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

[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?

[hyperlit]

[THEY ARE NOT A SIGN LANGUAGE INNOVATOR perhaps that can be ren's hot new job. look at them. creating job opportunities wherever they go.]

[The Drifter considers that for a moment before, at last, flicking up two slightly pointed fingers and holding up to either side of their head to simulate pointed ears.]

yes

[catpiper]

[Holy heck.

She doesn't need any funky world translation to help her understand or their confirmation. The moment their fingers reach their head, she copies and wiggles her own, pointing them upwards for-]

Happy elf.

[And then lowering them, so they point towards the ground.]

Sad elf.

[They've done it!!!]

[hyperlit]

[sounds legit.]

[It is henceforth law. Pointed ears to the sides of heads - elves. That is not at all congruous with the typical kind of motions that go into sign language, but you know what? They can revolutionize this. They can make this work.]

invented new words

[catpiper]

We did it!

[That's it. It's over. That's sign language. Cat flower Drifter elf yes-there's 90% of her vocabulary and the rest can be figured out by making wild gestures until someone understands her. That's the takeaway here.]

Do you like talking this way?

[hyperlit]

yes
good for when my companion does not function

[Which has happened...twice now. Once because it was simply inert after their revival from death, and second because it was taken from them. Both times, communicating with others was made difficult, if not all but outright impossible.]

[catpiper]

[It makes sense. Their friend can't use signs, which is a shame. Too bad they don't have tiny arms-it might be fun for Drifter to always have someone by their side who can talk that way. She makes a quick yes with her hand, as if in agreement, and not because she's having a great time with this new skill and trying to use it at every single opportunity.]

How do you say-

[She moves her foot over a patch of dirt, using her toes to make a 'c:' in it.]

That thing? Can you make that with your hands?

[hyperlit]

[c:]

[They suspect she doesn't mean the same shape they always try to make with their fingers, that cupping of forefinger and thumb over their mantle to symbolize the smile that doesn't show behind the cloth. But they can make the corresponding sign that they suspect she'd like to see, with the appropriate meaning:]

smile

[catpiper]

[That's it. That's all she ever needs to learn, rolled into one compact lesson. Incredible. Professor Driftybean has done their job-time to collect her tuition and roll off into the sunset.

Smile Smile yes flower This is so good.]

What's your favorite word?

[hyperlit]

[That takes a moment of consideration. Do they have a favorite word? The one they've made most often, as they've proceeded as they have, has been along the lines of "cure" - but it has been too futile an endeavor to be a favorite word, paired always with the knowledge that it will likely be a hopeless chase.]

[So they choose a word they've only recently, comparatively, had the opportunity or reason to enact. A shape made with hands, and a translation issued across text:]

friend

[catpiper]

[It's a good word that she wholeheartedly supports as being their favorite and a perfect addition to the song she had been concocting in her terrible mind. With a little hum, she signs Drifter friend Drifter friend to the melody.

This is great.]

You can sing too. I'll make the sound and you can sign whatever words you want.

[hyperlit]

[She's not making full sentences yet, but they can parse her meaning regardless. It's...touching, in its own right, even if she's said it audibly. It's another thing entirely to see it displayed in a language they've taught her.]

learn a song without singing?

[Maybe that's too abstract a way to put it, but that would be the bottom line, wouldn't it?]

[catpiper]

You say the words that make you happy and that's singing. That's how it works.

[Verbal or not, with hands or not, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. That's the power of music and Driftybean can make up their own song-she believes in them. She's got the background music down, it's up to them to be lead hand singer.]

It can be about pretty moons or suns hitting your tongue. [A pause] Or pizza pies and jungle vibes.

[hyperlit]

[They don't know what a pizza pie is, but the rest - that sounds good, they think.]

don't know any songs
except yours

[They remember hers, because that's the only song they know, and you don't forget something as pretty as that, now, do you? Of course not. Even if they had to sing along with little more than little floral symbols, the first time.]

[catpiper]

You can sing that one.

[If they want. It's her favorite song and she's not going to deny a chance to hear their beautiful hand symphony using lyrics she loves, but-]

Or you can make one up. That's fun too.

[hyperlit]

[Well, that's where their expertise ends. Granted, it's not as if it is very large an area of expertise to start with, seeing as said area constitutes one single song that a small child has taught them. Still, she speaks like she's got experience with such a thing.]

[...hence:]

don't know how

[catpiper]

I'll teach you.

[It's a simple task and they're talented enough to figure it out, she's sure. They managed to create beautiful crowns on their own with only a single lesson, turned weapons into treasures with that same gift-they can create music.]

What makes you happy?

[hyperlit]

[Well, she has already taught them a great deal of things. How to weave flowers into chains and make crowns of them, and how to take a moment to relax for no discernible reason, purely because it is something pleasant to do.]

[They consider the question, flipping through and discarding manifold options before finally settling on the most immediate.]

[Wordless, they point to her.

[catpiper]

[They point her way and she looks down to see if she's standing on a pretty flower? Maybe a shiny stone?

There's nothing under her feet and she pulls at the front of her glamcho, because leaves and grasses and other plants stick to her clothes sometimes? It doesn't bother her, but it might be what they're looking at. She even brushes at the front of her shirt, hoping her fingers make an invisible treasure tumble down and give her an idea of what they're talking about.

But-

Nothing falls from her shirt and they're still looking at-

Her.]

...Me?

[hyperlit]

[A short but firm nod, and another gesture - the one they just taught her, meaning smile. Can’t get any clearer than that, right? They might not be one for many words, but they make each one count.]

very special

[And they even make the corresponding gestures for each word. How nice!!]

[catpiper]

[A warm feeling blankets her when they confirm she's really what they meant. It's wrong, definitely. She can think of people far better, more deserving of those words. People like Seto and Chara and Guzma, who are brave. People like Lup and Taako and Murasaki-chan, who are loving and kind.

They're better, in every conceivable fashion, but-

She wants to pretend she might be among them. As a person that could make people happy, in the same way others continuously do for her, day after day. To be someone very special, knowing full well the secret that makes her special, also makes her failure in the eyes of most.

The offer still hangs between them and she considers stopping the lesson before they can make a mistake and sing about her, instead of something or someone better. It's tempting. Extremely so, but before she knows it, another quiet hum starts to reverberate in the back of her throat and she sings-]

Drifter's pretty heart
Makes me very happy
It makes me-

[Her hands move and sign out smile smile smile]