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

[maximumcake]

Max laughs, bright and playful. All of this is like a long-lost dream coming true. The food especially, for reasons he is determined not to think too hard about. Maybe ever. He loads up his plate with every version of comfort food on this table and jogs around to meet Hawkeye on the other side.

"Only my knee?"

[notinflictthem]

"You can't eat a cow in one bite, you have to start cut by cut," Hawkeye offers his arm as if to escort Max like a genteel lady.

"And besides, I haven't tested the policy on public nudity, but I'm figuring it's the same as anywhere."

[maximumcake]

"You'll have to have a pretty big appetite to take all my meat in," Oh yeah, he went there. And he still has the audacity to wrap his arm daintily around Hawkeye's like he didn't just drop the lewdest joke in the middle of a picnic.

"I'm assuming it's frowned upon. You'll just have to use your imagination until later."

[notinflictthem]

"Now that's just gauche. I've lost my appetite," he jokes, patting Max on the arm to indicate no harm done.

He leads them to somewhere to sit and eat properly, sitting himself beside Max like he always sat with-

It's just better for conversation. And he can feel up his knee from here.

"So what do you do when you're not being fantastic advertising for the food?"

[maximumcake]

Max shows no discomfort at all sitting with his thigh pressed to Haweye's side by side. Shame? What's that? Can you eat it?

"Well, first of all, I'm always fantastic advertising for food. But, no, really, cooking and especially baking are my biggest passions in life. I'm hoping maybe they'll let me hang around the kitchen at the Oak and Iron until I can get my own place going."

[notinflictthem]

Entirely seriously,

"Marry me."

[maximumcake]

"Think you might have to ask for my hand from my two girlfriends first." Yes. Two.

"They don't bite. Hard. Unless I ask them to." All of this, for the record, said with a perfectly straight face. (The only straight thing about him.)

[notinflictthem]

...

"And hell isn't going to break loose if I mention your name to both of them?"

Genuine question.

[maximumcake]

"Oh, no. Not at all." Right, he keeps forgetting that's not how it works in most places that aren't a weird cursed cruise ship.

"We're all in an open relationship. They have other girlfriends, too, and all of us are free to hook up with whoever as long as everyone's being respectful about it. But we are each other's emotional grounding and that's really important to me."

[notinflictthem]

"Huh."

Hawkeye has an expression on his face a little like someone just explained the concept of gravity to him.

"Tell me more? How'd you work that whole thing out?"

It's not even flirting, it's genuine interest.

[maximumcake]

Max doesn't need any excuse to gush about his girlfriends. But now that he has one... buckle up.

"Have you heard of Polyamory?" That seems like the logical place to start.

"I met Valdis first, and I fell deeply in love with her. But I also met Ylva and fell just as in love with her. Because I... I guess I'm just not the kind of guy that only loves one person at a time. I also am just... way too horny and I love having sex with my friends if they are into it so..." He laughs at himself about that because it's not even a secret. Apparently, there was an entire murder shipping board about it. Good thing he doesn't feel shame.

"So we all talked to make sure that we were okay with it if we were in a relationship with other people, too. Especially because Ylva was already dating Erin when I asked her to be my girlfriend. Sometimes it means we have to work a little harder on the logistics but... we all really care about each other and trust one another so, for us, it works. I'm happier than I've ever been."

[notinflictthem]

"Someone's mixing their medicines. Poly is Greek, like polynomials, and amory is Latin, like amor fati. It should be polyphilia, or multiamory."

Hawkeye predates that as a term which means he also predates how annoying that conversation is.

"But no, never heard of it- I'm from 1951, it feels like every day I'm running into things I've never heard of."

He listens though, chin propped up by his palm- except when he's eating, because the food isn't getting any warmer.

"You're a man after my own heart- there were some days back at the OR where the only thing getting me through was the thought of taking a pretty nurse into the supply tent. Or a handsome one. That's great, though- I'm still happily unmarried but... something to think about, for sure," and he gives Max's knee another little squeeze.

"It's uh- nice getting to talk about being omnivorous too, y'know? Being into both, I mean."

[maximumcake]

"I... don't actually know who invented the word." And he sucks at languages in general so it may as well all be Greek to him.

"Huh. I'm from 2011 and even I still feel like I'm missing things, so I can only imagine what it's like for you." He gives his head a sad shake.

