It felt like he was always late for some important thing he had planned and forgotten about. He had even forgotten the excuse he was going to use this time -- but what was the point? Better late than never, right? Beck rolled his shoulders in an effort to ease the shooting pains plaguing his mutilated back, limping to the town square the instant he had gathered everything needed for a meeting together. Which included a familiar mutated fly traps bucket awkwardly slung around his neck and a freshly-plucked chicken in his bloodied jaws. As he clambered up to take his expected perch on the statue's base, Audrey's makeshift pot clanged against the aged rock, causing the carnivorous plant to flinch at the sudden movement. Hissing a string of apologies and curses through the dead chicken blocking his mouth, Beck did his best to balance Audrey III next to him. The commander ran a cold paw along the resulting dent in the bait bucket-turned-pot with scowl. Whatever, he had to find a replacement anyways -- the venus fly trap had undergone a growth spurt to reach abnormal size, and based on his only friend's recent irritability, its roots needed more room to stretch.

    Giving Audrey's trap a comforting pat, Beck cleared his throat of the leftover blood from his most recent episode and preferring not to lose his voice before even starting to go through the usual announcements, gave a shrill and surprisingly loud whistle through his teeth to call his clanmates over. Somewhat impatient to hurry the meeting along, he tore off a shred of meat from the chicken's bare corpse to toss into Audrey's waiting trap, which shut a moment after it could sense food. Once enough had settled down onto their rumps around his statue, he threw his arms up into the air and cackled out in an mock excited tone, "Go-o-ood morning, Tanglewood!" They probably wouldn't understand the reference, yet Beck didn't care as he returned to shredding the chicken for Audrey's breakfast. "Sorry this ain't on time, but whatever, let's just get to it, right?" the young poltergeist mumbled, sheepishly rolling his eyes at his own incompetence before moving on. "We've got a bunch of newbies, like usual, so stay with me here. Give a big Tangler welcome to these new faces: Iota's new girlfriend, Delphi --" He slyly offered an immature wink to the assumed couple, not breaking flow of his rasping speech as he continued, "Good ol' Joel, La -- La'miyla or just Mimi, she's staying here after visiting with her sisters, Natriumguard, just call 'em Nate or somethin', two lovely ladies Talia and Malkyn even if they didn't join --" He broke off his words once more to send a petty glare the married hellhound's direction, abruptly starting back up again before he could watch for a reaction, "Still got more -- Quinn, another pretty lady I guess, and Treestump. He ain't much of a talker, but that's fine, right, y'all? Some guy named Desperado stopped by as well, but I think he left... oh, and there's been a bunch of leopard cubs, so go say congrats to the lucky mom if ya wanna." Was it bad leadership to admit he didn't know any of said newborn's names yet, or even the mother?

    Beck took a second of guilty thought to peel off more meat for Audrey to catch in its trap, the mutated plant already having digested its first piece at a frightening rate. "Um, next up is promotions and all that stuff -- shout outs go to the usual folks: Fenris, Morgan, and Vigenere, but also Cherrypaw. Arrow, Aya, and Stockin' are all boosted up to firebrands now, while Delphi, Malkyn 'n' Talia, Delilah, and Mimi can all be chasers now. Plus, Mirabella and Malphas seem to be doin' good enough in their trainin' to become full medics now. That is, if ya two think you're ready?" The scrawny feline blinked down at the blurred figures of the two nurses, worry scrunching up his freckled features for a nonexistant heartbeat as he scanned over their resident cannibal before he reverted back to his typical distant scowl. "Killian is demoted from regent, but that's it. Good job, ya weirdos."

    "Phase three, let's go," the boy wheezed to himself in a hushed tone, pulling apart the chicken in even bigger chunks as he distractedly continued feeding the gluttonous Audrey, who only seemed to grow hungrier with every bit of bloody meat it received. "As far as news goes, a couple of new groups came up to us asking for alliances and trading. We're gonna be 'business partners' with a place called the Pitt as long as they're useful, but folks from Sunhaven want an alliance. I figured we could just go with a test run to see if they can be any help, but thought I'd ask y'all before tellin' 'em. And third one, Styx River whatever also wants to trade with us, but we'll see if they've got anythin' good, got it? But this all means there's more positions open for ambassadors, and if you're interested, go ahead and volunteer. Speakin' of which, weekly task hosts are always needed -- poor Vig has been doin' 'em for the past three weeks so give him a pat on the back. Also, Snowbound invited us to a mass gatherin', so if ya wanna go and see some culture, feel free." Beck halted in his verbal tracks, chewing on his lip in an effort to construct the best way to word his next bullet point. "And, uh, also, considerin' recent... events, I thought it'd be best to have some type of, um, group... therapy? I dunno how it would work, but if anybody, probably one of the medics, wants to hold it, go on and tell me now. And it's gonna be mandatory, so if ya play hooky, you'll be cleanin' up the swamp waters for a week, got it?" It was fairly obvious to the observant rogue what had prompted the commander to take interest in his group's mental wellbeing, and the silent mention of it hung like a heavy fleece blanket over the crowd until Beck carried on with the final announcements. "There will also be a meetin' for the higher ranks this week, and we'll set up an event planner to keep Tangle bustlin'. And, last but not least, mask vigil. Tonight at the cemetary. Be there." With that, the poltergeist flung the remnants of the mutilated chicken, bones and all, into Audrey's opened trap -- only for the fly trap to lunge forward and chomp down on Beck's paw with it. He stared back at his friend's hunger-driven betrayal in shock, honey-brown eyes stretched wide despite the bite not entirely painful considering Audrey lacked any proper teeth yet. His senses returned to him when one of the plant's leafy vines coiled around the half of his arm not locked in its jaws, and Beck yanked his paw out with the assistance of merely phasing through Audrey's trap. His arm returning to a physical state as he flicked away the plant's acidic spit, he scolded with a huff, "What the hell, Audrey?"

tl;dr: big welcome to delphinium, joel, la'miyla, natriumguard, talia, malkyn, quinn, treestump, and aron, as well as all of their wonderful roleplayers!!! glad to have you in the tangle family!
shoutouts to fenrisulfr, morgan, vigenere, and cherrypaw!
arrow, aya, and stocking may step up as firebrands, while delphi, talia, delilah, malkyn, and la'miyma can become chasers
in addition, malphas and mirabella may step up as medics now
killian is demoted
tangle is now business partners with the pitt, giving sunhaven a trial alliance for now until further notice, and considering trade with the styx river order
more ambassador slots are open for all groups listed on the hub!!
weekly task volunteers are always needed as well
snowbound has invited tanglewood to a mass gathering, feel free to attend!
a mandatory group therapy has also been ordered by becky (another bad idea), so if anyone would like to host it, please notify me
in addition, there will be an hp meeting soon, as well as an event planning/suggestions thread
mask vigil will also be up soon, be on the lookout
also beck got bit by audrey III whoops

DELILAH EVERGARDEN
trans femme ♥ tanglewood ♥ 15 m/o

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[div style="background-color:#F0B1DB;width:90%; overflow: stretch;text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt;"]Delilah was paranoid, scared of half of the people here. She kept herself far away, wide magenta eyes flicking side to side as she hugged her injured leg up to her side. Promotion.. Ah, okay. She wasn't to sure about that, but she'd live.