lifeaftr | Islander meeting!

Entry tags:

Islander meeting!

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!)

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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.

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'?"

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."

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."

"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."

There's an instantaneous understanding that comes with his explanation. A passing memory of how she would avoid ghosts, using their prior movements as a guide to safely pass through infested areas. The dangerous nature of her world made that sense feel innate-like she always knew how to run and hide from them because that's all she's ever done, but maybe-

That's what he's trying to see in everything. Patterns.

"Do you see any? Right now? Can you tell that kind of thing from your notes?"

"Some things. For example I think from what the Story Teller told me there is a pattern to the strange things that happened on the floating islands. But I don't have many examples so I might be wrong." It was probably the easiest example to give her.

"I am hoping that when people speak today and I learn more information I'll see more and things will make more sense."

Maybe. He smiled at her. "How long have you been here Ren? On the islands, how many Story Tellings?"

This is the last person he should try and get valuable information from, but Ren will give it her best shot. The island has been a welcome change in her life and she's more than happy to divvy out the few details she can manage to keep track of, especially if there's a pattern in it that might make Shion happy.

The problem is time is fake, especially to her. All she can say is that she arrived on the islands with the initial group, filled with terror and fear at her new surroundings. A memory that feels so far away now. "I came here a long time ago on a scary raft and," There's a pause, as she tries to accurately remember how many storytelling moments she's been here for. All of them? She doesn't know if there were other campfire scenes before their interdimensional arrival. "A lot of them. I've told that nice god lots of stories."

It gave him some information, she arrived on a raft and she'd been here a while. Also she liked the Story Teller. That told him something at least, that the Story Teller had been nice to Ren. Or that Ren was incredibly trusting. But considering how she had been trying to hide the first time he thought it was more likely that the Story Teller had gained her trust.

"Have you spoken to the Story Teller a lot?"

After February the Story Teller had stayed behind after hearing stories and Shion had spoken to them, he wasn't sure if that was something that had happened in the past as well.

Often enough, is the real answer. They essentially haunt a temple and make it nigh impossible to intrude on their business unless they want to be seen. It's troubling for a budding young criminal like herself, who simply wants to break and enter and make sure that kind bunny-cat is doing okay.

"I hear their kind voice in my dreams and we talk there if I asked for a treasure," Whether it's storytelling, item requests and the like-it's such a rare occasion to see them truly out and about. "And then that fun place we all tell stories-sometimes you can talk to them there. You can reach out with your heart and they'll say 'hello' and let you sit by their side."

Treasures, Tim had said she liked treasures. Rocks and shells and pebbles. Strawberries too, but Shion wasn't sure if they counted as treasure.

"I spoke to them then, at the Story Telling. What things do you speak about?"

Ren found Story Telling fun, that wasn't surprising. She always told her stories with extra art work, she seemed to like drawing.

The topic ranges from legitimate fears to borderline nonsense and the god indulges her in discussions about it all. They're never judgmental and have offered a paw to her on more than one occasion in times when she felt overwhelmed. They find the medicine that keeps her temporarily alive, month after month, with only the desire to hear stories in return. They let her draw in their home, they keep people safe when it's dark out and ghosts scurry across the ground, looking for victims they can't find because their kind heart is protecting everyone.

Her expression brightens considerably and a strawberry is dropped in her pocket for Storyteller. While she can't sum up all they've spoken about, there's a definite fondness in her voice as she says-"Everything. I like to look into their eyes and talk to them for as long as I can. It makes me happy to hear their voice."

"I'm glad you like talking to them." He wrote that down. It might not seem that important but Ren seemed to use her feelings more than her logic and often feelings were worth following. She felt like she could trust the Story Teller enough to talk to them.

"What is your favourite fruit, Ren?" A change in subject but they've found a few different things on Ziziphus.

Differentiating between food has boiled down to 'Good' and 'Bad' without much variation. Fruit, vegetables, meat, whatever-if someone's cooked or baked it, she'll eat it. No problem. The few meals she prefers over others are simply because of the people she associates with them-spicy eggs, onigiri, roasted vegetables. None of those are fruits though.

"I like the ones that aren't moldy," Is the amazing response to that question. All fruit minus the mold. That's the big Fav. "What's your favorite? Is it strawberries?"

The one's that aren't moldy, it strengthened his theory that Ren and Seto came from somewhere that at best was like West Town. At best.

Both her and Seto were so kind and it was amazing that they were so if they came from such a place, that they had survived without their hearts hardening. They were strong.

"Cherries are my favorite, but strawberries are nice to and I made sure none of these had mold on them." He pushed the bowl towards her, an offering. Eat all the strawberries Ren.

Shion, it's a mistake to feed the local wildlife. That's why they have signs deterring kind hearted folk like him at zoos and parks. Feed them once and they'll want more and Ren's no exception to this type of lawless way to live. Now that he's offered, there's no turning back and Ren's already scrambling to remember if there were cherries somewhere she could nab to repay him with.

Until then-eat them? How about hoard them, so she can share these strawberries like a mother raccoon bringing food back to her rabid children in the woods. Have the elves eaten strawberries? She saw Lup in the area, but Taako might not be privy to their goodness. Either way, she takes a bunch, but isn't terrible enough to take them all. About half are shoved back Shion's way. "You should keep these in your pocket until we find cherries for you."

Shion smiled at her, "Thank you Ren. I'm okay though, I picked the strawberries for everyone who came to share information."

He didn't need to hoard any. Neither did Ren, "You can eat them Ren and if you want more you can come to where me and Aster live and ask for more, I can pick more and I'm going to try and transfer some plants over, so we can grow strawberries here too."

He made a note to find out where Ren lived, so that he could leave her food, her and Seto. He remembered Seto's amazement at the food when they had first arrived and felt guilty that he had not done so earlier.

While she doesn't know how this kid's going to perform this wild plant transferring procedure, she does know however it happens, it means more delicious strawberries. And whenever she figures out how to obtain some cherries, that can be a thing too. They can trade? It'll be just like working at the store. Her part time experience is already coming in handy.

"Okay, I'll come by again and we can eat strawberries together. I'll bring Seto."

"Yes and maybe you, me and Seto can go to Ziziphus one time, and look for more fruit." As long as they didn't go too far it should be fine. They could see what other fruits could be found.

Transfer them too, honestly Shion didn't know how that was going to happen either but he had the theory he just had to put it into practice. "I'll see you again soon, Ren!"

It shouldn't be a surprise to find brave people around, willing to pack up and explore new areas at a moment's notice. She needs time to will her body to make the leap, take a few practice runs directly next to the mana pool and maybe, after weeks, begin an actual exploration.

But he needs notes for his book. Wants to finds patterns in people and places and Ren's more than happy to accompany him, especially if Seto's by their side. Nothing bad could happen with him along. "Okay, I'll find your kind heart again."

And off she goes, to find Lup or maybe more bowls of strawberries. It's up in the air.

He smiled brightly at her and watched her go. He made a note to actually find out where she was living, make sure she had a good supply of food and fruit.

More people were turning up now though, so he turned his attention to them, to get ready for the meeting to begin.

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Islander meeting!

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