unfinishedlibrary | Careful of the stacks

Entry tags:

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

"It is not, in my opinion. But they come from a place of even a higher degree of being academic than I ever imagined. Then again, I grew up in the woods." He laughs a little bit, tail flicking. "So I suppose even my attempts at being an academic would seem laughable by most there."

"Huh. I know some people who would love that." Would Dahin eat something disgusting if it meant he wouldn't have to stop researching? It was hard to guess. Dahin loved pursuing his work, but he also loved good food. "But I think I'm right there with you. I've never been much of a scholar."

He's learned a lot, and he's clever- he's had to be, to survive. But it's a different kind of knowledge that's won in practice versus the shelves of a library (though maybe this is different), and he suspects Nara'a is similar in that regard.

"Mm. I just wanted to be able to manipulate the elements when I was younger. Blew my eyebrows clean off the first time I channeled fire aether. I had to make do with books I got from merchants, so I didn't start with teachers..."

Maybe that makes him less of a scholar in the eyes of the Sharlayans, but his friends have never made it an issue. "But a lot of my training has been from individual tutors, or learned on my own. ... I do sometimes wish I had the aptitude for healing, but even I have limitations."

That gets a laugh from Kai, a real one. "I know how that goes. I, uh, sort of flooded things the first time I did anything."

That might make it sound like he flooded a river or got a floor wet; in actuality he flooded an entire castle. And it was in a crevice, so now there is a lake where the Summer Halls used to be. (A lake that has turned into a death well, but that part is only sort of his fault.)

The bit about healing catches his attention, though. "Healing magic? That's not something Witches in my world can do." They primarily conduct with nature energies and spirits of various sorts; Ziede best with wind, Tenes with the earth, that sort of thing. He's not sure there is a thing as 'healing magic' in any real reason- a demon's ability to heal their body not withstanding.

Ah. Well. Different elements, same basic principle. "Healing magic is common enough - conjurers are an important unit in every military. Arcanists also have some healing skill, though most focus on elemental gem-based attacks. Stronger healing magic tends to be fairly... controlled by their own groups. That said, I can heal a little... it's just not very strong. Unless I'm fighting as a reaper, in which case... there's likely something seriously dangerous going on."

Not that red mage or paladin are slouches, but when something needs to be dead fast, melee is what he's going to default to. "Different disciplines have access to different abilities. I happen to be one of the rare few who doesn't stick to one."

That's interesting, and... not at all how it works for Kai and his magic. Though he definitely expected that at this point.

"How many different disciplines do you know?" He can understand why it's not common; diversifying means having to learn a lot of different things with less time to perfect them. He found that out, often to his detriment, in the war. Most others didn't even really have the option, except for a change in weapons.

"Formally trained... a fair few. I've..." He feels something moving in the back of his mind. "I've tried a number that are dedicated to taking hits for others. I settled on drawing on my own desire to protect, rather than my anger or other emotions. If I need to be at a range, I tend to use a gun. What I need for that did not make it here with me." As for melee... "I've tried fighting with a few things at close range, but none seemed to click until I took up the scythe. As for magic... I am trained in black magic, but red magic is more comfortable for me."

Healing, though... it's just not in his skill set. "I'm certain there are other methods of fighting I haven't tried, but for now I've stuck to what seems to click with me. ... I do wish I had a gem to summon a carbuncle with, though. They're mischievous creatures, but they're also adorable."

Kai listens, talking all that in. That is quite a few things, yes. The titles mean nothing to him, but he can get some basic ideas from what descriptions Nara'a offers. "So you've have bodyguard training?" That's the best equivalent work he has for it; they don't call people 'tanks' in the Rising World. Though, his choice of weapon is... confusing. "A scythe? The farming tool? Or do you mean a sickle sword?" Those were reasonably standard in the Arike forces, and no one would ever mistake the two, but perhaps it's a translation issue. He has no idea what language Nara'a is hearing from him.

"That's more that most people would manage, I think." He's an oddity, knowing two kinds of magic and able to fight hand to hand. Nara'a, it seems, has an even more diverse skill-set. "What do they look like? ...I assume you don't summon them just for being adorable."

"More or less, yes. We draw on different sources for our power. And scythes used to be simply farm equipment, but there was an order of people who would draw on the power of the Void for help assassinating leaders that had gone too far. They used their farm scythes initially, but then they developed larger scythes for reaping people rather than wheat. It's more effective than you might think." Everyone underestimates a reaper until they know what they're capable of.

He does smile when carbuncles come up again. "They can cast shields of aether, and are useful for attacking someone at long range. You can also infuse them with elements, such as fire for a ruby carbuncle. They look like... imagine a cat or a fox with rabbit ears and a long, swishing tail. That's roughly what they appear as."

Ok, well, Kai likes these people already. (Assuming the assassination was necessary; he certainly has opted for 'political maneuvering' when he's had the option. Which is not often, but, you know. He's done it.) "Good for them," he says simply, the statement somehow very neutral- which does imply that he feels quite positive about it, in his way.

"...That does sound pretty adorable." Look, he can admit that. He's not completely heartless.

