unfinishedooc | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He was, in fact, about to touch that. It's not his fault, though, Sanguinius was trying to walk in the garden to clear his head, and to maybe stop thinking about his, er, less socially acceptable nutritional needs, when zzzzzhhwip! The thing had flown within inches of his face. He had squatted down to study it, curious, having to tuck his own wings tight against his back.

"Is it poisoned?"

That's a reasonable question.

"No! Just-" She pauses a moment to wrestle the note of panic out of her voice. "The edges are sharper than a knife and if you get them in your flesh I'll have to be responsible for you. No one wants that, least of all me."

Hisako comes to a landing in a conveniently sized and placed tree, her feathers clicking and hissing faintly against each other as she furls her wings. The usual dull, unhappy lack of a gleam in her expression, the detached amusement, have retreated under sudden fear. She'd dive and snatch it up if he wasn't practically on top of it.

"I'm sorry I dropped it. Obviously, I'm going to secure it better."

"Responsible for me?" He says it like the words absolutely do make sense, but make no sense at all together. No one is responsible for him. He's responsible for himself, and his Legion. Was it a joke? Was she serious? He had no idea.

"I have endured many injuries before. A cut will not add much." He's still reaching for it, intrigued, but his hand has paused, because what is happening here? Does she think he is a novice with weapons?

Also, seeing her has made him hesitate for another reason. Another daemon? Here? "What is your name." It comes out a little wary.

"It's not the cut itself, it's what would happen after that! And that feather would be destroyed in the process, and if Jachull finds I've lost her gift-"

Her feathers have roused up in agitation, making her resemble a metallic pinecone. Getting control of herself she deliberately relaxes them, making them click against each other as they lie back in place. Attached feathers seem to be as smoothly flexible as keratin, unlike the dropped feather.

The dropped feather is, in fact, safe to touch and Hisako would only wince if he did so. It actually would be safe for him to accidentally cut himself on the tip, though even a papercut-level injury would itch and ache. She's this worried because she doesn't know the line where accident becomes close enough to deliberate to turn him. It's not like someone has to understand what will happen for it to work, and then there's no undoing it.

That her queen would be very put out if Hisako came back without her token and nothing to show for it - no one this stubborn would go 'yes, Hisako, I'll join the Mortal Fear nation!' - is a very secondary concern. She was just running her mouth as old bad feelings welled up. Even after centuries...

"Hisako. Hisako Godsup." As in 'god-eater', but the name's connotations have no boast or glory involved. The opposite, really. "Look. If you stick yourself with a Stormwing feather, every tie you have is severed and you become a Stormwing. Forever. Let's not do that accidentally! Please."

"That seems a strange and dangerous gift." Some friend giving you a weird enslaving object, like a daemon sword.

His own feathers stay smooth--he was more curious than agitated, though honestly, some might consider what happened here an attack, an assassination attempt.

Still, she seems earnestly distressed, so he withdraws his hand. "One of my legionaries, showing such weapon discipline, would face punishment." Just a thought. Maybe keep a slightly better eye on your cursed weaponry?

He stands to his full height, showing that he's backing away from her weapon. "Sanguinius." The whole formal title feels a bit much in this place, and reads to many like a bunch of syllables.

Hisako snorts. She hasn't totally relaxed, but some of the tension, some of that real fear, goes out of her. "'Strange' and 'dangerous' are great descriptors for my queen."

Mmm. Sanguinius is still too close to the feather for her to dive and retrieve it. She could land, but she's slow on the ground and also only about four and a half feet tall. That's way too vulnerable to be around a whatever-this-is who's clearly displeased, even if he's not raising his voice about it.

She's already apologized and said she'll secure it better and doesn't particularly want to repeat herself. "I tried body-slamming the fence a few hundred feet up and it fell out of my hair, all right? And it's not a weapon any more than the attached ones are. If it'd cut you when I dropped it you'd just have a cut, and not a big one." And the infection that would set in if the cut wasn't cleaned would be an ordinary infection.

The feather could be incorporated into a weapon, used to fletch an arrow maybe, but the only special property that would have, other than maintaining the ability to turn someone who deliberately cut themselves with it, is particular lethality against mages. A property that she's not going to talk about with anyone who doesn't already know.

"Oh," that makes sense. "Yes, flight here is very restricted." His own wings riffle in frustration. "It's vexing." It's like the people who built this place didn't understand how some people needed to fly.

"Does this queen deserve your loyalty, then?" It's a valid question. His father demands loyalty of his sons but he at least is honorable himself.

The lack of space for proper flight is just depressing. She's got a fourteen or fifteen feet wingspan and with a bit of magic can fly indoors to a degree, but it's a careful, slow, curtailed flight, often more like wing-assisted leaping from perch to perch.

Hisako makes a face. "She's a void shaped like a Stormwing, but maybe we need that right now." There is a population crisis looming, thanks to centuries confined to the Divine Realms. Stormwings may not die of age, disease, or hunger but they certainly can be killed. It's hard for them to have children in the best of times, and starved of mortal suffering and the bodies of war-dead... Queen Jachull's solutions are rather harsh and invite retribution, but it's not like Stone Tree or any of the other more 'honorable' nations have anything better.

She's not getting into that. "Besides, my oldest friends flocked to her banner and I have to keep an eye on them. I can cozy up to Jachull for that."

One thing they might connect on: the misery of being grounded. The event story thing would have been an opportunity, but he had been stuck in the body of a...tiny xenos. Without wings.

"...you have allied yourself with daemonic forces?" That's sure what it sounds like. Like she has joined with the Immaterium itself. That's not a good idea.

"Is there a chance of saving your friends from their oath to her?" That he could understand.

"I don't know what that means," Hisako says, brow creasing. Does he not get metaphors...? "She's not literally hollow. She just... she'd do anything to get us prospering again. Send us to fight for the Queen of Chaos if she offered it. Lucky us, Uusoae hasn't offered!"

She shrugs. "Probably. Not all, but I'm working on it. Mostly they'd need a really good reason to break with her."

Such as working for Uusoae, once Hisako finds out that's ultimately what's happening. Or will happen, about seventy years from her current canon point.

TEST DRIVE MEME #2

Obviously seriously, don't

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