"Remember to always say goodnight to the ones who love you, even if you don't think you need to. Everyone deserves a goodnight."
Indie RP blog for Naomi Joy Sato, reclusive podcaster and caretaker of a strange and lonely library. A study in grief, found family, telling stories and learning to be loved again, through the lens of 90's/2000's children's shows. Mun is over 21, but blog is SFW. Highly selective. No minors, please. Penned by Esme. Takes place during the summer of 2023. Scary things may happen, but this is not a horror blog.
Quick Note: Posts tagged with 'Chapter Title (Chapter Number)' (replace appropriately) are story posts. They're meant to be treated as the 'source material' of this blog, and inform her progress and behavior in threads. They are not opens. I will not respond to any interactions with them.
Trigger warnings: Surrealist imagery, death of family/a child (in backstory), survivor's guilt, metaphorical body horror (mild), revisiting the same nightmare over and over and over again.
The Story So Far: After finding herself stuck on an idea in her poem, Naomi chose to confront her heart head-on by returning to the closet mirror. It showed images of her parents and sister, who encouraged her to have faith in herself and her ability to find her way forward. The Library seems to have withdrawn its magic from the mirror, taking the dreams with it; even so, the Lane as a whole seems stronger.
Current Library Residents:
Naomi Sato, the only human resident. She has agoraphobia, and needs an umbrella in order to feel comfortable going outside during the day.
Teddy, her shubunkin goldfish stuffed animal. Not alive.
About 14 dust bunnies, including Buster and Wexel; Eenie, Meenie, Minie and Moe; and 'the class', a group of 8 dust bunnies always seen together.
Willa the Wallaphant, a felt elephant that resides in a series of tapestries decorating the library building.
Ragamonster/Rags: A quadrupedal puppet made of blue, green and yellow scraps and yarn, Ragamonster is the monster under Naomi's bed. Very large but easily frightened, Rags is as sweet as he is skittish, and prefers to be close to Naomi or under a small roof.
Arlo: The Sandman of Slumber Hill, Arlo is a ram puppet/costume who wears dark, glittering robes and bells on his horns. He acts as a voice of reason and comfort, and only appears at night, right before bedtime. He is always accompanied by his flock of sheep, which you can count to fall asleep.
The Flock: Arlo's sheepy, so sleepy. They hop fences.
Naomi's "Real World" Circle:
Lily: Naomi's roommate, and one of the people in on the secret of the Library. They've been polite acquaintances until now, but are slowly becoming real friends.
Kathleen Day: Naomi's former foster mother, until Naomi aged out of the system. Kathleen is kind and patient, but only so patient - she has two boys, after all!
Michael and Jonah Day: Kathleen's sons, two young boys. Naomi does not know them very well, as she moved out before they were born.
Craig Day: Kathleen's husband and the father of Michael and Jonah. Craig and Naomi have a polite, if impersonal relationship, as he entered the picture shortly before she left the system.
Parker: Naomi's former social worker. They haven't spoken in some time.
Current Library Phenomena:
Blue Umbrella: An umbrella of clear blue vinyl, decorated with big, matte white raindrops and clouds. It appears to have no magical qualities, but is an effective aide in helping Naomi go outside without experiencing vertigo, due to its visual distortion of the sky.
Newspaper: A changing, self-updating newspaper consisting mostly of blocks of ink. It is apparent that whatever entity the library is, this is its best medium for communicating through words. Naomi has currently lost track of it.
Roadside Ditch: A ditch across from the library and the road leading to it. It is currently dry and empty.
The Drought: In all the months Naomi has been here, it has not rained once. Naomi believes it's indicative of something else.
Letterbox: A magic letterbox which can teleport any written message put through its slot to its intended recipient. It sits on the desk upstairs. (If you want to send or get asks, this is a great medium for them!)
Blue Love Poem: A poem Naomi has been struggling to write. She is starting to understand what Blue Love means.
Non-Library Phenomena:
The Story: Not an anomaly. A story Naomi tells herself but has never finished. She can very easily get stuck saying one or two sentences over and over. This followed her to the Library.
The Red Shape: When approaching the road or ditch, Naomi may suffer acute hallucinations of the vehicle that killed her family. Her memory of the vehicle is fuzzy, so she perceives it as a red shape quickly approaching, though it never leaves its lane.
Past Library Phenomena:
Blue Dreams: A series of dreams in which Naomi finds herself in an enclosed space filled with matte blue something. Naomi no longer needs them to understand what the Library wants to tell her.
Three Goldfish: Dream images of three goldfish, which come in varying sizes and are noted for their solid colors of Orange, Yellow and White. They represent Naomi's memories of her father, mother, and sister respectively. After confronting their images in the mirror to her heart, the three fish seem to have gone for good.
Closet Mirror: A full-length mirror at the end of the second floor's walk-in closet. The mirror once displayed Naomi's heart as an armored lump, leaking blue liquid that could affect the real world. After entering the mirror and confronting her heart's core, the magic seems to have left it entirely. It is now just a functional mirror.
Mirror Door: The mirror could transform into a door, which leads Naomi into a currently undefined space. Within it, the Library can show her memories and dreams with more interaction and clarity. The door appears to be gone for good.
//"How did the neighborhood tragic shut-in become a popular kids show host" is still one of the funniest post-story questions that orbits my head/the worldbuilding. So many people thought she was going to disappear under tragic circumstances. The fact that they rallied and seem genuinely happy and are taking care of themself is kind of inspiring.
//this blog is sfw but I like to imagine that, given she was a shut-in at best and deeply depressed w/o real motivation to do anything at worst, Naomi doesn't really have much experience with innuendo - which makes come-ons sound like utter nonsense to her. What is that metaphor supposed to be about? Go back and try again.
Hanahaki disease is a psychosomatic illness. It's a thing that your body does in response to stress over constantly repressing/concealing your feelings in settings with high background magic. It's like you've been ignoring pain for a long time and suddenly your vision starts going dark, because your affected body is just YANKING on random alerts trying to get you to PAY ATTENTION there is a PROBLEM. Yes the flowers do really exist. So do non-magical psychosomatic symptoms. The flowers aren't special.
This does of course open up the trope to options for non-romantic concealed feelings. Which I think is great. There is something viscerally satisfying about the person who seems so outwardly chipper coughing and hacking and spitting up Depression Flowers so now everyone has to know they're hurting. Isn't there?
//I don't think Naomi's going to develop the "can spontaneously burst into a fully-composed song out of nowhere" skill most kids' show characters have until she's been The Librarian for a few years. She can sing, but it's usually singing along to songs she already knows or is actively being taught.
//One day I'll get unstuck. In the meantime, I haven't forgotten her, and I'm still holding out for the day she gets to meet Bear in the Big Blue House.
