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

Wildcard; wosh ur soul

[keytarheroine]

Claire, with a towel around her own hair wet from the showers, pauses at the sight of Hisako washing her hair.

“Trying to wash the last Story out of your hair?” she asks, lightly. “Ah, geez. It’s not still Jadis, is it? It’s Claire, still, for me,” she clarifies.

[steelfeathered]

Washing her hair is a whole production, especially since there isn't a large basin like a tub available and she doesn't know how to do this in a shower. What Hisako does is line up multiple buckets full of water, the largest she could find or cadge, and take her five feet of hair between each one to swirl up. There's a lot of combing one stretch of hair at a time, the comb held in invisible fingers. There's a lot of adding drips and drabs to the wet hair or the buckets. This process takes hours and it's a good thing this is a tiled room with drains.

"Trying to wash something out," she says, striving for good humor as she pulls her head, upside down, out of the latest bucket, trying to rinse out. "Hisako, actually! Hisako Godsup. I've seen you about. You've a different surname, was that it?"

Jadis had liked Claire and wished her and her friends well but it hadn't been a familial type relationship. This is, she decides, not particularly painful!

[keytarheroine]

“Different surname - it means about the same, but it’s the principle of the thing - and my magical transformation into a more dangerous form has lot less fur and a lot more leather,” she says, a weak smile on her face. “But still a performer, though I sang and played keys instead of acting. And still a guardian of Song and Heart.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Poor Ryefield kept dreaming of snatches of song from my real life after Jadis sang that bit of Like You to her.”

[steelfeathered]

Water streams back down as Hisako attacks the hair nearest her head with the comb. "Another case of things being just familiar enough to be strange, I see. What do you mean by keys? Like on a harpsichord?" There had been a few forms of keyboard instruments in Montica's setting. Hisako is only aware of pipe organs in her own setting, and only vaguely.

Is Hisako going to refer to Jadis as 'me' or 'her' today? She decides on mostly 'her'; Jadis, dimly aware of Hisako, certainly wanted her to be a different person. "She saw and heard a lot of things about people. It was a fair constant welter. I think I've forgot most of it. Were they good dreams?"

Does she still remember that particular tune...? She thinks so.

[keytarheroine]

“Very much in the harpsichord and piano family - expect demonstrations, I practice in the gardens - and mostly pleasant dreams, yes,” she allows. “Being Riot Purple was… really good to me. Sara and the rest were echoes of my own real situation. Paulette Iris Guildulf as well was… the real Iris Carr used to be Sara’s one true before Bloom happened to her, no word if she also fled a compulsory marriage to a man.”

It would not surprise her either way.

“You know, Jadis’ bird nicknames make a lot more sense seeing you, Hisako. Was that a you thing, or a her thing?”

[steelfeathered]

"Hm. Did any of those have Library counterparts?" She hadn't had that sense, as Jadis, but it often wasn't terribly clear.

"Probably both, but it would've started as mine. When I was a little girl and I met Stormwings for the first time," she says, and raises her folded wings a bit to indicate people like me, "they called me 'pigeon', and that's kind of a standard thing. Then, I was dragged out of my world and to another one where not everyone wants to give you its name, so I started getting creative. Call someone a crossbill and they'll generally either accept it or insist on something else. With Jadis though, Jadis just couldn't keep names straight."

She'd perceived people as having their own pools of names that she could reach into, but couldn't tell if what she grasped was the right one at all. Somehow she'd managed to hold on to the names of the three most important people in her household, and that was it. It had been a source of tremendous frustration and embarrassment, poor thing.

[keytarheroine]

“That must have been endlessly frustrating,” she says, thinking of a certain motormouth of her acquaintance who called them all by nickname until they remembered, at least, Nova. She smiles at the thought. “So, if I were a bird, what kind, remind me?”

At Hisako’s other question, she frowns and purses her lips. “Iris, and the rest of Magica Riot? No, they’re not here. Holy Maidensong, I wish Hazel were. Amalia was an Editor, though. Mei Torioi.”

She flushes a little at mention of that name, fingertips brushing her lips.

[steelfeathered]

"You have no idea," she says dryly. "Purple starling, I think. Lovely birds."

Were any of the household staff, or the patients, or anyone else reflections of people Hisako knew? she wonders. There's a split second here where she almost gets recursive and thinks it's hard to tell because of Jadis's amnesia, but no of course that's not it. Well, no one she's close to in the Divine Realms, and her human life was so long ago, there aren't that many people she'd easily be able to tell. Hah, maybe Apienne had been a form of Waehild. (Probably not.)

Hisako squeezes another section of her hair with invisible pseudo-hands, trying to wring it out a bit. It's a good thing she's as birdlike as she is, this much bending and weight would be hard on a human neck. She arches her brows knowingly. "Kissed her yet?"

[keytarheroine]

Claire barks laughter at being read for filth.

“Thoroughly,” she replies, grinning.

[steelfeathered]

Hisako cackles, a very un-Jadis sound of, well, malice, however harmless that malice is. "Was she shocked? I seem to remember she wasn't ready to see herself as a honeylove, but maybe some good's come of this."

She's using an archaic, medieval term for lesbian.

[keytarheroine]

Claire blinks, then shouts, outraged, “How do I know what that means? Ryefiiiiiield!”

She shakes an impotent fist at heaven and laughs.

“I think at least a little of that was a literal curse, and I can’t wait to drop the base on an echo of the woman she cannot speak ill of, nor speak to her foul play,” Claire says. “If nothing else good comes of flammin’ Montica, let her escaping it ‘when two cursed hearts beat as one’ be worth it. But yes.”

A song Ryefield wrote comes to her mind, and grinning, she sings it:

“She thinks herself a princess, that lordling's daughter,
And, oh Aphrodite, she's not wrong!
Let others whisper of her decent to saphistry,
I will enshrine our love and friendship in this song!”