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

[noonlight]

Lu flips to that page in their own copy, skims over it, and it genuinely takes them a moment or two to figure out what could be upsetting.

"And that's a problem. Right." A pause. A longer pause. "Right, well, you shouldn't have to read something that ...I don't want to say affects you, but I don't know the right word."

Lu looks back at the book, properly re-reads the section and speaks without looking at SecUnit, "There's merit to a text that makes the reader feel things, but whatever that expression is, I don't think that's what the author intended."

cw: discussions of slavery and being forced to watch sexual activity

[ugh_emotions]

"Human sex and relationships are boring and disgusting," it says. Then it pauses, considering who its talking to. "Or, you know. Organic sex and relationships."

(It hadn't ever actually seen SOBs having sex with each other. But SecUnit was pretty sure it would find that just as disgusting as human sex.)

There's a long pause. It stares at the ground. Arms wrapped around its legs, as it curls up on its armchair.

"I used to have to watch," it says suddenly. "When I was still owned by the company. They always wanted recordings, for data mining and blackmail. I didn't like it."

Now, though, it could choose what it looked at. What it read. And it didn't want to see or read anything about sex at all, ever.

[noonlight]

"That's cruel."

Facing in the same direction as SecUnit, Lu kneels on the floor by its chair and takes their time to process what they've heard. There are regular ripples of colour, and a faint, sour, metallic scent.

"To say that you shouldn't have had to do that, and that I feel for you, well, it's just words and doesn't do anything." What can they do that is actually helpful? What is necessary? It helps to know the reading material before the story comes, and the book itself does no harm to Illumination.

"Would you like it if I read the book and either gave you a summary? Marked the pages to skip? Or just, hmm, covered passages focused on physical intimacy?"

[ugh_emotions]

"Not really," it says.

Wait, shit - it should explain that.

"Constructs aren't people, in the Corporation Rim," it says. "We're equipment. You can't be cruel to equipment."

Which was still shit for SecUnit, of course. There was a reason it didn't want to go back to being equipment again. But it still didn't think about what had happened to it as being cruel. That was just...normal SecUnit stuff.

Anyway. It thinks about Illumination's offer (which makes its insides go all melty). It kind of would like to read the book, without the terrible bits.

"...Can you cover them?" it asks.

[noonlight]

They'll have to agree to disagree on that point. While Illumination firmly believes that cruelty is not dependent on the status of personhood but the ability to suffer, it is not their place to bring this to SecUnit's attention. Is it better to accept thoughtless behaviour as normal or to acknowledge the cruelty inherent in the system and process the anger and grief?

It is something that weighs in Lu's heart, but it is not their place to raise the question with SecUnit. It is as much a person as they are - with all the good, bad, and messy that includes. If and when it needs to talk about it, they'll be there, but until then: "I can do that. They have sticky-note paper here and I think that will do the trick."

"I read quickly for an SOB, and the book isn't too long or dense. Give me a couple hours?"

[ugh_emotions]

SecUnit's come a long way from when it was freed from the Company. It actually knowledges that it is a person, now. But a lifetime of being a thing, of being owned, leaves scars. There's a lot of ways that the thinking of the Corporation Rim is still embedded deep within its psyche.

But having friends like Illumination - friends who will help hide the bits of a book that SecUnit can't stand - goes a long way to healing from that too.

"Okay," it says. Then the melty feeling starts feeling overwhelming, and it has to bring its head down to bury them in its knees. "Thank you," it adds, sounding slightly muffled.

[noonlight]

"I'll try to offer to be helpful when I can, but I don't know what you need or want, so you can always ask. I'm saying this explicitly, so there's no confusion." With that, there's the curious vegetal scent that SecUnit has picked up on before, and Illumination starts to properly read their copy of the book. Occasionally, the quiet scritch of their pencil in the margins or, if there's no one else but SecUnit around, another flutter of scent or colour.

It is worth noting that if there are any other people nearby, Lu's scent and colour shifting drops back to barely perceptible to humans.

[ugh_emotions]

Ask? For what it needs and wants?

The very idea is utterly anxiety-inducing.

(Maybe sometimes it can manage it. With humans and SOBs that it really trusts. And when it's like, worked itself up to it. Maybe.)

Right now though, SecUnit just stays quiet on its chair. The drone is keeping an eye on Illumination, and anyone who might come nearby. But for the most part it has that input backburnered, as it watches media while waiting.

[noonlight]

After a couple hours, Lu stands and stretches - one of those big, full-body, back-arched, spine-popping sort.

"Alright. Let me go get that sticky paper, and I'll go back through and cover the bits I marked as the worst of the lot." They've gone through and made plenty of notes, some for their own reference, and some as reminders of spots to cover up."

"On the whole, it's a good book, and I hope you like the rest of it."

[ugh_emotions]

"...Yeah," it says quietly. It had liked parts of what it had read. They'd...resonated. It probably was a good book. SecUnit wanted to like it too.

(It wanted to know more about the paladin. It wanted to know how he dealt with being lost and adrift. It wanted to know how he dealt with being terrifying and dangerous.

It wanted to know if he could ever be safe.)

For now though, it just nods - and waits for Illumination to do their thing, and come back.

[noonlight]

Thing Done and office supplies pilfered, Illumination returns and gets back to their editing. Anything too organically salacious is covered with a post-it note and, in turn, that note has a very short description of what happened followed by a terrible drawing, a rambling aside, or a nice recipe.

Once their work is completed, and a post-it that reads 'The Official Illumination Abridged Edition' has been firmly affixed to the front, they pass it back. "I'll do it for any others going forward."

[ugh_emotions]

SecUnit doesn't interrupt or say anything while Illumination works. It just stays in its chair, watching its media. (Which makes it look a bit like it's just staring off into space for an extended period of time. Except there's something behind the eyes, some subtle hint that there is something occupying its attention.)

But then Illumination is finished, and it pauses the show to take the book from them.

"...Thank you," it says, quietly. It's getting that melty feeling inside, again. It ducks its head to the side, trying to hide its face.

[noonlight]

"It's only fair, SecUnit. I can do this to protect you, and it doesn't harm me in the slightest; and you have your drones watch me, and that's ...it's very rare to have someone willing to care like that." There's a quiet, sincere pause, and then Lu puts all that earnest talk away. "Enough of that, can't let anyone start to suspect that I'm not an unholy and heartless wretch. Back to work."

Lu nods once, decisively, and then pulls out their notebook and gets back to working on their running list of problems - how to get the primarchs drunk, how to better sound and light proof the bunks, and Illarion's messy mental prosthesis.

[ugh_emotions]

It nods its head, then pretends to be looking at the book while it drowns in melty feelings for a few minutes. Then when its calm enough to do so, it switches to actually reading the book.

(While it reads, one of its drones does indeed keep watching over Illumination. Risk assessment is pretty low right now, so it's not really worried about anything happening to them. It's just nice, to keep an eye on what they're doing.

A relatively short time later - even with physical books, SecUnit reads fast - it reaches the last page. Closes the book, and exhales.

[noonlight]

They've been sitting on the floor, slowly sketching out a series of increasingly complicated sigils and warding diagrams and enjoying the quiet, but once they hear that the book is closed Illumination turns in place to look up at SecUnit.

"Better?"