Sweltering heat was smothering the swamp lands, humidity weighing down the air itself and suffocating all life in the area -- and it wasn't even summer yet. The muggy atmosphere must have dampened the clan's morale, chasing away his peers into shade and sluggish days where nothing interesting happened. During any other decade, Beck would have appreciated the placid solitude, yet once he had a taste of actual company, he craved it even more. The poltergeist had been in a sour mood, itching for conversations he didn't know how to have and with people that weren't around. For once, when the ever-looming meeting day rolled around, he was more than happy to snatch up a pair of tinted sunglasses unearthed from the junkyard and clamber onto the statue's base, sweeping away bits of rubble before rocking back onto his haunches. Fumbling to smash the sunglasses on his face and nearly stabbing an eye out in the clumsy process, Beck flopped onto his back unceremoniously. His frigid paw, somehow even colder when compared to the blistering weather, reached for a fissure in the statue's foundation that was slowly becoming yet another hoarding spot for his collection of garage, fishing around and retrieving a crumpled wad of tinfoil. Beginning to smooth the reflective foil across his shallow chest to the best of his abilities, the poltergeist hoarsely croaked out above the cicada's and heat's shared buzz, "Meetin' time again, guys, get on over!" As if the scene of Beck pulling himself up onto his perch for announcements wasn't enough to call a crowd over already.

    Shaking out his tinfoil sheet and propping it up to serve as one of those reflectors he had seen so many times on a t.v. screen, Beck lazed in silence for a few minutes waiting for everyone to arrive, apparently attempting to tan despite his bloodless complexion. But it mostly just was nice to warm up his apparition, if even by a little. Eyes flitting to the side and glimpsing enough faces out of the corner of his blurred vision, the mangy feline gave a rattling sigh that made his bony chest visible heave, and aimlessly rasped towards the sky, "Y'all know the drill by now; here's the official Beck welcome to the newbies. Nice to have ya here, uh, Bakugou, Killian, Envy, Camalora, Liria, Yoshi, Vigenere..." He hesitated as his wheezing trailed off, almost flinching as he concluded the thankfully memorized list with, "... And Marco." He still wasn't sure how to feel about the long lost brother showing up at his doorstep out of the blue, but after centuries of peculiar events, he learned to simply take most things in stride. Shifting his weight as to not bother the perpetual wound marring his back, Beck gave a feeble cough and tried to refocus his thoughts. "Uh, we need some folks to step up and hold some of those weekly tasks, since I don't wanna be the one doin' 'em every week. I'll do it this time again, but I'm askin' ya nicely here." While he wasn't sure if they even liked having their menial tasks, it did busy them, right? A sharp huff, and Beck gathered enough stale air to speak again, "Not much has really gone on lately, so I've got no events or whatever, unless y'all would like to make some yourselves. All ya gotta do is just ask me, and even if ya don't, I don't mind. Ain't no rules against it, so go crazy."

    Now there was one thing Beck did mind, evident by his injury-riddled being that he obviously was ignoring. Fortunately the tacky sunglasses could shield the world from the loathing burning deep within his lantern-like glare, staring straight into the sun as he coldly hissed, "Some of y'all already know 'bout the lousy Typhoon scumsucker that showed up at the border, but in case ya didn't, now ya know. I want double the patrols, double the trainin', and -- just double everythin'. Since most y'all are wimps that don't wanna defend us with actual fightin', do us all a favor and still help out.  Just be on guard. I ain't gonna pick anythin' with those pirates because they're a waste of time and space, but if they wanna come here and fight, let 'em. Oh, and a little update: both Ascendants and Snowbound decided to be all buddy-buddy with Typhoon, so we ain't gonna be friendly to 'em anymore." Was he forgetting anything? Beck's face scrunched up in concentration before he shrugged it off and instead went onto the next order of rambling.

    Swiping a pallid blue tongue over his half-exposed teeth in an attempt to remember what exactly he had planned, the harsh rasping continued, "Okay, promotions and all that -- Fenris, ya get to be a firebrand, and Killian, even though you're new, ya can be a chaser. Morgan, ya get to be a proxy now, first one in fact. Woo-hoo." A dry congratulations slipping from his scarred maw, he adjusted the sunglasses falling off his face before resumed, "Gonna have to give out warnings to Amun, Zimavich, and Valo-kas, where'd y'all go? I mean, not like I miss ya, but it'd be nice to see ya guys 'round again. Although he didn't show it and would never admit it in another five-hundred years, Beck had been starting to appreciate his clan's company, including the three of them. "One more thing, Nayru, since ya wanted to start learnin' all that healin' business, ya can be a nurse -- it's a medic, but in trainin'. I think Bella said she could be your mentor, but that's up to ya. And speakin' of medics, the leader of Snowbound said there should be a medic meetin' like the leader ones I go to, but I don't want our enemies learnin' 'bout how to heal themselves. Of course, it's your choice if ya wanna go, but I thought ya might wanna know." And know that he heavily disapproved of it. At least he was almost done talking.

    The poltergeist ruffled his tinfoil reflector, as if searching for how to phrase his next words, and after a moment of visibly biting down on his tongue, Beck lifted up his sunglasses to blink out across the crowd. "Well the next stuff may be a lot, but I've been thinkin' 'bout how to liven things up 'round here. Y'all remember those masks from that one raid? Well, I thought up a l'il thing to have everyone earn a mask -- 'course, we just have to wait for the next month so I can tell ya everything. But I also thought up somethin' we can do sooner, a kind of party-bonfire-thing, but I don't wanna ruin the surprise right now. Guess y'all will just have to wait and see." It seemed like everyone needed a break recently, and he hoped they would like it, even if just a little. "And last thing -- since our territory is kinda, ya know, dangerous and all, I figured it'd be best if we had some type of system to warn each other. I'll be going out and settin' it up this week, but basically, it's little symbols scratched into the trees. Like, one symbol means there's a trap I set here, and the other means, I dunno, where gators like to hang out, or -- or something." Yikes, he was terrible at explaining, and speaking in general. A scowl distorted his freckled features beneath his shades, and breathlessly, the entity wheezed out, "If anyone wants to say anything, go right on ahead, like always. I'll just be here, uh, relaxin' and tannin' for a while." With that, Beck slumped, his feigned breathing halting all together as he stared mindlessly up at the sky.

/ tl;dr
- big welcome to verdigris and bakugou, rhys and killian, pallid-i and envy, sahloknir and camalora, arcy and liria, tikki and yoshi, maple and vigenere, and sympathy and marco!! glad to have you guys!
- volunteers for weekly tasks are needed!
- killian is promoted to chaser, fenrisulfr to firebrand, and morgan to proxy! nayru is also welcomed to step up as a nurse
- warnings go to amun, valo-kas, and zimavich
- bella and nayru are allowed to go to the medic meeting if they want, when it is actually posted (i don't know any details besides that)
- the guide has been updated which means new and improved traditions have been added! i suggest you read about them in depth here