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

coffee corner

[bashasasdemon]

"Huh."

That's it. That's all the man in front of him says as Thanatos corrects his own nametag, and it's probably pretty clear to him why. Kai is not a god, but he is also very much not mortal- Thanatos might also be able to tell that the body he's in was dead once, but clearly isn't at the moment. He's thought about death, a lot- he fought for years in a war no one thought they see the next day of, much less win. But when people talking about meeting death he didn't pick... this.

[tsunatos]

Thanatos does indeed clue into the oddities of this person's body—Kaiisteron, or so the name tag declares. He can sense that death once touched the man, but has no hold over him now. He can sense, too, that this is no mortal, though what Kaiisteron is instead remains a mystery.

In any case, it's more than enough to get Thanatos' attention. And so he attempts to hold eye contact, searching the man's face.

"That's it? That's all you have to say to Death?"

[bashasasdemon]

Holding eye contact is hard, since there is a black, embroidered veil over the Kai's eyes; demon eyes are pitch black which makes them extremely identifiable to anyone who knows what to look for, and he is already dealing with enough today. If people don't know what demons are, he doesn't want to explain. If they do, he doesn't want to deal with them inevitably putting one and one together to figure out exactly who he is.

Still, he holds the gaze, bringing up his cup of (terrible, now many creamed and sugared) tea to take a drink. "For now," he says mildly. It's weird, to stare down Death like this, but he has to admit there's a part of him that's just thinking bring it on. He's fought Hierarchs, who would certainly like to think they were death incarnate. What's the worst this... whatever he is could do?

At least if he died he's be with Bashasa.

[tsunatos]

"Hmph," Thanatos exhales, sounding some cross between impressed and annoyed. Because it is impressive when someone is willing to stare him down like this, without a taste of fear in the air. On the other hand, it reminds him of a certain arrogant king, and that always gets his hackles up.

"Most people have more to say," he says. "Especially those who have met me before. Or … someone like me."

Because he doesn't recall meeting this Kaiisteron personally. With an attitude like this, he thinks he'd remember.

[bashasasdemon]

"We haven't met." Which is contrary to what Thanatos is sensing, but Kai a.) doesn't know that and b.) isn't really interested in explaining anyway. He might have to, eventually, to get the man (god?) off his back, but for now he's more than happy to just meet his gaze and act like he's enjoying his terrible, terrible tea.

[tsunatos]

"But you have died before," Thanatos says, no doubt in his voice. He knows this; he can sense it. "You may not have met me; I deal with those in less of a hurry to die. But your body did die."

[bashasasdemon]

Oh.

Well, if Kai had any lingering suspicion that Thanatos could just be a Hierarch, that's gone; they couldn't tell he was a demon just by looking at him, by sensing that a life had already left this body once. He takes a sip of his tea, debating answer versus just walking away. The later would be much more tempting if it wasn't clear that they were going to be stuck in this space together for a while, that escape from the question was only a temporary possibility. He could try and lie, but he's a pretty miserable liar. So instead it's finding a way to phrase it that both makes sense and won't invite too many further questions.

"This body has died before," he says finally, "I wasn't in it at the time."

[tsunatos]

Wasn't in it at the time…?

Thanatos studies Kai for a moment, weighing the sincerity of those words. He doubts they're a lie; if they were, they would've come faster, been more convincing. So, what is he faced with?

"I see. You're some sort of eidolon, then? Interesting."

Not that he sounds perturbed in the least. Why would he be? He is Death.

He reaches for a cup of tea, finally, having been (wrongly) convinced it's drinkable by Kai's determined sipping.

[bashasasdemon]

Kai doesn't know what an eidolon is, but asking would be opening himself up to questions himself- if he's not that, then what is he? So he just lets it go, sipping on his own concoction.

He should probably leave now, just let Thanatos discover the failure of the drink on his own, but he finds himself speaking all the same. "It's not good, by the way. Not poisoned, but not good." It probably says a lot about Kai that 'poison' was his other go-to.

[tsunatos]

"Let me guess. It's not poisoned, but it nearly tastes like it is," Thanatos says, pouring himself a cup nonetheless. He sniffs it, makes a face, takes a tiny sip…

…

… Yeah, he's setting the whole thing aside with a shudder of disgust.

[bashasasdemon]

Kai barely suppresses a snort. "There's milk and sugar to put in it, to make it drinkable," he offers, a sort of half-apology. It doesn't taste like tea anymore at that point, but apparently beggars can't be choosers.

