TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[libraryassistants]

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!]

Comments

[bashasasdemon]

"I don't think you'd want to anyway. Have you looked at any of them?" Kai did, a few, hoping for any sort of clue- and he found one, just not the way he expected. "A lot of them seem to be incomplete. Just outlines, or scenes written out, or extensive notes but no writing." Sometimes those are in libraries, things of historical note- but it was the case for most of what he saw.

[aetherweaver]

"I did." He nods and glances back towards the stacks. "Any with magickal knowledge are interesting to me, but I suppose I'm a bit of a strange one like that. ... My sisters would tease me for it, but they're not around."

And besides... even if he'd blown off his eyebrows the first time he summoned fire, that doesn't mean casting magicks hasn't saved his life time and again.

[bashasasdemon]

That... wasn't at all what Kai was talking about. Sigh. "But they're not finished," he repeats, wondering if Nara'a actually checked them out as thoroughly as he claims, "None of the ones I checked were. That's not generally what libraries are for, not where I'm from."

[aetherweaver]

"Well, yeah." He saw that much, he's not dumb. "But if someone's finished half of a magickal equation, why would I want to start from scratch?"

Work smarter, not harder.

[bashasasdemon]

Kai barely resists throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. That is still not the point!! "You're going to try and complete a magical formula that you found in a book that may or may not have anything to do with your type of magic, in a space that's probably created by magic?"

This is a terrible idea.

[aetherweaver]

"Not without examining it and testing it first, but yes. How are you supposed to learn something if you don't experiment?"

He grins, showing his fangs a little bit. "I wouldn't do it around other people, for certain."

[bashasasdemon]

Kai has absolutely no room to talk, given how he learned how intentions worked. But he's still going to grouse about it.

"No, that's also a terrible idea, that's how you get yourself hurt while experimenting." The demon sighs. "...Let me know when you're going to attempt it."

Sorry not sorry Nara'a you're getting adopted.

[aetherweaver]

"I blew my eyebrows off the first time I channeled fire aether, I'm not afraid of getting hurt." He can Vercure himself! ... Probably! Never mind that he's terrible at healing.

"Why, so you can put yourself in the blast zone?"

[bashasasdemon]

"So I can get you to someone to make sure you don't die if you blow yourself up." Not to mention that he at least would survive the blast zone. It would suck, but he'd deal with it.

Nara'a's past experience with magic is not, in fact, helping his case here.

[aetherweaver]

"I'm usually fine!" Usually. "I do try to not get myself in life-threatening situations, despite what my friends might say."

The lectures he's gotten, especially from Y'shtola...

[bashasasdemon]

Still not helping your case!

"Then I guess I'll just be a precaution." He's not budging on this.

[aetherweaver]

He sighs. He's blown himself up before, it's fine! "Usually I'm the one who offers themselves as a precaution... a bit strange to be on the other side of it, I suppose."

[bashasasdemon]

Kai shrugs. "Always time for new experiences," he says a bit dryly. They're harder to come by the older he gets, but this whole thing certainly is one.

[aetherweaver]

"I suppose I'm still young enough to do so." He grins again, casting a sidelong glance at Kai. New experiences, huh? "Though we should probably figure out more about this place before I go blowing it up."

[bashasasdemon]

"Probably." Not that it stopped Kai from trying to set the fence on fire (see this is why he has absolutely no room to talk). "Have you looked around much?"

[aetherweaver]

"A bit, yes. I tried to not let myself get carried away. I do love a good library. I've fallen asleep in stacks of books before, but my back did pay for that." No thank you. At least get a chair or something.

[bashasasdemon]

what is it with catboys and falling asleep in libraries-- "There's a garden, outside. Not enough outside that we can get anywhere, unfortunately." He's tried. A lot. Stubbornness plus demon stamina can still only get you so far, apparently.

[aetherweaver]

"I did see that. I harvested some of the produce that I saw there, too. ... I'm a fair hand at botany." He smiles a bit and glances around them. "Though we should be glad we have at least a little sun. Being inside all the time will drive most people crazy."

[bashasasdemon]

“You’re not wrong.” Admittedly Nara’a probably isn’t talking about being kept inside for torture purposes in some chamber or another designed to make you miserable, but details. “I don’t think I’ve seen another place like it yet. There was another room I found that I didn’t recognize anything in- some sort of metal boxes with glass?” He’s talking about the computer lab.

[aetherweaver]

No, he's been tortured in other ways. But hm.

"I think I saw something like that. Some kind of terminal designed for complicated equations that I don't quite understand. I've seen floating versions of those displays as well. I know they can analyze things, but past that I'm not quite sure what they do."

[bashasasdemon]

So much of that went right over Kai's head. "There's the rooms off the main area too, like living quarters. Which is proof that they intend to keep us here a while." He hasn't found much else yet; what he had found was ample proof that getting them out was not going to be a simple effort, and he knows how to pace himself. Mostly. Sometimes.

[aetherweaver]

"Oh. I hadn't seen that yet. I was going to make camp out in the garden but that sounds like a better idea." As soon as he can make sure he's comfortable in there... he's going to have to make a nest, probably.

Hm. "I don't really understand what the purpose of keeping us here is, though."

[bashasasdemon]

"I don't either. So far no one seems to." He hasn't talk to anyone who's talked to the assistants (and he doesn't know what a phone is anyway, so he hasn't called himself) but so far no one claims to know anything about why they're here. He's not totally sure he trusts that, since someone has to know something, but most of the people he's met seem genuinely bewildered.

[aetherweaver]

"Not the first time I've been spirited away somewhere, but definitely the calmest time I have been." He wasn't in the middle of a war, for example. He also got to stay in his body this time! Amazing what can happen if you're not an asshole like Fandaniel.

[bashasasdemon]

Kai snorts. "This is much more peaceful than most kidnappings," he says dryly. And so far, less attempts at murder. So far. "I guess all we can do right now is keep digging for information. Somehow." Since their captors won't even show themselves to be properly interrogated.