A Library in Fae New Growth

IC:

As the Sun set, the Librar-bee-ans, greatly appreciative of the help they had been given, took on another of the essential tasks in any library: kindly but firmly shepherding the patrons out the door at closing time. The stragglers could see how the flowers stood a bit straighter, more established and less crowded together. One sick flower had been laid to rest, and another planted with its own space to grow. The way out led easily back to the mortal Realms.

This is not an Unchanging Place, woven into the very nature of Faerie. But is on its way to becoming a new library that is here to serve. There are more secrets to uncover, amongst the hive as well as the petals, and as the flowers grow, visitors will be welcomed back once more.

OOC:

In 2005, Ian Pushee EHed "The Wing Wherewith We Fly: We Know What We Are, But Know Not What We May Be", now usually known as "The Great Library event." It was before my time in the Realms, but I adored the stories I heard in the following years. In 2023, I realized I could play with the idea of new flowers containing stories showing up, growing wild. I learned that I wasn't the only one interested in a library like this, and eventually decided it was worth throwing a full event around.

The event itself could not have happened, nor held together through the day, without the help of innumerable people, who I'll try but fail to cover here:

- My friends Marcus and Alasdair, who are not Realmsies but built the flowers themselves and helped with other essential crafting. Marcus is the one who pointed out this new site to me, and she even showed up to NPC as one of the Librar-bee-ans!
- Briar, who was an incredible stage manager, who made words on paper become whole rooms.
- Ed, who was the head NPC and as such did some of the most essential on-the-fly rewrites for the things that simply would not work as written.
- Marc, who played a Librar-bee-an with probably the least amount of context for what that even meant, and was constantly helping out.
- Becky, who made sure we had snacks for the day.
- Sky, who co-wrote the flower about the Cult of Midoru with me, and let me throw spellbook conversions at them last minute, and helped out me and Briar after the event
- Kathy and Heath, who wrote a flower that was not entered (look out for that story to show up in the future!)
- Kathy also for helping with a lot of the props
- Hannah, who agreed to be the point of contact for a brand-new player who bravely signed up without knowing anybody here (Hi Jordan!)
- The Odd Fellows of Friendship Lodge #20, who own the building where the event was held. They are friendly and welcoming and I hope we are able to work with them in the future!
- Everyone who helped clean up and especially Bennett and Finn, who went above and beyond.
- Everyone who helped cover many small needs and gaps, where you saw them or where someone asked, including but not limited to Kelly, Kieran, Sky, and Tim. I truly value our community helpfulness.
- Everyone who expressed interest when my library flowers appeared before, encouraging me to actually go through with this
- Ian, and the last iteration of Fae Staff, for the model for this event
- And finally, each and every attendee. As I have said, so many more of you were interested than I every expected. Thank you for sticking through the chaos and indulging in this unusual event.

I wouldn't do the event quite like this again, with so many people and so small (and stairs-filled) a space. Keep an eye out for reimaginings in the future, and I know some people at the event already have ideas for other ways to use the site!

Thank you once more,
Eric W