sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] Breakfast Feast

WHERE: Lawn in front of 6I Inn
WHEN: Morning, April 5
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
WARNINGS: n/a

The day dawns bright and just a little cool, soft mist rolling over the distant mountains as the forest stretches and yawns in the breeze. It's another beautiful morning in this new-old village, just waiting for its inhabitants to begin filling it with the work of the day.

But this day, there is a surprise. A gift, if you will, not unfamiliar to the old timers, although they know too that sometimes these gifts come with strings.

On the lawn in front of the 6I inn, all of the tables, chairs and even the bar has been moved out into the breaking sunshine. A breakfast feast has been arranged, tables piled high with every imaginable delicacy and comfort food of a certain era: Muffins, toast, coffee, fruit, pop-overs, crumpets, lamb chops, porridge, hot chocolate, biscuits, and every kind of egg, just to start. Even the bar is stocked for those itching for mimosas, mint juleps or irish coffee.

Of course, anyone who has spent time in the wilderness can tell you: In a place gone wild, it's only a matter of time before the scent of food draws in unwanted visitors. Eat up while you can, villagers; you may be sharing your plate soon.

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Major can't seem to find his voice, but dear god, is he happy to have Ravi here. He knows he doesn't have to explain a thing, that his friend will have figured this all out already. There's a certain panic in his eyes when he finally looks over at Ravi's face, and he's wringing his hands to try and steady the tremor going through them. It isn't working, but it's making him feel a little better, given the circumstances.

"A sedative?" he asks, finally. "I - I don't know, man. I -" He gestures back towards where the feast is. "I tried the food. I tried the food, and none of it had any taste. The other feasts have been fine, I've eaten more at each than anyone should probably in their entire lives, but - this? This time, they were .. it was all ashy. It's just like what it's like when .."

Panicking in the face of Major's panic isn't going to do anything to help, that's the only thing that's keeping him steady. Well, maybe that and he has a feeling that they've done this before, only it's not so much that it's actually happened, but rather that Ravi has been planning for the dim eventuality of it.

"Do you want to come back to the lab with me?" he suggests, because whatever is going to happen next will not be good, and he doesn't want it to happen publically. "Maybe there's a rat or two with your name on it," he adds, a touch darkly.

"Do ... do you think that would work? The rats?" It's as good a plan as any, especially considering Major ... has absolutely no plan whatsoever. He doesn't want to be around a giant group of people, if and when ...

No, let's not go down that route just yet. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe he's just got a bug or something. Maybe the village is fucking around with him, as it's wont to do at random. Maybe it's some sort of side effect of the food itself. Maybe maybe maybe.

"Will I become a rat?"

"You might take on some of the characteristics," Ravi admits, because he only has Liv as a control at this point and from what he's seen, when Liv eats a brain, she takes on some of their traits. "I can give you my most mild-mannered rat?" he says, like that's somehow going to be a positive and not a very depressing reality that they're living in.

"Why now?" Then, he shuts up. "Never mind, you probably want to eat, not pontificate about why the environment changed and you're...you know, going au natural white again."

Major can only side-eye Ravi as hard as he can while not appearing ungrateful or insulting, because the idea of rat brains is slowly starting to sound more and more appealing as time goes on. And that's a pretty big red flag in Major's book. That means the craving is blooming, and it's probably best that they get away from everyone else as soon as possible.

He gestures for Ravi to lead first, but then he doesn't even bother waiting for that to happen. He takes off towards where he hopes the lab is, unsure of whether the new village has stuck to the original landscape.

"New village?" he finally mutters as he half-jogs. "Force field? Super power? I don't know, man, but I don't want this."

Ravi's more than happy to use his long legs and walk incredibly briskly to get them clear of other tempting sources of food, though he is probably putting himself at risk given that if the rat brains don't work, his very meaty, juicy brain is going to end up ripe for the plucking right there.

"I mean, I could theorize that wherever we were before wasn't actually real," he admits. "Our bodies showed signs of progression here after we got out of the fountain and if we were hooked up to something, it would explain why you were human. Your brain was tricked. Though," he admits, "if that were true, then you'd be beyond repair. So, maybe you were getting fed somehow?"

"Like, it was the Matrix? A simulation? Man, do you know the mental, existential breakdown I had when I saw The Matrix? I didn't know up from down, real from fake. I questioned literally everything in my life. I .. I don't wanna do that again," Major whines with a slight pout. It feels good to whinge about this, because the only other mode he can go into is full-out panic, and that never ends well.

If anything, that might speed along the turning process.

So, sorry, Ravi, you're going to have to deal with your grown-ass friend whining for a little while.

"I mean, real food filled me up. And it tasted the way it was supposed to taste. None of this ... ashy, bland bullshit that's going on right now." He gestures vaguely with his hand in the air to show his frustration. "You're telling me I wasn't even .. eating real food?" He turns, wide-eyed. "Do you think there was somehow-" he whispers, "-brains in the food?"

"I have to suspect that somehow you were getting the nutrients you needed," he says, and while he's taking Major to find something, Ravi's brain is already spinning with thoughts of what that could be and if he could somehow make a reasonable tofu-like equivalent to that at some point. He can't sustain Major on animal brains forever, so that's definitely priority one.

It looks like all his plans to research getting out of here just changed. "For all we know, we've been suspended in stasis, like being frozen," he adds. "Then the hunger wouldn't have turned you into a super zombie and it would only be re-triggering now." If only he had his cures, they wouldn't have to deal with this.

[MINGLE] Breakfast Feast

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