A Library For Your Misery (Multifandom RP Open (7/8))

[Egg With Legs]

"Great, another one loose. And just after we got that rotten moon back in its tome."

The man shook his head as he watched the endless wall of shelves spiral off into a trail of fresh snow, white puffs floating gently down from the darkness above as the howl of far-off winds filled the corridor. Placing his spear on his shoulder, he looked up into nowhere, hairless brow quirked.

"Well, I don't see any of the other's coming out of their dens to lend a hand, now do I?"

The man's brow only quirked higher as he stared off into the nothingness above, a grin spreading across his face as he let out a few sharp barks of laughter.

"Oh, really now? Assistants? Must be rather desperate, if you're stooping that low."

The man lets out a few more chuckles as he starts to walk back down the hall of shelves, shrugging after the chuckles stifle themselves.

"Ah, but who am I to say. I ain't the one running the joint, now am I? And besides, maybe I'll get some nice trinkets off their corpses by the end of things."

This is a story about those corpses.

[Egg With Legs]

You wake up staring at unfamiliar lights shining in an unfamiliar blackness above your heads.

Pushing yourself up and trying to ignore the raging headache tearing its way through your skull, you look at your similarly unfamiliar surroundings. You sit within a what you could safely assume to be a moderately sized lobby, tables and chairs scattered about the wood-floored room. Sitting on them are writing supplies aplenty, scattered among the furnishings and floor with similar abandon. Above you, darkness looms over you, punctuated by blinding beams of light, shining down and illuminating both the room you lie in and the clouds of dust you throw up within the room with every move.

And in every other direction stretch shelves upon shelves of books, stretching from the floor into the darkness. Most stretch out into halls, some trailing out into the horizon, curving into halls, or simply terminating into walls of shelves. Others stretch into stairways going up and downward out of sight. Finally, some seem to simply terminate into darkness, whatever lights hung around most of the halls being defunct.

And finally, behind a rather simple desk with a absolutely gargantuan tome sitting atop it, in the backdrop of a wall of bookshelves, squats a rather curious, large-nosed fellow in a rather sloppily put together dress shirt and pants browsing said tome, a long spear leaning on the desk. As you rise, he glances up, a easy smile spreading across his face.

"Ah, good day. You lot look reasonably sane. Take it you're all the new Assistant Librarians then?"

And the worst part of this is that you can't remember a thing about how you got here. Except for where you are.

A Library For Your Misery, first floor lobby, general works section

[Egg With Legs]

NOTE: InfectedHau shall be co-dming (rp-mastering? co-ownering?) this RP with me, so they can pass judgement as much as I, and shall be playing some of the NPC groups along with myself.

Also, this is heavily inspired by Library of Ruina

The Links
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The Discussion Link
The Discord Link

The Rules
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1. All of Tess's rules still apply.
2. Presence in the discord, while not mandatory, is highly recommended so as to easily coordinate plot ideas, possible character interactions, and so forth.
3. Decent grammar and a lack of 1-3 liners is a must here.
4. If you are going to be inactive for a time, please alert both those you are rping with and myself.
5. Only one character per person please
6. Remember the time honored tradition of the Fade To Black. Use it, and use it well.
7. Powergaming is a no. If you seek to do something, give others the freedom to react rather than dictating it yourself.
8. There shall be limited slots for now, though you may always post characters and join the discord to join a waiting list for future groups.
9. If one wishes to become a Librarian or Intrusions, please contact either me or InfectedHau to discuss on the subject


Cast List
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Assistant Librarians - Those folk drawn temporarily (for a given value of the term) to assist in both the return of its prisoners to their cages and repair of the damages caused to The Library. You, for the most part.
7/8
Kris, as the reserved child
Kanohi, as the veteran gremlin
Vivec, as the disillusioned god
Eleven, as the lost luminary
Zagreus, as the rebellious prince
Mu, as the humanity obsessed
Peter Parker, as the spider man

Librarians - Those that, for one reason or another, have elected to reside in The Library on a more permanent basis, seeing to its maintenance and protection from outside forces. Often changed by their time here. Not you, for the most part.
1/???
- Unbreakable Patches, Librarian of the General Works floor

Intrusions - Those that have used the degraded state of The Library to forcibly enter it and plunder it of its contents. Rarely have The Library's stability in mind. Mostly organizations rather than individuals. Not you, for the most part.
1/???
- MTF Chi-14 ("Pagemasters")

[Stealthlock]

Mu / Spo’ary (male) / Katalan / Form / Tags: Librarian

Mu surveyed his surroundings inside his helmet, swimming circles inside it, taking in this strange, almost dimensionally impossible environment. Next to him on the floor lay a strange array of people, all sorts of shapes and sizes. Finally he noticed the man behind the desk.

