Careful of the stacks - LIBRARY LOG

[libraryassistants]

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!]

Comments

[holiestlove]

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."

[curzed]

"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?"

[holiestlove]

"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."

[curzed]

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?

[holiestlove]

"We are taught the same, and that they are blasphemous to even consider." It sounded at least like the ideas were laughable in both worlds until they had no choice but to face them.

"Between us, I expected to die. I made peace with it when Mina was infected." Running his hand through his hair a bit, clearly a sigh of stress, but only a little.

Stubbornness only gets one so far. "Thank you." He replied, finally looking a little relieved. "Even if he had not harmed Mina, harming and causing the death of Lucy was enough reason to kill him. She was Mina's beloved friend and a very sweet girl. We all knew each other growing up." Despite the horrors he went through, it was the pain of others that drove him to seek out the count. "I would do it again in a heartbeat, even if I am not sure my health could take it."

Finally... "May I ask what you are making, or should I simply wait to see?"

[curzed]

If Harker did it once, he could again. It was still incongruent, the description of climbing up after a supernatural being, of walking unhampered through 'loyal' soldiers, falling from a height that should have killed him, other small, interesting things...

.. They'll be questioned in time, or just watched for. "Potentially hundreds of victims have had their vengeance through you, or their release from infection." Curze's duty was to render judgment and it's terrible price, but this was something that should be rewarded with all due ceremony were the circumstances different.

The little stack of rectangles, and the line discard, are considered. "A deck of cards." By hand. Because. "Which requires them all looking precisely the same from the back."

[holiestlove]

He would, even here, if someone he cared about was in danger, he would rise against the threat. The young solicitor could no longer turn his eyes away from such things. He's seen too much to return to a true normal life.

Sadly, he would lack answers, but they were the truth. Even if no one from his world was there to back it up. He had not seen Mina yet, but even if he had, they were not of the same world. "I had not considered that. That could be quite the number, given how old Count Dracula was." Jonathan didn't let it get to his head; in his mind, he did it for selfish reasons. To avenge those he cared about… and maybe that baby and its poor mother.

"Oh?" He lifted his head again, curiosity returning. "That would be quite wonderful. Do you have certain games you would wish to play?" Thinking on it, he added. "Perhaps make the backs all black or another solid color?"

[curzed]

Though this library is full of unfinished books, he was going to see, at some point, if he could find anything further on vampires. How far they've spread, how many planets the infection could be on.

If it would be worth the Imperium's time to hunt down the creatures responsible instead of simply glassing the planet from orbit. "One way or another, it is handled." For now. Presumably those devil-women were also destroyed in the process, else the cycle was going to continue.

"..Mm. Yes." It's possible to play games with the cards he intended to make, plenty did across the countless worlds of humanity. "Ruthasha or Whist perhaps. It's been a long time. Nobody wants to play with me." His smile is thin and full of sharp teeth. "I am a cheater."

Not intentionally. Playing cards against someone compulsively stuck seeing the future makes things complicated in the avenues of fairness. "Though a black back may be for the best. As obscuring as possible."

huh, so glitter existed in Victorian times... and was ground or powdered glass

[holiestlove]

Perhaps one of the books would have the answer he sought. Harker himself assumed the infection started with Dracula, but he never asked Van Helsing. Nodding when his new friend said it was handled. Not really wanting to think more on the horrors for now.

The devil women had at least been handled. They should be free of the surge if Dracula is truly dead. "I do not know these games, but I would be willing to learn. We seem to have nothing but time." Oh, he finally noticed those teeth, but despite his heart rate speeding up, he smiled back. Maybe they are just part of Night Haunter's race. "Why do you cheat, if I may ask?"

Nodding then, black did seem best. "If possible, you could add an even layer of the glitter for effect?"

DEATH SPARKLES. imperium approved

[curzed]

"If opportunity presents itself I will .. attempt instruction. It is not something I excel at." Teaching is for other people.

Chances are fantastic he'll wind up with a completely different genre of vampires, and get the wrong impression about how things are set up in Harker's time and place. The trouble with libraries and a lack of real indexing he can access. At least the name gives him a pretty good idea of where to begin searching. How many Count Draculas could there be?

