Adulting was hard and Nys didn't like it on bit. Job hunting was particularly boring and tedious. While not a physically tiring day so far, Nyssa was more than a little mentally done with staring at her laptop screen. She was going to go stir crazy at this rate, and shopping for groceries hadn't helped either since she'd very nearly gotten run over by a taxi walking back to her apartment.

Nys had her license, but far preferred public transport or walking when possible. Not getting run over by people around here seemed to be a more difficult sport than other cities as of yet, but really Nyssa just hadn't gotten used to New York's traffic hustle and bustle and her place in it. But stress was annoying and it threw her game off-Even the assassin knew that.

It came as no surprise, then, that her itchy feet led her to the library. Calm, quiet, and though many people could fit into the rows and rows of bookshelves every time in every library she'd been to (admittedly, going to a library was a painfully rare occasion before Sharon's death.) she still felt gloriously isolated in her own little world. Plus it afforded a plethora of knowledge at her fingertips. Though if she was being honest...Nyssa still had difficulty figuring out libraries. And books. She was quite literate and had a firm grasp of English but the sheer number of literary experiences ninety percent of other people she knew had and Nyssa did not have was practically a sea weighing her down. It wasn't that she was stupid in the slightest. But it could easily seem that way at times due to her lack of certain general know-how.

So when she got a spare moment, she enjoyed slogging through books she would have had to read in middle school, classics, and even some fiction that looked interesting. Unfortunately...She was completely new to this library and the ends of the bookshelf rows with the cryptic JA-B or whatever else odd letter and number combinations that meant little to the brown haired woman were even more foreign. Assistance to find what she needed in the Labyrinth would be required, ASAP.

Fortunately, she was pretty sure she'd spotted someone capable of assistance. Around Nys's age! Excellent! She approached from behind and slightly to the right, bottom lip clenched between Nyssa's upper and lower teeth tightly as she came to a silent stop behind the blonde woman and paused. Ok, so not a silent stop. Every step and every breath produced tiny sound waves that Nys could feel, but she assumed it was pretty darn close to rather quiet. "Ah, 'scuse me ma'am. Do you work here?" Better make sure she did before Nys went off requesting the woman help her navigate these shelves.

Celeste was finishing up reorganizing some books. She had her book cart next to her and nearly overflowing. It had been a relatively annoying day - apparently, no one liked to respect the order of the library. She had to add more, remove some, rearrange, rearrange, and rearrange. There was always more. And never was it close to the right spot. It had to be sooo far away. Maybe Celeste was just in a complainy mood, though. She had woken up on the proverbial wrong side of the, well, couch in her situation. 

Despite her complaints, the library would always feel like home. It was her refuge, her sanctuary in hard times. Not to mention, she had met Booker here. If she hadn't met Booker, she'd have never met Vanessa. Or Norma. That was the only painful thing about here - Norma. It just didn't feel right without her occassionally coming by.

At least it was peaceful. There wasn't too many people in the library today, she didn't have to worry about working that night, and she didn't even have to worry about studying. All in all, a perfect night. She checked her watch and sighed, she still had a little bit of time left for her volunteer shift. 

Celeste had worn a nice blue colored blouse with a blue and grayish designer skirt down to her knees. She was regretting her heels. Extensively. Her feet were already killing her from having to walk so much - but she was pretty sure she never had to walk this much before.

She heard a voice behind her but it took a moment for her brain to process that there was, indeed, a human behind her. Once processed, she let out a small eek! Goodness, how did she get behind her so quietly? She hadn't heard anything - not a breath of air, a footstep, nothing. After she took a moment to gain her breath, "I'm so sorry, you scared the life of out me." She shook her head, "I actually don't work here, no. I'm a volunteer. Do you need any assistance with anything?" She didn't get paid but she practically did work here. And she loved it. Most days, anyways. 

Oops. The blonde nearly jumped out of her skin and Nyssa gave her a look of pure apology and worry for her, grey eyes wide and very sorry. "Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you." The woman offered, taking a small step back to give the apparent volunteer some space. Nys shifted the few books she'd already grabbed, clutching them to her chest like they would somehow shield her and nibbling on her lip.

