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Unfinished Library Mod & NPC Account ([personal profile] libraryassistants) wrote in [community profile] unfinishedooc2025-10-21 06:46 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

Welcome To The Library

You 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 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.

Welcome to the Unfinished Library

Coffee Corner

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 very weak coffee, a pot of very strong tea, mismatched creamers and sugar packets, and assorted cheap boxed shortbread cookies alongside small paper plates and cups. (For some reason, there also seems to be a pile of coupons for a free yacht ride.) 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 _____.” Take it off, and it will magically be replaced by a new one. It seems it’s time to mingle, or perhaps try to get anywhere but here.

There is also a phone set up on the desk, with a small sign labeling it as the “Assistants’ Line.” Give it a try, and you might get someone to talk to.


Between the Stacks

While exploring the labyrinthine sprawl of the Stacks, you find a door tucked between the towering bookshelves. Opening it, you see the impossible: a community garden, fresh produce glistening with morning dew and ripe for the picking. The open sky stretches welcomingly overhead, the warmth of an unseen sun warming the soft grass underfoot.

A large fence spans the generous perimeter of the garden. No matter how high you go, the fence follows with you. Those trying to get a peek on the other side should make a plan.

When the room is no longer in use and the door is closed, the garden will disappear; rotating out of cycle. The next time the door opens, maybe it’s a computer lab - decked out with technology from… some planet and century. Or maybe it’s a meeting room, complete with someone else’s handouts scattered across the table. Closing and reopening the door will reveal a different room each time. What's your pick?


Maker’s Meetup

There’s a cheerful, if not generic, poster on the bulletin board by the help desk, declaring:



The Maker Space in question is, for the moment, easy to find, a few nice and similarly formatted signs with arrows helping leading the way through the stacks. As promised, there are a number of machines and tools related to crafting and making things, including a table that, for some reason, just has construction paper and safety scissors.

It seems the materials for the room have been recently stocked, too; there’s a little pile of fabric (mostly scraps, but a lot of larger pieces that can be made into something without needing to piecemeal it together), some sheet metal of various sheens, and bits of wood that could be shaped into something maybe as large as a small bowl. There are also some more generic arts-and-crafts materials (on a separate table from the scissors); puff balls, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and other sorts of things.

There doesn’t appear to be anyone actually around to teach the use of the machines, but it can’t be that hard… right?


Transition In - Prepare for Dheekis

In the Lobby, things begin to… change.

The tiled floors have started to fuzz along the grout, the colour and texture slowly bleeding out into cool grey metal. The change continues to flow up the walls, coloured strips of lighting dividing sturdy steel segments. What few doors there are shimmer, an overlay of automated mechanisms clinging closely to them. Hydraulic pistons pump as if pushing the doors open when you approach, but alas - these doors remain sadly hand-operated.

Within a few moments, gravity in the Lobby seems to decrease. Steps are lighter; a jump turns neatly into a bounce, leaving you hanging weightless in the air for a few long moments. The furniture remaining in the lobby begins to float, as do any items that have been left loose. If it’s not nailed down, consider it airborne.

The effect spans only the space (ha) of the Lobby. Exiting to another room will bring an unceremonious return to the Library’s usual gravity, and please note: the success of your landing is not guaranteed. Please proceed cautiously.

After some time - maybe it's days, who's to say? - you begin to feel it. A pull that tugs you to the Stacks, drawing you step by step closer to the next Story to unfold.


The Difficulty with Dheekis

On the SS Covenant, things usually run pretty smoothly. Usually. Unfortunately, there was an… incident at the last stopover at the Eternis Station. One of the crew members became utterly besotted with one of the little creatures the Eturian ambassador carried them with, called dheekis, and the ambassador was more than happy to gift them one. Unfortunately, the reason they were so willing to do that is that the fluffy little creatures, somewhere between a bunny and a rodent, are very prolific breeders, and additionally can procreate asexually when there’s only one of them around. Which means that after a week in space, it was no longer possible to keep them hidden.

