The Village of Nasmara

You say, "[Welp, let's get this started! Ikky-player will hopefully be on shortly]"
You say, "Hai guys! We haven't done one of these in a while. How you feeling?"
You start feeling more like yourself again.
Portrait 1 active. [E]
Lacuna Wolfshock: good here
Kahakuloa: alive for the most part
You say, "I know it's hard getting things scheduled around wide time zone bases, so happily we have this all scripted out, and we'll be putting it up where the folks who missed it can still see it. "
You say, "I know Allisonplayer's probably sleeping, and our Kaydie reported back being at work."
You say, "Gonna just run through a few categories and then have a question an answer bit at the end."
You say, "Regarding the last plot, we had a lot of things that were experimental, to see how they would run."
You say, "Things that worked:"
You say, "We tend to feel that the plot matter, in general worked pretty well. Folks got a good sense of urgency out of it without it being RP-blocking in most cases. We liked that during the plot the characters could usually go about their day, or not, as their players saw fit. Rebirth and renewal RP seemed to hit home in good ways with a lot of the players, evoking strong emotions. Everyone seemed to like the ending in particular, and the slow ramp-up from negligible clues to big scary things felt like good pacing. Anyone else feel the same?"
Kahakuloa: I felt that the pacing was steady. It gave the players a chance to try and notice the changes as well yes
Kahakuloa pounces ikky
You say, "Another thing we lliked that lots of different personalities had to come together for this and that we had written it to be accessible by all our RPer@s individual styles. We will continue in the future to script bosses and loot tables with our playerbase in mind - so keep a look out for your @part@ in things!"
You say, "heh, obvious copy-paste is obvious."
Merin: The pacing was better, considering how a lot of people had pretty chaotic stuff going on RL it all went pretty good
Merin: I usually start to stress about like... keeping that balance between participating as much as I can and not ending up snowplowing and looking like Im stealing the show
Merin: I like that there were chances for everyone to have a part to play
Project Ikarus snorffles awake. SO. Things that probably could have gone better. lol A couple of folks reported back that they weren@t sure how loot worked on the trip, and so in the upcoming RP a few pieces of the loot that weren't specifically claimed will be put up for grabs in a more obvious manner. At the moment we like the organic method loot is grabbed for in plots- that the people who turn over rocks or look in chests are the sort of people who wind up with shinies. In the future, we@ll see what we can do to make loot easier to spot when it comes up in a post.
Project Ikarus: And you know. I even tried to go back to change those ' . >
You say, "Freakin hate those. It's like having the Windows logo screen pop up mid-slideshow."
You say, "But yeah, we'll have a loot-party ICly here in a minute, as part of the feast, so people who didn't walk away with a shiny have a second chance at 'em."
Merin: I think sometimes some of the stress happens though from feeling like something is going to go 'wrong' with the rp, or with someone's character just because of misunderstanding,
Lacuna Wolfshock: I didn't even know there was a chance to loot.
Project Ikarus: There's always a chance to loot. xD
Lacuna Wolfshock: <- wasn't told that
Project Ikarus: We didn't tell anyone. We thought it was pretty obvs. That's why we thought it could go better. Which is why we brought it up. Haha~
You say, "We were adopting the Spellcarver-plot method for those, Lacuna. He liked to tuck the booty into regular posts. I wasn't told that my first go through either, and Landi passed up a pearl that makes any container it's placed into fill up with fresh water. I still kick myself."
Allison Farris: all the loot.
Merin: Well no one was told ICly, that was sort of the point. The characters didnt know what to expect really
Merin: but a character gonna do what a character gonna do
You say, "Believe me, we were mwahahahing when you people all decided it was gonna be a zoo."
Project Ikarus: And debating on what Pagos was like.
You say, "We felt like super clever storytellers that it went that way. A good part of writing is defeating expectation "
Project Ikarus: Also everyone please take a moment to giggle that Landi named him GalaPagos.
