unfinishedlibrary | Careful of the stacks

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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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is it christianity? Is it Emperor worship? Is there a difference in thirty thousand years?

There's no 'you're welcome', just a low hum of acknowledgment; what Harker could do in return will have to wait to be seen, but Curze wasn't going to be keeping track. By the time he thought of something, the man could be well into his old age, or already long gone. His attention shifts a bit from cleaning to the knife; he doesn't recognize the exact type, but can tell from its design what it's for.

Or at least what he'd use it for. He doesn't reach out to take it, but there is, for a moment, definite interest. "A good utility weapon. Do you use it for brush or for throats?" A moment's pause, before he adds almost idly, "And does it have much to do with the recent events you spoke of? You don't seem the sort of mortal who'd be spending much time cutting your enemies to ribbons."

The hum was enough, and Harker expected the other to call on him in time. Otherwise he would find some way himself of making himself useful for the Night Haunter. Though who knew how long Jonathan Harker might live? It could be a handful of years, or hundreds. Who knew if he was tainted by the count or his brides? He certainly came home with some new skills.

No, brain fever, yes. That's what it was.

Jonathan could see the interest, so he didn't pull it away yet. A little sheepishly, when asked, despite what he had done, what was days ago to him. "The latter, but I hope it does not paint me ill. There was only one throat I was after; the rest were simply in my way and willing to die for their cause."

Yes, there was blood on his hands, metaphorically, but he would do it all over again in an instant to protect his beloved Mina. "Yes, it has everything to do with those events. I would say they would sound insane, but somehow I feel you might understand." Not a judgment, just honesty. "I had never so much as hit a man before a few months ago. Life has a way of making us change to survive."

Curze would know how longer Harker had to live, if he let any of the premonitions that itched at the edges of his sight gain his focus. People don't usually like to find out. "Survival does often force humanity to do the unthinkable."

Murder he's fine with, so long as it's for a good cause. "Tell me of these events that sound insane. This throat you sought to cut. It was a deserving one?" In anyone sensible, this would be an immediate do not at all tell Curze a damn thing, but what could possibly go wrong?

If he took the knife he'd be reluctant to give it back; the ones he'd brought with him here were of uniform purpose of killing, a utility blade would be useful too--

Harker was like most mortals that way, plus he would fall into utter despair if he knew he was tainted. "A truer statement never said." He replied easily. He had changed so much in the past seven months, and yet, he tried to keep his politeness alive.

There was no better cause in his mind. "Of course, but would you prefer us to return to the dorm so you can finish your cuttings while I tell the tale? Most would think me mad, I have a feeling you will not." Just a hunch, given how much his new friend looks like he is undead. No judgment though, Night Haunter was good as gold in his book so far.

And yet, he waited too long, with the thought of heading back to the room, the knife was put way as he reached for the coat as not to lose any of the starch on the way back.

The closest Curze comes to cleaning himself off any after this is rubbing his hands on his ragged pants. Good enough. There's glitter mixed in with the cornstarch paste. No complaint when Harker reaches for the coat, it's surrendered easily enough. So long as it dried, it would .. be serviceable anyway. Not soaked in crimson. "Calling someone mad, while we are in a sorcerer's library, seems basest foolishness."

He reserves judgment for criminals, not the deluded.

"When it's dry and the starch brushed out, if the hide beneath the fur is stiff it will need to be tended to from the other side. I saw a sewing machine in one of the other rooms, it will be of use." Because they're going to have to rip the lining out! Well. Maybe. Probably.

He should bother with a bit more cleanup, now there's a bowl of starch and a box sitting out, and a wet rag with some blood in it still, and Curze.. isn't bothering. It's really not a surprise given his own unkempt appearance.

But back to his cards indeed. He had fifty more to cut out, or so.

Jonathan was careful not to lose any of the starch, but he did look back at the mess left behind, and the way his new friend just wiped his hands on his pants. That was noted for later. He would come back and clean up the mess if no one else did first. At least the strange paper towels were off the floor and in the bin.