"Heh. The ones who taught me are quite... different than the rest of their fellows, but they're essentially refugees in a foreign land. They had to be open to other people assisting their order to survive." He's at least able to understand the Lemures, even if things around them make him twitchy.

Nara'a smiles. "I'll have to draw you a picture - it's difficult to summon one without the right arcane geometry available at my fingertips, but a picture will do for now."

"I see." That, if anything, just makes him more sympathetic. That could have been a word to describe him, once. And it certainly was a position where you had to cooperate to survive.

He makes an acknowledging noise, declining to show either interest or disinterest in pictures of adorable animals. (He's not that tough, Nara'a can guess how he might feel.) "What is the Void you mentioned?" he asks. He tries to limit those kinds of questions, but he feels like he's heard something similar mentioned.

Oh gods. How to even explain. "... My world is split into thirteen shards - reflections, if you will - and a single Source. The Source is where I live, but they are all connected aetherically. When a Calamity happens -" remember those, Kai? "- one of the shards suffers an equal calamity. It is destroyed and absorbed back into the Source. The first attempt to create a Calamity brought the thirteenth shard perilously close to the edge of no return, but not quite over it as the ones behind it intended. It was flooded with the power of elemental Darkness."

He pauses for a moment so the other can keep up. "We call that the Void, as the living beings there were twisted into what we call Voidsent. Creatures that survive by absorbing the aether of others, and sometimes are summoned into the Source by those who wish to use their skills. If you kill them on the Source, they are sent back to the Void. If you kill them in the Void, their aether hangs around for a bit. If no one else absorbs it, they re-form."

Kai is almost sorry he asked. That is a lot of magical theory that went completely over his head there. He definitely remembers the Calamities at least.

"So it's... another world, connected to yours?" He might just think of it like the underearth, for his own sanity, at least until he can get his head around it. "How do people use it?"

"Essentially." ... He kind of lost Kai there, oops. He needs to remember not everyone even knows what aether is. "The veil between it and our world is particularly thin, so it's possible to make a tear in the barrier and allow voidsent through. They generally need an artificial form to inhabit - or they take over a living body."

He remembers, kind of, that aether is roughly equivilant to the sort of energies witches use. But there's a lot of sort of's, enough to muddy the waters of understanding.

The explanation here, though. That. Certainly seems very familiar to him. How he's going to feel about this is going to depend a lot on how it's used and how it happens, he can tell already. "A living body specifically?" No he's not asking for a reason, don't worry about it. "...Do they let it take over them? Or provide another form for them?"

"... I - hm." He thinks for a moment - or appears to be thinking. In reality, something in the back of his mind stirs. "I suppose that might work. But they sometimes let it take over. Sometimes... it is not intentional."

He goes quiet for a few long moments, something dark behind his red eyes. "I've seen both. The latter tends to be in those consumed with a lust for power."

That's hardly a surprise. "I feel like, with any kind of powers, that's possibility," he says dryly, "And generally the lust for power is the reason for it all going terribly wrong."

He pauses, but it's mostly trying to figure out how direct to be. "And how does it work for you?" He didn't miss the look in his eyes, nor forget that this started by asking for the other man's skills, after all.

He hesitates. He shouldn't lie, but people tend to be uncomfortable around Voidsent for good reasons. "I..." He stops in his tracks and looks at Kai in the - well, where his eyes would probably be.

"Reapers still contract with voidsent. And not all of them control it well. I do - for now. But if I don't feed it aether it will get hungry eventually."

That's more or less what he expected. "Can you communicate with it?" He wonders what that would be like, honestly. Also for reasons Nara'a shouldn't think too hard about. ~~He would have liked to talk to Enna, at least a little, he thinks. Or know this body's name. ...Talamines probably wouldn't have answered his questions.~~

The presence of the voidsent clearly doesn't bother him. Feeding it, though. "How do you feed it?" He suspects he knows. Which could be... an issue.

"In some way. Less verbally, but yes." He sighs at the question after, though. "... I have to kill things. Generally sentient things, which is not a problem when I'm doing mercenary work."

Which usually sustains him between things... but not here.

Of course. Kai sighs too, mussing up his hair. That is a difference from him, then; he can eat life, but he doesn't have. Mortal food works just as well, and even then he doesn't need as much. Maybe that's a difference of inhabiting a body, but he doesn't think that's it. "Right. Aether is energy, right? Is there any chance feeding it normal food would work?" It's a long shot, but Nara'a already knows how much of a problem he has. He doesn't need it restated.

"I mean... it's taking from me right now. So if I keep my energy up, it'd be like subsisting on a low amount of food for a while. It should be all right for a little bit. I don't know how long 'a little bit' is, though."

It probably depends on how much he draws on it.

Kai nods slowly, thinking it over. He can survive without food for a while, drawing on his attachment- how thin it is now- to the underearth. It's not comfortable, but very possible. He hopes the voidsent operates under the same idea. "I guess the best we can do for now is keep you well fed. And give you first shot at any fights." That last bit is kind of a joke, but also kind of... not.

"Heh. I'd appreciate it." He turns and continues walking towards the kitchenette. "I'd also thank you to keep it quiet... I don't think many other people will care to want to speak to someone with a Voidsent bound to their soul."

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