They say the gods never give us more than we can handle - Library Log

[libraryassistants]

Who: Editors, with a guest Assistant or two
What: The Library begins to change once more
When: The two weeks leading up to the next Story
Where: The Library, obvi
Content warnings: Please add content warnings to threads!

Once again, the Library begins to change. The wooden floor becomes more like cobblestone (complete with ‘the ability to trip you up easily if you’re not watching your step’), and there’s some little flags that look like the kind of things you’d get handed at a festival. As the week goes on, little carts and stalls pop up around the Library - most don’t have anything, but there are a few where some familiar ‘faces’ pop up to offer their wares. It’s mostly rocks. Some of them are shiny, at least?

The customary ‘Back In 5’ sign is now missing from the assistant's desk, and in its place sits one of said Assistants. Additionally, there is the now expected sign on the circulation desk: “This week’s Recommended Reading: Paladin’s Grace!” Unlike the previous readings, it seems this one is fairly straightforward in that there’s no mix-up of copies or alternate forms of media. However, on request, it does seem that there are some sequels available for reading as well.

Available are also an assortment of other books, such as What Kings Ate And Wizards Drank by Krista Ball, Livre de Chevalerie by Geoffroi de Charny, and Life In A Medieval Castle by Frances and Joseph Gies. There is a waiting list pinned by these; the intention is clearly to share and not squirrel them away. Off to one side is The Forme of Cury, which the Library is NOT automatically translating into something more legible; some may have to ask for help to riddle out its many, many recipes. Religious symbols of countless faiths sit on walls or propped on top of bookshelves and even in the kitchenette and sleeping area, from a set of ornate old-fashioned merchant's scales to the Eye of Horus and even ... a colander full of spaghetti … ?

There's a new door added to the rotating locations, a scrawled note taped to it reading "Stop breaking things!" This door leads directly to an endless forest, with a cheerful clearing, soft grass and pleasant birdsong. Some lucky souls will recognize it as the current iteration of the Safe Room, now freely accessible from inside the library; coming and going is now effortless! That is, unless someone's sent there via destruction of property or injuring someone else, at which point they must wait out the usual duration. The day and night cycle remains, but now and again the sky clouds over, and pleasant spring rains sweep across the forest. These same rain showers are a regular occurrence in the garden for the next two weeks, at a rate of one every two days or so, lasting a little while before fading back to the usual climate and "weather".

The kitchenette is offering a change in food items; there's now a variety of hard cheeses, breads and salted meats to pick from, as well as dried fruit, pickles, eggs, river-fish, porridges of assorted forms, and uncooked roasts. Unfortunately things to actually cook the roasts with, like ovens or even a fire, haven't been provided alongside them. Drinks have changed to a small selection of rustic wines and extremely watered down ales. (Water is of course freely available.) The Laundry has acquired a large wooden tub and a washboard.

Comments

MOD QUESTIONS

[libraryassistants]

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[codeswitchcraft]

Is Library Manipulation 2 enough to give the kitchen a proper hearth for which to cook a roast?

Assistant Time

[libraryassistants]

The Assistant’s Desk now has Phillip behind it, with all the majesty he feels the position is due - meaning, he’s leaning back as far as the office chair can go with his feet up on the desk. In between answering questions, he can be found playing cat’s cradle with a bit of string, working his way through this week’s Recommended Reading, or ‘resting’ his eyes. Somehow, he’s still almost impossible to sneak up on.

[ugh_emotions]

SecUnit doesn't try sneaking up on Phillip. But there is a tiny drone that appears well beforehand, and stares at him.

When SecUnit itself shows up a short time later, it gets right to the point.

"Seventeen humans and SOBs have now gone missing," it says. "Do you have information on what happened to them?"

Okay, so it had already talked to the other one about this. But Richard was an asshole, and had been fucking useless. But SecUnit had to try, just in case Phillip might be less useless.

Dionysus | OTA

[deinoswitch]

Garden

By this point, Dionysus has set up something or other in the garden and is spending a majority of his time out there; he does not come into the 'dorm' area unless he needs to steal sheets for something and almost no time at all in the kitchen. The plants in the garden grow unusually fast- things planted before a Story seem to be ready to harvest after, but it is even more so at the moment; the witch seems to mostly be living off of things he's growing in his own little corner of it. Not to mention the ivy and wisteria climbing up the fences, threatening to completely take over.

He'll smile and wave at whoever comes out to the garden, a few of the friends from Link's pack still hanging out around him while he mixes something or other together in a bowl over a fire he's made. He's learned after a few tries to not look away from the bowl until he's done or else it will just vanish back to the kitchen. Annoying, but very doable for him.

Inside

He does come inside for a few things- the available food is actually much more what he's used to, so he will take some (avoiding any of the meats), but the reading winds up catching his interest in particular. When he's curled up in a chair, he somehow manages to look much smaller than his six feet of height, and he's curiously turning the pages as he goes. "Have you read it?" he asks, should someone wander by, "I'm quite enjoying it, honestly. Though I admit I don't entirely know what we're meant to take from it."

Garden

[not_a_weapon_not_a_boy]

When she walks into the garden, Charlie heaves a sigh of relief, and if Dionysus happens to be looking her direction, he can see her visibly relax. The sight of the nice guy who happens to share a name with a Greek god brings an even bigger smile to her face as she makes her way over to say hello.

"Wow, you've been busy here!" she says, looking at everything growing. "I hadn't realized how much being inside all the time was getting to me until I stepped out here." She sniffs at the stuff over the fire. "What are you making?"

