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

night owl!

[starandhope]

Mina had difficulty sleeping, herself. For one thing, the co-ed sleeping arrangements were very off-putting for her. While she was happy to share a room and even a bed with another woman (and in fact had many times with Lucy when they were girls), she couldn't set aside the impropriety of sharing space with men not her husband. And then when she tried to sleep, she was plagued with worry, and disconcerting dreams.

So when she arrived in the kitchen, dressing gown over her nightdress, hair down around her shoulders, she was only a little surprised to find someone already there.

"Good evening," she said politely. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I've still got a few sandwiches from earlier, if you're hungry."

He looked like he could stand to put on a few pounds.

[scienceofthearcane]

Well, she is not wrong, considering Viktor looks more like a scarecrow with the way that his clothes hang off of him these days. He had also only made the nighttime allowance of shedding his work vest, so that he was only wearing the long-sleeved brown shirt that was beneath it.

"Oh. No, thank you. And you are not interrupting anything. "

Viktor shrugged a little bit and attempted to smile to try to be less off-putting.

"I'm just not very good at sleeping in a crowded room."

[starandhope]

“And I am not accustomed to sharing sleeping quarters with men who are not my husband,” Mina says with a slight twist of her lips. She disapproves, needless to say.

But overcoming her disapproval is her concern for this young man. He looks - well, not unlike Lucy at the height of her illness. Wan, anemic, and generally very unhealthy.

“I don’t mean to pry,” she says after a moment, “but are you certain you don’t want anything to eat? You look a bit drawn, and - well, the mind works best when the body is adequately cared-for.”

Usually she is far too polite to comment on someone’s appearance, but he reminds her so much of Lucy that she feels she must say something.

[scienceofthearcane]

It's reflexive for Viktor to want to say no, thank you. He's always been very insistent that he needs no help with anything, which includes making food for himself. But one of the hardest things about his illness getting progressively worse is admitting that now he really does need help from others.

"Well...if these sandwiches are already made, then I will try to eat one."

Viktor had no appetite, but even he understood that he needed to keep eating things in order to keep up what little strength his body had left.

[starandhope]

That is a relief, at least.

“I always make far more food than I can eat myself,” Mina says, cheerily plating up some more of the cucumber sandwiches she made earlier in the day.

“May I ask what it is you’re reading?”

[scienceofthearcane]

Viktor did accept the plate from her when she returned and closed the book that he had been reading before replacing it with the sandwich.

"It speaks of the magic of another world. I have been researching magic for most of my adult life, but I find that I am a novice when it comes to magic that operates between many worlds."

[starandhope]

“That seems a daunting task,” Mina says mildly. “Then again, I’d only just learned that the supernatural exists in my world when I was brought here, so it all seems very overwhelming to me.”

[scienceofthearcane]

Viktor at least had table manners enough not to speak until his mouth was empty.

"Where I am from, magic is not supernatural. It is as natural a part of the world as an ocean or a forest would be. Perhaps for yours, it's not a matter of supernatural either? But rather a natural phenomenon that you did not notice until recently."

[starandhope]

"If there is magic of that sort in my world, I've never seen it," Mina responds, almost sadly. "My life has been touched by the unholiest of powers. An un-dead monster that feeds on human blood."

[scienceofthearcane]

Viktor had taken another bite of his sandwich and chewed it, then swallowed while Mina was talking.

"Unfortunately, I know of Blood Magic that usually involves bleeding a victim dry, then using the captured life force to the Blood Mage's own benefit. I truly do hope you have not been targeted by a Blood Mage."

[starandhope]

"That doesn't seem far off from a vampire," Mina says thoughtfully. "It killed my best friend. It - " she shudders faintly. "It drank her blood. That is how it lives, if it can be called living. It goes on for centuries that way. Or so Dr. Van Helsing says."

[scienceofthearcane]

"It sounds to me that you have already encountered a type of magic in your own world."

Magic is not necessarily nice things to do with childhood wonder, like fairy princesses or unicorns.

"Most magic can be both beautiful or horrifying and sometimes both at once."

[starandhope]

"I can't say I've seen anything of the good of magic in my own world," Mina says almost sadly. "It seems dark and unholy."

[scienceofthearcane]

Viktor couldn't comment on the unholy part since it mattered what she would consider holy.

"Sometimes magic may be very dark indeed. Especially if you gain the attention of a blood mage."

[starandhope]

"It's just such a waste," Mina says. Perhaps she's tired, to be spilling her sorrows to someone who is basically a stranger. Tired, and anxious, and all alone in a strange place. "Lucy was so sweet, and good. Full of life, about to be married. Instead, her wedding gown became her burial shroud."

She takes a breath, swipes at her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure you have plenty of troubles of your own, without hearing of mine."

[scienceofthearcane]

"It's all right. Sometimes the strangest of thoughts come at the strangest of times.

Viktor might not be very good at knowing what emotions someone was having, but tears were a dead giveaway in this case, for grief. He tried to gentle his tone a bit

"I'm not very good at always knowing what the right thing to say is, but for whatever it is worth, I am sorry that your friend was targeted by a blood mage. It's an unfortunate truth that in all worlds, the best people have a tendency to attract everyone's attention. Even the attention of the worst sorts of things imaginable. "

[starandhope]

Mina nods sadly. "I suppose you're right. I can only hope that such a monster never finds its way here, and that I can return home to assist my husband and the others in hunting it down."