But he's more eager to get to know Hawkeye now than ever. "Yeah, I know what you mean. The word we have for it is bisexual. Although, I'm more like... pansexual. Which just means everything, really." He doesn't stop at just two, he's gotta collect them all.

"It sucks to feel like you have to hide that part of yourself. I know, I had to sometimes back home. I'm glad to tell you that's not a thing here. No one will look at you differently. Or, if they do, they're the weird ones."

[notinflictthem]

That would be Morning-Glory Ravenheart-Zell, wife of the guy who coined 'paganism', fun fact.

"Bisexual, huh?" he asks, "I think I like that. I uh- let's say I've availed myself of how tolerant this place is already. Multiple times. It's a nice change. Not that I didn't do it back where I'm from- I used to joke about it all the time, but nobody thought I was actually... You should've seen Trapper's face the time he caught me with a male nurse, I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

But Hawk chuckles a little to himself at the thought of it, so Max can probably guess the reaction wasn't too bad.

"Anyway. Jokes aside, can I come find you after the potluck, if your girlfriends won't whisk you away?"

[maximumcake]

"It's nice to be able to be open about it," Max agrees. He gathers that the encounter Hawkeye is talking about went okay in the end, if he can laugh about it. He hopes.

"Tonight is definitely going to belong to my girlfriends. We um. Thought each other were dead so..." they have some anxieties left to work out.

"But I do want you to come find me. Maybe tomorrow? You got one of those sending stones when you arrived, right? I'm moving in with Valdis but I still plan on keeping a room for myself at the Oak and Iron. I can meet you there."

[notinflictthem]

"That does seem a little more pressing than getting off," Hawkeye agrees, patting Max's knee one last time before he removes his hand entirely.

"Glad you're all not though, you don't seem the type to be necrophilic."

...

"That rock thing we all got given? Why- does it do something? I couldn't get mine to work."

He's an old man technology magic is scary and he doesn't like it.

[maximumcake]

Max shoves a bite of food in his mouth really, really fast to keep from saying the first, second, and even third thing that immediately pops into his head. MMM, potato salad. MMMM.

"Y-eah. Didn't anyone show you how to use them? You have to think about the person you want to call and will the stone to connect you. I know that sounds weird but it does work. It's a lot better than the weird cell phones we had on the ship I came from. I do miss having a camera, though."

[notinflictthem]

"Oh well that's no good, most days I can't even muster up the will to get out of bed."

Which is to say, he's sticking to what he knows works, thank you.

"What's a cell phone? We have cameras here, but they're the old fashioned kind you have to sit still for."

[maximumcake]

"Oh, come on. Don't be like my old master. It took me forever to teach him how to text...oh."

Oh. He doesn't even know what a cell phone is. Making more sense now.

"You know how we have phones attached to the wall here, right? Cell phones are better because they aren't attached to anything. You can take them with you anywhere. Just like these stones."

[notinflictthem]

"Next time I'll make sure to be born somewhere with magic and cell phones," and if his tone has taken on a more bitter tint, then it's because every new delight and thing to learn about seems to come with the assumption that he should already know about them. Like walking into a candy store where they don't let you try anything you haven't already tasted.

"How'd they get that to work without the wires?"

[maximumcake]

"Now you really sound like Erik," Max says undeterred by that tone.

"I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure they still use radio towers for it. Oh, and they invented batteries that last longer. That's pretty much where my knowledge ends. It may as well be magic to me too."

[notinflictthem]

Record scratch.

"You don't mean like the vampire, do you?"

[maximumcake]

"Uh, yeah. Actually. I do. Have you met him?"

[notinflictthem]

"Worse than that, I proposed."

He really doesn't want to come off badly in front of this charming young man who he intends to make house calls to, but his tone comes out bitter again-

"Sorry to say but I think your 'master' is an arrogant blowhard with a superiority complex that makes some generals look like monks and a blatant disregard for human life that only rivals some doctors I've met. We're nothing alike."

[maximumcake]

"Pro--what?" Max is too baffled by the first part to even think of responding.

But his expression does sober the more Hawkeye says. It's not like he can completely disagree. Erik's ego isn't really up for debate.

"I... I know you're not the only person who feels that way about him," Max answers timidly. "I get it. He's... not human. But you're wrong about that last part. He doesn't have a blatant disregard for human life. I'm proof of that because...he saved mine, and spent the last seven years of his life protecting me."