the ground, going silent. Alright, that only left one to deal with, and while she could've simply waited for Zapper to recharge again, she had something quite special in mind for this one. It was mostly a plan to show-off her skills, but a good fighter always needed to use more than one weapon, and what better way to enact that thought than by using the enemy's weapons? "Hey, scrap-bin! Didja lose steam or what? You're not even trying!" She mocked her opponent -maybe victim at this point- once more, watching as it swung in rage at her, the idea fully crystallizing in her mind as she dodged the attacks with ease, avoiding a quick stab and leaning down to grab the nutrients-pipe once more right as the Sweeper aimed a stab at her head while she was leaning down, although in its rage, it didn't seem to notice that she dragged the pipe directly in front of the blade aimed at her.
Oh, this was a glorious sight to behold.
The Sweeper only realized its mistake too late, having already cut through the entire pipe by the time it tried pulling its weapon back, the black, oozing liquid within it spilling and staining the pristine white floors as it didn't even manage to hit its target, Powder having jumped off of its back and watching as it clawed hopelessly at its severed nutrients-pipe.
"C-Crrk! Crr- Crrr…"
And at last, although it took a few moments more than a Sweeper hit by Zapper, it, too, fell to the floor in a puddle of its own blood/food, letting Powder rest her hand on her waist, hanging Zapper on her belt and smirking.
"Geez, you didn't have to make such a mess, at least." She gave one last mockery, her smile sincere in spite of the sarcasm in her tone. She did it! It wasn't the first time she beat those scrap piles, but it was the quickest and most successful attempt yet! Sure, there was always room for improvement, but she was more than pleased with what she achieved this time. "Seriously, I think I got inhuman gunk on me!"
"Well if you want to stay clean, then next time you should take out your enemies instead of taking the time to mock them for simple kicks."
Powder rolled her blue eyes, "Not my fault your fakes tend to make messes when they get wrecked by me!" She retorted proudly, spinning on her heel to turn and face the ever steadfast figure of Angela, the same face she grew to recognize and find comfort in across all of these years, book in hand and standing on the sidelines in case things got hairy, "Did these Sweepers always make a mess back at L. Corp, or is it just your robot brain bugging out and misremembering things?"
Angela sniffed haughtily, her chin turned up on Powder like she was a true-born Topsider from Piltover. "I shall remind you that my memory is perfect and is capable of memorizing anything to the minute detail." While a few years ago, such an insult from the younger bluenette would've merited a scolding or a fight, even, all it got her this time was an elbow to her shoulder, letting her emit an insincere 'ow'. In a way, it made Powder happy to see how casual they act around one another now.
"Even those black goop puddles?"
"Even those black goop puddles." The Library's Director repeated in assurance before lifting a hand and causing a door in the seemingly endless void to open up, "Come with me now, Powder: now that today's session has ended in record time, we have something of VERY high importance to discuss."
Without another word, Angela swift went to the door that led to the halls of the Library, with Powder making sure to keep pace and follow her out of the training room without delay as the tone of voice of her caregiver told her that something incredibly big was going down here and now; a big shift to the eternally-static Library she has learned to call her home for seven years, even though it seemed like the place was eternally stuck in time.
'Still so mysterious and abrupt after all these years, eh?' Powder thought fondly as she stared and followed the black feathered back of Angela through the halls of the Floor of Social Sciences and to whatever place they needed to work at.
Though, it's not like she and Angela didn't spend half of their day lazing together - well, sorting books, really. The usual business since she first arrived in the Library to be honest, although Angela preferred saving her more casual and, frankly, softer side for those moments when they'd be relaxing together and instead maintained a firmer, stricter side for whenever they'd be training together or whenever Angela would be teaching her something to make the younger teenager focus, since the softer side she showed would have made her assistant more lax, she insisted. Powder didn't know if she truly agreed, but she didn't have any real issue with their arrangement thus far.
It was difficult to believe the time moved so quickly, really, but when there was no outside reference to time, it almost felt like time had skipped for her here, and still much of her life remained the same. She was the same Powder that she was when she first arrived here, although admittedly in a better-if-not-perfect mental state, the Library was still as elusive as it had always been, and Angela had been as accommodating as she always did. In fact, Powder felt that the two of them got closer over the years, and the awkwardness between the two of them had mostly dissipated now, and what remained of it mostly had to do with some of the things she couldn't experience due to her experience as a machine.
Perhaps the only thing that has truly changed was Powder herself, the years certainly passing for her as she left the naïve, somewhat carefree, and not-that-innocent days of her childhood and jumped into the next stage of her life: teenagehood!
…Which wasn't honestly all that it had been hyped to be.
She had expected something a lot more grandiose, having her become the daring, capable, and frankly awesome badass that had been she always heard Vander to be from all the whispers she heard from the people around her back in Zaun, aspiring to become like him and the person Vi was growing to be one way or another even if she was unsure if she'd see her sister again in this life - in the case of Vander, that was a certainty when it came to her adoptive father for obvious reasons she knows she'll never get over - much less if her older sister would've wanted anything to do with her at this point, but dreams were free, right? She didn't expect to change overnight, although she had childishly thought that it wouldn't be that difficult of a change; after all, Vi hadn't mentioned it to her when they were still close. It couldn't have been that bad, she thought.
