Mingle - Emergency Potluck

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WELCOME POTLUCK

Greetings, residents! Those more observant sorts among you may have noticed a large influx of very crowded ferries. In order to welcome our new residents en masse, Town Hall is holding a potluck in Town Square. Please bring a dish if you are able and make a new friend!

All of our newest arrivals need only bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you all into our community, and may your lanterns always be lit.

This event is open to all! In light of our new influx of prospective players following the Great Sail Migration, we've decided to offer a small public event to tide everyone over until the TDM this weekend.

Comments

[spaghettification]

"Siebren, if we're going to be on a first-name basis. If you'd like that."

Gravity is fun to play with...he's not sure how he wants to respond to that, given how gravity has played with him. But that is a conversation for later. Over alcohol, probably.

[maximumcake]

"I take it you're packing a mighty appetite?" Max says, sounding maybe a little too eager.

"Maybe I can help with that." New achievement unlocked, flirt with your ex's girlfriend.

[somebodychildofanyone]

River spreads her hands, philosophically. "It's not like, annoying in and of itself, but when you make things you wanna...make things, right? Hone your technique, challenge your skills, get better. I'm not a master smith, I've got a long way to go, but I am at a point where making nails and mending pots just isn't a challenge any more, it's something that keeps my hand in the game but it's rote, boring, repetitive. The thing is...day to day, people don't really need a masterwork. They need their pot mended."

[somebodychildofanyone]

So being a mercenary for decades will give you some bad habits.

Like this one:

"I work a forge all day, y'get hungry maintaining these things." River flexes. She really does. She is Flexing right now. Later she will blame Max for this and say she was meeting him at his level of blatant flirting and cheese, but later she will also be lying, through her teeth, to save face. Girl is flexing because she thinks it's a good idea. Hand her a pumpkin spice latte.

Anyway: "What's on the menu, Max?"

CW: violence and death discussed

[graveling]

Angel's eyes narrow slightly at Mulcahy's use of the word 'trapped', but he keeps the thought behind that to himself.

Instead, he asks a tangential question: "were they all dead? The people who arrived where you were last, did they get there by dying? I think...that's part of something that a lot of us, maybe all of us, are walking past and the locals are letting us."

Someone pointed out to Angel that he'd been bottling up the trauma of being chopped to pieces, destroyed completely. And he's realized everyone else is, too.

[maximumcake]

"He...is?!" Listen close and you can hear the needle in Max's mind scratching on vinyl.

Erik. His former master, Lord Osborne? The town whore? He needs a minute to just picture it. Like, yeah, Erik was a really good fuck. The kind of fuck Max still misses sometimes but... wow. Really? Well, okay. That's... good?

Having worked through a full face journey from shock to acceptance, his expression now settles into a warm smile to match Chris's.

"He really talked about me? I wasn't sure if he... when I told him I needed time I thought maybe he'd be... mad." It's all a lot hitting him at once.

"I'm happy that he has people that care about him. It's really nice to meet you, and thank you. Thank you for that. I... thank you. I'm sorry. I'm being rude."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Oh thank christ --"

That comes out muffled, into Max's shoulder, as Edgar hugs him back as hard as he can. "Fuckin hell, man, it's good to see you -- are you all right?"

[crushed_pearls]

Glamour. Intense and focused and there; Erin snatches at it (from the outside it looks like she's reaching for Nimona), and the rush of the harvest makes her suck in a sharp breath.

Awareness is slower, but it gets there. Pink, and that voice...

"Heya youngblood," Erin croaks. "Not my worst entrance but it'll make the scrapbook."

[umm_shafaqat]

Keziah could mention again that she can't eat most of what is here. (She physically can, as part of blending in as a human, though only in moderation. And most human food doesn't have any taste for her.) But this time, she smiles faintly and says, "What I'd really like is a warm drink, if that's available."

This is not an allusion to blood -- she can drink other things as well, and of course warm liquids are best. Tea, coffee, or even broth would work.

"Everyone has been so kind. Your collective hard work to make us all feel welcome is greatly appreciated."

[thelatechrisfreeman]

"I don't think he's mad. Erik told me that he misses you, but that he knew you were happier being free. And he doesn't want to be your master again, but... maybe we could all be friends instead?" Chris blushes a little, and admits, "I do care for Erik, very much."

Chris shakes their head, and smiles at Max. "You're not being rude, sweetheart. I know it's a big shock. I wasn't expecting to see you here either."

[lovethyneighb_or]

“My seven-foot-tall three-eyed ram-headed shadow demon friend who could mysteriously store and retrieve items from an invisible ‘inventory.’”