Kai | OTA | cw: vague reference to alcoholism

[bashasasdemon]

Form of Cury

Kai is pretty good at languages, speaking half a dozen or more with fluency enough to communicate with most people. So something not being automatically translated has his attention and his curiosity. He's not sure what he was expecting, but this is... not it.

It's just recipes, he figures that out pretty quickly, but with a lack of anything better to focus on, he's got a little pad of paper and a pencil, taking notes and scratching things out as he tries to figure this out. He's not sure how long he's actually going to be able to work at this without throwing it against a wall, but if someone shows interest they can join him.

Kitchenette

Kai can't help but make a face at the all-too familiar scent of fermented drinks; he'll ignore it, for the most part, but he will be keeping an eye out for anyone who might be inclined to overindulge.

(There's a little pang in his heart when he thinks too hard about that, but he shoves it away. Ziede was right, that keeping someone away from the stuff could eat up a mortal lifetime. Fortunately, he had plenty of those left.)

He will find a rice porridge and settle in to eat some of that, though there's definitely something missing. "They could have wine but not goat's milk?" he mutters more to himself than anything, clearly annoyed.

Kitchens

[ohaiyo_isekai]

“I’ve figured out how to take things from books and make them stick around,” Hikaru offers, as he stirs an egg into hot zosui - style rice porridge. “If you need some butter or milk I can put them in the fridge for you.”

Murderbot | OTA

[ugh_emotions]

i. throwing books against the wall
SecUnit was engrossed in the book, at first.

The very beginning hit hard. The paladin's loss of direction. Loss of control. How he was something dangeorus and violent and terrifying, how he went from being a protector to being a threat.

Yeah.

So, it was invested in this book. It was good, not like the last one. Except the more it read, the more there was...a problem.

The book was also really, really [redacted].

And unlike a normal digital book, SecUnit couldn't just run it through a filter to cut out all of the terrible bits. It had to actually look at what was written, with its own eyes, first. And then try and physically skip ahead, which was annoying and kind of difficult.

Then when the paladin's genitals get mentioned after he hugs the perfumer, SecUnit reflexively chucks the book at the nearest wall.

ii. nevermind the drone surveillance, the drone surveillance is fiiiine
One advantage of not pretending to be human anymore: now SecUnit can use all of its drones at once, without having to pretend to only be capable of handling just one or two.

One drone continues to watch the STAFF ONLY door. Another stays near SecUnit. But the other ten spread out throughout the library, observing the changes.

And observing the other Editors, of course. (How else will SecUnit check that they're not all being violently murdered?)

The drones are small - only a centimetre across - quick, and quiet. They're not easy to spot. But for the eagle eyed, or the very lucky, they can be noticed.

iii. suspicious yipping fauna cannot be trusted
The yipping fauna at the weird rock carts haven't eaten anyone yet. But that doesn't mean SecUnit trusts them. Not one fucking bit.

It's seen the big, gaping mouths those things have. They could absolutely be one of those fauna that swallows humans whole, despite the size difference making that seem unlikely. It's seen that shit happen.

(And besides, some of the SOBs were small. Easier to swallow. Or there could be teeth hidden deep within that mouth, waiting to bite off a human or SOB's limb.)

So, SecUnit is keeping an eye on them. When they show up with their little rock carts, it takes up position nearby, arms grossed, and stares right at them. Yeah, just try and eat someone while SecUnit is watching, assholes.

[locked to Siobhan]

[ugh_emotions]

At an innocuous time of day, when SecUnit knows from one of its drones that Siobhan isn't busy, it taps her feed. Or, well, her 'sendjewel'.

An agonising 0.6 seconds later, it sends her a message.

I tried doing that thing you suggested. You know. Writing a book, it says. But it's shit.

konrad curze | ota

[curzed]

Safe Room

The door's been left open, propped open by a dirt-crusted rock swung inwards into the safe room. Library and shelves of books on one side, a peaceful nighttime forest on the other, complete with a serene meadow, hammocks, and ... a campfire, and fish swiped from the kitchens wedged carefully between sticks to crisp slowly near the flames. A couple of bottles of wine likely also purloined from the new stock in the kitchenette sit nearby. It's terribly inviting, even with the Night Haunter sitting on his heels not far away from the flickering firelight, thumbing through one of the books available for recommended reading.

He's keeping an eye on the entrance simply to see if anyone else can come and go as they please, or if it's something only he for some reason can do.

Laundry.

This is very clearly something he's never done before, by the way the tub and washboard are examined and then the washing machine, a tangle of sheets and blankets sitting in a lump on the floor.

He'd gone from murderhobo to king quite literally overnight; in one state, laundering anything was irrelevant and in the other there were cringing servants to tend to such things, and he'd slipped into old habits of self-negligence easily, decades of ingrained habit reasserting themselves. Even as lord of his Legion, others saw to matters of housekeeping, if he permitted them to. Of late there had been ... reminders ... that a measure of cleanliness is expected around others he does not have authority over.

Eventually he decides on the tub, filling it a bucket at a time. It isn't that he can't figure out how the machine does things, it's that the thing didn't work properly the last he'd heard, and a tub and washboard really can't go wrong, can it?

safe room

[unsheathedfromreality]

As one of those who's been committing small acts of vandalism to get to the forest quite often, Illarion certainly recognizes the new sign's aimed at him.

