a clandestine meeting; Backdated to Friday 26th of April

[thalassino]

[It has been a bit of a wait, the kind of wait that feels days longer than it is in reality, but Friday evening has arrived at last. It is a rather busy night, all in all.

First off, at quarter to ten while people are still gathering in the storage building, an explosion shatters the peace on the other side of the island. That scenic light house? Gone. The culprit? Unknown. Luckily, with how big the island is, the explosion is hardly noticeable in the village. There's a momentary shaking of the ground and smoke on the horizon, but beyond that little happens.

Station Master does not seem to notice or care about the short shaking of the ground, instead continuing to welcome people inside the building, occasionally making sure that nobody brought along their SFC. Inside the building is rather plain. Most of the items inside of it have been moved and put in other storage buildings. Some crates remain, mostly stacked along the walls, giving a seat to those that want or need it.

There are a couple things that stand out. The first are four tall devices in each corner of the room, glowing faintly. If anyone tries to come close to them and touch them, they are shied away by Station Master along with a promise that he will explain the devices once everybody is present. The other is a woman sitting on one of the crates. Some might recognize her as the one who had been cast in the role of the Cleric during one of the previous curses. For now, she does not engage anyone, simply sitting there silently, her fingers tracing over the mark on her wrist.

Once 10 pm rolls around (with a few extra minutes bumper time in case of stragglers), Station Master makes his way to the center of the room where he can easily be viewed and heard by all of those present.]


Good evening. I'm very pleased to see so many of you here. As you all know I've been contacting you recently over a possible way to fix the barrier below. Tonight I'll be giving you all the relevant information I know, and I'll try and answer as many of your questions as possible, so please do not hesitate to ask them. However, I want to underline that nobody will be forced to help. In fact, if my explanation does not convince you on why it is so important to act, you may all walk away from here tonight and continue on your own ways.


First, I want to explain the devices in the corner as I promised. These four devices are currently creating a barrier over this building making it impossible for us to be monitored while we are in here. I'm certain that most of you have come to this conclusion already, but your captors are monitoring your every move and your every conversation over your SFCs, which is why I asked you to leave them outside today.

In essence, while we are in here, you can talk freely. Nothing you say will become known to them, unless you repeat it outside. Anything planned within these walls would come as a complete surprise to them. If you agree to help me out today, I will let you have this building and the barrier technology inside. I can even try to set up similar ones in other locations or teach you to do so, however I must caution you that at best only a few of these barriers should be made. While a single blank spot will not be detected by your captors, if too many of them are created, they will likely catch on and investigate.

Now, first I would like to introduce someone to you.


[Here he motions to the woman sitting silently.]


This is C. Up until recently she was part of the group you have come to refer to as the Natives. Though she was not brought here from another realm like yourself, she was kept captive because she was judged to be a danger to the Vatheon experiment. Her memory had been taken from her and she was kept docile as all natives are. Recently she has started to slowly come to and regain some of her memories. These last few days she has been helping me put together a possible way for restoring the barrier below. It seems that the reason the barrier was failing to begin with and the reason why her memory has been starting to return to her have the same cause. Namely the fact that the coral has been starting to become desynchronized.

As you all know, you have been marked. These marks were supposed to act as a connection to the coral allowing it to cast these so called curses on you, but also to draw your energy in return. And this energy was instrumental in keeping the barrier strong. However the problem is that the coral is not a static entity. While it is not alive per se, it is also not unchanging. Over the last few years it has slowly been changing, whereas your marks have remained the same. This was a variable overlooked by the scientists. By now it appears that the marks you carry and the coral are so out of sync that it can no longer drain enough power from you to properly project the barrier that has been keeping the underwater city safe and protected. The connection has been muddled with too much white noise, so to speak.

Yet this is also the reason why C has been regaining her consciousness. Similar to yourself, the natives also carry marks, though for a different purpose than yourselves. Rather than being used to drain energy, they are being used to suppress them. With the link between the marks and the coral becoming this desynchronized, it seems C's connection no longer fully functions, giving her back part of her memories. There is a chance that in time more natives will become disconnected from the coral and will return to their true selves.

Together C and I have been creating a technique to change the marks which will hopefully bring them back in alignment again with the coral and restore the bubble. It is not all that needs to happen, but by doing this, we can solve 80% of the problem, we believe.

Now, I know this is a lot to take in. And I am not completely done yet. For now, I'll allow you to talk about this, and to ask both C and myself questions. We'll try to answer them as best as we can.


[ooc: Okay, you guys. Here it is. This is the post. We apologize again for getting this up so late. what we'll do is this. This post is pretty much a big free for all discussion post. Don't hesitate to jump in anywhere or at any time. This is happening in one room so it is easy to overhear other people talking and such.

