Another Town Meeting -- In Regards to Water Supply and Fountain Issues

[notabirdcostume]

WHO: Sam Wilson
WHERE: The Village and then Inn
WHEN: (backdate) September 15
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: Paranoia? IDK.
STATUS: Open and also VERY threadjack friendly. This can be as crazy as the last time they all got together to spout theories. Set up your own sub-threads for what discussions you want to happen. I figure we need a discussion about the fountain and Sam's plan to watch it, a discussion about the recently discovered spring's side effects, and possibly a talk about any new discoveries or progress that's been made since the last town meeting. Feel free to mingle and make friends.

---

Sam stood at the edge of town, feeling a little ridiculous. However, he felt bad for not trying to include the two mysterious arrivals that had sworn this was some kind of murder game before running off. He still didn't get that, but the girl he'd met had worried him and after he'd heard about the guy as well he'd started to put it together that the two were most likely from the same place.

That aside, they weren't going to earn their trust if they had meetings and looked like they weren't at least trying to extend a hand to two of the newer arrivals to the village. Sam had decided enough was enough and since it was time for another meeting of the village folk it was also time to extend a welcome to their neighbors in the woods. He'd heard enough people mention that they'd been spotted out there. It wasn't like he had a phone and he wasn't sure how much he trusted Peggy's little bird friends just yet.

This was going to be his best bet and even then he felt utterly ridiculous. Sam took a deep breath and then called out, "HEY! I KNOW THERE'S A COUPLE OF YOU HIDING OUT THERE!" He paused, waited, took another breath, "MEETING IN THE VILLAGE IN 15 MINUTES! WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT THE WATER AND WHAT WENT DOWN WITH MY PLAN TO WATCH THE FOUNTAIN."

He couldn't be sure if they'd heard him or not, so Sam leaned down towards the ground, and wrote a brief note in the dirt:

TRUCE. MEET AT INN. NEED TO TALK.

Sam added a happy face as a sign of good will and also drew an arrow pointing towards the inn. It was now time to get everyone else if they hadn't already heard him yelling at the trees.

---


After getting the word out to the rest of the village population, Sam made his way back to the Inn. There was still a lot of debris from the Earthquakes that had literally shaken things up a few days ago, but the cleaning process has begun. Unfortunately, the smell of the contaminated river still wafted through the village and made Sam's nose crinkle in disgust. Just one more problem on top of everything else.

Sam gets things set up, running through the topics in his mind. He needs to follow up on the fountain and what people had experienced during their watch. His timing had been poor, so he hadn't actually had the opportunity to see anyone arrive. He also wanted to see if anything new had been discovered beside that spring Emma and Margaery had found a few days ago. The water supply was important after all, they could survive without a lot but water wasn't one of them.

He hoped this went a little better than the last time a meeting like this had been called, though at least he didn't have to worry about people fighting over weapons this time.

Comments

[notabirdcostume]

Sam had been keeping an eye out for the pair, well, mostly the girl. He'd heard about the other guy who had been staying in the woods and avoiding town, but the two had proven to be pretty elusive. He knew what the girl looked like though, so when he saw a flash of red hair and knew it wasn't attached to a former spy and assassin.

He figured if they were staying out in the woods that they were pretty jumpy. So he made it very open when he approached them, not doing it right away either. He wanted them to feel comfortable first. Sam kept an eye on them while the meeting started and when he felt there was a decent enough lull he made his way over. "Hey, so you got my message after all," he said as he approached, "How're the woods? Anything unusual out there?"

[fishermansweater]

They've seen this man around the village, not that Finnick's about to admit as much, and Finnick has worked out that he's Sam Wilson, the man who'd greeted Annie when she'd first arrived, and done so with a degree of kindness, as best Finnick can tell.

It had been the fact that Sam left the note, that Sam shouted out to them, that had been a part of what made Finnick advise they take the risk of coming. Sam could have attacked Annie at the fountain, if he'd wanted to. That doesn't mean he's not setting a trap, but ... it's still something in his favor.

"Hard to know what's unusual here," Finnick points out, matter-of-fact.

There is one thing he knows, though, that could be of some use to others here, so he adds a concession. "The fish all disappeared out of the river when the water went bad."

[notabirdcostume]

"True," Sam admits, after considering it. Honestly it was strange what you got used to after being in a place for a few months. He could only vaguely remember how disorienting it had been those first few days. Now that he thinks about it, they've actually come quite a long ways in terms of pulling together. There's still so much they don't know that, honestly, anything could be considered strange.

Still, it'd been his way of small talk in this place and an excuse to speak with the two younger adults who had gone off into the woods. Sam couldn't help but be curious about them. Even most of the more independent, loner types had still stayed within the village for whatever reason. These two were the first he was aware of that had taken a different approach to things. It probably said something about where they came from, something Sam didn't want to consider too deeply.

Sam's brows furrow at this new information, "Disappeared? So no dead fish just...they were all gone?" He crosses his arms, thinking aloud, "I'll admit I don't know a lot about fish. What do you make of it? I mean, we can't access parts of the river because of where it goes--they couldn't have just fled the contaminated part of the river or something?"

[fishermansweater]

Sharing any information with the other people here is a risk. Finnick knows that as well as anyone. He should, being a Career. He'd trained in the best situations to form alliances, what to do for your allies, what to keep from them, always with the knowledge that anyone else in the arena with him would be a direct threat to his life, eventually.

Sam Wilson, though, had been kind to Annie when he'd had no strategic reason to do so. His reaction, as Annie had described them, had sounded less like he was playing with her than like someone surprised at the suggestion he might want to hurt her. That's been the trend here, so far.

He considers the question carefully before he speaks. Finnick and Annie had been deeply unsettled by what had happened to the fish, and they'd been thinking of it as something the Gamemakers would do.

"There were a few dead fish, but not as many as there should have been. They might have swum away, but I'd have expected more if they had."

[treadswater]

"And, um," Annie begins, because she's been thinking about this, too. Not just the fish, of course that's been all strange and unsettling to a pair of people from District Four, but the volunteering of information.

At being seen to contribute.

"It, uh, seemed like, the. The contamination happened upstream, so you'd expect dead fish from the river that feeds the waterfall. But, no. Just. Poof, no fish."

[notabirdcostume]

The two definitely have trust issues. Sam picked up on that awhile ago. Based on some information he's picked up, he can kind of understand why too. These two are definitely playing this like they've gone through something like it before. It's troubling, but if Sam could get them to trust him he might be able to figure some more out about this place. He knows it'll take time, but he's got patience in spades.

"We have people appearing in fountains, people who had disappeared without a word or lick of evidence, and we've had a whole crate of boxes appear overnight in the middle of a location that wasn't there previously." He looks between the two of them, taking in this information, "I guess if all that can happen then fish disappearing wouldn't be the most impossible thing."

The real question that bothers him is why. Why make the fish disappear if they were contaminating the water?