As he waited for his guests to arrive, Benny puttered around, cleaning the room and making sure that both work benches were clear and could be used as seating.

There is a knock at the door.
"Um, hello? Was there something on now?"

Benny goes over and opens the door to take a look. recognizing the two girls, he opens the door wide. "Hey, come on in. You're a little early, but yeah, throwing a bit of a meeting." He stands aside and gestures the girls in. "There's not a whole lot of regular seating, so feel free to grab a perch on the workbenches or on the stools. I just finished cleaning them and the floor, so if you prefer to sit there, knock yourselves out. I'm afraid the one thing I don't have is snackage though."

Clara shrugged, "Thanks, we shoulda grabbed Othello Maria, he's always got chocolates."

She remained standing a ways into the room, arms crossed over her chest.

Benny pauses. "Actually I asked Othello to grab all the folks he was sitting with at breakfast. I thought he'd sent you." He notices that Clara is still standing. "Please, please, sit down; take a load off."

Shannon heads into the room, wearing a slightly nervous smile, "Othello didn't tell me, I overheard this morning and thought I'd come and see."

She takes a seat, looking around the room.

"Ah, I'm happy standing. Not enough seats, right? And sitting all through lecture makes me want to stand for a bit." Clara flashed a brief smile, before bouncing slightly, looking around the room.

*In Nik/Greg's room*

"I can go over the notes later. That Ben guy wanted our little group to have a talk. Let's go, Tesla." Greg says to Nik, suddenly granting him a nick name.

*Benny's room*

Of course, Ben's room is right across the hall, so it takes but seconds to get there.

"Hey."

oog: gamebrain, hope you don't mind me hijacking Nik just a bit.

Benny nods. "Fair enough. I had a bit of energy afterwards as well so I finished up what I'd started before breakfast."

Indeed, the room is clean, the pegboard behind the work benches is now stocked with a wide variety of small precision tools, ranging from screwdrivers to a case with a penknife and blade set. Stacked along the back side of the benches are a large variety of sourcebooks for various tabletop RPGs, ranging from D&D and Shadowrun to Warhammer and Mutants & Masterminds, all arranged by game title and edition.

Shawn, Kirana and Ancell arrive as a group.

Kirana speaks first.
“Oh, good, we are not late,” she says with a relieved smile. Although still smiling, she seems less... peppy... than she was this morning. “The discussion took so long I feared we might be.” With that she gives a friendly wave to everyone.

Shawn and Ancell both walk over to Ben.

"Thanks for including me Ben." Shawn says.

Ancell despite being a little nervous says "Yeah, glad to be here too, Benny. So, I thought we'd be a little late, but nobody's really here. What gives?"

OOG: This is a combined post that we all worked out before hand. Not trying to take over characters. We just all felt that having a separate post for each of us when we arrived at the same time would be silly.

Benny frowns. "Not sure. Clara and Shannon overheard us talking in the lecture hall, that's how they knew. Othello was supposed to tell everyone else, and he said he would..." He shrugs. "Either way, glad to have you guys here too. Cop a squat wherever there's room, benches or floor or bed, doesn't bother me any."

oog: Hm, in case there is any confusion, I did establish Greg and Nik are now at Ben's room.

ig:

Though he'd been standing since he arrived, Greg sits down on a bench.

Shawn nods. He takes a spot on the wall leaning on it.

Kirana sits down next to Greg, offering him a friendly smile.
"I do not believe we have met yet," she says. "My name is Kirana. Pleased to meet you."

Nik sits down on the edge of the bed, and pulls a copy of Popular Science out of him pack and flips through it while they wait.

"Given what we overheard Othello and Benny chatting about, I'm surprised this many came," Clara shrugged. "And I never heard him promise to tell people to come. Especially given how that conversation ended."

[OOG: went back and re-read Arganaut's post.]

Benny looks thoughtful for a minute, before biting out a rather harsh sounding word in Spanish. "You're right, he didn't say he would tell the others you were sitting with about this. I guess I had my attention split too many ways to notice at the time. Though it does look like most of the guys you were sitting with came anyway." He looks over at Clara. "Would you be willing to track the last couple down? I think that Max and that one girl that was hiding behind a book during the meet-n-greet are the only two that aren't here actually."

"They are as aware of this event as we are. I would not nag them into coming when they clearly do not intend to."

Maximilian strolled into the room with a mildly bored look on his face. He scanned the area before going to lean up against a clear spot on the wall to wait for the meeting to start. Pulling out a notebook he began reeding through notes.

Benny nods at Max as he closes the door. "Glad to see you Max." Looking over the room, he notes that the only people not there are the book girl and Othello, and shrugs to himself. 'Now's as good a time as any," Clapping his hands together twice, he clears his throat and makes sure that he has everyone's attention. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I've asked you here. I have a proposition that I'd like to pitch to you all. I only ask that you hear me out. If you're not interested afterwards, I won't bother you again. Okay?" He pauses and waits for everyone to confirm they understand.

Clara rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, a smirk on her face.

Max nodded in response. Waiting for Benny to pitch his band together for protection idea.

Shawn split his focus between most of the people in the room but seemed to pay attention to Benny's idea.

"As we all learned today at breakfast, this place is Dangerous. Two students died, one at the hands of the faculty. And I get the sinking feeling that even more will die as the years go on. So what I'd like to propose is that we band together. We all bring something different to the table, whether it's our specific talents, our knowledge, or simply our point of view. If we pool what we have, we increase our chances of staying alive exponentially. What I'm putting forward is that we work together and help each other out; whether it's through the crafting of gear, the summoning of allies, or helping fend off mental and physical attacks from others. So that when our nine years here are up, we can all walk back through those doors and to the lives we were taken from." He looks around the room, making sure to look everyone in the eye. "If there's one thing that years of gaming has taught me, it's that trying to solo is a perfect way to get your ass killed by a random imp. But a party, working together? They can take down gods!" He pauses. "So, what do you guys say?"

Clara snorts once in laughter, covering her mouth with one hand to cover her smile.