In the cafeteria of an O.R.C. detention center, at a table by herself, sits a three-tailed foxgirl in a purple sundress, looking oddly toon-shaded despite occupying what appears to be a fully live-action jail. She has pink hair, hazel eyes, and is humming the melody of "I shot the sheriff" to herself. She takes a cheap-looking black pen out of her pocket, holds it over her coffee, and cracks it in half, the ink draining out into the cup. Then she stirs the coffee with broken ends, perhaps hoping to let the remaining bits of ink drip out in the process.
"I never really thought much about office work but it's probably just as awful in its own colorful way.
Delivery driver? Lame. Being the girl from that old anime movie, delivery flyer? Game."
"Yeah! And maybe a luck enchantment on your broom would help with safety? I just need to figure out what the trick is for enchanting mothergifts."
"Yo, your turn's here, Lenora. Lemme go introduce you, and then I'll be right back, Archive's up ahead."
"Libraries! Also known as one of the things I'm most looking forward to about Arcadia!"
She waves at Lenora, then bounces on her heels while she waits for Ms. Only Nice Cop Ever to return.
She takes Sable to the archive and laughs off the archivist/receptionist's annoyed-but-not-hostile remark that it's a valuable O-R-C resource and eventually allows for a 'Level 1' lookup.
"You probably want me to build the search query," the librarian says. "What are you looking for?"
The librarian has a modern computer, but she doesn't use it for this. Instead, there's a big wall-sized tape deck sort of machine with thick bundles of copper wire trailing around and through in neat rows, cables trailing off it to more machinery in the aisles behind and to a softly glowing arrangement of crystals. She sets three dials - "SPECIES (WITCH)" "GENERAL INFO" and "LEVEL 1". Then types at an old box of a monitor for a good ten seconds. The tape reels spin and something chunk-chunk-chunks in the background and the crystals light up with a subtle flair of mana.
"The system's pretty old. It has, you know, quirks, like big old stuff tends to get. But it's magic all the way through, has lots of features we can't give up. Especially secure storage and security compartmentalization. Keeps the infohazards nice and need-to-know, and hardly anybody really needs to know."
She nods. "That makes sense. Modern upgrades are nice, but not at the cost of important features. Sounds like it'd be a bitch to replace."
Sable reads through it quickly once the librarian passes it to her. "Huh. Y'all sure do take your containment seriously. I definitely learned a bit from this, though."
She pauses to think about her next question.
"That's just how this place is, ya know. Gotta have an answer ready even if it never gets used. They have an answer to me goin' off the deep end somewhere."
"Makes sense." Her right ear twitches to the side a bit. "Got any further details about how that resurrection works, or contact with other Inkborn who could tell me more?"
And then the knowledge suddenly slots into place, feeling viscerally right in a way she hadn't expected, like the fulfillment of three Chekov's Guns she hadn't previously noticed.
"Wow, that makes so much sense. I can kinda feel how it might work, now that I'm looking for it."
"We're not showing you all of them, this is public contact info, something you could find on HexVPN with the right searches." The librarian says. "Maybe not the Godmother's direct. I don't recommend using it, by the way."
"Yeah, somehow I don't think directly poking an archtypal mafia matriarch when you haven't been invited to do so contributes positively to your life expectancy. I'll email Loretta instead. Thanks for these!"
"No problem! Glad we can try to make up for how ya got here, at least. Want to head to medical? She's probably done, the scans don't take that long."
"Hey," Lenora tells them where she's sitting on the benches outside. "I have been officially approved as not a horrible tentacle monster that wants to end reality, and have a stamp to prove it. Also, even if that scare talk was exaggeration, yikes. You find anything good, Sable?"
"Hooray for not being an omnicidal abomination! I'm so glad I didn't accidentally start befriending an omnicidal abomination. That would be such a challenge!"
She giggles, then holds up her two printouts. "Yeah, I did. Got some details on how my resurrection works, and that I'm apparently going to be very difficult to deprive of mana once I do some initial setup. Also got contact details for two other Inkborn."