Mingle - Emergency Potluck

[pumpkinhollow]

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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

[crushed_pearls]

"Awesome, your entire life is an old multimedia fiction franchise where I'm from," Erin replies Far Too Casually. "My knowledge of Mister Prime can be summed up as 'he's kinda a dad and he dies a lot'. Fights a dude who turns into a gun? Megaton or something."

[lovinglefthand]

"Megatron," First Aid corrects automatically. He doesn't have a jaw to drop open, but his voice manages to convey complete bewilderment as he sputters for a moment and finally asks, "Is it a good franchise? Do people like it?"

He hands start to wring together. "Am I in it?" he asks quietly.

[crushed_pearls]

"I'll level with you, the only Autobot that I recognize by name who isn't Mister Prime is Arcee. You can laugh at my gay ass at your discretion." She pats First Aid on the shoulder, and her voice gentles, tinges with a faint wonder:

"A good franchise though...that's the wrong way to think about it, Doctor. It's a force of nature, ancient and powerful, the stories of your people are everywhere, in every form. High dramas of war and reconciliation, comedies, action movies your fans argue about incessantly -" she pauses. "- don't ask about those - games, toys, merch. The humans of my Earth write children's shows where the Autobots help demonstrate being good people, because kids love y'all and know you're heroes, hell, a friend of mine made Optimus Prime in a drafting program when he took a class on it - engineering, y'know? From our perspective you're so much bigger than life that we can't always do you justice, but I promise, there's people trying again right now."

[lovinglefthand]

"Oh no, that's okay," First Aid says quickly. "Arcee is really cool, everyone thinks so."

He falls silent, though, as Erin continues speaking. His visor flickers slightly, fixed on her to the exclusion of all else. For a moment all his worries fall away, drowned out by the rising tide of wonder in his spark. "They," he finally says, sounding a little choked up for all that he doesn't have the parts to cry. "They really love us that much, on your Earth? We're...we're really that important, even though they only see us as fictional characters?"

He rubs his face, metal making faint clicks against metal before he pulls a deep breath of air through his vents. "All we've wanted, since we woke up in Oregon, was to be good friends to humanity. It hasn't always been easy -- my presence here being a case in point. But knowing there are humans somewhere who love us enough to tell our story over and over...that's beautiful."

Against all logic, First Aid sniffles a little. "Thank you for telling me," he says quietly.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin squeezes his shoulder and silently regrets this choice because First Aid is, unfortunately, still made of steel. Such is life.

"The world is full of wonder and horror," she murmurs. "You're one of the wonders. Unfortunately this is when I add the third category, annoying bullshit. You got a minute for me to drop some mild medical facts, save you hassle later?"

[lovinglefthand]

"Yes, of course." First Aid takes another deep breath to calm himself and then also takes Erin's hand, holding it gently in his much larger fingers. "I always have time for that. What do you need to tell me?"

[crushed_pearls]

"It's nothing too horrifying, just annoying. Here's the deal - I'm gonna show up human to all tests. Blood? Normal. DNA? Normal. Organs? Bet your ass they're normal." Erin gestures to the All Of Herself. "Think I seem normal?"

[lovinglefthand]

"-- I mean, I don't know what humans are like in your universe. But I'm going to guess from your phrasing that actually, your body plan is somewhat unusual for your species." He tilts his head slightly, doing a few passive scans of Erin's body to see what turns up. "Are the wings functional?"

[crushed_pearls]

"For gliding!" Erin answers cheerfully. "They're magic, I'm magic, and it affects me in ways not immediately obvious to medical testing. The quick cliff notes: I need about double the calories you might expect, and about three times the sugar. I'm not gonna scar no matter what you do to me so don't fret about that..." She trails off in thought, then perks up again: "And my blood type is O+ but don't give it to hemovores, they'll trip balls."

[lovinglefthand]

"'Hemovores' -- oh right, vampires. Like Lord Osborne." First Aid nods his understanding, entirely unaware of the can of worms he just opened. "He handles his own feeding, but I'll keep that in mind in case there's ever an emergency situation where we need extra volunteers or something."

He starts to continue, "Magic isn't entirely unknown in my world, but --" But his player has a feeling Erin is going to interrupt him before he can continue, hehe.

[crushed_pearls]

"Real unhelpful word, isn't it?" Erin, in fact, interrupts. "I haven't had nearly enough alcohol or rest to explain my deal to a stranger, no offense doc. 'Magic' is what you get."