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's possible that someone has come out and put this up when no one was looking. Kai isn't sure which of the options is more likely. "Me neither," Kai admits, though he picks up a stress ball that's on one of the stacks, passing it between his hands and squeezing it experimentally, "Especially with... the rest of it. They don't seem to go together, do they?"

"They don't. From what I know of, those from other stars don't exactly use things like stress balls and singing bowls." ... Okay, well. Vrtra would, but he's Weird. There's a vague pang of homesickness, but he pushes it aside. "Maybe it's some kind of holiday decorations we're not aware of?"

"Maybe they're different ones than you know." Kai shrugs. "Nothing I've heard from anywhere hear sounds familiar, so maybe that keeps going." It hurts a little, to admit how little he knows in the fact of all this, but mostly it's harder not to feel like everything's been ripped away from him again. He's trying very hard not to think about that.

"Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised." And it's unnerving to have to start from nothing again - even the First had things he recognized, allies he knew. Here... he's on his own. Probably not for long, given his track record... but it's rough.

There's a question from a dark spot in the back of his mind, but he doesn't listen to it. He's aware there's not much to eat here, and he doesn't need the Voidsent running wild. He hears two near-identical huffs and tries to not smile.

"... Have you met anyone who seems helpful? Either who works here or not."

Kai pauses, thinking about it. "A few," he admits, albeit a bit grudgingly, "Or, maybe willing to be helpful is the better term since they seem to know about as much as we do." A little more- Viktor brought up the possibility of other worlds to him, and while he didn't like that at all it is the thing that makes the most sense.

They're still lacking a lot of information about this place, though, which he doesn't like. "I haven't tried talking to the... assistants?" He doesn't know how phones work, but he's seen people using them a few times now and has the basic idea. "If they helped bring us here I doubt they can be trusted."

"Well, that's good. We'll need all the help that we can get." He presses his thumb to the middle of his brow, massaging it briefly. "No, I doubt they can be trusted, either." The Exarch could, but that was a very different situation. "And there's the fact that there are facilities prepared for us, which means that they were prepared for us, which means this wasn't an accident. And they intend to bring more, given the amount of beds available to all of us."

But why? For what reason could they need so many people? He's used to being summoned for heroic tasks, so why summon other people? Not that he doesn't appreciate the help, but it's so very outside of his experience that it's flat out bizarre.

Kai is clearly a bit grumpy about needing the help, but he also doesn't argue. He knows they do. He's just... never been very good at being the person to recruit help. That was always Bashasa's thing- he was the kind of person you could see yourself following to certain death, and for a while they were all sure that was exactly what they were doing. Kai learned a little bit from him, eventually, but it's far from a natural instinct.

Of course, that is the big question- why? Kai rubs at his face under the veil, frustrated. "I'm not sure we're going to find out what they have planned for us until it happens, at this point," he says, and he hates admittedly it but what choice do they have? Better to admit they know nothing than to act like they do and screw things up further that way.

"If they're going to do something with us I wonder when it will happen. Probably when we least expect it, to be fair..." There's a reason he sleeps with his weapons, and it's absolutely not some form of anxiety why would you even ask.

He twitches his fingers, careful to not scratch at anything as much as he would really like to. "... How have you been holding up?" It's not a total swerve, but it's an important point to touch on.

"Probably." That is always how it works. (The only reason Kai doesn't sleep with weapons is because he is his weapon. The Saredi taught their demon kin to fight with their natural talents more than swords, and for him at least it's worked.)

He looks over at Nara'a, not sure how to answer that question. He definitely doesn't want to. "...About as well as any of us, I guess," he says, by way of answer, "You?"

He fully expects to get the exact same sort of answer back.

He pauses - he should have expected the question back. There's a brief flicker of pain in his eyes, and as much as he wants to answer 'fine', he knows better than to lie to an ally.

"... Struggling a bit, admittedly. I don't do well with small spaces - and while this library is vast, it is enclosed. My people are hunters, and if I don't get outside every so often I'm going to start climbing the walls."

