Mysterious music plays in the background [Mingle]

[saveournpcs]

Date: 2nd of July
Characters: Open

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When the Numbered arrive at the ruins on the Greens on the 2nd, as Mr Helpful requested, there... really isn't much to see. Everything looks as normal, the reddish walls of the structure sitting there in the afternoon ...okay, not sun, but at least it isn't raining. There's just clouds.

Mr Helpful is standing in a spot protected by the ruins, looking out over the Channel, a dozen binoculars hung from his shoulders and neck, and waits.

Comments

The request

[saveournpcs]

When all the Numbered have gathered and everyone has a binocular, Mr Helpful speaks up.

"I have gathered you today because I need to request your help.

You see, I should not be down here. Nor should Mr Neutral or Mr Helpful.

We are ...observers, is perhaps the best word. A kind of scientist, perhaps, if you so will. We aren't supposed to meddle.

But about - a year of your reckoning? - ago, Mr Evil disappeared from where he was stationed. So I came to find him and rescue him. I could track him to this town. But he keeps avoiding me, so I assume he has plans, and I'm starting to worry that they might be dangerous for this town." He looks truly troubled here. This is not just him wanting to do his job or wishing to help, his expression clearly states that he has come to feel emotions about this town specifically.

"Take your binoculars and look out at the sea forts. Look at the... second from the left, seen from here."

If the Numbered follow his instructions, they'll notice that the sea fort in question seems to have been renovated. It looks less derelict than the others and modern - almost sci-fi-looking - equipment has been put on the roof. It's not too obvious if one isn't looking specifically, but compared with the others there's definitely something going on there.

And if they look down and focus on the sea below the fort, they'll see a small submarine anchored near the bottom. They will also see some shark fins circling the fort - which is absolutely out of place in this part of the ocean.


[Please tag in without tagging order - first come, first serve, just for the sake of speed.]

Chat among yourselves

[saveournpcs]

This is the general "mingle amongst yourselves before or after Mr Helpful said his piece" area!

[channingchanningchanning]

After Mr Helpful was done, he got stopped from leaving by Chad who had the doggy equivalence of a stern chat with him.

There was some yelling, because he is a yippy dog at heart even when he's a tall and handsome human man on the outside.

So by the time that Chad returns to the others and Mr helpful is gone, it's probably become clear that he's not happy with the delivery of the note that Mr helpful sent him, but not quite clear why because Chad is bad at putting the important information in accessible places.

He is surprisingly quiet when he returns to the group and just frowns quietly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj7Vklv5nDk, because of course.

[iamnotgod]

"I take it," Walter muses, not necessarily needing the binoculars but holding them up for a comparison view just the same.

"That if any of us tried to renovate the forts, we wouldn't have been able to evade attention?"

[ineffablytartan]

Felicity does need the binoculars, and it takes her a moment to focus on the right sea fort. "Quite aside from the permissions required, the equipment would be quite noticeable, not to mention the extra boats to get equipment out. With the state they're in there's several months work there just to make them stable."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie is more than happy to let the others question Mr. Helpful about the Fort because she is more interested in some of the other information he has just given them.

"A kind of scientist?" She asks, Amber eyes narrowed, "What where you observing and why?"

[saveournpcs]

Mr Helpful follows felicity's explanations with great interest.

"He could have started a year ago. I'm not sure exactly how long he has been here, he might have been here on and off before he went missing, but we noticed his absence ...last autumn, in this country's reckoning.

And," he turns to Sadie, "we are observing the quadrant. Which includes Earth. The same way humans observe distant stars, too."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"So. You're aliens," Sam puts that into more local terms. "From another planet somewhere out there." THat... kind of explains a lot, actually, if it's true.

[ineffablytartan]

Felicity is rather unsure about being up here - at first she thought the letter might be something to do with the museum, or her new (not that it's particularly new) work on the Ruins. But having arrived and seen who else is here, it's fairly clear that this can only be something to do with the strange network, and all of those bloody books that turned up in her flat.

Still, a little bit of extra information than what she's gleaned from following everything that's come up since she became aware of it would be nice. So after Mr Helpful has said his piece she continues, hanging around the group just a little awkwardly. There are some people here she knows from real life, and she'll meet the eyes of anyone she's met before, but aside from that she's mostly just listening quietly to the general conversation.

[catted]

"Oh, hello." Mary Ann sounds... well, relieved. There's no better word for it.

Another adult. And another adult WOMAN, at that. She'd been told about the old lady from Folkton, but she'd gone off network before Mary Ann really got into the thick of it. So this is a first.

"This is the first numbered gathering you're at, isn't it?"

[ineffablytartan]

"A year ago is when all of the strange things started here, roughly speaking." Felicity points out. "How close an eye were you keeping on him? How long would it take to notice him missing?" She is choosing to ignore the alien part. Books turning up are one things, aliens is rather ridiculous.

[ineffablytartan]

Felicity is also rather relieved to see someone around her own age. It's awkward enough to be up here with all of the young'uns. "Yes. I suppose there's only so long that one can ignore it." She pauses, thoughtfully. "I mean, having a house full of books might be considered the tipping point, but here we are.

