[OTA - MINGLE] Town Hall meeting

[markwatney]

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!]

Comments

[copingskills]

Elena was still relatively new, still dealing with the whole idea of being here at all, and though there were a lot of familiar faces, she hadn't gotten to know most of them on anything more than a visual level.

Still, Mark's words cause something almost painful in the pit of her stomach even as he first starts to talk about it, because it all sounds very familiar.

She speaks up before her nerves force her to stay silent.

"I did." Her voice sounds loud in her ears. "Mine has coffee in it, too."

She doesn't know if that part in particular is relevant, but it's worth mentioning either way.

OTA +Mark

[3ofswords]

Kira's hardly taken off Ty's coat since he found it while unpacking the brick house for the winter. It hadn't been mentioned or included with his second letter, which had unfolded around a photograph of his younger sister--but been stuffed at the bottom of the sled, under piles of jeans and a slew of hideous belts. The same coat, sporting evidence of the same blood stain, that had been taken off him when they'd left him for dead in the street. And there had been his cards in the pocket, if nothing else from that day.

How was he to know they'd already been there? He'd presented them all to Mark, without in-depth explanations of their relevance, and given the coat one last scrub before working it into his day to day wardrobe.

He sits hunched in it by Mark as he speaks, waiting for the opportunity to weigh in. Once Mark caught him on the other side, his willingness to play along notwithstanding, he'd known he'd have to explain his actions eventually. They didn't seem like a malicious or vindictive group, but--that could change. Better to get ahead of it in an organized setting.

"They didn't mention punishments in mine, but it felt a bit implied," he starts, getting up with his hands in his pockets, each one around another piece of home. "Some of you seem to have known me before, so I hope you'll understand that I wouldn't normally take anything, but choices are easier when they don't feel like you really have one." Pulling the photo of Chiyo carefully from his pocket, he holds it up to the light: "They sent me another letter a few days ago, offering me this for my cooperation. It's a picture of my sister. It even has the place and date written on the back."


For Mark

When things started to calm back down, the villagers talking to each other after asking their questions, Kira drifts back into Mark's orbit. He's been a good sport about it all, which was hardly warranted, and Kira has to wonder--how much of it was because of before? What had he done, how had he lived, to secure any standing with these people?

Given a few weeks to absorb it all, curiosity starts to bud in all the bitterness.

"Hey," he says, catching Mark at the arm, the photograph still in his other hand. "Thanks, for letting this play out. I didn't go into it hoping for much, but--these things aren't nothing, to me."

OTA; halfway through meeting

[theluckygirl]

Even feeling the way she's feeling, Claire knew going home wasn't the best idea. If she did have a mild concussion from the fall then sleeping was out of the question for at least a few more hours. She doubted it, but one could never be too careful and she would be quite the hypocrite for giving others a hard time for not taking care of themselves if she didn't do it herself.

It was after stepping into the inn that she noticed the note on the blackboard, remembering the neat printing and the botanist she'd met a couple months prior.

Turning, Claire looks towards the door that she had just came in through pauses before making the the decision to walk over, as painful as would be because obviously something was going on.

Once inside, she stood inside the entrance, leaning against a piece of wall while listening to bits and pieces of conversation happening between the other villagers that gives her enough to figure it out. None of it sounds good, yet 'weird' and 'ominous' seems to be the how best to describe the place.

Claire scoffs and shakes her head. "Unbelievable."

OTA

[cleptes]

Bela is here for the meeting, but she's lingering at the back of the town hall, arms folded. She hasn't received any letters nor any other goods so she isn't quite sure how she could contribute to the overall discussion.

Yet.

Part of her knew that coming here would be a good place to meet people and engage with her fellow villagers, maybe even find a roommate along the way. She's kept to herself for the past while, only coming out whenever she needed something; it had to change if she wanted to survive the harsh winter.

Despite not looking very open for a conversation, Bela won't say no to any company if people approach her.

Moana OTA [with some info]

[chosenbytheocean]

"I got a letter too." Moana admitted feeling a little sheepish about not bringing it up earlier. Ned was the only other person who knew that she had gotten a letter. "It was about five weeks ago. I didn't want to steal anything so I left something that I found here that wasn't... technically mine. It didn't do anything."

She paused before continuing from the beginning of the story. "The letter kept showing up. The first time I ripped it up, the next day I burned it and the third day... I think I dissolved it in water." Moana had been finding very creative ways to get rid of the letter. "It showed up outside first and then in the kitchen and then in my bed room at the inn. I never saw who left it and until I did what it said it kept coming back."

It had been very unsettling.

OTA [watching all you]

[ithuriels_blood]

Clary was sitting on the sidelines, watching as the meeting took place. She didn't have anything to add to Mark's spiel but she had come to listen and people watch. Her bright emerald green eyes slowly made a pass through the people who had gathered as she picked at a small plate of meat that she had swiped from the kitchen. What was a show without a snack?

She doubted this was everyone trapped in the village but it was probably at least half of the people stuck here? Interesting.

Clary recognized some people but not everyone. Those she didn't recognize she tried to remember so that she could learn their names later. If there was an ax murder among them she was going to find out. Thank's to Ravi and his over active imagination she now slept with her bedroom door locked.

Clary would flash a smile at anyone she made eye contact with though she didn't seem to eager to remove herself from the bar stool that she'd perched herself on. She was comfortable where she was.

In front of her was a small pile of papers. If anyone walked closer they would see that they were copies of the village maps that Clary had been making with the paper she'd gotten from Jude over a month and a half ago.

OTA

[iron_beneath_beauty]

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."

OTA

[zomboligist]

Ravi has absolutely not received any strange chain mail letters, which is for the best because the last time he got a spam email like that, he'd deleted it even though it swore that his mother would die in seven minutes if he didn't. It's a good thing she hadn't, because superstition over that sort of thing is the last thing that Ravi needs. Still, here? Here, it's not at all a superstitious thing, because he well and truly believes that the consequences are true.

That said, this seems...well, he's not entirely sure that you can be threatening when you're insisting that someone shares. Well, you could be, in his mind, but it sort of turns into a mental image of a tiny little kindergartner with his hands on his hips, a lisp, and a very adorable demand that sharing is caring and teamwork.

Clearly, Liv on maternal brains the one time is more than enough to scar him. "I'm just saying," he says, raising his hand, "that if you're hoping to avoid punishment from our benevolent overlords, I'll help with that coffee," he says, with a point to the various packs around, acting like it might be a true hardship when really, he might actually go into catatonic and euphoric shock at his first sip in so long.