The fact the door's propped open is also interesting, and prompts the shrike to stick his head in -- because, damnably enough, he still cannot see kata or ana of any of the doors here, even when they're open -- and see who's inside.

... Just the primarch he's looking for.

He disappears as rapidly as he appears, returning in a couple of minutes with his boots off, his own copy of the recommended reading, and a small paper-wrapped package. Not quite so bold as to invite himself directly to the fire, he nevertheless gets quite close to it -- and Night Haunter -- before tilting his head at the larger man in a silent question.

Ulyssian Aureus | OTA

[forthosewecherish]

Garden

It starts raining pretty much immediately as soon as Ulyssian steps inside the garden, a steady soaking sort of rain that's excellent for gardens and vegetables and slowly plasters his hair to his head and soaks through both garish teeshirt (today's offense to sensibilities is canary yellow and decorated in meticulously embroidered patterns of vivid red and blue birds) and black bodyglove below it.

He casts one black look skyward with a heavy sigh and then squelches on anyway, heading for the raised garden beds to work on removing weeds and trimming dead leaves and stems back. He doesn't know much at ALL about gardening, but that seems to be reasonable things to do.

At least nothing's going to need watering.

Kitchenette!

Ulyssian's been a bit busy in the kitchen, now that someone generously added an entire hearth to the room, making use of both the things Link left behind and the new items that have appeared. There's a row of slowly-baking apples sitting on the stone, rotated now and again to get properly baked on either side, the scent of apple and sugar overriding most other smells for the moment.

He's also taken several slices of one of the uncooked roasts, seasoned it, thrown it on a plate with a truly alarming amount of cheese and pickles, and apparently isn't intending to actually cook it any time soon since it's sitting on the table waiting to be eaten. There's also a bland grayish looking rectangle of god-knows-what sitting on a separate dish nearby. It smells like chemicals.

The towering space marine's not ready to get at dinner though, he's picking his way through the rustic wine selection with a faint frown, brow furrowed, one by one uncapped and poured into a plastic pink cup and then tasted. But the flavor clearly isn't meeting his approval, by the disappointment he's radiating.

"None of these taste right." His voice is an unpleasant guttural rasp, more the sound of old injury than any active attempt to sound awful.

Vino!

[noonlight]

"What's it meant to taste like?" Illumination is perfectly happy with some dried meat and a glass of red, but they might stop by later for watered wine with any spices they can find. A cheap red can be nicely improved by turning it into a hypocras.

Sanguinius OTA Message Board and Other

[angel_of_baal]

Message board

Hisako.
Come flying!

((Ooc: Anyone else can respond to this or show up at the forest safe room for flying.))

Safe room

Finally, space to fly. It feels like an indulgence and his hearts aren't in it but he feels he has to try. Has to put on the appearance, and hope that moving his wings, tearing through the skies above the trees, will do something to help his mood.

At least it doesn't make things worse. Join him in flight, or throw things and try to hit him, or make a game out of it, or have him ruin your picnic by downdrafting your cute picnic tablecloth.

Kitchen

He's got a book tucked under his arm, the one on Chivalry, and is browsing over the drink selections. What's a good pairing for some chivalry?

WildCard

((Anywhere any time he doesn't sleep, hmu or poke me to tag into yours!))

[steelfeathered]

[Hisako's response on the board is an egg shape with a curved line of wing to either side. One wing is longer than the other, so she lengthens the shorter one and, hmm, okay, let's just make both absurdly long. There! Totally intentionally stylized art.]

I should teach you the falconry technique called casting-off. I'm the one playing the falcon of course.

[she specifies because she doesn't want Lemon Yellow reading this and getting agitated by animal comparisons again.]

We can skip right to it, so when you see me, pretty please hold your arm out horizontally before you. Maybe no armor? Fine either way.

Angua

[longnoseofthelaw]

-1: Cobblestones-

When Angua noticed the changes coming over the library, one of the first things she did was find somewhere out of the way and look around to see if anyone was watching. Once assured that no one was IMMEDIATELY watching her she closed her eyes and started...shifting her feet as if she were rubbing out two cigarettes under her heels at once.

This went on long enough that it was possible for someone walking by to catch her at it, despite her attempts at being discreet.

-2: Safe room-

Angua was STARTING to feel like she had gotten her bearings in this strange library when a new door appeared. Coppers being professional nosy busybodies, Angua of course had to peek inside.

Is anyone else just wandering the woods, enjoying the novelty of feeling like they're outdoors? Angua is. She looks kind of...disappointed by it, though. Underwhelmed, perhaps.

1

[goodtobebad]

"A little weird, but the cobblestones take me back a bit, too," Crowley comments easily from nearby. She seems like she's pretty engrossed in what she's doing, but Crowley isn't really judging, per se. Just a little curious.

Iren Suto

[ordainedbarkeep]

-1: Holy symbols-

Mixed in with the religious symbols was a tiny stewpot hanging on a little chain over a fire. The whole thing was made of wrought iron.

Iren was observing the new changes, idly. There was a lot of free time for Editors, after all. When she came across this particular holy symbol she stopped for several seconds, then picked it up and stuck it in her pocket.

-2: Grand Opening-

The Laughing Toadstool is a malleable building, and has changed the architectural style to look a little bit more medieval to fit the changes to the library. More importantly, it has a sign at the front door that says "We are OPEN for business..."

Inside, Iren bustles about, making sure everything is ready for customers, even if they aren't really customers, since the Library does not have what you might call a "functional economy."

