catleidh:

shadedevlin:

tumblunni:

kawaiianimeredhead:

vyrenrolar:

obstinatecondolement:

Are there any works in the post-apocalyptic genre with post-apocalyptic librarians? People who worked in the public library and after the Bad Thing decide to stay and keep the library clean, safe and available for anyone who needs it. People can’t remove books from the premises anymore, because they’re too precious, but you can stay as long as you want and read them or copy them out–the librarians encourage making copies, so that the information can circulate beyond the physical boundaries of the library. 

After a while it becomes an unspoken reality of the post apocalyptic society that you Just Don’t fuck with the library. You don’t fight there, you don’t steal from it, you don’t allow harm to come to librarians when they have to leave the building for supplies. 

People donate food and books and paper with no expectation of reciprocity, because the librarians don’t ask for anything when you need a place to hide or information or, fuck, to read a schlocky crime novel because you need to escape reality in some purple prose. 

i need this like water and also air

@a-fragile-sort-of-anarchy

OH HELL TO THE YES

Also consider: a library has a duplicate book, and wants to hire mercenaries to transport it to a library that doesn’t have a copy of that book. The most well known mercs in the world show up to volunteer for the job because they haven’t read that one yet.

Large building with multiple floors are perfect. Maybe they take over university buildings. Multi-story buildings housing what’s left of the written word. 

The lower floors are for control. If a zombie or two gets in- or some mercs that took out one of our foraging teams last week- they’re easily hunted down through the literal labyrinth of empty shelves.

The higher levels are for Eyes. They take their shifts in rounds, shifting from one window the next, keeping their owl eyes everywhere. Sniping zombies- and thieves- from afar.

And the Runners? Fleet-footed geeks and nerds separated from families and friend groups that couldn’t keep up with mercs. scrawny lightweights who spent maybe too much time with a game controller in their hands, which has given them lighting reflexes. With a little practice they can scale walls, run rooftops, take messages when and if the ground become unsafe. 

They become like the fey. 

 They pick nicknames for themselves to hide their true names from before: “MacBeth,” “Jane Eyre,” “Sauron,” “Cheshire,” “Granger.” They sound like they shouldn’t exist - like a society like that shouldn’t work, right?

but heaven forbid if a Librarian saves your life and you don’t leave an offering at the gate. 

I took it and ran, and suddenly zombies. sorry.

Imagine donating a book to a library grants you one boon from the librarians. They give it to you in the form of a blank library card and it can be traded at a library for usefull stuff. that being said, you could also trade it to others who might be interested for favours. library cards become a commodity just as much as the scavenged books are.