Islander meeting!

[savedbyasong]

Who: Everyone!
What: An information gathering meeting, mingle log style!
When: 13th as advertised Here!
Where: Big tent, islet 4 (sorry Ardyn!)
Warnings: Keep an eye on subject lines for warnings!

[The tent is a good place to have this. It's sheltered at least. Shion has collected strawberries and also water. He hopes that people will turn up, there's a lot to discuss. About this place, how they are here and how to leave. But also surviving here. Helping each other make the most of being here.

They had done such things in the Tower and it was a good way to get things organised. He knows he has questions and he thinks other people probably do as well. If it's anything like the Tower then people all have different bits of information that will fit together eventually.

He greats people as they enter and will encourage anyone who looks less than certain to enter and offer them strawberries.]

((OOC: So I'll put up a subthread for mingling before the meeting, then discussion points can be posted as a reply to this main thread. I'll do a few for things Shion will bring up but feel free to post your own points as well! Tag around, do breakout threads, discuss all the things. Don't worry if things go off topic. Have fun!)

Comments

Pre-meeting mingling!

[savedbyasong]

Shion ota

[savedbyasong]

He really isn't sure if people will even turn up, this might end up being just him and Aster talking theories. Half afraid that they will, he's mostly kept himself to himself since his misadventures and he'd rather be in the background of such a meeting. Writing notes as Reno put people at ease with a smile and encouraged them to share what they knew and work together.

But his dads not here, no hand is going to ruffle his hair and remind him sternly to breathe. Shion and Aster were trained in this. For the most part it was just being friendly, helping people who were stuck here. He could do that.

He is breathing though and though his smile is nervous it is friendly, he has the notebook that the Storyteller gave him and he frequently pauses to write yet another note.

[catpiper]

Hello, a useless person has appeared to do nothing other than irritate the poor nugget that got this little gathering together. But strawberries are good? She'll stay for that reason alone. She already has like three crammed in her pocket for later. And really, she's kind of content to stay under the tent shade for the entire afternoon, watching Shion scribble in that cute notebook.

"Are you drawing?"

[savedbyasong]

Oh it's Ren. Shion smiles brightly at her, glad to see her. He moves a bowl of strawberries closer to her, she seems to like them.

"I'm writing notes." He flips to the front of his book to show her. That's the safe side, the side where he writes notes about what he sees, what people tell him. Where he has written notes about what he wants to bring up here.

[catpiper]

She does like them and that's why he should've probably kept the bowl out of her sight, but here they are. As she slips another one into her strawberry filled pocket, she at least has the common decency to hold one out to him. There you go! Snack away, peanut, while her eyes fall to the notebook in his hand, scanning the pages to read whatever words she can. He's been a busy bee.

"So you don't forget? Is that why you write 'notes'?"

[savedbyasong]

He takes the strawberry with a smile. "Thank you, Ren!" He bites into it as she reads his notes.

"I don't forget things. Not unless I'm made to forget them." He shrugs.

"They help me organise my thoughts. Sometimes my thoughts get lost in my head and writing it helps. It also let's me see patterns that I might miss otherwise."

[catpiper]

Unless I'm made to forget them like there's some kind of underlying force that would cause his memory to go haywire. She doesn't get it-not really, but if writing helps him feel comfortable, then so be it. She'll remember. Maybe save him a small section of temple wall to use when his notebook gets too full and he needs more space for his thoughts.

If he doesn't move the book away, she presses her finger against the paper and moves it across the page, making a tiny invisible circle. That's not what he means by patterns, at all, but she's doing her best okay?? Okay. "You can draw 'patterns' too. That's easy to do."

[savedbyasong]

"Draw..." He looks at her finger tracing on the page, confused for a moment. Before he gets it.

Patterns. He smiles at her, laughing slightly though not unkindly. "Not the kind of patterns you draw..." He thinks for a moment, of the best way to explain it to her.

"I mean, if people have experienced things that at first seem different but are actually similar. Or if similar things happen over and over again but unless you have it all down in front of you it can be easy to miss."

the drifter | ota | i'll match your format!

[hyperlit]

The intricacies of this meeting don't quite appeal to them, but they can at least use it for a forum for something else of note. A pink HUD hovers a few inches away form them, large block letters imprinted across its center:

SIGN LANGUAGE

...that's it. They don't elaborate, though if you approach them you're probably likely to get more specifics. In general, they're interested in teaching it, particularly to the illiterate - though the fact that they're advertising this via text throws a few wrenches in that plan, alas.

