Some Sort of Town Hall Meeting

[winebar]

WHO: van Zieks and anyone who chooses to show up.
WHAT: van Zieks tries to catherd and hold a team meeting. Surely nothing will go wrong.
WHEN: About a week after arrival
WHERE: Outskirts of the Beach Area
WARNINGS: Hopefully none but let me know if any need to be added

[One afternoon, a few days after their arrival, a face that may or may not be familiar treks to every farm on the island to deliver what could perhaps best be described as a summons. Even if you happen to be home for it to be hand-delivered rather than placed on the door, van Zieks will not answer any questions about it, dismissing it to all be discussed "at the meeting." His summons reads as thus in very proper and fancy handwriting;]

To All Parties Brought to this Island by the party referring to herself as the "Harvest Goddess" (Henceforth referred to as such for the sake of convenience and not as confirmation of her claims),

Tomorrow at 11AM sharp, please arrive at the location indicated on the map shown of the reverse of this document. Without any legal structure in place, I can certainly not enforce attendance, however I would hope everyone see it in their best interests to collaborate with the others who are in their same situation.

If you are willing, it would expedite things for this meeting and potential future ones to write your personal answers and bring that record to the meeting;
1. Your name, your country of origin, and the year you most recently recall it being.
2. Your profession and any relevant skills to our current situation
3. Your opinion on the existence of god(s) and/or magic/the otherwise paranormal
4. Your opinion of the Harvest Goddess, her claims of divinity, and her promised agreement for returning us to our homes.

Sincerely,
Lord Barok van Zieks, Esquire

(On the other side of the paper, a hand-drawn and rough if not precisely made map indicates a spot on the beaches to the East.)


[Should one decide to answer this meeting summons, they will find van Zieks at the location as early as 10:30AM, but as stated he does not begin formal proceedings until 11. He is dressed only slightly less primly than he was upon their arrival, having foregone his dark outer jacket and gloves, but retains his waistcoat and cravat, along with his fancy boots that are now a tiny bit scuffed. Imagine this outfit with his prosecutor's badge now pinned to it instead of his jacket. He has, somehow, brought a table to the beach, relatively flimsy so it is. If anyone brings him the information he requested he's gathering those on said table.

At 11, he stands behind the table when he addresses the group, commanding attention with a brusque slammed fist onto his makeshift Prosecutor's Bench;]

I thank you all for coming. I think my request in the summons should have made the topics I wish to discuss clear, but in short, I wish to get a broader sense of the scope of some discrepancies I have noticed in our understanding of reality, and following that, an idea of how we stand individually and as a group in regards to our current situation.

Firstly, though, I would like to make clear my personal intentions and credentials, both to demonstrate my intent and as a show of good faith, disclosure, and good standing in which I may claim to have the authority to conduct this meeting. As I said in my letter, my name is Barok van Zieks. I hail from London, England, where, as of the current year of 1899, I serve as a prosecutor in Her Majesty Queen Victoria's courts and have done so for the past ten years.

In my personal experience, the existence of God is widely believed but technically unproven, and the supranormal all inclusive are merely works of fiction and artifice. As far as our host is concerned, in speaking with her I found her unwilling to negotiate, explain herself, or provide proof of her claims. It is for these reasons that I find the Harvest Goddess difficult to take at face value and the prospect of blindly following her orders non-ideal at this time.

I will also remind you all that regardless of your personal sentiments toward our current situation, what she has done constitutes mass kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. There is, of course, currently no means to pursue this in a legal sense; however, I would move that we should strongly consider attempting to learn all we can about this situation before simply conceding to her terms.

[He takes a dramatic bow and steps back from his "desk";]
I have said my piece, and I open the floor to discussion.

Comments

DISCUSSION

[winebar]

[And here's where you come to yell at and/or agree with him idk go nuts.]

[passthrough]

[He deliberately hasn't filled out the paperwork, given the sheer amount of red flags on it. But here he is nonetheless, jacket tied around his waist and arms crossed listening to Van Zieks' monologue.

1899... oof. Oof. He keeps his mouth shut but it's hard to hide the wince.

Still, once the lawyer's said his piece, Otegine mulls over whether to even bother speaking up.]

Oi. Any ideas of how she could have gotten us from so many different areas, if we're not planning on taking her at face value about the whole Goddess situation?

[This dude's highly skeptical, that's very clear, so just telling him outright that he's probably wrong isn't gonna go well in Otegine's eyes... not to mention he can't exactly explain why he can say that with confidence.]

[winebar]

Obviously, there is no simple alternative. I am aware of that. However, such an abduction would be possible if our so called Goddess had a team of individuals able to incapacitate, whether through drugs or blunt force trauma, each individual and then transport them.

[Conspiracy Theorist van Zieks.]

i'm not even sorry

[spellsdeadwrong]

[Depending on how closely van Zieks is watching his audience as he lectures, he might see this guy listening with an increasingly mystified expression. Every so often he mouths a word as though he's repeating it to himself ("discrepancies," "credentials"...), and his head slowly begins tilting to one side until it's almost as far as he can go without tilting himself to follow. Who is this guy...

And as Ziekers comes to the end of his discussion, Asuka fairly explodes with his first question, bouncing back upright.]

Who the hell taught you to talk?

[It's. It's not a compliment sdflksdj]

[winebar]

[DJSFJSFJ THIS IS EVEN FUNNIER WORTH THE EDIT]

Wh-What sort of question is that!?

