libraryassistants: (Default)
Unfinished Library Mod & NPC Account ([personal profile] libraryassistants) wrote in [community profile] unfinishedooc2025-12-20 09:27 am
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TEST DRIVE MEME #2

Welcome to the Library

Those who are new awake in the stacks.

You’re not sure when you fell asleep, and the memories of the last things you were doing are hazy at best. But now you’re here, and all you can see is books in every direction, the bookshelves teetering high enough above you to reach to the sky.

A helpful sign points you in the direction of the main circulation desk, and even if you try to ignore it and go in any other direction, the desk is where you will find yourself. A figure sits behind the desk, not even looking up as they sort through books and other media; they look, to your character, to be the exact picture of what they expect a Librarian to be.

Trying to ask the Librarian a question will get them shushed, but they’ll point down a hallway to the side, leading to a kitchenette and what appears to be a dorm room, where they’ll find they’re not alone in this strange place. But once they’ve looked away, when they look back, the Librarian is gone.


The Lobby

Those who are already familiar with the Library will see the Lobby change for the second time. It’s not paper plate UFOs and metal walls this time. Instead there are cheerful garlands strung about, and a stack of books shaped into a Christmas tree taking pride of place. The Help Desk is closed, the ‘Back in 5’ sign once again a bald-faced lie, but there is a menorah sat behind in the window, conveniently just out of reach of anyone who tries to get it. The candles are lit in a… somewhat sporadic fashion, the correct order but with no rhyme or reason to what ‘night’ is being represented. Either time is strange here, whoever’s in charge of it doesn’t know what day it is either, or they simply don’t care. Or some mix of the three.

Those two particular winter holidays are not the only ones represented either; characters will find a smattering of decorations or festive accessories from a great number of holidays, from their own worlds and beyond. There is what looks like a cabinet with instructions to pick your fortune from one of the many drawers. For some reason, there are a number of what looks like a child’s toy ponies placed on and around the cabinet. There are also some posters declaring in bold, decidedly upsetting typeset: “THE GOD-EMPEROR WISHES YOU A FESTIVE SANGUINALIA!” complete with a picture of a certain Library resident in all his feathered, shining glory. (The poster is not remotely shiny, but there are helpful accent lines to show that he should be shining.) And, for some reason, there is also a giant straw goat in the garden now, surrounded by festive strings of lights. Please do not set it on fire.

The Kitchens

It seems the decorations are not the only thing in the holiday spirit. The kitchens, usually bereft of anything but the most basic foodstuffs, are now full to the brim with a variety of holiday foods. There is always a tureen with hot mulled wine and a try of sweet pastries near by it, there’s ham and latkes in the fridge to be heated up, jelly doughnuts, moon cakes, pies, and an assortment of other delicious things. If your character would expect to find a certain thing within the stash, they do, regardless of how niche it may be. Christmas chili? Of course there’s christmas chili!

Oh, and that mulled wine isn’t the only alcohol around either- champagne, sake, hard cider… again, anything anyone might expect to find. Just try not to overdo it too much, alright? Everyone still has to sleep in the same room, and the Assistants aren’t going to show up to hold your hair back.

Crafts and More

What good are holidays without crafts? The Maker’s Space has been specially supplied with anything you might need to make your festive crafts- this includes everything you’d need for a gingerbread construction! (You’d think this would be in the kitchen, but don’t kid yourself- those things are not for eating.) There’s strips of colorful paper rings and instructions on how to make your own, little things of clay and paint and directions on how to craft your own dreidel, ’stained glass’ paper lanterns, and more. Oh, and glitter. Obviously there is a lot of glitter available.

There are also snow globe kits, mostly generic winter themes- trees, presents, and the like. Strangely enough, however, when they’re complete and shaken, they’ll show a memory from the person who shook it- a memory of a holiday, or snow, or generally something that invokes the feeling of the season- light, and hope, and togetherness. It’s fragmented, almost stop-motion in between the falling bits of ‘snow,’ but once it has settled the normal, basic scene inside returns.
keytarheroine: (:fear)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2025-12-29 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
From what I've heard, stick around for enough stories and you'll get all the alternate outfits you could ever want.

God, I. I am not looking forward to my first time Acting. What if they -

[She's not going to name the real fear, but...]

- what if I become who I'd be if I never heard the Maidensong?
terraboo: (Erm)

[personal profile] terraboo 2025-12-30 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
I'm guessing that's something significant to your world?
keytarheroine: (:the maidensong)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2025-12-31 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
…it is the song carried on the wind, heard in the rhythms of rain on asphalt or the giggles of a child to it’s mother. It is a leitmotif of love and justice and mercy, that only asks of us to walk humbly, love deeply, fight fiercely, and take care of ourselves. It is the voice of Harmony and the melody of magic, in a Royal Road chord.

It reassured me that I had the pure heart of a maiden in my breast and that I always had, and if that was all, that would have been enough.

But it was so much more generous and patient with a silly, lost child like me. It gave me my powers, my bandmates, and my love.

I owe it my life, and it accepts forward payment in kindness to others.
terraboo: (Base Smile)

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-01 06:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm. Ideals incarnate, almost.

Then, I must ask... What is it that you fight?
keytarheroine: (:confidence)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2026-01-12 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
That which would deny that purity in place of a sterility they call pure.

The Pandora Corruption.

…and late stage capitalists if they don’t step off.
terraboo: (Base Smile)

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-12 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm. Where I'm from doesn't have anything too similar to it, but I've read enough about late-stage capitalism to... What was the quote?

It seems unbeatable. So did the divine right of kings. So, I look forward to its ass being kicked.
keytarheroine: (1v1 me you won't break me)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2026-01-12 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
Laina. My girl. I think we will get along just fine.

So. Archivist. Want to add some punk rock lyrics and music to your collection? A little Bikini Kill, a little K-Pop, a little Per Ink and a whole lot of Magica Riot.
terraboo: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-12 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm. This does seem to be of General Interest in my approximate direction, yes.
keytarheroine: (1v1 me you won't break me)

There is a single fucking line of this in Magica Riot, in bold, but fuck it, we're doing it live.

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2026-01-12 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Where the hell did that microphone come from. The keytar was at her hip, like a sheathed sword waiting to be drawn, but the microphone appeared in a violet puff of Pneuma.

"This is Riot Purple for Magica Riot, live fast kick ass, this is Like You, one two three four!"

And she sings:

"O~oh, what's it like to be you?
What's it like to be beautiful and true?

To find joy even after all you've been through -
And face each day like it's wonderful and new?"

"Poppy growing tall and pretty
in the cracks between the city
those who'd try to pluck you swiftly
found your roots run deeper,
Words that gouge deeper than rifles,
syllabi of empty trifles
send you to camps where they'd stifle
a spirit that's a keeper!"

"Call your love impure, disgusting
for they can't control
the ardent fires now combusting
in your maiden's soul!"

"So!"
"O~oh, what's it like to be you?
What's it like to be beautiful and true?
To find joy even after all you've been through -
Hell, if I'm fighting scared, even spite will do!"

"O~oh, what's it like to be pure?
To be purified in fire
rather than blank and demure?
O~oh, what's it like to be so sure
That you are who you are,
never sick, but you're my cure!"
terraboo: (Writing)

Re: There is a single fucking line of this in Magica Riot, in bold, but fuck it, we're doing it live

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-12 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
Laina immediately recognizes that that IS a microphone, and that this means she's about to sing, and that this is how she learns.

She has pulled out her pen and some paper - the pen actually being on the clasp of her robe, the paper from that bag that looks like it has a lot of books, like a lot a lot.

The good news of this happening in the kitchen, is that it's not happening amongst the stacks where she'd be obligated to shush.

Her head is bobbing, she's got notes on the lyrics... It's helping her think.

"... It's awesome," she says, only as it ends.
keytarheroine: (:grin)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2026-01-12 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
She banishes the mike.

"Got more of those, and if we can find you some Bikini Kill, our inspiration... heck, then we'll be cooking with gas."
terraboo: (Chibi Smile)

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-12 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Bikini Kill being...?"
keytarheroine: (:the deep magic)

[personal profile] keytarheroine 2026-01-28 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Not the first Riot Grrl band - that would be Heather Louis and her Supreme Cool Beings - but one of the greatest. They wrote the growled love song Rebel Girl, Double Dare Ya, Carnival - just one hit after another, really."

She smiles, shaking her head. There are a lot of good memories there, evocative of listening to their sound and laughing over beer and poutine and taking notes while noodling out lyrics with the rest of the band...

"No one goes as hard as them. Magica Riot doesn't go as hard as them - we're in a poppier place, between Comeback Girls, Like You and Too Kind To Be Cruel, although Gender Hypocritical goes places. They're an inspiration, though. Magica Riot wouldn't sound the same without them. God, I hope I can find, like, an incomplete mixtape or something."
terraboo: (Base Smile)

[personal profile] terraboo 2026-01-28 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Laina pauses. "... I haven't considered trying to find Earth music before now, actually. That's... Huh. I can just do that can't I."