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.

Threaded | Flat

[ Riku isn't here to speak unless the information he's offered to certain organizational parties neglect to share it to the group as a whole. A few might even suspect why, though he no longer wears bandages around his neck, in its place is a scarf he found at the general store.

He has his tablet, and for the most part he seems to be here to take notes. Cao Pi addresses the room and then sits. Riku leans back in his chair with his breath gusting out of him in undisguised frustration.

Then he stands up. ]

I'll keep this short.

The reason for all this was the spirits wanted to answer our questions about what happened before we arrived.

They attacked anyone who wasn't going along with it. For now, they've agreed--

[ His voice cracks. Pausing for a long second, he shuts his eyes, stone-faced around the pain in his recently-healed throat, and when he speaks again there's a hoarse unsteadiness. ]

They've agreed to stop killing us. We need to know what you saw and experienced.

[ He says it in a hurry, and by the end, that last word - experienced - is only partially there, like he's already tired out his voice in a few loud sentences. Looking more annoyed (and possibly embarrassed) than anything, Riku sits back down, crossing his arms. ]

[Maes has been itching to talk about this since he woke up. Well, after throwing up and then trying to get everything down on paper that he could remember. Some parts were too vivid and when he closed his eyes sometimes he could still see that bloody head.

But that's not what he wanted to talk about right now. Though maybe later. As soon as Cao Pi and then Riku were done, Maes rose to his feet. He had a notebook and some papers sticking out of it. Clearly he'd been busy preparing.]

I'll go first then. I didn't get a chance to meet all of you yet, before the feast, so I'll start by saying I'm General Maes Hughes. I have some previous experience with a similar situation in which I was taken to another reality and asked to 'fix' things...though the details are very different. If you want to talk with me about it after we can, I'd rather focus on the information my group obtained during the dream.

[With that, he laid out several sheets of paper. It was a rough sketch and map of the explored areas of Beacon. The areas are labeled and what will probably immediately draw attention are the multiple areas circled, places they had yet to encounter.]

I don't know how much parallel there is between the Beacon in the dream and the Beacon we now inhabit, but while I was stuck in Town Hall I discovered several areas that no one had been to yet and that might be worth organizing explorations to go check it out. Maybe set up teams to go scout or take them one at a time. [He glanced at those present.] Though we might want to wait until people have fully recovered or agree to only send those who are up to the task.

[He leaned over the map and pointed to the west.] There's supposedly a medical center here, which would be really helpful right now if not in the future. Especially if there are still any supplies lingering there.

[He then moved to the mountains.] This area was labeled as a farm and a train station, and something about a furnace. I don't know if it's another way out, nor is it the right time to grow crops, but either way it seems worth exploring for supplies and other methods of transportation.

[Lastly he traced his finger to the east.] This is marked simply as Downtown. It could mean more housing or shops, either way more space to occupy since it became clear with this most recent ferry load that we are coming up short on space.

[He moved back to let others explore the map and after a few moments added.] This was information that could help us now. We also discovered some information related to Beacon's past, if you'd like me to continue.

[He briefly heard the sound of giggling, but decidedly ignored it.]

We also came across mention of an amusement park, but it was so new that there was no depiction of it on the map. [He hesitated and then added.] Although, the flier for it was rather troubling.

[Rosinante sits at the periphery and pays close attention to the proceedings, occasionally offering insight. But when there's an opportune moment, a gap in the discussion, he clears his throat.]

For those who haven't met me yet, I'm Commander Rosinante Donquixote.

[A rare full name and title, but he's taking this as seriously as anyone else. Besides, there are people here who he's only seen in passing. May as well.]

I've compiled some statistics on death here in Beacon you might all want to be aware of. Spent some time searching through the past bulletins, discussions on the network, and following up on general knowledge to figure out how many people in total we've had arriving on the ferry, and what the chances of survival are here. I'd had a few people ask me, since I was one of those who arrived in the first batch of the current group, and I wanted to have an answer for them.