Merin: Well I was expecting shit to not go the way expected
You say, " >)"
Merin: but not the way shit went
Merin: hahaha
Allison Farris: pfffffff xD I never know what to expect
Merin: I still regret there were not more bad metal band name incertions in the Pantera quest
Merin: I would have kept running with that forever
Kahakuloa: ya woul would lol
Project Ikarus: OKAY. Haha So the other thing.
Project Ikarus: The away team structure is still a little shaky. We had expected folks to feel confident enough to break away from the main group a lot more often, have conferences or just character-development RP with each other, and rejoin at their leisure. Instead we found that for most of the RP, this was actively resisted and characters were trying to organize themselves right in the hairy-bits of the plot, and that sometimes got in the way. In light of this, we would love to hear some suggestions during the Q&A about how to fix this in the future.
Project Ikarus: (HA motherfkin @'s. I got you that time.)
You say, "Yah, we'll be taking suggestions on how to make time for that in a plot in just a little bit. We think it caused some unnatural character-friction that no one was really taking time for planning meetings. So everyone was trying to decide things right AS they were being attacked or swindled, and yeehhh, "
You say, "Hi Bearplayer"
Merin: I think it was a little weird knowing my character couldn't do anything that could possibly advance the plot or set off a 'trigger' when I knew my character would have spent a lot of time being very LETS GO LETS GO NOW.
You say, "That's a good point, and one we're getting to"
Merin: So, it was awkward coming up with excuses as to why not. Luckily other people had to sleep a lot and he didn't.. So, I used watching over sleeping people as keeping him there
You say, "As we have it labeled in our docs, "THINGS THAT DID NOT WORK""
Merin: yeah there was less time for the characters to discuss what ifs. So suddenly faced with whoa, this.. It meant everyone in a turn based fashion was trying to come up with snap decisions based off their character's personality and motivations
You say, "Yup, and time was the next thing."
You say, "The experiment we did this time with trying to only move the plot along when at least half the participants were on did not work so well. "
You say, "In addition to hamstringing our more prolific rpers, we found that since the requirement to move things along were three people, that if there were two people on, whomever was in reach of the others felt very pressured to drop what they were doing and get on right now, and that was kindof the opposite of what we were going for. "
Lacuna Wolfshock: I am going to be starting work soon. So i will not be able to do midnight - 6am times anymore
You say, "Ikkyplayer and I are very sorry if this made anyone feel like they were holding others up if they wanted to take an evening off. And we're very sorry for folks who felt like they had a bit in their reigns"
Merin: and since my characters tend to be very driven towards helping and being in the middle of things, I had a very strong parinoia of missing out
You say, "(URL: http://youtu.be/Hk_-XWpUFmU) http://youtu.be/Hk_-XWpUFmU"
Allison Farris: I agree on the paranoia of missing out. also lmfao Landi xD
Aberrant: I kind of liked the attendance policy though that there didn't have to be everyone on. There was a reason for people to be missing so that we really didn't suffer any moments of wondering where people were.
You say, "And Lacuna, your concern is one of the questions coming up, so I'm glad you reminded us"
Aberrant: And personally although I understand that people were stressed about it and that's not good, I felt compelled to be on, so I didn't miss.
You say, "Yay Bearplayer! Yes, that's what we were GOING for, but it made people more uncomfortable than it did anything else, we think. Or at least we heard."
Allison Farris: It didn't make me uncofmortable really, more of a reason for me to get home faster from school instead of taking forever and doing nothing when I get back
Project Ikarus: So, on that note. lol What is a suggestion you have to make it easier for characters to have planning-on-their-own time?
You say, "and by that we mean ways to get our characters to have time to talk to each other that ISN'T right in front of the boss, like some Dragonball Z posse"
Aberrant puts paw on Merin's face. lol
You say, "Our Upirs all like "WE CAN TOTALLY SEE YOU GUYS ACROSS THE CREEK THERE. SRSLY IT IS LIKE 20 FEET AWAY""
Allison Farris: LMAO
Project Ikarus: "Don't scold them, Charls, just play your hand. *Tuttut*"
Kahakuloa: can you rephrase the question? I am not sure I understand
You say, ""But muffy, it's like a bad school play where the villian turns his hat backwards and even his own mother can't recognize him""
Aberrant: Maybe it was just me, but I felt like if there were three people on, plot things were about to happen, so you didn't want to have your character walk away.