The scissors are gestured with slightly again, almost the way someone might wave something off. Probably he's not a vampire, he just has a whole lot of suspicious coincidences to them. "I do not cheat intentionally. It is a side effect." Though mentioning glitter draws his attention back to the faint dusting of sparkles he has YET TO GET RID OF.

It's the only time so far he's bothered to try to wash, here. Some still remained. "Glitter may become part of the process whether I wish it or not. It doesn't come off, and I am certain it multiplies when unobserved."

Victorians, very metal.

[holiestlove]

"That is alright; I am an excellent student. Even if you can't, I am certain I could show you one of the games I know." Jonathan would have to think of one. He had not considered any of the games he used to play since he left Exeter in May. The Crew of Light may have played games to pass time, but not him. If Jonathan wasn't with Mina or learning to shoot from Mr. Morris, he was working or sharpening the kukri plotting.

With their luck, he would end up finding one of the very romantic versions of the count. Or one where Harker is switched with Renfield.

"A side effect?" Jonathan is curious about that, no real judging in his tone. "That is rather how glitter works. Last time I came across it, I kept finding it on all of my clothes for weeks." Amusement in his tone. It had to have been a party of some kind, but he didn't elaborate. When he stared at it on the fur coat earlier, it was likely just a fond memory when he saw the sparkle.

the VA i picked for curze has an excellent romanian accent. accidentally oops.

[curzed]

The book he's going to eventually find is going to be so wildly off base from what Harker's described that Konrad's going to be left wondering what, exactly, got left out of this retelling.

It doesn't seem like he intends to explain what he means by a side effect, as this too is dismissed before he returns to cutting out his perfect little rectangles. Getting enough was going to be hard, but he's pretty sure he will. "And because of it, one may tell everywhere I have been for the past two days." He doesn't make it sound like it's a bad thing, exactly, except that he's leaving a trail and the Night Haunter's not supposed to be that easily tracked. "There's more in that.. small supply room with all the 'art' items, if you wish to join me in the plague that is relentless sparkle."

Too late, Harker already is. it's on his coat, soon it'll be on the bed, on him..

Oh please do share. I believe I shared Harker's with you.

[holiestlove]

Probably best Harker never knows. He was happier being oblivious and hoping to eventually get home to his wife.

Jonathan doesn't press when Night Haunter doesn't answer him. If the other ever chose to share, he would be there; otherwise, it was fine to not know. "No one should be paying that much attention. If they are, we may have bigger problems to be concerned with." Pushing himself to stand.

"I think I will do that. Would you like me to gather more paper as well?" Did he want more glitter on him? No. But if he had it, no one would know who left the trail.

[curzed]

"Oh, then there are bigger problems! I keep track of most of you." He says it like it's supposed to be a joke, but he really is. Not all of them, some were either beneath his notice or irrelevant, but others .. the aliens especially, he kept tabs.

And now he's going to be keeping track of Harker too. The man was refreshingly innocent. "..Mm, if you can find identical cardstock." One of hte pieces he can't use is offered for comparison purposes. "Variation in color changes the outcome. Perhaps I will see if Sanguinius will also wear the contagious particles as well. He will wear them in his feathers until his dying breath."

[holiestlove]

He should find that admission a little off-putting, but he doesn't; he smiles when it's said. Even if it's a joke, it doesn't matter. Harker feels that it is a good thing. "Well, at least I know if something goes awry, I have an ally I can depend on."

Taking the offending piece, he nods. "I will do my best to make sure it is a match, Night Haunter." He stops and looks back. "Hold that thought, please; I have more questions when I return." Because clearly he had to meet the other brother first, as bloody as his coat had to have been.

He hurries along, and of course it takes about 10 minutes before he returns with a small stack of cardstock of the same type, some glitter, and another knife. Even some glue, which he was a little confused by as he had not seen this kind before. Making his way back over with his spoils to return to the floor. "My apologies for the delay; I picked up a little more of our mess before finding what we needed."

[curzed]

Curze is endlessly patient when he had to be, or had something to keep himself occupied with; there's a short nod and he returns to what he'd been doing before. It's strange. It's been decades since anyone mortal had lingered in his presence without reeking of terror.

Not a bad thing. But strange.

