unfinishedlibrary | Log01.entry

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Log01.entry

Who: SecUnit, Charles, ~~and eventually other people depending on how things go~~ lots of other people, everyone join in
What: SecUnit checks up Charles, no one has a good time
When: Just before the start of the Story
Where: The stacks
Content warnings: SecUnit getting accidentally bricked

Every time SecUnit or one of its drones caught sight of Charles, he seemed to look even more dead than the last time.

Which was weird. He was already dead (which was also weird), surely he couldn't get any more dead. You were either dead or you weren't.

Whatever. It wasn't SecUnit's problem. Charles wasn't one of its humans. It didn't need to worry about him.

(It worried about him.)

Eventually though, it gets to the point where it can't ignore it anymore, and it stomps over to where Charles is in the Stacks.

"What's wrong with you?" it demands.

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Some things were easy enough to wave off- humans tended to shed clothing layers for comfort so Charles being seen less and less in his dark coat and jacket wasn't so odd. He might be a ghost, but habits died hard. And the black polo instead of the red? Surely just a fashion choice. It wasn't the only thing he did out of habit- the way he tended to still blink, to still do little audible breaths or sounds, the noise of footsteps, how he shifted his weight like it was still a thing he could feel.

What both SecUnit and his drones would note, was that he was doing those little habitual things less lately. At the same time, he looked... just a bit different. A bit more sallow, some warmth stolen from his complexion. Dark circles carving under his eyes, a faint cool tinge to his lips, and on the rare occasion he was without his gloves, his fingertips as well. Sensors would note that while he was never really above room temperature in general, he was even colder now, the shift just creeping downward slowly as the days passed.

He still acted like he usually did. For the most part- around people he was cheerful and chatty, but alone, he lapsed more into quiet. Like now, which let him easily pick up on the sound of someone approaching, unable to help the mild surprise of seeing SecUnit. Actually approaching of his own volition in a direct manner.

"Well that's a funny sort of hello." Charles replied, a bit bewildered. Remembering the other didn't seem to like others looking it in the face, he let his gaze settle somewhere around the other's shoulder for the moment- close enough to see expressions without making the other uneasy.

SecUnit might not be looking Charles in the face, but its drone is certainly getting right up and personal. The drone flies right up to Charles's face, the camera pointed right at him.

Yeah, he looked different. Maybe not enough for a human to notice. But SecUnit was built to have a high attention for detail, to look for anomalies. Things that were off. Right now, Charles was definitely off.

"You look shit," it says, ignoring the comment about its missing hello. It starts running a scan, and - yeah, even Charles's temperature is lower than usual. Something was definitely wrong with him.

It was hard to really put a finger on things without the sorts of things in a living human to ping sensors. But SecUnit's drones have likely seen Charles in passing enough to learn what 'baseline' looked like for the ghost, at least as far as sensors went. The strange electromagnetic field that normally was fairly stable, calm, taking up mostly just the space that his body seemed to, was a bit more volatile in the moment. And the cool temperature was seeping out into the ambient air, not that Charles seemed to notice that. Even without human vitals, the visual appearance? Definitely in line with hypothermia, down to the dilation of pupils.

"What, suddenly a ghost expert?" Charles huffed, the smile offered a little tighter than it should be, for all he didn't realize. Nor did he realize he'd been tracking wet footprints across the carpet- for all he looked bone dry in the moment. "M'fine."

"You're exhibiting unusual characteristics. Do you, specifically. I don't need to be a ghost export to notice that," it says. Its eyes drift down to the wet footprints Charles has been leaving. "And you're leaking."

(How does a dead human leak? This dead human thing was baffling.)

Charles was about to dismiss the idea, because really, he was fine, but then SecUnit mentioned leaking, and that? Definitely distracting. "Leaking? What are you-"

His gaze dropped to follow SecUnit's, and he couldn't help but grimace at the sight of the sodden pile around his feet. It was even more baffling, because for all the water soaking into the carpet? Charles shoes and socks were bone-dry. And if it decided to scan the water? It wasn't tap water but lake water, going by the levels and types of particulates present even at a quick skim.

"It's nothin' yeah?" It absolutely was not Nothing. Shh, it's fine. Charles is totally fine! "Just a ghost thing. Don't worry about it, mate."

It rated the likelihood of that that statement being true at a very low 23%.

Yeah, it was absolutely worrying. Especially since this was a situation it had absolutely zero protocols for. It hadn’t even realised that dead humans could get…whatever the hell has happened to Charles. Ghost illness? Were ghost illnesses a thing?

“Like fuck it’s nothing,” it says. “Are you having ghost medical problems?”

Edited 2026-01-21 01:55 (UTC)

Charles was just gonna cross his arms and lean back against the shelves behind him like nothing was wrong. Subtly checking if the shelves counted as perimeter walls at the moment without letting on that he was trying to bail on this conversation. But unfortunately it seemed they were solid at the moment, which left him stuck here with SecUnit when he'd rather be anywhere else.