There will be one separate thread for C answering questions and two for Station Master. With Station Master one will be for asking him questions directly and one will be summarizing the questions that have already been asked of him and answered. This is mostly to keep everybody from having to crawl through all the discussions. Please read up on what has already been asked via these bigger subthreads as much as possible so we can avoid having to answer the same question over and over. You are free to ask him any question you want, even if it's unrelated to this current plot. He will answer at his discretion. I know this might end up being a bit of a messy post, so once most of it has been threaded out, we'll put up an ooc post summarizing the proceedings.

Of course, characters are allowed to make their own threads to discuss among each other! We ask just one thing of you. If you character has a direct question to either Station Master or C that you want us to answer please mark 'NPC QUESTION' in your comment title. We'll be trying to keep up as much as possible, but this way we can quickly see where we are needed and where people just wanna discuss things among themselves for a little bit.]

Comments

THE CLERIC

[thalassino]

[The Cleric (who calls herself "C" since she doesn't remember her name) is settled off to the side, away from the main discussion on how to repair the coral. She's open to any questions people may have, whether it's about the markings and what she knows about them or simply about other things she remembers. For now regaining her sense of self has her a little out of sorts so she's not quite the sassy woman some questers might remember from the rpg curse, but she warms up pretty quickly once she gets to talking.]

[fulmination]

Ah... "C", correct? I certainly hope it isn't too rude of me to ask this, but he said you were getting your memories back. How long have you been here?

_{[He knew of the standard 2-3 years for most people, but Vatheon had to have existed someplace else before, right? And if the natives were having their memories sealed away on top of everything else...]}

[thalassino]

It sounds more like a name than "cleric", doesn't it? You can call me Cici if "C" is too strange.

[She eyes him carefully before answering his question, glancing away.]

...I don't remember. I think it's been about five years? When I studied the coral it was still part of the ocean...

[redcladidealist]

[Repairing the coral is important, and Lloyd never even hesitated before making his decision about whether or not to help, but something else about this strikes a sore spot with him, drawing him over to where Cleric is sitting.]

Hey... What Station Master said about your memories... Does that mean all the people in Vatheon lost their memories, too? The people who aren't from other worlds?

[thalassino]

That's right, kid. None of us remember a blessed thing. We pretty much live day to day. It's all one big haze. I couldn't even tell you exactly how long we've been down here.

[Though she's guessing it's been about five years since she was last actively part of the project. It's really kind of mind blowing how far the entire thing has come - too far in her opinion.]

[not_heavens_adam]

[Johnny moved to sit near the woman with his usual friendly smile.]

Hello again, miss Cleric. Or C, rather.

I know you don't have all of your memory back, so I can understand why you might not know the answer, but have a couple questions, if I may.

[thalassino]

You can call me what you like. I just think "C" sounds a little more like a name.

[She scoots on her crate just a bit to allow him to sit down next to her. The room is crowded, but she doesn't really mind. It's nice to feel like she's actually doing something instead of drifting aimlessly like she has been (with a brief respite during the rpg curse).]

I'll do what I can. I think it's high time for a little transparency here.

[closedcircuit]

[She's no cleric of his!

...But more to the point, he does have a question or two for her.]

What are the risks associated with trying to repair the bubble?

[thalassino]

For you, there's more of a risk if we don't. In its current state I don't know if it would even send you home when it stops functioning. It might try and send you to the wrong place or time, or you might just be stuck here. If we alter your markings...

[C shrugs, sounding matter of fact.]

You'll be subject to the curses again, of course. You'll also probably be stuck here until the end of the experiment. It sounds like they have almost enough data, so I'm hoping that wouldn't be too long. The Station Master wants to help some of you make a space to strike back or something. Me, I'm a healer. I just want to make sure no one gets caught between dimensions because they're out of sync with the coral.

[bethehugejerk]

[Karkat has done his part for this! He was fiendishly curious about what was going to go down following the Station Master's talk, and he made sure to tell the team members he thought could help with this. At least at a guess - not knowing the specifics limited things somewhat. He also showed up sans SFC, not even in his sylladex, just as requested. But now that the Station Master's long explanation is over? It's not him he seeks out first.]

I remember you, but this sure is new.

[So says the troll as he nears "C". It's a little weird with neither of them in cleric garb, but that hardly matters right now.]

I've got questions if you can remember the answers for them. Do all the natives have some kind of memory wipe going on or are you just a special case?

[thalassino]

[Oh, she remembers him too. More an impression of him than the actual content of their conversation. He reminds him of herself when she was a kid.]

I remember you too, somewhat. Good to see you made it out, hope your team didn't give you too much grief.

[C nods.]

Yeah, we're all basically drugged up by the coral. It's not a memory wipe exactly, it's more that it's hard for us to access those memories or think straight. Nothing seems important or worrisome when you're under the influence, thinking beyond the moment sounds like too much of a pain.

