War Week

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[A week has gone and past, as has the first of your number. The Researcher revealing himself, more or less, by punishing Patches, the Trusty, for pushing an unclear boundary.]

[And yet, routine seems to have returned. The Researcher makes morning and evening announcements as if nothing has happened. Meals are served in the dining hall. The copies of Oregon Trail in the computer lab now have a text-only mode for some reason? Penny has not been seen since Friday, and attempts to access the Security Room have been fruitless.]

[But overall, life in the Facility has remained unchanged. But the atmosphere is getting tenser - sooner or later something is going to break.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday

Comments

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[Hm! That's strange and a welcome distraction from existential questioning.

What sorts of books are near the empty spaces? There wouldn't happen to be any sort of immediately obvious pattern, would there?]

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[Well, the organization of this library is a little haphazard at best, but looks like most of the books around the conspicuously empty spots are about magic.]

[windowsexplorer]

[Well this is definitely not concerning at all.

Not sure whether she can glean anything else from the surrounding books, Meredith backs up a bit and looks at the gaps, wondering if by some wild chance they form words or an arrow or loss.jpg or something.]

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[Well, looking at the titles left behind, you can make out B... E... S... U... R... E... T... O... D... R...]

[But mo, the titles left behind don't seem to hold to any specific topic or theme.]

[Maybe whoever took the missing books checked them out, though?]

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[Bold of you to assume Meredith won't try every fucking useless thing she can think of before it occurs to her to check the damn ledger.

But assuming she doesn't discover anything interesting by carefully feeling the shelves, she does eventually go take a look at that sheet. What amazing secrets has she learned?]

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[If she looks hard enough, a few books do sort of make the loss.jpg pattern, if you're inclined to see it.]

[But if she eventually does make it to the ledger, she'll- mostly see that Veronica and Izuku and maybe Michael at least have all actually signed out books in their time here.]

[But there are a few entries before theirs.]

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[That actually seems significant and she will definitely violate their privacy on this matter, but let's check out those earlier entries!]

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[There are a few entries of YA romance novels checked out with just the initial 'P', which is surely a mystery for the ages.]

[But what's probably more interesting and definitely more relevant are the earliest entries, written in the same block-letter black ink writing that's shown up a few times now.]

Death Is But a Door by D. Acererak - M.H.S.
Necrowombicon, The by Mad "I Just Get These Headaches" Ahkmed - M.H.S.
Transmutation of the Soul by Ikriogami Rane - M.H.S.
Technomagical Fusion: Development of the Spirit Core Battery by L. Miller - M.H.S.
Necromancy for Fun and Prophet by Taven the Defiler - M.H.S.
Harry Potter and the Expiring Copyright by J.K.R. - M.H.S.

[The list kind of goes on like that.]