"Hopefully you can. I'm having some trouble finding the sequel to this book. It's a new library to me and..." The woman cast a furtive glance around herself. "I'm kinda lost as far as finding what I need." Once she'd explained her dilemma, she glanced down and extracted a book from her currently small pile. She planned on expanding it before she was ready to leave, of course. The Fellowship Of The Ring stated the book's title. Whilst Nys had the third also in hand, the second had appeared to either have been checked out or misplaced from where it ought to be.
Not a big deal, but she did hope she could get her hands on the second one. Since both hands were occupied by a book and thus unable to finger the non-existent knife on her hip or her hair, her nerves opted her running her thumb up and down the cover of The Fellowship. "I looked around the shelf where these two were but didn't find it..."

Celeste nearly jumped out of her skin but immediately felt bad. She could see the sorry and worry in the woman eyes and she felt pretty bad for snapping like she did. Celeste shook her head and held her hands up, "Oh no, no, don't be sorry. It happens." She chuckled quietly although she was still trying to shake off the adrenaline that went through her. Poor girl, though. She really didn't mean to make her feel that bad. It was just instinctual reaction.

She perked a brow and nodded, "Sure, definitely. I know this library like the back of my hand now." Months of scouring, changing, cleaning, and rearranging has made her very well known with the libraries mazes of shelves. Well, she did when people put them back in the right space - which, at least recently, seemed to be less and less people. She gave the girl a smile and took a look at the title of the book. First questions first, where did she originally find it? That would help her know if those shelves were messed up. She gave the girl a smile, "Yeah, I can help you find those books. Where did you find these two?" She pushed her cart off to the side and motioned for the woman to follow her, "It should be over here on this shelve... Key word is should be." She sighed and muttered, "people haven't been very good at putting things back where they belong..."

She gave the girl a smile, "So, new to the library? Are you just new to this library or new to the city?" 

Ok, the volunteer wasn't upset. You never really knew how negatively people were going to react when you, albeit mostly accidentally, sneaked up behind them. The blonde seemed nice, though. That was a positive. And she knew the library very well. Thank God. She was at least 90% sure this was the largest library she'd ever been in. Glorious, if a little overwhelming.

"Yep, these were over thataway." A nod of her head in the correct direction before making slow progress said way, finally walking obediently on the right flank of the woman. Ah, yes. The volunteer found the shelf easily and earned a curt, sort of encouraging nod from the sniper. It took a second to realize it might be hard to see lurking in the woman's peripheral vision.
Oh well. If she couldn't see Nys embarrass herself, she couldn't pass judgment, the woman supposed.
Disappointment curdling in her stomach soon drove those thoughts away though. The second appeared to not magically appear on the shelf for the volunteer either. Teeth pressed against her bottom lip again as she considered this development and how much information to offer to the blonde.

"New to the city. Just getting settled, actually. So far I like it." Nys replied. "Um...I'm working on reading some of the...'classics' and well known books. I've got this Trilogy here, but can you recommend any others...?" Her tone dipped down to tentative but the sniper stuck to her guns and continued on with the question.

Nyssa couldn't rely on Google's wisdom for her reading choices forever. Someone who clearly knew literature was a far better resource.

Celestina nodded and looked over where the woman nodded her head. Ugh, of course. It was in the entire other direction. It didn't really surprise her as much as it just annoyed her. Granted, if people put the books back correctly, she'd probably be out of a volunteer position. That would be pretty sad, too. Celeste realized she had been a little bit grumpier than usual. Weird. 

Once they were at the correct shelves, Celeste gave the woman a smile and scanned the shelve, trying to find the rest of the books in her series. After some dust getting swiped off, stepping on her tippy toes once, she found them! She quickly took them off and wiped the dust off of them and handed them over to Nyssa. She smiled. So she was new to the city, that was great. It wasn't long ago that she was a newbie in the city, too. She nodded, "Well, welcome! It's a great place. A bit intimidating, but a great place." 

