libraryassistants: (Default)
Unfinished Library Mod & NPC Account ([personal profile] libraryassistants) wrote in [community profile] unfinishedooc2026-03-20 07:15 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME #3

[OOC Note: Hello everyone! Apps will open next week on Friday, March 27th. We’re trying something a little different with this TDM! In order to showcase people who are looking to app, we ask that current characters not toplevel in the TDM. Threads do still count for AC proofs.]

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 Tea Cart

Sometime after your arrival, you enter the lobby to find yourself greeted by what appears to be a little tea cart containing a carafe of moderately decent coffee, a pot of very strong tea, mismatched creamers and sugar packets, and scones as hard as rocks with surprisingly nice saucers and teacups. There is a sign next to them, stating:

Welcome Editors!
Please enjoy these complimentary refreshments.
Do NOT take food or drink into the stacks and please wash your hands BEFORE touching anything.


Looking around, you see that you and everyone else present have also been supplied with sticker name tags with “Hello, my name is _____.” Any attempts to rid yourself of the nametag will wind up with a replacement in short order, sometimes with a nickname or other title than before. They can be edited, at least, and there’s a little marker on the help desk for that purpose.

Do You Want To Make A T-Shirt

The Maker Space is always open, though it seems to be a bit picked over at the moment- one of those machines that lets you make custom logos and such for t-shirts is on display, but there’s very little of the iron-on vinyl left. If you want to make your own snazzy shirt, you’ll need to make do with the more wild colors- there’s no black or white, but there is hot pink and neon green. And glitter, of course. So much glitter.

Alternatively, feel free to grab some of the discarded ones- a few typos, a few cases where the machine snagged and messed up the print, and at least one that says “I stabbed a vampire in the face and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”

Story - Moonlit Rivals

The city of Montica has been having some trouble lately, the normal tension between the resident vampire and werewolf populations now paused as they unite against a common enemy. Vampire clans who had been exiled are striking back, their aim to knock the current ruling clan out of power- but they care very little who gets hurt in the process.

There is chaos throughout the streets, as some of the rogue vampires have been using the sewer systems to set fires to the city. Given their own dislike of fire, most of the top-side vampires flee shortly after, though some at least maintain enough presence to try and take others with them, though someone is still going to need to put out these fires. Assuming you want there to still be a city after all of this.

[This prompt takes place during the end of our current Story! Replies to this prompt will not be considered canon, but feel free to play with them to get an idea of how a Story works.]
deinoswitch: (Default)

Dionysus | The Hymn to Dionysus | OTA

[personal profile] deinoswitch 2026-03-20 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome

Oh. Oh Dionysus does not care for this at all.

He is not a stranger to traveling long distances in little time at all, though it's under his own power. He's also not a complete stranger to libraries; Alexandria has one, though a quick look at the shelves tell him this is a very different sort of collection (and the fact that they are not scrolls of papyrus). What's most unsettling to him, something he can feel from the moment he wakes, is how dead everything is.

Well... not dead, perhaps; merely unalive. Dionysus is the god of madness, and later thought of with wine, but he is also a god of the living wilds, the old forests and the old ways. He exists within everything that lives and has ever lived, from birds to trees to the sleeping rock beneath the earth that still have memory of their lives before pressure and time turned them to stone. The wood of the bookshelves should still have life; they do not. The reeds that make up paper should still remember; there is nothing. It is as if everything around him were just conjured up out of nothing, made from nothing.

"Well," he says after a moment, in his mild way, "this is new." It is near impossible to tell how he feels about it.

Name Tags

He has no idea what this little tray is, or what... nearly anything occupying it is, but that's fine. It seems the point is to mingle; this is an objectively bad idea when it comes to him, but he's doing it anyway.

He certainly stands out, decked in a black himation with a black veil concealing his entire face. His arms are visible, and they're cover in reddifsh-black tattoos, swirls on his arms and bands like rings over his fingers. And if that weren't enough, his name tag pretty clearly reads 'Dionysus.' So that might get some attention.

