[ 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

[dupli_arms]

Shouji, after having put up his own very simple sign that pointed in the relative direction of Musutafu as dictated by how everyone else's were going, had decided to take a break and simply watch as others came and observed, or worked on their own signs. He meandered a bit, helping others attach their signs to their posts, and in the end lingered nearby where Gwen was settled.

She speaks up, and he smiles to himself, keeping an eye on the rest of the project while also looking back at her.

"It's a hundred different prayers for the future. What's not to like about that?"

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen makes a thoughtful little noise. "...that's a nice way to think about it. I've not really—" she presses her lips together, "—the future's been hard to look at, these last few years. But this... this is nice, I think."

[dupli_arms]

One hand comes to light on her shoulder, thumb rubbing over the curve of it in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. "You live for so long in a place and time where it doesn't look like there's going to be a future to look forward to, eventually when it comes along anyway you're blindsided. This'll represent a lot of people's hopes. Mine too." He gestures toward his own relatively simple sign on its post. It points toward the city where he went to school, rather than his village. "Maybe you'll be able to follow the signs to other peoples' futures too. I think maybe you'd like Musutafu."

[thismaskismybadge]

"I think I might. You'd be there." She tilts her head sideways to gently bump against the hand on her shoulder then adds, in a way that's hard to tell if it's covering for something or what she intended to say the whole time: "And your friends. I've visited some other cities before, Mumbattan, London... they're— different, but familiar. I bet Musutafu would feel kind of the same way."

[dupli_arms]

The words and that bump earn a small smile, and Shouji's hand turns where it rests on her shoulder, finger brushing briefly against the edge of her jaw. "We'd take care of you however we could."

Then he pauses, and thumbs back toward the interior of the ship. "I do have a friend here, as it turns out. He mostly keeps to himself, but he's like me, training to be a pro hero. Shinsou Hitoshi. Usually you can find him just by his hair, it's very tall and very purple. Just...if you do, please be gentle with him. He's had a hard time with strangers before."

[thismaskismybadge]

There's the faintest little catch in her breath at the gentle touch, and if there's a touch of colour in her cheeks that wasn't there before... well, clearly it's her native art style, nothing else. "...yeah. I believe you."

God, composure, Gwen. She instinctively follows the gesture back towards the ship with her eyes, before nodding. "I'll play nice, promise. I guess I should uh— or, well, I guess I don't need to... avoid the— thing. You know. The thing that I avoid. That thing."

She means the Spider-Woman thing, of course, but there's enough possible activity around the signposts still that she doesn't just want to come out and say it.

[dupli_arms]

Shouji's hand falls away in the interest of not overstaying his welcome. He does smile broadly, finger poking against her shoulder.

"No, you don't have to try and lie to him. He knows what it's like to be the kind of hero that wants to help no matter what the public perception is. I don't think that he would ever judge you unkindly." Not outright saying out loud what she wants to hide from others, but at least framing it all in such a way that she would understand what he means without deliberately saying it. "If you'd like, I can introduce you and make sure that everyone plays nice."

Not that he expects it to necessarily go poorly, he just would prefer to facilitate it going well if at all possible.

[thismaskismybadge]

"I think— it should be okay. I've had to make much weirder introductions and those mostly went fine." She's mostly thinking of back at the Society, but she's made it through some here, too. "And at least I'll be letting him know on purpose. The last person to find out just immediately clocked me based on vibes."

[dupli_arms]

Shouji starts to say something, but thinks better of it, only taking a breath then letting it back out again. Though, let it once again be known that Shouji has some certifiable gremlin tendencies as he lifts a spare limb and points out, right against her ear, "for someone that wants to keep secrets, you don't have much of a poker face, miss Stacy."

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen laughs and lightly, playfully, bats at him. "Hey, I have an excellent poker face! No one at home figured it out!" ...okay one person at home figured it out, but Peter's an outlier and she got a lot more careful after that. "I just lot my home field advantage, that's what this is. My face cannot be held against me at this time."

[dupli_arms]

A hand comes up to fend off the batting as he laughs in return. He's doing a great job at keeping his tone very casual, considering the next thing out of his mouth.

"I hope you know that you may have just opened yourself up to a very bad, cheesy, completely non-serious pickup line regarding what your face could potentially be held against."

[thismaskismybadge]

In a solid demonstration of the weaknesses in her supposedly excellent poker face, Gwen's eyes go momentarily very wide before she gets it back under her control. Please ignore the colour returning to her cheeks, it's totally just the fault of the watercolour. Totally. Shut up. He said non-serious, chill out Gwen jesus christ...

"Oh yeah? Hit me, you've heard my jokes. I live and breathe very bad cheese. Show me what you've got."

Yeah sure that counts as a recovery.

[dupli_arms]

He's finding that that rosy flush that pops up as if painted into place is both extremely interesting, and very cute. As long as she doesn't seem too uncomfortable about it, he might continue to poke fun.

She's going to have to cope with him continuing to be quiet next to her ear while simultaneously crossing his main arms and looking up at the sky very casual-like.