We've had one hundred twenty-eight people here in total since July, including survivors of previous groups. Of those, around fifty died and never returned, while approximately fourteen deaths have resulted in an individual being recovered at the church.

[Not good odds. He frowns and taps the screen, pulling up a few more of his notes.]

If you consider each death separately, your chances of returning to life are a little better than one in five. Of course, many of you have heard that in August the spirits retaliated after we went to the lighthouse to connect Robin back up to the network. Twenty-four people died or went missing from what I could find. Since that event was an anomaly, even after the most recent attack, if you remove those people, you still only have about a one in three chance of being recovered after you die here. These numbers are kind of inaccurate since it looks like news of deaths doesn't always make it to Robin, but they should be close.

[He searches the gathering for one individual. Is she here? Whether she is or not, Rosinante continues with the strange accidental finding in the list he's put together.]

There's a young woman here by the name of Eleven. She was here in July and was reported as missing in August after the massacre at the party. She returned in October, a full month and a half or so after she disappeared. All other deaths seem to take less than one week. But Eleven, when she returned, was on the ferry and not at the church. I don't know what this means, but I thought you should all know.

[And he sits back, ready to take questions he almost certainly doesn't have the answers to. All he did was comb through names, sift through data. He's good at that. Maybe someone here will know something he doesn't about the results he's found.]

[When Ignis stands up, he has a notebook in his hand. When it comes to notes he is a bit old fashioned. But it somehow makes him think more clearly. He gives a nod to the group and shifts enough so he can see them all.]

First- I am Ignis Scientia, and I was [still kind of is] Royal advisor and retainer. During the time I spent in the shared dream, my group and I stumbled upon a research facility. I haven't found the facility on our map yet, and I have been spending time looking for it. That being said- there are some very important things that you need to note.

[He pushes his glasses up-] There is a lot of information so bear with me for a moment. I will try to keep it concise.

First thing- the name of the research facility was "Solis Labs". It was run down and surrounded by the forest and scrap metal, probably used for research purposes.

Two- as we moved into the first research laboratory, we have stumbled upon a lot of computers, tools, wires. There was a printing machine and formulas written on the board. If you need details on that, I suggest you look for Castiel, for the formulas were unknown to me. [As he's not a scientist.]

Three- the power in the building was still running, for better or for worse. The several programs that were installed on the computer are Museum Catalog, a printing program, a research log and a program called 'Sun'. I will start with the log.

The research log is focusing on building a certain portal. It had started in 1969 during the summertime. It doesn't state who was building it, but they had succeeded. They traveled back and forth through dimensions, taking items and bringing them back as proof. All of the items taken are now listed as museum items and put on display. However, beginning the springtime of the 1970s, something had spotted the scientist and considering the last entry when they say "-it wasn't worth it", I believe it followed them here. A lot of the data in this log is encrypted and lost, but this is the main gist of what I could draw out from it.

[He closes the notebook he was using as a reminder, and crosses hands in front of himself.]

And the last thing- the program called 'Sun' on the computer had put my dream to an end. I can only imagine it killed me, but it was way too fast for me to comprehend. [He looks thoughtful for a moment then nods,] If you want more information or a different point of view, I recommend talking to Miss Scarlett and Castiel.

I have my speculations on the matter, but I kept the information I passed to you clean of it. If you have questions, I will answer them as best as I can.

[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.

This time, Cao Pi waits until discussion about the dream visions drifts off before changing the subject, to the one more near and dear to his heart: defense.

"I will begin by acknowledging that during this attack, we had approximately half of our population out of commission. I'm sure things might not have been quite so dire if everyone was awake with a weapon in hand, but by the same token, I cannot say without taking a survey whether all of them can hold a weapon, let alone use it. So, I will not waste time talking about how things might have been, or might be if we simply have more fighters on hand. Numbers are not the main difference between life and death, here."