He's still listening. The tread of Harker's footsteps is clear for quite a while, and when the man returns, he glances up briefly from his current card. Probably there were tables or something this could be done at somewhere, but he's perfectly content with the floor and Harker didn't seem to mind it much either. "The same servitors placing bowls everywhere could have handled that." The cleaning, specifically.

Presumably there's servitors. Something was putting singing bowls and UFOs everywhere. "But no apologies needed, we are ... not on a schedule." Well. He is. But that's only because he has things he wants to do, but it's not a need.

[holiestlove]

Taking a moment to remove his jacket, and place it aside on the bed, but not on his fur coat. Not that it removed much from the very Victorian suit, but it made sitting on the floor easier.

The papers are placed between them as he reaches for one of the perfect cards from the pile. To compare to the imperfect one. "I assumed as much, but I felt it was rude if I didn't at least try to clear up some of it lest any of the ladies see the blood. Despite coming into money recently, I have always had to handle such things myself. At least when not staying with others." He couldn't cook well, and his cleaning skills were novice at best, but he did the best with what he had. Mr. Hawkins raised him well, yet he never expected the man to leave him not only the house and fortune. But the company itself.

"It is still bad form to keep a friend waiting." He replied before looking up from his study of the papers. Reaching up to take the slate pencil from his journal to mark corners so his cuts would be more accurate. The journal is left open, but the writing inside is all shorthand symbols. "Oh, yes, please continue, I had met Sanguinius," His accent still catches on that name. "earlier this week. He, too, was drawn by my coat."

[curzed]

"Are they so frail that blood on a rag might distress them?" He rather thought women were made of sterner stuff than that, but maybe in delicate, peaceful worlds things were a bit different and civilization could afford to be squeamish. "But self reliance is admirable."

He could take care of himself too. Granted, he didn't in some ways that made his own legion unhappy with him, but he could always find food and drink and shelter. The difference between the discarded card and a good one is a matter of texture, detectable even to ordinary fingers; when made, one bit of paper simply has a greater thickness, a different texture in the hands. Good for a marked deck, but not an honest one.

A marked deck isn't useful for what he wants. "You're a very peculiar creature, did you know that?" ... Says the ten foot tall vampire-alike. "Calling the Night Haunter a friend is a boldness none have claimed before."

People usually have more self preservation than that. "I'm surprised he didn't attempt to clean it himself. He's incorrigibly helpful even when he has no idea what he's doing."

[holiestlove]

"Honestly, I do not think it would bother them in the least, but etiquette says it is bad form. So, I must adhere." His wife had taught etiquette, at least before everything happened. Jonathan broke a few of those rules since his return, but he still aimed to be a respectable man as best as he could. "Well, when you grow up in the orphanages, you must be self-reliant. I have more problem asking for help than simply handling things myself." He admitted as he marked the page. Comparing the thickness, any that seemed off, were set aside.

"So I have been told of late." He admitted freely. Finally lifting the scissors to cut the card according to his marks, the pencil set aside for now. Looking to him then, mid cut, pausing the work. "Does it bother you that I would say such? We are in a strange world, and you have been kind and spoken to me for quite some time. I see no reason to think otherwise." Jonathan was a very loyal creature.

"I believe he may have wanted too. I might have distracted him. Are you two close?"

[curzed]

He huffs, a sound somewhere close to but not quite a laugh. Fulgrim had made sure he understood etiquette even if he didn't bother with it, and understood its place in most societies. "Fair enough." Did he bother with any such thing?

No, and that's probably why he hasn't washed the blood off himself in .. probably weeks at this point. "You had help dealing with your Count. Perhaps you simply need the right reasons to."

It sounded as if self-reliance won't be possible much longer anyway, given how he's pretty sure marriage works. Would this Mina actually allow Harker to do things on his own?

A moment is taken to count how many cards are actually left to be made, with possibly a couple of extras to test color fastness on. "I suspect you and I come from very different worlds, for you to be so quick to a decision. I could be manipulating you to my own ends." He isn't. But he could be.

"...We are not." There wasn't a single one of his siblings he could consider close. Did he wish it otherwise? Sometimes. But it's not meant to be.

