central_librarylogs | The 9th Hour... (Phase 1: Sept-Oct Event)

Entry tags:

The 9th Hour... (Phase 1: Sept-Oct Event)

The cold presence is seeping in through the dark shadows. The darkness is reaching further, brushing the minds of the patrons and opening doors to dimensions that should not be open. Something wants in. But in the Central Library, there are ways to get through without crossing entirely… through your dreams. Among other things.

Pick one of the options below and make a post for other patrons to join you in the events. You may make up your own, but keep it matching the event at hand as the different phases of the event will progressively get worse.

1. Your dreams are getting dangerous, violent even. When you wake up, there are bruises and injuries that shouldn’t be there. What is going on? Why are your dreams becoming a reality little by little? And why is it getting so hard to wake up?

2. Things are shifting in the Library. The shadows are moving and the temperatures are starting to drop. There are cold spots that sometimes get colder and sometimes it feels like if you turn around, you’ll find someone right behind you.

3. The monsters are looking a bit more frantic and daring to come closer to the center of the Library where they normally will not tread. It seems you aren’t the only ones scared of the dark recesses any longer.

4. The Market is now a lovely little faire of the early Renaissance with all sorts of fresh grain, fruits and vegetables! It is a brilliant sight, but it seems the ominous plague masks they don still gives a foreboding feeling of the miasma that killed over two-thirds of the world’s population… Perhaps you shouldn’t wander very far.

5. New areas are now opened up. A blacksmith and workshop for the tinkers has been created. You might want to look or contribute... You might also want to stop in the new bath area. The large pool has a Grecian feel and all of the walls are made of crystalline glass where the stars are always shining with a different universe in constant succession.

6. Wild Card: Make up your own scenario. Just remember that all of the things above are happening. Things are getting foreboding and growing stronger by the day. Sleep will be a luxury you might not have… You may not see what’s coming, not yet. But you know it’s coming.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Bruce relaxed in the hot water with a soft moan. The water felt so good on his aching body. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately and he was hoping the heat would relax him enough he wouldn't dream. He wasn't sure it was going to work. He slowly drifted off leaning his head back on the head rest.

Bob sat on the shelves above the baths and watching everyone relax. Something was nagging at him. He didn't want to scan people's auras without asking, but he wasn't happy which was a rare thing for Bob. "Something is weird at the Library," he mutters to himself, "and not the normal kind of weird either."

"It's always weird at the Library." But usually not the type of weird that Alec has seen lately. It's been... unsettling. Which is something to worry about when he lived with a warlock and hunted demons. The fact that he's naked at a bath and still carrying one of his daggers is telling. "But something's going on that isn't normal for the Library."

She frowned as he slipped into a chorus of No's, already figuring he'd say that. She wasn't really worried about it though, she could find a needle and thread for it. Reach into the right medical journal or something.

"Okay, it's all right. I can do it for you, love. Let's just get it to stop bleeding a bit." She said as calmly as she could, and he barely had to ask he to hold him, and she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around him, kneeling beside him and making sure she was a protective blanket around him. She could feel the sore aches in her body from fights in her past, or not even in her real past, but it was nothing compared to this.

"You never asked no one then because I wasn't there. Which I wish I was. I'm here now though. Let's... not go back to sleep."

He doesn't ache. He bleeds. And all he wants is to make others bleed in return. The anger around him is palpable. He growls, quieted like a wolf before leaning his head against her shoulder,swooning.

"I'm supposed to be the one protecting you."

But it's gentle and warm and he leans against her.

"...Only thing I'd know how to do is...grab the librarian and force him to talk."

"You have to allow me to protect you once in a while if you want to make this work. I don't want to feel helpless." She said softly, her arms wrapping around his head and shoulders, leaning into him a bit to hold him firmly. She kissed the top of his head, wanting him to calm down.

Where she wanted to be here to help, he wanted to be here for her. His anger is strong, and she knows it. Still, she wants to help him be Grant again.

"I'll go find him. After a bit. it can wait a moment. But we don't need to force him to talk. He's really a good being, I think. We start with asking, okay?" She said with a nuzzle into his ear and cheek, a pressed kiss. She's learned and managed, maybe he will relearn as well, after some time.

She intends to go looking for the Librarian in a bit. On her own.