[beauchevalier]

[Angelo had been listening to pretty much all the conversations this woman was having. Every single one he listened to fascinated him, but in particular there was one about the world itself which fascinated him the most.]

Excuse me my lady, I've been listening to the general conversations between you and others. There is one particular topic I wish to address.

[thalassino]

[Well isn't he just a charmer? "My lady" indeed!]

Sure, go ahead. I'm listening. If you've been listening in you'll know I don't remember everything, but I'll do my best regardless.

[Hell, her own name is on the list of things she doesn't remember.]

[asea]

[Walter has an all too little inclination to do anything except listen, but when the topic of timelines crops up and the increasing number of ways this could completely and utterly harass the Merines dawns on him, he ceases to play wallflower, though by a mere margin.]

The fish — I'll bring it.

[thalassino]

[Walter's been dead silent the entire time he's been in the building. C honestly doesn't even notice him until he speaks up.]

I'd appreciate it. Alive if at all possible, but I'm not sure how long they'd survive in a fish bowl anyway.

[detectiveprincess]

[Naoto finds herself making her way toward C. She hadn't gotten to actually meet her during the RPG curse, but to see her and hear her story was really something.]

It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am. If you'll pardon my detective inquisitiveness, I do have a few questions that I would like to ask.

[thalassino]

Lucky for you, I'm in a question answering mood today.

[It really is lucky. Some days she gets so irritated with people that her answers are often peppered with insults.]

[unwrittenformula]

[N is having a difficult time deciding where he stands in all of this. On one hand, his concern for the humans involved in this experiment isn't all that great, but on the other hand there are Pokemon who have been dragged in to it, either by chance or by trainer.

And while he can't say he's really made any friends that weren't Zekrom or Zoroark, there are a few people he's beginning to trust. Slowly. Fai and Bianca, among others...

His own well being was on the line, too. He was sure there were more than enough people there that had the intelligence and know-how to try and carve out a living on the island, but would it really be enough? And what about those not accustomed to such living? He had been having a hard enough time being on his own for the first time back in Unova...

Of course that just raised another question - what could he reasonably offer to this recovery that no one else had already offered?

It kept him distant from the crowd of people in the room, listening and watching just as intently but with a sort of detachment that could easily be misinterpreted as lack of caring. As such he had unconsciously positioned himself (and Zoroark) not all that far from C once the Station Master had ended his speech, well within earshot. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and brim of his hat shadowing his features, picking up as much of the scattered conversations as he could.

Zoroark was unusually quiet, even to N, not really understanding what was going on only knowing that the Station Master had requested his friend and to come to this meeting and that bad things were happening in the place they had arrived in a little over a month ago. Eventually, though, he did let out a curious whine and nudged nose up against N's hat, tipping the brim up. N let out a sigh, petting the Pokemon and ruffling his fur with his hand.]

I'm not sure where I fit in to the equation.

[It could easily be mistaken as a comment to C, rather than a reply to Zoroark from where he stood.]

[thalassino]

[C does look over her shoulder, raising a brow at him. What does he think she is, a commander? They all know their skills better than she does! She continues to look at him quietly for a little bit, giving him a chance to speak up again if he wants to.]

and you thought you were rid of me

[aim_exorable]

[After his conversation with the Station Master, Darkleer of course wanders on over to Miss C. For the most part, he stays out of the way, casually listening to her other conversations. When there seems to be a lull in the talk with her, he raises one hand just slightly. A quiet, polite way of asking if she doesn't mind another strange up in her business.]

I'll never be rid of you.

[thalassino]

[Seeing such a big guy raise his hand quietly is quite a trip. Most people have just been jumping in with their questions the second she has a moment to breathe! At least no one's asked her anything too stupid, yet.]

What is it?

[crabbygenius]

[To say Washu was curious would be an understatement. Once the discussions start, she can't help but say her part before wandering more towards C.]

It's always strange remembering things you've forgotten. Hopefully that weren't bad things.

[thalassino]

Good and bad. It's a whole life's worth, I'd have to wonder about the accuracy of what I was remember if none of it was bad.

[This girl has some... interesting hair. Foreigners are so colorful.]

[coolerthansora]

[Roxas has just been listening to a lot of the questions other people have, and while there are a number of things he still doesn't quite get, some are more important to him than others.]

I know it's not exactly- what we're trying to fix now, but- what about just leaving the bubble? Can we stay in this world without being connected to the coral?

/sneaks in here late

[relinquishing]

Hey. I don't think we've met.

[He offers a warm smile, keeping a respectful distance from the woman. He'd been asleep the whole time she had been around, apparently... she's not a brand new face, but as far as talking to her...]

Just call me Guy. And it's C, right...

Are you doing alright?