Instead, there's a signup sheet in the common room for shifts in the kitchen, or serving drinks, or sweeping. Anyone who comes in thirsty or hungry will get SOMETHING, but people who actually work to support the Laughing Toadstool, or who bring things to fill the storeroom with, get more attention. They get access to the GOOD drinks menu.

At this exact moment, she's behind the bar polishing a glass.

"Welcome, welcome! What can I get you?"

-3: Reading-

Iren lounged on a beanbag chair in the quiet room, with a glass of wine from the kitchen on a nearby shelf in easy arm's reach. She had Livre de Chevalerie in her lap and was reading quietly while occasionally taking a sip from her drink.

Drinks were not encouraged in the library, but for whatever reason it hadn't been magicked away quite yet.

Grand Opening

[mageweaver]

More than anything, it's pure curiosity that brings Sandry inside the cafe.

"Oh, this is a lovely little space," she says, admiring the decor and the ambience of the place. "And this is - yours? Specifically?" she adds, peering at Iren.

If it is, then Sandry can't help but wonder how she managed it. Everything she'd seen in this place so far had been utterly communal.

Magnus the Red | OTA

[logosmaxima]

i. forme and image (the stacks)
a. Of all his many intellectual pursuits, Magnus has always taken a certain childlike joy in the study of languages and discovery of archaic words to add to his dragon's hoard of a vocabulary. A text in untranslated Middle English -- a tongue so long dead in the Imperium all but the most specialized of linguists would deny it ever existed -- is a gift beyond compare.

Accordingly he's commandeered a copy of The Forme of Cury to study with all a primarch's ferocious attention, seated at a table grown to his enormous proportions with his journal open at his side. Two dozen other (unfinished) books -- cookbooks, histories, and even a partially illustrated botanical reference -- lay spread around him. A growing list of words, and some tiny esoteric illustrations, cover the open page at his left hand.

Now and again, he finds something so interesting an audible murmur escapes him -- sometimes directed at passers-by. "Galangal has been extinct for centuries. Do you think ginger will substitute?"

Or, "They put much stock in coloring food as a joy to the eye, as much as the other senses. Such a balanced approach to the symbolism of the meal -- don't you agree?"

b. The religious symbols are also of considerable interest, even if -- strictly -- they represent bodies of outmoded, outlawed, and ignorant practices that offer only a sliver of true understanding of the world Immaterial. Magnus had thought to begun a catalogue of them, collecting as many as he could to his table to sketch them into his journal, except ...

Except. One among the dozens of icons of gods and saints is a gilt-and-skull-decked portrait of a dusky-skinned man with a peculiar intensity on his chiseled face. His eyes glow a brilliant gold to match the rayed halo adorning His head.

Magnus has set the portrait by itself before him and sits contemplating it in silence, his own features drawn into a frown to match the icon's, his troubled eye gray as storm clouds.

So deep is his reflective funk he does not acknowledge those who may approach him.

ii. i turn the inward eye to see it pass (garden)
Events in Montica had weighed heavy on Magnus, even though his involvement in the Story's main narrative had been but casual. His journey through Konrad's visions, and the shared space their souls wove together in pursuit of his brother's tutelary spirit, had left the sorcerer deeply disturbed beneath the weight of the future.

Contemplation of what he'd seen -- its meanings, its metaphors, its terrible and wonderful promise -- had occupied much of his time immediately after the Editors' return, leaving him scarce in the stacks. Even now, weeks from the event, he makes time to sit in the garden and meditate for hours.

As now: He sits cross-legged on the grass by a planter hosting a small apple tree. Though he has left himself open to the elements -- his crimson mane and robe dampened by the rain -- the icon of the Emperor-his-Father he holds in both hands is wrapped in a tiny sparkling kine shield to keep it dry. He appears wholly at peace.

But while his physical body rests, rain-dewed, among the vines and fruit trees, his subtle body roams. Such is the nature of the Library -- a safe island in the Great Ocean, as Magnus would describe it -- that the immaterial presses on the material in strange ways. There might be a scarlet apparition in his full panoply striding among the stacks, intangible and transparent but quite able to stop for a friendly chat.

Sleepers in their bunks might find their dreams disturbed by blood and fire, or wings and eyes, or even the presence of a silent one-eyed visitor.

Or someone patient might wait beside his abandoned shell long enough for him to return to it, open his eye, and smile at his visitor. "Good evening," or morning, or whatever it may be,

"Come to enjoy the quiet?"

iii. wildcard
((ooc: Got another idea? I'm game for anything!))

[noonlight]

Illumination scans the collected pile of icons, idols, and symbols to see what they recognize. There's a little section for the gods from Yeah me-Ayin. They first spot the tail of the Rat, then a phylactery for the Sainted Dead of the Ghoststone Rebellion, and ...oh. Well, if there's an idol of the Sleeper, it should not outside its reliquary, and it ought not be uncovered. They quickly fold a bit if paper into a tent and place it over top. It's not their god, but some things aren't worth risking. (The thought of the Sleeper waking and being able to see into the Library turns their stomach.)

Finally, Ayan, the sign of the Solar Path, should be placed as high as possible. Conviently, the Library's tallest guest is close at hand. He seems lost in the thought, so in the interim, Lu pulls out a book and gets to reading. Either they'll finish the book and interrupt Magnus, or he'll notice them and they can converse then.

Crowley | OTA

[goodtobebad]

Kitchen;

Crowley is sniffing the wine critically, and finally wrinkles his nose slightly.

