sixthiterationlogs | [OTA - MINGLE] Town Hall meeting

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: Town Hall
WHEN: 10 Dec 2017, sundown
OPEN TO: All, mingle
WARNINGS: N/A

Since that tense standoff in front of the peach trees, Kira and I have been waiting to see whether the promises in the letter he'd received would come to fruition. I'd actually left the stolen papers out there longer than I'd intended, not wanting to disrupt the process further if I hadn't already ruined it by catching him in the act. Now that he's confirmed to me the arrival of what, for most people here, would probably be a collection of true treasures, I can't put off the inevitable. We need to let everyone know what's happened, and find out if we're alone in being targets.

Because this morning, I received a "mission" of my own, in the form of a box filled with 3 vacuum-packed, single servings of ground coffee. Speaking of treasure.

Before the breakfast rush, I made a note on the blackboard in the Inn's front room, the writing big and bold enough that nobody should miss it:

VILLAGE MEETING TONIGHT, TOWN HALL, SUNDOWN

Fortunately, there's little enough to entertain a person in this place that plenty of people show. Kira's in the front row with his "gifts," presumably ready to back me up despite not seeming to like me much yet. I guess I can't blame him, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the rapport I had with Old Him.

"Hey, everyone," I call out, waving to get the small crowd's attention. "I asked everybody here tonight because we've had a development that I think we all need to know about. Kira here—" I pause, pointing. "Not too long ago, he got a letter. It asked him to steal something of value from someone and take it to the peach trees over on the East Side. It said if he did that, he would be rewarded. When he tried to get rid of the letter, another copy would always turn up. So, he did it. And putting aside that dubiousness for a moment, the reward was delivered. He found some items from his home that couldn't have gotten here without intervention from our hosts. Today, I actually got a box of coffee with a note asking me to take a portion and pass it on. Like a game or a chain letter. The note I got was threatening — If I don't do as asked, it says there will be a punishment. So."

I pull in a deep breath and spread my hands. "I know there's only so much we can realistically do about all of this, but has anybody else gotten anything like this?"

[If you want to thread with Mark directly, please say so in your subject line and let me know. Otherwise, this is a MINGLE and folks can jump around at will. Have at!]

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It was the letter that caught Lyanna's otherwise shifting attention. Pulling out an envelope of her own from her cloak pocket, she unfolded the letter and held it up for others to see. "I received something as well, but it didn't tell me to steal anything. It said that I should harm someone, physically or emotionally. I tried to destroy it as well, but another appeared on my doorstep."

It looked to be the same block letters from the note Beverly had received and now Kira's. Only now it seemed that everything was being escalated. "Are these being chosen for us specifically? Some are only being told to steal, others to hurt fellow villagers."

Clint came to the meeting, of course - any meeting that Mark called, something important was up, even if it was just about organizing daily work rosters for harvest. None of the communal gatherings have been pointless, a fact that he appreciates, and most of them haven't been for emergency situations, which he also appreciates. This one doesn't strike him as an emergency, but rather something they have to watch for, be wary of, and try and find some sort of reason for it.

It was entirely possible the Observers were just massive assholes.

But Clint's been on guard about this since he found Bev trying to destroy her own letter in their fireplace. He'd even offered to steal for her, but they were both in doubt about that being effective since Bev had gotten the orders. But here, now? He has a possible out for this place, or at least a way of finding more information. For that, he's willing to risk quite a lot. So when Lyanna finishes explaining about her letter, and the new conditions, he speaks up.

"If you - or anybody who got one of those letters - want to hurt someone to see what happens, you can hurt me. I'm willing to try just about anything to find a way home."

Annie doesn't go still. She goes still when she panics, sometimes, but this isn't panic. This is just sudden, gripping unease, and that she has dealt with all her life. Sudden stillness can catch a Peacekeeper's attention, if they are being dicks or paranoid. New ones, especially. So she doesn't go still when Lyanna speaks up and she doesn't go still when Clint talks.

From her perch next to Finnick (really, behind might be a more accurate description, as the small woman is hiding behind her husband as much as one can while, technically, sitting next to them) Annie focuses on Clint, and chews the inside of her lip thoughtfully. She couldn't do it. He's a solid, strong man with massive shoulders, he carries himself like he knows how to handle himself, and he could hurt her, badly. She doesn't know him, trust him, enough for this.

