An Assortment of Happenstance (Random Events Wave 2)

[pumpkinhollow]

Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin

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It's been a while since the community board has been redone! The weather hasn't really been permitting long excursions into town square to do up the board, especially since the blizzard, but today is a clear day for once and Yorick is in a hurry to get it all set up for Merrymeet.

He helpfully posts a few announcements.

COMMUNITY GATHERING AT TOWN HALL TONIGHT

A community gathering is scheduled in Town Hall tonight for all new residents ("offworlders") to discuss their recent experience with a mass shared dream event. Locals who are native to Pumpkin Hollow will be present to listen, learn, and help make sense of this strange dream. The intent of the gathering is to ascertain the meaning of the dream and share details to create a bigger picture.

Sweet potato muffins will be provided, courtesy of Cecil. The meeting will officially commence at 6pm. Dress warmly!

MERRYMEET FLOWER QUEEN VOTING

Voting for the Flower Queen of our upcoming Merrymeet celebration is now officially open! Please cast your vote for one of the following candidates from our final pool of nominees:

Dahlia Leeds, town councilwoman and Historical Society leader.
Annabel Lee Whitlock, seamstress and chess extraordinaire.
Mary Dahl, shop employee and freelance theatrical performance artist.
Magne Kikiishi, Oak & Iron employee and Fight Club leader.
Zelda of Hyrule, captain of the Mipha's Grace.
Sally Boyle, chemist/herbalist and proprietor of the Blackberry Apothecary.

Merrymeet will be held on Saturday, Feb. 24th, so all votes must be cast by then. This year's celebration will also feature our first Flower Princess in a while, Bobbin Kaspbrak, escorted by her keeper, Eddie! She is a chicken. (Note: the last Flower Princess was Butter Poe, a cat. She will sadly be unable to pass on her crown in the ceremonial manner due to being a cat, but she wishes Bobbin the best of luck.)

[ Ballot Box ]

BOTTLE COLLECTION NOTICE

ALERT TO ALL CITIZENS: down on Tawny Beach there have been sightings of bottled messages washing ashore that appear to be addressed to various offworld citizens. Please scan the beach or check in with Jack's Marina Port Authority to see if there are any intended for you at your earliest convenience.

[ Those who go to the beach to investigate may find a bottle carrying curled parchment with their name on it. Within, they will find a letter from a loved one from back home. The messages read more like prayers or thoughts about their subjects, often in third person rather than second, but contain important insight about how the writer truly views the recipient that may guide them in this world. They are also obviously written in the handwriting of the person who sent them. It's unclear how they got here, but perhaps they can help. ]

After Yorick has long since walked away, another strange message also appears. Nailed to the bottom of the board haphazardly, a piece of twine with a large tooth tied to it and a piece of parchment. The text is written in a neat but jagged font, ink seeming to almost fray at the edges, outlining agreed upon terms for some manner of agreement. A shot that must be discharged within a lunar cycle, a soul to be taken from this plane by King Eligos, and a mandatory betrayal of trust. It is signed by both Eligos and Vika. A line in the terms is underlined.

For whatever purpose I deem fit.

Beneath the signatures a note is scrawled that reads,

"Never let it be said that syntax doesn't matter. You didn't think I was going to help you kill my own grandchild, did you?"

Those going to Town Hall for the community gathering will see that the Pine Devil skull that Vika had hung there is now shattered, and her notice gone. The Pine Devil is loose once more.

Comments

[lovinglefthand]

First Aid giggles -- very quietly, out of respect for the person speaking -- and pretends to complain, "I think you enjoyed that a little too much, personally."

After a moment he adds, "It was nice. Really nice, to have a face like that. Being able to smile at people...I kind of miss it."

[thelatechrisfreeman]

"Not so much... given the occasion, and what we were running from."

Chris gives a thoughtful hum at First Aid's comment. "We've been updating Vika's body to be more the way she wants it. We could do the same for you, right?"

[thethirteenthchild]

"Plenty." Dahlia is fairly well-read, after all. "But I'll need some more context."

[thethirteenthchild]

Dahlia lets out a slow sigh. "Hurt people hurt people, I suppose. But it was childish to make a scene. Not the kind of polished composure I'd come to expect from him. Perhaps if he'd let me speak, he would've known he's off the mark."

[arcanegrasp]

While their last encounter wasn't what Elias would call particularly pleasant, Elias can only watch Tarantulas struggle with his sight before he lends a heart. He'd always been a bit of a bleeding heart, hadn't he?

