Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
Sorry about the delay, party people. There was a bit of an emergency last night.
One hour.
One hour.
Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain
- Thread starter Morrowlark
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi Fantasy Horror
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
Alright let's see...
Where The Heart Is 4: The Fuck Is A Gend-
New
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
"Okay, listen - Kayleigh back me up here - there's like, rules, right, on being a boy or a girl?" You look at Kayleigh plaintively. "I know there's gotta be, I keep seeing stuff about people who break the rules on purpose or on accident, like, uh. Fuck. Uhhh - Sasha! Sasha doesn't dress um, 'girly', right?"
Being put on the spot and sheer confusion war on Kayleigh's face, and confusion wins. "Uh...no, she sorta doesn't? I mean. Punk girls been a thing for awhile, but..."
"But?" you prompt.
"...I'm not sure where I'm going with this..."
You clap your hands together and look at Missy. "So like. What's a girl even? I'm actually asking! People keep calling me one! I'm not sure why!"
What follows is an intense discussion with exactly one person who has a solid adult idea and a great deal of ideas from the kids. Skirts are agreed to be girly, unless they're robes, until a boy(?) brings up the leather skirts old soldiers used to wear 'way back in sword times'. Crayons are brought out to make lists on the table, and every time exceptions get found something gets crossed off, and then maybe rewritten as something more specific. Y'all lose an hour to whether or not 'action figures' are the same thing as 'dolls' and it is eventually decided that they must be because like, listen, if Princess Bloommore has over 100 accessories and most of them are swords either she's got no gender or they're the same thing. Kayleigh scratches at her arm through her fingerless sleeves while she points out that if men 'protect people' then what are all these girls doing on the pickets and perimeter watch?
Little Greggie, bless him, adds: "You say 'girls' when you talk about grown-ups too..."
This goes on the list.
Four hours into this you get a phone call from Missy's parents frantically asking if you've seen their daughter and inform them that she's safe, all the kids are with you, you're doing important research and you need their help. Then you hang up. After the third identical call you put your phone on silent and apologize to the gathered council of children (plus Kayleigh) while you attempt to solve the mystery of footwear, as it is agreed that boots are 'for boys' at first only for you to point out like, snowboots. But surely heels are for girls - excuse you, women - right? Well maybe, except here's that boy(?) from before alongside Juliet, both of whom have things to say about riding shoes and their heels, and horses can't be a girl or boy thing right? But then where do horse girls come from?
"I need a cigarette," Kayleigh says five and a half fucking hours into this, so you and she excuse yourselves and step outside, lighting up and leaning hard against the front wall of the former fast food joint. "Orchid, anyone tell you that you're kinda fucking intense about this shit? I'm having conscious feelings I don't think I've had my entire life."
"...Kayleigh this is what I go through every time someone does a gender thing and then won't explain," you admit. The cigarette is helping. It's helping a lot. "...Every time. Everyone else is playing this game with elaborate nonsense rules that I wasn't taught and even people trying to be supportive of me kinda act like I'm stupid for not getting it. At least the kids don't think I'm stupid."
"You're not stupid," your ward says quietly. "...Why's this so important to you?"
"It's important to people I care about a lot."
The two of you finish your cigarettes in relative silence, but when you get back in just under half the kids are asleep. So you wake the older ones, and bundle up the younger between you and Kayleigh, and carry them back to where everyone else is - aaaaand the parents who aren't dead or missing are swarming you and they're pissed.
Welp.
[ ] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[ ] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[ ] Attempt to contact Stella, known as the Everlasting Lady
[ ] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[ ] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[ ] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
Being put on the spot and sheer confusion war on Kayleigh's face, and confusion wins. "Uh...no, she sorta doesn't? I mean. Punk girls been a thing for awhile, but..."
"But?" you prompt.
"...I'm not sure where I'm going with this..."
You clap your hands together and look at Missy. "So like. What's a girl even? I'm actually asking! People keep calling me one! I'm not sure why!"