Since then, it has been a game of trying to capture and contain the little pests, shoving them into boxes so they’re packed tight- dheekis only stop reproducing when there is literally no more space for them. And they are trying very hard to fill up the void space on the ship; they’re under beds, in rafters, engineering nooks, forgotten corners, you name it. How long will it take to get rid of them all? Can you get rid of them all? Because if you have one dheeki, it won’t stay one for long.

[This is a free-form ‘Story’ prompt and cannot be considered canon to the game; since there’s no information post, feel free to make up whatever details you like!]
monstrous_bride: (remembering)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
It's only rude if it isn't an obvious question, and this one is really obvious.

[She sighs. Might as well get it all over with.]

I was 'born', if you want to call it that, in 1831. So by now...oh, God, coming up on the big two-double-zero. Fuck.

[She nods.]

And yes, I'm not human. Technically a zombie, I was stitched together from corpses, I'm not going to explain why, just know it wasn't stupid magic and you're perfectly safe. I'm not that kind of monster.

I'm the kind that kills the other kind.
starandhope: (022)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ She'd been planning to ignore the woman's strange appearance and put it down as an unusual skin condition, but that...is a lot to take in. Zombie. Corpses. Monster.

Mina, however, has nerves of steel. She's not prone to fainting, or fits of hysterics. When Dr. Van Helsing had bluntly stated "we cut off her head and drove a stake through her heart..." she had blanched but no more.

Is that what this woman does?

She leans forward a little, almost as if to impart a deadly secret. ]


Vampires?
Edited 2025-10-25 01:12 (UTC)
monstrous_bride: (thinking)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
I've killed worse.

[Though the one she wants to kill, Eric Frankstein - Victor Frankenstein's horrid creation - is the one that just won't die. They both have undead men with unhealthy obsessions in common, unbeknownst to them.]

Why? You having a problem with them? Tell you what: one shows up, I'll twist its head off for you.

[Why had she offered that? It was protective, and said in entirely too friendly a manner, and this entire thought process shows on her face before she upends her sack and dumps as many creatures down it as possible.]
Edited 2025-10-25 01:33 (UTC)
starandhope: (018)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
Oh! That - is... generous of you.

[ Is that what it is? Mina is trying to find appropriate gratefulness to the offer to twist someone's head off. Not exactly the sort of thing she's used to hearing. Though, she is used to people (men) being protective of her. ]

I'd never heard of such a thing, until very recently. It killed my friend Lucy, and nearly killed my husband, Jonathan. I certainly hope I don't encounter it, here or anywhere else.

[ Look, she doesn't know that she's already met Dracula. ]
monstrous_bride: (disinterest)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[She starts off, looking for more critters to add to her sack, like some demented Mrs. Claus.]

Heh, is it? Just the easiest solution because - as you pointed out - the undead tend to create bodies. Heh, I would know.
starandhope: (031)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
So I've come to understand.

[ She shudders to think of Lucy's fate. ]

My husband has told me much of what he went through, when he was a prisoner of the Count. I don't think he's told me every detail - to spare me. But I know enough. It's only by the grace of God that he escaped.
monstrous_bride: (calm)

Hmm, DC comics has Dracula, would her animated canon follow...

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
[She bites back her first, obvious retort - she's honestly not sure there is a God, but she refuses to believe in them out of spite at this point, if nothing else.]

Fortunate. And probably for the best that he didn't.
starandhope: (020)

I'm fine with characters knowing the canon for what it's worth! (just no spoilers please)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
I know he fears for me - but I'll admit, I'm far more afraid for him. He's had such a shock, and he still hasn't regained all his strength. But he was insisting on accompanying Dr. Van Helsing and the others on their hunt.

[ And that is why she's not so concerned for herself in this situation. She just hates the thought that she's left him behind, to face this without her. ]
monstrous_bride: (not buying it)

You got it :)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
[It sounds vaguely familiar. Some half-remembered story, in the very back of her mind. Where had she even been in the 1890s? Oh, right, the Arabian peninsula - she'd missed quite a bit of world events around then.]