The man pours himself a cup of coffee, smelling it before taking a sip, and then coughing. "Oh, that's terrible," he says, cheerfully and continuing to take more small sips of it.

What are T-shirts

Nothing at all in this place makes any since to him, but Dionysus is very good at just rolling with things. Which does mean he's holding up one of the t-shirts, one that reads '#sewercryptid' with confusion. "What is this for?" he asks, curious- does he mean the hashtag? Does he mean t-shirt as a garment??? Who knows.
longnoseofthelaw: (Default)

[personal profile] longnoseofthelaw 2026-03-20 11:36 pm (UTC)(link)
If we opt for the Montica option, should we tag as if our character has been there from the start or as if they just got violently shoved into it without warning right at the end of the story?
mageweaver: PB: Elizabeth Olsen (Default)

[personal profile] mageweaver 2026-03-20 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
What kind of quality are the t-shirts? Are we talking actually decent, or your standard fast fashion crap?

Also, does the maker's space include any more traditional sewing & clothes making equipment?
mageweaver: PB: Elizabeth Olsen (Default)

[personal profile] mageweaver 2026-03-20 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Sandry will be Unimpressed XD

Oh yes, I should have checked there. Thank you!
bakegarasu: (we all find ourselves)

Yosuke Otoha | Karas | OTA

[personal profile] bakegarasu 2026-03-21 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
Welcome

There's a figure that appears in a burst of black feathers. It's rather dramatic, though the feathers disappear almost as soon as they appear. The man looks around and opens his mouth as if to ask something - and then shut as whomever he was looking for seems to not be there. He narrows his eyes and puts a hand on the sword at his side - and then he gets shushed by the librarian.

He opens his mouth to say something again but thinks better of it. There's no point - so he just walks in the direction indicated, his coat flaring out behind him. He looks quite serious, and anyone who approaches him at this point will just get a stare. If he's not spoken to he'll eventually move on.


The Tea Cart

Tea is familiar, but he's more of a coffee person. Even if it's shitty coffee he'll keep drinking it. His nametag reads Hello, my name is Yosuke Otoha, though the name in Japanese reads the right way around. He's crossed off the given name, but the Library has helpfully attempted to rectify it a few times. Occasionally his nametag will read Karas, but if he notices it he doesn't mention it.

Even through all of this, he stares. He doesn't seem to be too inclined to talk, but there's plenty of chatty people around, right? ... Alternatively, you're also welcome to stare back. A silent conversation might be fun... ?


Do You Want To Make A T-Shirt

Otoha knows what a t-shirt is, unlike some people in the Library. That said, he doesn't really care for them all that much. He is definitely not a hot pink or neon green person, but there's other things to do.

... That being said, he doesn't really know what to do with much of any of it. His crafting skills are pretty much non-existent, so instead he just takes a few pieces of paper that are square enough and starts folding them. ... Most of what he's doing are extremely basic geometric shapes, but he's... at least trying to do something that's not stabbing things.

That's got to be more productive, right?


Wildcard

[[Got another idea? Grab me on Discord (artematthew) or Plurk ([plurk.com profile] atrypical)!]]
okanetendo: (:ru serious)

Nabiki Tendo || Ranma 1/2 (1989 Anime) || Post-Synodiporia CRAU

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
I - Welcome To The Stacks
Nabiki Tendou, Fortune-Marked, feels like she's just walked through a door, and does not like it one bit.

Scowling, the girl with the mousy hair examines the unfinished books - oh, look, here's the pencils for a Dara/Psyche-chan doujin set in Doki Doki No Goddamn Gakuen- walks up to the circulation desk, blinks, tries to send a message over the network, finds out the network's not there, and then runs a hand down her face.

So now she's going to go wander up to other lost strangers, and ask things like: "Hey, you guys - any clue whose Liminal Space this is?" or "So how many Jaunts have I missed" or "Have you heard if there's any of Akane Tendo, Ranma Saotome, Thorne Durante, Raidou, Casper and his raven Bob, or... Xian Pu or Kuno I guess, or maybe, iunno, ANYONE I know?"

