It's a beautiful day in the village - TAKE A LOAD OFF, LOG 1

[libraryassistants]

Who: Readers and Actors
What: Beta Story Start - At the start of any particular Story, characters will be drawn to a section of the Stacks. Those inclined to resist will find themselves there anyway, through the shifts and changes inherent to the Library's structure. The Story manuscript will be laid out neatly on a side table, its pages lit by a faint aura that draws focus and beckons insistently to the Editors. Touching it will bring them into the Story.
Characters can either voluntarily touch the Story to enter it, or the Librarian will eventually sweep them in. Regardless of how long it takes them to enter, everyone will arrive at the same point in time.
When: November 14- November 27
Where: Woodhurst (UK) and the SS Radiance (in space!), 2019
Content warnings: Please tag warnings in comment headers!

In Woodhurst

It’s another Monday morning in Woodhurst, and as is often the case for the United Kingdom in the fall, it is raining. It is, all in all, a rather typical Monday morning. People shuffle off to work, dropping by the various cafes and shops for their morning caffeine. Polite (if meaningless) greetings are exchanged, vague comments about the weather are made. Heads down, trudging along, just keeping things going.

By midday, it’s clear that this Monday is a little bit… different. There are some people who seem especially cheerful and helpful. Perhaps you’ve just been served a free upsize of your morning coffee. Or a stranger held an umbrella up for you. People keep talking about the benefits of yoga? And it’s not just a bunch of people seeming to be having an especially good day and paying it forward (that would be strange enough). Some of your friends and loved ones aren’t acting like themselves, aside from being remarkably cheerful. They don’t seem to remember basic things, don’t know their normal rituals, and are generally just very off. You think one of them might have blinked sideways? Whatever it is that’s happened, it doesn’t seem right.

As for those ‘friends and loved ones’… The novices from the Interstellar Group are largely inexperienced with such a thing as covert operations. Fresh off the ship and with no frame of reference, their human disguises may have a few significant flaws.

However many fingers it is they have, they’re keen to help - perhaps a little too much so. Whatever it takes to make these human lives easier, whatever they can do to help them relax - the Group are on it! Hopefully they’ll catch on quietly.


On the IMW Group Supply Ship: Radiance

No plan survives contact with the enemy, is how the saying goes. But within the Interstellar Mindfulness & Wellness Group, the concept is usually applied to patients. Patients are, almost entirely across the board, unpredictable creatures - and while the science behind wellness is robust, there’s simply too much individual variation for a standardised approach. That being said, this particular plan seems to be going… rather more poorly than expected. It starts to break down once the word ‘kidnapping’ is brought up. It’s such an ugly word to use. The Group tries to avoid it. But in some of these cases, the humans need the Group’s own facilities! The idea was to convince the humans to follow them to a very not suspicious space capsule, or to get them to touch this particularly strange teleportation device, and they’d be on their way to recovery. However, most if not all the humans seem to be reacting… quite negatively to that. It’s almost like they don’t understand that this is for their benefit!

The ship is very nice, and perfectly designed to relax and comfort (--for the species the Group are familiar with, at least). Soothing music plays along the spaceship’s halls, which are lit in a soft violet glow. Potted plants are artfully displayed, though none of them are recognisable as any species found on Earth. For those with a sensitive nose, the flowers give off a bright, delicate scent; not unlike that of lavender and lemon myrtle. An entire stretch of glass is dedicated to the view outside, the Earth looking so serene from this distance; stars shining in the space around it.

For those Aliens aboard the mothership, maybe you’re delivering this hour’s yoga session. Maybe you’re leading a group chant or meditation. Are you perhaps talking humans into resting in the healing spa, or - for those so inclined - are you delving deeper, forming a connection, and really getting to know these humans? For the humans… well, at least the spa looks really nice, right?

[Space Spa Features:
Yoga - you’ve been herded into a room where a flexible alien encourages you to breathe deeply; holding it in your stomach and feeling your heart beat before letting it out in a big sigh. The routine is not very different to yoga on Earth, except… well, if you can’t find your proboscis, maybe that particular pose won’t work for you.
Sauna - the heat promotes circulation, but the temperature in here seems to be a little off.
Spa - you know what a spa is. Or, you thought you did. It looks like the aliens aren’t quite on the same page. Where there would normally be cucumbers, there’s a strange pink fruit. Where you’d expect water, there’s… a viscous fluid, gently rotating through a myriad of colours, that seems to soften and soothe your muscles as you soak in it.
And Others - the aliens have no shortage of remedies for what ails you! Since this is their first time experiencing humans, results may vary.]


Optional prompts (player-run):
An alien adrift, unsure what task to complete? Seek guidance from your leader.

In Woodhurst, unnerved and skeptical? Drop in at your local seedy bookshop to chat with some alien enthusiasts.

[Have a plan to drive the Story direction? Let us know, and we’ll add it to the list!

Info post can be found here.]

Comments

Min'a Mu'rray (Actor) | OTA

[starandhope]

SS Radiance; Enthusiastic newbie;

Min'a, a young Revanian who is ridiculously chipper and excited to be on her first official assignment for the Group, can be found in various parts of the ship, preparing for sessions, eating lunch and chatting with colleagues, and just generally being incredibly enthusiastic about this whole mission.

"Is this your first assignment? It's my first assignment," she will eagerly explain to you, her fellow Group members. "I hope I do all right! These humans sound like they could really use our help."

SS Radiance; Therapy;

If you are a hapless human (or whatever) assigned to Min'a's therapy sessions, welcome! Her office is a soothing pallette of greige, broken up only by the potted plants that are so exotic to Earthlings' eyes. But she's done her homework - not only does she have comfortable seating, she's also got a carafe of water, a couple of glasses, and a box of Kleenex on a table!

"Welcome," she offers with a warm smile, happy to be here, eager to help. "Please, have a seat. Everyone has a story. I want to hear yours, if you're willing."

Woodhurst;

It's important that Min'a get a taste of the local culture, so she's taking a day or two, wearing a (probably slightly awkward) human disguise, exploring the town and trying to be inconspicuous. It's very possible that her ears are still a little too pointy to be human.

"What lovely flowers!" she exclaims at a flower shop. "What species are these?"

Or, at a music store, "What an interesting tune! Who is the artist?"

Or find her at the supermarket, examining boxed dinners or something.

Wildcard;

Have some other idea? Drop a starter and I'm happy to roll with it!

Frontier Psychiatry

[shelloflight]

And here is a raven-black haired teenage human in a trenchcoat, white shirt with a curious blue triangle emblem, jeans and boots sitting slumped with her arms crossed. The file says her name is Michiko Tsukuda, and includes the glyphs for it in two Earth languages and three writing systems.

She’s terrified and angry, and is trying to project the latter. If she snaps at Min’a, she doesn’t have to burst into tears after her singularly shitty week at school.

(For which a crewmember infiltrating as a secondary school teacher was partially responsible. Oops. In his defense, how was he to know his misreading of Tsukuda sounded like a vulgar act?)

“When my parents find out about this you xeno creeps are in big trouble. My da knows karate.”

She’s bluffing. Her dad does not know karate, or indeed any martial art. Neither does young Michiko.

[starandhope]

Min'a is, for better or worse, an empath, so not much is going to get by her. She can tell that this human is both angry and frightened, though she honestly isn't sure why?

She's doing her best, here.

"It's quite all right," she says, in her most calm, soothing voice. "You are perfectly safe here. We're here to help. My name is Min'a. And you are Michiko?"

[shelloflight]

Perfectly safe here.

That is SO beyond the point that she laughs ruefully. Here isn't home. Her parents were pills but they loved her and found ways to let her know. God, they must be worried sick.

"Picked up a lot about me, huh? You get that from the Thin Man subbing for teacher? I knew his vibes were off..."

Still fronting, still genuinely scared. How did they know that?

[starandhope]

"I'm what you humans would call an empath," Min'a says, determined to be fully truthful and transparent with her patients, as she always is. "It's my particular gift. We've come to help you - to be happier, to relax, to take a rest."

Therapy is for Other People who are Not Named Charles Rowland

[hellandbackpack]

Charles was not happy to be here. Just tugging his oversized coat more tightly around himself as he frowns uncertainly at the surroundings. But he'd been trying to escape for ages now and gotten nowhere so... maybe if he just showed himself as being unwilling, he'd be sent back?

He only felt a slight twinge of guilt at the warm, happy sort of smile the woman wore as he slumped back into an insouciant sort of slouch, feet kicked out against the carpet, arms crossed in a manner that very much read as guarded and closed-off.

"And if I didn't want to? Been sayin' as much but no one's been offerin' to send me home, so not sure how much I believe that, sorry to say."

Sorry Min'a, your patient this time is a bit... resistant.

[starandhope]

This is beginning to become a pattern, a distressing one for the young and enthusiastic empath. Her new patients have been arriving to their sessions hostile and afraid. It's very much not what she was expecting.

"I can't force you to talk," she says, though of course she's picking up on his emotional state quite well. "We're only here to help you - to relieve your burdens, assist with some rest and relaxation. It's a new pilot program we're trying out!"

[hellandbackpack]

It's definitely not a skill set that Charles has any way to defend against here. He's good at masking his emotions physically, hiding behind a charming smile or like now, that sullen sort of air that seemed almost expected of teenagers. But that would hardly block an empath from feeling the tangle under the surface, an almost nauseating knot of anger, guilt, fear. Fear he was trying to hide. Not fear of her, or even of the ship, like some of the others might feel. No, whatever he was afraid of was elsewhere. Not that he especially trusted her yet- there was an almost static simmer of unease there.

"Not much to be done for helpin' me, miss," He chirped out with a false sort of cheer and a pasted on smile. "Dunno if anyone told you but I'm no good, yeah?"

She wouldn't be the first counselor he'd stymied, well-meaning or no, by being utterly unhelpful in getting answers or details. Even if part of him wanted desperately for this time to be different. It never was. He couldn't let it be, could he?

[starandhope]

Min'a may be young and inexperienced, but she is not easily put off by a mask of indifference or flippancy.

"What makes you say that you are no good?" she asks, entirely earnest in her query.

Radiance, therapy

[scienceofthearcane]

Having been herded into this room by the too helpful alien that had been there when he woke up, Viktor sat down gingerly on the couch.

"I am honestly not sure what I am meant to be doing here."

Viktor had certainly never sought therapy on his own, but he had been told that he needed to complete at least one therapy session before he would be sent back to Woodhurst.

"Isn't this meant to be somewhere that you admit to secrets?"

[starandhope]

"Hello!" Min'a is being tested on this project, much more than she expected, but she is still maintaining her air of naive enthusiasm - at least, for the moment.

"Do you think you have secrets you need to admit to?" she asks, curious. That's a good place to start, eh? "If that might help you -"

[scienceofthearcane]

"Doesn't everybody have secrets?"

Notice that was not a no.

"I don't think that my secrets would be particularly interesting for anyone to know, and if somebody did know them, I'm not sure how that could help me."

[starandhope]

Min'a is from a culture where secrets pretty much aren't a thing, actually. Her people all have some form of ESP, so theirs is an open and honest culture, and emotionally effusive. There's no reason to hold back when everyone can sense emotions or thoughts on some level.

But she has done her research on humans! So she has a good response to this.

"I think it would depend on the secret," she says after a moment. "Perhaps many secrets are harmless. But I can see how some may be a burden on the soul. Sharing could help relieve that burden, for some. Or not! It's really up to you."

Therapy

[fearinahandfulof]

By this time, Cassandra has more or less gotten a handle on her emotions, which is a relief to everyone onboard her. Nobody wants to have to deal with a hungry Abyssal One the size of several houses, and Cassandra doesn't want to know what alien flesh tastes like.

Of course, calm doesn't mean happy, and Cassandra absolutely does not trust this person. So Min'a gets an expressionless stare and a question: "Why?"

[starandhope]

Fortunately or unfortunately, Min’a can still sense those emotions, no matter how in control Cassandra is.

She can probably tell that they’re not human, either.

But she puts on her most professional therapist smile to answer the question.

“Why? Because, the people on this planet need help, and it is our job to do so,” she says simply.

[fearinahandfulof]

Cassandra remains suspicious. "Why is it your job?"

SS Radiance (pick your timepoint, i'm easy!)

[bashasasdemon]

Kai may have many, many, many doubts about this mission, but he does want it to go well if there's any chance of it. And he definitely doesn't want the younger members to get disheartened if things go wrong. So he's trying to be proactive about reaching out to them, making sure they're alright. It's one of the things he's good at, for all that he can be a bit prickly in his personal life.

"Hi, Min'a," he says, with a little encouraging smile, "How are you doing so far?" He knows she, like many of the juniors, was very excited to start. He hopes that doesn't dim.

[starandhope]

Min'a has definitely been one of the most enthusiastic, one of the ones most pushing for this mission. She wants to help, and wants to prove herself to her superiors. She went into this whole thing quite confident in her own abilities, and in the good intentions of everyone on the Radiance being strong enough to carry them through.

Now, a few days in - after her first few therapy sessions - she's certainly not stopped believing this could work! Of course not. It's just -

She sighs, pausing in her brewing of her favorite tea from home. "This is - more difficult than I thought it would be, if I'm being honest," she admits to Kai, offering him a cup as well. "I wasn't prepared for how hostile the humans would be to the very idea of accepting help! Why wouldn't they want to be helped?"

[bashasasdemon]

Kaiisteron takes the cup with a small thank you, holding it between his hands as he listens to her. (He's very good at giving people his full attention; part of what makes him a good therapist and a good supervisor.) "To be fair, a lot of patients can be resistant to treatment," he tells her to start, "I don't know how much the historical documents you've read about the Group, but in some cultures the idea of accepting help, especially from outsiders, can be seen by them as a personal weakness or failing. We knew that some humans do fall into that group, which explains part of it."

He lifts the tea to blow away some of the steam, thinking of how to phrase this. "We're not just normal outsiders, either. They've never had contact with anyone from outside their planet before. This is a whole new thing that they're also having to somehow fit into their worldview. It's change, and it's scary because what they may have thought they knew doesn't work anymore, and so they lash out."

SS Radiance; Therapy

[ugh_emotions]

It stands in the doorway. It's making a face. It's making a face, and giving off a whole range of emotions.

Like feels of being upset, and confused, fucking furious.

"No," it says. No, it doesn't want to sit, and it doesn't want to tell her its fucking story.

[starandhope]

"No?"

By this point, Min'a is getting used to the feelings of hostility directed at her. It's not bothering her quite as much, though she still does wish that some of them would be a little bit willing to trust her. She's here to help, after all.

And goodness, this one clearly needs some therapy.

"May I at least know the name of the person I'm sharing a room with for the next forty-five minutes?" she offers. "I'm Min'a. I'm from Atori Revan, and I work for the Interstellar Mindfulness and Wellness Group."

[ugh_emotions]

"I'm not sharing a room with you for the next forty-five fucking seconds," it snarls. "And kidnappers don't get names."

(Unless they already have it, somehow. Like the last people who kidnapped it. (It was getting very tired of being kidnapped.) It was trying not to think about that too much though, because knowing that it's name - it's actual name - was written somewhere in the Library's database was absolutely terrifying.)

After Festival's rescue

[angel_of_baal]

Tsang bursts into her room and sadly, the greige is now marked with pockets of gold and rainbow glitter. It does keep itself just over the threshold, to minimize the, er, damage.

Its human disguise is a bit askew, antennae popping up through the long hair, but also drooping in defeat. "I would like to requisition a hug." It would love to just run in and take a hug, but as it had told someone downplanet, consent mattered in all things!

omg i'm c r y i ng

[starandhope]

"Oh, of course!"

Tsang is much taller than Min'a but that doesn't matter - hugs are hugs, and she is more than happy to provide one.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she offers. She can't not feel his upset, after all.

now Tsang is crying lol

[angel_of_baal]

"Thank you." Hugs ARE hugs and with permission granted, Tsang wrapped its arms around her, resting its head on the top of her head, his emotive spines shifting under his human disguise, slowing down.

"It was awful! I was just trying to do my job and now Kaiisteron is going to send me home and and and I ruined EVERYTHING!"