The glitter was eye catching. "You know, I honestly cannot argue that. It is a fine point." A bit of mirth in his tone as he followed along, "Duly noted, I will keep an eye on it and if it feels stiff, I will seek your help. I confess I am no good with a needle." It wasn't something he learned growing up. Granted, he was assuming it was a Victorian sewing machine.

It would be a sad loss for that silk, but it might be salvageable. Laying the coat carefully over his bed, he moved to take a seat on the floor. He would worry about his suit later. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked, motioning to the cards. "Or would you prefer I simply tell the tale?"

That sort of work is why the Imperium invented servitors. Menial jobs best left to cyborgs with no ability to really think or act on their own!

"I've practiced a fair bit with leatherworking, but fabric is a different beast entirely." It required far more delicate tools. He could, it was just awkward by size difference alone. Maybe such a 'profession' explained some of the clinging scent of death. "No awls needed for cloth." A primarch is often exceptional at anything they chose to apply themselves to, so he could certainly learn... but practice would be needed.

Curze isn't yet sure it's a good way to spend his time.

With the freshly bestarched coat on a bed to dry, and Harker presumably comfortable in his own chosen spot, the Night Haunter folds long legs beneath himself and drops back to the floor gracelessly, collecting the already cut rectangles with care. "Your tale will do well. They must be exactly the same, all seventy-eight." Best he do it himself!

"It will keep my hands occupied in the meantime. I find myself terribly curious."

A lot of this kind of work was left to servants if he was staying with his employer, Mr. Hawkins, or tended to by professionals for what little coin Harker had had before his marriage. Afterward, he didn't really have an opportunity to figure it out. He had only been home a matter of weeks and dealing with the firm before he was dragged back into the fray.

"I could imagine so, yes. Leather would be much harder to work with." He could easily see that. More so with the sheer size of his new friend. "I could also ask one of the ladies to teach me, if that would be easier on us both. I could show you whatever I learn. Those skills may be valuable here in time." There was certainly not a tailor on hand to make new suits.

"Understood, well." He reached over to gather a few others from where he sat to return them to the Night Haunter. "Do you know what a solicitor is?" He asked simply. "It probably is not relevant, but it explains how I ended up where I was. It was my job, and I was sent to the home of a foreign nobleman to help finalize a purchase of property for him in the stead of my employer, who had fallen ill." It was a fit of gout, but given it may have killed the man, it felt that ill was the best.

The scissors, too small still for his hands to be used easily, are put back to work. He's used to dealing with instruments tuned to the hands of mortals, it's a mild irritation at best. "... Mm. If you learn of it and have some wish to pass on that knowledge, I will learn." Is Konrad overly invested in picking up tailoring alongside leatherworking? No. Would he probably learn anyway? If the library stays this monotonous - yes absolutely.

Collected cards, or well, proto-cards are taken back easily enough and set with the others. There's plenty more to be made. "I know the word, but I don't know if it means the same thing to me as you."

As Harker explains his job, which sounded awfully like minor bureaucratic things he avoided whenever he possibly could, he decides his assessment is right; solicitor definitely means something different to him. "A form of government functionary, then."

His blue eyes were watching those too-small scissors in those large hands. Again curious at just how well the other works with such small items. He is curious about what Night Haunter is making, but he will wait and see. "I would be happy to pass the knowledge along should I gain it."

Nodding then when the other replied. "We solicitors handle legal matters outside the courtrooms. While barristers work in the courtroom. I had been training as a clerk since I was still a boy." Fourteen, but that didn't matter. It was the era, and he had already known his boss by then. "I digress; it was a matter of a property. I was to go, handle the paperwork in this faraway land so the count could legally own the home he wanted. It should have been simple, but the man was not a man but a monster." He explained with a wave of his hand. "And I confess I did not notice right away. Not until I realized I was a prisoner in his home."

Jonathan shuddered when he said it. His time in the castle still brought forth nightmares. "He had three devil women in his home that I did not see until weeks later; they intended to drain my blood, and I pretended to be asleep. Fearful that if I moved, they might do so." And secretly wanting the kisses they spoke of, but he's not admitting that. "But before they could, their master returned... and reacted to them being close to me in a very livid fashion. Screaming at them that I belonged to him..." A breath taken. "All the while holding a bag that was wiggling and with cries coming from within."

