[ OPEN MINGLE ] welcome to the friends who have come from away

[goodweather]

Who: Everybody and everybody! (and phil!)
What: PUTTING UP A SIGNPOST FOREST!!
When: Mid-October and a few days afterwards
Where: Between the pool deck and the pool bar
Warnings: none yet

[MAKING SIGNS] if you're comin' from toledo or you're comin' from taipei

Paper signs go up all around the ship with dots punched for braille. They all advertise the same thing: make a sign, pointing to home or to where you wanna go. On the empty deck between the pool and the pool bar. And a helpful demonstrative drawing.

Getting there, there's a clearer picture. The empty stretch of deck has several tall wooden poles set up, currently empty but hopefully soon to be filled, and scattered all around on carts and tables with chairs dragged in from nearby establishments, are craft materials of all kind; wood, knives, paints, crayons, pencils, plates of metal, nails, tools, glue, fabric. All manner of things either sourced from César's hoard or from various places of the ship, especially the infinite spaces. It's a pretty eclectic collection. There's also snacks further off in the peripheries.

A large sign, which also has the drawing, reads:

Make a sign!
Point towards home or to where you want to go.
Make up a direction and a distance. Whatever feels right to you.
Ask Phil or César if materials run low.
Have fun!

[SALVAGING] because we come from everywhere

With all these people showing up, sometimes things run a little short. Phil makes rounds picking up requests, and then, since he's usually busy managing this or that among the group or making his own run, others will be asked to go fetch things as well. Or maybe they take initiative themselves and go for a run! Either way, this is a scavenging mission. Come back with something fun.

[TAKING IN THE VIEW] we all come from away

Whether you're just taking a break, you've finished, or you're just here to watch, there's time to sit back amongst the refreshment tables and look at the signs that have gone up so far and the signs that are still being made. This can be any time, during the initial rush or maybe you're just passing by later. Feel free to take a a gander. So many strange names... one wonders which all belongs to who.

It's probably not a coincidence that these signposts have a clear view of the memorial, is it?

[WILDCARD] welcome to the rock

If you come up with anything else, feel free to include it!

Comments

Making

[crushed_pearls]

Erin comes over on one of her own breaks; away from her sign, she's far less grim. She actually has come back with boba from Sand Dollars, one cup of which she offers to Gwen.

"So just to get this out of the way I can't read shit right now. Imma put on eyes when it's all done."

(Should we clarify that it's us?)

I wanna see if she notices.

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen frees up one of her occupied hands by taking her paintbrush with her toes, which she proceeds to use to clean the brush in a cup of water nearby at the same time as she blindly accepts the offered boba. The power of just handing a person something is real.

"Why would you—" she starts, only to finally look up and spot, one, the blindfold, two, the wings. In that order. "Oh. Huh. You weren't kidding about the wings. You sure I shouldn't be calling you The Raven?"

Plausible deniability rogue's gallery joke.

[crushed_pearls]

"I'd say yes just as a joke but I knew a King Raven back home that I respect too much to steal his swag. Dude's a hundred and fifteen and still soloing fucking dragons, grandpa's got hands." Erin tips Gwen a grin. "Glad to see ya around people, Gwen."

[thismaskismybadge]

"I'm not a social recluse," says the girl who was very much a social recluse back on her Earth, "I do leave my cabin for reasons besides late night snacks. This seemed... fun."

Totally has nothing to do with that homesickness that was plaguing her. Not at all. And even if it does, well, this project may as well be the homesickness club gathering, so it's fine.

[crushed_pearls]

"Phil's ideas tend to be. He's a good guy." Erin sips her own boba, thoughtfully. "...We kinda had a pretty intense first meeting. Wanted to apologize for being the fuck out of it. I'm not exactly 'in it' right now, but...I was really fucking out of it."

[thismaskismybadge]

"I wasn't exactly in it either." She taps the paintbrush she was cleaning against the edge of the cup and dips it into new paint. She's not going for neat lines, here, so it's easy enough to keep laying down paint while she keeps holding the boba to drink. "I'm not usually so broody and depressing. I'm pretty sure the flowers had me."

The last part is true. The not being broody and depressing... well. Your mileage may vary.

[crushed_pearls]

"Well. This is your one shot to tell me things ain't so bad if you think your bullshit skills are better than mine."

It's an offer, a small one. Erin said she'd be there for Gwen, but Gwen was at a low point then; now's the chance for Spider-Woman to say, nah, get your villain ass out of my life.

