for all the world's a stage - LIBRARY LOG

[libraryassistants]

Who: The Editors
What: The Library changes once again...
When: January 9- January 22
Where: The Library
Content warnings: Please put them in the comment headers!

The Assistants have vanished into their backroom once again, leaving only the increasingly unbelievable “Back In 5” sign on the Help Desk, but at least they have attempted to impart some knowledge on the Editors before departing (or… attempted to do anything but, depending who you ask). The customary tea cart with drinks and increasingly stale biscuits is parked in its usual spot, though it seems that the quality of the tea at least has improved some. (Still waiting on coffee improvement.)

There’s a new crafting setup in the Maker Space, a table with an iron and machine for making vinyl designs, along with the instructions on how to use it, and a stack of t-shirts in various sizes. Usually there’s something in the correct size, but, well, mistakes happen. While this addition to clothing is a boon, there is the problem that the t-shirts can’t be taken out of the room until some sort of design is put on them. Get creative! Show off your style! Or maybe just steal one of the shirts that are there for display purposes. It’s fine, the Library can make more.

In the second week as the Library begins to change once more, the Lobby’s wooden floor shines with extra polish. The walls make an odd creaking sound as they shift, warping into brick covered with velvet drapings in a rich, dark red. Gold thread twinkles in the stitches, a sense of opulence woven through. The sound of ballroom music drifts by and, while in the Lobby, characters will be taken by the unusual impulse to dance.

Outside, in the Garden, the day/night cycle has paused firmly on a cloudless night. A full moon hangs in the air - literally. About the size of a basketball, it follows the first person who enters the Garden; hovering a couple of meters above their head. A white aura spreads from them, powered by the moon, and those who are caught in its light will find themselves unable to speak anything but the truth.

When the person to whom the moon is attached leaves the garden, the moon and its aura will leave them; and the moon will attach to the next person to enter instead.

On the circulation desk, there is a sign: “This Week’s Recommended Reading: Twilight!” The accompanying sign up sheet waits next to it for those wishing to check it out- though some will receive the movie instead of the book, with no particular rhyme or reason to it. Periodically someone might also receive something else entirely. Whoops? The Assistants at least will fix that quickly. Richard will be embarrassed, while Phillip will be trying not to cackle.

While not advertised, various iterations of different stories will be available throughout the Library. In particular, someone seems to have left the projector in one of the meeting rooms running, with a variety of different recorded plays. These range from professional productions, to parodies, to what appear to be high schoolers (of which one production features a sixteen year old version of Phillip running around being an absolutely nuisance.

Comments

[birdchasingecho]

"Not yet," she says. "But Mom was the pilot of Jupiter-5 from 1992 'til the end of the Long War, so I'm probably on the reserve list if the bastards ever come back."

[icanhearscreams]

"Did the pilots die? Because ours did. Not in combat, just after it." He tilts his head towards her, watching.

[birdchasingecho]

"Everyone dies eventually. My mom about three years ago, now."

[icanhearscreams]

"Well, yeah. But as a direct result of piloting." ... Whatever.

He sits up a little bit and stretches.

"But it doesn't matter either way. I'm dead."

[birdchasingecho]

"Oh that. Yeah, all the time. The early Planetas in the 70s ate pilots alive because the Eva Ray output could melt yer bone marrow. Even the third-gen Ma used had the risk; and the last shot of the War was Mercury-3 blowing itself to shit to stop a daikaiju."

She nods. "You're a candidate too, huh?"

[icanhearscreams]

"... Huh." Maybe it's more widespread than he thought. Though it sounds different... "Pilot. I piloted my version of Earth's robot to fight another version of Earth's robot so our world could survive."

Not exactly alien invaders, but close enough.

[birdchasingecho]

"Hm. Have you looked at yerself in the mirror lately? Any skin burns, hair or tooth loss, stuff like that? What about the other pilots, what symptoms did they have?"

cw: child death and bodies

[icanhearscreams]

"No external wounds. No internal wounds, either. It's just... used up. Whatever powers the body - electrical signals or whatever... they've examined some of the other pilots. It's as if they just passed quietly in their sleep."

He remembers the bodies. He remembers Kana. All of them just so... perfectly still. It was the stillness that bothered him the most, really. More than the look in their eyes, more than the touch of their cold skin... the small signs of life just not being there was the worst.

"It happened to me, too. I guess my adopted father would get the body. He probably cremated it."

[birdchasingecho]

She is, actually, incredibly angry about this, but her mind is also going miles a minute. Without the typical kind of agonizing death Eva Ray Poisoning could bring to almost anyone... Her mind chases the mystery.

'Life force taking', huh. She'd heard of such things on occasion, but that was more like severe exhaustion or blood loss. It wasn't a muscle-wasting; they looked as they did in life, not emaciated or bony. In fact, it sounded like... "some kind of palsy?"

"Do you know what yer robot's made of?"

[icanhearscreams]

"No idea on either of those. It came from another world that won its own set of battles. It went somewhere after my fight - not sure who they're going to get to pilot it for the 'test battle' on the next version of Earth."

As long as they don't lose, he doesn't really care. Koyemshi said that he had some plan for it, so he has to trust that he isn't bullshitting. "There were a lot of us, in that special summer time school. All of us are gone now. I was the last one. My sister was even younger than I am, and she had to pilot too."

[birdchasingecho]

"What a shit way to iterate a design!" Mei. "And I thought we had it bad fighting giant monsters someone else woke up!"

[icanhearscreams]

"No one designed it. Not as far as we know. As far as anyone can tell, it's a natural way of 'pruning' the various versions of Earth. Maybe their universes, too." Believe him, if he knew who made it, he'd be angry at them too. As it is he doesn't really have anywhere to direct his anger at the moment.

[birdchasingecho]

"That's an even shittier way to determine what worlds get to survive!" She is going to find whoever's responsible for that and bop them in the nose, she will!

[icanhearscreams]

"I know. It shouldn't be happening. But it's happening, so what are we going to do about it? It's not like we can do anything about it."

[birdchasingecho]

"Punch whatever god thought this was a good idea, is what."

[icanhearscreams]

"I don't think gods are involved either." They better not be, because his worldview is built on facts and science and gods do not fit into that. "There's nothing left to do but mourn the dead other than myself."

[birdchasingecho]

"Someone's responsible. Might as well call 'em a god. Makes it easier to punch. But yeah. Mourn your dead. Wrap your bleeding knuckles. I think we can both keep moving."

[icanhearscreams]

"To where?" He lets out a long breath. "I thought I was already moving on."

[birdchasingecho]

"What, you think I'm here to stop you crossing the river? Get a grip."

[icanhearscreams]

"Not you, this whole place." He furrows his brow in annoyance. "Not that I think there's any river to cross or place to go."

[birdchasingecho]

"Look." Mei crosses her arms. "You're not dead, you're not dying, and you're not having a hallucination. And I'm willing to sit on you to prove it."

[icanhearscreams]

"I know I'm physically here, idiot." He crosses his arms. "But I definitely died, or was in the process of dying, and the fact that this place was able to drag me away at all is the weird thing."

[birdchasingecho]

Oh no. You've just called an Osakan an idiot. What have you done. "Oh that? I die all the time. I just close my eyes and die every night."

[icanhearscreams]

Right. Okay. He's done. He straightens up and goes to punch her in the shoulder - and not a friendly punch, either.

[birdchasingecho]

Mei blinks and casually slips the punch, getting the offending wrist and what would be Jun's lapel in an iron grip, side-on, ready for a hip throw, but not taking the steps she's twitching to take on second reflex. He's angry, but not wrong, that was a little flippant. "You good?"