libraryassistants: (Default)
Unfinished Library Mod & NPC Account ([personal profile] libraryassistants) wrote in [community profile] unfinishedlibrary2025-10-31 06:42 pm

Careful of the stacks - LIBRARY LOG

Who: EVERYONE!
What: A bunch of Editors walk into a library...
When: October 31st - November 13
Where: The Unfinished Library
Content warnings: Please add them as needed in the comment titles!

Welcome to the Library, Editors.

As the new residents drop into the Library, they are bound to have questions. Unfortunately it seems no one (except perhaps someone on the phone) appears to have any answers. But there is a nice little cart with a carafe of too weak coffee, a pot of too strong tea, assorted creams and sugar packets, and what appear to be leftover boxed shortbread cookies. There’s a sign inviting people to help themselves but reminding them not to take any food or drinks into the stacks, or touch any of the books with their grubby cookie hands. But aside from this little display and the nametags they’re all given, which do reappear whenever removed for the first week (where do they keep coming from?), the Editors are more or less left alone.

The Library is eternal, or at least it seems that way, unbothered by its new inhabitants. It certainly does not seem like this is anything unusual within its operation. Are there other sections of the Library with Editors, tucked into a different part of the stacks? Have there been Editors here before, and the ones here are simply a replacement? It’s impossible to say, just that the Library seems quite prepared for them. The refrigerators are stocked with appropriate (if generic) foodstuffs, any tantrums in front of the circulation desk are completely ignored, and attempts to set the Library on fire fizzle out before anything can even catch.

However, after a few days, some of the scenery in the Library seems to be changing. Little singing bowls and white noise makers pop up on various shelves and counters, yoga mats appear tucked under the bunk beds (plenty for everyone, somehow), and some of the rooms have started playing relaxing, meditative music over unseen speakers. More confusingly, there are also small UFOs hanging by string from the lower ceilings of the contained rooms, which on closer reflection are revealed to simply be two paper plates glued together and painted silver. In the beginning they’re quite sparse, but by the end of the second week they are everywhere and impossible to ignore.

At the start of the second week, there is a possible hint as to why, for at least part of it. On the table by the circulation desk there is a sign: “This Week’s Recommended Reading: Invasion of the Body Snatchers!” Next to it, there is a sign up sheet: a waitlist to check-out the ‘reading.’ (There is no explanation or apology for it actually being a movie.)

[ooc note: The Library prompts from the TDM can be considered canon to the game. Remember any of the locations listed in the setting are fair game. Have fun!]
extrasaltypotato: (the failure mode of clever is asshole)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-11-05 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
“Machinery,” he offers. “Devices. Tools. That artifice wrought a’purpose by the hands of Namers.”

He then blinks, and rubs his hairline, that hand covering his eye in embarrassment.

“And if that came off as condescension, I apologize.”
fearinahandfulof: (Huh?)

[personal profile] fearinahandfulof 2025-11-05 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
"Machinery." The person with the not-bee drones had used a similar word. "Machines are... tools?"

She has no idea why he's apologizing, but doesn't comment on that.
extrasaltypotato: (and I require your most caffinated potio)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-11-05 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
"The word usually describes particularly complex ones, yes."

He examines her clothing, taking a sip of his hot steaming drink as he does so, and tries to think of things she may be familiar with to make the distinction.

"A knife is a tool but not a machine. A trebuchet would qualify. Miss...?"

She might not realize that's a request for her name, but he's trying to be polite.
fearinahandfulof: (Shock)

[personal profile] fearinahandfulof 2025-11-05 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
Cassandra thinks about this. "Would a wagon also be a machine?"
extrasaltypotato: (well I am a genius)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-11-05 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
"Given the number of moving parts, I'd think it would," Hikaru says. "Even if they only have an impressive two horsepower."

What an odd joke to make - as it seems to be a joke, from the elfin man's grin.

"May I have your name, miss?"
Edited (goddamn it invisible line breaks) 2025-11-05 03:43 (UTC)
fearinahandfulof: (Pensive)

[personal profile] fearinahandfulof 2025-11-05 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
"Two horses would probably cost a lot of beras." So in a way, he's not wrong.

And... oh. Right. "Cassandra."
extrasaltypotato: (testing the waters)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-11-06 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
“Oh, a veritable dragon’s hoard, I’m sure. And then there’s their care and feeding,” Hikaru says, brightly.

“I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, Cassandra, if it were not against our will, for which you have my sympathies. Have you had much of a look around?”