Pay no attention to the way the lighting shifted around them- some strange change to the color of them, a subtle dimming, for all actual attention would show that none of them had actually dimmed or changed in any ways. Or the way the ghost's electromagnetic field seemed to lash at the empty air somewhat as he barked out a short laugh.

"I mean, bein' dead means medical problems aren't a thing anymore."

Yeah, it was definitely going to pay attention to those flickering lights, and those weird shifts in Charles's electromagnetic field. Weird Shit was happening, whether Charles wanted to acknowledge it or not.

And it's Threat Assessment was going up. Why was it going up? Was Charles dangerous? Could he hurt one of the other humans or sentient organic beings when he was like this?

(It does not consider the possibility that the threat is directed not at a human or sentient organic being, but it.)

"If you don't have medical problems, then why do look more dead now then you did before?" it asks.

"Like I said," He drawled out in response, entirely unhelpfully. "Ghost thing."

Most of the tells, Charles couldn't notice himself. He cast no reflection to see his physical state, he felt no temperature to know he was cold, felt nothing that could have before this made him aware of the damp footprints. What he could see though? Was that shift in lighting. SecUnit might notice when he clocked it, the slight widening of eyes, some sort of realization flickering across his features even as the electromagnetic field seemed to almost bristle like a startle response.

"Sure you've got other things to do than poke at me, yeah? I'll just be off, let you get to it." If he'd not noticed the lighting, maybe he'd be a bit more settled. Maybe as he tried to sidle past SecUnit in the narrow space, his energy field might not have flared so wide that no matter how he went around the other, there was no way there wouldn't be interaction.

Threat Assessment spikes, hard, and SecUnit moves to block Charles's way. It wasn't going to let him go. Not when he represented a potential threat to the other inhabitants of the Library.

It didn't anticipate the effect that the sudden flare of Charles's electromagnetic fields would have upon its own systems. It didn't anticipate that every system would suddenly be kicked offline. It barely has time to think, Oh shit, before...

SHUTDOWN INITIATED
SecUnit's eyes go blank. Unseeing. Its limbs - which it did not have time to lock in place - all bend, its body no longer supported, as it crumples to the ground. Then it doesn't move. It barely even seems to breathe.

The sudden move of SecUnit into his path brings him up short, Charles thinking in a single frustrated moment that he could just go incorporeal and walk through it- not a thing that hurt the living, but definitely uncomfortable-

But before he could decide anything, SecUnit was stopping dead in it's tracks. Something about the shift was strange, and Charles had just enough time to see that unseeing distance to it's gaze before it was just crumpling suddenly. The ghost teen let out a startled noise, reaching to try and help brace it on the way down- but as tall as SecUnit was, it was too unwieldy and Charles just barely managed to keep enough of a grip to make the impact with carpet a bit more gentle.

"Rin?" There was no panic in his voice, none at all! A small small bit of relief when shaking hands found a pulse, but with how slow it was... that wasn't normal. Couldn't be good. "Ah hell-"

His gaze snapped up, wide-eyes fixing on the drone. "Go get help!"

The drone doesn't respond.

With SecUnit offline, it just remains in place, not moving. It wasn't caught in the electromagnetic flare, so its still operating.

But it's also clearly not going to be any assistance to Charles.

"Fat lotta help you are-" Hissed out between gritted teeth as Charles was unshouldering his pack, rifling through with no small amount of agitation. Enough so that even as he was shaking a blanket free to put under SecUnit's head, the bag tried to snap closed on his hand.

He needed help. And if the drone wasn't going to go get any, it was up to Charles. But he also didn't want to leave SecUnit alone like this, so there was only one option. Which just had Charles yanking his journal from his pocket. Hopefully someone would see this admittedly fragmented plea for help, or this wasn't going to end well.

It's a few minutes later when Siobhan finds them and she immediately kneels down next to SecUnit, putting her hands on its head and closing her eyes.

My lady, she thinks at the fragment of the goddess inside of her, as she closes her eyes. Can you tell what happened to Rin?

There's a moment where she suspects Thorne is using the feed to probe at Rin. Then, It looks like something sent them into shutdown mode. They'll be fine once they reboot.

Luckily those are both terms that Thorne has defined for Siobhan before, so she's able to say, "Rin is unconscious, but they'll be fine once they wake up again."

Charles can't help but feel relief when another familiar face shows up. At least it's not just him dealing with this now. Not that he looks much better for it, but he watches as Siobhan's laying hands on SecUnit, a confused furrow of brows following her assessment.

"But- what even caused it? How do you know?" Sorry, he's just a bit freaked out here, and his protective streak is slapping down heavily in the moment with their unconscious companion as the subject.

My best guess is a small, localized EMP, her goddess suggests.

"A very small eeyempy," Siobhan relays to Charles.

Ah fuck. An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse. A small burst of lightning energy and lodestone energy. Earth people call lodestones magnets, she adds hastily.

"A small burst of lightning and magnets," Siobhan qualifies, maybe a second or two after her first statement.

"An-" It takes a moment to realize what she's talking about, just enough time for Siobhan to add the extra explanation.

"An EMP? I-" She might see the moment of sickening realization. "Ah hell. It was my fault then."

