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Mingle - Emergency Potluck

Pumpkin Hollow Community Bulletin

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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.

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This is unexpected, but not unwelcome. Truthfully, going to see a shiny tree sounds like it might be more comfortable than outstaying her welcome here. She matches Elsie's enthusiasm. 'Sure! Let's go now!'

She's on her feet, ready to leave immediately, but her conscience insists on making a strong suggestion first. 'We'll take your food with us? So it's not wasted.' Wasting food is frowned upon shipside, and she's guessing a settlement that recently suffered famine will share that sentiment.

"Yes," Elsie agrees as if the thought of leaving her food behind never crossed her mind. She scoops the rest of it into her palm to carry with her. Plates aren't really necessary in the woods, after all.

"Okay!" And she's off, expecting Ari to follow.

Ari follows! Alright, the food-in-the-hand is unexpected, but it's harmless, and only throws her off for a moment before she hurries off after Elsie. She quickly catches up and matches the other young woman's pace.

'Is it far? I haven't had much of a chance to explore yet,' she admits.

"Not far." To Elsie, who has traveled every inch of these woods, it's barely any distance at all. But even to less seasoned adventurers, it's not a long journey, just to the edge of the forest.

Roots begin to show under foot. They lead to a large, moss covered tree adorned with bits of glass, cloth, or other trinkets hanging from its branches. There's a hollow in the tree large enough that items could be placed in there, and about the trunk, the name 'Elsie' is spelled out with metal bits pressed into the bark and left to be partially grown over until fused with the wood.

"See?" Elsie says, poking at a piece of broken ceramic dangling off a limb by a length of string. "Shiny?"

It doesn't seem very far to Ari either. If anything, she appreciates the chance for a decent walk. One where she isn't constantly alert for hidden dangers. She enjoys it, and they cover the distance quickly.

When they approach the tree, she takes the time to look at it properly. Of course the shiny trinkets don't even begin to compare to Cardalek luxuries, or even to all the things she misses from the Tradelines, but Ari can tell that they're meaningful to Elsie. She's not about to be dismissive or unkind.

'This is the shiniest tree I've ever seen,' says Ari, because it's true. She reaches out and touches the metal of Elsie's name, embedded into the bark. 'It's your tree, yes? Special to you?'

"Yes!" Elsie is pleased by the compliment. It is the shiniest tree.

"It's a sacred tree. I protect it."

'A sacred tree?' Ari knows religious language when she hears it, and it's enough to make her curious. She hasn't ever heard of trees being religiously significant, Earther stories about evil apples excepted.

'What makes the tree sacred?' she asks carefully.

Elsie looks at the tree, back to Ari, and back to the tree again. Finally, she shrugs helplessly. "It is."

This is the kind of answer that she finds immensely frustrating, but she does her best not to show it, instead staring fixedly at the decorated tree for a moment.

Maybe it needs an indirect approach.

'Can you tell me more about it?' she asks.

"It's special."

Elsie lays a hand against the trunk and a perfectly timed breeze blows through the clearing ruffling her brightly colored hair.

"Feels like... family."

Family is a very specific word to Ari. It doesn't include people not related to you by blood or contract, it doesn't include animals, and it certainly doesn't include trees.

She can't hide the skeptical look this time.

'That's-' she begins to say, but she realises it isn't worth it. She doesn't want to hurt Elsie. 'It's good you have somewhere special.' She peers at the hollow. 'Do you keep anything inside?'

Elsie doesn't react to that look, so used to that from the villagers at this point it just seems normal.

"Yes! I show you?" She reaches to take Ari's hand. Contact is important for this next trick to work. (Sorry if her palms are slightly sticky.)

Ari doesn't immediately take her hand. 'I can just look inside?' she suggests. She reaches down, only to remember with a start that not only does she not have the little signal light she usually keeps in her pocket, she doesn't even have her usual pockets. It's disconcerting.

"Don't want to look inside. Want to be inside. Watch."

Elsie, oblivious to what Ari's searching for, dematerializes herself into the shadow within the tree. Her voice still carries clearly from inside.

"Like this!"

'Citizen Elsie?!' Her voice rises in alarm. 'How did you do that? How did you get inside the tree?'

Tayrey's not afraid of what she's seeing, only worried about Elsie, because phasing into a tree surely can't be very safe.

"I can become shadow," Elsie answers back from within the hollow. "It's fun. Take my hand and try." Elsie's solid hand reaches out of the hole beckoning for her to grab hold.

Tayrey used to be an adventurous young woman. It comes with the territory of being an astrogator - of being a spacer at all. A certain appreciation for risk and for novelty. She'd loved fast flights, busy multicultural hub stations, stepping into the unknown of uninhabited worlds.

Captivity had crushed that out of her. The worry that her behavior might be letting her people down. The terrifying unpredictable magic. The horror of the first and last excursion she'd willingly signed up for. The fear that if she tried something new, and liked it, others would claim that she was clearly enjoying her hated imprisonment and had nothing to complain of.

Arilanna Tayrey is not a captive any longer.

She reaches out.

She takes Elsie's hand.

From within the shadows where no one can see, Elsie smiles knowingly to herself.

As soon as she takes Elsie's hand, Ari will feel a sensation similar to missing a step on the stairs. It's startling, but over as quickly as it starts. Once it passes, she will be looking out from the hole of the tree. All of her has somehow been compacted down into the small space, but she will feel no different to herself. If she tries to wiggle a toe, she will feel it move, even if she cannot see it. There's no pain, no numbness, the sounds around them are as crisp and clear as they always were. The only limitation to her sight is how far she can see from the hole, but if she attempts to stick her head out of it, she will find her vision unchanged.

Elsie's hand squeezes Ari's for reassurance. The wild woman may not be visible inside the blackness of shadow, but she feels solid and warm. The warmth is in her voice as well. "Cozy?"

The initial sensation is startling, but it's really nothing to worry about, not for someone like Ari who has been through L-space training. And then - she is inside the tree. She is most definitely inside the tree, and she shouldn't be able to fit, but she does, comfortably, and she still feels very much herself. She can feel her body, whole and unchanged.

Tayrey has no fear of this. She remembers Sparkles, how the little shadow creature used to hide away in its shadow realm, and decides this must be something similar. A sidestep into other dimensions, like a ship's transition into L-space, only without all the effort and expense and altered perception. This shadow dimension is not alien the way that L-space is, but the mathematics of it might be similar, at root.

She squeezes Elsie's hand in return. 'I like it,' she says. 'You feel safe in here, yes?' Tayrey would feel safe, if this were hers, and she begins to realise what it means that Elsie is sharing it with her. That trust.

"Yes," Elsie confirms with a touch of melancholy. "My home." She can't describe why, even to herself, but when she is here, she feels as if she is wrapped in a warm hug. The world out there cannot touch her in here. She senses in Ari a need for safety too--a place where no one can touch her.

"I'm happy you like it. You can come in any time. Only have to call me."

That's exactly what Ari needs, even if she can't admit it to herself. Her starship was never safe in that way, after all. Space was dangerous. They had enemies. The difference was that all the dangers were external; she had nothing to fear from anyone inside the ship save ordinary disagreements.

'Call you? How would I do that?' She hasn't yet encountered those strange rocks. 'You mean call on you, come out here and see you?'

"Call on..." Elsie still struggles with these things at times. "...Come to my tree and say my name. I will hear it. I will come. Always."

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Mingle - Emergency Potluck

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