As you do.

“You can imagine I was quite frightened of him for months, but he turned out to be very polite. He didn’t bother anybody unless they were really being quite rude. He’s…”

…

“… He hasn’t appeared yet. But I’d still like to hope.”

[astrogator]

Someone recognises him. Remember that firebrand of a young lieutenant from the Village? She's very glad that he survived its destruction. Unfortunately, by the time that she noticed that he had, she'd sent up the distress call and made herself the target for all those people who didn't find their imprisonment as intolerable as she did, and feared worse. Tayrey, not knowing where Mulcahy stood, had kept away. Either he'd be as angry with her as most of the rest - or he wouldn't be, and she wouldn't risk trouble coming to him for being an understanding person.

She's on the outskirts of the gathering too, albeit for very different reasons. When she approaches him, it's with the belief that at the very least a religious man won't harm her, which makes him safe enough.

Tayrey stands there, feeling out-of-place in these strange clothes, longing for her old Tradeline uniform. (But she chose to be here; there's no protest display of her astrogator's tattoo. This is her liberation and so she'll accept the imperfections.) 'Peace and prosperity. I'm glad you made it out.'

[lovethyneighb_or]

“…”

…

“… Some of us got there by dying, but all of us got there by being magically copied over. We’re the seconds. Scraps in the universe. That doesn’t mean we’re not all unfamiliar with being killed, of course—we are. That ship ran games of death that we simply had to get back up again and keep playing.”

[notinflictthem]

Hawkeye laughs and then stops laughing because Mulcahy doesn't continue jokes that far.

"If he ever shows up- I mean, I probably won't need an introduction to pick him out of a crowd, but I'll want you to introduce us anyway."

[graveling]

Angel does not flinch, his body doesn’t do automatic reactions like that. No, his grimace is as deliberate as his smiles are, muscle-by-muscle, and brief before his face returns to blank neutrality.

“I’m sorry.”

It’s all enormous, and he doesn’t know how to help.

[notinflictthem]

A genuinely quizzical look.

"But why wouldn't they just use yours for that?"

[lovethyneighb_or]

“It’s alright. It’s over now.” (He hopes.) “Now we get to be here, where there’s fresh air and real grass and flowers, and weather, and bugs—and animals! And real food.” He lifts his piled plate as a demonstration.

“And of course, new friends. This is a truly, truly generous welcome. It’s a bit difficult for me to be so somber now when my heart is bursting with gratitude.”

He is both, though, of course.

[astrogator]

One side effect of Tayrey's stay on the torture ship is that the automatic regard and deference she had for anyone claiming to be a captain is long since gone. She doesn't, therefore, protest the impossibility of treating him like a civilian.

'I hear you, Captain. I'm military. On my homeworld or anyone else's, and all the space between. Astrogator on the interstellar Tradelines,' she tells him. That's what she's going to be, to these strangers. Not Tayrey the pathetic torture victim. Tradeline Tayrey, clawing back every scrap of what was hers.

No need to be too serious, though. 'I hope you won't be offended if I say that shipside we tried to avoid seeing too much of the inside of the infirmary, however good company the doctor.'

[graveling]

Angel knows well from ‘a bit difficult to be somber’ being very different from ‘not being somber’, but he’s polite enough not to give that a callout.

“If we’re going to be friends, uh. Maybe you’ll tell me what to call you? I’m Angel.” No last name, not at this point, not with a stranger.

[lovinglefthand]

Dot. Dot. Dot.

"Doctor Pierce," First Aid finally sighs. "Has anyone told you about the internet yet?"

[lovethyneighb_or]

Ah! What a coincidence. He has no idea if Catholicism exists where Angel’s from, though.

“I’m Father Mulcahy. I’m a priest, although I certainly don’t look like it at the moment. It’s wonderful to meet you, Angel.”

[lovethyneighb_or]

“You liked him the first time, so I’ll be happy to introduce you for the second. You taught him poker.”

[lovinglefthand]

"I think they're trying to switch over to 'Current Era' in the schools and academic literature. But yes, two thousand and seven Anno Domini, February of the Gregorian calendar. Why?"

[notinflictthem]

"Relevance, your honour?"

How did 'nets' enter the equation.

[graveling]

“A priest?” Angel tilts his head slooooowly to one side.

“That’s good. Great, even. I…am in training to become a priest of the local goddesses. I swear, this isn’t an attempt to convert you, honest! But, there’s a…human element to being a priest, to helping the people not just the deities and. I need help with that, maybe. Dunno if you can tell, but. I’m not good with people much. I’m not used to even really thinking of myself as part of people. You know?”