0: Spindle & Binding
In early March 2019, the Concerned Parents Coalition summoned an ancient and formidable intellivore demon to the Vancouver Public Library, where it clamped its jaws onto the Library's rooftop park like a bacteriophage. The CPC's intention was to perfectly censor content they deemed inappropriate or dangerous by feeding it to the demon, but they quickly lost control of it.
The intellivore enthralled the librarians, who would feed it the contents of books; the side effects of this enthrallment were fatigue, confusion, and memory loss. As it fed from the library, the books from which it fed were blanked out and it generated an aura that dissuaded library patrons from wanting to actually read.
After a couple of weeks of consuming the contents of books, the demon's appetite and influence grew. It commanded its thralls to bring well-learned humans, so that it could consume their knowledge directly. On the day of the Binding, Step was at VPL to volunteer at a repair café when they were overwhelmed by thralls and brought up to the roof to have their mind consumed.
Luckily, the Library was important to other demigods as well. Thomas frequently visited to avail himself of its city records and print publication collections. Dee and Alexandra were there together for a class assignment. Weave was drawn to investigate after talking to a librarian who talked about her memory loss over a drink. Each demigod converged on the roof just in time to jump into action and free Step.
As they worked together to save a location that was important to all of them, the demigods found that they had an unexpected synergy. On that day they became a Woven Band, bound by Fate. Through their combined efforts, they heroically defeated the intellivore by bursting it open to release the consumed information. They even managed to magically funnel the knowledge back to its rightful places, restoring the books and the minds of the demons's victims.
Unfortunately, this meant that a few members of the CPC and a few librarians have dream-like memories of the supernatural nature of these events. Despite Thomas' discomfort with covering up the truth, Alexandra wanted to take the knowledge off the mortals' shoulders so they didn't have to worry, and Weave agreed and upheld the tradition of hiding the supernatural through deception.
The battle with the intellivore was noticed by Xiuhtecutli, who drew the attention of the Aztec god of knowledge to the event. Both Quetzalcoatl and Books of the Media pantheon were impressed that the Woven Band defeated the demon that had been the downfall of other great libraries. As a boon, Quetzalcoatl transformed the remains of the demon into a gazebo, through which the demigods can access a private location just for them. In thanks for defending the written word, Books furnished this space like a comfortable "clubhouse".
The clubhouse also contains Dee's arcane sanctum, which contains a tiny tear in reality, caused by the demon's presence and now stabilised by Quetzalcoatl. Over the past year, Dee and Step have been experimenting with the reality-tear. They have determined that it is possible to attempt to "borrow" books from historical libraries that were preyed upon by the intellivore, but there is risk in the attempt.
Other divinities and powers were interested in the events at the Library, including Poseidon. He had wanted to see VPL fall, both because the Library had a visage of Athena front and centre, and because he has had a hopeful eye on Vancouver and has been salty about the goddess taking Athens for thousands of years. He holds a grudge against the Woven Band, and his displeasure has caused friction in the Greek pantheon.
After the events of Binding Day, the area has become suffused with a subtle, intellectually-stimulating energy. Thus, VPL's rooftop park has become known as a good place to spend time if you have writer's block, need inspiration to strike, or are trying to puzzle out a problem.