[54]

[buildstherobots]

[Phone call! To the whole town! Except the drones and the usual meddling authority figures. The call is in a moderately hushed tone, but he's easily understandable.]

So, I see that there are many new people, and you may count yourselves as lucky as you can in this place because Dist the Rose is here to take care of you all. I'm sure you've been informed as to the basics of Mayfield, but I've put together a lovely little primer for just this kind of occasion, giving you all of the details you need to bring you fully up to speed, including the most important things that have been inflicted upon us since the first of us can remember arriving here. If you would like to be informed, then come to the library to pick up a copy. If you can't find it, ask any drone where it is, they'll be able to tell you. Look for a gorgeous man with pale hair; someone as extraordinary as myself will stand out.

[And, just a little louder but no so much so that he's quite up to normal talking level.]

And be sure to pick up your free library card! Knowledge is power and all that.

[action]

[And there Dist will be, flitting about, stacking things and shelving things and generally keeping himself busy. He'll also be available to assist anyone who just so happens to be in the library themselves, though every so often he'll have to stop and sit to rest a bit, possibly get down a granola bar outside the view of the head librarian. He can't fit his chair through the door, let alone down the aisles of books, so he's walking everywhere and carrying things and with his condition this tires him out quickly.]

Comments

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

[She sighs and shakes her head.]

"Physics? Astronomy? Experimental mathematics? None of that I suspect either. How sad."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

...Come do an experiment with me.

[He pulls a stapled couple of sheets of paper out from under the counter and hands it over, then gestures back to the shelves.]

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

[She shrugged, still looking a bit distant. Then looked over the paper.]

"Certainly."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[It's his letter! (http://buildstherobots.livejournal.com/12857.html) He leads the girl through the stacks to his favorite section, the one about cars and general engine care and construction. She, of course, would see gender-appropriate things, but he's been able to see... well, all sorts of subjects ever since getting hired, which strikes him as odd. He gestures to the shelves.]

What do you see?

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"The joys of cooking. Several books on sewing and other similar handcrafts. A few books on gardening. Nothing useful though, why?"

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

Because I see books on automotive repair. The cooking and crafts sections are on the other side of the library.

[He pulls one down - something about needlepoint - and turns to go back to the front counter.]

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"Hrm.... Interesting. Perhaps there are some sort of nanobots in the water that make us see what the town deems we should see."

[She sighs a bit and follows Dist.]

"I wish Omoikane were here with me, the two of us could properly analyze this."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

I see everything that's to find in here, since I got this job. Usually, though, Mayfield doesn't like us to go outside gender norms. Ah... you don't have a card.

[He pulls out a form and hands it over.]

Fill this out for me. I'm going to try something else.

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"All right. Should I use my real name, or the name the town gave me?"

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

Use the name the town gave you; it might not recognize anything else...

[Though, now that he thinks about it... why not? He'd have to keep this girl around; clearly she inspires good ideas.

He pulls out his own form, quickly filling out a form and a card for a Mr. Evan Olney. A flip through a phonebook kept conveniently under the counter gives him the address for the police station and he wings the rest of the information, filing the paper away and pocketing the card for himself.

Not that he has seen anything useful in the library so far, but the paranoid in him wants to be able to check things out without using his own name just in case he does.]

I'm going to see what happens when I check something out in your name versus mine. The book has to set somehow.

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

[She fills out the form for Ruri Pilgrim and hands it over]

"All right. To see if its based on the card or based on the perception of the person I would assume."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[Naturally, he has his own information, so he pulls the register out of the inside cover of the book, fills out his information, puts it back, and closes the cover. That done, he slides the book across the counter to Ruri; to the girl's eyes, the cover will have changed over to the book he sees, rather than the needlepoint manual that it was before.]

Now?

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"The book changed. Its not needlepoint anymore."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[Iiiinteresting. Dist "returns" the book, then goes through the same process with Ruri's information. When he flips the cover closed, he's staring at a cheerful pastel book-cover - definitely not the one he'd seen before.]

Well, that's...

[Actually kind of pointless, but interesting nonetheless.]

So it's not only the authority figures who have the ability to manipulate the reality here. You just have to work inside their ridiculous system.

[Dammit. Subtlety is not something Dist enjoys; he'd much rather just knock over buildings. But, what other choice is there?]

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"Hrm.... So what you are saying basically is... If you have the Mayor's library card, you can get just about any book under the sun, but if you have mine, its all pastels and posies. Interesting. I wonder what the books actually are."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

I couldn't say. I see all the books that are here; if I were the mayor, I'd keep my important books behind triple-reinforced fonic-locked steel doors behind an army of my best robots, not sitting out on shelves in public, hidden or not.

[Now that he thinks about it, he'd make a pretty damn good mayor.]

But it can be manipulated, and manipulated by us. It's more than the library; we just have to figure out how to take it out of here.

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"However, what about your only kind of important books? I would imagine that all those locks and robots would attract quite a bit of attention. That coupled with the way the town wants us to think nothing is wrong may lead to some rather interesting reality loopholes."

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

It's worth examining. But if you have something precious, wouldn't you want to make sure it's protected even if someone knows where it is?

[hontobakabaka.livejournal.com]

"This is protected though. Hubris can frequently be the greatest downfall of man."