[savedbyasong]

"Sign language?" Shion reads the sign and looks up at the Drifter with a smile, "Is that the hand talking that Seto was asking about on the rock?"

Because Shion would like to learn that, he knew a few ways of making signs with his hands, for use in stealth situations, but not an entire language.

[hyperlit]

Yes. They answer with their hands at first, pairing it with a slow, somber nod, and then issue it with their sprite, bobbing at their shoulder as ever:

yes
it is how those without voices may communicate

When text does not suffice, at least.

[savedbyasong]

They have a curious little robot? Creature? Shion's not sure what it is, bobbing beside the. Shion reads the text and nods thoughtfully.

A person without a voice... He blinks. "Were you... captured in Ai'Tuoh?"

His voice is tinged with curiosity but also hope. Because if they were the injured prisoner Shion had tried to help, that meant they had escaped. They hadn't succumbed to eternal slumber.

[hyperlit]

They'd not been able to see him - if they were, perhaps that would have helped them recognize him faster. The timber of his tone stirs a faint memory or two, something vague and poorly-focused. They had not, after all, had full possession of their mental faculties as they bled out in the cells of Ai'tuoh.

The Drifter lowers their head in a somber nod. It is best not to assume.

for some time
lup retrieved me

[savedbyasong]

"I'm glad you escaped." He smiled, he's still not sure. There might be more than one person who cannot speak here and they never saw each other, their only communication knocking on a wall.

"I'm Shion. I... spoke to someone who couldn't speak in the cells."

[hyperlit]

Ah. So it would be the boy in question.

one for yes
two for no

A small harkening back to the code they employed, and the Drifter holds up one gloved hand, balled into a fist. They do not look back on their time spent in those cells and in the Water unless they've little choice - already they do not wish to think of what it had meant to be vulnerable and at the mercy of others the way they had been, but even less do they wish to think of how others must have seen them.

[catpiper]

[While she hadn't stayed for the entirety of Seto's rock post, he had given her the lowdown after his first lesson with the Drifter and now she can finally ask the question that's been burning on the tip of her tongue since finding out about this magical method of communication.]

Can you show me?

[hyperlit]

[Oh, please, Ren. As if you needed to even ask. The words appear on their sprite's HUD in the same moment they make the corresponding signal with their hand - lesson number one.]

Yes.

yes

[catpiper]

[Hello, Professor Driftybean, Ren is here and ready to learn. There are so many words to choose from, but since their first lesson came so fast, she eagerly copies them and repeats it over and over. Yes, yes, yes.]

How do you say cat? And Drifter? And flower? And elf?

[This will be a long lesson. Run away before it's too late.]

[hyperlit]

[They make each signal with the corresponding word flicking up on the screen as they go, up until the point where they get to "elf". They don't...know that word, actually. Does it have a signal?]

can spell it out

[catpiper]

[Incredible. The three words are easy to copy and she's clearly partial to sentence cat yes cat flower flower drifter, if the way she repeats it is any indication. This is great!!

And they could spell it, but she has to ask-]

Can we make up a sign? Can we do that?

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet greets the Drifter with a gentle smile and a little wave, having caught sight of their sign.]

Are you offering lessons, dearie?

[She doesn't bring up the event directly, but both of them can probably remember her own halting, scattered knowledge of the skill, just barely enough to get some meaning across.]

[Really, it's time she learned it properly.]

[hyperlit]

[A willing bob of their head in a nod. They are, indeed.]

some cannot read
may help

[Someone tell them that advertising this through written words rather defeats that purpose.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She's about to nod, then pauses as the thought occurs.]

Yes, it would, but... would they be able to read the sign?

[hyperlit]

[Hm.]

[A blink of their dark eyes, as they consider that, because they evidently hadn't considered it before now. They glance at their HUD, then to Muffet, and then back to the HUD once more.]



[And come to a decision.]

they will ask what it says

[Uh, hopefully.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Fair enough- though I suppose it raises the question of how you'd answer them, if they don't read or already know sign language.

[Logistical planning is hard sometimes.]

Hm... I don't suppose your display does pictures at all?