An octopus was casually using its many arms to hold up nearly as many books, with a few exceptions. Two of its tentacles dipped into water-filled buckets on either side of the octopus before dripping the contents over its head at regular intervals. Another tentacle was turning the pages of five separate books in anything but regular intervals. The single hint that clued Garath into the fact that the ridiculous sight in front of him was the person they were looking for was the nameplate affixed to her head. Everything about this meeting was odd, the octopus’ nameplate itself was no exception. It was unlike any other nameplate he’d seen so far. It had an intricately engraved silver border, and the letters LK appeared next to her name.
Garath and Auto watched in awe as the pages of one book began turning much faster than the others, apparently having captured more of Alice's attention. Knowing she wouldn't be able to communicate with them outside of her human form unless they were in a Party, Garath issued the occupied octopus an invitation.
Alice has joined your Party.
*Can you come back in a moment?* came a monotone voice with only a hint of femininity. The page-turning tentacle continued flipping pages as the octopus turned to face Garath and Auto, its vertically-slitted eyes looking each of them up and down in dispassionate inspection. *I am in the middle of something. Oh. Better yet, here.*
You have been issued the Quest: Find the Octopus Mural
The Lore Keeper, Alice, has offered you a Quest to go and find the Octopus Mural located somewhere within the library.
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes or No
Success Rewards: Unknown
Failure Rewards: Unknown
Garath and Auto silently read the unexpected quest prompt before turning to each other, and then back to face the octopus. Alice had already turned back to her books.
Alice has left your Party.
They both turned away in stunned disbelief.
In all, it took about an hour of wandering the ten-floor building to find the mural mentioned in the quest, an octopus reading a book on a wall between bookshelves on the fifth floor. Garath called Auto to come check it out over the Party communication channel.
“She’s totally fucking with us, right?” Auto asked.
“Maybe,” Garath agreed. The expression on his face was an ongoing battle between stunned disbelief and a shit-eating grin. “Did she paint this here, or was this always here? And if it was always here, then did she get the octopus form just to fuck with us?”
Auto’s gears turning visibly behind his rapidly blinking, uncomprehending eyes looked almost painful to Garath. Unable to say for sure one way or the other, the Chimerist and the Necrologist headed back up the book spiral to turn in their quest. They got off the escalator on the tenth floor and turned left into the ‘Reading Room’ loft. When they passed two nearly-empty buckets on the ground and an octopus-less stack of books, they continued on until they ran into the far wall and were forced to take another left. As they rounded the corner, Garath and Auto both had to stop and admire what Alice had done with the place.
Alice was now in her natural form, wearing a white lab coat and yellow rain boots, but she was the least interesting thing in the room. If Garath had to guess, he’d bet Alice had spent about ten hours a day since The Culling collecting some of the most interesting tidbits in Seattle. He wasn’t a history expert, but the paintings leaning against the far wall looked more like they belonged in a museum than a library and even those barely caught his eye with Jimmy Hendrix’ famous purple guitar standing only a few feet away. Other oddities appeared everywhere he looked. Aquariums. Road signs. A box full of rubber duckies.
“This is my room,” Alice said with her arms folded sternly over her chest. “If you do not mind, we will talk in the lobby.”
Garath finally stopped looking around at her eclectic collection and studied the Lore Keeper in her human form for the first time. She was small, only an inch or so over five feet, and probably weighed a hundred pounds, soaking wet. Garath couldn’t be certain she was even fully grown, but she didn’t look like a child. Her oversized, stone-grey eyes stared, unwavering, from behind locks of raven hair that looked as though it’d never met a comb. Alice’s other features were small and delicate, an interesting contrast from eyes and hair that were anything but. Garath wasn’t sure if she was currently accessing her MENU panels, or if she just had a vacant-eyed resting face. Overall, he felt like there was something off about the small human and for some reason, she made Garath uncomfortable.
Alice led Auto and Garath back to where she’d been reading when they first met, and the two young men retrieved three of the chairs from the pile near the escalator. Garath had so many questions running through his mind that it was hard to decide which to ask first. Alice beat him to the punch, though.
“The remainder of your Party is arriving this afternoon, correct?” Alice asked in her deadpan voice.
Garath nodded.
“You have questions,” she said, taking a seat on the chair that Garath brought over for