[holiestlove]

Jonathan would eventually say something of the smell of the old blood started bothering him, but for now? He was fine, or simply too polite to say anything yet.

Working on cutting those perfectly straight lines. "Ahh, but that is the catch, my Mina figured out what was happening with the help of the professor. I returned home from work to find out the plans. I never had to ask for help, I offered to help the others. I knew Mina would want too, and part of me wanted to see the count suffer."

Harker knew he had a problem with not asking for help, and being a little stubborn. It was why he had a contingency plan to kill their friends if Mina couldn't be saved. They swore to kill her, and that he would never allow. Luckily, it didn't come to that.

Mina was the exception to the rule, she knew when he was keeping things from her or taking on too much. She could make him talk without making him feel chastised or a burden. The same as he knew when she was hurting and wore a smile and would do all he could to cheer her up. Despite the time, he saw their marriage as a partnership.

"Neither of us is home, and I tend to trust my choices." A terrible idea really considering what happened in the castle. "You could be, but somehow I do not think so." Making eye contact again. "I trust you. If that changes, I will admit my wrong." The way he said it spoke of his trust in the choice.

"Oh? Is he simply an acquaintance? You sounded as if you knew him well."

[curzed]

"The end result is the same, don't sell yourself short." He returns to making cards one by one, taking note of the ones Jonathan's making inroads on; they'll be compared to the others eventually.

There's not much to be done about Harker's boldness about trust. So long as the man broke no laws he'd be safe enough in Curze's presence, and maybe safer for it should anything suddenly go awry. "Hm. Should we win our way free, or my sons turn up in this library, I will see to it you are returned to your proper planet." Back to that clever wife Harker spoke of so warmly.

The topic of his brother draws a slight shake of his head, dark hair following the motion like a curtain. "I do. But we are not close. My brothers and I .. disagree on too much. They dislike my methods in many things. It leads .." he gestures a bit with the half cut card. "To some interesting conflicts, but there is no love lost."

[holiestlove]

He gives a nod but says nothing. It was another issue of his. Acknowledging things he has done. It's one he would have to work on, but for now he is fine with admitting he did it all mostly for Mina and her dear dead friend Lucy.

Jonathan was doing his best to make sure they were perfectly matched to Night Haunter's, even if they did lack some of the glitter smear for now.

He had broken no laws here, and the ones he broke back home he was educated enough to know how to make them look accidental and pardonable, more so with a lord's backing. The laws were only broken to ensure the death of the monster. His head perked then, waiting until the other finished before speaking.

"You have my thanks. Again, if I can ever be of any service, simply call upon me. Getting home to Mina is all I desire." He was very much a love fool, who was glad things had mostly worked out. "Oh, I am sorry to hear that. To have brothers but not be close must hurt." He didn't really know, again, orphan. Still. "But you are close to your sons, yes?" One day he wanted to be a father; he did not care if it was sons or daughters, as long as he and Mina chose to have them together.

[curzed]

One day he's going to figure out how to get the glitter off. It has too much potential risk for revealing him when he's doing his best to not be seen, and adapting to sparkles is not really something he's ever had to do before. "Be careful offering anyone service, someone might take you up on it."

Don't join the Imperial forces, Harker. It's not safe or healthy. But Curze isn't going to, partly because what can a mortal do? Partly because this is so refreshingly bizarre he's reluctant to see it tainted by expectations.

It bothered him if he let it, having no relationship with his brothers. Will he admit that? Nope. "It is what it is. We all have our place." His is being the thing lurking in the dark. "My sons are disappointments."

Harsh. "..Not all," he amends. "Merely most."

[holiestlove]

That may take a few human lifetimes, but at least Cruze was immortal, so he had the time. "That is good advice, and I will say if I disagree with whatever I may be called on, I will let it be known." Questionable, but he liked to think so now. He had to bow and cater to survive in the castle. He was not the same timid man he had been months before.

But who knew until the time came? Luckily he would probably never have the chance to join.

"Truer words were never spoken." He replied with ease, holding over the four he had cut so far. "How are these?" Harker inquired as he let the rest of his new friends words sink in for a moment. Silent for a second as he put his thoughts together. "Is there a reason they are disappointments?" He could not imagine being disappointed in one's own children. But he was also very naive.