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

cw: richard dawkins

[tisnotthehouse]

It's deeply amusing, to Tarantulas, how Vika insists on bringing up his mental issues and anti-social tendencies over and over. It barely even sounds pejorative anymore, more like a simple descriptor. He can picture her pointing him out of a crowd to some newcomer, saying something like, 'Oh, there goes Tarantulas, the big purple mad scientist.'

"That's understandable, given how you were raised." He acknowledges her suffering with a sympathetic nod. "But for the children of loving parents, it seems..."

He pauses for a moment, to consider his words. "When organics reproduce," he begins again, "they give of their own genetic material to create a new being. The code of their physical existence, stripped down and recombined to create an entity that is like them without being a copy. Even species that reproduce via natural cloning will experience genetic drift over time, although it is usually to their species' detriment. But when a sapient organic raises a child -- and I should mention that sapient organics usually do, I suspect the selection for close parent-child bonds is a necessity for developing true social intelligence -- they are contributing something else as well. The parent's memes are passed down; the components of their beliefs, their values, their morality and history. A genetic tie is not necessary for this to happen; anyone who interacts with a child for any length of time will do it. But in the parent-child bond I see something special. Something that Cybertron has always lacked."

[lastofthefirst]

Damn Tarantulas, you're gonna be really disappointed when you learn that she's memeing on you from her limited exposure to Ace's comic books. Try not to think too hard about how the boy robot gets a sword and was encouraged to love comic books.

"Mm. And I take from this that you feel you've got memes worth passing down. Where you lose me is how you ever fathomed I'd think that about myself." She jerks a thumb at Eligos's note. "My track record on the idea front is pretty bad."

[tisnotthehouse]

"Well. Even organics usually agree that not everyone is meant to be a parent. Unless they belong to a breeding cult -- those pop up with distressing frequency and they never lead their planet anywhere good. But yes, I do think that -- or at least I thought so back then."

He tries to appear disaffected as he notes, "Who knows when I'll get another chance?"

[lastofthefirst]

"...When we finish the job and get brought back to life? Duh?"

[tisnotthehouse]

"It's more complicated than that," Tarantulas responds, frustrated. "I tried to replicate the methods I used to create Ostaros for over three million years, but I could never --" He growls quietly, fangs twitching. "The pieces were all there, but I could never bring them back together in a way that worked. I even tried to convince Prowl to take me back --" He laughs bitterly. "I thought maybe, if I could be inspired by him again -- I know it was stupid. I can't even say I didn't have it coming when he and Springer blew up my lab, again. The only defense I can offer is that at the time I thought Ostaros was long dead."

"Perhaps it's time to research new methods," he muses. "They can create artificial souls from magic here, did you know that?"

[lastofthefirst]

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

"...Dude. Will it help you make better decisions if I threaten your life? Do you need someone on hand who's willing to threaten your life? Do you not hear what you just fucking said to me? About getting back with your ex? That bit? Did you hear it?"

[tisnotthehouse]

"Now who isn't listening? I said I tried it, past tense, while I thought Ostaros was dead. Obviously it changed everything when I realized he was still alive. I don't want anything to do with Prowl now; he had his chance and he blew it."

"...Admittedly," he says after a moment, "Stalking Springer and his human friend for a year and stealing their interstellar wi-fi probably wasn't the most mature way to handle the situation either. I can recognize that now."

[lastofthefirst]

Vika draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags her hand down her face.

"49276d20676f696e6720746f206265617420796f7520746f2064656174682077697468206d7920666174686572277320636f727073652c20736565206966204920646f6e2774206675636b65722e" she says in a Tired-Ass Voice, before switching back to Emeran. "I'm glad you fuckin' noticed eventually. How am I the person here with sane parenting opinions. Riddle me that."

[tisnotthehouse]

"Of the two of us, you're the only one who had parents," Tarantulas says archly. "I was forged. I came out of the ground at Eugenesis and was immediately snapped up by a courier company that had me making deliveries between the Lithium Flats and those snobs up in Altihex for the next five thousand years. Worst years of my life, and I'm counting the centuries I spent trapped in my own torture dimension."

[lastofthefirst]

"Your what."

[tisnotthehouse]

"You've been calling me a mad scientist since we met, but this surprises you? Surely I'm not the only one who can see the humor in that."

[lastofthefirst]

"...Okay. Walk off. I'll find a reply to that after I sit with it for awhile. Maybe contemplate your life choices."

[tisnotthehouse]

"Oh, if you insist." Tarantulas heaves himself back up to his feet and fixes his coat with a few quick gestures. "Good talk."

And off he goes, to hang out on the wall like a creeper until River shows up to talk to him. This is his life now.