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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!]
starandhope: (007)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-23 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
Mina watches, fascinated. Her eyes go a little wide at the way the machine produces such a flawless item.

"Plastic," she repeats, humming a little as she inspects the little toy. "This certainly seems far beyond anything a factory back home might produce. Unless it is simply magic."

She offers him a small smile in return.
extrasaltypotato: (deep exasperated sigh)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-10-23 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
At the mention of magic, Hikaru - as his nametag names him - puts his hand under his chin, his thumb stroking a thin mustache. He considers the woman - Mina Harker - and her mode of dress carefully, if briefly.

"No, not magic, Miss - is it miss? - Harker. Believe me, I would know the difference. But far beyond coal-fired steam engines and mechanical looms, yes. I've noticed the books here are... indiscriminate about their era of origin. I've gotten everything from Hungarian cookbooks to alchemy manuals, from papyrus scrolls to spaceship recognition guides."
Edited 2025-10-23 21:58 (UTC)
starandhope: (027)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-23 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"Mrs," Mina corrects him gently, a faint smile playing about her lips.

"I've always felt I lived in a very advanced time, but this place seems to put the lie to it. Though, I suspect whatever brought us all here is real magic. Not that I've any experience of such things."

More than she knows, perhaps.
extrasaltypotato: (animated conversation)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-10-24 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
"I suspect so, yes. I've some small experience navigating liminal spaces like this... but I wonder if we were taken here, or sort of washed up on shore and the Librarians are taking advantage of that."

He pauses, and he smiles, too.

"I suspect I should be congratulating a lucky woman and a luckier man."
starandhope: (018)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-24 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Mina glances down, a modest look, though whether she does so to hide a smile or a grimace of guilt is difficult to say.

“Jonathan is the best of men,” she says after a moment, considering.

“This place - it doesn’t feel evil to me,” she adds quietly. “Though, I can’t say I would know it if it did.”
extrasaltypotato: (neutral)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-10-25 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"Das menschen," he agrees. Literally, 'a man,' but Mina may or may not know it implies not only being a man, but humane.

"Not evil, no," Hikaru says. "Powerful, yes. If I'm not mistaken this is a place between worlds - and I recently found a number of books on the shelves that tell incomplete stories. Being greeted as 'Editors' begins to make sense."
starandhope: (005)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"A place between worlds," she repeats quietly. "I suppose that would explain the many differences between us, not just of geography. Though I can't think what such a place would want of me. Unless, perhaps, they have dire need of a typist."
extrasaltypotato: (i have made errors before)

drops arc word with the tiktok boom noise

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-10-25 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"Or a woman who understands stories, and has one to tell," Hikaru suggests, a hand beneath his chin. "To finish the unfinished biographies?"
starandhope: (010)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"You paint a very flattering portrait of me," Mina says with an almost-nervous sort of laugh. "I can't say the reality matches, however. Whose biographies would I be qualified for?"
extrasaltypotato: (that's a detail.  we need those.)

[personal profile] extrasaltypotato 2025-10-25 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"I think shining examples of manhood and happy marriages are in shockingly short supply, for starters," Hikaru says, the dry tone belying his deadly seriousness. "I wish I had more role models for it growing up."
starandhope: (027)

[personal profile] starandhope 2025-10-25 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Are they?" Mina asks, raising her eyebrows. "I suppose I hadn't considered that. The men in my life are all very good sorts. And marriage - well, one can only ever strive to make a good partner in marriage."

She doesn't feel like a particularly good wife, but she can hardly admit to that.

"I certainly could extol Jonathan's virtues in writing - at great length, though I'm not sure it would have any literary merit", she adds, jokingly.