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

Kaiisteron | The Rising World series

[bashasasdemon]

Welcome

To say Kai reacts badly to his arrival is only a suitable description for those who don't know him- for anyone who would, it is an understatement at best. He goes from waking to hyper alert in a matter of seconds, entire body tense as he takes in his new surroundings. The fact that he wakes up surrounded by books, of all things, is perhaps the only thing that stops him from simply launching himself forward to try and claw his way out. Not out of any particular reverence for books. Mostly just sheer confusion.

That will only last for so long, however, and should anyone come across him in the stacks he rounds on them in an instant, hands in fists by his sides and clearly just holding himself back, not clear who his enemy is and deeply unsettled by it. "Where am I?" he growls, and when he's close it's impossible to not notice that his eyes are pitch black.

Coffee Corner

The first thing Kai did on noticing his nametag was rip it off. That was also the second thing he did, when it reappeared. The third time he got smart and only ripped off the bottom half, leaving "Kaiisteron" visible. If there is anyone from the Rising World who doesn't know who he is, that at least is a better attempt at obscuring his identity that having his entire title just on his chest for everyone to see.

By this point he's affixed his veil to his face, though he quickly notices that that isn't the norm. It's better than having everyone question his eyes, at least, so he's not budging on that front. He's trying to stay away from people, but eventually a mix of curiosity and thirst convinces him to try the tea. He regrets is instantly.

"Did they steep the leaves for an hour?" he asks, grimacing and immediately trying to figure out how to make it, somehow, more tolerable.

Between the Stacks

Kai is climbing the fence.

It doesn't take a genius to notice that it is climbing with him, and it's an odd sight from down below, the man seemingly crawling higher and higher and he should be getting closer by never does, some sort of horrible mix of an optical illusion and some other terrifying possibility. He's a stubborn man, though, and he's done through far worse to escape prisons (yes, plural) than climb a fence that doesn't want to end.

If you're watching him climb, you'll be there for a while. He has quite a lot of stamina it seems and he is going to see if there's a limit to this, however long it takes him. But eventually, he's forced to slide back down, falling a few feet off the ground and landing with a thud on his back. "Fuck," he says emphatically, glaring at the fence like that would set fire to it. ...Maybe setting fire to it is the next step.

[ooc: Kai is from a (reasonably early) point in Queen Demon, but because of the way the books work there is the potential for spoilers for the whole book. Please let me know if you'd like me to avoid them!]

Coffee Corner

[markingnight]

Truly intolerable, [ agreed his neighbor, whose name tag announced him to be 'Ironeye'. He was lounged in a chair, one leg crossed over the knee and sipping at the tea anyway. His mask and a cloak of green scale obscured most of his face and draped over the back of his seat.

He looked right at home. ]

There's some sugar, too, if you like.

[bashasasdemon]

[Kai has already dumped at least two of the little cartons of creamer (seriously, why are they so small? And how did the milk even get in these things???) in an attempt to dull the burnt taste of tea leaves. He glances over at the man in the chair- not that it's easy to see, with the veil covering his eyes- before back at the table.]

Is that what these are?

[He's never seen such packaging in his life. It seems ridiculous and pointless, honestly. But he will be ripping open one to dump its contents in the mixture.]

[markingnight]

[ At that point, one might as well simply drink the creamer. Still, he was sure it would cover most of the taste of the blackened tea. ]

That's what it tastes like. I haven't taken my chances with the biscuits just yet.

[ Odd for a man with an American accent to be calling cookies 'biscuits', but whatever. ]

Have you any idea what an 'Editor' is?

[bashasasdemon]

[Kai's from a book, I have no idea what fantasy accent he would even have. There's enough mixed in to make it drinkable now, at least, and Kai will move out of the way of the cart, eyeing the biscuits in question. The only reason he risked the tea was because he can't be poisoned. Those things look way too dry to tempt him.]

Someone who edits things. [it's a deadpan delivery, but after a few seconds he decides to be slightly less of an ass.] I mostly know about it from scholarly types. Editing a paper to make it more readable.

[markingnight]

[ Can't go wrong with "British for Some Reason". ]

Nothing to do with me, then. Which means I've unlawfully obtained this tea.

[ ...he said, as he made absolutely no move to relinquish his cup. ]

Where I'm from it's unheard of, a library this huge and in this condition. Perhaps in the time before the Shattering, in the golden capital.

[bashasasdemon]

Me neither.

[Kai is many things, but a scholar is not one of them. Dahin asked him to look over one of his treatises once and never again.

His eyes are concealed but it's still possible to see the lower half of his face, the way it scrunches up in confusion.]

The Shattering? I've never heard of that.