What follows is an intense discussion with exactly one person who has a solid adult idea and a great deal of ideas from the kids. Skirts are agreed to be girly, unless they're robes, until a boy(?) brings up the leather skirts old soldiers used to wear 'way back in sword times'. Crayons are brought out to make lists on the table, and every time exceptions get found something gets crossed off, and then maybe rewritten as something more specific. Y'all lose an hour to whether or not 'action figures' are the same thing as 'dolls' and it is eventually decided that they must be because like, listen, if Princess Bloommore has over 100 accessories and most of them are swords either she's got no gender or they're the same thing. Kayleigh scratches at her arm through her fingerless sleeves while she points out that if men 'protect people' then what are all these girls doing on the pickets and perimeter watch?
Little Greggie, bless him, adds: "You say 'girls' when you talk about grown-ups too..."
This goes on the list.
Four hours into this you get a phone call from Missy's parents frantically asking if you've seen their daughter and inform them that she's safe, all the kids are with you, you're doing important research and you need their help. Then you hang up. After the third identical call you put your phone on silent and apologize to the gathered council of children (plus Kayleigh) while you attempt to solve the mystery of footwear, as it is agreed that boots are 'for boys' at first only for you to point out like, snowboots. But surely heels are for girls - excuse you, women - right? Well maybe, except here's that boy(?) from before alongside Juliet, both of whom have things to say about riding shoes and their heels, and horses can't be a girl or boy thing right? But then where do horse girls come from?
"I need a cigarette," Kayleigh says five and a half fucking hours into this, so you and she excuse yourselves and step outside, lighting up and leaning hard against the front wall of the former fast food joint. "Orchid, anyone tell you that you're kinda fucking intense about this shit? I'm having conscious feelings I don't think I've had my entire life."
"...Kayleigh this is what I go through every time someone does a gender thing and then won't explain," you admit. The cigarette is helping. It's helping a lot. "...Every time. Everyone else is playing this game with elaborate nonsense rules that I wasn't taught and even people trying to be supportive of me kinda act like I'm stupid for not getting it. At least the kids don't think I'm stupid."
"You're not stupid," your ward says quietly. "...Why's this so important to you?"
"It's important to people I care about a lot."
The two of you finish your cigarettes in relative silence, but when you get back in just under half the kids are asleep. So you wake the older ones, and bundle up the younger between you and Kayleigh, and carry them back to where everyone else is - aaaaand the parents who aren't dead or missing are swarming you and they're pissed.
Welp.
You have unleashed something you do not understand.
Choose 3
[ ] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[ ] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[ ] Attempt to contact Stella, known as the Everlasting Lady
[ ] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[ ] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[ ] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
Fortuna
Graceful Topiary Artist
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm sure this will have no consequences whatsoever going forward. That was a fun interlude with no bearing on the future of the society we're building here.
[x] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[x] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
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[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
Morrowlark
You've lost something, haven't you?
This short update brought to you by: my lived experiences with being autistic.
Have fun, party people. My schedule may be more irregular than normal while I handle life.
Have fun, party people. My schedule may be more irregular than normal while I handle life.
- Pronouns
- She
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
Gender informed by experience of being autistic? Ain't that a mood. Good luck with the life stuff.
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
Gender informed by experience of being autistic? Ain't that a mood. Good luck with the life stuff.
[x] Attempt to contact Stella, known as the Everlasting Lady
[x] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
[x] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[x] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
[x] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
SolarGemX
The Crystalized Sun
- Location
- Somewhere in the Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
Lets get fully settle in knowing what the hell our Community needs and what kind Wonderland (the not fun kind) we currently recide in.
[X] This might be a good time to actually learn logistics. The talk from the food crew and the quartermaster is getting confusing and dire.
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
Lets get fully settle in knowing what the hell our Community needs and what kind Wonderland (the not fun kind) we currently recide in.
Kermie
Just A Karate Bugman/Bugwoman/Bugthing
- Location
- Somewhere On The Planet
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Why. Why! WHY DID ANY OF YOU—
Ok. Ok. This is happening now. I get why Orchid did what it did but I feel like it would have been better to keep our heads down and be reasonable but no I guess it is what it fucking is it why did you all—
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
…ok, it's fine. We make the grave now we lay in it. Why am I so paranoid about this? It's fictional. Is this something I need to examine? I'm not sure if the problem is with me or all of you. Maybe the problem is with me. Well shit.