He pauses to nod deeply toward Riku. "I want to take the spirits at their word, that they will hold off attacking us if we don't do exactly what they want in the time they want it done." Oops maybe a little shade, sorry not sorry. "In time, perhaps we can build on that agreement and our communications. Until then, we cannot neglect our defenses and preparation. Inspector Javert's training sessions are going well, and the initial agreement to designate the Invincible as our fallback position worked. Yet, we clearly had no idea just how powerful some of the spirits are. We saw more than we had before - bigger, stronger, and with abilities we hadn't imagined. Then, there are the spirits with green eyes, which affect the mind rather than the body, and we currently have no way to stop those.

"My instinct is to want a wall, they've always served my people to keep invaders out to a point, but this location doesn't support one. That, and alienating the spirits by implying we don't want them entering the town could prove worse. But we must have better defenses than simply being armed and ready to fight. The Invincible is a prime location but it has too many entry points. The armory is an important resource but so far out from the square that people may die trying to reach it. I am open to any and all ideas, as well as further volunteers to spearhead our efforts."

[Bruce, who has never been particularly talkative or particularly visible, is an easy presence to miss at the town hall meeting. He listens attentively while other dreamers share their stories because like so many others, he's here to take notes. To fill in the blanks. But he makes no move to contribute on his own. Given that Peter Parker had been there with him, and he seems to be both well-liked and social, Bruce leaves him the task of group mouthpiece.

For his part, Bruce sticks to the periphery of the space, lost in the shadows of the building and unremarkable among the crowd. Perhaps his appearance is enough of an excuse- pale and gaunt it's possible to think he's ill. That must be the reason he's avoiding conversation.]

[ he's told a couple of people here and there — jason and riku, predominately, but he hasn't intended on keeping any of it to himself. his gut says it'll all start to make a little more sense when they've got the bigger picture, when they've got an idea of what everyone else experienced. that said, so far, there are still more questions than answers, but—

here they are. he hasn't yet seen villanelle (that had been her name, right? sort of sounded like a fancy french boutique); and though he thinks, loosely and vaguely, that he might have seen bruce, he doesn't think bruce is much of a speech-giver either.

whatever, there was a reason he'd enjoyed being a teacher, right? ]

—Peter Parker. [ no title; a breath of a pause. (it was the butler in the library with the candlestick—.) ] Church. The short version is: we discovered an ouroboros on the floor beneath the pews which, if I remember my Ancient Greek with a side of Ancient Egyptian correctly, was predominately used as a symbol for the circle of life, death and rebirth. [ a beat and he waves a hand. ] Periodic renewal, in other words.

There was also a note saying "we're all going to die", and—, [ creepy black tar oozing from the walls and an unpleasant smell. ], underneath the trapdoor was a tunnel. Slightly further down was a group of figures shrouded in white cloth. They didn't talk.

—Both the trapdoor and the staircase leading up to the bell tower looked as if people had either been trying to get in or get out.

[Ashford's hearing is still greatly impaired since his eardrums were ruptured by that strange little creature's shriek. This means that what he can hear of the discussion comes in ebbs and flows and he can't be sure of most of it. It's frustrating and to some degree humiliating to feel so useless, but he tries to mask all of that with a stern expression that he hopes will deter anyone from asking him any direct questions.

He stays quiet for the most part, something that, if you knew him, would set off an alarm bell, but luckily his newness to this place works in his favor where that is concerned. As far as anyone here would know he's just the quiet brooding type.

If you are out of his sightline and try to speak to him, he likely will not hear you. If you are in his sightline and try to speak to him, there is a decent chance he will not hear you correctly.]

Edited 2019-12-11 07:23 (UTC)

[ Coraline has hidden herself in a corner near the entrance, doing her absolute best to remain as unobtrusive to possible. Still, she does her best not to actually hide, not to curl in on herself until the shadows surround her. Because she has a theory. And if no one else from that weirdass shared dream is going to share it… well…

Maybe she’ll just message Daylight to do it.

