unfinishedlibrary | for all the world's a stage

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for all the world's a stage - LIBRARY LOG

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.

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"So it's a threat." More understandable. Still not great. He still doesn't like it at all.

Kai looks over at his wings, frowning. "You were afraid because you were different," he says, "But you were the same enough to be accepted." Or useful enough, he doesn't say. He's not sure that level of honesty would be welcome yet. "What's your other problem?"

"A very considerable threat. And one not taken lightly." You don't get servitorized for shoplifting at least. Mostly heresy and capital crimes.

Well, in most of the Imperium. Don't ask the Night Haunter what happens to even petty criminals on Nostramo. It makes Baal seem...enlightened.

"After a point, yes, they accepted me. But after I proved hard to kill." So, you know, they TRIED. "They saw me still as a mutant, but one who was supernatural. Like a god. Before they were brought into the Imperium." Which has no gods and scorns religion. His father wants an empire of science and reason. So still a freak but an honored freak? Y-yay?

He sighs, to stall, to suck in some courage with his next inhalation. "There is a flaw in my genetics. I...and my sons, all of them, we need to consume blood." Fhweeee that was probably the sound of any liking Kaiisteron had for him just deflating like a disappointed balloon.

Well if he's going to spell it out like that-- "So when they couldn't get rid of you, they made you useful to them instead." Seriously how can he be alright with that?

...Well. He can think of some ways. Most of which involve having no choice.

Aaaand of course it's something like that. Kai sighs. Yes, he can see how that would be a concern. "How much do you need?" is his first question, and since he has now read the lovely vampire book, asks, "And how do you get it?"

Sanguinius is speechless for a long moment, because no, that wasn't right! But...the longer the words sank in the air between them, the harder they were to bat away. "....they were a savage people in a harsh world. They did not know better." It was true, at least, if not an absolution.

"Not much. I have asked the Assistant Librarians for help." Which was humiliating especially since one of them was, apparently, a little squeamish, blanching at the very idea. "And I can get it myself from books. Which...mostly works." So...brightside? As long as the books don't run out.

"And your Imperium? Was your personhood dependent on how useful you were there too?" Kai is probably never going to like the idea of the Imperium, ever, and he will continue to push Sanguinius about it. He feels like, in the right light, the man might be able to see it for what all empires were.

"Mostly?" There's either a Sstory in there, or it's somehow unpleasant. Kai sighs. "...If you need any desperately, let me know."

He won't die from blood loss, after all. And it's not like he hasn't stabbed himself before. Maybe he could even do something useful with it too.

"I. Uh." Give him a moment. "Kaiisteron, our empire, the entire existence of our species, hangs in the balance. All must play their part, or we face extinction." It was that simple. "And to each is asked according to our abilities and gifts." He had been given much, and of him, much was asked.

Which is a really long way of saying 'yes'?

He looks away for a long moment. He spoke too freely, sometimes, and it came back to him every time. "On your honor, this must remain a secret." Because even Curze does not know this, nor his brothers. "The blood, from the books. It isn't real. The memories are not there."

"So, yes." Sorry Sang, he's cutting through that bullshit immediately.

Kai nods his understanding- he's not the kind to share sensitive information like that anyway, and this definitely seems like that. Though now... he might be questioning his offer. "The memories? What do you mean?" If you drinking his blood will give you his memories he's taking that back.

Kai, are you questioning the propaganda of the Imperium!? How dare!!!

His wings shift. "What other purpose could I serve in life?" He has his Legion. His sons. They mean everything to him.

"We have an organ, all of us. Me, my sons, all of our kinds. The omophagos. Whatever we consume, we get...knowledge of the person we consume." Their life history, their memories. All of it." Another uncomfortable shift of the wings. "It's why I have not asked for volunteers. That...and the threat to my Legion."

Get used to it! It's what he does!!!

Kai crosses his arms, watching the other man. "What purpose would you want to serve?" He would argue that some people don't feel like they need a purpose, but... he's not one of them, so. He understands needing one.

Ok yeah nevermind, you definitely can't have his. "I can see why," he says, sighing, "Do you need the memories for it to... work?" Be satisfying? He has no idea. "It could just be that you need-- I've heard when you make thing here, it's usually not quite right initially." X seems to have gotten a grip on it faster than most, which... makes sense, from what he's told Kai about what he's used to. "You might get them eventually. Is-- what is the threat to your Legion? Just that the knowledge of that might be used against you?"

"To take burdens from others. When the People of the Blood listened to me, finally, they stopped killing each other, stopped fighting over resources. They began to work together. To collaborate. They learned that there is more to life than surviving." That was surely worth something.

"And my Legion is the same. They are my sons. They fight so that others do not have to. Surely that is worth something."

He shifts, restless. He's never actually had to explain this before--his legion had it as a known secret, something they were trying to fix. "It needs to have memories. The blood from the books works, but not entirely." There's a note of concern in his voice, because he doesn't want it to not work. He's afraid of the threat he could become to others here. "My brother, the Warmaster, determined my entire legion needed to be exterminated, once he found out our geneflaw. My men do not deserve to die solely for being my sons, for the corruption of my blood."