Taking a moment to let the other speak if he chose. But Harker had lost a shade of his already pale tone while speaking.

'Monster' means so many different things. Curze was one himself by design, but this had a different sound to it, and for the most part he remains silent, working on his little cutouts with patience. A minor noble, seeking the aid of minor government officials to acquire new homes. Boring, mundane.

Except for the whole 'monster' bit. And devil women. And a crying bag. "Take your time, breathe. It is in the past, and the past cannot harm you. We can't have you fainting in the retelling. When you speak of devil women, this is ... a metaphor?"

There's room for a 'no'. He didn't believe in gods, but daemons are apparently a Thing, and devils were another word for that as far as he knew.

Monster was chosen purposefully to not say exactly what they were. He had a feeling it was fine, but he hadn't really talked to anyone outside the Crew of Light, and the nuns about what he saw. And the nuns assumed he was insane and suffering brain fever. The latter is a little true.

"Yes, thank you. I should know that." An uneasy laugh as he motioned to the coat on the bed. "I was told to avoid stress and frights to keep from falling ill again, but that sounds rather impossible, doesn't it? I digress."

"The women, like their master, were vampires. If your world has, though. The undead that live on blood. He gave them the bag, and I saw them start to eat it as it cried before I fainted." So he can faint. "The next afternoon I heard the mother at the gate. I tried to get her attention, hoping to find a means of escape. Only the Count can control the wolves, and they ate her." Running a hand through his hair, he took a breath. "I had seen him scale the walls like a lizard, so in the days after, I started to try to do the same. It is how I found his coffin with him asleep inside." He smiled, a little miserable then. "I struck him on the head with a shovel. Quite silly thinking back." He definitely could have been killed; only now he wouldn't have aimed for the forehead. "He was leaving for England and had promised his women I would be left to them."

He seemed well enough for now. No scent of illness, no change in heart rate that suggested fainting - perhaps again - was likely to happen soon. Nothing is said about it, but Konrad's paying attention.

Vampire is a word from myth, as is undead. They're no more real than daemons and gods were, or so he would have argued a mere week ago.

The Night Haunter doesn't mock Harker's story, or call any of it into question. The man didn't seem like he was inventing anything, just describing his experiences, and assigning names of the impossible to what he'd observed. .. What was once assumed impossible.

Creatures that feed on mankind. Creatures that, superficially, might resemble one of his own Night Lords. Or himself. "A shovel seems an inadequate weapon."

Despite the warnings, Harker was mostly healthy. He still gets faint and has to sit sometimes when he gets stressed or panics, which usually leads to a small nap wherever he is and waking up fine. But it had been at least a month or two since the last time that happened. Despite the bad memories, his heartbeat was very steady.

Harker had scars under his stiff collar and shirt from the creatures. His blood had revitalized the centuries-old warlord. "I realize that now." He replied, looking a little sheepish. "You must realize I did not believe in any of this before. I was sleep-deprived and irritated. I wanted nothing more than to kill him and escape. The shovel made sense at the time."

Yet he didn't seem upset as he explained his reasoning. "When he left with his boxes of earth. The count had to sleep in the dirt of his home, but I did not know that yet." He waved a hand when he added the detail. "He left me with those women, and I knew I did not have long before they came for me. So I tried to scale the wall again… and fell all the way down the battlement to the river below. The rest is truly a blur before I awoke in a monastery being told I had been raving for weeks." Yeah, he should not have survived that fall. Much less the woods full of wolves. "I knew Mina was in danger somehow, so I had her sent for. What I did not know is the count was already there and was infecting her beloved friend Lucy. The kindest soul anyone has ever met."

"... Until recently, I would have agreed with disbelief. Such things are considered utter myth.." But in its way it proved Sanguinius' veiled warning, put names to the images that itched in the back of his mind of impossible things wreaking havoc amongst humanity.

That Harker lived was remarkable, facing four of these daemons. These 'vampires', and the creatures they held in thrall. More carefully cut out rectangles are set aside.

