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unfinishedooc2025-12-20 09:27 am
libraryassistants) wrote in 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.
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.
... Fair enough.
The matter of scribes is set aside for now, as several different kinds of cookies are ALSO set aside as Unwanted. That the previous month 's recommended reading had been Invasion of the Body Snatchers and meant purely as entertainment and NOT the work of some remembrancer trying to get out a warning, still eludes Curze. Probably Sanguinius too. "The mortals here keep questioning my dislike of xenos, and then something like that is found out, only proving how dangerous they are." A multi generation threat, one too far in the future for him to have seen anything of. ".. The warning we were provided and the situation we were put into are superficially different. I have never heard of such plants either. Perhaps they are an exaggeration."
no subject
(Throne, he's been lonely.)
"A warning and a situation. Can you elaborate?" It does seem likely that whatever species this is is... exaggerated, or from a separate kind of universe than them, or is even just fictional, but learning what he can about them costs just a few minutes of his time, and information is power.
no subject
"I can." The answer is terribly reluctant. He leans against the counter, search for some treat to keep himself occupied with stymied for now. "With caveat that there are several assumptions being made which may or may not have basis in fact." His unwelcome nightmarish gift of foresight has not provided any clarity. Showing events does not show how one gets to them, or the reasons behind them. "Those of us trapped here were, about a week before ... deployment, for lack of a better phrase, given 'recommended reading' in the form of a hundred and fifteen minute long remembrancer pict-feed detailing a civilian view on a xenos incursion on ... a colony world I don't recognize, eradicating the population one by one and replacing them with identical physical copies under the control of this unknown xenos invasion force. They arrive in the form of small pods with pink flowers, their mechanism for replacing the mortals they attack as each pod can grow an identical duplicate though it costs the life of the original. Implication by the end of the feed is the remembrancer and the rest of the colony has been eradicated, replaced by these creatures. The pict-feed does mark how you can tell the creatures from the humans they're replacing, including an inability to properly replicate human emotion."
It really just sounds like typical xenos bullshit to the Night Haunter. This kind of thing has been happening since before humanity had written records, though not these specifics. "Within a week, myself and all others in this library were sent via a ... site to site teleportation method I don't recognize or potentially an incredibly detailed holographic simulation, to another colony under assault by different aliens kidnapping and replacing mortals. They too were identifiable by their inability to actually blend in through aberrant behavior." One grimy hand rises, making a brief gesture of doubt. "Details differ however between the remembrancer record and what we encountered. These invading xenos only killed one mortal and terrorized the population though mostly through sheer ignorance and stupidity, believing themselves coming to help instead of hinder. They were incapable of grasping that kidnapping Imperial citizens is in fact a crime, or that it was doing harm to their victims. Upon being returned here, at the 'conclusion of the story'," though his expression is schooled there's something like disdain that creeps in. A story, really. "The process seems to have left several here under the impression they were the inhabitants of that colony, or the invading aliens, through what I can only assume is some sort of psychological memory imprint. Sanguinius is one of its victims, believing he spent a month as one of the creatures. He has been markedly unstable since returning because of it."
That's coming from Curze.
no subject
"That is -- troubling." His tendency toward understatement has survived the millennia intact, it seems. "You were given an approximation of what would occur before it did. And the process was strong enough to affect even a primarch." He taps the table, then lifts one finger. "Requesting details. Were there any unusual symbols that you noticed, before or during the event? Or signs of excessive warp energy?" A second finger. "He has been unstable how?"
Are the powers involved? Have they gotten to Sanguinius, somehow? Or is it something entirely other...?
no subject
It's a little heartening that he's not being dismissed out of hand, so he does spend a moment before answering further to be certain his answers are as accurate as he can provide. "On symbols, no. Of the Immaterium... yes?" That's not an entirely certain sounding confirmation. "My familiarity with it beyond extended travel is limited. This Library however is fairly regularly subject to phenomenon that has little other explanation, given how similar it is to some psyker affects I've seen. But the creature in control of this place and at least one of its servants are not human in spite of appearance. I don't believe they're simply manifestations of some distant psyker, with little evidence either way."
Would he ping Phillip and the Librarian as daemons if he had a working idea of what those are? Probably. "Sanguinius has been both unusually aggressive for him, and unusually unwilling to listen to reason and common sense." These are not problems for most of their kind but it's strange. "I do not think it's 'him', precisely, but what this place is doing to him, for he was not increasingly hostile without reason before we were brought here. He does also genuinely believes he was, for a month, mind and body wholly one of those xenos."
In anyone else it would be familial concern. Maybe it is, everyone loves Sanguinius. He can only map any of it onto what he understands of how reality works, and that does include the endless capabilities of powerful psykers and technology. Memory altering is easy for some.