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

The Bride | Creature Commandos | OTA

[monstrous_bride]

Arrival

The moment she awakes, long instincts tell her something is wrong and she shoots upright with a gasp, looking around suspiciously. She's ready, instantly, for a fight. Is it Eric? Is this something to do with that undying asshole? No, no, this is far too subtle for that idiot. But a library? Well, at least it isn't Pokolistan. She still sighs, getting to her feet.

"Goddamnit," she mutters to herself, checking the pair of firearms on her hips, one after the other. "New day, same shit." She is, of course, incredibly wrong about that, but that revelation will come with time.

Exploration

She is very clearly unhappy about the name tags. Imagine, if you will, a 6'5'' zombie, angrily holding a handful of pulled-off stickers, swearing profusely at the remaining, untouched one.

Once she realizes there isn't any means of escape - at least not immediately and obviously, no power station she can sabotage or hatchway she can wrench open - she looks for stocking up. The food is...marginally acceptable. Better than prison, certainly. Not enough in the way of alcohol, that much is for sure. She'd like more of that to deal with this level of bullshit.

She also reads the sign about not taking cookies into the stacks, and casually overhands a few as far as she can throw them. Partially out of defiance - she's not one for being told what to do by a faceless fucking library - and partially to see if anything interesting happens.

Changes

"No, just...fucking no."

She says it with a sigh, poking one of the little UFOs with a finger.

"The last thing this place needs is alien bullshit!" she calls out, assuming someone or something hears her. Whether or not it matters, she's not shutting up anytime soon. "If you think I'm going to get probed, you assholes have another thing coming!"

As time passes, if you see her, she'll be knocking down every UFO that crosses her path, as a matter of course, like a very pissed off cat. Even if she has to go to significant lengths to get it. But the upside to being her? Superhuman leaps are absolutely on the table. In fact, she's just used one to slap down a UFO, crushing it under a heel.

CYA!

[OOC: If you have another idea, sudden inspiration, or whatever, just let me know and we'll see about taking a swing at it! Drop me a PM or a line on plurk: c_for_characters]

Exploration - the Stacks (I couldn't pass it up)

[ultimateedgehog]

What happens is that the first biscuit that hits his head has Shadow bemused. The second has him mad. And the third he catches, crushing in his fist as the soles of his shoes sputter flame to raise him into air over the bookshelves to see who the hell is throwing those.

[monstrous_bride]

It takes a lot to catch her off-guard. She's been alive a long time, and seen a lot of strange and terrible things. But a pint-sized hedgehog with flaming shoes is an absolute first for her, and she goggles a bit.

"What the actual fuck?!"

[ultimateedgehog]

"I could ask the same thing." He sounds particularly sullen, raising his closed fist in front of him and and then opening it, letting the crumbled cookie bits fall rather pointedly back down to the shelves. For his part, the frown he's sporting is only partly because of her appearance. (She's certainly not what he was expecting, but there's a more important issue at hand.) "Why are you throwing these?"

[monstrous_bride]

"I swear if somebody is pulling a Muppets on me I am going to kick them into the next millennium," she replies, shaking her head.

"And I don't know, testing a theory, having some fun, what's it to you?"

[ultimateedgehog]

"'A Muppets'?" He sure does look like one, the way his face has twisted in something approaching confusion.

He shakes his head, crossing his arms where he's hanging out in his midair hover.

"You're making a mess," he accuses. Like he did not also just drop a handful of crumbs everywhere.

Changes

[ugh_emotions]

So, the Bride was someone SecUnit had its drones keeping an eye on sometimes. Not for any reason in particular. It wasn't looking out for her, or anything.

But it did mean that it witnessed when she, for reasons it could not determine, goes completely nuts. Apparently she doesn't like the paper circle things?

Several minutes later, it appears just in time to witness her leap up on top of them. (It sections off some of its processing power to watch back its recording of that, she jumped high. Like, SecUnit high. Honestly that was kinda impressive.)

"Are you...okay," it says, as it stares off to one side.

[monstrous_bride]

"Peachy," she replies, acidly, kicking aside the remnants of the little UFO. "It's important to keep rebelling in whatever little ways you can. Never make the bastards think they can be comfortable."

That it can also provoke a telling response she leaves unsaid.

[ugh_emotions]

"You rebel by destroying paper discs?"

Perhaps the Bride's rebellion would make more sense to SecUnit if it had any idea what said paper discs were meant to be. But in a universe where space travel is common and normal, 'UFOs' weren't really part of the cultural zeitgeist.

