Viktor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scienceofthearcane) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
unfinishedlibrary2026-01-06 06:05 pm
scienceofthearcane) wrote in unfinishedlibrary2026-01-06 06:05 pm
Entry tags:
Wayward lamb, let the shepherd guide you
Who Viktor and you?
What Different ways to deal with Insomnia
When Between Stories
Where Different places around the Library
Content Warnings None anticipated, Will be marked if needed
Laundry Day
Viktor had only the clothes on his back, but they would need to be washed fairly regularly. It had not occurred to him that there would be another way to do it, so he had only the sink in the laundry room in use While the unused machine sat quietly by. It simply hadn't occurred to him that the machine already in that room was meant to wash laundry, so he was hand-washing his clothes in the sink with a washboard. But doing so meant that Viktor would be naked, so he made do by wearing a bed sheet covering him from his shoulders to his ankles. Unfortunately, that still left a fair amount of his feet visible, and while one would be normal flesh, the other was a purple mix of metal and magic. The same thing had happened to his hand as well. Without the glove that he wore in order to hide it, it was the same purple mix of metal and magic with purple streaks disappearing into the flesh of his arm.
He had found the washboard by the sink. He wasn't sure who the washboard belonged to, but it helped that he was able to use regular bar soap to make a proper lather.
Insomnia Club
Viktor didn't sleep well at the best of times. But sleeping was even more of an issue when it came down to communal sleeping. Sleeping in a dormitory was too much like sleeping in the orphanage that he had grown up in.
Although the word "orphanage" made people think of something different than what was happening. It is probably more accurate to call it slave labor because the children were being loaned out in groups to Shimmer production factories so that those who were running the orphanage would be paid instead of the children who were doing the work. For someone like Viktor, a disabled child who needed a cane just to be able to take a faltering step, being expected to do the same level of work that any other child would be expected to do was a struggle.
Now he had taken a blanket from one of the beds in the dorm and gone into the stacks. He looked until he was able to find an overstuffed couch meant for you to be able to sit in and read. All of the books on the library shelves were unfinished, so instead of doing that, he had a pack of cards and started laying out a game of solitaire next to him.
The Science of Magic
It was night, and others should be sleeping, but Viktor was awake and running a few simple tests on the same door that led to the garden, the conference room, the quiet room, and anywhere else that the Library decided.
He would open it and see where that led. Then close it and make a note on a legal pad that he had found in the conference room. Most of the time, it was a random outcome, but he had made note of the fact that the garden would change its weather to match whomever it was that last opened the door. Similarly, the conference room would change the number of chairs needed for whatever the person who opened its door required.
On the legal pad, he had written that the connection of the door to the various rooms seemed to be unstable, and stabilizing that connection would be the first order of business. He had the idea that perhaps it would be better if there was some sort of dial that you could turn to in order to select a specific room? So it would be the connection to that dial which would be more important than stabilizing the magic that connected the door to the library.
What Different ways to deal with Insomnia
When Between Stories
Where Different places around the Library
Content Warnings None anticipated, Will be marked if needed
Laundry Day
Viktor had only the clothes on his back, but they would need to be washed fairly regularly. It had not occurred to him that there would be another way to do it, so he had only the sink in the laundry room in use While the unused machine sat quietly by. It simply hadn't occurred to him that the machine already in that room was meant to wash laundry, so he was hand-washing his clothes in the sink with a washboard. But doing so meant that Viktor would be naked, so he made do by wearing a bed sheet covering him from his shoulders to his ankles. Unfortunately, that still left a fair amount of his feet visible, and while one would be normal flesh, the other was a purple mix of metal and magic. The same thing had happened to his hand as well. Without the glove that he wore in order to hide it, it was the same purple mix of metal and magic with purple streaks disappearing into the flesh of his arm.
He had found the washboard by the sink. He wasn't sure who the washboard belonged to, but it helped that he was able to use regular bar soap to make a proper lather.
Insomnia Club
Viktor didn't sleep well at the best of times. But sleeping was even more of an issue when it came down to communal sleeping. Sleeping in a dormitory was too much like sleeping in the orphanage that he had grown up in.
Although the word "orphanage" made people think of something different than what was happening. It is probably more accurate to call it slave labor because the children were being loaned out in groups to Shimmer production factories so that those who were running the orphanage would be paid instead of the children who were doing the work. For someone like Viktor, a disabled child who needed a cane just to be able to take a faltering step, being expected to do the same level of work that any other child would be expected to do was a struggle.
Now he had taken a blanket from one of the beds in the dorm and gone into the stacks. He looked until he was able to find an overstuffed couch meant for you to be able to sit in and read. All of the books on the library shelves were unfinished, so instead of doing that, he had a pack of cards and started laying out a game of solitaire next to him.
The Science of Magic
It was night, and others should be sleeping, but Viktor was awake and running a few simple tests on the same door that led to the garden, the conference room, the quiet room, and anywhere else that the Library decided.
He would open it and see where that led. Then close it and make a note on a legal pad that he had found in the conference room. Most of the time, it was a random outcome, but he had made note of the fact that the garden would change its weather to match whomever it was that last opened the door. Similarly, the conference room would change the number of chairs needed for whatever the person who opened its door required.
On the legal pad, he had written that the connection of the door to the various rooms seemed to be unstable, and stabilizing that connection would be the first order of business. He had the idea that perhaps it would be better if there was some sort of dial that you could turn to in order to select a specific room? So it would be the connection to that dial which would be more important than stabilizing the magic that connected the door to the library.