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

[sistermagnetic]

Her eyebrow arches up, and she chuckles quietly. "Oh, so my reputation precedes me. I promise you that any claims to my goodness are greatly exaggerated."

[abhorrently]

"You realize that makes you more interesting and not less? At least in my eyes."

No disrespect to those that are purely good, but Fever would feel like she needed to tiptoe around them.

[sistermagnetic]

Her expression softens as she regards Fever. The scars on her face tell stories that Magne won't ask about when they've only just met.

"It's just that I think people here have something of a rose-tinted view of me." She didn't want them to see the things that put her in the position that ended her up here in the first place. They're determined to see her as so much more wholesome than she feels she is.

[abhorrently]

Red eyes meet black, and there's the sense of insight - not supernatural, but the way someone says something recognizable in another language, and on reflex, another will look up to see them.

"They're speaking a bit too well of you in a manner that doesn't quite feel earned. To refuse them is a discourtesy, to accept them is nigh on a deception, at least to you."

She holds the other woman's gaze, waiting for a refutation of the words.

[sistermagnetic]

There's a slack that comes to her posture as Fever reads her so astutely. She doesn't have to be gentle about her lived experience. It's such a relief.

Her voice quiets to avoid drawing anyone else's attention as they talk, though she steps away from her dishes so that anyone else that wants it can help themselves.

"The people here, they're so determined to believe that any crime I committed was righteous, or out of necessity. Some of them might have been, sure, but there is some measure of enjoyment to it as well. Why else would I set up a fighting ring? Knock out a woman just for doing her job?" She sighs. "I don't blame them, they didn't know a damn thing about me, and they only know what I dripfeed them to appeal to their sensibilities."

[abhorrently]

With a grace that will read as casual to anyone looking, Fever sets her plate aside and follows, them looking for all the world as if they simply were having a light conversation. Nothing for them to worry about.

"I won't wring out your life story from you on the day we've met, but I will say that I understand. And I've been told I'm a fair listener."

Since clearly, this is weighing on her mind. Fever might be a complete stranger, but as it has been before, so it may be again - sometimes it's easier to open to someone you know less, when their judgement matters less.

"The line between what is needed and what you enjoy can blur in ways that only you see."

[sistermagnetic]

She hadn't necessarily meant to draw Fever away from her food, only taking a couple of steps away, but she wouldn't make a big deal of it. Talking with someone that seems like they would get it a lot more than most people here would is...unexpected, and refreshing, if she's honest.

"I wouldn't want to drop it at your feet anyway, it's long and not fit for public gatherings. Suffice it to say that the world was not kind, and neither was I. I do wonder though, at the amount of grace you're showing me with the little I've already said."

[abhorrently]

"Funny that you call it grace when I half expected you'd say I was prying where I don't belong, presuming too much. But I suppose that's just who I am. Why shouldn't I?"

Erin had said something about compassion, and Fever's pretending she doesn't remember it, but it just made sense to her. Magne needed that line thrown out to her, the one that says she isn't judged. Not out of some misguided sense of thinking she's blameless, but from a position of willing to listen.

[sistermagnetic]

There is a measure of trepidation that follows whenever she meets someone new that she's finding that she actually likes. When is the other shoe going to drop? When is she going to have to go on the offensive? When is she going to have to lay out someone else for treating her poorly? Fever at least seems like she understands that from the point of view of a woman in a bad situation. Magne doesn't want to leave her with the wrong impression, and that means not leaving out some vital bit of information.

"I call it grace, because until I know exactly where someone stands, I am going to be ready to hurt them. I will kill a man for calling me by a name that isn't mine. I would break you in half if you gave me a reason to. And even knowing that, you're being very... understanding. I'm still getting used to being treated like a human being," she admits quietly. "If you pry where you don't belong, I'll at least let you know first. I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't want you to know. As someone that I might like to consider a friend."

[abhorrently]

There is a smile that crosses her lips - restrained, almost tired, the marks of the perpetual running the gauntlet that such lives leave on another person visible, like a glimpse of the sky from a ship's porthole below deck.

"You say these things as if I'm supposed to consider them less reasonable than they are, like it's not grace you're extending yourself to a new soul. I rather expected suspicion and vague hostility from just showing up today, well intentioned folk or not. Peace instead is...unusual." Which might say much about where she's been. "And if I did something to warrant your wrath, then I deserve the form it takes."

Breaking her in half or otherwise.

"I'd...like to consider you a friend as well. Even if we are headed directly into the weeds to start."

Name a day, name a place. She'll make her way there to listen.

[sistermagnetic]

She understands where Fever is coming from just as much as it seems that Fever understands her caution and desire to explain herself. They're both from places where peace is not something meant for either of them. It's a painful reality thrown into stark contrast by their new circumstances.

"Peace and acceptance are...very new to me. I think that it's put me on the defensive," she admits with a touch of embarrassment. "Unfortunately, I seem to live my life in the weeds."

[abhorrently]

"It's all right. You've got to do far worse than offer me some good food and honest conversation before I decide I'm not associating with you."

She throws a wink Magne's way.

"But that said, after I settle in - maybe we could have a talk somewhere less public. One when you can voice what's on your mind." One where she won't have to temper herself for someone else.

[sistermagnetic]

"Looking forward to it," she replies easily, smile tilting at that wink. She gives a finger-twiddling wave in response. Fever could go back to her food and take advantage of the hospitality of the village while it was so readily available.