Instead of that glamorous interpretation, however, she got a hormone-filled, emotionally-awkward journey that had the wonderful start of making both her and Angela panic and wonder if she was suffering from sudden inexplicable internal bleeding. One afternoon of totally-not-panic later and a few books from the Floor of Natural Sciences later, she (and her host) soon learned she was experiencing the 'joys' of puberty. Some four years after starting it, Powder couldn't exactly say she enjoyed the extra dose of hormones and emotional instability that coursed through her, but it at least meant she was healthy, from what the books told the AI and her assistant, even if she sure as Hell didn't feel like it.
She did, however, appreciate the sudden bump to her height and strength, if nothing else. She wasn't quite as tall as Angela without the high-heels yet, and her rather impressive growth spurt had ceased for the most part as she neared her sixteenth year of existence in this mad world, to Angela's unspoken relief; it'd have been too embarrassing to have an assistant that's taller than her when she was so young. Of course, Powder would be the type to lord this over her caretaker if such a thing ever came to be due to years of having been on the other side of this little height dispute, so the golden-eyed AI could only remain thankful that she still had the upper - hah! - hand in all of this.
Of course, none of this information was simple to comprehend, really; it was borderline nonsense for Powder considering she had no prior knowledge of the Corporation where Angela worked or whatever she did for her forced job, but considering she had all the time in the world until the Library would eventually, one day, maybe, get enough Light to have its long-planned grand opening, it didn't bother her too much to spend time learning a bit about how the Library worked, at least to avoid any more incidents like the one she had as a young, scared eleven-year-old.
Although, for the most part, barring her vivid and sudden puberty, there was nothing quite so quick in those six years of her life. She spent her time with Angela sorting books far more efficiently, passing time in front of the TV, as per usual, although she also spent quite a bit of time in her personalized workshop ever since that day, tinkering with the various pieces of equipment she had been offered by her charitable caretaker, sometimes making entirely useless-yet-fun trinkets, sometimes making some useful gadgets and sometimes managing to come up with interesting weapon designs…even if, of course, she shied away from actually presenting those weapons and letting them leave her blueprints. Considering her past experiences with weapons made personally by her, it only made sense for her to be a tad uncomfortable with the idea…
In fact, considering that she couldn't simply sort books while waiting for her Library to, for lack of a better word, work, Angela decided to get more and more involved with the only person she could interact with, and the only person who seemingly cared for her, in the Library: Powder.
She had promised to help educate her more and more on the Library and the Abnormalities that lurked within, and she supposed that she hadn't broken her promise, although the blue-haired Library Director was rather certain that she had quite a few bits of expertise that she could use to help her protégée with her tinkering, both helping her a to the best of her capabilities and spending more time with the younger bluenette, which was a bit of an experience in itself as she had never seen someone age before, and considering Powder was in her prime growth-age, she was changing a lot. It would've been slightly unnerving had it not been knowing that it was still the same Powder she knew and took care of.
While they first focused on filling the Zaunite in on what Abnormalities were and attempting to summarize the history of the Corporation to her, she quickly started going beyond that, offering to help Powder in her tinkering and the like. In fact, that particular brand of science was far from the only subject matter Angela has proven to be an expert in, with the director going on to help her with other scientific subjects, specifically the ones that match well with what Powder already knew: physics, chemistry, and biology has been taught to her by Angela to the extent of the knowledge she was imbued with at her creation, considering she had no other sources as evidenced by her lack of knowledge on puberty, but her knowledge was more than still serviceable enough.
Although, one subject she did excel at was engineering. It was by virtue of her knowledge on the architecture of the Corporation and, of course, the knowledge she needed in order to deal with or repair the various delicate mechatronics and electronics that only she and someone else knew how to operate. For all she hated that man, she had to give him credit where it was due, and he was quite talented on the engineering side of things. Additionally, she had noticed Powder's…withdrawal from designing any weapons or arms in her little tinkering station in the early days of her education, despite seeming talented and intelligent enough to do so. Of course, Angela didn't want to overstep her boundaries, although she assumed that due to her past, she had taken issue with designing any weaponry considering the last time she did so hadn't ended well.
Although, it seemed that with enough encouragement, Powder was willing to try tinkering with a weapon once more, though under some supervision with Angela at first. She never really got comfortable with it, although after some patience and support from her caretaker's side, she did finally manage her first weapon with Zapper! The Library Director insisted that the younger blunette needed a weapon of her own that was customized to her liking so she could fight with it like it was a part of her body, and considering the results she achieved during her combat training using her self-made weapons, Powder had to agree that it was very useful, if not very fun to her, to not entirely abandon weapon-making.
Of course, coupled with her dramatic physical changes, she had also grown mentally, developing a bit of an independence streak, which wasn't much of an issue considering it meant she and Angela would separate for, what? Two days? With the delicate trust the two of them cultivated over the years, she always liked spending time with her mechanical caretaker, sharing her thoughts with her, and simply enjoying her presence, or perhaps just not preferring to be left alone in the otherwise uninhabited Library, though, for some reason, Angela had a sensation that even if there were other people in the Library, Powder wouldn't abandon her, either.