"Quite the same. I had read Lenore once but never dreamed such was real." He knew a line from the story well enough to translate it when one of the women in the carriage said that the dead travel fast. If only he had listened to those villagers.

It was not that he smiled, not the bitter one, but that same soft one from earlier in their talk. "Mina came as quickly as she could, and we were married in the monastery before they deemed me well enough to travel home to England. My employer, Mr. Hawkins, was as close to a father as I had met us at the train station, he insisted we move in with him as he worried for my health.

Sadly, he died less than a week after we moved in. I didn't know he had named me his heir. It is only important to this as he was buried in London, which is far from Exeter, where I have always lived. I saw the count walking down the street just after the funeral. He was younger and following a woman. It was then that Mina decided to read my journal. I had made her promise not to unless she felt it significant. I believed I had been mad." He explained as he waved a hand again, watching the other cut the paper. "While I was working, she met a man named Van Helsing, a doctor and the man who realized Lucy was a vampire and set her free. They realized together that my experience was with the very being that attacked Lucy."

What rectangles have been cut are carefully stacked and measured against each other; one's discarded for some unknowable imperfection. Every useful or even potentially useful detail that's been mentioned is filed away neatly for later use.

"How does one set a vampire free? You mentioned infection, but also that these creatures are devils. They can make a human become one of them?" A medicae apparently knew what to do about it, interestingly.

"It's shockingly simple for as complex as they are. You drive a stake or blade through their heart and cut off their head. They can also be repelled with religious imagery, such as a cross." He explained. "Dr. Van Helsing was very knowledgeable on these things. They infect through the sharing of blood. The bastard forced his blood on Mina."

His words were spoken low, again worried of anyone hearing. "We were staying with Lucy's former suitors, who became some of the best friends I have ever had. Dr. Steward, Lord Godolaming, and Quincey Morris." So they are at least are nearing the furcoat. "The count broke into the room where we slept and had me in some kind of trance. I woke to Mina covered in blood, crying with the others around." He reached up, lifting a strand of his white hair. "That is when this happened. I used to have brunette hair." Such a small detail, but... "I went out that morning and got the blade you saw. We were going to one of his homes to destroy the boxes, and I wanted to kill him for touching Mina." Theres a bit of fire in him when he says it.

.... He's going to come back to that later, once the rest of the tale is done, because it's really no magic bullet that cutting off something's head kills them. That's rather how beheading works.

Lucy, infected by blood and turned into a vampire. Mina, infected by blood and ... not? Or merely not yet?

"Would you have still, if he had not touched your wife?"

It was true, but he didn't know that much about the supernatural to know that. "I was already helping to hunt him at the time for what he did to me. It was just different after he touched her. It mattered more to spare her, than it mattered to get revenge for myself. If that makes sense." He explained with a wave of his hand.

"Van Helsing explained to us that Mina was not yet fully undead, despite putting a holy wafer to her forehead. Which burned her. Still, he said if we killed the Count, she could return to normal. I will admit seeing her suffer those weeks of chasing him back to his castle hurt worse than any day I was stuck there." He really loved his wife. "We had to split up once Mina figured out his route. My Mina really is the smartest person I have ever known. Even through the sway he held on her, she fought him and figured him out. She stayed with the professor while Lord Godolming and I went upriver on a boat and the others rode on horseback. We aimed to cut him off, but Lord Godolming and I had a bit of an accident with the boat and ended up racing on horseback as well. We reached them just before they got to the castle with the sun setting. His hired men were loyal and didn't care that we had our rifles on them. Eventually I got tired of the standoff and walked through them to his box. Mr. Morris followed, but apparently got stabbed along the way." Again, very normal for soldiers to move for a lawyer. Very normal. "We got the lid off, and Mr. Morris stabbed him in the heart while I slit his throat. He crumbled to dust before our eyes... and that is when Mr. Morris fell, and I tried to catch him."

So, it was all very fresh. "Mina's burn from the holy wafer vanished; I do believe she is alright." Looking up to Cruz again. "That was rather long-winded; I do apologize."

