That One With the Meeting [OPEN]

[pure_havoc]

characters: Cao Pi and OPEN!!!
location: the town hall
date/time: appx moonrise Sept. 2, for a couple of hours
content: Cao Pi proposed a meeting for everyone to talk about what ideas they have for organizing, protecting the town, and safely exploring their confines. This is that meeting. Newcomers are welcome as well! Assume characters have heard about it through the grapevine, but especially on Sept. 1 as Cao Pi makes the rounds and tells people this is happening. He will have a moment to orate but after that the floor is open, threadjacking is encouraged, and whatever comes of this is a complete free-for-all!
warnings: probably some discussion of character death. lmk if I need to edit this.

Despite the fact that Will Ingram's messages providing further information were yet to come, Cao Pi had made a public promise and he would hold himself to it, carrying out his meeting as described. At moonrise on the 2nd, he is already present in the town hall, hoping to see not just those who told him they would be there, but also some of the unfortunate newcomers freshly thrown into this situation. He had done his best to prowl around the Invincible and the bonfire, mentioning that the meeting would happen, but he still had to rely on word of mouth to do its work.

When he decides there are enough people present to begin, the Lord of Wei steps up before the assembly, clearing his throat importantly. "For better or worse," he begins, "we are a community. A town, if we are not a country. The hints and cryptic comments from the Lighthouse Keeper have suggested that we have a job to do, but we're still waiting on information as to what it is and why - why us, why the dead stolen from their worlds or their respective afterlives. But the recent mission to connect the Keeper to the network our tablets can access has shown a number of weaknesses that may hamper our ability to do any job, let alone the one which will keep us all from being permanently obliterated." Is that harsh? Too bad. He doesn't care. "We know a few things for certain. One, that we must carry out the purpose which the Keeper understands and encourages. Two, if we fail in any way, she will kill us all by ordering the spirits to destroy us. Three, the spirits deep in the forest are not just her weapon against us, but they have their own will and may attack or destroy anyone who simply wanders out too far. Our explorations have uncovered a number of things but not everything, by far. If you are new or simply haven't kept up on the recent developments, the record is here." He holds out a hand to the logbooks kept there in the town hall.

"I've asked you here to discuss the issues facing us in Beacon, and to offer up any ideas for how to solve those issues. There are quite a few of them, some that even I, perhaps, haven't considered yet. Please be orderly and take your turns, but I should like to hear from everyone. Whether you have questions, or have an idea you wish to share, please. Speak up. We will all be better for the sharing of ideas and discussion of pros and cons, rather than just waiting and hoping that someone will take charge and give us orders."

With that, he steps aside, inviting anyone and everyone to come up and speak. Or simply rise from their seat and speak. The floor is open, Beacon, use it to say things that you might not want anyone connected to the network to overhear. Sass the Keeper, gush about the Postmaster, whatever you want. Hopefully by the end of it all, someone might have some plans that can be brought about. For his part, Cao Pi is not putting himself up as any sort of authority or the one actually in charge, he literally is only there as organizer and moderator and nothing else. At least, so his cool half-smirk and perfect manners would suggest...

Comments

[consecrates]

[ all this talk about putting together committees and learning how to fight and welcoming teams—davina doesn't really want to dip her toes in it, having experience in it and the experience is not necessarily good. and while she's capable of certain spells that could fight and protect, she'd rather not use it when their opponent is the complete unknown.

at the very least, diplomacy towards the spirits is something she'd like to try out this time. she lifts her hand from the sidelines, sitting away from the group that's talking. ]

I can play the piano. [ and figured out how to play the ocarina in a few attempts or so. ] so I'd like to help in this venture.

[lunchbreaks]

Oh, good. Excellent.

[ He pulls out a few scraps of paper and unfolds them. ]

I transcribed the messages from the instructions here with their notes - I haven't been able to discern anything yet about their syntax but I thought if it might be feasible to ask them to describe objects we have, then perhaps we could have a dictionary and work on less concrete subjects from there.

[consecrates]

[ davina gets up from her seat to move closer, lifting her lantern and peering curiously at the papers he's brandished. it's the same ones that robin has sent via network but it's helpful that it's written down on paper. ]

We could do that, [ she says thoughtfully with a tilt of her head. ] But the spirits don't use ocarinas to communicate so we'll need to translate their manner of speaking to music. [ with her last interaction with them, they were cooing and bellowing. ] ... Should we try the library and see if there's anything that can help?

[lunchbreaks]

Oh, yes, that would be very useful. I've been looking at all the astronomical and geography books, hadn't thought the musical ones would be of any use.

But yes, we should start there!

[consecrates]

I also didn't think musical books would be of any use, [ davina admits, frowning at the transcriptions. ] I can't really see any patterns based on the songs and their respective meanings but we can also ask the Librarian for his help. [ since he's technically a spirit too, right? ]

[lunchbreaks]

Ah yes, I was going to speak to him next. He's very friendly, but he does like to eat. If you have any suggestions, perhaps we could bring him some snacks and ask him a few questions!

[ Later, Aziraphale will find out the Librarian's name, and how to say "cookie." ]

[consecrates]

[ she hasn't met the librarian yet so she's not sure what to expect of him. but if he thinks that all he needs are snacks, then ... ]

Perhaps we can ask them how to warn us if there's danger that's approaching. The spirits know more about this place than we do so them warning us can help us help them. [ that makes sense, right? ] Last time, we couldn't understand each other, which was confusing as to why they were attacking us.

[lunchbreaks]

Yes, that's a very good idea.

[ He takes out a paper and pen and starts to scrawl down notes of what to find out. ]

It appears instrument is not terrible important, but I haven't discerned whether length of notes, or notes played on different octaves, or in a different key make completely different messages...

[consecrates]

[ she hasn't discerned it yet either, and she hasn't had the opportunity ] I think the best way to figure that out is with the help of a forest spirit. I think the Librarian would be the best spirit to test this out with.

[lunchbreaks]

Yes, he's very amiable.

I speak to him quite often, I believe he is something of a friend now.

Are you well-acquainted?

[consecrates]

No, not really. [ she hasn't gone to the library yet, mostly because she doesn't think the books she needs are in there. ] I just know that he's around.

[lunchbreaks]

Ah, he likes sweet things, if you have any to spare. And he's quite nice to... try and communicate with.

[consecrates]

Sweet things ... [ there are candies in the general store. do those work? davina doesn't know, but she'll probably try one of these days to get whatever info she can from the librarian. she offers him an amused smile, though. ] You don't sound very sure when you said "try".

[lunchbreaks]

Well, it's rather difficult when you don't really share a language. They understand English just fine, I think. But the vocabulary is quite limited.

[consecrates]

Strange how they somehow understand English. [ they're spirits, after all. they clearly have a different language of their own, communicating via different sounds and understanding different notes—and yet they learned the english language. ] They must have been communicating with people who speak English for a long time.

[lunchbreaks]

Yes. Well, Robin speaks English. I assume many of the people being pulled here do as well - seems a bit biased, as the most well-spoken language from home when I was there was Mandarin Chinese. Haven't met a single person who speaks it.