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen gives her a look. "Things are fine. I'm adjusting. Look at me! I'm making art, doing something with my—" a beat, a glance at her paintbrush-wielding foot, "—appendages. That's good for mental health and the soul."

[crushed_pearls]

"There's memes you could re-create on this ship and - oh my god. Oh my actual fucking god. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen." Erin squats down and lowers her voice: "What's your temperature on an attempt to make my girlfriend laugh herself to death?"

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen's head tilts a bit. She takes a long sip of her boba, and is chewing on a pearl she's sucked up when she asks. "Who's your girlfriend?"

[crushed_pearls]

"You're gonna want to remain sitting down for this one 'cause the answer is: the girlfriend I'm talking about in this case is Valdis - tall lass, raven hair, always the best-dressed person in the room." Erin's fucking face, she's got such a dreamy expression. "But 'm dating a few lasses here. Crabb - PI, wears suits and long coats - Ylva, who you'll see as a wolf or a dinosaur around the joint, Daisy who's uh...well, look for the really good manicure and the bad attitude..."

Erin braces herself for 'what do you mean more than one'.

[thismaskismybadge]

[thismaskismybadge]

"...how do you have time for that?"

[crushed_pearls]

Erin breaks down laughing so hard that she falls on her ass and just keeps laughing.

[thismaskismybadge]

"It's a valid question! That's a lot of girlfriends! That's enough girlfriends to form a band! And getting a band together regularly is hard enough!"

[crushed_pearls]

"I mean, hoo, okay, here's the thing, we don't do like, everything together, we're not a cult." Erin wipes at her blindfold; old habits die hard. "We've all got our own lives and hobbies and, like...we make time, y'know? Crabb's big on investigating the ship and has her own circle of friends that mine only kinda crosses with, Ylva's a wild kinda person and she's also dating my adopted brother Max Maximum. Valdis is dating Max and now this guy Ash...and Daisy..." A fond sigh. "Daisy finds me when she needs me. I love 'er but Daisy's gotta be the one to set terms there for her own comfort. I won't say it mystically works out, but like...your partner's not your world, y'know?"

Even if Erin would burn the world entire for any of them, and for Cass.

[thismaskismybadge]

"I mean, I wouldn't know. I don't date. Never had the time. Too busy with... school. And stuff."

Which is miles and more away from the real reason, of course; or at least, how busy life as a superhero gets is only a fraction of it at best. No one could ever understand being Spider-Woman. No one could ever know both halves of her. And anyone she cares about can get hurt. It's not worth the risk.

(And if a part of her thinks about Miles, it's a part she's learned to try and ignore. And if another smaller, newer part of her thinks of Shouji, she can learn to ignore that too.)

[crushed_pearls]

"Plenty of time to change that while you're here," Erin muses. "If you're inclined. Some of the relationships on this ship are wild, and like, I'm saying this fully aware that Ylva, my wildflower, got raised by actual wolves. Wolves who are reality's best parents. How in the fuck they raised a humanoid child without the ability to create fire..."

[thismaskismybadge]

Rather than come close to at all commenting on anything about potential inclination, Gwen pulls what might become a familiar move: just completely ignoring the matter at hand and redirecting.

"You were saying about making one of your girlfriends laugh?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Yeah! Okay so, picture this: lass doing deep thinking, both hands in the Thinking Pose, holding up her tea with her foot."

(Are we gambling on her Earth having similar memes?)

Humans are human, yes.

[thismaskismybadge]

"Wow, that is an old meme. Like, I can totally do it, but that's ancient."

It's maybe five years old in the year she's from, but she's a teenager. And also being a bit of a shit on purpose.

[crushed_pearls]

"Yes! Score one for the universality of human nature! One moment..."

Erin's Mantle flares; when it's cleared, she has goat eyes, with her blindfold lowered around her neck. She holds up her phone. "Be as the meme is, I'm ready."

[thismaskismybadge]

"Huh, you really can just... put on eyes. Why not human eyes?"

She puts the paintbrush down and picks up her mug of paint-water, then assumes the pose. This is far from the weirdest thing she's ever done but it's definitely one of the more random and specific in recent memory.

Possible Not Heres

[crushed_pearls]

"One moment..."

Erin finds her angle, snaps the picture, and sends it to Valdis with the caption Deep Pondering ft. Gwen Stacy.

This done she puts her phone away and tips a grin that's all mischief. "What'll really get you is: why do I do goat eyes when I could easily do cyber eyes that are less fuckin' curst?"

Not Here

[redlightgreenlight]

you’re weird, but I still love you

Comes the reply.