Allison Farris: Maybe a sort of pre-set date on main plot advancement giving some time between main plot events to interact with each other?
You say, "We're trying to come up with ideas for how our characters can learn about a situation, and then go off and TALK about that situation, before needing to do anything"
Aberrant: We had that though, Allison. Before everyone got on the boat.
Allison Farris: Really? xD opp
Aberrant: Heh During the whole plot when the island was dying and people were trying to figure out what to do. When we knew Merin, Fayola, and Ikarus were going to be going to that other island to get information. That was it. Haha
Kahakuloa: I think it's easy to forget the items that your character could be carrying.. so maybe in the future when there IS a big plot, maybe remind others what their characters COULD be having on them? or have had on them? I try and keep a small page with notes for what Haku has on him or is carrying. (by the way I'm not sure if anyone caught this, but Haku never went back for his bow.... unless someone grabbed it, but he had dropped it trying ot help merin)
Merin: ha yeah Merin couldn't exactly carry anything.
Merin: He was busy uh.. bleeding everywhere and passing out
Aberrant: Are we talking about looting again?
You say, "No, haha, but that's a good idea too, Haku. I don't mind gathering an inventory sheet for folks"
Kahakuloa: no. I'm talking about things that are easily missed during a Main Plot Problem
Aberrant: Like planning? Or trying to bribe the vampire things?
Merin: like 'crap did I bring a spare pair of underwear?'
You say, "We'll put that on the list of input. We're still talking about scheduling though. I'm thinking on Allisons idea of maybe being more obvious about when the shit, pardon-my-french is about to hit the fan."
Kahakuloa: in any plot really. I made sure to note what Haku had on him all the time, aka, bow, quiver, if he had it in his hands, or if he had dropped it. picked it up. who he was helping, etc.
You say, "It would involve us spoiling a few more things for ou folks OOCly, but if that relieved some of the scheduling tension, it's worth it"
You say, "Does anyone else have anything to add about taking time for IC planning in the middle of a plot?"
Kahakuloa: I think vampires screaming at you to go away was obviously "sh!t about to hit the fan"
You say, "hahaha yeah"
Merin: There is the whole problem of, when you are running a plot that is pretty much all text, people don't have all the cues they might normally have. Like, sometimes you have to be more obvious about where you are trying to guide things.
You say, "Maybe next time we'll be more sure to send one of the planners along, so there's an IC NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THIS GUYZ?"
Merin: I used to do chat based rp, and they would run quests, and it got very mechanical after a while because people would enter a room and just start listing all the stuff they *checked* because they didnt want to miss things
Aberrant: I think that would be good, yes. We had Galvin, I know, but no one would want to include someone foreign in planning.
Merin: so quests were bogged down by Steve checks under the rug, Mary goes to look inside the plant pots
You say, "Okay, though, next question!"
Aberrant quiets
Merin: exactly. And people tried to Zelda loot every quest, and the story sense went to crap
You say, "and it's one Lacuna broached for us earlier about TIME ZONES"
You say, "Good god are we scattered everywhere."
Kahakuloa: yes we are
You say, "(URL: http://gyazo.com/36901498ba158e97f20cb5c94747be6f) http://gyazo.com/36901498ba158e97f20cb5c94747be6f Take a second if you haven't already to look at this"
You say, "We tried to have a stripe for where you guys generall are, though I know one or two of you shift around from zone to zone a bit."
You say, "Think about your autumn coming up, and tell me what time is good in your zone to schedule for"
Lacuna Wolfshock: I am not really sure mine matters. La doesn't really suit big plots like this and I am the only one in the UK. I have no idea what work times I am going to have yet either.
Merin: for now, Sunday tends to be my only iffy day. That can always change though.
