logsinthenight | Round 2 [open]

Entry tags:

Round 2 [open]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Stone decides, after commenting to Ignis, that he'd better just tell the whole story. So he gets up.]

So I'm Stone. If you don't know me yet, I'm the one who turns into what you guys like to call a dragon. Wings, scales, a tail, all that. No fire-breathing, though, and I don't eat people. In case anybody was worried.

[Right now, he just looks like a gawky, slightly too tall old man with absolutely no color to his skin and hair, one blind eye, and a coat with the sleeves slightly too short.]

I was one of the ones asleep for two weeks. Matthew, Eliot, and I-- we all got pushed into a boat going out over the lake with a bunch of metal. Building supplies, we thought. There were a bunch of boats going the same place. The boat got dragged down into an underwater tunnel thing, where we were chased by a giant hand until we found a building underwater made out of metal. It was still in progress, not finished yet. Had a bunch of stairs and levels, but we didn't get to see much under there before it ate us.

[Yeah, the metal building ate them. It was weird. He decides not to describe it turning into teeth and everything, because he's pretty sure that was dream-nonsense and if the building really exists, it wouldn't actually turn into teeth and eat them.]

I did try to go see if it was still there and what it looked like, but something killed us almost as soon as we set off. And Rosinante got eaten by fish things trying to go out on the lake. So they're probably protecting it, keeping us from going there now that it's finished. Pretty sure it's the portal.

[He both sounds and looks annoyed at that. Some people might remember the network message. He's calmed down significantly from then, at least.]

Oh, and Eliot called the whole thing dream magic.

[EXCUSE YOU A DRAGON they'll have to...talk...about that later.]

So there is a very good chance that the 'door,' as some would put it, is out there in the lake, but approaching is is impossible upon pain of death.

[at which point he looks over and gives Rosinante a really? look. You died again? Really?]

Forcing our way to it or through it seems like wasted energy. Perhaps it would be faster and easier to work out the rest of this information and solve the light issue. Though, it is good to know that we finally have a read on the source.

[Big shrug. Sorry man. Had to try, right? Anyway you all continue on with this portal stuff, that's not where he was trying to go but toothy fish happened.]

[Totally come talk to him later, Cao Pi. He's absolutely game to talk about his people to anyone who wants to listen.]

Yeah, especially since that bird fellow closed off the lake somehow. I can't even get my usual bath out there. I'm game for hunting down something else to try and kill me, though.

[He grins, teeth sharper than a normal human's.]

Maybe next time I'll even have the chance to fight back.

[Less of a grin, though, he adds,]

There was a very large creature in the dream with us. Lots of eyes, hands about as big as my other form. Don't suppose that's what the World Eater things look like, is it?

[oh boy more giant creatures! just what he always wanted!]

...hmm. Doctor Ingram showed us one picture that made them out to be, well, larger than mountains. So there is that. But the one had no hands, it was more beast-like.

[and Daylight has a picture in his sketchbook he's showing around the meeting, so there's that]

Hands. Claws. Whatever, they were digits on the end of a limb that had sharp things on them, but could still grab. It wasn't a paw. I don't know if it was bigger than a mountain, but it was very big.

Curious. Then, compare that with what pictures the others have. If it isn't a World Eater, then there are even more things out there to be wary of. I don't like being in the dark about such things. [pun totally intended]

Probably better to ask Eliot or Matt to look at the picture. I saw that once scrolling back on the network, and it just looks like a big blur to me.

[He shrugs apologetically.]

Or just Eliot, right? Matt's more blind than I am.

[WOW DUDE so much side-eye for saying that out loud with Matt right over there in the room. Cao Pi would throw him an apologtic look but...he wouldn't see it...]

Both their experiences will be valuable. I do encourage everyone who went through the dreams to speak of what they witnessed, even if there are others from the same group present. Different people may have noticed different things.

[Yeah, someone will have to explain to Stone that bringing up other people's disabilities is rude. He talks about his own all the time. In the meantime, he's far enough away from Cao Pi to catch the expression, and he gives him an unimpressed and vaguely confused look back. Don't show the blind guy a picture. It makes sense, to him.]

Yeah, probably did. I was more focused on the monster and on flying to notice a lot, they probably did see different things.

Yes, I would imagine that a dragon in the air would have a somewhat different experience. [he'll concede the look with a slight bob of his head - if and when dragons are real, he'd best treat them respectfully] If there is anything else you can think of, please share.

But-- [Quentin cuts in, turning in his seat to get a closer look at the dragon person, who quite frankly, looks a little underwhelming right now, but. A dragon? He wants to ask more about that, and makes a note about it on the tablet for later.

But. A dragon!] When you went again. Uh, when you died? Did you go in a boat? Like in your dream?

No, I have wings. I was flying, and carrying Rook. You think it might've gone better for us if we just rode the ferry wherever it was going?

Wings?

[It comes out way too high-pitched and a little strangled, like Quentin just can't help himself but he covers it with a fake cough and frowns.]

Maybe? I-- I don't know anything about the lake or the boat-- the ferry. But-- I know a little about portals? And, sometimes they're, uh. So, sometimes? You have to say the right spell? Or the right code words? And-- and sometimes, it's more about how you say it or the way you got there? Because. Well, probably because if portals didn't have anything to guard them, anyone could walk through them and get lost. There was this girl at my school, who just kept-- oh. Uh. Never-mind, but. Maybe the ferry has something to do with it?

[Did you not notice the "dragon" part? Stone has been told that wings are part of the whole dragon thing. He gives Quentin an amused sort of look for his excitement, but focuses on the actual planning.]

Hrm. Maybe. Not sure if maybe whatever hit me would then try to hit the ferry, though. I hear they're hard to come by, and I don't want to be the one to destroy the second one. And smaller boats apparently don't fare very well, either.

[Based on Rosinante's attempt.]

The lake might just have to be off-limits for now.

No, I-- I meant. What if the boat you were on? What if it was a signal? A code? The key to the portal? A key-- it can be anything, it doesn't just have to be a literal key?

[That a lot of words in a public place and Quentin looks up, making sure he's not drawing too much attention to himself before he plows on.]

Maybe? Maybe it's off-limits for now, but. What if you can find the boat? The ferry that you saw in your dream? In the vision? There's been talk about odds and how small they actually are for any of us to come back, but maybe-- there might be someone who would be willing to try? To find the portal? And maybe the boat is the key to get in without getting killed. Isn't it worth a shot?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Round 2 [open]

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