[MINGLE] Harvest Feast 🍂

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Inn
WHEN: 10 November, all day
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE POST
NOTE: Details can be found here.

---

In the wee hours of November 10th, before even the earliest risers have roused themselves for another day, items begin to appear in the front room of the Inn. Decorations first — Boughs of autumn leaves in their reds and golds, wreaths of dried flowers and silken ribbon, flickering candles among the goards and berries and acorns. The food arrives next, the decadent aroma slipping up the Inn stairs to tempt those lingering in bed — Every imaginable harvest time delicacy, from roast turkey and ham to smoked salmon and oysters; fresh, soft bread warm from the oven to plum pudding and ice cream. And did we mention pie?

Once again, it's time for a feast. The bar is stocked, the coffee is brewed and the tables are groaning with food. Indulge, there's more than enough for everyone — That is, if you don't lose your appetite worrying about what it will all cost.

Comments

[notsocommon]

"I'm not entirely comfortable with the whole setup myself. You're right to be suspicious," Helen said.

"I'm suspicious of it myself. Where I come from, there are unscrupulous sorts of men and women who capture people to experiment on them. They do this, of course, under the auspices of science and discovery but it's really just to be cruel and to twist the knife. I have to wonder what sorts of people run this place. Do they think they're doing good? Do they think they're helping us? Or do they want to just torment us in a new sort of way?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"People are experimented on?" It seemed unheard of, but it was hard to say what someone would actually do when pressed by madness. She had seen unthinkable things come out of King's Landing, all from the word of a king, someone who was supposed to protect his people. It wouldn't be a surprise that healers would experiment on their patients in a belief they were helping them...or in a mad pursuit of power.

"I don't know. I hadn't thought very much of the Observers. We are left alone, forced to suffer these conditions with the occasional strange happening. Maybe it is a test or meant to make us stronger? I wish there was more we knew about them. We might be able to judge them better that way."

[notsocommon]

"I wish we knew more about them too," Helen said. She tapped her fingers against the edge of the table, a nervous habit while she tried to think things through.

"I was in one of the first expeditions to an Observer pod. There were reams and reams of documents there, things that explained what they were doing but I couldn't make sense of it. I'm a scientist, I should have been able to, but I couldn't seem to understand them. When I tried to take them out, they crumbled into dust. I think these people don't want us to know who they are."

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"It's almost like they are toying with us. They give us glimpses of these pods and rooms, but they don't give us any information about what they are for." It was almost like a cat, batting around a mouse, not yet going in for the kill. It left them with nothing but fear and fear could be dangerous for a village. "Was the paper written in the common tongue? Or was it a language that you didn't recognize?"

She glanced around the room. It didn't seem as if anyone was really put off by the mystery, as most were enjoying the food. "What do the pods look like?"

[notsocommon]

"It was in English, the common tongue," Helen explained. "But it was written in such a way to be deliberately confusing. It was as if it was so dense that no one would be able to glean anything at a glance and we didn't have time to stay in the pod and take notes on it. Intentional, I imagine, because whoever is keeping us here likes to keep us in the dark."

As to her next question, Helen inclined her head a bit as she recalled it. "The pod I went into was carved into a cliffside. It had electronic equipment in it but older than when I come from...from possibly the late twentieth century but not the twenty-first. There were reams of paper about, as if it had been abandoned in the middle of an experiment."

[iron_beneath_beauty]

It was just enough then, enough of a glance for them to know there was information for them out there, but nothing substantial to help them understand what was happening to them. It was deeply frustrating, especially for someone that never had patience as a strong suit. What else were they supposed to do but wait for answers that might never come? Unless the Observers tired of this game, which she somehow doubted.

The centuries didn't mean very much to her, only that it was something that Helen somewhat recognized. "Do you think it really was left there and abandoned or was it set up that way? It's hard to know whether anything is genuine here."

[notsocommon]

"No idea. It could be either way, really, now that you mention it. My first indication was that the people had left it in a hurry," Helen said, thinking back over what she'd seen. It'd been over a year ago now and it was difficult to recall all the details of it in complete accuracy.

"But it could have just been the illusion of a hurry, the illusion that something interrupted them."