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!]
wontforbidtherain: A side-view drawing of a bony dark-haired white woman looking down; folds in her neck suggest gills. (Default)

[personal profile] wontforbidtherain 2025-11-01 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Aphra shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't quite get used to the informality of being called by my given name by a stranger. But, I will not take offense by it."

And it meant she would be trying to use the woman's first name, without an honorific like 'lady' or 'miss'.

Aphra does offer a rueful smile. She's grasped that the range of what people consider comfortable address varies here. Which seems like it might cause problems, but she'll try to adapt. And, if they can't get free, she might quickly find that she'll have enough familiarity to be comfortable being called Aphra.

(That is an unsettling thought and Aphra shuffles it aside.)

"How are you finding things, Scarlet?" Innocuous, but it's a good time to pick up information both practical and anything that can be used for a plan.
ice_rose: (Default)

[personal profile] ice_rose 2025-11-03 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
She was raised a noble lady in a home used to political necessity. As such, she dips her head.

"If you would be more comfortable with Miss Vandimion, you are welcome to use that. I only thought to make it clear we stand here together as equals."

A simple enough thing to allow, and certainly nothing she's unused to. Her companions comfort is important. But the question has her looking around, and that's when a bit of very human displeasure appears around her eyes.

"This place is strange, in many ways, though I see no proof of malevolence or villainous intent," and given that her own icy calm has made people read her as such, she's not inclined to paint neutrality as wickedness herself, "I do find the lack of... food service somewhat, er, awkward."

She's never cooked a day in her life. That's new. Just because she is not as delicate a flower as she appears does not mean that she knows how to do domestic work.
wontforbidtherain: A side-view drawing of a bony dark-haired white woman looking down; folds in her neck suggest gills. (Default)

[personal profile] wontforbidtherain 2025-11-06 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Aphra considered what she knew about the wealthy. "I can teach you how to cook," she offered. The kitchen was close enough in technology to the ones she knew that she felt confident in using it. "Once you understand some of the basics, you can try to find some recipes in the library if you don't care for any of my recipes."

Aphra knew her own mother's home cooking, and Mama Rei's adaptations of Japanese food to what she could get in American markets. It meant she was very comfortable with sea food.
ice_rose: (oh such lovely thoughts)

[personal profile] ice_rose 2025-11-08 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
She smiles at the offer.

"How very kind of you," and the words hold no sarcasm or hidden contempt; she means every one. "I would very much like to learn that, given our circumstances."

One adapts!

"Is there something I could perhaps show you in return?"
wontforbidtherain: A side-view drawing of a bony dark-haired white woman looking down; folds in her neck suggest gills. (Default)

[personal profile] wontforbidtherain 2025-11-09 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"Perhaps," Aphra said. "But I don't know your own skills, so I can't answer that."
ice_rose: (an elegant lady)

[personal profile] ice_rose 2025-11-18 06:49 pm (UTC)(link)
She considers the most polite way to list things off.

"I have skills in statecraft, mathematics, literary analysis, a variety of languages, swordsmanship, spellcraft, and martial arts. As well as needlecraft and the other requirements of a lady of my station."

She can, at least, sew.
wontforbidtherain: A side-view drawing of a bony dark-haired white woman looking down; folds in her neck suggest gills. (Default)

[personal profile] wontforbidtherain 2025-11-20 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm always interested in talking about magic," Aphra said. "And... if there is trouble, I should learn to defend myself. What sort of martial arts?"