FAMILY MEETING 2.0

[succiduous]

Who: Everyone. All Y'all. You Cannot Escape.
What: Info share because I know y'all got the plot
When: Late August, post Flower-Murdering
Where: The Inn
Warnings: triggers should be tagged appropriately in post headers! please and thank you!!


[Gnosis has government assigned himself "guy who bothers everyone about the plot" this time around. He craves information. You have information. You will give the information up during what he's calling a Town Hall, but was previously called a Family Meeting.

People who do not show up for the "what the fuck just happened this month" meeting will not be forcibly dragged into it, but will receive the most Disdainful, Judgemental look. Can you truly stand to be judged so harshly by a 35 year old man... no. You cannot. (You probably can actually he's not that intimidating.)

There are no snacks (currently) but there is freshly-brewed tea by Gnosis himself, and there's a framed corkboard he's brought downstairs (presumably out of his room) with notes on it, as well as some of those mysterious photographs that have been taken of everyone that he's asked to have. You know, so he can piece this puzzle together. Once everyone's gathered...]

Let's get started. Some of you have been here longer than others, so I hope you can volunteer information so we can figure out where we are and why, and anything else we later arrivals might have missed from the collective puzzle. Please try to stay on task.


[[ooc: hi hello this is your share-the-plot-ICly log, with the goal of a) catching up new arrivals and b) making sure information circulates ICly to avoid metagaming. which like that hasn't been a problem but you know, just in case. if you've never done one of these before they function a bit like this where everyone shares important info they've discovered with the class.]]

Comments

[prozaic]

[this could have been an e-mail--

a meeting, is it? at least it's not like the meetings back at rhodes island, all stuffy and formal. shalem can relax and not hide his fatigue, the way the circles under his eyes are much darker than when he first arrived in the grove, the way he's wearing his jacket properly for once, just to cover his forearms. he's done a great deal of weed-whacking in the past hours, days, and he's... quite tired.

if anyone were to approach him however, he raises a hand.]

Please, don't mind me. I'm here to be caught up on the collective knowledge... [then he shrugs in embarrassment.] I'm afraid I haven't anything to report.

[no treats to be had for someone who has nothing to contribute.]

But I shall endeavour to be of use next time... Unless there's some physically-demanding, perhaps time-sensitive quest that needs to be done...?

[simplicitas]

[Elsword and Shalem haven't had time to talk yet, but he quietly hands over a photograph in a nice frame, depicting the Grove's current residents — and some other unrecognizable faces — as they would have been years ago. It's akin to the creepy childhood photos left in everybody's rooms earlier in the month, the ones Gnosis is apparently collecting for ? science ??? except it's the entire group. Yes, there is in fact a little Shalem in there, standing with a little Mizuki and a little Gnosis and a little everybody-else-that's-here.]

...I don't have anything for you to do, but... I thought maybe you'd want to see this. I found it in the Manor about two months ago.

[prozaic]

Oh? [shalem is not expecting this... but photographs? he recognizes that this place has a thing for strange little photographs, and thus shalem readies for something terrible, like death in the mansion in the woods.

though, perhaps, given the trend recently, he should have realized that the photograph would be about them. he immediately spots himself as a boy, wearing the clothes he had as an understudy in the troupe, the gleam of his badge pinned to his chest.

his breath seizes in his chest and he has to inhale and exhale a few times to come down from the rising panic inside him.]

Did the other photographs come from the manor as well?

[simplicitas]

Not as far as I know. Just this one. It was there when I broke in.

[If Shalem looks upset, Elsword will tuck the frame back under his arm. He won't have to look if he doesn't want to.]

But I don't know where else the other photos would've come from. Uh, but the Manor was full of a lot of stuff. A diary and a map of the Grove. We're in a very, very small part of it.

[prozaic]

[without conclusive evidence, shalem really does have to assume that the photos came from the manor in the woods... which means that this man has not brought them with him and then somehow knew to spread them around and leave them in the rooms of the people they depict.

it's mystery upon mystery, but shalem has had enough for several lifetimes.

he sighs softly, one hand coming up to brush his hair over his shoulder.]

I wonder, then, if there was a whole album inside that building, and you only managed to find one of the photographs within. But it should be impossible to capture any of us together, when we were never in this place before.

[and it should have been impossible to obtain an image of shalem as a child. when the troupe does away with someone or loses them to a turn of the coat, they remove evidence that they ever existed. only phantom is the exception, as their favourite.]

Might I see that diary?

[simplicitas]

That's what I think, too, and there are people in this photo that aren't here with us now.

[There is definitely tiny baby Phantom in there somewhere.

Elsword nods to the latter question.]

Yeah, you can. I put it— uh... [Down on a side table in the lobby so that he didn't have to carry so much stuff the whole time. Elsword spins on his heel to grab it, then comes back and hands it over. It's a dusty old thing.] Here. Feel free to peruse it.

[The diary starts off pretty basic— it details the creation of trade routes between two places Elsword hasn't heard of before, Haven and Roseroot. It talks about a lone mother taking in other children, about two siblings trying their hardest to survive. There are other little details contained therein about further trade routes, economics, boring stuff like that — every other entry seems to be about one of the residents of the Grove.

Notably, some of those residents are listed by name — Felicity Morais, for example, being one of the siblings mentioned.]

[prozaic]

[shalem's brow wrinkles as he begins to read right where he is, and it furrows even further the longer he goes. how did the denizens of the mansion know about them? how are they able to gain accurate images of them as children, despite being entirely fabricated?

but the name felicity catches his attention, and he pauses. his mouth twists. this is not the felicity he knows, is it? shalem flips to another page in the hopes of making sure, but no, it's just that one page.]

Are some of these people named... are they still here now?

[simplicitas]

I think so. Felicity is here. Uh...

[He didn't read too far ahead, but:]

...me and my sister are mentioned in there, too, but my sister isn't here currently. It's just me.

[prozaic]

[best that she's not here, shalem thinks. best that phantom isn't here either, despite him being part of the photograph-- this place would prey on his lack of self-preservation.

however, the answer shalem receives doesn't alleviate his concerns. in reality, it makes his worries far worse, and he thinks that perhaps he should be cautious around felicity for a little while.]

There's nothing about our lives in our original worlds, is there? It's so strange, to se my name attached to occurrences here.

[amhran]

Ah... What sort of knowledge do you need? I would be happy to tell you anything... I suppose we can start with.. What do you know, of the Grove right now?

[prozaic]

Ah... [did he do something to make her so nervous? or did she encounter something?

or perhaps, she's always like this and this can't be fixed. perhaps shalem should dig a little more soon, see if what she's always so nervous over is something that can spill over to threaten others.]

Hmm... Let's say I know nothing except that the people local to here are relatively friendly-- or at the very least not hostile to us.

[amhran]

Oh okay... [ Caoimhe goes to open her mouth and begin - but then stops for a moment. ] I-Is it alright if I speak in length, then? There are... Quite a number of things to share that I can go over?

[prozaic]

That's quite all right. [shalem leans on the nearest available surface that can hold his weight, lacing his fingers before him like an attentive schoolboy.]

I've naught but time, you see.

[amhran]

O-Okay, give me a moment to gather my thoughts.

[ I did link it on discord, I will link it here for continuation link. ]