"It is worth something," Kai agrees, "Protecting people, having them work together. But empires aren't about collaboration- they subjugate, force everyone under one will. Are your people better off for having that put on you? Are others better for having it on them?"

Empires don't have people keeping them in check. There is no negotiation; there is only whoever sits at the time enforcing their will. And no one, no one, is infallible.

Kai takes this in, thinking over it. "I don't know how to make things yet," he admits after a moment, "but I can try to figure it out. Maybe it is just a matter of being more practiced with it. How long will you be alright, with it as you're getting it now?" Hopefully they can sort it out before then.

He scowls a little- the Warmaster sure is a title, and it seems that 'brother' might well earn it. "No, they don't. And you don't." See, this is the kind of thing he's talking about with empires.

Sanguinius remembers when the Emperor, his father, came, with a host of brothers, a panoply, a grand procession. And he remembered how he had held back, bargaining his loyalty so that his people would be saved. Because even then, he could sense that the People of the Blood would be seen as outsiders, savages, when they were just...ignorant, uneducated because there had been precious little time for it. He had insisted, as part of his oath, that his people be treasured.

"In their case, yes. They have terraforming now, in parts. There is agriculture. They have a safety they have rarely known." There were never likely to be great Baalite philosophers and their religion was always a little...heretical, but they were his people and he had pledged his life to defend them, even from his father.

"I have that skill. If I use fictional people, it does not work." Hence him stalking the unsavory true crime and war memoir sections. But fictional characters are not real. There's nothing there, or very little, whatever backstory the author had contrived.

"Please." His brows knit, worried. "I have not spoken of this to anyone, even my own brothers." ESPECIALLY his own brothers. Have you met them!?! "There is no way of knowing. My sons fall to this sometimes, despite the best care, the most careful monitoring." He holds up his open palms. Kai can see the problem. The last thing Sanguinius wants to be is a danger to those here, to be like Alotros, a snarling, wordless animal, wanting only violence and death.

"And what did they have to give in turn, to get that?" Because there was always something. Maybe it was just loyalty, but with everything else... Kai doubts it.

He makes a 'tck' noise, drumming his fingers against his arm. That does make it more difficult. "Can you use the same person twice?" he asks, "And how often do you need to do it? We could just try to create a stockpile of suitable books..." Not ideal, but more workable. Though it does bring up another question. "...How do you cope with the memories? Do they linger, or... overpower your own at all?" He has a hard enough time with the memories of a new body, settling into it and trying to grasp at any of their knowledge before it fades away.

Yes! He has!! He wouldn't want to tell them either! "Can you feel it coming on at all?" he asks, trying to think through this, "Would you be able to warn someone if you were losing control?"

"My people? They gave up, well, me." Taken from Baal, apprenticed to Horus, to be educated, to learn their Father's will, to learn to lead a Legion of his own.

"I haven't tried the same more than once. Some are...distressing." That's a whole other can of worms. Bloodworms? Is that a thing?

"I don't know how it works. Just that it is a way of keeping the animalistic thirst from overpowering." Most of the time. It hadn't helped Alotros, and his Legion fell to it by the dozens on Signus Prime. "The only time I have been over come was..," Was Curze's blood, but he wasn't sure he should reveal that. "Was an exceptional circumstance."

"I also don't know that. We are still learning about the curse. In an attempt to end it, at least in my sons." If he still retains his wrong genetics, that was one thing. But his sons should be spared this awful legacy. "But. Kaiisteron. If. If it does happen. It will be very difficult to kill me." He's almost unmatched in his own world, even against his fellow primarchs. It was a real fear.

See that's what he's talking about. "Did you get a say in that? And what would have happened if they hadn't given you up?"

...Yeah, some probably would be. "Might want to try it, to see if you can use the same book. And we can try to find you one that isn't so bad." That might be hard, considering... books, but.

A lot unknown, then. Kai sighs. Understandable, but frustrating. They'll just have to try and figure this out, and... deal with the fallout. Which. Speaking of that. "Oh, I'm sure the Library wouldn't let me," he says flatly- they know quite well how the Library feels about that, "The good news is it probably won't let you kill anyone either. And I'm pretty sure I could at least slow you down so you don't hurt anyone else." You are still something living, after all. He won't know without trying, but he's pretty sure he could eat the man's life enough to knock him out.

These questions are confusing. "If they had revolted, they would have been exterminated, Baal Secundus turned into a wasteland once more." But they didn't, so they got nice things and so it was all fine! Don't you see?

"I have been looking. I will continue to look." Some were distressing, and he did not enjoy them at all. "There was a, well, a complication." POP an entire corpse.

"But I don't want anyone to fear me. Not anyone here. We need to be allies and work together here. If people worried that at any moment I could," do what he conceivably could do and lose his marbles at any moment, "do that, they would fear me."