A beat, a moment for something akin to sense to regain control at least a bit through the panic. A thing he'll just latch onto for the time being. "But how? My field doesn't hurt humans. Might tickle at most, maybe feel a little annoying, but nothin' like-"

A helpless gesture towards SecUnit.

"I don't know," Siobhan lies through her teeth. "Rin is very much a normal human from their world and time."

After a moment she adds, "Fucking magnets, how do they work?"

Edited 2026-01-21 05:33 (UTC)

Magnus stumbles upon the dramatic scene -- the fallen servitor, the soul of a young man, and the young mutant woman attending them -- entirely on accident. He'd been following the tantalizing signature of a text through the Library's interminable stacks, searching for the flavor of something lost with burned Zoah, when the sound of voices caught his keen primarch's ear. Curiousity -- what else -- and concern drive him to find their source, and the Library (un)helpfully resizes around him as he pads through the stacks to the an area full of much smaller people.

Surprisingly, it's the drone he recognizes immediately in all the tableau, and then he can make a guess at its owner. "Oh, the helpful servitor," he remarks to no one in particular. There's a note of pity in his voice; yes, it's not exactly a person in the eyes of the Imperium, but it did have an aura (dim, slumbering now), unlike a merely mechanical cogitator. Anything that could suffer deserved a little pity, in the throes of that suffering.

He'll stay out of the way, otherwise. Knowledgable as he is about the principles behind servitor creation and maintenance, it is not an area of expertise. But the servitor's continued function -- given its aid to his family -- is an area of concern.

((ooc: have a lil containment zone for people wanting to gawk at what's going on to chatter amongst themselves. no comment order GO WILD.))

It's at about this moment that Mei shows up, almost missing the place twice in her haste to search the stacks. She actually does have a fairly hefty case, brown, marked with a square red cross.

"Sorry for intruding... I brought a gift." She kneels down and sets down the case.

This, she opens, revealing some small phials of glowing gel (for repairing minor cuts and cleansing wounds), rolls of bandages, some unopened plasters, gauze pads, a few various kinds of pills, long scissors, closures... and a pair of unused cold compresses, one of which she sets aside. "Did I read right that this one took a fall poorly, as well?"

"They fainted because of Charles letting off an eeyempy," Siobhan explains. "That's a pulse of lightning and magnets? Fucking magnets, how do they work?

"Hikaru says that Rin probably has lots of cybernetics inside them and that's why the eeyempy made them faint. It might do the same thing to me too, so don't let one off again," she adds, directed at Charles.

She's nodding along while getting a good look at 'Rin', and noticing the ways in which Rin's body is weak are... Not the ways in which a human body is weak. In fact, almost as if it's very specifically made to not be weak in those ways, where design constraints of looking vaguely human allow.

Must be part of the cybernetics. Address swelling, if any; trace damage if any... "... if they're as integrated into Rin's systems as you say, I should address obvious injuries before then. Those cybernetics did a good job of protecting central nervous, at least."

Use the chemical compress. She hums, pulls away her judo uniform, and uses that to prevent frostbite. Carefully applies the cold to reduce swelling. She suspects that the body isn't going to swell enough to cause damage via swelling, but it's best to get ahead of these things.

Edited 2026-01-21 11:04 (UTC)

Siobhan nods. "Hikaru says it's probably something called an 'innerlociter' which they'd use to control their drones and process what they're seeing. It's very normal for humans with the job of protecting people if they're from an 'interstellar era.' Which me and Laina and Hikaru also are," she adds, directed at Charles, "so be careful."

Edited 2026-01-21 11:17 (UTC)

Stormwings feed on mortal suffering generally, and having starved for so long Hisako is sensitized to it, is compelled by the flavor of subtleties in annoyance and embarrassment. But it's fear that feeds them best, as she remembers while gliding closer to that great invisible fountain. This is more of it than she's picked up before and it's so clear! So pure!

She tells herself that she's coming to check what's going on, to find out if it's something she should escape or to try to help with. And that would be useful to know, and she would have helped if it was something she could help with. It's clearly not though, with a hawklike gaze she looks upon the main scene from a range and quickly decides that her landing to muscle in and ask these concerned parties would be a distraction at best. So she should just fly away again.

Hisako swoops to perch on a catwalk, at too great a distance to overhear these nice people acting prudently. She isn't quite as careful landing as usual, steel feathers clattering against the metal, the primaries putting nicks in the finish before she furls her wings. It's so good, it would be better closer, but she's not here for that, she's going to leave. Oh, no, she's salivating again. She clenches her feet, swallowing hard and feeling a stinging in her eyes. If she still had a human sensibility about disgust she'd be disgusted right now, wouldn't she? She should go, she should go.

"Inter-- ah. Internal interface." Different words, same concept. Still, there's almost no blunt force trauma to speak of. "So light...?"

.. and what little she swore she saw knit up as she watched, as well. "... hm. Perhaps I should have brought my laptop, instead-- if this is common enough there's probably an external bus to check on the interface's status."

Edited 2026-01-21 17:49 (UTC)

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Log01.entry

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hey c'mere if you wanna be in the peanut gallery

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