[HE'S JUST SPEAKING NORMAL AS FAR AS HE'S CONCERNED????]

[obliviscor]

[ Figaro listens to all of this, and he looks ridiculously amused more than anything. ]

Wooooooow~ You've put a lot of thought into this, Mr. Prosecutor. I'm impressed. What are you gonna do, throw her in jail?

[ he knows a couple of things about throwing people in jail, but with considerably more torture ]

[winebar]

[WOW IT'S LIKE YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIM AT ALL!!]

Please do recall, doctor, that I very clearly just stated that I am aware no legal action can be taken at this time.

[That said he would if he could.]

[tarotcards]

[ and because ichi is indecisive and had to switch out characters again-- ]

I arrived a day later than everyone and took over someone's place. Not sure what happened to her, but she's no longer in the pamphlet and my profile is there instead.

[ through ~magic~ ]

[sugarnaut]

( don't mind her being flooded with terrible implications and assumptions. )

That's pretty fucked up, gonna be honest. ... Not you- just...

[framestory]

[ As the housemate who experienced the change, he can explain, but he feels ill and anxious in this meeting............ So he's just here behind Souji, pretending that he's fine. If asked to explain, he will. Otherwise, he's being a wallflower at the beach. ]

[breweries]

[ shylock just out here smoking a cheap cigarette since he doesn't have his pipe back rip. ]

My. Not a drop of romance in your explanation. Perhaps if you start viewing our current circumstances in a different perspective, you wouldn't be needlessly stressed over the little things.

[winebar]

[He's not going to argue against magic anymore, though he does now look extra tired. That said.]

Please explain to me how you reason that our current situation does not merit some level of stress?

[sicklysweet]

[How did Owen get here... It certainly wasn't by reading the notices Van Zieks was posting, but it's fine. He shows up nonetheless. It does mean he's a bit mystified by whatever the hell is being talked about, but he catches on quickly enough.]

I've certainly never heard of a place called England, Sir Executor.

[One: there may have been Sages he's run into over the past centuries with accents similar to Van Zieks, but like hell Owen gave enough of a shit about to find out where they're from.

Two: he's well aware he said "prosecutor", but he doesn't know what that is and he wants to see how this stuffy man reacts.]

Isn't it a bit dull to refuse magic when you can clearly see it happening? You don't think all of are from London, 1899, do you? You can't be that foolish if you do... unless your Queen's courts don't care about intelligence.

[He is here to cause problems on purpose.]

[winebar]

[Re: wheat prison, he doesn't have it in him to argue about magic anymore. However. He has been insulted.]

I am a prosecutor, not and executor. And you will do well to not drag the sanctity of Her Majesty's courts into this if you choose to baselessly insult me further.

[chronosynthesis]

[Speaking of magic, there's something that's been bothering Syrlya since shortly after arriving...]

I've noticed that my own magic seems... diminished, since arriving. Some spells don't function at all and others are weaker than they should be. Has anyone else experiences a similar weakness?

[He isn't quite sure if this is an intentional interference of the Harvest Goddess, so he stops short of accusing her... but he also won't bring it up to her directly for much the same reason.]

[passthrough]

Nothing magical, but I know I'm not really running at full strength, either. Uh... physically, anyway. I should be able to handle a lot more than I currently can.

[He's been a little more distracted by his weapon vanishing off the face of the earth to test it too much, though.]

[framestory]

[ Ellis writes on his notepad to show whoever is interested: ]

At first, my power wasn't as strong, but I got everything back now. I've been doing a lot of bingo stuff, so I think maybe that has something to do with it.

[spellsdeadwrong]

Yeah, I noticed that. [Bemused...] I figured the Maiden had taken it, though. They'll need that magic back in Desuya while I'm gone, and my fire magic's still going strong.

[feralheart]

It's not magic. But I wasn't healing like I should until recently. [ There's a gritted teeth pause of him trying to fight this: ] ...nya.

wanders in here late

[pactmarshal]

[ Magic? Important, yes. Trahearne's necromancy has been gone. It's frustrating, of course, but it isn't though he's in dire need of it when scattering mushroom spores.

But there is some other sorcery afoot. The firstborn finds himself making a beeline for Syrlya once he sees his answers to van Ziek's survey. ]

Commander, a moment, please?

[harimaya]

(He has a question for van Zieks in particular but given what the question is...)

Did someone die?

(Anyone is free to answer.)

[winebar]

[van Zieks looks (down) at Hizen, confused.]

Not as far as I'm aware? What makes you ask that?

[sicklysweet]

Yeah.

[Will he provide more information?

Of course not.]

[passthrough]

[have fun roasting the old man, hizen]

It's a good question, though.

I tried asking the Goddess what happened to leave all these homes in such a bad state. All she really said was that it didn't matter, and that the answer would reveal itself no matter what we chose to do.

[So, you know. Normal cryptic god stuff.]

Has anyone asked anybody in town what, uh... what happened to everybody else?

[lapidation]

[ HE HAS JUST BEEN HERE, DRINKING TEA AND LISTENING IN, but since I stumbled upon this he may as well share. ]

What I found odd, though not as strange as everything else, is that the books pertaining to local myths and legends are missing from the library. If one of you rented them, I am curious of its contents.

[ books going to be returned in a later update as a heads up! but he's just here... mentioning they're GONE. ]