She does her best to listen along, straining to get the general gist of what everyone is saying, and just hopes no one will bother her. Considering how hard she’s worked to avoid everyone else… maybe that’ll get the idea across… god they probably all think she’s like an asshole huh.

Fuck. ]

MEETING.
a.

( last meeting, Matt was more of a listener and a bystander than active participant. it was too fresh off the burn of Fisk and his machinations, he hadn't been able to trust the integrity of ... well, anyone. and at the time he'd been pretty determined to stay quiet and observe and get his bearings. he'd been pretty new at the time.

now things are a little different. he is concerned and invested in keeping any more useless deaths from happening, and that does require pushing outside of his safe bubble of lingering at the peripheral.

he waits for a lot of the discussion to blow over — it's important to share what they've learned from the spirit attack, and from the dreams. he doesn't have too much to add on that front, though he's willing to talk about what he "saw" if anyone asks. instead, he's got other things on his mind. he uses his cane to tap a subtle but distinct call for attention on the back of a chair. )

Since I've arrived, we've had not one but two extended periods of food insecurity. One was absolutely avoidable, ( ahem, ferry crash, ) but the other was not. I suggest we start a stockpile of nonperishable items from each delivery of supplies, put it somewhere secure just in case food shortages happen again.

( if they plan for it, then maybe they'll be better able to make sure there's food even if it doesn't necessarily show up on the ferry or worse, somehow disappears from the store. )

( tired of hearing matt talk? too bad, he's back at ya with another thing to say. when the discussion dies down on the first, he'll bring up something else. )

I know plenty of us were disturbed by the video and potential spirit attacks on Robin. I was able to get in contact with her, and her communications seem to be back in order. ( in case people are still worried and planning on scaling the fence. that said... ) It seems more and more like she's not entirely safe in the lighthouse. I wonder if there's something we could do to tighten her defenses or at least keep her communications more intact, even remotely.

WILDCARD.
( wanna check in with the blind guy? ask questions about his dream experience? just other stuff? steal his cane? yell at him for his robin stanning? feel free to wildcard him as he lingers around the meeting listening. )

[ Lunafreya is quiet for a while, but she doesn't stay quite for too long. When the room falls quiet for a bit, it's then that she lifts herself from the seat that she's taken, standing tall. At home, public speaking is something she is well versed in, and it shows in the confidence in both her voice and on her facial expression. ]

Good day to you all. I've not a lot of information to offer, but I wish to give what little I do have. The spirits that I spoke to seemed fairly strong; they were able to mimic my voice and the voices of those I knew from my world. They told me that they wanted us to listen. They also informed me that they could not remember their name, and they allowed me to give them one: their wish was for me to let everyone know that they want to be called Somnium Visus.

[The long and short: she doesn't want to be here, she's actively uncomfortable being here, and she likes Soldat more than she dislikes anything else, and whenever an opportunity presents itself she will launch into the following with a telling lack of preamble or mirth:]

Soldat got information he thinks is worth sharing from a friendly spirit he's in contact with, and who you shouldn't go looking for or harass or anything. There's - I mean, a list here. Roughly condensing.

Spirits are dead, the entire world is dead - not just lacking in light, whole cloth dead. Green eyes are in charge of other spirits, attacking anyone awake was their 'job' and described by the spirit as "good, but hard". No idea what that means. They don't like us or other spirits. The good ones hide when bloodshed starts - they're spooked, too. If we fix the town the spirits will vanish entirely, somehow. We're supposed to lead them.

His working theory is they're dead former natives.

And that's about all I've got.

[Fin.]

Threaded | Flat

no subject

Maes Hughes | OTA

Rosinante | OTA

Ignis Scientia | ota

no subject

Cao Pi | open