"Oh, nothing major, just that you wouldn't want your face held against you, but what if I suggested it be held against me, say about the region of, oh, about six feet up." Which probably sounds worse than he intends, but she had been warned...

[thismaskismybadge]

He did warn her, and in the end, just how bad it actually is manages to cut through the still-present urge to simply climb over the railing and down the side of the ship, secrecy be damned. (For the best, maybe; she'd have more regrets than just those about showing off her powers, if the panic won out. Sometimes the emotional responses that you think protect you in the moment come with issues in the aftermath.)

The first snort of laughter escapes past her attempts to bite it back, then her shoulders shake as she folds at the waist momentarily with another snicker. "Oh, god, yeah. That might uh— that might need some workshopping. Likeeeee... how about you hold your face against my face, or— something? Like that? ...no that does not help..."

It doesn't help her at all, not on several levels. Not the colour, not the weird nerves, not the fact she's thinking about it. Don't think about it. Don't read into a thing. Not the line, not the way he delivers it. Stop it. You're Spider-Woman, that way danger lies.

[dupli_arms]

If it weren't for her reaction to the sheer stupidity of the whole thing, he might have felt a lot more embarrassed about the situation as a whole. As it is, with her leaning into it, and even taking it in the more obvious direction, he can't help but add, in a much less intimate tone, the smile obvious in that tertiary voice, "you see that was the direction I was headed, but I didn't want to be quite as obvious. But yes, that's the basic gist of the thought."

He drops it there though, just so that he doesn't make it any worse, considering the really dumb lines he's already laid on her. There is just the smallest temptation to confirm with her whether it was alright that he'd said it to begin with, but he's not sure how to phrase the question in a non-awkward way.

"When you're ready I can help hang your sign up where it's visible. The colors are really nice so something up high would be ideal..."

[thismaskismybadge]

Gwen laughs, again, and if her hand covers her face for a moment until she feels less like she's burning up then... shh, it's fine. When she lifts her head again she tucks her hair behind her ear and looks over at the signs again.

"I'm almost worried it's going to stand out too much, compared to everyone else's."

[dupli_arms]

"Our signs are expressions of us as people, right? Where we want to go, home or otherwise, and the people we are as we head in that direction. I think yours is perfect the way it is." His is very plan in contrast, simple and straightforward, with no embellishments. It almost stands out more just by how little he's done to it.

[thismaskismybadge]

"Thanks," she says with a genuine smile, though it fades after a moment. "I... I wish I could show you the real thing. Even the photos I have don't do it justice. But I can't. I can't ever go back. Even if we find a way back where we came from, I— I can never go home."

She's alluded to this before, and she's certainly explained some of the reasons why, but now she's saying it a little more directly. It's not just being here. It's been true for months, ever since she left with Miguel and Jess.

[dupli_arms]

Shouji is quiet as he listens. She'd told him the broad strokes of her situation, but this certainly feels much more...final. Gingerly, one hand comes to rest in the middle of her back, light enough to be nudged away if it were unwelcome.

The murmur is back, just shy of her ear, but now rather than teasing, it's more meant specifically for her and her situation, trying to avoid anyone else catching on just for the sake of her sanity. "I don't know how it works, the multiverse problem, but...if there were a way for you to make it back to my world, you would certainly have a place there."

[thismaskismybadge]

"...I'd like that." Her spine is ramrod straight, but she doesn't move or shake him away. Her throat feels strangely tight, she has to swallow hard before she can even talk quietly. "Dad— he doesn't want me around anymore. I— I told him the truth and he didn't take it well. So. I can go anywhere but home."

[dupli_arms]

"I'm sorry." There isn't much else that he can say. Rejection, especially from family, stings terribly. "Is there anything that I can do, in the here and now?"

[thismaskismybadge]

"This is..." She takes a deep breath in, releases it slowly, and leans into his side, "...this is already helpful enough."

It's so much worse, when she isolates. It's never stopped her doing it—even when staying with Hobie she'd wander off if the urge to just run, be alone, got too intense—but it's always worse. This is better. This feels better.

And maybe here she's actually free of the constraints of her corner of the multiverse. Maybe. She'd like to be.

[dupli_arms]

She leans into his side, and in turn his arm wraps around her shoulders, another around her middle. If this is all she needs, he's happy to provide it. No matter the jokes he'd make, or her leaning into them in kind, first and foremost she's his friend, and someone he would protect however he could.

"Do you need somewhere quiet to be?" He looks up toward the top of the ship, where one or both of them tended to perch to keep an eye on the hotdogs still surfacing.

[thismaskismybadge]

She's quiet for a moment, brow knitted into a little wrinkle but otherwise seeming comfortable there with his arms around her. "Let's... let's put the sign up, first? Then we can get away."

[dupli_arms]

"Sure." His arm falls away to let her move from under it and pick her sign up to mount it the same way he'd helped some others do so. A bracket that would allow it to be mounted wherever she liked. He'd go along with her as she wished, maintaining that distance as he moves along with her.