so good night unto you all - LIBRARY RETURN

[libraryassistants]

Who: The Editors, one and all
What: The fight is over, the pieces remain... and the Editors head back 'home'
When: Dawn of the Final Day Sunrise after the attack
Where: Leaving Montica, back to the Library
Content warnings: Please make sure to put CW in headers!

By the time morning comes around again, the fires are beginning to die down, thanks to the many efforts of the citizenry to keep them under control. The rebel vampires too have been largely dealt with. These two seemingly insurmountable obstacles were only possible thanks to a combination of factors: the Umbra not being as blind to their human servants as their opposition would have thought, defectors from the Orlocks who were able to counter-act some of their magic, the following Amalia gathered and deployed from Laurelthirst, some suspicious (though welcome) help from suspiciously new arrivals, and of course, House Guildulf throwing their own into the fray to ally with the vampires for this confrontation.

A unity the likes of which Montica has never truly seen.

As the sun rises, there are few left who are able to fight at all; the rebels are beaten, and even the forces built up by both the vampires and werewolves are exhausted or diminished, leaving no one able to take advantage. Citizens of both sides flee indoors, and the remaining rebels are forced to vanish into the woods once more, weakened and unable to strike again any time soon. But there are still repairs to be done, physically and otherwise. Will this unity last beyond tonight? Will young love and youthful hope prevail? Those are the questions that settle over a weary Montica, as light pours into the city once more.

And then, the world begins to fade, static taking over the senses, as the Editors return to the Library.

Welcome back, Editors

It looks much the same as they left it, though the makings of a masquerade are no longer arranged as finely, a few scorch marks here and there, and for some reason there’s some amazing optical illusions on the floor panelling that makes them look like actual manhole covers. Alas, no sewers lay beneath. It may still take Actors a bit of time to shake off the old-new memories, and for some reason the fluorescent lighting seems harsher on the skin than it has any right too. Good thing that the stacks cast long shadows.

The customary tea cart is set up in the Lobby again, and it seems some improvements have been made. The coffee still isn’t strong, but’s far more drinkable than it has been, and there’s an added decaf option now! The tea has still been overstepped, and the stale cookies have been replaced by scones that are hard as rocks, but clearly someone’s getting the message that there are improvements needed. Clearly the tea cart was the place to start.

If someone for some reason doesn’t want stale scones, there’s also a child sized food truck in the lobby, with a sign out front boasting a variety of tamales, including: black beans and cheese, birria, chicken, fire scorpion, man suffering to death via battle wound, and beef. Upon approach, what look like fuzzy puppets pop up to… take your order? They don’t say much, or rather, they make a single noise over and over that seems to be them communicating, but the tamales are good. Just… don’t try to look in the truck. They’ll screech, vanish, and then no tamales for you.

Meanwhile, the bulletin board has a cheerful sign decorated with colorful blocks, declaring: “Join us in the Children’s Area for Lego Club!” Upon locating the room in question, Editors will discover boxes among boxes of legos of various shapes and sizes. There are some ‘how to’ guides for various builds (including a ‘research space ship’ and a ‘vampire’s castle’), but also plenty of encouragement for people to make their own creations! Unlike normal creations, these will actually stick around for a while after they’re finished, and there’s a nice little table where people can display and share what they’ve made.

The Assistants, it seems, are nowhere to be seen: the ‘back in 5’ sign is still in place at the help desk. Still, even without their ‘helpful’ guidance, some facets of the Library may come more easily to some in the aftermath of Montica’s troubles.

[Due to the resolution of the Story, any skills tagged Archivist in the skill tree cost one less skill point (minimum of 1) until the next Story. This can stack with a normal Archivist bonus!]

Comments

D

[thickasacastlewall]

Seven hells. That's an old man down there having a fit. Dunk bends down and scoops him up.

"I've got you, old man," he says under his breath, carrying the old man bridal style. "Do you want me to take you to the beds?"

[grandparty]

Careful, Dunk, if there's one thing this old man hates, it's being babied. He sputters a little indignantly at being carried. "No," he says, "I don't need a bed, I need eggs! I need the kitchen! And I'm not an invalid, I just needed a moment to catch my breath!"

[thickasacastlewall]

"You collapsed," Dunk argues. But fine, fine. He'll take the old man into the kitchen and set him down into a chair.