So instead it just looks baffled.

[monstrous_bride]

"Oh, I know, they're just little paper alien ships - but it's about sending a message. And hopefully provoking a response."

She shakes her head, kicking at the little bit of paper.

"Hopefully, it's a prelude to bigger, better sabotage of their little project down the line."

[ugh_emotions]

It looks at the little paper discs, and makes a face.

"Those are not ships," it says. Who would make a ship with a shape like that? For space travel, it was completely stupid.

There was something else she said though, that was setting off its Risk Assessment. She was trying to provoke a response.

"You should be careful," it says, an uneasy expression flashing across its face. "We don't know what they'll punish."

kitchens!

[starandhope]

"I've made some tea - proper tea, if you'd like some," Mina says, carrying a teapot to the table. If she did a horrified double-take at the strange appearance of the tall woman, she's hidden it well.

She also has some little sandwiches made up, likely fresher than the stale biscuits provided by the library.

"I've always felt that proper introductions require proper refreshments," she adds. "Regardless of whether our names are attached to our persons. I'm Mina Harker."

[monstrous_bride]

She folded her arms, not looking at the other directly. She's used to such looks. After all, being nearly six and a half feet tall and made of stitched-together parts of mis-matching hues - that tends to get noticed.

She wonders, sometimes, if that's what had driven Eric mad - being looked upon as monstrous. And she wondered, too, how much of an effect it had had on her.

She's quiet for a moment, wanting to ignore all of this. She doesn't need more friends in whatever this new prison is. But there's a little voice in her head, these days. A little voice attached to an aquatic face that had...that had changed her. Oh, Nina - you'd found your way in, hadn't you, Fish?

So she sighs.

"The Bride," she says, arms still folded. "You can call me Bride."

[starandhope]

Mina, for her part, will not be commenting on the Bride's appearance. A rare skin condition? It's none of her business.

"Very well," she says, setting down a plate of the sandwiches and pouring two cups of tea. "Are you? A bride, I mean. Or is that too personal a question? I don't mean to pry."

[monstrous_bride]

Very rare, when you get right down to it. Metaphorically at least. At least Victor had used stainless steel.

"I was built to be one. To be the wife of a monstrosity, inside and out. But let's just say that I rejected my role violently. But it remains the only name I've ever been given."

Her stomach growls at the most inappropriate time. She's been avoiding the food on offer.

[starandhope]

"But that's awful," Mina says, shocked. "No one should be forced to marry against their will!"

She pushes the plate of sandwiches across the table to the Bride, her face full of sympathy and concern.

Changes

[wontforbidtherain]

Flying saucers had just been catching on when Aphra was pulled from her time, and people had yet to fully identify them with aliens. "Is that what those are supposed to be?"

[monstrous_bride]

"That's the general idea," she replies, shaking her head. "Aggravatingly cute little cherry on top of our incarceration cake."

[wontforbidtherain]

"It is... baffling," Aphra agreed. "Is there some associated holiday that I don't know about?" Aphra has an awareness of other people's holidays largely based on what was needed to pass as Christian, what sorts of holidays brought people to buy gifts, and the Shinto and Buddhist holidays that the Nikkei she lived with considered important.

[monstrous_bride]

"If there is, it's beyond me," she replies. "I suspect we're being led down a garden path instead."

She rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"I wish they'd just get on with it."

[wontforbidtherain]

"Or, if we need preparation, to just write up a report. Though perhaps not everyone would read it."

Some people here do not seem to be the sort who frequent libraries.

Arrival

[ice_rose]

"Quite," comes an elegant (but nonetheless slightly frustrated) voice a couple of stacks over.

[monstrous_bride]

She stops instantly, a hand already on the gun at her hip. Because, well, she so frequently needs it.

"And who else is joining the Shit Brigade today?" she asks.

[ice_rose]

"That would very much depend on who is in the... Brigade," she says politely, stepping out from behind a bookshelf in her very fluffy dress. She doesn't seem afraid, however, even if the hand is still near the gun. Instead, lifting her skirts, she approaches calmly and offers a short curtsy.

"Scarlet El Vandimion." Beat. "Do you know where we are, perhaps?"

[monstrous_bride]

She'll receive no such gesture in return. She's prickly with stranger. Prickly with friends, too. With everyone, actually, when you get right down to it.

"In the bottom of the toilet and the shit's probably about to rain down," she replies, by way of explanation. "But I likely know as little as you do. Unfortunately."

Aggravated by the situation enough that she fails to even remember you're supposed to reply to an introduction.