Nayoki skims his thoughts to try to figure out what Disney is a reference to, though ideally they'll go find somewhere to buy a map. 

Disney is - a lot of crowds, a lot of tall machinery, fireworks, expensive. It's not a test of any kind, it's just his main association with southern California. He rings up all of their stuff. "Who're you buying clothes for?

"My friends," Matirin says. 

Whatever. "Have a nice day, thanks for shopping at Goodwill."

He heads out, burdened by his ridiculous number of clothes.

:Should we go bring these back or put them somewhere before we try anything further?: Leareth is glancing around. :I still want to buy a map and - go to a library, maybe, if they have those in this world, it would have a great deal of useful context and I assume your computers can translate it even if we cannot comfortably read it yet: 

:I can read it: Nayoki can read English and Spanish fine because she cheats. She didn't get as far on Mandarin because the writing system is obnoxious. 

<Let's put these in the shuttle and then we can look for a library and a place to buy a map.> 

Leareth nods and offers his hands to help carry things. 

Making their way back they are nearly done violence by one of the carriages. The person riding inside it sticks his head out and yells "get the fuck out of the road", which does seem advisable. 

Otherwise they make it back to the shuttle without incident.

Leareth watches the carriage with its faintly visible to mage-sight intricacies inside go with curiosity. :Do you know if they had those twenty years ago? They are very fast. Not as fast as the shuttle but I think faster than a Companion: 

<I think they have had them for almost a hundred years. Combustion engines?> He looks to Cayaldwin.

<You repeatedly cause small controlled explosions, feeding them oil, and then do something mechanical - I don't know what Earth in particular does - to move the wheels from that.>

:Huh. It seems rather inefficient and roundabout but I suppose they do not have any magic: 

<And most better ways of doing it are much harder.> He drops all his stuff on the floor of the shuttle. <We have another hour in morph. We can at least quickly try to find a library and a map.>

:The quickest way will be to ask people for directions, it does give more opportunities to accidentally look weird, but I think saying you are from San Diego is an adequate explanation to need directions: 

So he stops the next person on the street. "Hello," he says. "Is there a library in this city?"

      The guy thinks something disdainful about people from the lower 48. "Yeah, in city hall." He points the way. 

City Hall also sounds like a good place to get a map. Matirin proceeds.

City Hall has a plastic grey archway with flashing lights on it. A burly man with a gun asks them why they're there. "Someone said the library's here?" 

      "Yeah, go ahead."

Matirin starts to...step through the metal thing. 

       "You need to take your car keys out of your pockets."

"...sorry," he says, and stands there a little bit uncertainly. "I don't - think I have those."

       "- how'd you get here?"

"Oh, I took an airplane from San Diego."

       It's such an odd phrasing that it in fact makes him think 'is English his first language'. "And you didn't rent a car? Where are you staying?"

"Uh, with friends."

      "Right, well, if you don't have anything metal you can go right ahead."

"Ah," says Matirin, and steps through the doorway. Nothing happens.

:Fascinating, I think it is some kind of ward. Or whatever the name is for those with technology. Scanner, I suppose. What kind of weapon is that man holding, do you know: It definitely looks like it's intended as a weapon but Leareth doesn't recognize it, and he hates unrecognized weapons. 

<It's a gun. It fires little bits of metal at extraordinarily high speeds.>

"Are you lot coming too," the man says.

"Yes, thank you," Nayoki says in not-too-accented English, and nudges Leareth across. 

Leareth keeps his mage-sight wide open as he crosses, and resists the urge to slam up all his physical shields, they are - not completely unnoticeable even to un-Gifted eyes - and there's no indication the security here is actually about to use their weapon against him. He still has to exert a lot of control to keep his body language relaxed and as normal as possible. 

And then they can go to the library. 

It's a fairly pathetic library. It's in one room and has a couple thousand books, mostly paperbacks, mostly dilapidated, on the metal shelves. There's no one in the room at the moment. 

A couple of thousand books is actually quite a lot by Velgarth standards! Leareth has more, but he's not sure even the Heralds have much more than this. Though they're so sad-looking. 

:Clearly this place does not have any technology to replace Velgarth's book-preservation magic: 

Nayoki moves systematically along the shelves, checking for any kind of apparent organizational schema by reading titles and skimming first pages. She still doesn't read English that fast and has to subvocalize unfamiliarly-spelled words to herself frequently, but she's picking up speed as she goes. 

There are lots of editions of National Geographic and lots of editions of a fishing magazine and some thrillers by John Grisham and Michael Crichton and Danielle Steel and Anne Rice. There's a biography of President Clinton, which he takes, because he vaguely remembers the President being an important political figure. 

There's a kids' shelf with Nancy Drew and Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl.

The National Geographic looks informative based on the pictures (Leareth can slightly sound out words in English but he's had a week to learn this and it was not at all his top priority.) He asks Nayoki to pick out ones which seems good. 

She does, and also picks out a couple of paperback books with couples in sexy poses on the covers. "These look fun." 

:Nayoki, is that really the highest priority?: