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unfinishedlibrary2025-11-14 08:20 am
libraryassistants) wrote in unfinishedlibrary2025-11-14 08:20 am
It's a beautiful day in the village - TAKE A LOAD OFF, LOG 1
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.]
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.]
no subject
Because this one is up on the roof of a derelict video shop with a pile of crumpled cans and a cricket bat. There's the occasional clink of aluminium against wood, then the ping of the metal hitting pavement, or the side of a tree, or a fence somewhere across the street. He doesn't see the person lurking in the dark just yet or he'dve waited to send his next shot flying, arcing neatly on a collision course with the side of the stranger's head if he didn't do something about it.
no subject
Except that kid up there.
Konrad can see perfectly well in pitch blackness; this amount of light, cast from windows and streetlamps, means nothing Charles is doing up there is a surprise even without the crack of aluminum being launched into the air can by can.
Knowing why the boy's doing it is another matter entirely, as another can is sent soaring into the night. He stays where he is for a while, observing, trying to puzzle out exactly what the teen is doing besides littering. In a town full of aliens, this behavior could be indicative of another--
The next can whalloped into the night is caught before it can actually hit him, a distinctly unclattery sort of muffled sound, no satisfying tink of aluminum bouncing off pavement or bark.
... another alien, perhaps. No time like the present to find out.
The can is tossed back up onto the roof.
no subject
He frowns as he hears the strange sound... or lack thereof from that distance really. He can't help but worry at first that he might've accidentally pegged one of the town strays, but he doesn't hear any offended animal sounds or see one darting away in the barely-there lighting of where the can had gone hurtling.
And aside from that, a cat or dog isn't gonna just... throw the can back, skittering to a halt against one of his trainers. He huffs a quiet, confused sound as he stoops to pick it up, looking from it to the dim area, squinting as if he could maybe see who was out there.
"Shadow? That you?"
no subject
Not a pod person, at least, from the pict-feed they were expected to watch, that sure looks like shifting emotion to him. But that left a lot of other, utterly non-terrestrial options.
Shadow may or may not be also an alien. "Afraid not."
The voice that rises from the dark is pleasant enough, not friendly exactly but not particularly hostile. "A friend of yours, this Shadow?"
no subject
Which meant there was a visible puff of defensiveness to his shoulders from that question lobbed by a stranger in the dark, the teen lifting his chin in a defiant sort of way. And while he definitely looked younger than he had before, he was certainly familiar enough as the ghost teen that Curze had run into in the stacks. Not that he seemed to recognize the voice in the night, as he was trying to squint into the shadows to see who was out there.
"What's it to you?"
no subject
And true, besides. The finer points of murder for good reasons did require subjects deserving of it, and Charles wasn't an alien. Odd how he seems much younger than before, but ... not some body snatching xenos. "There are people disappearing, after all."
He hasn't found the pods yet. Were there pods? If there weren't pods, why did they have that entire pict-feed about them?
no subject
It was not in fact brills, and while Charles was in the moment glad for some distance at that little bit of honesty, some scrap of danger awareness that had been ground into him over the years had him somewhat aware that being up on the roof wouldn't be much of a deterrent. He wasn't about to put his cricket bat down, though there was something of a perk of attention at the next thing being said.
"...D'you know where they're endin' up?" Was he suspicious of this guy? Absolutely. Was that going to stop him trying to figure out what he knew? Hell no. "I mean... there's copies runnin' around, but they're pants at tryin' to mimic who they're pretendin' to be and all."
no subject
He's not ashamed to be a murderer. It's what he's made for.
Nor is he deterred by .. some kind of oddly flat club. That doesn't look much like a useful weapon to him. "They are indeed terrible at it. While they've improved at mimicking real people, since now they can display emotion, their behavior is.. as you said.. 'pants'." Context clues tell him what THAT'S suppsoed to be besides trousers.
"Unfortunately all the stolen may be dead, their components used to create their copies." The Night Haunter is not particularly sympathetic to mortal losses, but-- "None of your kith or kin have been replaced, I hope."
no subject
Charles is definitely not coming down yet, but the building he's on? Not that tall. And there's a ladder to one side, so really, not a deterrent. (Not at all, but he has no clue that this nighttime weirdo is anything other than Bog Standard Creepy Human Guy #2783.)
And pay no attention to the way he pales slightly at the mention of potential fatalities. Charles can't help the way his grasp on the cricket bat tightens with a faint creak, brows drawing. "I suppose that... may be possible. But they also might not be. Plenty of stories like that where the person has to be alive so they can use their memories and such to sell the fake. And seein' how they've got my best mates, I'm gonna hope for the best, yeah?"
no subject
Charles, it seems, is missing people. "Hope is a dangerous thing, balance it with realism. Once I find these creatures' true base of operations, if any still live, I will .. endeavor to help them as I am able." Which isn't all that much. He's a killer, not a savior. But maybe they'll just need to be cut loose.
no subject
Charles was not a sensible teen. He frowned at what was said, but while sense said he should make tracks? Gut instinct said otherwise. And gut instinct had him, once he'd crossed to start coming down the ladder, speaking up as he did.
"If you're lookin' to find everyone, I'm comin' with you."
no subject
Charles is not the first person to decide to throw away their lives without thinking about it overmuch. Following the Night Haunter into a warzone is never a good idea. Especially when he intended to create said warzone. "I intend also quite a bit of killing. It's unlikely, if their victims still live, that they would be unguarded."
no subject
Was he scared? Absolutely. But he wasn't going to let that stop him when his friends were out there and needed him. Feet once more on the ground, he lifted his chin slightly, as if in defiance of the uneasy flutter of nerves.
"My friends might be there. And if people are alive, I can help get 'em out."
no subject
And much, much too pale. "But you are unsuited to such ventures at night. Perhaps our kidnappers will be similarly hampered."