[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019cb167-a9e2-77e8-a0a3-555f04118e32.webp[/img][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019c691d-d580-726b-b8c2-c4d4d9b6d5ce.webp[/img][right][code]The Meeting
[@FernStone][@Evil Ghost Note]
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Tommy leaned forward to look at what Tuyen was pointing out. He couldn't see anything. So he quietly shook his head and sat up straight, grabbing his deck off the table just in case he had to fight something soon. He was glad nobody seemed willing to put up with Tyler's shit, and nobody seemed to be taking Lexi's either. Except for the damn cigarette... Fucking nasty.

He elected not to comment on the preacher boy being possessed. The irony of that wasn't lost on him, but he didn't imagine Daniel needed anyone's snide comments right now. And, admittedly, something told Tommy that the guy would probably respond poorly to anything coming from the guy who created monsters out of thin air. So instead, he grabbed his notebook and took to the floor for a moment. His monsters all reacted to him standing up, Raptor ruffled his feathers and the Watcher tilted its head.

Porter walked around and sat right in front of Tuyen, staring at Tommy. Raptor hopped onto a table and leered at Lexi.

[color=a79500]"I'll go first,"[/color] He decided, swiping a marker off the bottom of the whiteboard and pointing it in Ella's direction. [color=a79500]"We just got started, you didn't miss anything important except some saber rattling from the peanut gallery. Okay, so everyone's seen enough strangeness by now we all know there's a [i]lot[/i] to this... I've been digging, snooping around and trying to get a handle on things. Here's what I got."[/color]

He wrote several things down in the first three columns.

[code]WHAT WE KNOW.[/code]
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People can't see magic.

Magic has rules.

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[code]WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW.[/code]
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People make Cornell less wrong.

Other Cornells.

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[code]WHAT WE DON'T KNOW.[/code]
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What caused this?

How do we fix it?

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[color=a79500]"I drove over to the diner last week."[/color] Tommy thumped the back of the marker against the first line he wrote down. [color=a79500]"Brought my mom lunch like I usually do. I ran into Tuyen, we talked, and I showed her the big fat monster that's sitting with her right now. Then she walked in, and she didn't even see him. She damn near walked right over him, like he was [i]invisible[/i] to her. Gave us both one hell of a scare, and we just pretended everything was normal. Her and my dad both know [i]nothing[/i] about magic. They weren't there, so they weren't exposed to it. Tuyen thinks some people can't see magic at all, and experience tells me she's right, and I think you've got to be... [i]Brought in[/i] before you know it. That's good and bad. It means people might not see things, but that also means they can't run from something they don't know is after them."[/color]

[i]Thump.[/i] Onto the second one. [color=a79500]"I spent some time trying to teleport around or make things invisible, the way Tyler and Vicky can. Nothing happened. Whenever I tried to use magic without the cards I stick those monsters in? It's harder, it feels like there's something inside me tearing itself out. And everyone here who can throw spells around has said they've seen the dead come back to speak to them."[/color] He flipped through the pages of the notebook in his hands. [color=a79500]"Kari called hers White Lux. There's a pattern to how magic works, we've all got something different, but it seems like there's a theme going through it. Kari can learn things and Vicky can [i]hide[/i] things. I can make monsters out of thin air... I don't know how much that helps, but that means we can push the limits when we feel them out."[/color]

Then he moved over to the top of the second column. The theoretical ideas.

[i]Thump.[/i] [color=a79500]"This one, I've noticed that things get more stable the longer we look at them. Streets are stretching out longer than they ought to, but when I stare, they go back to normal. And since most people in Cornell are living in less than blissful [i]ignorance,[/i] I think they expect things to be normal, which means they [i]stay[/i] normal. Or they [i]are[/i] normal around them. It's like they're not even pretending half the time, if I'm right. I wonder whether we can take advantage of that, but I wouldn't know how."[/color]

That one bothered Tommy the most. If most people had some kind of grounding effect on the town, where they weren't exposed and so normalcy stuck around them for longer, how did that work? How [i]fragile[/i] was it? Was that something they wouldn't have forever as things got worse? Was it a skill that could be taught, enforcing normalcy over an area [i]magically?[/i]

[i]Thump.[/i] [color=a79500]"Other Cornells. This one's more Kari than me, but she's onto something. We made a monster that's currently up in the air watching the whole block. Think of it like a crystal ball only Kari can see through.. The further out we go from downtown, it's like a giant came down with a machete and hacked away pieces of the town, and replaced them with something else. I've seen people wandering around at all hours, not knowing where they were, then they're gone with the wind by morning. Billboards on the highway look different, buildings made from bricks looks a few years younger. I think if we try to leave, we just walk into another place like this. And [i]we[/i] might not come back, but that monster we made? I can bring him back to me anytime, so we send him instead of anyone who can [i]bleed."[/i][/color]

And finally, Tommy waved at the two questions on the third column. [color=a79500]"Nothing I've seen or heard, from anyone or anything, answers this. I want to be optimistic and say there's an explanation, some kind of cause and effect, some invisible hand that did this one way or another. But..."[/color] He made a gesture with the book in his hand. [color=a79500]"I've got nothing. I'd sure as hell like to cast some spell right now that puts things right, but I can't."[/color]