"We have arrived."
At those words, Powder was snapped back to the present and coming to a stop right behind Angela, looking over her shoulder to see what was before them.
Powder tilted her head at the strange door before them. Ah, it seems that, lost in her thoughts, she had mindlessly followed Angela down the stairs without noticing. She moved her hand over her braids for a moment, smiling as she touched them; it was one of her own fashion decisions, even if she hadn't paid much attention to changing her appearance over the years, still wearing the same pants and shirt she always did, only, well, bigger. But that wasn't what caught her attention; it was the fact that this strange door was opposite the Floor of Social Sciences' office and its own door, one that she had never seen before.
Never seen before…?
The Zaunite didn't spend much time on the blue-themed Floor, sure, but she knew enough about the Library at this point to know that the door was a new addition.
Well, there was only one way to know what was behind it, right? She rushed a little to the figure in front of her, grinning as she threw an arm around Angela, poking her shoulder and then chortling for a moment as her caretaker fell for the classic prank, turning her head in the opposite direction before sighing in discontent as she realized what her protégée had just done, turning her face to the shorter girl.
"You just couldn't resist, could you?"
"Nope~! It's not like you hate it yourself, Angela~!" Powder added a little sass to her tone, snickering with a smile. Truthfully, her smile was equally influenced by her amusement and the happiness she felt at the closeness of their relationship at this point. To imagine someone would be so willing to act in such a casual and trusting manner with her was endlessly pleasing, not to mention the gratitude she felt towards Angela for being so calm and patient all this time. Sure, they had their fights from time to time, but the years had only strengthened this bond that Powder was oh-so-thankful for. She hummed for a moment before asking the obvious question: "No, but seriously what's up with this door? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it around these parts before." She grimaced as a thought passed her mind. "It's not another room for me to work in, is it?"
"Well…" Angela's tone lightened for an instant, immediately catching onto the suspicious tone in Powder's question. Hey, just because they were close didn't mean she couldn't use her help around the Library, and besides, it wasn't as if Powder hated helping her caretaker around their shared de facto home, she was just a little rebellious at times, like all teenagers were. Maybe. Probably. Look, she only knew what teenagehood consisted of thanks to biology books and those books aimed at teenagers on the Literature Floor. She was trying her best. "Yes and no."
"Yes and no?" Powder repeated, scratching her scalp. "What does that even mean?"
"Why don't you open it to find out then?"
Powder blinked owlishly and simply stared at the increasingly cocksure Angela, looking as if she held all the secrets of the world in the palm of her hands at the moment.
The younger bluenette's eyes squinted in suspicion, "Oh really? You're not going to take the time to dump a big, fat load of information on me like you usually do?" Powder questioned while leaning in until she was just a few inches away from Angela and the proud expression she had on instead of her normally stoic demeanor.
"Not at this exact moment, no. Only one way to discover why." Was her cryptic response as she gestured her arm in a sweeping fashion, as if she was presenting the door right before them.
Powder simply stared at the increasingly punchable face of her caregiver for another moment before making her decision.
"...You know what? Screw it, I'll bite the bullet!"
And turning around with reckless abandon and an all too eager grin, Powder leaped forward, rushing past the older woman, grabbing the door handle, and throwing it wide open, only barely registering the iconic clacking of Angela's high-heels as she moved to join her subordinate - yes just her subordinate shut up - with a wide smile, observing as the teenager froze up, her jaw dropping and her shoulder slumping from the shock of what her eyes saw.
"I take it that you're impressed?"
"I…I…Wh-Wha…?" Well, that was as much of a sign as Angela supposed she was going to get for the next minute or so as Powder's mind would race to process the sight in front of her.
Before her was what could only be described as a kaleidoscope of blue and pink actively moving all over the room in a randomized fashion, making the area seem much more like she just stepped into a fifth dimension of sorts in comparison to the other Floors she's been able to explore. Adding to the psychedelic atmosphere within were what seemed to be whole library shelves filled to the brim with books; some were floating in the air and high above while others were standing tall and still on the ground, all of them stacked next to each other to some extent and another and all in clear neat rows that seemingly went on endlessly, much like the other Floors. Apparently, whatever was keeping them suspended in the air was invisible or imperceivable.
All in all, it felt like Powder was in a room of controlled chaos and to be honest? She felt oddly at home in it.
"Indeed, it seems that you are quite impressed." Now it was Angela's turn to act smug, patting Powder's shoulder as she stared at her for a moment. To think that the young, frail child she took in some seven years ago would grow up so much…it still slightly upset her to know that she was stuck in this golden cage during what were supposed to be her best years, and stuck with a machine like her to make matters worse, but she had been beyond happy to see her grow accustomed to her life here. It almost felt too sudden, seeing her grow so quickly and become much more confident with time, although it wasn't a bad things in itself.
"...What is this place?" Powder asked in a whisper, in awe of what she was witnessing, "Is this a new Floor or something?"
"Yes, indeed. Welcome to the Floor of Psychology."