"Don't tell me the next one is going to be set in the fourteenth century? I hated the fourteenth century!"

Religious symbols;

When he finds the spaghetti, he barks a laugh.

"This one was all me. Of course, some humans inevitably started taking it too seriously, then it wasn't fun anymore."

He avoids the Satanic stuff with a sneer.

Safe Room;

For those with wings, or anyone looking up, may spot a lanky redhead dressed all in black, with sleek black wings, flying above the treetops. It's novel! It's something to do! Good exercise!

Wild card;

[ hit me with any other ideas you have! ]

Kitchen

[borntolove]

The Doctor was on his way when he hears his twin face shout; curious he wanders towards the kitchen, "Would explain the recommended reading. I can't say I'm fond of it either and how it de-nounces science. Why do you not like it?"

Mina Harker | OTA

[starandhope]

Kitchen;

Once the hearth appears, Mina is soon to be found prepping some of the uncooked meat. While she is used to more modern, 19th century conveniences, she certainly knows how to roast meat over an open flame! Every good housewife does.

"If you could please cut the potatoes," she offers to whomever is assisting her today. "As evenly as you can."

The Stacks; Recommended Reading;

Mina enjoys a good novel, and this one is very engrossing. She's happily moving along until she gets to the first steamy bit, and then the color rises in her cheeks and she sputters a bit - but she doesn't stop!

"They're not married!" she mutters to herself, even as she continues.

Wild card;

[ Hit me with any other ideas you have! ]

recommended reading

[codeswitchcraft]

"Sometimes that happens," Siobhan finds herself saying, curled up in a nearby armchair with her own copy of the book. Her face is very pink at the moment.

The Doctor | Doctor Who | OTA

[borntolove]

Recommend Reading

The Doctor knows just by looking at the titles that the books are all taking place in a medieval time. "But what does it mean?"


Wild card

Let's do something!

Recommended Reading

[ohaiyo_isekai]

A 135 CM humanoid with dragonfly wings, a red mantle, and a tall pointed broad-brimmed black hat with a red band looks up at the one who asked - and doubletakes in recognition.

“That’s right, I didn’t see you in the Library before the Montica Story,” he says in the same voice as Lucas Azuresky. “Did you arrive in medias res? I didn’t know that was possible. If so, you missed the last Recommended Reading.”

Dunk | OTA

[thickasacastlewall]

Recommended Reading

Dunk stares down glumly at the book in front of him. "I was hoping for more pict-feeds," he says with a great sigh, using the word for moving pictures that the sewer man had taught him. He'd liked the pict-feeds. He still found himself humming some of the songs from them, even all these weeks later.

Well. Nothing for it. He touches the reading stone the librarian gave him in his belt pouch and sets off to try to find a private room where he can use the stone on the book.

Laundry and Kitchenette

Ah, things he understands! Dunk wastes no time in stripping down entirely, so that he can give all his clothes a good scrubbing in the new washing tub, though he does put his small clothes back on as soon as they're clean, still wet or not, given there are ladies at the library. (Everything else is allowed to air dry as much as possible in the laundry room.)

In the kitchenette, he's extremely pleased to see all the new foodstuffs and the new hearth and spends time turning the spit and otherwise poking at it. "Did someone ask the librarian's assistants for this?" he wonders out loud.

Safe Room

Oh. Oh, he's missed this. He does like sleeping in a bed, underneath a roof--he likes it very much--but he's spent the bulk of his nineteen-or-twenty years on the road, sleeping underneath trees and hedges and so places like this, woodland clearings with soft grass and birdsong, feel like coming home again.

And delightfully the magic of the library is enough that the hammocks will fit him. So yeah, you might just find him stretched out in a hammock and staring up at the sky, a little grin on his face.

recommended reading

[wantinghope]

"What's a pict? What kind of stuff does it eat?" What the heck does that have to do with the book? Because feed is obviously what you, you know, feed animals! "Are picts edible?"

[noonlight]

a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse

The garden was fine; it made a certain amount of sense. But this forest? No, no, thank you. It's weird.

Still, Lu refuses to be scared of the unknown when they can be cautious and curious. They've heard of forests, seen pictures and paintings, but even those that they've seen aren't quite like this one. It's all so green, and damp, and the grass is far too soft.

Weird.

The leave a scent trail as they go exploring among the trees until they find the right one to spread out a blanket underneath, pull out their current book, and get to reading. Wisely, they've also brought along some of the dried meat and a bottle of the wine to help pass the time.

Wildcard.

Lu will be bopping around the Library as usual - working on side projects, puttering in the kitchen, in the laundry repairing a seam, etc.

Jun Ushiro | OTA

[icanhearscreams]

Laundry

Jun is scrubbing at a jacket in the washbasin, trying to get it clean. There's still a slight smell to it, and he's insistent on cleaning that off.

After it's clean enough he sits, having hung it over the side. He wants to wait for it to dry, so he's got a sketchbook in his hands and is currently poking the eraser of a pencil into his lip as he thinks about what to draw.


Gods

There's all sorts of symbols here - some he recognizes, most that he doesn't. He's looking at a whole series of them sitting on a shelf and keeps getting tempted to knock them all off.

Eventually he just grows frustrated, wadding up a piece of paper and throwing it at the shelf. He doesn't care if or what he hits, just that he's annoyed.


Touching Grass (cw: minor injuries, mention of child on child violence)

Jun's not a kid who minds being outside, but he does mind being bored. Eventually he finds his way out to the forest, where he's spending some time punching a tree. It's a good thing his punches aren't very good, because that means he's not breaking anything.