II - It Doesn't Have To Be A T-Shirt
Yeah, Nabiki snorts at the Kikaiser Nano t-shirt and grabs it, and then starts to make her own, some with a microphone design saying Breaker Breaker, 10-4: You Are Wall To Wall And Canyons Tall in eye-searing neon green on black and another featuring what looks like a rather macro microchip entitled I Regret To Inform You The Heteros Are At It Again, this last one in neon pink, purple, and blue.

III - Out, Out, Damned Spot
Okay. Okay Nabiki has tried to be subtle for this entire goddamn story - paid her dues selling alchemical HRT and buying shot and powder for Amalia, and having herself Ye Olde Highball and cheating at cards at the Laurelthirst with the Comeback Girls, she's sorry she means the Blood Moon Troupe...

But when the fires start, the hell with subtlety, lives are on the line, and Jadis probably had her dead to rights anyway according to the last Reply-Allocalypse, so screw it.

She holds up what looks like a dreamcatcher, and chants:

"I'll pay the price to seize my dreams! DREAM BARGAIN POWER, SUIT UP!"

One starkly coruscant transformation sequence later and Dream Broker Tendo, the Adversary of Bargains in an incredibly Frazettan getup, is leaping over the fires on a long staff ending with a 'chop' stamp for signing contracts, dropping salt water she put in a convenient Hammerspace over the flames, and flinging copper coins at any Brando or Orlock who gets fresh with the force of a gunshot.

Help her help Montica?
Edited 2026-03-21 00:25 (UTC)
longnoseofthelaw: (Default)

Angua | Discworld

[personal profile] longnoseofthelaw 2026-03-21 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
-1: Tea Cart-

The tall, blond woman wearing a nametag that said "Hello, my name is Angua" looked annoyed, which wasn't unreasonable way to feel given the current circumstances. She appeared human enough, but there was something very slightly off about her. Something that reached into the brainstem and pulled out ancient racial memories of huddling close to the fire while eyes flashed in the darkness beyond.

What she was actually doing was dunking a scone in her tea with a sour look and saying, "The wizards are behind this. I'd bet my badge on it."

She is wearing a badge, hanging from a collar around her neck.

-2: T-Shirts-

She honestly hadn't been planning on messing with the t-shirt machine. She felt like she'd look foolish wearing one of these gaudy creations. But when she saw the extras that read "I stabbed a vampire in the face and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" she couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. It was tasteless, but in a way that was designed to appeal to her, personally.

"Just as well there aren't any vampires around here." she muttered. They'd probably be whining about vitalism or, worse, wearing it and making it look incredible, somehow.

-3: No dogs in the library-

There actually is a dog in the library. Or at least, there's a wolf. That's like a dog. It was a magnificent specimen of the species, with a dense coat of oddly pale blond fur.

The wolf padded between the stacks, sniffing along the ground while occasionally perking its head up to look around before ducking back down to continue sniffing things. It didn't seem particularly hostile. If you're the kind of person who sees a dangerous predator and holds your hand out for it to sniff, the wolf will in fact come up to give your hand a sniff.

-3b: Awkward-

You just stumbled upon a bundle of clothes someone apparently stashed away in a corner. A tunic, trousers, sandals, a breastplate, and a helmet.

A moment later, the wolf stumbled upon you. It looked at the bundle of clothes, then at you, and then started to growl menacingly.
okanetendo: (Default)

Re: Dionysus | The Hymn to Dionysus | OTA

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
A woman with a mousy-brown pixie cut and the latest in 80's fashions snorts. Her nametag declares her to be Nabiki Tendo - 天道 なびき.

"Oh, yeah, that's terrible. I love good coffee but this isn't it. If my Liminal powers weren't on the fritz I'd show you a better example of the genre, but the Library decided to nerf me when I arrived."

She considers the man's nametag as she tries the tea, grimaces, then dumps in sugar.

"The Dionysus? The Hellenic god?" she asks, apparently taking it in stride.
wantinghope: (Default)

Katara: ATLA | OTA

[personal profile] wantinghope 2026-03-21 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
the library
"Whoa." If Katara had any pretense of being a worldly adult, yeah, that probably just ended. Listen, she and her brother and Aang took on half the Fire Nation and all that, but it doesn't mean she's cosmopolitan. The number of times she's slept in an actual bed in the last year can be counted on one hand.

