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

[ultimateedgehog]

If anything, Shadow's sharp gaze becomes more narrow. He doesn't like the implication, here, that this wizard knows so much about Mitch that he must have been in the Story with them. Watching them.

Watching Mitch.

(Shadow wouldn't be happy about it regardless, but it's probably a holdover from the Story that the anger that flickers in his chest is protective.)

"Make your point."

Because the thought at the fore of Shadow's mind is that this is some sort of intimidation tactic, and he'd like to know just what the wizard wants to accomplish from it.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“…you never ran into me at the end, when I graduated from Mitch to Akira, then.”

There it is.

[ultimateedgehog]

The expression on his face doesn't change, mostly because Shadow (the Hedgehog) has no context for the name Akira. All he really gets from it is the 'I graduated from Mitch', and he's sceptical of that'; scoffing in the back of his throat.

"You look nothing like Mitch."

His glare clearly says he's not buying it.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

He facepalms.

“I wouldn’t. Hikaru Aozora started as my tabletop character, a long string of gentle and confident men I’d play as I went online under the handle Mr. Blue Skies and pretended that wasn’t a hint about why I was constantly miserable with Mr. Mamoru Tsukuda insisting I learn knitting and sewing.”

No. Not personal enough. He grits his teeth and tries to think of - ah.

“I was particularly fond of playing as a Junko Bansho on a Psynwave journal, username “mooningrabbit” - you did watch Mahjong Heart Flippers with us at least once, yes? Met the lovely Siobhan Greenwood and Laina Guthart that way?”

[ultimateedgehog]

It's a whole set of memories that Shadow's been trying to erase. Mundane activities like watching shows or playing games are easier to separate and suppress - because they're activities that he doesn't do. Other things, like anything the human did while skating, are harder to untangle. (And given the kid practically lived in skates--)

So it takes a long moment in hedgehog time (but is really no more than a couple of seconds) for Shadow to patch the pieces together, retrieving mundane recollections of the human's life from where he'd stuffed them down and buried them. And he's feeling a little less confident that Hikaru is lying to his face.

There's no visible indication of that. For all purposes, Shadow still looks like he's one wrong word away from starting a fight. The only real tell is that for the first time in this conversation, he's about to ask an actual question.

"A few weeks before the tourists arrived, Mitch gave me some gear." By his reckoning, the suspicious out-of-towners heralded the Story's start. So anything that happened before then should only be between the two of them. The human Shadow had stacked it spectacularly, banging up his unprotected elbows and earning a long graze down his side. As soon as he'd healed up enough he'd been back at it, determined to perfect the trick - and Mitch had shown up, stubbornly enforcing protective padding on the skater. "What was it, and why?"

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“Knee, elbow and shoulderpads,” he says with zero hesitation, “so that the next time you ate shit after attempting a 720 flip it wouldn’t mean digging gravel out of your elbow and breaking out analgesic and a sewing needle.”

He - Hikaru - the man who was once Michiko Tsukuda - explosively sighs. He looks so tired. He had to explain this to Mina and John, and it was exhausting enough for generally friendly allies.

“And while you mull on that, consider also: You’re talking a lot about how little I physically resemble a human teenager for someone with black and red quills and a mono-eye who I knew immediately was Shadow the Human.”

[ultimateedgehog]

Shadow is not at all embarrassed by the apt description of how the human had utterly failed the trick. (Mostly because he, the hedgehog, would never eat dirt like that. Instead he does it falling from orbit. See if your kneepads protect him from that.)

If the spot-on recollection didn't do it, then the timely reminder that a hedgehog is a far cry from a human would have; his mouth twitching down at the call-out. It's not that his scowl eases up, exactly, but it does lose its heat; becoming almost contemplative. And eventually, he just inclines his head - a short nod.

"Fine."

...A conversationalist, Shadow is not. While no longer hostile, he's sure not out here winning awards for his people skills.

"What do you want from me?"

(Case in point. He means that as an actual question, not an attempt to start something.)

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“To share information when we’re ourselves, and to protect each other’s Roles when only one of us is,” he says. “I won’t pretend you’re interested in friendship, even if young Tsukuda and Shadow the Human were friends, but speaking only for myself… if she had a California accent instead of talking Blokish, Michiko would be very much like I was.”

A finger over his lips. “And that was a low stakes dramedy. Imagine a tale of horror, cold war and romance - as the recommended reading implies. We’ll be glad of the help.”

[ultimateedgehog]

Points for not trying to sell friendship to him. Gotta keep those expectations low when it comes to the prickly anti-hero types!

"I don't need your help." The statement is firm. If Shadow gives this any contemplation, as far as he sees it - it's not for his own benefit.

"How do you plan for these people to recognise each-other in their different forms to begin with?" For the first time, removing a gloved hand from his coffee to gesture between the two of them. That constant frown that his face is in lifts slightly, the hedgehog equivalent of raising a sceptical eyebrow. "There's enough evidence here that going by appearance won't be enough."

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“Of course not,” Hikaru says, trying not to smile at his insistence. “I just thought a mutual exchange would be better than just asking you for help, is all.”

At his question:

“Roles have been apt, and names and appearances often have tells. Michiko, Akira and Hikaru share the radical for ‘light’ in common. Your Role had black hair with red streaks and your name didn’t change. I bet if you ran into a pale-haired human youth named Lucas or Shine prone to pedantry you could tell it was me.”

[ultimateedgehog]

Hikaru is drastically over-estimating the hedgehog's knowledge of human name meanings, that sceptical brow twitching back down into a furrow. (Shadow's expressions are often only distinguished by minute twitches, a closed book if ever there was one. Hikaru may not be able to recognise it yet, but this particular variety of frown is flavoured by confusion.)

"You're making a broad assumption. Why would I get close enough to them to learn their names?"

Again. No social niceties around it, but if Hikaru's a good judge of intent - then it should be clear that it is, genuinely, a question.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“…because the sooner we find out who is who, and what they want,”
Hikaru realizes out loud, “The sooner we figure out what kind of story we’re in and can work to assure, or prevent, it from concluding in a particular way. I wasn’t just Michiko to spite me: I was her to say “this is a story about helping unhappy people find happiness.” Once Mitch became Akira, and… others were helped, the story ended and we returned. The sooner our story ends, the sooner everyone’s back to normal.”

[ultimateedgehog]

There is merit to that, actually. Shadow's pointedly ignoring what that implies for the human teenager he'd been. See earlier narration about squashing down everything to do with that Story.

"...Fine," he acquiesces; for the second time in these few short minutes. "Get me a list of names and traits. I'll keep an eye out for them."

[ohaiyo_isekai]

"You'll get them in the kitchens tonight," he promises. "And if there's anyone you'd like me to let you know about - other than, presumably, Charles, myself, and Randolph Carter - I'll figure out what I can about their names too."

He pauses, then considers. Then sighs.

"Laina and Siobhan, the ones who joined us later, were themselves. But-"

No. He'll hold Sigrid under his hat until the Story where she doesn't answer Sendjewel pings.

"...I can normally contact them on my own. I'll hold their likely names under my hat until they can't."