Stubborn, by the sounds of it.

[But done in defense of the woman he loves. That's...well, she has to admit there are occasionally noble people.]

But sounds like a decent man.
starandhope: (014)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
Jonathan is the best of men.

[ And yet, here she is, being disloyal to him with every thought of her sweet prince. She grabs up a few more of the little critters, shoving them in a bag with a bit more force than she had been. ]

He doesn't deserve any of it.
monstrous_bride: (not buying it)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
[Huh. Something's going on in that head. Something has changed. Not that she can figure it out any time soon. She does much the same, brushing off one that is trying to climb up into one of her pockets.]

Most people don't deserve what happens to them. The wheel of fortune comes for us all.

[The oldest reference she's made in some time, but it feels apt, somehow.]
starandhope: (018)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
Is that what you believe?

[ There’s no judgment in the question. If anything, she seems uncertain of herself. ]
monstrous_bride: (Default)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
That we all end up crushed under it sooner or later? I've been under it many times, so yes. Not sure what I believe in beyond that.

[She shrugs, shoving another critter in her sack. This feels so ridiculously stupid.]

I had just gotten a little bit past the bad turn and - here I am, again, in a situation beyond my control.
starandhope: (026)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
I should think that’s true of everyone. After all, none of us chooses the circumstances of our creation.

[ Mina sighs. ]

Which is not to say I’m pleased to be here.
monstrous_bride: (neutral conversation)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-25 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
At least you get to forget yours.

[She didn't have that luxury. Humans get the gift of not having to remember coming into the world.]

But it could be worse. I've been in worse times, worse places.

[She sticks a handful of squeaking fur into her sack.]

Though not quite as asinine.
starandhope: (017)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 01:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. I did attend a lecture on animal husbandry, once.

[ She smiles faintly at the memory. ]
monstrous_bride: (playful)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-26 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
[She gives her a bit of a look with raised brow.]

Did you now? Helpful, was it?
starandhope: (017)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-26 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ Mina laughs, and shakes her head. ]

Not at all. It was Lucy’s prurient interest. I allowed her to convince me to attend. It was horribly dull, and we left before it was over.
monstrous_bride: (playful)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-26 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
[She chuckles a bit.]

Oh, I remember the Victorian Era. Trying so desperately to maintain propriety in public and yet...
starandhope: (009)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-26 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
Lucy was rarely concerned with propriety.

[ Mina’s smile turns sad again. ]

I think she just enjoyed shocking me.
monstrous_bride: (humour)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-26 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
She had the right idea. It's a waste of time, quite frankly. Life is too short. For most people, anyway.

[She does like the bit about shocking, though.]

And being shocking is fun - and few things more fun than discussing a good bit of dirty, hmm?
starandhope: (007)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-26 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
I would hardly know where to begin - even if I thought it appropriate to discuss in mixed company.

[ She's still smiling as she shakes her head, however. She's reminded of her dear Lucy. ]
monstrous_bride: (confident)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-27 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
Hah! I might be the undead woman, but I'm hardly mixed company. I've enjoyed my share of lovers over the decades.

[She wants to be more shocking than that, but a tiny little internal Nina is holding her back. The jokes alone she could drop...]
starandhope: (026)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-27 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think I could do such a thing.

[ She feels so guilty about Prince Vlad, she could never even speak his name aloud, let alone admit to anyone the feelings and desires she has for him. ]

But I've been very lucky, with Jonathan. We've known each other such a long time, and we understand each other, deeply.

[ At least, so she believed - before she met her prince. ]
monstrous_bride: (neutral conversation)

[personal profile] monstrous_bride 2025-10-27 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[That draws a brief chuckle.]

Different strokes for different folks, I think was the phrase. My life has been too long, too wandering. Too bloody haunted.

Count your blessings.

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