Caroline

She has a faraway look in her sparkling green eyes, this Caroline. These same eyes look out through almond-shaped eyeglasses resting on her slender muzzle ending in a gentle pink nose- eyeglasses whose brass harmonizes with her red-brown fur. Her height and build suggest a humanoid young adult. She has white along the underside of her delicate muzzle, and also at the tip of her long, languidly-sweeping bushy tail. Her red-brown fur is otherwise marked by black patterns along the lower parts of her arms and legs, suggestive of gauntlets and greaves.

She's wearing a green garden-party frock, the long flowing material combining with her quiet footsteps to make her seem to glide more than walk, with lacing of a brassy color that likewise harmonizes with her fur. She's carrying a delicate white parasol, the ivory handle carved into the shape of gamboling rabbits.

Once upon a time...

Vixen Bio-Android #452, "Caroline", was commissioned by the (Untranslateable-Name) Public Library to file books during the week and read to children on weekend mornings. Over time she became an avid reader on many topics. But economic crisis hit, and books lost popularity in favor of audiovisual entertainment, forcing budget cuts; the library chain was acquired by a mass media/fast food/computer software conglomerate which dismissed Caroline, on a cold rainy evening, after 17 years of diligent work.

The truth of all this was obscured in Caroline's memory until very recently, when a session at the Up/MindLab? successfully eradicated the mental blocks.

Since then, she's wandered the country, then planet, then galaxies, searching for somewhere to fit in.

At least one of these places is now known to her, with help from the above-mentioned MindLab sessions, and Tiskel's encouragement: the former Museum known as Aleph, where she had worked as a Curator for a brief time before its collapse. Specific details of this period, though, are few and far between.

Setting

Caroline assists Reader in running his library in the Museum, and lives in the back room.

Cast of Characters

• Mel seems to have a sense of doom that his former self didn't have. Can't he understand that's possible to be beautiful without being perfect?

• The other Curators are all special in their own ways, though she doesn't know them very well. Whether Caroline intends to once again work as an official Curator remains up in the air. You can't go home again, can you?

• As to that other library, Caroline finds William admirable, but difficult to interact with (his ethical differences from the Museum's being as yet impossible to bridge); Tiskel charming, but jaded. Ah, but flawless heroes would be unnatural and uninteresting, wouldn't they?

• Arine seems to think she's creating the world. But then, isn't everyone?

Marginal Notes

And what do you have to add, Gentle Reader?