"I love you so much." He leaned into her touch, her embrace, "I'll trust you. I-" He stares at his hands and then back at her with something, "....You lead the fort. Fight. Fight after we get my arms sewn up and I'll... I'll trust you."

He moves to stand and staggers.

"...woof."

She moved with him as he stood, frowning. "Oh no, You sit back down." She ordered, taking his upper arm as he staggered, trying to sit him back on the edge of the bed. "Sit, fists up. I'm going to go find supplies. Don't you dare move from here. You got me?"

time for tiny Kara to be authoritative. Follow her instructions for a change.

Nightmares were not uncommon for him; he had seen and done a lot of things to haunt his sleep. He knew what destruction looked like, sounded like. He knew what burning flesh smelled like, both at his hands and the hands of his fellow airmen. He knew what it was like to watch people die. Every morning, just before sun-up, he'd come back to the Airman, covered head to toe in soot and ash, and had scrubbed himself until his skin was pink, but he'd still gone to bed smelling like fires and dragonmetal.

Here, the scent was starting to fade, and he found that he actually missed it. The smell of dragonmetal was the closest he could get to being with his girl again, and without it he felt even farther from home. He tried to be the man his family had wanted him to be, and the soldier the Dragon Corps had shaped him to be, but the truth was he was lonely and a little scared.

Maybe the stress was why his nightmares suddenly grew worse. Amery dreamed of fire and explosions and death, of falling from his dragon over and over, landing on mountain peaks and- He woke with a strangled gasp. It was hard to get his eyes open, but he was used to waking at all hours of the night and day at the drop of a hat, and he forced himself to sit up. His back ached as he did, and he reached around to touch it, but that only made it hurt worse. The back of his head throbbed, and when he rolled his sleeves up, his arms were scraped and bruised.

He couldn't twist around far enough to see his back properly, even with a mirror, so he set out, barefoot and with his shirt untucked and half-unbuttoned, to find someone he could ask for help. Under normal circumstances, he strongly disliked having to ask anyone for anything, but this was something of a unique situation. "Excuse me." His Volstovic accent, something akin to a find blend of Russian and French, was a little on the heavy side, but proper all the same and not hard to understand.

Sebastian was absolutely sure he had been born with a genetic defect directly related to blushing because it happened so often and sometimes to an embarrassing extreme. Add that to the fact he was an excellent swimmer, but was currently flailing a bit trying to get his feet back under him, he imagined he looked like a drowning tomato. Was it possible to spontaneously combust while submerged in water?

"Alec!"

Sebastian stood the moment he could only to instantly remember he was naked. Water didn't do much for hiding. Hiding his nudity, his embarrassment, the cut and bruises. Nothing. But neither was Alec hiding and it was the perfect distraction from his own situation. The marks were mesmerizing. But it was the set of angry red lines that made him almost forget completely his modesty.

"What are those? Alec are you hurt?"

That might be the brightest blush that Alec has ever seen but he acted like it was perfectly normal. Maybe it was for Sebastian. The flailing caused him to arch an eyebrow upward as he considered whether or not he'd have to save Sebastian from drowning. It looked like it wasn't dangerous. Just embarrassment like the way he'd fallen down the stairs after his first date with Magnus.

"Hi, Sebastian." Watching his friend, Alec tried to figure out if he should leave or not. He still wasn't used to being social except with his small group of friends.

Knowing how embarrassed Sebastian was, Alec kept his gaze from drifting lower than his face. He was concentrating on that so much that at first didn't realize what Sebastian meant. "My Runes?" No. Those would look like tattoos not wounds. Then he remembered the dream and the claw marks he'd woken up to. "I was hurt a few months ago. I dreamed about the demon that attacked me and and woke up with them."

He shrugged, not really noticing how the mostly healed wounds pulled. An iratze had dealt with most of it but the claw marks wouldn't heal completely. "They look worse than they really are."

Nighttime meant that Alec usually was awake and patrolling the Library. He trusted the Librarian to keep them safe overall but things could sneak up on people. And he had sworn an oath to protect others. Being at the Library didn't change that. But at least there weren't demons around...he thought.

Occasionally, Alec caught sight of shadowy creatures that he couldn't identify. Not things from the Codex or Magnus' books on magic. Things that were new and Alec was wary of. Which was why he was dressed in full gear, leather armor and heavy boots. He carried a variety of blades and his favorite bow was in hand with his quiver slung onto his back.