But it's not just the dorm rooms. It's the garden. And the stacks. And the kitchen. Everywhere, just "Whoa!"


Tee Shirts
She had no idea what a tee shirt is, and she can't quite figure out what the slogans mean. What is a 'trash panda'? What does 'freak in the (spread)sheets' mean?

Still, she could use a clean outfit, she guesses. And maybe, yeah, you know what? The Water Tribe symbol! She can make a shirt with one of those!

And maybe a doodle of Appa.

And this shirt needs fringe! Don't mind her bumping into you: she's looking for scissors!


story
What happened to the library place?

At one level this looked a bit more like home. Well, Earth Kingdom home, at least--cobblestone streets and buildings crowded together. She'd been looking for a tea shopt to ask for information, when she smelled the fires.

That could mean only one thing. "The Fire Nation is here!" She yells this, over and over, so the local militia (there was a local militia, right?) could come running. Meanwhile, she's running back to where she'd seen a fountain. The natural enemy of fire? A waterbender.
okanetendo: (:ru serious)

2

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
A pained expression flashes across the face of a newcomer, who's busy printing off a shirt sporting what looks like a rather macro microchip entitled I Regret To Inform You The Heteros Are At It Again in neon pink, purple, and blue on black.

Her nametag declares her to be Nabiki Tendo.

"Having known precisely one, she would have rocked it, yeah. Ran into some fanged trouble, did we?"
wantinghope: (pic#18335115)

nametags

[personal profile] wantinghope 2026-03-21 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry, but she has no idea who you are. But the red and black look awfully Fire Nation to her, so as he moves around the stacks (or wherever he is) he might notice someone peeking around the stacks, or around the tea tray, or behind that tree.

She's keeping an eye on you, firebender. Don't try any tough stuff!
deinoswitch: (Default)

[personal profile] deinoswitch 2026-03-21 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
That's an interesting name; Dionysus has been to India but not much farther east, has seen Chinese ships but not spoken to any of them, not really. (Japan is right out of the question for him at the moment.) But he likes it. Too bad he doesn't understand half of what she's saying, and there's not even a language barrier.

"I have no idea what most of that meant," he says with a smile, taking another sip of the strange, terrible beverage- coffee? He feels like there's a plant by that name, out in the wilderness of Ethiopa. Apparently you can make bitter drinks with it.

Her question to him startles him a little, though it's hard to see under the veil. "I don't know what means, either," he admits, "But no, I'm not a god. Just a witch." (That is a lie, but, well. Witches are very good liars. And Dionysus has been a witch for a long, long time.)
Edited 2026-03-21 00:48 (UTC)
deinoswitch: (Dancing)

[personal profile] deinoswitch 2026-03-21 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Dionysus definitely notices her; with the Library feeling so... dead, the living things catch his notice all the more. So she'll get a wave! You're not hiding very well, but he'll mostly be polite about that.
wantinghope: (Default)

[personal profile] wantinghope 2026-03-21 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry, she's not built for stealth.

No, wait, NOT sorry! And she's not fooled by that little wave, her own hands shifting to the small waterskin she carries. "I'm not afraid of you!" Which is of course exactly what you say to someone you're not afraid of, right?
deinoswitch: (Worried)

[personal profile] deinoswitch 2026-03-21 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Well this conversation has gone off the rails immediately.

He tilts his head to the side, conveying his confusion even with the veil. "Do you feel like you should be?" he asks. (She definitely should. Madness is not something people want to trifle with. But usually they don't know that right away.)
okanetendo: ((she would in fact lie))

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
…she’s not sure she entirely believes that, but sure, Nabiki will play along.

“That could mean a lot of things,” she says. “Brewing potions, casting spells, and riding broomsticks come to mind from an acquaintance of mine.”

