”Is this place really haunted? Does the ghost take care of the books?”
Blink, blink? Maya looked at her waving hand. She wasn't incorporeal. She was quite visible on the second floor. Waving. Sometimes it was more fun to believe in something strange rather than something mundane. Which meant no more disembodied voices. Shame.

"I run a bookstore, actually, but I don't take care of these books. I'm just here on a delivery run. It's mostly the kids in detention who organize the books." What better way to instill discipline in a young mind than repeated alphabetization? Also, once the kids knew it'd be them cleaning up the books, they started putting things back better. Funny how it all worked out that way.

Maya stopped leaning on the bannister and headed for the stairs. After a graceful decent she was offering her hand and a playful grin to the blonde. "Maya Csendes. I live here sometimes and Shin works with me." Triangular pupils and all. She just couldn't help but grin. The girl was pretty. Shin wasn't doing so bad for himself.

It was amazing. Mind-boggling. Absolutely crazy. “You know,” Shin began innocuously. “We do need a good librarian.” He was leading. Shin hoped it was obvious. The plan had been developed entirely on-the-go. “Hey, wait a minute, aren’t you—” Shin smirked.

“And, no.” He made a big show of it. “No hauntings.” People up-top, actually. He poked a finger towards the second floor as the Ghosty spoke. Triangular pupils rose to settle on the white-haired woman. The mansion wasn’t macabre enough for ghouls... at least, not the ghastliest ones. More like Casper, actually.

He smiled at Ghost as she took the ‘stairs’ approach. “Hey. How’ve you been? This is Kealey.” Shin looked to Kealey. “I’m showing her around.”

They needed a librarian? Wasn’t she a….? Why, yes she was, Kealey realized. A moment’s more thought and the fact that she was traveling all over the city to attend classes, and work at the library started to look just a little bit silly. If the mansion needed a librarian, and Kealey was going to be staying at the mansion, maybe…. ”I am, and...” Kealey said, a smile spreading across her face as an idea came to her. An idea she was about to say aloud when a the disembodied voice spoke again. Only…it wasn’t so disembodied anymore.

Shin pointed, and Kealey’s eyes followed it to the white-haired woman leaning on the banister. She still spoke as if she were the ghost, but claimed that she was only making a delivery to the library. The students took care of it? That was a lovely idea, but what about cataloguing and what happened if people wanted the same book and there was only one copy? All the library issues ran through Kealey’s mind as Maya descended the stairs. In fact, she was so immersed that the woman appearing in front of her was almost shocking and Kealey blinked a few times as the woman held out her hand and introduced herself.

Kealey didn’t have triangle pupils, but she could add up two and two. ”Oh! You’re Sebastian’s wife. I take an apartment in your building. I‘m Kealey, Kealey Quinn.” Kealey remembered the details from Garrett, he’d filled her in when they’d been discussing her lease on the apartment. Besides, that last name couldn’t be a common pairing with that last name…

Maya had pointed out that she worked with Shin and Kealey naturally assumed that meant on the X-Men things. It made sense and it hadn’t occurred to the blond yet that Maya might be the person who owned the Full Circle. ”Shin is being nice enough to show me the highlights of the mansion. I’m a bit of a book freak, you see, and this is a very impressive library."

"O-oh!" The revelations kept coming as they spoke. "So we should know each other, really, but don't yet. Good to see you around. Funny that we meet here rather than there." Sebastian had said something, but... well, by the time it got to her it was third hand knowledge and she'd inherited a ten year old.

"Oh I get your bookophila. It's been over a full year for us since Full Circle opened. Did you realize, Shin? This March was a year." That was a boggling idea. She'd just taken over the place not really knowing what would happen. And now it felt like just a blink and a whole year had flown by. "Not that I've been around the most, but... I'm definitely not tired of it."

She could gush all day, though. "Well I'll let you two get your tour in. Glad to actually meet you Kealey. You should pop in for dinner some time."

For the moment, the librarian plot was put aside. Ghost was there. He'd nudge Kealey later about taking over the job nobody seemed to have. She'd seemed to get his hinting. All that was left was the shoulder-shove nudge.

Shin smiled from Kealey, back to Ghost. "Yup." He was the tour guide. It seemed Kealey knew of Ghost, but neither had officially met. Fun. It wasn't just her voice that traveled on the wind. News also had a way of blowing around.

"A whole year, huh?" That was interesting. It had been nearly two since he'd gotten to the mansion, hadn't it? Or was it less time? Time was confusing. "I never would have guessed. We should have some sort of anniversary special or something? A special on books about palindromes?" He looked to Kealey with a hint of a wink. Palindromes. They were awesome.

It seemed Ghost was getting ready to leave. Shin nodded. "Catch you later, Ghost." He waved as she left them alone. When Ghosty had vanished, Shin turned back towards Kealey, sly smile slipping onto his face. "Now, about that librarian job..."