The woman asked for her recommendations and she paused, considering, "Well, some of the big, popular ones would be those, Perry Hotter, The Hunger Games, The Lovely Bones, Secret Life of the Bees, The Time Traveler's Wife..." She paused, thinking some more, "If you're looking for more not so well known, anything by Tamora Pierce is pretty good. The Secret Garden. The Uglies series. If you like fantasy, some sci-fi, this is a pretty good section." She motioned to the shelves in front of them. She smiled, "I presumed due to the whole Lord of the Rings premise, but is there a different genre you prefer?" 

She followed obediently, not sure where the volunteer was whirling off to now but deciding to trust her enough to follow. The blonde seemed nice and friendly-There was no reason to consider her a threat yet. The appearance of the books Nys sought had not been expected, but brought a bright, beaming smile to her face. The brown haired woman fell silent for a moment, clutching the books to her chest. "Thank you. Well, I've lived in a few other big cities, so not a huge culture shock. But this is the largest library I've been in." Her eyes flitted up to gaze for a second at the ceiling, then met the volunteer's again, a quiet student attentively listening to the teacher.

"The Hunger Games, Tamora Peirce, Lovely Bones." Nys repeated, nodding slightly. "Gotcha, I'll look into them..." A glance down at the hefty stack in her arms. "After I finish these."

"Oh, no problem! Yeah, fiction tends to be more my preference, particularly fantasy. You will certainly be seeing more of me around here in the future Miss...?" Nyssa's head tilted slightly as she roundaboutly asked the volunteer's name, musty scent of the library perhaps making her relaxed enough to try for a friend in the welcoming, chatty volunteer she'd accidentally startled.
Or maybe Nyssa just needed information, as much as she could get. Knowledge was power, and the right amount of power was the best way to stay alive.

Once Celeste arrived at the area where the books Nyssa would be, she pulled them out and handed them over to her. She made a mental note that the books would be checked out and maybe some other ones could replace it at a later time. After all, Harry Potter books took a longgg time to read through. Unless she had a lot of time on her hand, which was pretty plausible in actuality. 

She nodded as she listened, "Oh, very nice. That's good, really good!" She laughed a little and nodded, taking a look around the library. "It is a very big library, but it'll have all you ever hoped for. Except, maybe the library of congress? Not sure." She shrugged a little.

She grinned and nodded, "Yeahhh, that'll take you a while to get through. Those are just some good books, especially if you like some fantasy. The Lovely Bones is pretty... Depressing, though, so just be aware."

The woman seemed nice and nonthreatening, but in New York City, anyone and everyone had to be a bit careful. Otherwise, they might get themselves in a tricky situation. She smiled, "I'm Celestina. Celeste for short. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Heh. I don't think Library of Congress is going to have what I'm looking for either, so I'll stick to the local treasure trove." Her humor was backed by a sheepish smile, grey eyes searching the volunteer's face curiously as she spoke. Patting the top of her pile, her smile relaxed some into something a bit more natural.

"Ah, I'm sure it'll be great." Nyssa nodded once, more for herself than the volunteer, who then introduced herself as Celestina. "Celestina, or Celeste. Got it. Nyssa Grant, Nyssa or Grant works fine." She considered, for a split moment, offering a hand to shake with Celeste, but quickly thought better of it. Dropping the pile of books she had would be an absolute sin. "Thank you again."

She laughed quietly, “True, very true.” She gave a smile towards Nyssa before taking a glance at the library. “This really is a great place, even to just clear your mind.”

She nodded, “I think you will enjoy it. Plus, easy reads.” She smiled, “It’s great to meet you, Nyssa! I hope you come around more often!” Celeste thought it was strange that she’d want to be called Grant. Maybe she was from a military family? Or maybe she was in the military herself. Either way, not something to be concerned about.

She smiled, “No problem! I’m here pretty often, so if you ever need my help, you can ask anyone and they should be able to send you my way.”