Round 2 [open]

[pure_havoc]

characters: Cao Pi and everyone who wants to show up
location: town hall
date/time: Dec. 8, starting at moonrise
content: Community meeting, take 2! After the Dreamer/Defender incident, there's a lot to talk about and Cao Pi has encouraged everyone to come and publicly share what they learned while asleep or what ideas they have to make the next massacre less massacre-y. Feel free to handwave catching his post or hearing about it from a friend.
warnings: none likely but lmk if that changes. Threadjacking likely; if you don't want to be threadjacked, make some sort of indication.

As before, Cao Pi arrives ahead of time to ensure the town hall is ready for a session, righting any chairs that might have been thrown about in recent melees and checking the logbook for recent information. When a fair amount of people have arrived and he can see the waxing moon rising through the leafless trees outside, he rises to begin with a short intro.

"By now we know that those who succumbed to the food at the feast had a strange experience - they shared dreams with each other, in which they found themselves seeing Beacon as it was in the past. I encourage all those who dreamed, and remember it well, please tell us all what you saw. There may be considerable clues to our purpose and progress in even the smallest detail.

"The rest of us, well. We managed to make it through and I believe those who were killed are whole again, but for our part we can go over what worked and what didn't. Defending ourselves isn't merely a matter of being trained to use weapons. The spirits which attacked were formidable, powerful. We will need more than just our strength to outlast another attack. Ideas are welcome, as is any new information we have on everything from communications to threats."

That's all he'll ramble about this time, he'll take a seat and allow others to have the floor before he makes any more grandiose speeches.

Comments

[sunborne]

[ due to being one of the dreamers, daylight raises his harms to indicate he was ready to speak. he pulls out one of his sketchbooks as he speaks, flipping through the pages to reach the notes he's been taking ever since he woke up. ]

I was with Sarissa and Kol and we were in a radio tower. It seems we were the only ones there since we couldn't find anyone or anything alive.

[ urgh- those dead birds still haunt day. ]

We were still in Beacon but, judging by what we saw and experienced, it was set in the past. When there was still light and before the World Eaters... [ he stops here, an uncomfortable look coming and going across his face before he corrects himself: ] Just as the World Eaters were approaching Beacon.

[unpredict]

[ oh, jesus christ. kol is most definitely not in the mood to be here—or anywhere, really—but he's come to gain some insight into last month's events and distract himself from the disappearance of one of the most important people to him. even though he's clearly going to be called to speak, he still wishes they weren't. that dream had been a nightmare for him; he had been able to save daylight and sarissa, but he hadn't been able to save davina. ]

There were quite a lot of dead birds, too.

[ ftr, he still enjoys the fact he caused it to rain dead birds. it was the least traumatising thing to occur in the dream.

kol distinctly remembers that radio call—rehousing another's life-force, like his mother had done to him. that crawls beneath his skin and stays there for a few moments. later, he'll get to that later.

arms crossed, he frowns curiously when he looks to day. ] What date did that calendar say? Do you remember that? Wasn't very long ago, was it?

[ well, considering he's from the 2010s… ]

( gag tag! )

[sunborne]

[ the face day is making right now when kol mentions the Awful Dead Birds™:

>:O

why!!! ]

( FOR REAL... A TAG..... )

[sunborne]

[ terrible mention of the Awful Dead Birds™ aside, day perks up when kol asks a question and he realises he can answer it-! ]

The calendar was for 1979. Um... It didn't have any marked dates or stuff, though. I think at least. I was too focused on trying to get the computer to work at the time.

[ but at least day remembered the year: 1979.

which is, like, super old for daylight, who is from the year 2241. he thinks his great-grandpa would have been a teenager at that point...? ]

[reigniter]

[He's just intently listening conversation and marking down the age in his notebook.

1979.]

That marks 9 years after opening the portal and something seeing the scientist through it.

[One answer, ten more questions...]

[pearlstrings]

A calendar was found in the scrap yard.

[Bruce's voice is very quiet, though perhaps not so quiet as his approach. When did he get here? How long has he been listening? Who knows.]

Most of it was yellowed with age, but it began with 1 and ended in 0.

[reigniter]

[He's not that startled, there's a lot of people around. But he is surprised.

And gives Bruce a nod.]

The number is most likely the 1970's. The portal was opened in 1969. The last time it was mentioned was spring, 1970, when something spotted them through the portal.

[sunborne]

Huh.

[ daylight tilts his helm to the side, considering something. ] That's... nine years then. That's a pretty big gap of time. For, er, you guys, right? The time gap thing, I mean.

[reigniter]

Not much, but not little either.

[He justs more down in his notebook.]

It means that the world gradually fell into darkness, instead of flipping it off like a switch. People tried to prepare against them, the things that came crawling through the portal, but in the end, as we see the state of things now, it was useless.

Which is... worrying. They had 9 years to solve the problem and get themselves free from world eaters, and yet they didn't succeed. We have less than 2 years. [They weren't even hindered by lack of light like they are. It feels like the rope around their neck is tighter than Ignis expected.]

[pearlstrings]

[The corner of his mouth tugs downward just a fraction, a thoughtful frown.]

You said, the last time it was mentioned was Spring 1970.

What was said?

[reigniter]

[Ignis flips through the pages of his notebook, to check just in case.]

The last coherent entry was "I wasn't fast enough."

There are two more entries after that but they are completely encrypted. The last entry has several words scattered through it, like "fault, know, worth it".

[sunborne]

[ hmmmm... ]

If by luck and chance and circumstances allowed us to stumble upon the encrypted stuff during our future snooping around, Mr. Ignis, would you be able to tell that its your stuff from the visions if it was presented to you? Like... Super confidently and stuff?

[ daylight had noticed his memories were eerily sharp in terms of remembering the dream if he needed to recall things. especially details and bits he hadn't thought to really commit to memory at the time. ]

[reigniter]

[Ignis nods.]

I would be.

I wouldn't be able to decrypt the encrypted files, as my knowledge in technology is mediocre, but I would be able to tell the difference.

[Memorizing important stuff kind of goes with his ex-job.]

For decrypting the rest of the log we will need someone who is tech-savvy.

[sunborne]

[ daylight nods, looking determined now. ] Right! I'll keep my eyes out for the documents when I travel then, Mr. Ignis!

I-I don't know how to decrypt them as well but- My grandma's job as wall about this sort of thing. If we can find the documents, there's a good chance we can... we can... [ daylight makes a little gesture with his servos, trying to mimic the word he's struggling with. since it's exact term isn't coming to him, he tries to talk it out (mostly to himself) to recall what he knows: ] The thing that helps encrypt it in the first place. A, um, parameter or piece of information that helps determine the functional output of the cryptographic algorithm. It specifies the transformation of plaintext into ciphertext, and vice versa for decryption algorithms.

[ oh! wait! he knows the word! ] A key! That's it. If we find the information, we might have luck and find the key.