citylogs | ( closed ) i'm at the librarian meeting. i'm at the bowling alley party.

Entry tags:

( closed ) i'm at the librarian meeting. i'm at the bowling alley party.

WHO: Miss Boss Lady & her employees (Angela, and Roland, Gebura, Netzach, Yesod)
WHAT: A fun and friendly work party........
WHERE: A bowling alley, just some regular one in District 2
WHEN: Early September (wiggles hands)
WARNINGS: Library of Ruina spoilers, probably.

( Angela technically put the onus on Roland to invite everyone bowling, mostly because she didn't think any of them would want to go with her—so he's probably responsible for gathering them all... but she's responsible for getting there early, despite also telling him "tell me when you go bowling". Her managerial talents just can't leave well enough alone—

Anyway, there's bowling (obviously), so go bowl. She's also been helpful and put out all available food on the counters and tables here, so go crazy. And... for drinks, there's the regular water and soda and such, but there's also several bottles of champagne and matching flutes for it.

She's also taken some CDs and a stereo from one of the shops around the city, so instead of just eerie silence or whatever, there's music. She just grabbed whatever she could find. Don't judge her.

... ... ... ... ...

Anyway, have fun. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fine, fine...

[he's going to need this drink, man.]

Is this about what that guy was saying about the Library?

[the way he's met verg twice and just doesn't know his name]

( BOY...... )

...In no small part, yes. I've been doing some thinking since speaking with both him and Don Quixote. ( a beat. just in case netz also did NOT get her name— ) That would be the hostess of the party last month.

( isn't she nice? she's so fucking nice to you, netzach. )

"That guy" is a Color named Vergilius, for the record. Remember it for the next time you speak to him.

Well, he didn't exactly pause to introduce himself after he picked me up and kept shaking me.

[doesn't he know not to do that to a drunk man? color or not, he was like, this close to being sick on him. also, rude.]

I know Don's name. We've talked a little.

( hmmm. verg loses half a point in her book for manhandling her people. she'll have to ask him not to do that next time, seeing as she hasn't done anything to his. despite all the ample opportunities and valid reasons to do so. )

...Alright. Regardless, he mentioned something to me I found very interesting—that people we previously booked are back out, free in the City. ( "very interesting" is angela-ese for "concerning", in this context. ) There's only two ways this could have come about.

One: I'm dead. ( putting the worst one first. ) Or two, I decided to let them go.

( ... )

I suppose there's technically a third, which is "my being here now is affecting how the Library works somehow". This does seem reasonable enough of a theory, I admit.

( her preferred one actually, because then she is neither dead NOR choosing to give up on her dreams. )

They're-- back out?

[that could be a very bad sign for the library, sure, but there's... a measure of something almost relieved in his voice. all the people they had to kill, put into books and stored on shelves that were something like a graveyard-- maybe it's not permanent.

maybe there's a way for all of us to live, he'd told her. he still hopes for it.]

...I think there might be a fourth option, but it could just be related to one of the other ones too. He told me what happened to the Library, or... I guess what will happen to it, for us.

[this timeline thing is exhausting.]

( the relief doesn't go unnoticed, but considering who is in those books, she's not exactly thrilled about the idea. )

And why it's spoken of in passing, rather than as an ever-present threat?

( don mentioned something like that. a former star, rather than a reigning one. all that work... )

Yeah.

[listen, he gets it on some counts. he's not thrilled at the idea of certain people let loose again-- like those musicians and their 'art' that took lives to create, including their own. even so...

...he moves on, after a second.]

But it still exists, at least. He said the Head came after us after all the problems the Library caused. Banished it all to the Outskirts.

[removed from its position-- but present.]

( how did she survive that? no, she must have been strong enough—it would certainly be impossible, at her full strength, at her brightest, at her most resigned of how things must be now with the choices she made...

banished, though? angela will get herself a cup of cola to nurse while she's being quiet, thinking it over. as if it's the action that's occupying her and not her thoughts before she speaks. )

...That's good. ( the outskirts or in the city, it doesn't matter. she'll be alone either way, right? she can't even step outside with everyone (her abnormalities) because she's afraid they won't last out there. inside the library, wherever it might be... that's fine. as long as they're all (her, and her abnormalities) are safe, that's fine. ) On a personal level, he's mostly angry about people being out because of The Purple Tear.

( if you kill them ensure they stay killed etc. this is funny given his own fucking company but )

I... have some concerns regarding certain Colors being out as well, but Vergilius hadn't heard of them being around the City yet. Perhaps they're coming back out-of-order, or maybe they were taken care of quickly and quietly. ( it still doesn't settle with her. why would moving to the outskirts mean people would show back up? her death or her choice, it has to be... ) Anyway, that's about all I could fi... I mean, think of. For why this could be happening with my Library, and so on.

( ...

as ever, angela's holding back on information. )

Edited 2023-09-04 21:36 (UTC)

I don't know either, but it's not like this kind of thing is my strong suit anyway.

[he's not a strategist or a planner, or a detective or anything. the reasons behind all of it aren't something he's developed any insight into.

but there are other aspects of it, like:]

He said the company he works for has been digging around in what's left of L Corp's facilities, too. That they've been running into Abnormalities down there.

( ...but they should have been— )

She didn't say anything about that. ( a soft mumble, then louder. ) Yes, evidently they're using people to find something left behind there—people who "resonate" with it. What "it" is, as you might expect, is confidential.

... but whatever it is, it can't be good, right? Anything they're after down there-- it's probably something nobody should be messing with.

[ After Angela's summoning them for serious meeting time with her ringtone in place of a snap of her fingers, Yesod — sensible glass of regular water in hand (for now???) — has been quiet to listen to the exchange between her and Netzach. That understandable note of surprised relief in Netzach's voice, Angela's concerns that refer to things that aren't part of Yesod's own recollection... Angela's odd self-correction.

He volunteers some thoughts now. ]

If the Library remains intact in the Outskirts, in a future that none of us can personally confirm, I suppose it corroborates the possibility that we currently exist here as copies of ourselves, preserving certain previous points in time.

[ But Why. There is still no explanation for something that can't have been arbitrary. ]

It does seem unlikely that we have all perished by then in order for the Library's former guests to be released. I would assume that there would be little left of it to banish, let alone persist, if that were the case.

( JUST LIKE W. CORP! she hates w. corp. )

...I suppose. ( the library only actually needs one of them to be alive, but she'll wisely not point that out. ) Speaking of points in time, I'd like to confirm what each of us remembers last.

For me, Gebura and I have similar memories: dealing with the Blue Reverberation and his ensemble.

[ Yes, fuck W Corp. Fuck all suffering-fueled everything... But hmm, that might put Gebura and Angela ahead of everyone, without facing any imminent banishment just yet. ]

I believe mine are not far behind what Roland recalls.

[ Netzach mentioning finishing a reception and taking a nap could have happened at any point, so Yesod won't bring that up. ]

We'd just finished dealing with the Liu and that Index Messenger, for me.

[he's helping.]

[ Netzach is helping; Yesod nods to confirm that these are matching memories. ]

...We'd just reached Impurity status. Gonna fight the Hana next.

[ he's squinting at angela's chosen point in time, but he's not gonna bring that up. that ain't his business --

but also, all this talk about different points in time and what vergilius told him has made roland think lately of a certain possibility. ]

Oh, that reminds me of something. Been talking to someone who's kind of an expert on the subject, but have you guys ever considered the idea of... you know. Alternate universes?

The Hana? Really...? Well, I guess if the Head is eventually coming after us, it makes sense...

[still-- it sounds like things are going to get very complicated later. sounds like an awful lot of work he's not going to like.]

Considered it in what sense?

(no subject)

gradenine - 2023-09-10 10:03 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

abstractart - 2023-09-10 21:34 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

gradenine - 2023-09-13 05:54 (UTC) - Expand

[ don't mind roland, he's doing his best in being amicable enough to come in the first place. while he did tell angela about gathering all of them to play bowling, there's still the elephant-shaped abnormality in the room that only him and her are aware of, and the fact that he has to act like nothing has happened between them is... whew!

but yeah, he is listening, and it's been one revelation after another. he sips his soda and straightens his back in his seat. ]

I'll add more deets regarding the Purple Tear and why Vergilius was pissed at her. You guys remember Tomerry, right?

[ who doesn't remember their good-ol' friend tomerry????? ]

They got out of the Library, too. Vergilius said that the Purple Tear released them into the wild, but the way I see it, she's the one who lured Tomerry somewhere where she wanted Vergilius to be.

Namely, the orphanage he was looking after. [ he lowers his gaze. ] The kids inside died from Tomerry's rampage.

[ah...

he doesn't say anything at first, but he does close his eyes and take a longer sip from his drink. as much as it's a relief to think that some of the people they booked were freed, there are some that he's a little less sure about, and hearing that...

there was no saving those two, was there, if they were released from the library still in that form.]

...if it was like that, she'd have found some other way if she couldn't use Tomerry for it. But we should've...

[they probably should have done something, right? not just-- let them go like that?]

-if we make it back, we'll know, right? That it's going to happen.

If we make it back. And some people here said that the ones who went missing here might've found their home, but...

[ gestures weakly. yeah, he got nothing. ]

Never mind that now. We gotta figure out why the Library can even let go of people like that. 'Cause we thought that anyone who gets booked just straight-up dies, right?

( .........

right, well. it isn't as if they're in the library anymore, so fine. )

They don't die.

( at least she doesn't sound like thinking so was a stupid thing, considering she never implied otherwise. of course they thought they were killing them... people from the outside, anyway. she's sure it's different for the sephirah, who were already bound to books by her hand. )

Upon signing the invitation, guests are quantized and copied by The Library to prepare them for becoming books. While they might die in The Library, they don't die completely—rather, their memories and knowledge become ours, while they themselves enter an eternal slumber.

( a beat. )

Or I suppose just a "slumber", seeing as it isn't as eternal as believed. ( so... there. ) I'd say they're essentially good as dead, seeing as none of them were supposed to leave The Library once they entered, but no: technically speaking, on a quantum level, they are not "dead".

( that's that. )

(no subject)

abstractart - 2023-09-10 21:35 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

worldexecute - 2023-09-10 23:37 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

gradenine - 2023-09-13 05:25 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

worldexecute - 2023-09-13 05:41 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

wordchain - 2023-09-18 00:27 (UTC) - Expand

( Oh.

...It really is usually her fault, isn't it. Angela stares pensively into her cup, then sets it aside. )

Is Tomerry still alive, or did he take care of them?

He didn't say. I wanna believe that he took them down on his own, but at the same time, fighting Tomerry wasn't that easy. So who knows.

[ he might ask verg again. might open more wounds, but verg is a big boy. he can handle a few more of that. ]

( mmm. )

I suppose I have something to speak with him on next time I see him then.

( don't worry bestie she's got this. )