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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

[yournewsidekick]

She shrugs, noncommittal.

"We could have a cold cut party on the ground," she suggests. "Not as cool as a pizza party, but not bad either."

[hate_gettin_older]

"... we could do that," he allows judiciously. "Maybe knock over some bread to go with it?"

Completely serious. Look how serious that face is.

[yournewsidekick]

"Good."

She flutters down to land on their shoulder, hopping along its ridge as if to confirm they're all in one piece. "Yeah, it's all fuzzy for me, too. Last thing I remember was..."

She trails off, then gives a small, awkward, avian shrug.

"I dunno if I died in there, or if that lady just showed up super-late to me exploding back home, or what." Smaller: "I'm glad you're okay."

[yournewsidekick]

So serious. Gloreth herself would tremble in the face of such seriousness.

Nimona arranges her expression into equal solemnity, giving him a nod. "Guard the ham," she says. "I'm going in."

She licks his hair again, making sure it sticks up in an extra-ridiculous-looking way, and trots back toward the tables. Turns out someone thoughtfully left a ton of dinner rolls next to the (now missing) cold cut tray, the better to make a bunch of little sandwiches, and all it takes is one tiny...

CRASH.

A second tray rolls away from the potluck like a single tire rolling away from a car crash, scattering bread as it goes.

[hadnoright]

Daisy drags her tongue over her teeth. Without a real lay of the land it's hard to know where's truly ideal for a private conversation, but they'll have to make it work.

"Edge of the woodland to the north? Early afternoon?"

Plenty before dark, without having to set out too early. Far enough from town to keep people's noses out, without going far enough they might have to deal with whatever lives out there.

[abhorrently]

"Works for me. I'll be there."

And that's enough for her to stand and head off, needing to take a long walk on her own to mentally wrestle with the questions she's going to be asking herself. Mustering the courage to actually keep this appointment.

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar snatches as many of the rolls as he can before they, true to their name, roll away. He should probably feel a little guilty about encouraging Nimona to wreak chaos, but honestly, after what she's been through he's ready to defend this to anyone.

"Not gonna suggest we knock over any mustard though," he says, pulling open a roll and starting to stuff ham slices into it, "that'd be a mess."

[lightconductor]

"Ah, perhaps that's an attitude common to both professions, then, as I'm inclined to agree."

Watson shrugs a little, self-conscious. He can hardly go telling his life story to her now, at a time like this. "I imagine this is all rather overwhelming. I'm not sure I would have been up to a party when I first arrived."

[actuallyawolf]

"She really had no idea what she was doing," Ylva sighs. "I'm sorry. I've been --"

She stops herself, because she's been experimenting with powers she hasn't been able to use in years, she's been building a den, she's been hunting and helping and while she's been lonely as anything, complaining about that seems... unkind.

Instead, she says, "I'm glad you're here instead. This is a good place. Even with the curse, it's... good."

[yournewsidekick]

Ahh, it does a shapeshifter's heart good to break some stuff. Kinda. Baby steps, she's still getting her feet under her.

"Mustard's gross anyway," she declares, flopping beside Edgar and craning her neck to snap up one of the rolls. Rather than try to construct a sandwich with no opposable thumbs, she just grabs a mouthful of salami, too, chewing both meat and bread together.

[lightconductor]

"We had a cook, when was young," Watson says, vaguely. "My father had firm ideas, anyway, that his sons should have more of an education than he'd had, but also what sort of education it would be. I have had to learn quickly, but I did eat a good many sandwiches in my first weeks."

[graveling]

"I'd be glad to teach you. And to introduce you to the local preacher, Degas. He'll be excited to have someone else, too, probably."

Angel hasn't picked up on the preacher's feelings being complicated about a goddess-chosen priest being picked from the newcomers yet.

[hadnoright]

Daisy doesn't miss the stop and start, but she doesn't pry into it. "Mm. Definitely seems better. Didn't realise how much I'd missed being in an actual town. With actual— trees and things."

Right now she's hardly seen any of the place, of course, but comparing it to the ship is night and day.

"...don't think I've been out to the forest since before the ship, actually."

[crushed_pearls]

In a tight voice: "Imagine if it wasn't. I'd flip my lid the first time you brought up Liz."

[hate_gettin_older]

"What? No, mustard's good stuff," he protests mildly, brushing some dirt off a couple of slices of turkey and adding them to his already overstuffed sandwich. "Not as good as barbecue sauce though."

CHOMP.

[notinflictthem]

"Okay, okay, I get the point, I was just teasing. Don't get your feathers ruffled. Now I'm done."

He won't be.

"You should invite me over for dinner anyway, eh? It'd be nice. I used to bunk with another guy and a very large weasel, and as nice as it is having my own space again, I miss the company."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby doesn't cry. The relief hits her, but it's numbed, like it's being passed through a veil. Like there's something between her and it, something that brushes against her fingers when she tries to reach out and touch it.

(She failed them all. All of them. On the ship and at home. Over and over.)

She twitches as if to reach out to her, or to hug her, or to— to do something, anything, but she can't seem to make herself do it. "I— I went home. Somehow."

[crushed_pearls]

"Hey, the seamstress mentioned ya." Bird woman is offering a hand to shake. "Erin Peters, call me Erin. I do oneiromancy the way huge fuckin' guys with no training do fighting."

[amourtician]

Anzu raises an eyebrow at Cecil.

"Sour cream is savoury, dearest," he says, after a brief pause. "It does not go along with dessert. Desserts are really supposed to be sweet."

As to the other thing, it takes him a second to process it, "wait, ah. Wait a moment. Peanuts grow not on, nu, trees?" He's been assuming they're like cashews. He might, in fact, even be thinking of cashews. "And what exactly are cranberries?"

[graphomaniac]

"Uh, cranberries are like, rowan, but squishier and they grow in lakes," says Lev, unhelpfully. "They also taste suspiciously artificial for something allegedly grown?"

He comes closer, nodding in greeting to Cecil.

"He won't be convinced of the sour cream thing," he says, jerking his chin at Anzu. "Also, don't get him like, started on the difference between sour cream and smetana?"

[crushed_pearls]

"I got...I was gone before," Erin whispers. "Into the void between worlds, trying to find everyone, but...I was so scared I wouldn't see you again. I thought...I thought that damn wizard had..."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin sweeps Ruby into a tight hug, folding her wings around her sister and squeezing her tight. "I'm so sorry," Erin whispers, because Remnant is a nightmare, and Ruby, poor Ruby, was appointed to save it by the people who should have been protecting her at any cost. "I'm sorry, sis. But 'm here, we're here. You don't have to be a leader here."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin has fallen over again.

Laughing this time, mind you.

But Bird Down, Bird Down!

RWBY v8-9 spoilers from here on out

[littlefairytale]

I never should have been one at all, is what she thinks, and even as she thinks it she's not sure if it's more because she wishes she was free of it or because of how bad at it she turned out to be. Jaune was right. It was her plan, so it was her fault; if she hadn't made such a stupid plan then Penny wouldn't be dead, and Atlas wouldn't have fallen, and Salem wouldn't have two relics, and they wouldn't even be in the Ever After and— and—

Ruby shakes, but she doesn't cry. She still doesn't cry. She just wraps her arms around Erin and buries her face in her shoulder, staring numbly across to the shroud of black feathers that block out the outside world.

"It— it was only a few days. I think."

It all blurs together. No sleep. No rest. Just one crisis after another after another after—

[spaghettification]

"Age isn't the only barrier."

He isn't ready to open himself to hope, right now.