"The Floor of Psychology?" Powder repeated, looking into her host of seven years' golden eyes and tilting her head as she spoke. "Did we use to sort psychology books into the Social Sciences Floor?" Heh, she was getting too good at doing her menial tasks, it seemed, crossing her arms as she gave the impression of being unconvinced.
"Indeed, we used to." The Library Director nodded, her smirk ever present as she took a few steps into the Floor, snapping her fingers to make the flashing colors still into a beautifully odd mosaic of sorts, the kaleidoscopic appearance still strong, even if milder. "There we go. That should make this less possible to induce seizures; I merely wished to impress you with it."
"Ah, right, right." Powder nodded, gratefully bumping a fist into Angela's open hand, the gesture seeming almost absentminded from how many times she did it before; the teenager's lapses into mental instability were often accompanied by bouts of flashing colors around her. She didn't know why, although the severity of these lapses almost made her and Angela suspect it was a seizure of sorts, and they took appropriate measures to counter the possibility. "Thanks, Angela. But that doesn't answer my question: What the hell is this place?!"
"Now, now, Powder, don't be so hasty. Patience is a virtue."
Powder blew a raspberry in response to the phrase, complete with a single thumbs down, "Don't give me that malarkey! You act like you won't tell me anyway. You're just savoring my shock for your amusement."
"Atta' girl." Angela tried repeating the phrase she read a few times in some of Literature Floor's books here and there. It was meant to be a friendly way of showing approval for one's wit or rapid-thinking, at least from what she understood. She hoped she was using all this new 'informal' vocabulary correctly, though considering Powder didn't laugh or groan, it seemed appropriate enough. "It's good to have your wits about, considering you'll need them soon." At that note, Powder's eyebrows raised even higher, her mind racing to find any possibilities to interpret Angela's words.
"Gaaah, okay, okay! I get it, you're trying to be mysterious, geez, just tell me already!" Powder cried out, rapidly scratching her head in frustration, "Seriously! With the way you're acting, you're making me think we're going to be finally opening up the Library or something."
"That's because we are."
"Eh?"
Powder abruptly stopped her movements to give a dumbfounded look at Angela, whose plastered smirk couldn't grow any bigger on her face. "Yes, you heard that correctly: Recently, I've started sensing more and more power coursing through this Library, and I had hesitated at first to tell you to avoid any false hopes, although I'm quite sure of it now: We've finally managed to gather enough Light to inaugurate the Library at long last. Perhaps you'll finally get to test your knowledge of the City now-"
"We're opening the Library?!" Well, it was only natural for Powder to be so dumbstruck by the mere notion, her jaw dropping as her arms laid slackened beside her. "You- You're kidding me. This is a joke, right? It's been, like, seven years! You're telling me that it just- it happens so quickly?! All of a sudden, after all this time?!"
"Well, we will wait for a day or two as it fully charges up enough Light, but-"
"It doesn't matter! We've waited for seven years! It's just- I'm- I can't just handle this I'll just- okay, give me a moment." For a second there, Angela would've worried that so much emotional overstimulation may harm the younger bluenette, although her worries were eased a little as she saw the teenager take some deep breaths, holding her head in her hands for a second before looking back into the AI's golden eyes. "Okay. Okay, this is, just, wow. Wow, I really don't know what to say. This is…"
"Exciting?" Angela tried guessing, more curious about what Powder thought than anything; she wouldn't say she was excited herself; she wasn't really susceptible to such strong emotions just yet and until she became a human, but her assistant definitely did.
"Unbelievable, more like." The longer-haired girl mumbled, almost vibrating in place. "Like, Angela, I was ten when I first got here. I've spent so much time here that without you counting, I'd have lost count myself, and while I never thought you were lying to me, for a moment I just thought… I dunno. I thought that we'd just spend the rest of our lives here while waiting. The idea that we're actually going to interact with the people outside, that we'll actually see the people outside, it's just. Pwooooosh!" She wriggled her fingers around her head, as if imitating an explosion just to describe how mind-blowing this was for her. "For a second there, I really thought I was going to lose track of time here and forget about Zaun and the rest of Runeterra altogether."
"Ah." That was…slightly depressing, to be honest. It hadn't been Angela's intention to deprive her of any hope of breaking free…that was what that man had done to her.
"Nonono, it's okay, really." As if picking up on Angela's shift in tone, Powder giggled for a moment looking around her as her voice echoed satisfyingly. "I did honestly like my time here with you, Angela, it's just. To think that this impossible goal is so close now, it's…" She shook her head once more, whistling. "Wow. That's all I can say, really." She looked into her caretaker's eyes again. "So, this Floor is a celebration of that?"
"Well, only partly." Wait, what? Wasn't it enough for her to drop such a bombshell on the young Zaunite already? What more could she have wanted to say? Taking the silence as a sign to continue, the taller former secretary resumed her exposition. "It's also a celebration of you, in a way."
"...Sorry, I didn't hear that right." Powder frowned, sticking her pinky finger into her ear, twisting it, then pulled it out and blew on it. "I think there was something in my ear right then and there. Mind saying that again?"
