Totally Normal Garden Party and not an escape meeting

[hotpaprika]

[It's Friday afternoon, and the party is almost ready. Jonathan, with the help of others, have arranged a quaint table setting in the garden, adorned with various flower arrangements. The spread of food seems quite impressive if not... somewhat strange with some of the offerings. Floyd brought takoyaki (careful, some of them have hot sauce in them!), Jason brought donuts, Hadoka brought some scrambled eggs, although not enough to feed all 25 citizens, Brett brought finger sandwiches, Joy brought some fancy flatbread, Mille brought fancy little cakes and pastries, The Undertaker brought some bone shaped biscuits, and Adamon brought some mushroom risotto. For drinks, Jonathan brought over several pitchers of lemonade, enough for everyone at the party and then some.

Nandor also brought ice cubes and Misfire brought one (1) lemon.

If anyone is hesitant about coming, Jonathan will gently find them and tell them that the party "really means a lot to him", with added details about the true nature of the party if they are still resistant. There were really only two people he was keeping this a secret from.

Just before five o'clock hits, Jonathan finds himself looking increasingly nervous. Anxiously tapping the table, looking around for anything suspicious, and taking a quick swig from his flask that he got from the pool to calm his nerves. For those who think that this is just a garden party, this might not exactly look like the most normal behavior ever.

It's a few minutes past five and, once Jonathan does one last look around to make sure everyone is here, he gently taps his glass of lemonade with a spoon and stands up, clearing his throat.]

Thank you all for coming to the party! I have told this to a few of us, but I was not entirely honest when I wrote the invitation. While, yes, part of my motivation is to grow more familiar with the rest of the citizens here, my true purpose is much more vital. I organized this meeting so we can discuss how to escape from this prison the Mayor has placed us in, and I intend to do so before any casualties occur.

I do not want to burden everyone with the details of my life, but I had been held captive before, and I know the horrors of letting my captor know of my escape plans, and that is why I had to be secretive about this. I do not want our opportunities for escape to close because we let it slip that we're trying to leave, and I ask everyone to be similarly secretive about this.

But, on the bright side, we have the numbers I didn't have back at the Castle, and I am confident with our combined efforts we can overthrow the Mayor and get back to our homes before too long!

[And with that, Jonathan sits back down in order to begin the meeting in earnest!]

[ PLANS INFORMATION BACKSTORIES GENERAL CHATTER ]

Comments

[buriedstar]

Sounds like it's related to astronomy.

[ But yeah it's not a term he knows. ]

But if you haven't heard of the regression tree...if you think of any type of elemental magic, I can do it and then some.

[prompocalypse]

[She quirks a small smile. Could be amused. Could be condescending. Who knows.]

Hmm, very classical. We call that kind of magic evocation where I'm from.

I'm a Wild Magic sorceress. There's a whole lot of jargon I could give you about how that works, but like, it doesn't really apply here, so I won't bother. Simplest version? Chaos magic. Luck and random chance and all that kind of stuff.

[buriedstar]

[ It's fine they can both be smiling politely while probably holding thoughts back. ]

Hmm, do you need to pass a certain level of luck for each cast? Or does it just effect the potency or the nature of the spell?

[prompocalypse]

What? Oh, god no, that'd be super inconvenient. It's more like I can take away other people's luck, or add to my own. And beyond that, if I cast a spell powerful enough, it can have another random effect. That part's equal parts annoying and useful, since it can mean you're fighting like... a super powerful demon or whatever and suddenly they drop dead, or it can just make you go colorblind for an hour.

For the record, I didn't choose it. Just born with it, I guess.

[buriedstar]

RNG really isn't to my taste even if my luck isn't terrible. [ But he nods, understanding what she's saying in her own way. ]

Users get to pick their class from three options that the system selects for you. Not all the classes are made equal, either—there's some that are niche and others which are basically useless.

[inaclearing]

.....okay, is this a video game thing, or what?

[buriedstar]

[ Seo Dawon chuckles. ]

Imagine a game transposed itself on the normal world, and that's what my world is like. It wasn't always like that, but the Gate opened one day and suddenly classes, dungeons, loot, liches and all of that were part of reality.

Normally I'd be able to interface with the system to access my inventory, send friend requests, and construct housing in seconds—let alone utilize my magic.

[inaclearing]

......okay.

[He'll just go ahead and incorporate that into his new List of Things That Can Happen!]

[buriedstar]

What year are you from?

[inaclearing]

2017. Why...?

[buriedstar]

I had to check to make sure you weren't a relic from the early 20th century.

[ He could assume, but given all the different timelines it's probably better not to. ]

Our years are pretty similar, and for me the Gate opened about ten years ago. You might have something to look forward to~

[inaclearing]

[yep that's why he thought you were asking]

God, I hope not.

[buriedstar]

Not a fan of having access to the supernatural at your fingertips? Or even just the ability to have an inventory you can access whenever you want?

[inaclearing]

I can't even imagine how that would affect everything in the world...

[buriedstar]

There was a lengthy adjustment period.

[ To put it lightly. ]

[hotpaprika]

[Looks around awkwardly from the 19th century.]

On that note, what year is everyone from? I know many here are from the future, but it might be useful to have a catalogue of years.

The last year I recall is 1893, for reference.

[giddyundertaker]

Aah... You're a few years ahead of me, then. Last I checked, it was 1889.

[ Maybe he could ask about... Nah, this fellow wouldn't know such intimate details. ]

[dullshooter]

[Hold on, let him squint as he does the math for people years.]

20......12???

[It should be 2012. Somewhere around there. Eh - close enough.]

[allatonce]

Twenty-twenty? I think it's 2020, but also 2020 feels like it's been a hundred years long.

[for legal reasons, i have to clarify that the pandemic doesn't exist in everything everywhere all at once and this is a joke about something else.]

[fuckingguy]

Like she said, it is the year two thousand and twenty.

[withagun]

[ yeaaaah hodaka's been spacing out for awhile now, just focused on his cat and on the outskirts of the gathering he most certainly is not answering ]

[prompocalypse]

Yeah like... it's objectively one of the most powerful out of the sorcerer classes, but I don't know. I'd prefer something I could actually fully control.

Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that too. No idea why anyone would choose to be a ranger or a warlock, for one. [She cocks her head, curious.] Where does yours rank? Seems like you've got a lot of feats to your name, so it probably can't be too bad.

[buriedstar]

Necromancer is known as the worst in the Hub, no matter who you ask.

[ Warlock and Necromancer solidarity... ]

Number one. DPS clears dungeons, not healing. There's not a lot of bosses you can heal to death no matter how much you pray.