"I've seen dozens of names, and I think I saw some starting with T towards the very bottom of the notes," He notes, offering Tarantulas a smile. It's a bit awkward, but he's clearly trying to be pleasant. They're neighbors now, in a general sense, why not try to mend that rough start? "I'm looking for one labelled... Thule, correct?"

Bottles

[300kgbackpack]

The bottles that Sam had gotten had surprised him. Like the one that Chris had rejected, Sam likewise had decided to uncork it and, in a fit of perhaps ill-advised catharsis, had hucked one labeled "Sam Strand" straight back into the ocean to let the water seep into it and send it glug-glug-glugging right down to the bottom. The rest had been carefully tucked into his pack to be opened and read later, when he was feeling more up to opening them. He'd find uses for those bottles.

He's distracted up until one of Chris' letters slaps against his shin, and he first glances around to see who it belongs to, then snatches it before it can get away, before stumbling after one of the others to snag.

Carefully, he puts his foot on the corner of the third to keep it from blowing off in the breeze. Lou, strapped to his chest while everyone else was otherwise occupied with the meeting and the bottles, is reaching for the rescued letters when he straightens up to offer them back.

"Hey Freeman, you good?"

[sistermagnetic]

Town Hall
She's here at the town meeting, though all in all, she doesn't feel as if she really needs to be. She, unlike most, had a delightful dream. One that left her a bit wistful, a bit melancholy upon waking, but nothing more than a dream, as far as she'd known. Learning that other people had actually experienced it was curious, though. She hands around, foregoing the muffins for now, simply listening to others recounting theirs and watching a dozen little dramas unfold around her.

Waterlogged Bottles
So many washed up. So many! So many people with someone at home that thought about them, that cared about them, a hundred insights into the lives they'd once had.

Magne strolls the beach, watching the bottles being collected. Depleted.

There are only a few left, and she picks them up, inspects the names...

Still not hers.

They get lined up near the head of the beach, on a creaky, sea breeze warped bench, with the names facing out so that they can be found easily.

Walking back down the beach, she tucks her hands into the pockets of her jacket, breath puffing out in clouds of condensation as she watches the water. She stands in silent vigil, waiting for one. Just one.

One that won't come.

[thelatechrisfreeman]

"I don't know," Chris says honestly. They take the rescued letters from Sam and immediately stuff the papers into their shoulder bag. "These things have kinda... thrown me for a loop."

On automatic, without really thinking of it, Chris makes the Emeran Sign Language sign for 'hello' at Lou. At least some things linger from the shared dream.

[300kgbackpack]

"Yeah, I feel that," Sam replies with a small nod. He doesn't blame them for not immediately opening them to explain. Shit's personal.

Lou screeches in reply and gestures in return, though it's less a sign and more of a flap. Sam, though, does do it, almost without thinking. Huh. Guess the whole thing with John wasn't all that stuck.

[theresalwaystheview]

Town Hall
Out of everything that's happened lately, the dream, and even its fallout, really seem like the best case scenario. He was pleased for the most part, and might be looking forward to seeing First Aid just so that he could tell him all about the tiny little automaton Anodyne, how absolutely precious he was, what if his friend could have a winged form like that even while he was larger! Delightful, really.

Of course, the encounter with the smiling fox creature still looms large in the back of his mind, as does meeting a man that he'd realized was long dead, in this time. He doesn't know who he should talk to about that, though. It seems...unkind, to track down one of the only remaining Leeds just to dredge up something that was likely to be painful.

Oh, there's Tarantulas. Who looks...very much like he had when they'd met. How peculiar.

Bottles on the Beach
When the bottles started washing up, Bart was happy to help collect some of them and make sure that the people that were also looking could find theirs. He was delighted to learn a little bit more here and there about the people that he'd met.

When he finds one with his own name on it, he's momentarily dumbstruck. Who's thinking about him? Who's left?

At first he wonders whether one of the future colleagues he would have had with the company, but that doesn't make sense either, unless they were wondering what happened to the Torgal Corp head and his heir had disappeared to.

Prying the cork from the bottle, Bart opens his letter as he's walking back home, and stops dead in the middle of the street.

"WHAT-"

Bottles

[lastofthefirst]

"It wasn't me this time I swear!"

[thelatechrisfreeman]

"I mean..." Chris holds out the one letter they kept hold of, and grouses, "just what am I supposed to do with this?"

Eternity -

Death Herself sends greetings to Mortanne, and to you the reassurance that She will not seek to claim you from the work you have volunteered for. Life goes on, as it must, but a disappearance in Gotham City is not impossible to come back to.

I am barred from teaching you, as to do so would run counter to why you were brought back in the first place. But I wish you the best of luck in working with the other teachers you will find on Marrow Isle.