Hunters, huh? Kai files that away for later while trying to focus on the current problem. "There is a garden, if you've not seen it, but I can also easily see how that wouldn't be enough." It, too, is an enclosed space. "...And I can say from experience that climbing the fence there will keep you busy for a while."

...He's trying to make a joke. He's not sure how successful it is.

"I've tried busying myself there and bringing the produce in to help with our limited food supplies. It's... a bit helpful, but not enough." His shoulders slump slightly. "And from the sounds of it, trying to get over the fence is a fool's errand."

He recognizes the joke, but he's frustrated. He'd laugh otherwise, but not now. "I'm an adventurer, I'm meant to wander."

It definitely is futile, but Kai is stubborn has tried it more than once. But he can see that's hardly the only probably.

He doesn't say anything for a bit- he's not great at this kind of thing, not with people he doesn't know well. He knows what Ziede or Tahren would need to hear in this sort of situation (Dahin is a bit more hit or miss), but he barely knows Nara'a, doesn't know anything about his world, and doesn't even have a solution to offer in place of words. He doesn't like it.

"...I'm sorry," he says after a moment, "I wish I had an answer for you." But he doesn't even have answers for himself.

Oh. ... Oh. "No, it's not your fault. You're... you're doing your best." Ah, did he mess it up? He might have messed it up. "... I'm just frustrated, I'm not..." He glances away and hunches his shoulders slightly.

"I'm not trying to say you have to solve all of my problems."

"I know." Kai shrugs, trying to wave it off, even though he's definitely still thinking on it; he's not good at this kind of thing, but he doesn't want Nara'a to feel like he can't talk about it either. He knows how stifling that can be, even if he's probably the wrong person for it. "I'm still sorry. I know it's not easy."

He's been trapped in worse places that this, he realizes. This isn't the Changeling Demon Court, and therefore for him he knows he could be much worse off. Maybe that's the fragile thing keeping him together.

He nods and tucks his hands in his pockets. "Could be worse. Could be alone." Or... well. He can think of things worse than being alone. Like being with people and then having them ripped away from you, not that he knows what that's like.

"... Do you want something to eat?" He finally breaks the silence again, looking up.

"...Yeah." They could be alone. It's weird, to admit that he's not. If Nara'a wasn't so damn trustworthy he might feel like that anyway- and there are others who he's mostly sure aren't responsible. But he's paranoid, and honestly how much he believes them is almost worrying.

The change in topic is good. And something concrete to focus on is even better. "Yeah. Sure." He doesn't need to, but it's easier if he does. And mostly he just wants to not be talking about this anymore.

He nods and gestures for Kai to follow him. "I think there should still be some of the things I brought in from the garden. We can eat those, though I'd prefer if there was some fresh game around..."

He could hunt it now, just not with a bow.

Kai falls instep next to him, matching his pace; he's the taller of the two, but he doesn't rush at all, very in control of each of his steps. "I've had worse," he says with a shrug, "I don't know if it helps to think of it like rations, but that's sort of what it feels like."

"I have as well - some of my friends actually like a bread that's made with fish if you can believe that - but rations are fine. I've been in the middle of wars before, I know what those meals are like."

Usually a little better before a big battle where people are expected to die, but...

(See, during Kai's war, they were always expecting today. No last stand meals for them.)

"Bread with fish?" Good news, Kai is sufficiently revolted by the idea, "What? Were they trying to make the worst thing imaginable?" He's... almost joking. It can be hard to tell with him.

"I don't think so... they come from a nation of scholars, you see. More concerned with the nutritional content of the food rather than the taste..." If it wasn't for the Last Stand he'd have had to cook all of his meals in Sharlayan on his own.

"Huh." Kai considers that. "Well... I guess I see their point. Even though I can't imagine it being worth it." He doesn't know nearly enough about nutrition to make any sort of real comment on that. (It sounds like a very mortal problem.)

"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.

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