The robotic arms, laying prone beside his mech body, hesitantly raised up. First, fingers were flexed. Next, intimidating tendrils.

Finally, the tendrils and the hand came together in linguistically familiar shapes, as a synthetic voice emerged from Mu’s “chest”. He seemed to speak and gesture to the ceiling, but inside the helmet he looked directly at the man, staring with one single huge eye on him.

The synthetic adult male voice was slow and hesitant, like really bad text-to-speech.

“Hello. Sir. Where. This? What’s. Your. Name?”

The circular display showed a face.
“😕”

[InfectedHau]

MTF Chi-14 ("Pagemasters")

"Control to all units, confirm comm contact."

"Alpha, solid copy."
"Bravo, five by five."
"Charlie, copy."
"Delta, good to go."
"Echo, green across the board."

The five black figures stood at the anomaly's entrance, looking out at the rows of books as they checked their gear. Some of them were looking at it with wonder, seeing it for the first time. Others were looking with apprehension, all too aware of the perils of the Library.

Contact confirmed. When you're ready, proceed further into the anomaly.

Alpha hefted her rifle, taking up a point position. "You heard the man," she said, "let's move. Film as much as you can, and keep your eyes peeled, this place has some crazy stuff in it."

The member designated as Echo pulled a glowstick from his plate carrier, cracking it with one hand before tossing it on the ground. It would serve as a marker, a trail leading back to the exit. They couldn't be sure when, or if, comms would cut out, so knowing the way back would be vital. Weapons raised, the unit proceeded further into the library, eyes scanning the stacks for any potential threats.

Kanohi||Female||Elf||Tagged: Mu, Patches

Kanohi had a killer headache. Not necessarily unusual, she had a tendency to overindulge in her post-run celebrations, but this headache wasn't from one of those. This was the kind of headache she got after someone was finished screwing with her head. She'd had it exactly twice before, once before getting locked up in an Atlas blacksite, and the other before getting the crap kicked out of her by a Knight Errant interrogator. Her ribs were currently intact, and she wasn't getting her meals pushed through a slot in a steel door, so this wasn't either of those situations.

The shadowrunner took a quick look around, trying to figure out where exactly she'd wound up this time. A library, which meant someone important wanted a word. Only rich people could afford paper books, and they were the only ones that wanted to collect them anyways.

Also present were several other people in varying states of unconsciousness, a bald dude dressed like a butler, and some sort of mech she couldn't identify. It had a fish floating in it, and it was talking to the butler. Some kind of water spirit? Why would anyone put one in a drone? Even with a powerful shaman controlling it, that was asking for trouble. Kanohi didn't engage her drones yet, but she kept her finger at the ready. She doubted she was actually in a position to fight, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

[Wormgod]

Vivec | Disillusioned god | Tagged: Mu, Patches, Kanohi

Vehk woke lying on a hard surface with a sore chest and hands. He groaned quietly and sat up, realizing why he hurt. Somehow, he had fallen asleep in his armor. Vivec was usually very careful about that sort of thing. Ever since the loss of his divinity, he couldn’t ignore baser issues like fatigue and muscle strain, and he didn’t like to waste magicka casting a healing spell every morning. It was much easier to simply take the armor off and go to bed in some sleepwear. How had he ignored that last night?

As he sat up and studied his surroundings, Vivec understood. He had been abducted. Somehow, a person or persons found him last night, knocked him unconscious, and transported him to this...bleak library. Vehk searched his memories and realized he had no recollection past arriving in a quaint village in Rivenspire. One of the peasants must have tipped the local lordship, or maybe the Thalmor. Vehk certainly had the lions share of enemies. Quite an impressive feat. Many have tried before. This was the first attempt that worked. Of course, he will be escaping now.