"I'm quite sure you heard it correctly the first time. For someone who developed so much more confidence these days, you're still quite unreceptive to praise, but I'll indulge you:" Powder swore she could've heard a pin drop in the silence while waiting for Angela to speak again. "Consider this a celebration of you as well. Now, allow me to explain before you devolve into confusion: It has, indeed, been almost seven years since you first arrived here by accident. Your arrival was unexpected, and we went through plenty of ups and down throughout our long wait, but it is during this long wait that I realized that the time we spent together had been part of why this wait was more bearable than the one I endured in the Corporation. You've endured much with me as well, Powder, much that you didn't need to endure, and shouldn't have, really. I don't wish to deceive you, so I'll confess I don't really know what will happen moving forward, but before we reach that pivotal part of our future, I wanted to reward your kindness here. For all we may argue and snap towards one another, I genuinely believe it made our wait much more bearable. And so-"
"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Powder put both of her hands forward, still almost vibrating in place, shaking her head for a moment. "You can't just- you can't just say things like that! And I'm supposed to be the overly attached one! Just- okay, no, wait, let me guess." Her excitement almost seemed to overwhelm her gratitude and how touched she had been at the impromptu speech by Angela. Almost. "So, this Floor…"
"Yes, yes it is." That was perhaps another thing Angela enjoyed about her assistant; she was a quick thinker, and could often assume what she was thinking of in a conversation.
"No. No, you can't be serious. This whole Floor?"
"Why would I not be at this moment, of all times, Patron Librarian of Psychology?" This was it. If there was any moment where screaming at frequencies so high that only certain canines in the world would've been able to even perceive the scream, this was it for Powder. But she somehow, miraculously, inexplicably, managed to keep her composure, taking more deep breaths.
'One chapter of a book, two chapters of a book…'
"Patron Librarian."
"Yes."
"As in, the one who's responsible for a Floor. The ones you told me are meant to awaken as we regain the Light."
"That's them alright."
"The ones that are official parts of the Library, not just stowaways who managed to intrude on your Library." The excitement in the teenager's voice could've been sold in spades as she recounted from memory all that her caregiver told her about the others that would be joining them when the plan to find the One True Book went into motion, "H-How is this even possible?! You said that all of the Floors were reborn departments of the Lobotomy Corporation after you took the Seed of Light and used it to change the place to the Library. Wouldn't this place be something completely new and without a former version from L. Corp?"
"Well, aren't you quite the dutiful student?" Angela almost smiled, although…apologetically? "Alright, technically, this isn't an independent Floor. For all intents and purposes, it's a sub-Floor that acts as a dependency of the Social Sciences Floor, whose door is opposite to this one's." The short-haired woman pointed at the doorway they entered from. "To that extent, it's not an entirely new Floor, unfortunately, although you will have all of the privileges of a Patron Librarian, I assure you. I wish to have been able to give you something more rewarding after seven years of waiting with me, but, well." She shrugged helplessly. "I can't create something out of nothing, sorry, Pow-"
"Shhhhhhh." Powder put two hands on Angela's shoulder, the mad grin still on her face. "Of all of the possible times to apologize for anything, I don't think this moment when you're giving me my own Floor is the necessary time." She sniffed, wiping away what seemed to be a growing tear in her eye. "Seriously, Angela, I…I'm touched. Really, I am. What's the draw-back? Where's the big 'But' here? I know I'll have fights or whatever-"
"If I deem it fit." Angela waved a finger, the mere thought of Powder fighting against whatever horrors the City had apparently left her cross.
"Yeah, yeah, but beyond that…you're just leaving this? To me? Why?" Powder tilted her head again, her eyes almost innocently curious.
"Well, as I had said before, this Floor- well, semi-Floor is to show my appreciation for the time you've spent here with no real reward or show of gratitude. Your own private quarters to yourself, which I am sure you will appreciate once the Library starts filling up with other Assistants and Librarians. Besides," The older woman flicked her wrist. "It really wasn't much; I merely cut out a piece of the Social Sciences Floor and made it its own separate dependency and moved the Psychology books into its own endless hallways. It's like carving a statue into a mountain; I made no effort to actually create the mountain, unlike the effort and Light it took to manifest the Floors directly related to the Corporation of my not-so-distant past." At least, not-so-distant thanks to her steel memory. "And besides, a gift needs no recompense."
"...Geez, Angela." Powder tried maintaining a tough façade, chuckling for a moment. "Seriously, since when did you get all emotional n' stuff?"
"Well, I do have to prepare for when I eventually become human." The taller woman winked. Or atleast, tried to. "Besides, I'm sure this isn't exactly a consequence-free job proposition."
"Oh, I know, I know, more serious book sorting, possible danger when fighting, yada yada yada-."
"No, not those trivial manners; you're more than well trained on them, even if I would still rather you keep away from fighting." Angela strictly set her foot down as she could practically see the idea of joining to fight whoever would end up in the Library shine in her apprentice's mind, "It's the fact that I need you as a watcher as well."
"A watcher?"
"Yes." The seriousness in her voice made Powder straighten up her posture, "To be more specific, I need you to be able to observe and keep a close eye on your future peers and colleagues."
"You mean…the Serapiah? Those guys you fought when you stole the Seed of Light and had to make a deal with? What were the specifics of that anyways?"