His fists are getting scratched up though... he probably should go inside and take care of that. He's too frustrated right now. And Kana isn't here to punch - no, he needs to stop thinking that.


Wildcard

[[idk, something else?]]

Touching Grass

[grandparty]

Oh no, Grandpa Mode has been activated...even though Kinjiro is very much all of seventeen right now. "Hey now, what's going on? That tree's going to win that fight if you're not careful."

Claire Ryland | OTA

[keytarheroine]

Recommended Readings
Claire reads Paladin’s Grace intently over a few days, and if she’s bothered by the saucier parts of it… that’s not what makes her frown at it.

What Kings Ate And Wizards Drank she seems to enjoy with fewer reservations, though she does mutter “Not taking coffee for granted again,” at one point.

Gym Room
Claire has been taking advantage of the space to stretch and do vocal warm-ups, when she is utterly taken out by a recognizable song - sort of - playing instead of the usual fare.

So she sings along, with the original lyrics:

“Up on Melancholy Hill,
There’s a plastic tree!
Are you here with me?
Just looking out on the day,
of another dream…
Where you can't get what you want,
but you can get me!
So let's set out to sea, love!
'Cause you are my medicine,
when you're close to me,
When you're close to me…”

Kitchens
…yeah, Claire does not trust herself with an open fire, and, disgruntled, assembles a cheese sandwich with a pickle side.

“We get it, we’re headed for renfaire again,” she grumbles.

Kitchens

[longnoseofthelaw]

"A what?"

Said the woman who looked like she was from a renfaire. She was also assembling an honestly pretty similar sandwich.

Kinjiro | OTA

[grandparty]

[Reading is Fundamental]
Even if he is trying very hard to be a PARTY PERSON in his second go through youth, Kinjiro still remains conscientious. He's got to do it, he's got to read the book. He looks perhaps a little too young for some of the spicier scenes, but when he finishes up, he just looks glum. Now he just misses his late wife.

But he sees someone else, and he's quickly waving the book around at them. "Have you read it yet? What are we supposed to do with this information?"

[Flying High]
In an effort to get his mind off things, Kinjiro has decided it might be a good idea to see that his equipment's still working. Anyone in his area of the forest might hear Kinjiro yell, "Engage!" followed by a strange voice yelling back CLAP YOUR HANDS~! while some synthesizer riffs play, only for the voice to call out "GOZYU EAGLE!". The synthesizer riffs fade out, and a helmeted green figure bursts from the treetops. His helmet looks like a stylized eagle, and he's got his arms stretched with feathers spread between them. Fortunately...that still works!

[Contractually Obligated Egg Prompt]
Of course Kinjiro's going for those eggs. Of course. (Especially since he burned off some energy flying like that!) He's boiled a few of them, and he's dutifully peeling them and placing them in a plastic container he's been carrying around in his pocket. He's also frying some up, because even if you've got to eat eggs constantly, it's nice to mix things up a bit. "You know, I tried looking for recipes for eggs in that cookbook they had available, but I couldn't make anything out. It didn't make a lick of sense."

Reading Is Fundamental

[birdchasingecho]

"It's a hint, as to what might be going on in the next story. Like the shrine to Inari and the Ultraman imagery."

Viktor | OTA

[scienceofthearcane]

Verily, 'tis cookery of the Midevil sort

Viktor had been curiously looking at the various religious symbols that had popped up around the library. Some of them he did recognize, but then some others were totally foreign to him. He recognized the scales, but to him, they would simply be for the measurement of smaller salads. The spaghetti and colander left him entirely stumped as too what they were meant for. The Forme of Cury was likewise perplexing. It read like a form of Valarian, but the language had been turned and twisted until it was not quite right to call it that. Viktor had no idea how to read it, but it seemed to be a cookbook? He didn't think that his understanding of the word hem was what this cookbook could mean.

Safe Room Forest

Viktor saw the sign first, but it wasn't until he had stepped into a twilight forest that he had to wonder if the sign was meant to mean the door to this room was non-operational.

He was enchanted by the space, looking around it in wonder as he noted both the beautiful old trees and the green grass of a clearing. In fact, this was the greenest that he had ever seen in person. Even the gardens of Piltover had a manicured look to them as though they were living pieces of art.

Not like this. This was wild and rough and ugly in places, but even in that ugliness, they looked so much more natural. As though things had grown wherever they landed, and even the leaf litter on the ground was being half reclaimed by dirt, even now. It was beautiful to Viktor.

Safe Room

[wantinghope]

The books, to be honest, freaked her out. In fact, all the whole...enclosed space kind of freaked her out. She's always lived close to nature--the small igloos of her Tribe, or with her friends camping. Even the biggest buildings in the biggest cities she's been to had broad open windows and air and light.

Most of the rooms here felt too closed in for her. Here, too, but it was easier to pretend. "Jet lived in a forest like this. But bigger."

Altan Hawke | OTA

[altanhawke]

Altan is honestly … amused by the changes. His assumption (correct or not) that the Unfinished Library is a very powerful demon or spirit’s demesne matches its observed behavior of shifting around him, in this case in a way that better matches his lived experience. He looks less out of place this way.

He’s also very amused by the Yip Yips, amiably babbling right back at them, and bartering some coins, lint, floss, or a spare apple to get some shiny rocks. Other residents may see him tossing them around, or using magic to float them or bounce them off soft surfaces, perhaps getting a sense of what he can still do in this strange place.