"There should be eggs in the cold box," he says, opening it to make sure.

[grandparty]

"My endurance isn't what it was," Kinjiro says. "I just needed to catch my breath, that's all." He's actually getting up out of the chair to get a pan. He is not desperate enough to eat raw eggs, thanks. "Just scrambling some eggs will be fastest, I think. And I'll have to hardboil some for later."

[thickasacastlewall]

"They put them in this oddly shaped box," Dunk says, passing the old man the carton. "I don't know why."

[grandparty]

Despite his clear need to eat these eggs as soon as possible, Kinjiro still takes a moment to incredulously stare at Dunk. "It's an egg carton. So they don't get broken. Grab the milk, too."

[thickasacastlewall]

"People don't do that back home," Dunk says. "They put them in baskets with straw if they don't just hand them over to you."

But he gets the milk as well. He doesn't really understand why it's in a special box either, but it has a picture of a cow on the front, so he can make a guess what the contents are.

[grandparty]

"Thanks." It's at this point that Kinjiro moves surprisingly fast for an old man, starting in on making the most basic (and unseasoned, because actually he is not thinking about that right now) scrambled eggs that have likely graced the library's kitchen. "A carton's going to be better than a basket of straw," he says, "the egg's going to be better protected."

[thickasacastlewall]

Dunk examines the egg box--the carton? "Huh," he says. "You might be right." No chance of the eggs rolling around if they're snug in their little cups.

[grandparty]

"Oh, I know I'm right." The eggs are almost finished. Somewhat terrible as far as scrambled eggs go, but serviceable enough for Kinjiro's purposes. He's not picky. Maybe he'll go look up more egg recipes later. "Why, after this, if it wouldn't be a waste of food, I'd put an egg in this carton and go out and find a basket of straw for another egg, and then I'd climb up to the top of one of those big shelves and throw them off so you could see how they endured the fall."

He says that like he is very confident he'd be able to climb up to the top of one of those shelves, and while he's spry, he's nowhere near that spry.

[thickasacastlewall]

Dunk gives him an odd look. He's not unaccustomed to spry old men—Ser Arlan was plenty spry until he wasn't—but this man is even older than Ser Arlan was and he was more than sixty!

"Let's not waste food," Dunk says firmly, with the memory of many hungry days before Ser Arlan to prod at him.

[grandparty]

"Oh, definitely not. Especially not eggs." Kinjiro's now dumping the extremely-mediocre-if-not-terrible scrambled eggs onto a plate and is blowing on them to cool them. There's a sense of urgency as he begins to eat.

It will happen, Dunk will take his immediate attention away from him somehow. Maybe Dunk looks away for just a moment, or maybe he simply blinks. After a few bites of the egg, there will be a much younger, 70 years younger, man (boy?) sitting there in the old man's place, eating eggs and wearing the same clothing the old man was.

[thickasacastlewall]

Dunk stares at him.

What.

"You're a youth," he says, dumbfounded.

[grandparty]

Kinjiro breathes a sigh of relief and stretches. "I am!" There's a laugh. "I have to eat eggs in order to keep my youth up, you see." You know, normal stuff. "I just got so distracted exploring back there, I didn't realize it had been some time since I'd eaten!"

[thickasacastlewall]

Dunk squints at him.

"This is some kind of magic. Isn't it."

It's not really a question.

[grandparty]

Kinjiro holds up a hand and taps at the oddly toyetic ring he's wearing. "I made a deal with a god, so you might say that."

[thickasacastlewall]

The ring is made of a strange substance, so that seems reasonable to Dunk.

"I did not know gods were so easily contacted," he says, however. It did not seem like the Seven were.

[grandparty]

"Neither did I," Kinjiro admitted, "but he offered me a deal when I stumbled across the ring. It was just out there in the garden, if you can believe it." Granted, the fact that he was sitting there at age 17 probably lent quite a bit of credence to his story.

[thickasacastlewall]

"I can hardly believe it," Dunk says honestly. What kind of home did this man have that relics of the gods were in the garden?

[grandparty]

"I couldn't believe it myself, something showing up on my bonsai just like that." Kinjiro shakes his head as he finishes up his eggs. "So what about you? Were you doing anything interesting before ending up here trying to carry old men around?"