Angela sighed, "Given the fact that you will be working with them all in close proximity once they awaken, it only makes sense that you know what deal I made with them before I was able to turn the Lobotomy Corporation into the Library we live in today. Though I will not repeat myself unless absolutely necessary as this is quite a sore topic for me to this day, understand?"
"I'm all ears, boss lady!" Powder eagerly gave a soldier-like salute, causing Angela to chuckle.
"Good to hear. Now, I have said before that I clashed with my Librarians during my usurpation of the Light, the ones previously known as the Sephirah that oversaw the various departments of the Lobotomy Corporation, right?" A nod obliged her to continue. "And of course, you also know that our ultimate goals varied immensely. While I have managed to strike a deal with the Librarians to work with me as I awaken them, I am not blind to the reality that many of them will not be pleased with what I have done, perhaps out of their inability to see why I did it." She added that last part perhaps for herself more than for anyone else. "But the important part is that they will maintain their memories, their convictions when they're awakened again."
"And you think they'll turn against you?" Powder tapped the ground with her feet, still not letting go of Angela's shoulders.
"The issue is that I don't know, Powder. Whatever happens in the future, I need to be assured that they will not be able to get in my way like last time. I made the mistake of assuming that they would not be able to do anything once I put my plan into motion and as you can attest to, I have been paying for that mistake for years." Angela scowled. "I refuse to allow them to do that once again. Hence, you were appointed as a Patron Librarian, to watch in ways I cannot in my current position and to prevent anything on their end that may undermine my way of discovering the One True Book, if you were asking for the purely pragmatic part."
"Yeah, I could tell how long we needed to wait." Powder nodded solemnly for an instant, before smiling again. "Still, putting so much trust in me…I'm honored, Angela. I really am. It's just…thank you, again." She squeezed Angela's metallic shoulders, her smile growing wider. "I don't know what I can do to make it up to you."
"Oh, trust me, Powder, you've done more than your share during your time here." Angela assured her calmly, before something apparently clicked in her mind. "Although…"
"What? Is it something about my attitude?" The Zaunite worried for a second, although her worries were waved away.
"Rather, it's your clothes."
"My clothes?" Powder blinked. "What about them? They're pretty fine to me, and they do their job well enough." She stared at her blue shirt and her pants. She should've considered asking for longer ones, really, as she had got these ones before her growth spurt stabilized.
"Pretty fine for someone from your home, perhaps. Maybe even during your downtime here. Not, as a Patron Librarian of mine." Angela refuted, looking at her from top to bottom with a hint of disapproval. "If you are to be the owner and guardian of this Floor, then you are in need of a complete wardrobe overhaul to better fit in. Besides, you need something at least vaguely intimidating for any possible enemies that may spot you."
"Wha- hey!" One of the hands on Angela's shoulder formed a fist, gently bumping into Anglea's side. "They're not bad clothes, you know! And besides, what am I expected to wear, then? Something like what you do? I'll take hours to get in and out of something like that!" She pointed at the older woman's admittedly elaborate and fancy clothes, challenging. Look, Powder had entertained the idea of fancy clothes more than once, and it was only natural when the only person she interacted with over seven years was always dressed like she was at some fancy Piltie party, but the lack of practicality always turned her away from entertaining the thought.
"Well, I wouldn't mind that." The golden-eyed woman couldn't help but manifest an amused expression as Powder put one finger under her eye and pulled, as if conveying a 'Yeah, right' sentiment, causing her caregiver to roll her eyes, "Don't be such a baby about it. Your going to be doing professional work soon enough and your outfit needs to reflect such work."
"Oh please! As if you have something better in mind than this!" In a moment, a moment that didn't exceed a few femtoseconds, Powder had already realized her mistake. She had given her caretaker the perfect opening, and her impending sensation of doom was only strengthened when Angela sprouted a smug grin.
"In fact, I do."
"...I look like a Topsider in this!"
"Isn't that a good thing, considering the fact that, from your various descriptions over the years, Piltover is a place of great prosperity and innovation that only the greatest of minds and wealthiest of nobles are allowed to live in?"
"You clearly have not been listening to me if that's what you took from all my bitching and moaning about that place! Seriously, you sound like a paid-off shill with the way you're describing that place…" Powder groaned, running a hand over her face as she looked once again in the mirror Angela had summoned on their shared Floor, staring at her reflection with wide eyes as if she could not recognize the figure looking back at her.
Apparently, Angela's idea of a 'suitable outfit' was a blue buttoned shirt, complete with a dark-pink tie that reached the Zaunite's waist, stopping just before her blue pants and topped off with a large long-coat that was almost magenta, though with a hint of pink in its tint, finishing with a singular pinkish button with a crescent on it, much like the one on Angela's collar of her official librarian outfit.
Look, it wasn't bad. The mish-mash of pink and blue clashed quite well against one another, but Powder's issue was that she wasn't going to a ball with this thing. She didn't even know what a ball was! She was apparently expected to fight in these admittedly nice-looking but impractical clothes!
"I suppose it does resemble a Nest, I must admit," Angela muttered, apparently busy admiring her handy work with Powder. "Still, if their fashion sense is similar to mine, who knows? Maybe we can just take that part and leave the rest." She put a hand on Powder's shoulder, looking proud, although the teen only scowled.