Vivec stood and reached for MUATRA, which thankfully was still hooked to the back of his cloak. His kidnappers made a big mistake, leaving his netch longhook. He looked around, spying more people on the ground next to him and a man across from the group. Of the group, only two others were awake: a pale woman covered in curious garb who’s race he could not identity, and some type of anumunculi with a fish inside. Vivec couldn’t help but stare at the odd contraption, utterly dumbfounded at what looked a bit like a Dwemer robot but not made of their classic golden metal. His late brother would have loved to study it. Vivec ignored the pangs of grief that bubbled forth from that line of thought.

Prying his gaze away from the robot, Vivec turned and faced the man standing behind a desk, across from the group. It was likely this man was one of his abductors, watching as his victims awoke from a magical slumber. Wasting no time, Vivec addressed the man clearly and firmly, “What do you want?”

[Ploegy]

⇀Ｅｌｅｖｅｎ!!
xxxmale • sixteen years old • dragon quest xi • tagged: everyone
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What was this unbearable pain in his head? Never before had he experienced a headache so intense that he couldn't even manage to open his eyes. Was his body reacting poorly to his newly found abilities, or was it something else entirely? Eleven wasn't sure and he struggled to fight off the pain. Nevertheless, his eyes cracked open, which only made it worse. Briefly he winced, knowing he had made a mistake by opening his eyes, but he needed to get up. If he didn't he was positive Erik or Veronica would wake him up sooner rather than later. He wanted to spare himself from the nagging the latter would direct towards him if he lazed around for too long. Her personality certainly was overbearing sometimes and he had only known her for a short while now so there was no telling what she might do.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Eleven lifted a hand to his temples and gently rubbed them, trying to relive himself of some of the pain he was feeling. His attempt was in vain though. Even so, he needed to fight through it. Dropping his hand to his side, he forced his eyes open. For a brief moment, he was dazed by the light. Allowing his vision to settle, he stayed laying, staring at the ceiling. It was in that moment he realized he was no longer laying in a bed which caused him to quirk a brow in confusion. Feeling at his sides, Eleven pushed himself up into a sitting position, thinking he might have fallen out of bed. Instead, he found himself in a library or at least that was what it appeared to be. It clearly was nothing like the inn that he and his companions had been staying in. He couldn't even recall there being a place like this anywhere in Hotto.

Confusion quickly washed over his face and his attention immediately moved towards the sound of voices. His eyes settled upon the strangers that were already awake, none of them seeming anything like the villagers he had encountered. For starters there was a strange, metallic looking man that had two different skin tones. Eleven wasn't sure to make of such a person, though, he admittedly wasn't the strangest of the bunch nor the strangest thing he had seen on his short adventure thus far. The next was a woman, that unlike the other two around her, she was the most normal though her hair was oddly colored, but that was not such a rarity. Erik had oddly colored hair too. The last of the trio, was definitely the oddest of them all. In his eyes, it appeared to be a monster of sorts. His first thought was to reach for his sword, but as he reached over his shoulder, he realized it was not there. That was no surprise though.

Pulling his attention away from the strangers for a moment, he caught sight of his gear laying near him on the floor. Both his sword and his shield waited for him. That was good, though he still wasn't sure what was going on here. Climbing onto his knees, Eleven reached for the rapier first and carefully attached it to his being so that it sat on his back. Next he grabbed the shield and put it in front of his sword. With that done, his attention moved back to the strange trio.

Quietly listening, Eleven could make out that they were speaking to someone else. Was there a forth that he couldn't currently see? Shifting himself slightly to the side, he tried to see past them, but it was impossible from his current position. It seemed he would have to make his presence known. He was hesitant, given how many people reacted to him, but it had to be done. All he could hope was that these people didn't react negatively if they found out he was the Luminary.

Climbing to his feet, the teen took a hesitant step forward, but didn't dare open his mouth. He wasn't sure what to even say. As much as he wanted information, he was the most vocal person around. Besides, he was more curious as to whom this group was gathering around. Stepping to the side, he was finally able to see past the trio and see the one that stood behind the desk before them. He didn't appear so abnormal, though just looking at him gave Eleven an unsettling feeling.

Keeping those feelings to himself, the Luminary stayed quiet, deciding it was best to listen in and gather whatever information he could before speaking. Hopefully that didn't draw any negative attention towards himself as a result.

[Stealthlock]

Mu / Spo’ary (male) / Katalan / Form / Tags: Vivec, Kanohi, Zagreus, Kris, Peter, Patches, Eleven

Mu finally had the mech suit sit up. Nothing else, really. Now he had a better view of everyone lying around him, or standing above him.

They all looked mostly human. Some were some strange colors, though. The man standing up and shouting “What do you want!?” looked like two humans who were dipped in differently colored paint and then spliced together. Yeah, some of them liked their strange body markings, but he’d never seen it so extensive before!

A similar oddity applied to the young lady with bright green hair, assuming a pugnacious posture. Green hair! Do humans come with green hair sometimes? She seemed to have a lot of old injuries, though. Poor, poor thing.

A shorter human stood up, more normally colored. A young girl? Probably? He’d have to double-confirm.

The wide array of humans still prone on the floor begged even more questions. Sure, there were two adolescents who seemed fairly ordinary, one boy and one....with hair obscuring their eyes....gah, gender was hard. And if these, plus the standing one, were all children....it was too soon to tell, but this place didn’t feel like it was fit for children.
But on top of that, one larger and more....”shapey” man lacked upper clothing, save a red garment and some...odd platings of skulls??...Covering one shoulder.

Come to think of it, the man behind the desk didn’t look so ordinary, himself. He was also fairly shapey. But, the odd details didn’t stick out at first glance. Next to most of these other specimens, he looked comparatively unremarkable.

Mu would have assumed this was some kind of...self modification institution, except that the man had called them all “Assistant librarians”. And the only solid context clue was that, despite all their differences, despite the bizarre array of people here...they seemed to be as confused and incredulous as he was. So, they were all in this together, then.


“Assistant. Librarian?” 🤔 He enunciated. Then he continued, following his words with his hands.
“Sorry. Wrong. Person. I can’t. Read well. Still!” ☺️

[guar]

▹𝚉𝙰𝙶𝚁𝙴𝚄𝚂
❛❛xxwell, time to go get killed again.xx❜❜
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hadesxx·xx malexx·xx cthnonic god xx·xx tagged; all

There were two things that Prince Zagreus had noticed when he finally slipped back into consciousness. The splitting headache he felt and the distinctive smell of burning. Now, burning was nothing foreign to him considering both his feet and laurel were aflame at all times, but far too many mishaps in his Lord Hades’ administrative chamber on the off chance that there would be misplaced scrolls littered across the floor and unknown to the fire-stepping prince had taught him well to recognise the instance of burning papers. At any other time, Zagreus probably would have dismissed the disembodied voice that seemed to follow him about wherever he went, although useful at times such as when he informed him of his mother being alive and giving general trivial information about the underworld, he certainly did get on Zagreus’ nerves sometimes. There would be time to complain about that later, though, since, well, the storyteller was correct - there was something burning. With papers and writing supplies alike littered about, it was almost inevitable that something would catch alight due to his burning feet. Idle shuffling about in his sleep had just managed to land his foot on a stray piece of paper on the floor nearby. Thankfully enough the flame hadn’t been too large when Zagreus finally did come to, jolting up in a swift movement and making a wild attempt to stamp out the flame; eventually he realised that trying to put out a fire with what started it wasn’t the smartest idea, finally picking up the paper and hastily scrunching it up in his hands, holding it tight until the fire was completely extinguished.

Then the headache made a return. Zagreus nearly doubled-over at the sudden pang of pain that shot through his skull, “Nhg...gods...!” a strained gasp escaping his gritted teeth; that movement prompted him to drop the charred paper in favour of bringing his hands up to his head, pressing them against the side of his head as he willed the headache away. While he extinguished the flaming paper he had the chance to catch some sight of his surroundings and that was more than enough for him to realise this was not the House of Hades, nor was it anywhere in the underworld that he could remember. Recovery from the headache would, unfortunately, be short lived for our Prince of the Underworld for a far worse fate was to supersede it. With that in mind, Zagreus stiffened, maintaining that same position for a few seconds as he prepared for the oncoming pain that accompanied the styx taking him. That didn’t come, though. He continued to hear the chatter around him and once the headache subsided there was no other pain. That was odd. It certainly caught the storyteller by surprise too as he fumbled for the words in Zagreus’ mind. Ah-that fate was...soon to arrive. Any moment the Prince would be claimed by the river styx and plunged back into the depths of the underworld. By now he would have perished and returned to the pool of styx in the foyer of the House of Hades. Any moment now he would perish. “I don’t think that’s coming, old man.” The chthonic god spoke aloud, seemingly to himself, shaking his head and pushing a hand through his hair while he righted his posture, now taking the time to properly observe the new surroundings, eyes only briefly flicking over his company, preferring to figure out where he was before figuring out who he was with; they hadn’t tried to kill him yet, after all, so they were no concern of his.

Eventually he did turn his heterochromatic gaze onto those around him, they certainly were a mismatched group of oddities, that was obvious enough to the prince. The most eye-catching of the bunch was the most talkative, the fish encased in a glass ball attached to a metallic body. In all his fishing experience, Zagreus couldn’t pin-point the exact species it was so he dismissed it as some Earth fish he hadn’t encountered before. Why it was speaking was unclear but considering Zagreus knew barely anything about the world above the underworld, he didn’t dwell on it too much. Perhaps mortals liked their fish to speak? Next was the tall, scarred woman with an odd and mismatched set of armour - why would she choose to cover her left arm and right leg and not her entire body? Not to mention what he assumed was a bracer on her right arm. Next was the multicoloured man in the loincloth and armour more suited to battle, although their stomach was exposed - Zagreus supposed he was not worthy of criticising someone’s armour choices, though, since he himself hadn’t the most suitable garb for fighting; it was fine for him, though, since he didn’t really die, not for long at least. The man also appeared to look metallic so there were the chances of it being an entire suit of armour moulded to his body, but that brought more questions such as how he was able to move? Then came the boy in the brown and purple tunic who was the least strange looking of the bunch, there wasn’t much of note but the mark on the back of his hand did catch the god’s eye. The final figure appeared to be no more than a child, granted a strangely coloured one but once again, mortals were not a strong suit of Zagreus’.

Once he had his bearings, Zagreus considered his options, voting against summoning any of the infernal arms for the time being since there hadn’t been any attempts to attack him yet. That was a pleasant change of pace from the constant fight to the death with practically everything Zagreus encountered. Even vermin and satyrs hated him and they weren’t even hired by his father. Zagreus didn’t pay much mind to the words of the man in front of the book, there were more than enough responsibilities for him at home, he didn’t need to work at a library on top of that. He wasn’t known for being the most agreeable when it came to authority figures, after all. “Thank you for the warm welcome, mate,” Zagreus returned an equally as easy smile as he turned to face the man that referred to them as librarians, “but I think you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t remember applying for a position in a library.” A soft chuckle left him, though admittedly the whole situation had him unsettled. “So if you don’t mind pointing me towards the exit, I’ll be out of your-” Huh. No hair. That’s awkward. “-er...hands.” The prince finally finished.

[InfectedHau]

Kanohi||Female||Elf||Tagged: Everyone

The others had started to wake up, which gave Kanohi the opportunity to look each of them over. Street Samurai with a shield, odd choice but she wasn't really one to judge. Another elf, with body mods that pushed well past 'tacky' and started straying into 'grotesque', and a guy who... well, maybe he was overdoing it a bit too, but honestly it worked for him. Maybe she could get his contact info once she was done here.

The water spirit spoke up again, a single sentence in broken English that was very worrying. With a flick of her wrist, the runner activated her drone link, training Yanggu and Yanling's barrels on the yellow mech. "You sure you got that thing on a leash?" She asked the butler-looking guy, glad she still remembered her own English. "Don't think it's too happy about it's new home." Shame Scratch wasn't here, he was way better with spirits than she was. Even if the cyberware hadn't sucked most of the magic out of her, the Eagle Totem preferred to hunt alone.