A door opened nearby. A trio of students entered the library. Shin looked to the clock on the library's wall, and paused his nudging. "Hmm... I guess classes got out. Might want to see about getting you to your room now, I suppose..." The less emotional traffic they had to deal with, the better.

Kealey watched and listened as Shin and Ghost spoke about the Full Circle, and it took her far to long to realize that Maya was also the owner there. With the realization, Kealey grinned and chuckled outright when Shin pointed out that they should have a special on books about palindromes. He still remembered when they’d met. Kealey did too, the waving Blue Badger in the window had seemed so friendly compared to the world outside. Inside had been even better.

Maya moved on her way before Kealey had a chance to point out what a regular she was at the store, and the blond filed the conversation away for later. She’d also gotten a dinner invitation for when she was at the apartment again. That had potential for fun, it had been strange living in such close quarters with people she barely knew. She smiled as she watched the retreating back of Maya climb back up the stairs to the second floor, then turned to Shin, ”I’m surprised we hadn’t ran into each other before. She seems so nice. No wonder the Full Circle is such a nice kind of place.”

They moved back to the library side of the conversation, and Kealey grinned at Shin as he rehashed the subject, his emotions veering towards mischievous, playful, and a number of other things Kealey usually associated with someone being sly. It was almost like Shin was trying to sell her something,. She grinned, at least it was something she wanted to buy. ”What about it? Were you thinking that this place needs someone to whip it into shape? Because that’s what I was think….”

Kealey stopped mid-sentence and her eyes swung to the bundle of teenage emotion that had just entered the library. Shin commented that classes had obviously just gotten out and Kealey nodded mutely with his suggestion that they should probably be getting her to her room. ”Definitely a good idea. Sorry in advance if I struggle with this.” she added, swallowing a little at the prospect of navigating the halls during a transition time.

>>”I’m surprised we hadn’t ran into each other before. She seems so nice. No wonder the Full Circle is such a nice kind of place.”

"One of my favorite people," Shin replied.

If only for the students arriving, he would have made the sale. Darn their luck. Oh well. It'd be a good idea to get going.

"Don't worry about it," Shin replied with a slight smile, leading her out of the library. He spoke as they went along. "I understand. It's difficult. I tried finding you a room further away from the bigger crowds. It's actually by my room," He noted, as they went up the stairs. Shin took a second to look back at her, as they hit the top of the flight. "As for taking on a job as librarian, that's what I was hinting at. I think it'd be good. We certainly need the help." His focus snapped back towards the hallways ahead of them. Shin led the way down the center hall, towards the back of the mansion. It was a bit further away from the younger students' rooms, near some of the adult rooms. Those would likely be empty during the day. He figured she'd be able to use that.

On the way down the hall, Shin paused. He gestured to a door, and its number. "This is my room, by the way. In case you ever need anything." That said, he finished the tour. A short walk later, they were in front of her room. Shin turned to Kealey. He'd given her the key. "Would you do the honors and unlock it? Welcome to the Mansion. This is your room."

Sooner rather than later, Kealey and Shin left the library. There were kids everywhere and for a moment Kealey wondered if it was actually a good idea for her to stay here. Memories of her time in the mail sack surfaced, though, and she hardened her resolve to walk through the crowd of students. Shin said he understood, and as with pretty much everything else he’d ever said to her, Kealey could feel the truth behind the words. That helped, considerably, knowing that it was okay if she got weird because of the kids and their emotions.

They walked, and Kealey tried to keep her head from spinning, catching most of what Shin was saying and trying to remind herself to thank him for his attempt to keep her out of the higher-traffic areas of the mansion. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the top of the stair case and the students thinned out. Either they were making it to their next classes, or she and Shin had made it to one of those areas that was more student free. Kealey sighed in relief, smiling slight at Shin, ”That wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been…we’re just kind of lucky I didn’t get lost.”

Shin explained that her room was actually close to his, and inwardly Kealey was thrilled. She didn’t know very many people here, and having Shin close would be helpful to say the least. She worked at committing the number on Shin’s room to memory and they moved down the hallway and finally stopped at a door. Shin told her to do the honors, and Kealey put the key into the lock and pushed the door open.

The room was simple, but not unreasonably small, it even appeared to have an adjacent bathroom. The floor of the main area was covered in grey carpet and there was a nice desk and desk chair against one wall. There was no bedding, and everything looked very bare, though. It occurred to Kealey that she would need to make a trip to her apartment some time soon. For now, though, Kealey moved inside with a small sigh of relief. It was safe here.

An idea occurred to Kealey, an idea that made her almost tingle with anticipation and she sprinted into the bathroom, a wide smile lighting her features as she found all the materials necessary for a shower. She returned to the main room to face her guide, ”Thanks again Shin…for everything. If you don’t mind…I think I’ll take advantage of the shower now and see if I can make myself look vaguely human.”

That said, and goodbyes made for now, and Kealey finding herself alone the blond made her way toward steamy bliss to see what else of the day before could be washed away.