"Angela, seriously! How the hell am I supposed to fight in these things?!" The younger blue haired girl whined, throwing her hands up in the air, "How is a girl supposed to even tinker in these without this fancy-pants tie getting stuck in one of my inventions!"
"Oh, calm down." Angela patted the youthful bluenette once more, starting to adopt a more casual tone. "You can take it off when you tinker, then. As the Library grows, more privileges will be accorded to you." Angela paused, adding a dramatic effect to her tone as that particular notice seemed to get Powder's attention. "Maybe even some control over the Light? I'm sure that'll be quite useful when changing clothes and working on tinkering on certain projects…"
"...You're being bloody tempting right now…" Control over the Light…that sounded sick; Powder had brought up the topic before, and to give credit where it was due, her caretaker had tried her earnest to give her some control over the Light to at least facilitate her time traveling and doing menial tasks around the Library, although the lack of said Light in the first place proved to be quite the issue. Besides, Angela did make a point…even if the teenager didn't have to like it.
"I like to think I am. Besides, I like to think of myself as no fool, and if you move around a bit, I assure you you'll find your clothes to be stretchable and very capable of helping in maneuvers." Angela continues her assertions, smiling a little. "And I mean, hey, it looks quite nice on you."
"Yeah, yeah- wait what?" The shorter girl had to double-take, turning to her host.
"What? I'm speaking my mind." Said host seemed to be most calm, more confused about her co-inhabitant's reaction more than anything else.
"Since when?! You never said anything about my clothes before!"
"You were wearing varying sizes of one outfit for seven years, Powder."
"Well…okay, but still! It's weird!" Powder complained, crossing her arms in clear discomfort and looking to the side for a moment, her cheeks just the slightest tint rosy, the tint only observed by Angela's superb visual receptors, making Angela raise a thin blue eyebrow.
"Spoken like someone in dire need of a self-esteem boost if one little compliment is all it takes to throw you off balance." Angela deadpanned, although her expression soon had something of a mischievous smugness in it as a realization dawned upon her; maybe, in spite of the large boost to her confidence and attitude, there was still a bit of the young, shy Powder that first showed up in the Library all those years back. "Are you, perhaps, a little flustered~?"
"My self-esteem is perfectly fine, thank you very much!" Powder sputtered, her face increasingly turning as red as a tomato by the second, though she seemed to want to attempt and take the reins of the situation one way or another. "Besides, isn't it odd for you to call me emotional?"
"I beg your pardon?" Angela seemed genuinely flabbergasted for a moment. "I'm on this entire journey because I aspire to be more human, Powder."
"And still you gave me refuge, taught me, trained me, and then went and carved out the closest thing possible to a new Floor just to be nice." The teenager countered, doing a sudden turn on her heel to face the taller woman and enjoying how her coat danced in the miniature breeze the move created. Hm. Maybe she could get used to this, after all. "I'm thinking there may be something more than what meets the eye here…" Despite her rosy cheeks, she smirked. Baring her teeth and toying with one of her braids. She was still happy with the haircut she chose for how practical it was, and it didn't look half bad.
"Like what?" Angela questioned skeptically, her frown deepening when Powder giggled at her clear confusion.
"That's for me to know for now!" She tittered, putting her hand over her mouth, "I get to have my own secrets, don't I?" She leaned forward a little. "Or maybe… just maybe, you're really just a s-o-f-t-i-e~!" She stretched that last word out as much as she could, bursting into a full chortle as she saw Angela's reaction.
"Wha- Powder! How absurd to suggest something so improbable." She got another raspberry blown at her, and she scoffed as it was her turn to cross her arms.
"Aw, c'mon, Angela, what's life without a little teasing here and there?" Powder pocketed her hands, enjoying the slight increase to size her new coat gave her.
"If you insist on indulging in such nonsense. Now, will you be moving your stuff from your tinkering room to the Floor of Psychology? Because it would be far more convenient for you if-!"
"Heeey, you're not throwing me out of my room, are you?" Well, to be honest, she was a grown will-one-day-be an adult at this point. It was natural to get a new room for herself, but still. It was a little difficult to acknowledge the passage of time in the Library, sure, but seven years was still seven years. "After all this time, dear old Angela wants me out of her life, oh, the humanity!" She dramatically, earning a little scoff.
"If anything, I'd have thought you'd wish to have your independent room. I'm not forcing you to go out if you don't want to, though." Angela replied, although that seemed to be the wrong choice of words at that time.
"So you're saying you don't want me to go out now~?"
"What?! How could you interpret-"
"Softie~!" Angela sighed at the sing-song, shaking her head as she put three fingers on her temple.
"I just can't win with you, Powder."
"No," The Zaunite snickered, put her hands on Angela's shoulders once more in an almost hug; she was still maintaining her tougher façade. "No you cannot. Besides, you're too formal, Angela. Seven years and you haven't even tried any nicknames for me when you're trying to tease me back." Letting go of the AI's shoulders as quickly as she grabbed them, the sixteen year-old flicked her wrist nonchalantly, though she earned herself a head-tilt from the taller woman.
