[MINGLE] Breakfast Feast

[sixthiteration]

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

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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.


[Please read details here!]

Comments

[theluckygirl]

The mention of 'anybody' had Claire glancing around for Mark, who she expected had noted and documented it already. Then again, the purple animal over by Karen now wasn't the only species of animal the nurse noticed come out of nowhere.

Rolling the last grape off her plate, she grinned.

"So, Ms. Reporter, what sorts of information have you managed to secure so far?" she asks her friend, knowing Karen might have gotten more of a chance to explore then she had. The clinic had gotten a box full of supplies that needed sorting before they were tossed into a closet somewhere.

[digging]

"Not a whole hell of a lot," Karen replies, and then laughs brightly as the animal snuffles at her neck. "I don't have any more!" she protests, but then realizes immediately she's wrong: There's one more strawberry hiding beneath a biscuit. As she pulls it from the plate, the purple alpaca makes a happy little trill and again gobbles up the fruit the moment she holds it out. It gives her plate another discerning look, sniffs once more at her hair, and then wanders blithely to another table.

"I seem to have outlived my usefulness," Karen adds with another soft laugh, and then looks back to her plate with a blink. Where were they? Right.

"Anyway, yeah. Not much, so par for the course. I want to hike out soon, see if I can find anything interesting, I just need to find someone to go with me." Because yes, she has at least learned that much. "Did you notice that some people's colors changed? I don't think I would have even noticed if not for the watch things," she adds, holding up her left arm and giving her wrist device a little shake.

[theluckygirl]

The whole scene was Claire not more than five minutes before and as the nurse watched the animal wander off, she let out an amused huff and lifted her drink to her lips while listening to her friend. At the question about scrubs changing colour she nodded.

"I did notice, yeah. A guy I know was in black before arriving in red when we came through the fountain again. And come to think of it, I heard a few people mentioning it."

A beat. "Something weird happened while I was helping some people out that day. It was like a surge of anxiety and panic, which might have been everything going on at the time."

It certainly didn't happen with everyone.

[digging]

"Like more than normal?" Karen asks with a curious tip of her head as she finally picks up her fork so that she can also enjoy what's on her plate. "Maybe it's the change, the stress? I mean, who isn't anxious right now on some level? I think we're all probably just sitting here eating our eggs waiting for the other shoe to drop even if we don't show it."

Still, it's odd that Claire would mention it if that was the case. She definitely has never struck Karen as a woman who doesn't know herself.

[theluckygirl]

The whole thing was indeed strange and as much as Claire wanted to pass it off as being the stress of the whole situation, it felt different. She'd been a nurse and dealt with stress in all its varying forms and this didn't feel like that.

Her expression is one that isn't so sure about that. "That's what I thought it was, but it wasn't consistent. It kept changing."

Maybe the length of time she had been there by that point was starting to wear. That thought bothered her. More than she was letting on.

[digging]

"Has anything like that happened since then?" Karens asks, her brow pinching. "There was so much weirdness happening that day— Not that I don't believe you that something was off, I do. It's just like... How do you even know where to start in figuring out what it was, you know?"

Was it something Claire caused herself or something someone else did to her? And if it's the second, was it the people who put them here or one of the other poor schlubs stuck here with them? Claire being Claire, she probably doesn't even remember how many people she helped that day, unless you just take a total number of people here.