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

[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?

[hyperlit]

[A moment of consideration. Then, after a brief pause:]


@------- ______
\____--- /------\
/--\---/--___---\
\_--\-/ --/ \---\
- \ -- \ (---\__/----)
-- \--- \_\-\______/
--- \--- \-------/___
---- \______\_________/____"-_

[prettypurpleparlor]

[It takes Muffet a brief second to get it, but then she looks delighted.]

Oh, it's a little snail, how cute- I hear they're quite useful creatures.

[Admittedly, the person telling her about it had been rather timid, but they seemed very sincere despite it- Napstablook had been polite enough to let her put up one of her bake sale's advertising flyers at their farm once, and that had earned the quiet little ghost more than enough fondness from her to listen to a few stories about snails.]

If you could work out how to make a hand shape, that might help people understand even if they don't read.

[hyperlit]

[Snails are useful. The Drifter nods, emphatic. Snails are indeed useful and wonderful creatures. People can and should value them.]

[The suggestion, on the other hand, is more puzzling than it is clarifying.]

already have a hand

[prettypurpleparlor]

Ah, no- I meant a picture of a hand on your display, the same way you made a snail picture?

[Muffet is not an expert in emoticon art, but she's fairly certain that should be possible.]

[hyperlit]

what for

[A hand is possible, certainly, but using it as shorthand for sign language might not be as straightforward as they’d like. Too many people might merely interpret the hand as a gesture indicating something or another rather than an advertisement for language lessons.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet thinks it over for a moment and nods, understanding their point.]

It isn't an entirely unambiguous symbol, is it... Perhaps if you added- oh.

[She pauses, pulls her stone of farspeech out of her pocket, and continues in the tones of one realizing that they've been missing the obvious:]

Or we could just use the stones.

[hyperlit]

[Also true. They’ve not used the stones very often, is the thing, and remain unsure as to how their intentions will be communicated when they themself do not speak aloud.]

possibly

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Seeing their hesitation, she offers:]

Do you... want to try calling mine, to see if it works?

[hyperlit]

[Hm. They may as well. They withdraw the stone from where it’s sequestered in their cloak and hold it out, as if to reaffirm to all parties that it is, indeed, there. Then their eyes slit shut as they focus on projecting one single word toward Muffet, blazing out from the texture of their thoughts:]

Hello.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet smiles cheerfully as she responds, her voice coming through over the stone at the same time it's audible simply from standing near her when she replies.]

Hello, dearie. You're coming through quite clearly.

[hyperlit]

How do you hear it.

[Does it sound? Or is it more...an impression? They've never used these Stones before, despite the fact that the elves were kind enough to bestow them upon them slightly before everyone else, in part because they were unsure as to how someone who lacks a voice, such as they, would be channeled - if it would be at all.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Hm...

[She gives the question due consideration, taking a moment to put her thoughts clearly into words.]

I seem to parse it instinctively as a voice, but when I try to think carefully about how it sounded- high pitched or low, soft or loud- I can't remember any kind of actual noise. There's only the distinct impression that it came from you.

[hyperlit]

[Hm. It seems, even with this mechanism, they cannot truly possess a voice. They don't dwell on the disappointment. Instead, they attempt something else: communication by impression, the same way they would with she of the pale skin and wild mane of dark hair.]

[And so they organize a loose mental picture of her, the size of her green eyes, her pointed teeth, her spear, and issue it at the Stone.]

Let me know if this is okay interpretation-wise? It said the stones only do audio, so...

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet blinks and tilts her head, listening- as much as one can be said to be listening to a voice that needs no sound- as she "hears" her stone give her a vivid description of a wild-haired, sharp-toothed woman, in clear detail.]

Were you trying to tell me about someone you've met before? The not-quite-voice just spoke about a woman with a spear. It said that she had very green eyes...

Yeah it probably wouldn’t actually work FYI

[hyperlit]

[Not good enough. They’ll have to contact her some other way, and attempt to communicate in the way they have both tentatively established in the space between their minds. The Drifter shakes their head, sliding the stone away into a pocket somewhere behind their cloak.]

unclear

[prettypurpleparlor]

[ooc: To clarify, I'm thinking of it as basically the magic version of when you try to text a phone that doesn't do texting, so instead the phone reads out the entire message letter by letter. Trying to send a mental image definitely didn't work.]

[Muffet gives a slight shrug, casual but sympathetic.]

It's a place to start, at least.

[hyperlit]

[They'll have to discern some alternate means, for ease of communication. They return to the tried-and-true method of their sprite.]

she does not speak and does not read
she does not understand the language of hands

[prettypurpleparlor]

Is she one of the other people here with us, or someone you know from your own world?

[Muffet hasn't seen her before, but there's a lot of castaways by now, she could have easily just never run into this woman.]

[hyperlit]

elsewhere
new arrival

[Relatively, anyway, compared to everyone else. At the beginning of the month, naturally, which is around when everyone else "new" shows up, at least until the next wave.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Muffet smiles cheerfully, intrigued by the woman's description.]

She sounds lovely, I'd enjoy meeting her.