He doesn’t know what a public library is, but has had a private one before, and doesn’t need to be told twice to borrow some of the books. He can be found through the Library - especially ‘outside’ in the Safe Room, once he discovers its existence and after he’s made his way back quite hungry and a bit grimy from trying to find its bounds - slouched over a chair or a couch with Paladin’s Grace or its sequels held open over his face. He seems quickly engrossed, but for some reason seems a little sad when he’s moved on to devouring Paladin’s Hope and isn’t willing to loan it to another patron until he’s done.

If he can find some scrap paper and a quill (he’ll be genuinely, childishly delighted if he finds a mundane ballpoint pen) he’ll start making sheets with annotations about ‘medieval’ castle life and cooking with cheeky asides often at the expense of noble, royal, rich or otherwise powerful acquaintances of his that nobody not from Thedas would recognize. However, his annotations of ‘The Forme of Cury’ might be useful to other Archivists or Editors.

(If one of those religious symbols is Andrastian, Altan stops as if he’d been about to step on a viper and glares at it).

As briefly aforementioned, Altan spends a fair bit of time in the Safe Room, futilely trying to find its bounds. At least, while the Library seems to become more ‘rustic’ around them, and without his servants Altan has to do his own laundry, he can boil as much water as he wants with his magic; if anyone else needs this service from him he’s happy to provide it, and if he wanders in on someone frazzled by doing cooking or cleaning or drawing a bath the long way ‘round he’s happy enough to help out. He wasn’t always a noble, and he remembers living on a farmstead. (And, hey, while he’s a married man last he remembers, if he’s doing the laundry he gets to go shirtless and show off his arms).

He’s genuinely delighted at the kitchenette’s offerings, including at a sort of herring casserole. Fortunately for the other residents, he can help with cooking the roasts with his fire-summoning trick, but he does crack some jokes about being reduced back down to footpad status. He also sighs deeply in disappointment at the quality of the available wine.

[noonlight]

"I don't know which one you're glaring at, but if you want to stuff it under a napkin and shove it to the back, I don't think anyone will stop you." Illumination has done some rearranging of the symbols and idols in the past and has returned to finish their efforts.

They put a glass of water on the table and drop a small, brass figurine into it.

[birdchasingecho]

The Lobby

Mei... Nods at some of the symbols, but stops at one of them.

This, then, a small, road-side shrine, with a white fox in it.

There's an increasing trepidation as she stares at it, for the willing asking of Inari for favor is something only taken on by the desperate and the mad.

She swallows. Washes her hands, crosses the torii, closes her eyes, and claps twice.

Recommended Reading
It takes Mei a few days, and... despite everything, she seems to exit the book in a worse mood than when she started, slapping it on the table.

She hums, to herself, thinking.

Safe Room
Out in the safe-room however, Mei feels free for once in her life, and pounds her pulse and her strength out in the ever-growing forest. In fact, one might find her climbing a tree, or wrapping her hands and pounding on one.

Seems she's a lot to think about.

Safe room

[flantastic]

Rakia had just been looking for a place to take a nap. Just a nap out in nature as a change of pace. He hadn't expected to find anyone climbing trees out here and is just sort of starting up there at her. "You lose something up there, or is it just exercise?"

Moon Knight (Marc, Steven, and Jake - mostly Marc for now) | MCU

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

I. Arrival, in the stacks

It's not unusual for any of them to wake up somewhere they don't remember going to. Today, it's Marc who wakes up in the shelves full of books, which is annoying, because Marc isn't really the big reader out of the two. Naturally, he assumes it's Steven's fault.

"Steven, where'd you wind us up this time?" he grumbles.

Steven doesn't answer, not being awake at the moment.

He starts to walk, looking for an exit. There's... a lot of shelves. And the floor is weird. Who puts cobblestones in a library floor? And weird... banner things?


II. Exploring, various places

When he finally gets out past the bookshelves and into the lobby, all he can think is: there's no door. The librarian vanishes after pointing him to the living areas, which he explores diligently but with a kind of sense of unreality. It's like Taweret's boat all over again. Did he ever really come back? Is he still dead somehow?

If so, it'd be nice to have Steven along for the ride, but he's still out.


III. The forest

Marc nopes immediately out of the shared dorm space, and from there winds up escaping through the door that leads to... trees? Trees. And sunlight. And birds. Except he can't find any actual birds-- he looks. It makes everything feel even more unreal.

"What the hell," he says after walking in what is probably a circle for half an hour, mostly to himself, but who knows who else is out in these woods to hear and comment on his disbelief.


IV. Recommended Reading

It's much later, after some explanations and lots of general unhappiness, that Marc makes an attempt at this... reading. People say its important, for this story thing they're supposed to go do, but... he's not really a reader. That's Steven. And he's trying to keep Steven out of this as much as possible.

So he tries. And gets irritated by all the romantic waffling. And has to ask somebody who seems friendly enough to ask questions of, "Are we going to have to fix someone's love life or something?"

Though Steven eventually sneaks out, too, and he... enjoys the books a lot more than Marc. He can be found curled up in a chair with a stack of them at odd hours.

III

[codeswitchcraft]

"You're in the safe zone," a short woman with blue butterfly wings informs him. Standing just short of four feet tall, she's dressed like a feminine version of Robin Hood, complete with bow slung against her back. "You used to have to damage the library to get sent here, but I think they got tired of that."