When he saw Kara, he frowned. She looked different than she had when they'd been in Yellowstone but he wasn't sure what was off until he was close enough to see the black eye. At least he didn't make certain assumptions as he moved closer. "Did one of those shadow things do that to you?"

Sebastian wasn't sure what it meant, but he knew it wasn't normal to wake up physically injured. Dreams weren't real and neither were nightmares. Even if sometimes they felt very real. He'd been living one for over a year now. So maybe it was possible. Especially here.

He really did not like the idea that the next time he went to sleep this could happen again. He felt sick just thinking about it. Or maybe it was way Christian Scott had bounced his head off his fist and a window.

"They look painful." He tried not to focus on how painful they really did look. They made him want to bandage Alec up or something. Maybe Demon hunters didn't feel pain the same way? But the runes were beautiful. "And your...runes? Did they hurt?"

The dreams worried Alec but since he hadn't woken up poisoned as well as injured, he wasn't as worried as he could be. Some kind of magic was working through the Library and since they didn't know what was normal, this might be part of living in the place. Compared to some of the things that could be possible, nightmare related injuries aren't that bad to him.

"They were. Not as bad as when I first got them. The wound was poisoned. It's normally fatal but Magnus saved me." That had given Alec a whole new scale of pain levels to compare injuries too. Sitting down near the edge of the bath, he shrugged. "The runes hurt but it's temporary. It's part of being what I am. Shadowhunters get used to it when we're children."

He keeps his hands up above his heart and it's a testament - a testament to his control that he doesn't roll over heaving his guts out and what remains of the little food he's eaten. Instead he sits, staring at the wall and he won't respond until she comes back.

"...It was the running into walls that really did it. I mean that was...that was me at the end of my rope."

There didn't seem to be variations of their childhood selves or any other creatures nearby but Steve couldn't really relax. He'd seen something that should have been impossible. But it had been part of their childhood. He recognized the boy who had always defended him while he was growing up and the skinny blond had to be Steve.

"I thought I saw us when we were kids. You holding me back like you always did." He couldn't help grinning at that. Bucky had always had to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him away so he didn't get into more trouble. "I told you that you were always protecting me back then."

Pausing, he turned a slow circle, checking for more of the creatures while still thinking of the past. "I never knew when to keep my mouth shut. I was always defending someone's honor or standing up to the bullies in our neighborhood. They probably would've killed me if you hadn't been there to watch my back."

Unlike Alec, she wasn't dressed in armor or anything so fancy, then again all her battles tended to be civilian clothing or a vest, so she was used to this. She at least had boots on with her pants tucked into the tops this time, instead of wandering around bare footed. That was a plus, right?

She did however carry a knife with her, at her hip. So it wasn't like she was defenceless out here, but it surprised her that 'out here' wasn't all that far and she was still catching things in the corner of her eyes. Which had her a bit spooked, for the moment.

Spooked enough that when she heard the foot steps of someone coming she had to fight not to jump a foot above ground. Which, thankfully, she was good at, so at first she just glared at the man, but then... relaxed, letting out a sigh as she saw it was just Alec.

Asking if a shadow did that to her.

She raised a hand to her scarred face. While IN the library she was still a scarred mess, as her mask didn't actually WORK in here. Out in Yellowstone her face had been smooth as it should be. So her fingers ran over burn scars, frowning a moment. Had he meant this? Or... no, he had seen her before going into Yellowstone, so that can't be it. "The black eye?" She asked, touching the tender spot under her eye and frowning. She had other black and blue marks over her body, but they were all hidden except for the small split in her lip.

Shaking her head she lowered her hand, coming closer to the other and stopping a conversational distance. "No, I think I might have done it in my sleep. Or at least woke up this way." But 'in her sleep' didn't explain Grant's wrists. She wanted to find the Librarians to ask questions. Something is a mess.

"Shadows though, you've been seeing them too?"

She's worried. Really worried, but she watches him a moment, then takes off, looking for things she's collected before. She has a stash hidden here and there, and before long she returns with some things she's gotten before.

Coming to the bed side again she dropped a few things off, as well as bandages and... a small white cardboard box of cookies and two oranges. She sits those to the side and knees on the bed beside him.

She hurts. There are aches and pains all over, but he wont notice. He wont notice because she's very good at hiding her pains. Or tries to be. She instead works on him.