[It's a big world out there, the Rising World Alliance only part of it- presumably the Hierarchs didn't wipe out literally everyone else. But who knows.]

between the stacks

[fatalis]

At first, Jayce was going to just walk away and let the guy try to scale the wall; if he thought he could manage it, he might have tried too. It's seeing the fence reach up into the sky that gets him to stay. Jayce is rooted to the spot by the time the man comes crashing back down, and he's so interested in the phenomenon that he doesn't react in time to do anything but wince at that curse, though he has the decency to at least look apologetic about the fact he didn't even try to help stop his fall.

"You alright?" Granted, Jayce suspects he already knows the answer to that question, because he knows what he would say if someone asks him the same one, but he asks anyway out of politeness and a lack of anything else to say.

Really, he's still thinking about the fence and if they could see what else it could do.

[bashasasdemon]

"Fine," Kai grumbles, pulling himself up. It is, technically, in the not immediate term, true. He definitely bruise something, possibly broke it, but he's immortal; any damage his body has taken is already healing itself.

The important part is that he's in pain. And pain can be power.

It's very easy, to twist the pain inside of him and put it to use, to fuel a fire intention that he unleashes from his hands to try and set the fence ablaze, but it's no use; the fire dies almost as soon as it hits it. With a groan, Kai flops back onto the floor.

"Less fine now," he admits. He still hurts, and now he's even more frustrated than he was before.

[fatalis]

"Fine, yeah."

Jayce gives him space, turning to study the fence, noticing that it seems to be back to whatever counts for normal in this place. He's about to walk up to it when he stops in his tracks, the heat hitting him and freezing him into place.

It takes another few seconds for him to shift his weight, finish the step he was right in the middle of. Running his fingers over the planks, his eyebrows arch in surprise. "They're not even warm."

Part of him thinks the fireball might have just been a trick — he knows magic, but he also knows magic tricks from being a kid and chasing down any and everything that could bring him closer to what he'd seen out in the mountains — except for the fact that he'd felt the fire blow past him, and he can see where it caught on his sleeve, enough to singe the fabric.

Turning towards the guy, he asks what is clearly the most important question here: "How did you do that?"

[bashasasdemon]

They're not even warm. Kai barks out a bitter laugh at that, running a hand through his hair. Of course not. How does any of this make sense? Is it magic, or is this some sort of twisted, realistic dream? Tahren hadn't described how it was for her in the witch cages in any real detail, and this doesn't match what little Kai felt from them when getting her out, but-- maybe? Or something like like it?

He's scrambling for answers and he hates it; if he had something to go after, he'd feel a lot better.

"Magic," he answers flatly, still on his back with the veil concealing his black eyes. He's a weird amalgamation of magic knowledge even back home, and here, where people don't know what expositors are? What demons are? He's not inclined to explain.

[fatalis]

Scratching his nail against the wood, Jayce leans down to drag his eyes over the grain. Not even ash, but considering how his last observation is received, Jayce snaps his jaw closed the second it opens, swallowing that thought but filing it away for later.

Instead, he steps to the side, pulling out the collapsible hammer he keeps on him and he tests a plank that he suspects wasn't hit by the blast. Jayce hits it hard enough that it should have cracked at least, but all he feels is that kinetic energy vibrating back up his arm until he feels it uncomfortably in his teeth. Whatever this is, it's fascinating, and he might have been content to study it if that trigger word didn't slice through all his hypotheses.

Wheeling around, Jayce just looks at the other guy for a second. "Magic? Really?" It didn't look anything like the one he's used to, all crackling blue light and volatile energy. "Do you channel it? That's how I do it. I can't do anything on my own."

Something he's perpetually upset about, honestly.

[bashasasdemon]

When Kai hears the slam of the hammer he props himself up, watching Jayce's attempt at trying to take down the fence. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There's a cold sort of horror settling over him, realizing how futile these attempts are, but he holds it back. Anger can only burn for so long, but he's going to keep it in his grasp for as long as he can. It's better than the alternatives currently available to him.

He'll pull himself up to sitting, frowning; he's not sure what to make of Jayce's questions, largely because he doesn't know what they mean. "Channel how?" he asks, because there's probably a way to explain intentions like that- channeling pain into something, to give it power- it's not what he'd jumped to.

Between the Stacks

[ugh_emotions]

There's a human climbing the fence, and they are climbing way too high. The SecUnit has stopped to monitor the situation, because the human is at risk of falling and breaking his fucking neck.

(Unfortunately, the SecUnit has very few options if the human does fall. Except maybe diving under him, and attempting to cushion the blow with its own body. Ugh. It really hopes it doesn't have to do that.)

Meanwhile, as Kai climbs he may realise that he's not alone: there's a small flying alongside him. It's keep back, and out of his way - but it's also definitively monitoring him closely.

[[ooc: No spoilers for me!]]

the wells protags unite!

[bashasasdemon]

Unfortunately for the SecUnit, the drone probably has the opposite effect- namely, upon realizing that that is not a bird, it startles the hell out of Kai.

"What the fu--" Kai's hold slips and he starts to fall, but he manages to grab back on before he slides too far. He has definitely stopped his climbing efforts to try and figure out what in the world that thing is, and if he should be trying to tear it out of the air.

Huzzah!

[ugh_emotions]

Shit! The SecUnit panics for 1.3 seconds, before the human gets his grip back. He hasn't fallen. Yet.

Realising the drone is causing problems, The SecUni has it fly back. It's now well out of reach, and also hopefully far back enough to not distract the human again.

(The reaction was weird, though. Sure this human's seen drones before.)

[bashasasdemon]

Kai watches the path of the drone, eyes narrowed, and then takes a look down at the figure standing beneath him, with what seems to be another one of those... things. He doesn't know what to call them.

"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.

[ugh_emotions]

Damn it. The drone’s been spotted.

"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."

[bashasasdemon]

"A medbay?" The way Kai repeats the word, it's clear that he has no idea what it's talking about it. Though that's perhaps a secondary concern. "What are those things? What are you using them for?"

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.

Between The Stacks (the happy noise I made when I saw a kai was not human)

[scienceofthearcane]

It was a strange thing to watch. An optical illusion mixed with what had to be a magically extending barrier that was still blocking that man from finding any way across.

It was also a long wait to see if he did find a way across. After a few minutes, Viktor sat down on a decorative stone bench with his crutch held in both hands out in front of him. When the man was finally made to give up his time by gravity, Viktor grimaced and then finally spoke.

"I was hoping that you would be able to find your way over the fence. Or at least be able to see something on the other side."

:D

[bashasasdemon]

"You're not the only one," grouses Kai from his spot on the ground, still stretched out on his back. He was low enough down that the fall wouldn't have killed him, if he was mortal, but it still hurts. Normally he'd try to use it, to form some sort of intention to try and blast his way through, but he's already done that to no effect. It barely even touched the fence before the flame died.

He knows, at this point, that there probably is no real end to the fence. There's a magic that keeps it going, and no amount of stubbornness or demon stamina was going to be enough to surpass it. But there's no magic that he can sense, nothing to pick apart and unravel. It's infuriating.

He's almost nostalgic for his last kidnapping. At least them he got to kill some expositors to work out his feelings.

"No luck elsewhere, I'm guessing," he says, laying there and letting his body have a moment more to repair the damage to it for a moment longer. He doesn't trust the other people here, but they at least seemed as trapped as he is. ('Seemed' being a key word.)

[scienceofthearcane]

"I don't imagine so, since it's been either the library or this first glimpse I've seen of the outside."

Viktor shrugged a little, holding one hand palm up to indicate the garden that they were currently in.

"The kind of magic that brought us all here is likely similar to the magic that is extending the fence. In other words, I think we're stuck here since this is where the magic wants us to be"

[bashasasdemon]

"How, though?" Kai pulls himself up to sitting, the black embroidered veil shielding his eyes from view. He's glad he has it, for practical and sentimental reasons both. "I've never seen anything that works this-- broadly."

Not to mention there's nothing to pull at; something like this would be impossible to do with a witch's cantrip, and there's no thread of an intention (or several) to pick apart. He didn't think that sort of thing could be hidden. Though he's rapidly learning things here don't work at all how he thinks they should.

[scienceofthearcane]

"Using something of incredible power. Perhaps raw magic itself, so only the gods might wield it."

Yes, gods exist where Viktor comes from, and it's not a religious thing but a literal one. Gods were exactly that and wielded celestial magic that was capable of creating life just as it was capable of creating death. Essentially, no mortal magic user would be capable of controlling the types of magic that they did. It was doubtful that even immortal ones would. The antithesis to celestial magic was the magic of the Void, and unfortunately, Viktor had been using that kind of magic to experiment on himself, so he wasn't surprised to find there were similarly powerful magics in this library, too.

[bashasasdemon]

The mention about the gods gets him an incredulous expression- not that Viktor can see it through the veil. There are various gods through the Rising World and beyond, but Kai personally has never really seen much point in them. They've certainly never helped him at all. (He supposes some people might consider the Tescai-lin a god, but those people are wrong and stupid and he thinks they would agree.)

"Raw magic," he repeats instead, because he does not like the sound of that at all. It would have to be something like the a Well in order to do what this man is describing, but those things are usually very obvious. The fact that he can sense nothing is becoming increasingly alarming.