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I want to pitch folks on the idea that learning logistics might not be the best use of our time, and should be replaced by another vote of your choosing.
The fact that we have a quartermaster and food crew means we can delegate to them and, frankly, should. If the quartermaster is teaching us, we're not going to get better than the quartermaster anytime soon if at all, and we don't actually need a detailed understanding of the dynamics in play to process their requests and support them from above.
I'm worried that if we become logistics Orchid, our broader interpersonal arena is going to suffer because of the time commitments. And I don't just mean romance, to be clear, I mean that there's an odd paradox to being a leader--if you do it right, you nearly work yourself out of a job because you're surrounded by good people who know their shit.
This means, in turn, that there will be awkward times as a leader where it seems like you're not don't doing much and now is the great time to start a new project. Don't be fooled! That's a great way to end up overcommitted when a crisis or complex choice point strikes and you suddenly have much more on your plate.
What you're actually doing during the times where it seems like you're not doing much is a) keeping a weather eye on ongoing projects (these are the Sasha Diamond and Clara votes), b) skilling-up (this is the map vote), c) being present and visible for purposes of morale (not necessarily to inspire, but to create a sense of stability), and d) deliberately maintaining some open space on your plate for the next call that only you can make.
You could make a decent case for logistics learning falling under b), but because it seems like a more intense and specialized commitment than the other options, I'm wary of it, worried it will impair a) c) and d), and see it as a step down the path toward burnout if we only try to lead from the front.
The fact that we have a quartermaster and food crew means we can delegate to them and, frankly, should. If the quartermaster is teaching us, we're not going to get better than the quartermaster anytime soon if at all, and we don't actually need a detailed understanding of the dynamics in play to process their requests and support them from above.
I'm worried that if we become logistics Orchid, our broader interpersonal arena is going to suffer because of the time commitments. And I don't just mean romance, to be clear, I mean that there's an odd paradox to being a leader--if you do it right, you nearly work yourself out of a job because you're surrounded by good people who know their shit.
This means, in turn, that there will be awkward times as a leader where it seems like you're not don't doing much and now is the great time to start a new project. Don't be fooled! That's a great way to end up overcommitted when a crisis or complex choice point strikes and you suddenly have much more on your plate.
What you're actually doing during the times where it seems like you're not doing much is a) keeping a weather eye on ongoing projects (these are the Sasha Diamond and Clara votes), b) skilling-up (this is the map vote), c) being present and visible for purposes of morale (not necessarily to inspire, but to create a sense of stability), and d) deliberately maintaining some open space on your plate for the next call that only you can make.
You could make a decent case for logistics learning falling under b), but because it seems like a more intense and specialized commitment than the other options, I'm wary of it, worried it will impair a) c) and d), and see it as a step down the path toward burnout if we only try to lead from the front.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
I mean, honestly things seem fine? This was really funny and great.
Fortuna
Graceful Topiary Artist
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah, alright, that makes sense. In that case:
[x] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[x] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[x] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
I think being at a relative lull is a good time for upskilling and filling gaps in our competencies, and if we're making the big strategic calls then knowing the geography can only be to the good.
arachnophobe
webspinner
- Location
- within 3 feet of you.
- Pronouns
- It/Its
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
[X] Attempt to contact Stella, known as the Everlasting Lady
the gender turned out *exactly* as i hoped! gender chaos! embrace it! rejoice! step forward into a new era of gender whatever the fuck!
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
[X] Attempt to contact Stella, known as the Everlasting Lady
the gender turned out *exactly* as i hoped! gender chaos! embrace it! rejoice! step forward into a new era of gender whatever the fuck!
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
- Location
- [REDACTED]
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Diamond and her girls might be starting a shooting fight. Maybe check in?
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] You should talk to Sasha, before she leaves
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
[X] What the fuck is Clara doing with the satellites?
[X] Grab someone and really learn the map of the area around Salt Bay City