For fucks sake Sanguinius. "Yeah, generally if your options are 'submit or die,' that is not a good arrangement." He can't believe he has to explain this.

"I understand. But I'm not going to make unattainable promises; that doesn't help anyone." Kai is pretty firm on that. "I can't promise you that that won't happen. But we can do what we can to get ahead of it and make sure it doesn't." And he will promise himself that he won't let the man hurt anyone else.

"Is there a better one? Without the armed might of the Imperium, there would simply be 'or die'." Well, the colonists attacked by the Nephilim had a third option, which was to be enslaved brainmeat puppets to the alien invaders, but, well, he wasn't going to count that because ew.

"Humanity continues only under the auspices of the Imperium. We want to bring science and reason and prosperity to all." Which is pretty hard if, see above, brainmeat puppets.

"This is how I know you have honor, Kaiisteron," And why he feels even semi comfortable confiding these things. Not making promises one cannot be sure of keeping was honorable and good. "I would not want to be a repeat of my brother." Sorry, Curze. He loves you and all, but you're...uh. Not a role model.

"Your people didn't make the choice to join the Imperium. They made the choice to live. Which isn't really much of a choice, is it?" Please, at least, follow that logic. He shakes his head. "They could have made offers that didn't involved violent death to everyone involved on refusal. But they didn't."

But that point will probably be as far as he'll press for now. There are many, many failings of any Empire- but this, perhaps, is the key starting one. At least for him.

That comment clearly surprises Kai a little, looking up from his thinking. He's... not sure he agrees. ~~But then again Kai doesn't agree with most nice things people say about him.~~ "No, I don't think anyone does." Not even Curze from the sound of it. ...At least when it came to accidental maiming, anyway.

"Life is about choices, and often the things we have to choose between are not of our own making, and almost never ideal." He might be as idealistic as it is possible to be in his world, but he's still a product of his world. He understands reality.

"I did not leave my people for the glory of war or the promise of conflict, but because they were safer, better, that way." It had been hard to leave the only people he had known, though he had no one claiming the title of mother or father, no siblings.

Sanguinius trusts where he trusts and others are free to disagree, but he does not dissemble. Kaiisteron might not claim the title of honorable, but he has it anyway.

"He does not, though he has accepted its need. At least here in the Library." In Woodhurst, it had been a, well, different story. "I worry that he might hunger for it, though."

"No, but that doesn't make it right." Kai is... more of an idealistic than he'd like to admit. Probably Bashasa having rubbed off of on him. But he does understand what was realistic, that Sanguinius may well have had to convince himself that everything was alright to survive. He understands that. People will do a lot of things to survive.

Oh boy. That's a whole other problem that Kai is very much not prepared to deal with right now. "I don't suppose there's some sort of peaceful outlet we could direct him towards?" he asks dryly. Has Curze considered taking up knitting?

"Perhaps there are some niceties that can happen after survival is secured." He doesn't know, they're trying to fight a crusade, here. "I know that I would die for my principles, but I have no right to ask my people to die for them." Surely Kai can see that issue clearly enough?

"I push my sons towards the arts, but I do not see that helping the Night Haunter." Give him a night to haunt? A safe little bat habitat? Wait, that was almost an idea. "He could use a dark place to rest."

Kai sighs. Of course he sees the issue. It's just he's not sure that Sanguinius understands that he shouldn't have been put there in the first place. "I know. I'm not saying you did the wrong thing; in your position, many people would have done the same." He's... not sure if he's one of them. He probably isn't anymore, at least. He would rather die- or in his case, become an unbodied consciousness drifting through the world- than be used like that. Like he saw his kin be.

He's not going to think about them right now.

A dark place to rest? "That's probably doable," he says slowly, "The problem is getting anything to stay put. Can he find the rooms? There are some that might work with some minor changes."

Edited 2026-01-25 00:14 (UTC)

Should or should not, Sanguinius tried to be practical. Fighting reality was a war one would always lose. And reality had presented him with that choice. And he would make the same choice again. His people were savage and rough, but he loved them, and he loved his Legion more than his own life.

"It was the best thing. For them, and for me. I have seen...so many things. Wonders, I could not imagine. I have met brothers, those who did not hold themselves beneath me."

"I believe he can find rooms. I was thinking a section of the sleeping quarters could be sectioned off?" Much lower tech, much lower effort.

Unfortunately, he does have Kai there. "I... understand that." He's wondered himself, which path he would have preferred. If the Hierarchs had never come- well, surely that would have been better. So many people would still be alive. He would have lived with the Saredi for at least a mortal lifetime, had children, traveled the plains with them. They would have stayed his family. But if that had happened, then he never would have met Ziede. Or Tahren. Or Dahin.

He would never have met Bashasa.

"Maybe. The assistants gave someone curtains, to section their space off. I assumed he would want something more... private than that." It's already reasonably dark in the dorms, most of the time.

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for all the world's a stage - LIBRARY LOG

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