You say, "You are not the only one in the UK "
You say, "It's less about what days are bad and more about what hours are good When do you LIKE to rP?"
Lacuna Wolfshock: Whenever I am awake xD
Aberrant: I am also in the UK during the winter, Lacuna.
Lacuna Wolfshock: ahh
Kahakuloa: mm I'm iffy about "planning out time for RP"... but thatis me
You say, "When are you awake, then, hun"
Lacuna Wolfshock: When I am not asleep. I don't have set times for sleeping at the moment and I have 0 idea when I am going to be free when I start work.
Merin: I usually prefer evenings/nighttime, just because it's quieter.
Merin: Sometimes its a bit hard to post during the day for me, because I watch kids and I live in a very loud shouty household
Kahakuloa: I'm on when I can get on.
You say, "With folks being a bit cadgey about this question, we're looking to be on Merin-time! No one else has preferred blocks of time? I like 5-10pm est myself."
Merin: So if important things are happening it can be very stressy if its a bad day at the house
Allison Farris: preferably I'd rp all the time however school is my main thing plus with going to college in september so it's more set on when I get home from school, minus the summer then thats jsut whenever I'm awake and not busy
You say, "What hours would those be for school, Allison?"
Merin: so yeah, after 5pm est is good. I can do earlier, but it can be iffy sometimes
Allison Farris: No idea for college yet but highschool starts at 8:35 so I'm up at 6:30 usually then home by 3:00pm maybe 4:00 depending when my mom gets off her crossing.
You say, "And which time zone are you?"
Aberrant: I think most of us end up being on in the evenings for both US and UK times. My work for the summer is usually starting in the morning, anywhere between 5 and 8 am until it's too hot to work, usually around 12 or 1. If we're working inside, however, it can be from any time they call me to show up, until usually around 9 or 10 at night.
Allison Farris: Uhmmm what time is it for you Landi?
You say, "I am on EST. It is 2pm"
Allison Farris: Kay then I'm also EST
You say, "okies"
Aberrant: (When discussing timezones, it's often easier to tell the group at large what time it is for YOU first. Haha)
Allison Farris: (lmao I know but I know my timezone was the same as some of you so I was making sure xD)
You say, "okies, I think we got some good info on that. Thank you "
Merin: Im only an hour behind Landi and Allison
Project Ikarus: Bear and I are currently on the same time, and it's 11 am for us here now. xD But in the winter I will be an hour ahead of Bear. lol
Lacuna Wolfshock: it's 7pm for me ._.
Project Ikarus: OKAY. So. Next question.
Project Ikarus: If you could ONLY pick ONE. Would you prefer a scheduled 'we do this even if we're alone' time to move things forward, or a 'we do this if ___ many people are on' structure?
You say, "Examples: "We will move the plot forward at 3pm EST regardless of who is here" vs. "We will move the plot forward only when at least half the team is on""
Kahakuloa: I think this qould depend on the plot... really
You say, "tell me more "
Merin: And, the problem I could see with the latter... What if its only one person there? Maybe other key people are just -not- avalible because shit hit the fan suddenly
Merin: and I can imagine say, me trying to rp something very vital you have to be there no matter what or your char has magically just flitted off for no reason, whiole my mother is on one of her thrtowing filing cabinets and screaming rants
Merin: for 40 minutes.
Aberrant: I liked having the knowlege that things weren't scheduled so exactly, yes. However perhaps if it was the day in general. "On Tuesday we will be advancing the plot" and then people know to get on for Tuesday at their usual times?
You say, "this seems like a good middle gorund"
You say, "and ground."
Merin: yeah maybe more of a 'tuesday evening is when shit happens'
Merin: gives some wiggle room.
Kahakuloa: I think a bi tmore communication is needed, where everyone needs to talk with each other about things. If you cannot make a day or ap lot for.. whatever reason, let people know and give a reason why your chaacter won't be there. ya know? it saves everyone from going <,< .......... where so so at?
Merin: so people can be like 'alright I'll be there by 5pm est
Merin: see sometimes it was hard to think of a reason
Aberrant: We had character reasons this time, with the skin thing.
