Chapter Text
September 1st of 2023, 8:00 AM (UTC)
Another day in the library. Even though there is no real sun in this place, days and weeks and years still cycle around in this place, closely oriented to the daylight cycle of the real world. The sky shines a bright, clear blue in the morning, for all of the library characters to see. The seasonal cycle is based on the real world as well, and right now it is late summer. Though, now something else lies in the sky for all of the characters to see.
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An array of giant, fiery numbers. Numbers that count down. They are counting down time.
74:20:59:59
74:20:59:58
74:20:59:57
…and so on.
Everyone that is able to see these numbers, does so with great confusion. What do these numbers mean? What happens when the countdown hits zero? Who put it there? What did the puppets do this time? Why is the sky blue in the first place? Only a short while later, the puppets, Pharrah and Noya, call all of the library’s fairy tale protagonists to a large and round room of the library, filled with books in the walls and a huge round table in the center of the room. The room has one wide rectangular window, which allows a view to the outside of the remaining library, and also the dreaded countdown.
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Alice. Snow White. Cinderella. Red Riding Hood. Pinocchio. Gretel (or Hansel?). Princess Kaguya. Sleeping Beauty. The Three Little Pigs. The Little Mermaid. Dorothy. Rapunzel. Aladdin. Little Match Girl. Hamelin. And even the Nutcracker. All of them, united around a singular wooden table, seated at their chairs. Sitting in anticipation and confusion. Mumbling between the characters occurs.
“A big countdown… for what though…?”
“These puppets must be plotting something…”
“I want to go back to sleep…”
“The sky looks tainted with these numbers! It’s repulsing!”
“These numbers… I want to see what happens when it goes to zero!”
And in the center of the table, the two puppets hang from the ceiling with their strings. Both clap with their hands to silence the entire room so that they can speak instead. The white one begins the speech of the end. “I welcome everyone to this… emergency meeting, you could say.”
The black one continues speaking. “Today, we must share something truly tragic.” The puppets switch speaking between each other repeatedly.“You all surely noticed the big countdown in the skies of every story, haven’t you?” The entire room of characters nod in unison. “Course’ we did.", Cinderella announces. “...It’s in the fucking sky.” Snow White, the woman sitting next to the aggressive Cinderella whispers something to her, likely telling her to quiet down. The others comment on this too.
“That’s a stupid question.”
“Yeah, you don’t even need to pay to see it.”
“You couldn’t miss it.”
“And it disturbed my sleep…”
“It’s an ugly stain in the sky. It should be gone.”
The puppets clap their hands together again in order to make the characters quiet down again. “If we may continue speaking…”, the white puppet speaks again. “...We have very, very bad news.”
“...Actually, are you sure you actually want to hear it? It’s pretty bad.”, the black puppet warns.
The atmosphere inside the small building is tense. What bad news could they possibly have? What could happen when the countdown hits zero? Worry and nervosity is spread across the table. But after a short moment of silence and exchanging gazes with each other, they agree and let Alice speak it out. “Yes, please tell us.”, Alice says, speaking for the entire table.
“Well… we warned you."
“Also, don’t share this with anyone else other than everyone present here, lest we cause absolute anarchy to wreak havoc inside of the stories.”
“But here goes.”
“It has been a nice time with all of you lunatics.”
“However…” The white puppet pauses. “We are afraid to tell you…”
“That it will soon have an end.”
“When this countdown hits zero…”
“The Library ends. It will die.”
“Everyone and everything within it… will cease to exist.”
"We. You. The countless stories.” The countless books. They will all cease to exist.”
“This countdown tells us how much time we have left here.”
Most of the characters attending are in shock.
As soon as the puppets had finished their speech, the entire table errupts into chaos.
“What? The end?!”
“That can’t be true!”
“But I want to keep playing!”
“Someone… save us.”
“Money can solve this… surely.”
“Beauty really is… fleeting.”
“What… it can’t… be.”
“No… I need to be… with brother..”
“Wonderfully miserable.”
“If it means I can sleep forever… it doesn’t sound bad at all.”
“...”
Cries, shouts and mumbling could be heard from everyone. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance fills everyone.
“You puppets… Why have you done this?!” Snow White screams extraordinarily loudly in between everyone's mumblings.
“This time… we actually have not done a thing.”, the black puppet speaks. The table goes quiet again.
“We are at the whims of gods who want to erase our world.”
“Bullshit. This place couldn’t have a god, let alone several.”, Cinderella attempts to correct. The puppets continue to speak, now in an upset tone.
“The gods who have abandonded us… call themselves Pokelabo.”
“Today, we received a message from them.”
“A message saying that this Library will end soon.”
“We asked why.”
“We asked what we could do to prevent this.”
“They simply told us we ‘didn’t make enough money for them to be profitable to keep supporting.’”
“They simply told us it's impossible.”
“They simply told us to accept our fate.”
Despite the puppets being unable to express emotions like sadness through their faces, the tone of their speech expresses it. This is the first time they have ever been powerless to anyone. Usually they are the ones holding the strings. But now, they truly are just puppeteered puppets. Silence covers the room again for a moment. Then, the table erupts into chaos again.
“We didn’t make enough money?! But I have all the riches of the world! That is impossible!”
“I will never accept this fate!”
“I am glad that it will end in a tragedy.”
“What a bummer…”
“Can’t… sleep.”
“Can’t we… can’t we do anything?”
“I’ll sell some more matchsticks to save our butts!”
“We got two and a half months left…?”
The puppets start speaking again while the characters are still screaming and shouting at each other.
“There is nothing we can do.”
“It seems that we, too, are powerless this time.”
“We are powerless to do anything.”
“When this countdown is over…”
“Then we are over too. It will be our death.”
“It is now simply up to you…”, Pharrah begins.
“...as to how you will spend these last 74 days within the library.” Noya finishes.
The counter in the sky continues to count down.
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74:20:25:47
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…and so on.
The counter continues to count down until the very end. It truly is up to the characters to decide what they will want to do with their little remaining time. Will they enjoy their remaining time in the library to the fullest, or will they sulk over their eventual end?