She moves to take one of his hands, bringing it to her and slowly, slowly, unwrapping it. "That was the past, Grant. They messed with you so badly, love, but that was the past. No more walls. No more rope."

She started to clean it.

There's something comforting about her hands, he takes pride in them. He helped her get better and now she's helping him. No more leaving things behind. No more killing things callously.

"...and I helped you."

He needs to know he did that.

He stood there, staring at Steve like he was unsure. Had he really seen all that? It was in his head, he was sure of that. He saw the MEMORIES in his HEAD, and a figure... and a monster... in reality. Didn't he?

He frowned sharply at this, glaring off around the room. It was cold enough for a moment to see his breath, and that was also weird. He started to step away from the cold spot, and closer to the blond as he spoke about their childhood.

Things that Bucky was starting to see. To remember. Small things that fell into line.

"Was that something I remembered, or was that something we saw and I think I remembered." because if it was just an illusion or something in the hall way here, then maybe it wasn't an actual memory. "Someone was swinging to hit me, then this small blond kid came flying in to tackle the guy." His eyes squinted a bit as he stares at Rogers. His former target.

"Feels like something I was there for..." But if it was an illusion that Rogers could see too, then perhaps it wasn't real.

There are things in the library stalking people. Shadows. Creatures coming closer and closer. There are new locations too, which is something he had to look into. Which is where he was wandering now. Or was trying to.

Dressed mostly in black, his metal arm hidden by a olive green coat, he walked and patrolled, looking for more creatures that could bother those trying to rest, if rest could be received at all. He's hearing about people having bad dreams. He's not interested in sleep himself.

As he was walking past he paused as he heard the thick accent say Excuse me. Pausing he glanced back and froze. His brows narrowed a bit and he took a step backwards, hands in his pockets and looking over the guy. Young looking, bruised up a bit, but he can't help but stare. Excuse you indeed, you have a very familiar face.

I'm sorry, he doesn't actually say anything, he just stares for the moment.

She looked up to him as he said that. She knows that tone. The statement. He's looking for reassurance. She'd used that tone often as well, when needing reassurance.

She nodded, going back to work, cleaning his first wrist off. "You helped me. When no one else would. Now it's my turn, okay?"

She reached over and took out a cookie, moving to place it in his other hand that she wasn't working on. "Eat this. It will help a bit." She then smiled, faintly. "Me and a cookie. We will help." When she was sure the bleeding was taken care of as well as she could, pressure to keep it closed, she would start the stitches. She's done this a few times before now. "This will pinch..."

That was alright; Amery had experienced worse from people, and honestly, staring was a pretty appropriate response. He drew back quickly himself, taking a few steps back. This was not what he'd been expecting when he went out looking for someone to take a look at something for him.

"Bastion," he swore under his breath, his eyes widening. He thought a lack of manners could be forgiven in a situation such as this. This man had his face (his body?) but there were a lot of things that were different, too. He looked a little older, perhaps, not that Amery was a boy at twenty-five, but.

Attempting to compose himself, he combed his fingers through his hair and straightened up a little. "Ah. Forgive me; I was merely startled."

There were differences, sure, but the structure was there. Bucky has only been getting some faint memories of his younger days, and even then they weren't clear yet. His hair as longer out of the to, currently held back in a pony tail. His build might be a bit different, might not, as it as hard to tell in this coat, but... None the less, it was uncanny how alike the two of them looked.

He moved more to face the other, eyes narrowed and carefully watching. Was this another figment of his mind? Another figure that shouldn't be there. He spoke though, in an accent no less. For a moment he didn't say anything but watched, which, you know, seems pretty weird, right? Did the shadowy figures talk before? He was sure that last one was all in his head though, so he's not sure.

Crap.

"I could say the same." He said on a flat tone, wanting to reach out and prod the other, just to make sure it was real and not a fluke. "It's not safe out here."

"It's not?" Amery blinked, taking a quick look around. Had he missed something, in between all of his nightmares? He hadn't seen any trouble since wandering around, but he could have just gotten lucky. Clearing his throat, he looked back at Bucky, doing his best not to stare, no matter how hard that was.

It would feel incredibly awkward now to ask a stranger with his face to take a look at his back, no matter how badly it hurt, so he shelved the idea for the time being. "Is something going on?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 2 of 14

The 9th Hour... (Phase 1: Sept-Oct Event)

Bruce Banner l At the Baths

Harry the Skull l The Baths

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

One

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject