[If you've visited the island any time in the past week, then you would have had the briefest conversation with Station Master in the elevator, right before you stepped off onto the island, demeanor as polite as ever as he speaks--]

I'm trying out some new cookie recipes and wanted to know if you wanted to try some. Stop by, when you and your friends are able. I’m thinking of baking up a big batch on Saturday and pass them out where we met before. You really should come.

[--before the doors of the elevator will close, dissuading further conversation. He certainly looked far too serious to be talking about cookies.]


---


[For those who take Station Master up on his offer, he'll be waiting by the warehouse up on the island, distracted, before waving people inside. Inside are cookies, muffins, and cups of water, but those aren't the real reason he's summoned you here. When Station Master steps inside, he removes his hat, but his gaze is still distant, as if he has other thoughts preoccupying him.]

I’m sorry for calling everyone here on such short notice. I’m afraid I had little choice though and my message is not an enjoyable one.

[His expression is serious now, very serious.]

This morning I intercepted a message meant for the Head Nurse from the lead scientists who are behind this experiment. I was able to erase the message, leaving her unaware of its existence for now but I’m afraid I’ve only been able to buy us some time, nothing more.

[He’s reaching into his pocket now, drawing out a folded piece of paper. The message for those who’d rather read it black on white.]

It said they have gathered all the data needed and are shutting down this project. They’ve also given her the all clear on eradicating all left over assets. That is to say… you.



((Now with a summary))

Though things are certainly a bit busy, Station Master has decided to go ahead with the welcoming party for the new arrivals. Partially because he had decided to take this task upon himself and he certainly wasn't going to slack, and partially because making things appear as normal was as good a cover as they had right now.

However with how much has been going on, this party is not quite as extravagant as previous ones have been. The location is near to the elevator, on the beach. A large banner hung between two trees proclaims a cheerful 'Welcome to Vatheon'. The long food tables that normally take up most of the space are missing. There simply hadn't been the capability of whipping up the sort of food they normally served. What is there however is a lot of fruit. Fresh apples and pears. Bananas. A few bowls of strawberries and pièce de résistance several large and perfectly ripe water melons. One or two have already been split, the water melons pieces set out on small plates on one big table ready for any to take. Drinks are available too. Fresh water and fruit juices. The weather might not be entirely the best for this kinda thing (though occasionally the sun seems to peek out from between the clouds!) but at least it isn't raining.

But that is not all.

In the cover of the storage building turned bubble reparation headquarters sits C. She has been contacting the people who signed up for catching the fish, asking them to start bringing them to her today so she can start working on the marks. Similarly the people who have signed up for early mark change have been invited too to drop by today or in the next few days so the first step in making sure the coral is returned to proper working conditions can be taken.



[ooc: This month the monthly mingling log is combined with the log for the fish catching + early mark changing. Also, if your character is new but you want them to learn what is going on, please leave a small ooc note on your comment and we'll send a NPC your way. The mingling log part of this post is only on the first, in the afternoon. The fish catching and mark changing parts will serve as a collective point for threads of this nature for this whole week.]

[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.]

It has been quite the few days, hasn't it been, Vatheon? That conversation appearing on the network --just who had posted that, anyway?-- the experiment and then the collapse of the bubble and the evacuation. It certainly kept everybody's hands quite busy and full. But now that things are looking at little more calm, with far fewer trips needed to ferry things from down in the bubble up to the island, Station Master makes his move, abandoning his post to seek out people. Who? Well, just about anyone. He seems to avoid groups, instead seeking out people while they are alone, whether wrapped up in some activity, or moving from on place to the other. His purpose? Unclear for now, but if you are a foreigner and you are on the island, you may very well find yourself with a sudden Station Master at your side.

How will you respond?