A funny coincidence occurs to her and she laughs again. “…Named ‘Minerva,’ in fact. We met at the last rest stop between worlds I was travelling through. Is this your first time in another world, by the way, Dionysus?”
codeswitchcraft: (Default)

I

[personal profile] codeswitchcraft 2026-03-21 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Wait, Siobhan's goddess says from within her. She's asking after me.

My lady...? Siobhan replies, just as internally.

You know how people from the Otherworld Tourism Bureau made me and the other Fifteen, right? Even though our stories have different origins for us. Well, the woman who both made me in particular and also raised me was named Dr Charlene Durante. So in a very real way that makes me 'Thorne Durante.' Go talk to her. Don't mention me, but you can mention Mama Charley if you want. Sound her out.

"Do you mean Dr Charlene Durante?" Siobhan asks, getting closer to the young woman, who she thinks would probably be around the same age that she'd been meant to appear as when she was Princess Sigrid. And she's of Hikaru's people. "She's a famous scientist from my world's Earth. The Mother of True AI?"
Edited 2026-03-21 00:57 (UTC)
longnoseofthelaw: (At Attention)

[personal profile] longnoseofthelaw 2026-03-21 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
Angua frowned, slightly. She was deeply tempted to start rambling about how charming vampires were and how everyone bent over backwards to believe them whenever they said they were 'one of the good ones,' but felt that might not leave the right impression.

"You could say that. No one likes to wake up with bite marks and a curiously light headed feeling."
mageweaver: (Surprised 1)

Sandry | Circle of Magic

[personal profile] mageweaver 2026-03-21 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
i. Welcome to the blinding lights
Sandry awakes to an all-encompasing, blinding light.

(There had been a small, hidden room once. Outside plague and the mob raged. She'd had no light, except that which she'd called into her thread. But the threads couldn't keep their dim light forever, and when they finally came to open the door, the lantern light had blinded her.)

"No!" She gasps, her hands reaching up to cover her tightly closed eyes. She can't do this again. She can't! Please, no!

But the brightness dims, suddenly. It's still there, creeping in through her eyelids - but it's less than it was just a second a go. She stands there, hesistant and terrified. Dare she remove her hands? Dare she look?

ii. Tea for a lady
Sandry arrives at the tea cart in a daze. The light of the magic in this place is everywhere. She's never seen so much magic in one place before. It's a little overwhelming, if she's honest.

"Oh! Hello," she says, giving a smile to her new companion. It's a little shaky, but warm and engaging. "I hope you don't mind company. I'm Sandry."

Her nametag, however, reads Hello, my name is Lady Sandrilene fa Toren. Sandry's probably a bit easier to say. But her clothes match the title; draping her in rich fabrics, with silk threads and detailed embroidery. She would not look out of place in any noble's hall.

iii. What kind of clothing is this?
By the time she finds the Maker's space, she's grown in confidence. She still doesn't understand this place, but if she's going to be here...well, she might as well see what she can learn from this experience.

And look! She's found a little room. She'd call it a dressmaker's room, exacept...well, she doesn't understand half the things that are in here. And what is with these strange garments? She's fascinated and appaled by them, all at once. Clearly the style is designed to be worn on the upper body, but...

"What is this fabric?" She says to herself, holding up one of the items and rubbing the fabric between her fingers. "I've never seen anything like it. But it's so...unpleasant to the touch! Why would anyone want a garment made of such a thing?"
Edited 2026-03-21 01:05 (UTC)
dragon_uncle: (Default)

[personal profile] dragon_uncle 2026-03-21 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
A crucially important question!

(not at all)

Are there boardgames in the library?

If so, do they have all their pieces or are they, too unfinished?
okanetendo: (let's make a Pact.)

Story

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
“The what?”

Someone - unfortunately decked out in an elaborate red cloak and black dress with a hold headdress, weilding a staff - sees Katara waterbend and her face lights up.

“Hydrokinesis - that’s just the ticket, great thinking!” she says. “Let’s put out that theatre, shall we?”
okanetendo: ((she would in fact lie))

[personal profile] okanetendo 2026-03-21 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Nabiki has no comment on that, but will add:

“Might call them pains in the neck.”

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