Chie Satonaka | Persona 4 Golden | OTA

[highsteaks]

Recommended Reading

Chie's a few chapters into the book when she gets to the explanation about the heroine's pet and—

"Okay, I did not need to know about the cat's butt goo, ugggghhhh."

She looks absolutely disgusted.

Kitchenette

Right. So. Take one of the big roasts, put it on the meat spit in the hearth the mysterious SG (whoever that is) put in the kitchen, then light a fire underneath it. Maybe turn the spit by the handle every now and then? It seems pretty simple and something even Chie couldn't immediately mess up just by trying.

So of course she literally ends up setting the roast itself on fire.

"AAAAUUUUGH NOOOOOO!" she howls. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, help!"

If anyone's got any idea how to fix this, she'd really appreciate it.

Kitchenette

[birdchasingecho]

"I got it!" She pulls the roast off the heat and wraps it up in her gi, choking out what little fire there was. Let's see what's salvageable... Hmmm...

"Okay. It wasn't too bad. I think the drippings caught fire."

Hisako

[steelfeathered]

Paladin's AO3 Account
Hisako had found some fun in Twilight but had struggled to imagine the world and hadn't given the sequels more than a glance, and there had, frankly, been such an overwhelming amount of Shakespeare that she had barely touched it. Paladin's Grace, while certainly not set in a world she knows and quite strange in places, is brisk and enjoyable, with a few moments of profundity. There are ways she relates to Grace. And there are three more in the series! And the back covers mention three more in the setting, which she's able to request! And the main characters aren't in their teens or twenties!

Of course, there's an awful lot of annoying pining. She'd... okay, Jadis had engaged in that, but Hisako doesn't, because it's different, she knows that there are actual, legitimate reasons people wouldn't find her attractive, she's a Stormwing. Additionally, for books with this much yearning and sensual interest, they're not all that explicit. Lots of phrases like "uncomplicated things happening below his waist" and "touched her in ways neither Phillip nor the artificer's apprentice had ever managed". Hmph.

You might find her reading somewhere, up on a catwalk or perching on the back of a couch. The lack of hands and limits of the art of the grasp mean some issues with holding a book in front of her face for hours, and she doesn't like looking down at it for that kind of time either. Or, you might find her writing, the inkbrush dancing across a sheet of paper and pausing as she considers.

Eventually she takes them to the Main Desk, folded over and neatly labeled with the correct book, the page number of a particular scene, and a note like "If Stephen hadn't broken the kiss to apologize to Grace, they might have muddy woods sex like so". Hisako's prose is rather more explicit, not dancing around the names of body parts. It's also a bit purple and some of the same descriptions are overused. Most notably, while she never outright says which Immortals she's covertly AU'ed one or both participants as, hooves, tails, wings, or mobile pointy ears start factoring into later scenes.

Scry Times
On the bulletin board, Hisako offered to let people watch as she tried to scry Montica, the upcoming Story, and the home of whoever asks nicely. You can find her on a backless bench in the garden at some point when it's not raining, using the darking she made as a scrying tool. A glossy black, semifluid mass that had been around the base of her neck like a thick choker, she bids it to pool before her and flatten into a large disc with a highly reflective finish. If you have a very good sense of smell, you might pick up on a bare whiff of blood as it's changing shape. When it's a mirror, she lifts it up with a whorl of crimson fire edged in gold, like a lace doily under a platter, spreads her wings wide, and breathes across the surface. Red-gold mist forms. After some coaxing it clears to reveal...

a) Moonlit Epilogue
Scrying Montica works! Just as in every other world she's looked into, time seems to have stopped. The still moment takes place shortly after the end of the Story as any Editor experienced it. Hisako is able to shift where she's looking in the city and looks at several scenes. The invading vampires have been vanquished, any fires have been controlled to a smolder at worst, and hostilities between natives of the city have not immediately resumed. She pauses at the sight of a recognizable werewolf nursing a silver burn and a recognizable vampire hooded and flinching against the early morning sun. The werewolf has opened his door and is gesturing inside, evidently offering the vampire shelter from the day. They both look uncertain and a little disbelieving.

[Players of former Actors, feel free to come up with something your character's role is doing! This is a moment from minutes after the Readers vanished and the Actors woke in the Library as themselves. You can comment responding to that, or to...]

When Hisako goes to look up her role she makes a startled noise. Roberte and Jadis are both on the horsehair couch in Jadis's stillroom, but instead of sitting side by side talking, as she remembers, they're turned towards each other, leaning to bridge their disparate heights. He is cupping the side of her face in one hand, she's grabbed his shoulder as if to pull closer, and... they are kissing. Inasmuch as can be determined from a single still image it's incredulous and quite tender. There is, perhaps, also just a bit of tongue.

b) Breaking Prologue
Scrying the next Story works! It's more difficult. Hisako has to breathe more clouds across her darking mirror and is sweating by the time it reveals a single image: a rough cobblestone street crowded with frozen activity. People are setting up for a street fair or a festival, with a number of hanging banners and flags. Four different emblems are most commonly repeated. In the foreground someone clutches a piece of cloth to their chest, the folds and their hands hiding just what the emblem on it is. Did they take it down, are they finding a place to put it up? Their head is turned such that their face isn't quite visible but their shoulders are hunched.

After a moment Hisako loses her 'grip', and the picture fades. She frowns down at her reflection. "That's... I get the feeling something bad is about to happen, but why?"

c) Wildcard Want Hisako to look at your character's canon point or find someone for them? Want something else?