[tsunatos]

"One might as well just drink the milk by itself," Thanatos intones. "What a disgusting excuse for tea."

Maybe he's overreacting. Or maybe the gods have higher standards for tea. Or maybe he's gotten a little spoiled by nectar of late. Whatever the case, he's Done with that drink.

[bashasasdemon]

"There's coffee too," Kai says, having finished his tea and leaving the cup on a lower tier of the car- he's never had a disposable cup before, isn't aware that it could just be tossed, "Though I doubt it's any better."

[tsunatos]

"I don't see how it could be worse," Thanatos says as he gets another cup. This time, he pours only a little into it, just enough for a single swallow. Which, after a breath to brace himself, he then drinks down.

"… Ugh."

[bashasasdemon]

Ok, that gets an actual bark of a laugh out of Kai- short, but that's still more than he's laughed in this entire place so far. "That bad, then," he says, shaking his head, "I won't even bother then."

[tsunatos]

"Don't," Thanatos agrees, shuddering at the aftertaste as he sets down the cup. "Save your tongue the distress.

"Who made this filth, anyway?"

[bashasasdemon]

Kai shrugs a shoulder. "No idea. So far everyone I've talked to claims to have been dragged in here, same as us."

'Claims' being the key word. He thinks he believes them, but he's been wrong before, and he wants to make an allowance for that.

[tsunatos]

Thanatos picks up on that key word, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"You don't believe everyone's story?"

He's had no cause to doubt anyone himself. Then again, he also hasn't spoken to many people yet. Blame it on his preoccupation with his name tag, or maybe his independent nature. (Or just his reluctance to strike up conversations with strangers.)

[bashasasdemon]

Kai pauses, then shrugs. "I don't know," he admits, "but I've been in too many situations where people stick spies in seemingly innocuous places that I can't help but consider it." It's not quite as rife in Arike courts as their romantic epics would like you to believe, but you'll find vanguarders at every course, and those are just the spies everyone knows about. Not to mention people sending their minions to infiltrate other spaces; he can't help but think of the two crew members that attempted to hide (badly) when they took over the expositor's ship.

[tsunatos]

"Spies, huh? I hadn't considered that." No surprise there. Spies in the House of Hades would've been ferreted out long, long ago.

Thanatos taps a gauntleted finger on the cart, inadvertently disturbing the coupons for a free yacht ride. "What would their purpose be, do you suppose?"

[bashasasdemon]

"Depends on what we're here for in the first place. Could be to keep an eye on us, make sure we don't damage the library. Could be to report back things they learn about us." Weaknesses, he means. "Maybe they'll push us in a direction, according to the whims of whoever brought us. We don't have enough information right now."

And he hates it. He does so much better when there's something to fight to solve at least part of his problems.

[tsunatos]

"We barely have any information at all," Thanatos agrees. "Except that we're here, and we can't leave."

In case there's any doubt of that, he explains. "I can usually shift to anywhere in the world. I've had that power since I was an infant. But here, I can only move around the library. And not very far, at that."

[bashasasdemon]

Now that's new information. "Anywhere at all?" he asks, not doubting, just confirming- not like the Blessed and the Well of Thosaren, then. It made sense, if Thanatos was actually some physical embodiment of death, but it's still the kind of thing Kai would feel more comfortable if no one was able to do. The Blessed not having that was the only thing that helped them not be crushed immediately, during the war.

He takes the idea as fact anyway, just because he feels like he's got a good enough read on Thanatos- he could be the spy too, but that's a thought trail to go down when they're not in an active conversation. (He's so tired of being suspicious of things.) "Do you know of anything that would be able to trap you?"

[tsunatos]

Thanatos nods in confirmation. "No one can escape Death." As far as he's concerned, that's all the explanation required. His powers take him wherever he is needed, and that's that.

The question, however, has his brows snapping down into a frown. "… An arrogant king once managed it," he says grudgingly. "But he got what was coming to him in the end."

[bashasasdemon]

Kai is pretty sure that's not entirely true- there's things like him, after all. But maybe it doesn't count if Death doesn't want to come for you. That thought makes him a bit dejected somehow. Better move on from it.

"Does anything about this remind you of that, or anything you remember before? You don't have to tell me what." Kai's last kidnapping could have been redone here, but he doesn't really think so. It would have had to be especially sneaky and that was harder when they were all on edge.