How long have you been involved in this mess?"

[saveournpcs]

"You might call us that, yes," he agrees with Sam, and then falls quiet, frowning in thought. "We all work independently and only report back to our headquarters in large intervals. And we all work independently of one another.

Years could have passed before he was noticed as missing and it was communicated to me."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Ridiculous is getting visions of being a giant shapeshifting dragon, Felicity, sorry. Sam is past ridiculous at this point and just trying to roll with it.

"You know, if we need to check on this guy's... what, evil villain lair? I do have a plane," he offers.

[catted]

"Under a year, still, but not by much.

Dad has been involved for longer than I have," and she indicates her father with a nod. "Half my family is involved, really.

Though me and Dad have been the only adults for a while, now. There used to be more, but..." Jacob, Alexander, that Folkton lady... They just didn't stick around as having numbers.

[saveournpcs]

Mr Helpful nods in approval. "It would likely be a good idea to check it out. I just... should probably not join you. Not in getting close, at least. He might have sensors that could detect me specifically."

[iamnotgod]

Walter chooses his next question carefully.

"Is there a threshold, of how much like you one of us could be before Mr. Evil could detect us?"

[dragoonrouge]

It says a lot about the sheer ridiculousness that has been happening in the last year that aliens is one of the least shocking things she's heard recently. Though the synchronicity of the start of the major rise in Numbers with the arrival of Mr. Evil seems less and less like coincidence.

"If you've been watching...do you know why this is happening to us or what's causing all of these changes?" Her beanie shifts as her ears prick up hopefully, maybe they would finally get some answers. "Is it related to Mr. Evil coming here?"

[saveournpcs]

"I don't believe it is. It isn't as recent an occurrence as you seem to assume," he throws a quick, apologetic glance towards Felicity who suggested a timeframe, "At least not the wider picture of it.

We observe Earth because it is unusual in a way that we don't understand yet. Data that we cannot interpret, but that are not what we'd expect. And that phenomenon centres here, in Mossgate."

He shrugs, a bit apologetically. "So while Mr Evil coming here might be related, it wouldn't be the cause the way you seem to assume."

He turns to Walter. "And I do, quite frankly, not know. I don't think any of you should be a problem, if that's any help?"

[ineffablytartan]

Felicity rubs her cheek, taking all of this in. "Can you pinpoint the actual epicentre, or is it just all of Mossgate?" She asks Mr Helpful, tiredly. Just how large an area is he talking about? If it's the whole town then it's probably too large to be anything other than a geographical location, but if it can be pinpointed to something smaller, perhaps they can find something that might answer some questions (or pose some more, which in Felicity's opinion is more likely). "And how long has it been going on for."

She glances at Sam and adds something for him as well: "A plane probably isn't the best option unless it's a Seaplane. I wouldn't want to land on any of them, and we'd still need to get between them. We could land on his, but I doubt that would go unnoticed."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I wasn't actually planning on landing, just flying circles with someone taking a video to share," Sam says dryly. "But yeah, if we did land, it'd be on the island. Otherwise there wouldn't be any point in landing, because we wouldn't be able to get in to see anything. Helpful," he adds, looking back at the... uh, alien... "So you don't think he'd care if a couple of us came flying around? Just you? Then why did you warn me away from him on the phone?"

[saveournpcs]

"We assume that there is an epicentre, but that is simply conjecture. We don't know where it is, or if it truly exists.

And we noticed the aberrant data first about a century ago, but assume that they have been around for longer than that. They've shown a steady increase since."

Sam's question - he sighs at that, and spreads his hands with a worried expression. "I wished for you to understand the situation before doing anything."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie turns back to the Fort, eyes narrowing, "It's within the boundary isn't it?" She double-check before turning back to the group, "I could get out there along the sea floor but I would probably be spotted as soon as I climb onto the Fort. Invisibility isn't something that happened to me yet."

She glances over at Walter, biting her lip, "I know where the epicentre is. I touched it. It's a dangerous place." She had spoken of the river mouth incident at their first meet up and how it affected her so the older Numbered knew, if the newer Numbered had questions she'd happily answer them.

[ineffablytartan]

Ah, so that accounts for the other adult then. It must be frustrating to have the only other adult be a parent, although if younger parts of her family are involved as well at least that means that if she loses her number there'll still be someone to keep an eye on them.

"People come and go. I figured as much from a distance." Felicity agrees with a nod of the head. "As though the whole thing isn't unstable enough as it is." She adds, a note of distaste in her voice. Not that she has a choice, apparently, but it's rather inconvenient.

[catted]

"It's not so much the unstable, but the unpredictable part that annoys me." What will her children do next? Turn into a puddle of water or turn into a giant dinosaur? Who knows?

"So the only thing that happened to you so far was that your house was suddenly full of books?"

That sounds like the opposite of a problem to her.

Okay, not quite, because the space inside a house is actually needed for other things, but...