- Mr. Keeper

CW ethics of suicide

[lastofthefirst]

"Existence itself is the first great filter. It selects for things that want to exist, to the point where people think of opting out as some kind of defect. They can't conceive of wilfully choosing otherwise, and how could they? The other point of view tends to die out, by definition." Vika's fingers close into a tight fist, metal straining audibly. "Before I ever came here, I didn't have that choice. Now I'm here and no one has it. Human, beast, devil, none of us can be finished. None of us can opt out. It hurts, doesn't it? It's a miserable fucking existence. And all I really did to the devil was betray it and remind it of the chains that bind it here. If that's a compassionate thought...fine. Better than being misunderstood about it, I guess."

[lastofthefirst]

Vika should answer the question, she really should, but the way this spider is dispensing sweet Vindication is just too alluring.

"This a good time to add that instead of building overrides or a kill command into my mind, they installed a separate self destruct system into all eight of us, didn't airgap it, and it got remotely deactivated by the fucking sapient Roomba they were also abusing?"

[thethirteenthchild]

For a long time, Dahlia is perfectly silent. What even is there to say to that? She can't even say she hasn't had similar thoughts. When she was younger, there was a fear of death, like being chased. Watching her loved ones be picked off, one by one.

Now... She's rooted to the spot, and alone. The thing that saved her is also what's trapping her. It's a strange feeling. There are a million things Dahlia could say to Vika about this.

But she doesn't. She leans over and rests her head on Vika's shoulder.

[lastofthefirst]

"...You're a better listener than others have been. I don't expect the devil to come here in front of everyone, but I have to try. I can't go hunting it through the woods after what's been done." Vika reaches her hand over and rests it gently on Dahlia's. "...I told Mortanne I'd come here and help people. I'm. Trying. Badly."

[thethirteenthchild]

"I know you are," Dahlia says softly. "I know. And I see you."

[lastofthefirst]

"...I hate to ask this, after you've been so kind."

Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click...

"But. What was your interest in this? I can't imagine being publicly outed as buying arms from Eligos has endeared me to people."

[thethirteenthchild]

There's a long pause as she decides how to answer that. "...I've lived here my entire life, and in a lot of ways, all our souls have flickered out and died from all the years of complacency. But you newcomers who have been trying so hard for us. Willing to try anything. Even crazy things. It's. It can be hard to understand, sometimes. But I'm grateful."

[lastofthefirst]

"Mm." Vika taps the back of Dahlia's hand with a single finger; light, almost airy, and most importantly not likely to pinch and hurt her flesh. "...I wouldn't mind a sense of direction, if we're being honest. I had someone with a plan to follow, back home. You'd like her. Nina, my descendant, she's...a real hero. I don't know what I'm doing, and what I was built for...well, it certainly wasn't mining. I can't butcher my way out of this one."

[tisnotthehouse]

The coat goes back down, and this time Tarantulas stuffs some of it past his fangs and into his mouth. A high, wavering shriek, like a broken steam whistle, issues from the thick fur. His feet tap against the ground in an agitated spider-dance.

Finally the coat goes back up and he demands, "And then you killed them, right? You and your siblings slipped your leash and killed them? That is how this story ends, isn't it?"

[lastofthefirst]

"I got one of them and died three minutes later leading the charge to the second. How the fuck did you think I got here, walking?"

[tisnotthehouse]

"Teleportation," he says dryly.

" -- I was shot in the back by my lover, after he realized I intended to side with my creation against him. Stupid on both our parts, honestly. Me for taking up with him in the first place, him for not realizing where my loyalties would inevitably fall. There was a reason I tried to keep him away from Springer and that Verity girl, after all."

His pedipalps twitch in a way that was probably intended to be a smirk. "I bled out on my own laboratory floor, but not before I got to watch Springer exile that fool to the temporal ends of the universe. Such an intelligent child, just as I meant him to be."

[tisnotthehouse]

Let it never be said Tarantulas was unwilling to accept an olive branch sincerely offered.

"Tar-an-tul-as," he corrects, but politely. "It's all one word. Whoever designed my identity for that dream must've thought themselves very clever."

He scuttles to one side, giving Elias room to join him in front of the crates. "Did you gather all of these? Then you have my thanks. This would be a much more annoying task if I had to do it with sand in my setae and between my claws."

After the Ianto incident

[lordoftheozarks]

"That was unfortunately dramatic," Erik says, holding an arm out to her in sympathy in case she wants to lean on him. "Are you all right? An unfair question, I know, but I don't know how else to ask it."