There's a slight nod from the pale giant, thoughtful acknowledgment and little else while Harker relates first that the hunt was partly about sparing her her fate, and that killing the vampire should break the infection.

It wasn't quite right, that loyal men wouldn't defend their hypothetically helpless master against a pair of civilians; Harker should have been shot down on the spot, and his friend with him. Instead there was .. only one stabbing, and no other interference? Did these hired men have no loyalty after all, or was it something else?

"Some stories take more time to relate than others." He doesn't seem bothered by it. "These events are strange indeed, but if nothing else you believe them to be fully true." Lies have a sound, have a smell. "And there have been ... very strange things, lately. More than one simple story to frighten children has become real."

This is one of them. "Tell me, Jonathan Harker, if you'll forgive the questions." He pauses his meticulous work on making cards for a moment, scissors still. "What other ways, if any, do you know of warding these creatures off? A stake in the heart and beheading kills any living thing I've ever encountered." And religious iconography is nonsense.

It was all truth to him. He may have doubted his mind after the castle, but he had kept his journal. The same one that he had placed on the bed near the fur coat and box of shells. The entries he took in the castle helped so much in proving he wasn't insane to himself.

The young man had not really considered how much of what happened shouldn't have happened. Like the fact he lifted the box with Dracula inside and threw it off the cart before they even tried to get the lid off. He wrote it all off as willpower.

"It is fully as I remember it, and as I wrote in my journal while in captivity in the castle." He replied when Night Haunter spoke of him, believing it was true. "Aside from us ending up in this impossible world?" he asked with a tip of his head.

"Please, always feel free to ask me anything. I always enjoy conversation." Blue eyes meeting the other's then. "If all 50 boxes of soil had been destroyed, he wouldn't have been able to rejuvenate his powers and would have been as weak as any man. The same is true as if we found him in the daylight. That one I saw myself, when I tried to slash him the afternoon after he attacked Mina. He jumped back but was clearly uneasy." The sound of all those gold coins hitting the floor should have been a comfort, but he had been busy chasing after the vampire.

"Stuffing the mouth with garlic or a sacred wafer, anything holy. These apparently can also end him, but I had not seen that one; I was simply told about it by the professor." He started to twist his ring as he said it. "There are more ways to repel than kill from my understanding."

"Aside from this library, yes. If my brother's stories did not align with your own I would doubt still."

There are few things Konrad won't willingly alter his ideas on if presented new evidence, and as this isn't one of those few things..

Garlic though. Isn't that a spice of some form? How would one define holiness? "What strength do such creatures have when they are not as weak as any mortal?"

"Your brother's stories?" He inquired. Watching his new friend curiously. Idly wondering what Night Haunter's world was like.

These days, Harker was learning nothing he knew was unchangeable. Well, one thing would never change. His complete trust and devotion to Mina. But that was not ideology.

"I believe I was told easily up to the strength of 10 or more men. I have seen him command the wolves, move down a building as easily as any of us walking, turn to mist, and control the weather. He also held me in a trance that kept me asleep when he attacked Mina. I would also count the hundreds of years he has been alive, as well as the women he keeps making like he is."

The scissors are gestured with a little. "Daemons. Vampires. Devils. We are taught such things are superstition and nothing else. And yet.." Sanguinius isn't one to make up stories, he's a terrible liar. And now those stories are rather substantiated by Harker, intentionally or otherwise.

Back to cutting. He's about halfway done, there's plenty left to be made. "A difficult opponent. You are lucky to live still."

Suspiciously lucky, in fact. "Your decision to end the creature is a just one, even if your wife was not one of its victims. Well done." There's not a trace of mockery. Courage wasn't only an astartes trait. Humanity the galaxy over was just as capable, perhaps moreso under the right circumstances, as they had none of the power and durability. How many victims would such a thing as this Count have, over the course of centuries? How many innocent lives?

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cw; baby and mother death to vampire violence

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Please let me know if you want me to skip some of it <3

Up to you! I'm happy to have the WHOLE THING TOLD but his responses will be smol

As long as it is okay! lol the shortest dracula abridged.

i'm okay with it c:

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