Not unless Finnick was there to swoop in and use the advantage of youth on top of his physical prowess and training to rescue her if things go wrong.

But, well, it's an idea. It's an idea that she and Finnick have already raised amongst themselves, and she already has the counters in her head. Does it count if the target invites it? Offers it, welcomes it?

Except that the words are stuck in her suddenly parched throat. The words, the knowledge, of admitting what the Gamemakers want her to do, twists inside her and she can't, she can't say it. She does, however, have that convenient husband.

Finnick will find a sudden, sharp elbow in his side, with Annie looks up at him with her eyebrows arched. She glances at Clint then back to Finnick, tilting her head in a gesture of both what do you think? and please say my words for me?

It's one of those things between the two of them that is not really an agreement, more a mutual sort of understanding: usually, it's Finnick who speaks up in the meetings. It goes back to Panem, to times when he as mentor had to step in and speak for her while she went further and further into the maelstrom of her thoughts. He's the charismatic one, the one used to drawing people's attention every time he walks into a room. He's the one who learned to charm Panem all those years ago in the parade, in the interview, in the events he'd done after his victory.

He glances across when she elbows him and he gives a nod so brief as to be barely perceptible. He doesn't want to admit what they'd asked her to do either, but pretending that he's asking for his own sake is an easy enough lie to a man used to living lies.

"You think that still fits their orders?" he asks, his tone offhand, casual, as though it were a matter of curiosity rather than a potential answer to his and Annie's problem.

She glanced down at the letter, uncertain and wary. In bringing it up, she hadn't been looking for a way to fulfill the conditions. A part of her wondered if it was wise to even alert others to this new game. She should have guessed people would want to be brave and volunteer to play the victim to her brute. It didn't sit well with her.

She frowned as she looked up at Finnick, someone she had seen a few times but never really had the chance to get to know. He was right to be skeptical, just as she was. It seemed the woman next to him felt the same way too.

"I don't know. Do we even know what happens if we went against them?" That might require knowledge about what they wanted.

"Do we want to find out?" he asked.

That was the important question to him, and his answer so far had been no. He was thinking about Annie as this conversation happened, thinking about the letter she'd received and the way she'd been distant and uneasy ever since. They were in a situation that meant it wasn't just a matter of choosing to do what they were told or not, but of Annie's belief that she couldn't, not since her Games.

Finnick didn't want to know what the consequences were, but he didn't have much of a choice if he couldn't persuade Annie to hurt him.

"There could be punishment." He said it coolly, as though he were just offering up the options rather than voicing his own fears, but Lyanna looked unsettled by the situation too. He didn't have a good enough read on her yet to know whether the letter's request made her uneasy or its consequences did, but it looked like she didn't like something about it.

She wasn't sure about that. It seemed like a poor idea, but one that might answer several questions. "Would they even notice if we didn't do what they wanted?" Some hadn't followed the letters before and nothing happened. Maybe if it happened enough times they would respond?

There was so much uncertainty attached to the Observers. It was hard to even predict what they might do or think. This was the first time they were reaching out to them, beyond the usual presents and strange pods. There was never any notes attached to them, this was the very first written communication they ever received.

"There could be. There could be punishment for anything we do. I think it depends on what we are willing to do and what we are willing to fight back against." There would be a limit to how much a reward could compensate for hurting someone they cared for.

"It's dangerous," or they could be overestimating the Observers.

She cringed at the idea of following through with the instructions at all. With how they were escalating, how long until it asked for something worse? This letter told her to harm someone, what else could come after that but death? "I don't think we need to see what happens. What happened after the last letters? It might be the same?"

No one had said if they had actually done it, but it seemed unlikely they would really admit it. Who would want to admit to being a thief?

She didn't know Clint, except in passing, but the idea of actually hurting him seemed unthinkable. Even if it was an accident or with permission, it would be something that could haunt her. There was enough blood on her hands for her liking.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't think that would be a good idea. It's dangerous. We don't know fully what the Observers want or if that could be what they had in mind. What happens if we step outside their guidelines. We have never seen them angry before."

[OTA - MINGLE] Town Hall meeting

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