Unfinished Library Mod & NPC Account (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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unfinishedooc2025-10-21 06:46 pm
libraryassistants) wrote in unfinishedooc2025-10-21 06:46 pm
Entry tags:
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!]
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!]
no subject
"Are you controlling that?" he asks, still keeping half an eye on the drone. It seems so... lifeless. Like a pot or something set to the air. He doesn't like it.
no subject
"Yes," it admits. There's no point trying to hide it. The drone stays where it is; not moving any closer, not moving any further. Just hovering at an exact point in the air.
At least now it can tell the human that they're being stupid.
"If you fall you're fucked," it warns. "I haven't seen a medbay in this place yet."
no subject
He doesn't address the part about him falling; he knows he'd be fine, but he doesn't want to explain why that is. Besides, he doesn't actually want to fall. It would still hurt.
no subject
"...Scouting," it says. "And keeping an eye on you while you're climbing stupidly high."
no subject
"And I'm fine." Yes, he knows mortals would say that too, but he means it.
no subject
"And you won't be fine if you fall, which you probably will, so can you just come the hell down." Maybe Kai thinks he's fine, but the person down on the ground is clearly getting rather anxious about this. "And you're not going to get over the stupid fence, it keeps growing."
no subject
The difference in their heights doesn't bother him in the slightest, however, just tilting his head up to look at the SecUnit. "Probably because there is no such thing where I'm from," he says flatly. He can't even really guess what the word means, it's so completely foreign to him. Still waiting for you to explain.
no subject
At least now it doesn't need to worry about the human going splat.
"Did your ancestors get abandoned on a planet and forget all their technology?" It says. It is wearing an expression that can only be described as 'completely baffled'. "They're...cameras. They record pictures and video."
no subject
"My ancestors were not abandoned anywhere, no," he says dryly- and he knows that, could well go ask some of them if needed (if they would talk to him; Grandmother would, at least), "I've still never heard of a camera. Or video." Pictures, sure. Maybe there's an imp inside drawing them, but he doubts it, and not only because he can't sense anything. "Where are you from?"
no subject
(There was something sad, though, about a planet that didn't even have video. Thinking about that made its insides all twisty.)
"...I live on Preservation Station." Not where it's from, technically. But no way in hell was the SecUnit going to say anything about the Company or Port FreeCommerce. "It's outside the Corporation Rim."
no subject
no subject
Although it not knowing them didn't necessarily mean anything. The SecUnit didn't keep data on every system, in the Rim or otherwise. It needed that space for more media.
(At this point, the SecUnit just...stands there awkwardly. Not looking at the human. It's drones in a holding pattern over its head.
It has no idea what to do now.)
no subject
Luckily, even though Kai is also very capable of being awkward, he has been both a cohort leader and more involved in politics than he would like, so he is capable to steering the conversation somewhere useful. “Do you know anything about this place?” he asks; that’s there real common ground at the moment, after all.
no subject
"It's fucked," it says, giving the super succinct version. "Tried to map the place, but what I ended up with was nonsense. None of it matched when I went back to confirm."
no subject
Magic, it has to be, but how? He can't sense anything, and there should be something, somewhere. Maybe there's an intention buried deep, deep in the stacks that managed to impact all of it, but there should still be threads holding it together.
no subject
It'd had to watch its own recordings a few times, and run several diagnostics to make sure its visual processors weren't malfunctioning. But in the end, it had to accept that the fence did grow. That had been real.
And unspoken is the fact that there's very likely a connection between the fence and the stacks. Things changed here. Even when they shouldn't.
no subject
"It's magic," he mutters, scrubbing at his face, "It has to be. But I don't know of anything that would be able to cause something of this scale without leaving some sort of marker. I don't even know what kind of magic could cause things to bend like this, without being actively manipulated." Someone could make the fence bigger as he was climbing it, but they'd have to been within sight of it at least. And he sensed no magic coming from his companion. Negative magic, honestly, if that were possible.
no subject
"Magic is only supposed to happen in serials," it says.
There's a pained expression on its face. Magic isn't supposed to be real. But it's just been kidnapped into a fucking weird library, where things don't stay like they're supposed to. With all the data it has so far, its suddenly having to come to the terrifying conclusion that magic might not be confined to serials anymore.
(Which might explain why the SecUnit feels like negative magic to Kai; where it come, magic doesn't even exist.)
no subject
"This place really is a mess," he says instead, shaking his head, "You've never- you have no experience with magic. And you have those... cameras." You didn't tell him they were called drones, so. "This doesn't make any sense."
Well. There's one way it could make sense, but it's the kind of absurd thing that he doesn't want to think about. If only because of how extra terrifying it makes all of this.
no subject
"It really fucking doesn't," it agrees. "If I didn't know better, I'd think I was..." (malfunctioning) "...that there was something wrong with me."
It had run so many diagnostics since arriving here that it'd had to start deleting the older reports to make room for the new ones.
no subject
"I guess theoretically they could be something wrong with all of us and this is a mass hallucination of some kind," Kai says dryly, not mentioning that it could be a personal hallucination, "but if that's the case then there's really nothing we can do about it so we might as well treat it like it's not."
Though the obvious question remains: if they're all fine, then what is this?
no subject
"Right," it says. Then pauses awkwardly, again.
The human's fine now. The SecUnit doesn't have to worry about him falling and going splat anymore. And it...really doesn't know what else to do here.
"I'm going now," it says. "Don't climb the fence again."
no subject
He snorts at the command- he's absolutely going to climb the fence again. But there is one more thing he wants to know. "What's your name? You can call me Kai."
no subject
"...I'm Rin," it says. And then leaves.
It's tempted to leave a drone behind, but that's the sort of thing that might make someone suspect it's a SecUnit. Instead, the drones leave with it.