We can push on through till morning; [OTA | MINGLE POST]

[markwatney]

WHO: Mark & Anyone
WHERE: The Town Hall
WHEN: Feb 16, afternoon through evening
OPEN TO: EVERYONE! This is a mingle post!
WARNINGS: N/A - Please warn in thread subject lines if needed
STATUS: Open

---

When we all get together and have our town meetings, the truth is that a lot of times we don't come up with the sort of solutions we're looking for. I'm not trying to say we're complacent -- Or at least not all of us, not the people speaking up in the meetings -- but just that the nature of living here, such as it is, means that answers aren't exactly forthcoming.

But the latest meeting, the one about organizing, creating some kind of formal entity to oversee the group of us, it threw something into sharp relief for me: I've been talking for a long time about how we all need to be sharing our knowledge as a safeguard, but I haven't been doing much to make this happen beyond sharing my own personal knowledge. And that's really just not acceptable -- Not here, not when we've apparently got an entire section of the population asking for active leadership and another section who might just be too shy or apathetic to admit it.

So, I've been trying to figure out a way to kickstart this project. A way for people to even put out there the sort of knowledge they have to share. You have to start somewhere.

I've never had a problem getting people together to help with the field, but somehow we've been neglecting the town hall building right next to it this entire time. It's one of the biggest buildings in town, but it's still coated in dust and cobwebs, piles of leaves drifted into corners. The inn is starting to get a little crowded during meetings; it might be nice to have a little more room, a place where people come to share.

Regardless of how you feel about community leadership, I think most of us can get behind that.

A couple days before, I put out the call: A cleaning party. We get together, clean out the town hall, and afterward we have a little potluck. People can bring premade dishes, or we can cook out back over a bonfire. We can just be around each other, in a relatively safe space, just having a moment to relax and say hello. Meet someone new, find out where to begin.

After everything that's happened recently, I really think we could use it. I'm just hoping I'm not the only one who shows up.

[CLEANING PARTY & MIXER! Threads can take place during the CLEANING portion, after during the MIXER or BOTH. They can be indoors, upstairs, in the attic, out back by the bonfire, chowing down, whatever -- It's 100% cool to improvise! Mark will have expressly told folks this is about getting to know each other and what they can each do, too. There are some additional OOC notes here.]

Comments

[tarnishing]

"Huh." Taylor tilts her head with a considering frown. "That would be kind of cool, if I'm from the planet of origin. Earth is my planet. Like I said, we haven't gone anywhere else yet. I guess people are working on it, but it seems to have stalled recently." She'd never been much interested in space or astronauts or any of that, but it had still seemed sad to her when they'd shuttered the space shuttle program.

"So like, do you jet around the universe in a space ship?" she asks, eyebrows arching. "When you're not trapped in a soggy lightning-filled canyon, I mean."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Something about the verb "jet" doesn't really seem to evoke what he does, though he nods uncertainly anyway. "Well, um, kind of. I'm a cargo pilot. Shuttle license only. Get a load of crates at one end, long, quiet hyperspace run, drop off the crates at the other. You, um, you'd want a fighter pilot for jetting." He's glad now that he didn't qualify, but he's still annoyed with himself for those scores.

[tarnishing]

"I just meant it more as an expression. It's something we say where I come from. I could be jetting around in my car... which probably means nothing to you." She laughs. "Just meaning like, traveling. Which you clearly did," Taylor adds with a motion his way, and then tilts her head as she watches him.

"Did you like it? Being a shuttle pilot?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

He thinks about it a moment, not because he doesn't know the answer, but because he's not sure how to say it. He finally settles on, "Yes. But most people wouldn't have, and, well, I wanted... I didn't have the test scores for Starfighter. I'm glad I didn't get it now, and flying is, um, its own reward, but no one could call cargo runs exciting."

[tarnishing]

"Well, as long as you liked it, that's all that matters, right?" Taylor lifts a noncommittal shoulder, and watching him, listening to the nervous staccato of his speech, it's hard for her to tell if he's being completely honest. But it's not like she's got any idea if flying really is its own reward or not. She sure as fuck knows that after a certain length of time, driving isn't.

"I didn't do anything as cool as that back home. I mean, maybe it's common where you come from, but spaceship piloting is still a pretty rare thing for us."