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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He can be good at that tone. Or at least he can be now. There was a time in his past when he wouldn't have cared what the letters said, or who they were given to. "Did you do as it asked?"

The fact that whoever is behind this is asking people to steal from each other is troubling for a lot of reasons he doesn't want to get into right now, but it seems that they will have to.

"Sort of but not exactly. It didn't work." She realized that it wasn't a complete answer and quickly replied to tell him more. "I put something that I had found at the base of the tree. It was mine but it also wasn't mind. It obviously didn't work because I didn't get anything after I did it."

It upset her, a little bit.

"The scary part was how the letters kept finding me. One had appeared in my room at the inn and I don't know how it got there."

"So you found a letter in your room telling you to steal something and you'd get a reward, and you didn't actually steal anything, so you didn't get a reward." He would probably have tried to find a way around it, before eventually giving in. It's not like stealing things is anything new to him. But there's no way to know now what he would have done. He wonders if that may have been a factor in how the letters were assigned.

"Other things appear in rooms. How do they get there? How did any of this get here?" Buildings and such. They didn't grow here. They can from somewhere.

"I don't know."

Moana had a feeling that the builds were placed there for them but it was hard to say for sure. "I found the letter outside first. Then in the kitchen and the next day in my room." It had been very unsettling. "After that I decided to try and find a way around it but I had to wait and see and... it didn't work."

She had tried her best and had failed.

"And if you had done as the letter asked, then you would have given some sort of reward?" That bothers him more now that it once would have. He'd made worse deals. So he's not worried about what it says about the people who left the letter; they've already shown how far they're willing to go for whatever their plans are. He's more worried about what it's doing to Moana to have to do something like this.

"You shouldn't feel bad about not doing what the letter asked."

"Yeah. That's what Mark said. Apparently Kira had tried it with stolen books and got a box like the one that Itiiti had shown up in." He knew her pet pig since it had often followed Moana around during the course of the summer as well as during her attempts to sail. Now Itiiti stayed at the main inn or across the breach where Moana had left her boat, if he wasn't hunting for mushrooms or roots he was usually sleeping.

Moana watched Killian curiously, her dark eyes sharp and perceptive. "What do you mean?" She wouldn't have stolen from someone unless it had been a life or death situation.

She didn't think that it was worth getting a gift at another's expense. That just seemed silly.

"But it didn't say anything in the letter itself about getting a reward if you did it?" That's what he thinks happened here, at least. He didn't get a letter, and hasn't seen one, so he doesn't know for sure.

"I mean that you shouldn't feel bad about not stealing something."

"The letter said that if I stole something and left it at the peach trees that they'd give me a reward." She didn't have the letter anymore or she would show it to him. It didn't have a lot of information on it.

"I guess." She felt bad for not telling anyone about the letter when she had first gotten it.

He can read some people better than others. He can't read anyone as well as he can Emma, but he does well enough. There's still something bothering her.

"You shouldn't feel bad for any other reason either, unless it means you'd do something differently if you had the chance."

Moana considered that and then shook her head.

"No. I wouldn't have done anything differently."

"Then what reason do you have to feel bad?" She can't change it. There's no point in letting it take over her thoughts.

Moana lifted her shoulders in a short shrug. "Because I messed up." Her voice sounded a lot softer and a lot younger than her usual tone implied. "Why wouldn't I feel bad about it?" It wasn't going to absolutely ruin her day but she hadn't meant to keep it a secret and she didn't want to repeat her folly.

"Just don't feel bad about it for too long. It's done, nothing can change that, and dwelling on it too much does no good. Find something more important to focus on, and work on putting everything else behind you." It had taken him a long time to learn that lesson, but he finally had, and now he'll pass it along to someone else.

Moana nodded her head in silent confirmation. She understood that, it was one of the reasons she was constantly moving forward and trying to help out.

She turned towards the captain with a warm smile. "Thank you."

[OTA - MINGLE] Town Hall meeting

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