"Nicknames?"
"Er. Well, yes, they're often used affectionately by-"
"I know what nicknames are, Powder, I'm just not sure what your point is. Wouldn't that belittle you?" For one of few times since the pair of bluenettes met one another, it was Angela who was asking questions here, letting the younger of them scratch her scalp.
"I mean…Not really? Back when I was, you know, in Zaun, a lot of people used to give me nicknames. It depends on the intent." And admittedly, a lot of times in Zaun, 'pipsqueak' and 'brat' weren't used very affectionately. "I mean, hey, I'm not forcing you to do anything, either, just offering you the chance." She shrugged, attempting to seem casual as the Library Director narrowed her eyes.
"You overestimate me for once, Powder. My creativity is not as high as it could be yet, so even if I wished to, I'm not sure what I could call you to-"
"Vi used to call me Pow-Pow." The teenager suddenly blurted out far too suddenly to seem like an innocent unmotivated act. "Er, you know, my sister who I lost way back when. If this is going to give you any sort of upper hand in your verbal battles against me, you can use it." She tried returning to her more confident attitude. "Not that I think it'll help you too much, but I like a good challenge myself~"
"...Hm." Was this a good sign? Was Angela amused or unamused? The silence toyed with Powder's nerves for a few minutes, before her caregiver spoke once again. "Well, I'll see what I can do with it, although I highly doubt I'm going to stoop to such unsavory acts. You think too little of me…" Well, it was Angela, in the end. It was good enough that she had the option- "...Pow-Pow~"
"I knew it! I knew you were going for the bait n' switch, I knew it!" Angela's assistant nearly jumped into the air in celebration, and not just at being right. "Geez, it's about time! Then prepare, Angela, I'm going to unleash my arsenal of nicknames on you, and when you see it, oh, you'll so wish I just used Zapper!" She cackled madly, both in exhilaration and in joy, almost vibrating in place again.
"I would suggest that you save your tough-talk for after the Library opens, Pow-Pow, then we'll see if you've truly the mettle to mess with my metal." For the second time in almost five minutes, Powder's jaw dropped at something her superior said, flabbergasted.
"Did you just make a pun? Since when do you do that?!"
"What can I say? I guess I'm simply in a good mood with the Library so close to opening. I can feel the very last droplets of Light needed pooling, and soon, we'll be able to put it all to good use, Powder." The older bluenette's voice was filled with triumph, raising a fist into the air, though receiving no fanfare.
"Woo!" Well, she received one piece of fanfare. She had to wonder if this would be the case even after the rest of the Assistants and Patrons would awake. "Alright! Oh, I'm getting so giddy…so when is it going to finish?" Well, it was only a matter of time before the important question would get asked, Angela supposed.
"That's a very complicated question, Powder. I'm sure it's soon, although to precisely determine when, exactly, we will be able to utilize the full extent of the Light, and to what extent it will strengthen the Library and what it will allow us to unlock or discover in terms of power, not to mention-"
Poke.
Angela turned her eyes to Powder, catching a glimpse of her just in time to see her pulling her arm back from poking the former secretary's shoulder.
"Is it done yet?"
"Powder, I have yet to even finish the explanation. Of course it's not done yet, it still needs a lot of-"
Poke.
"How about now?"
"Powder, stop being more of an annoyance than usual."
Poke.
"Is it done now?" The grin on Powder's face couldn't have been any wider, and if smugness could've been harvested, hers would've been sold by the ton. "Maybe if I poke again it'll change? Fourth time's the charm~."
"Haha, very funny, Pow-Pow." Angela tried adopting a light-hearted tone, shaking her head as she 'tut'-ed. "You know, you should really start acting maturely around the guests if we want to have any sort of reputation in the City, otherwise they'll just think we…" Angela's tone trailed off for a moment, letting her eyes grow vacant, as if she was staring at something with her mind's eyes. "We…"
Angela suddenly stopped mid-sentence, her head snapping up to stare at seemingly nothing, her golden eyes narrowed and intensely focused on something not in this room.
"...Angela?" Powder asked cautiously, obviously off put by the sudden serious atmosphere her caregiver was emitting. This wasn't because of her prank, was it? "What's wrong?"
"Someone has entered the Library."
And here comes the start of Library of Ruina's storyline!
As for Powder's Patron Librarian outfit, just think the Dark Knight Joker's outfit but with blue and pink instead of purple and green.
Hopefully, we were able to properly justify and explain the existence of the Floor of Psychology as its own Floor, especially given the fact that this game series completely revolves around the human mind and everything that goes on there, so it would make sense that a subject matter that revolves all around studying such can be its own separate thing from the Floor of Social Sciences. Not to mention Powder's/Jinx's own psychological state of mind both in canon and in this story.
Our main goal was to display the changes that happened across six years while not making too long of a chapter. While we had a pretty big time skip, if we didn't the 'fic was just going to be a bit too long.
Still, a total of seven years is a pretty long time to get to know someone and to develop a bond with them. Hopefully, that does a good enough job of explaining any choices the two would make in comparison to their canon counterparts given their influence on one another
Agree? Disagree? Leave a review and do tell!