Merin: and it got really weird with all the narcolepsy
Aberrant: I think people should have used THAT more often. No offense to Mr. Dragon. Heh
You say, "Inevitably, though, some person is gonna miss some thing. There's 9-10 of us, so we'll always try to have something going on that's a "Good Excuse""
You say, "apologies to Allison-player re: allison-character with her violent runs. If people disappeared in the TGT party, we had a sideplot standing by wherein someone got kidnapped."
You say, "So what I'm hearing overall is that people actually LIKED the attendance trigger, but would prefer for there to be a goal of "let's all try to get on on X day"?"
Kahakuloa: sounds fair enough
Aberrant: Yes, I think so. That way we know that on Monday we can just be on to have our characters plan, then on Tuesday is when things happen.
Allison Farris: wait why are you apologizing to me? -utter confusion-
Allison Farris: oh wait nevermind lmao
Aberrant: Because they gave Allison the shits.
Landi gives a wedge of cheese to everyone!
Allison Farris: AHAHAHA that was hilarious
Kahakuloa: IE: excuse to why allison suddenly was like I"M GOING WITH. oh wait nevermind x.x
Merin: hahah well she'd been sleeping A LOT so tired was kinda ... didnt work
You say, "Honestly, everyone poops, so it's a wonderful go-to "oh wait oh god" moment"
Merin: that made the most sense why someone would just yeeeah
Merin: zip off
Kahakuloa: "I'm so excited! I need to poo. hold on." *blips
Allison Farris suddenly thought of the movie bridesmaids
You say, "If we get a character that doesn't poop on a trip, like Tathar (did y'all know she doesn't poop) we'll work something out special just for them"
Kahakuloa: soething like that
Allison Farris: "IT COMING OUT OF ME LIKE LAVA"
Kahakuloa: ..... that was a disturbing image of flames ...
Landi gives a taco to Lacuna Wolfshock!
Lacuna Wolfshock nibbles taco
You say, "NEXT AND LAST QUESTION "
Allison Farris: Hahaha xD
You say, "For those of you peeps that choose to play with the hunting and gathering charts, we've received the anonymously submitted ideaBear to change up the monsters a bit."
Aberrant: Haha
Kahakuloa:
Aberrant: I am so anon right now.
You say, "Anyone have a favourite monster they'd like to add to our list of candidates? Go crazy, we'll look them up"
Allison Farris: such anon very invisible
You say, "see what works"
Lacuna Wolfshock: mimic
You say, "that's the chest-thing, yah?"
Lacuna Wolfshock: Yeah xD
Allison Farris: What like mimic chests?
Allison Farris: Aah
You say, "okies, that could be neat and would work on both charts"
Kahakuloa: ...o.o "what's a chest doing out i the midd of the woo...ahaahhhhhhhAHHHHH"
Lacuna Wolfshock: They always scare me in games "LOOT!" "ah shit my face is gone"
Aberrant: I had thought this was leading in to seeing more plant-based animals, which I thought was a neat idea. I hadn't been prepared to be the one that comes up with them. Haha maybe the plant animals are actually fruit on the inside?
Merin: although in a jungle they'd prolly be a log or a rock
Allison Farris: Giant venus fly traps ._.
Lacuna Wolfshock: Venus people traps
Merin: with an apple sitting on it or something lmao
Allison Farris: AHAHA venus people traps omg
Kahakuloa: ther's a plant acoutally out there.. but the IC laws have characters prohibited and highly limited to where they can wander around..
You say, "heheh yeah, but people break those all the freaking time"
You say, "so even if it doesn't make it onto the chart of permitted thingies, it could be something we add to a writeup of "what's out there""
Aberrant: (URL: http://i.imgur.com/ESNV0ZZ.gif) http://i.imgur.com/ESNV0ZZ.gif
You say, "yes, venus people traps and animal-fruit-pinata beasts are on the list"
You say, "Haku, got a favourite? Merin?"
Kahakuloa: I'd look up more plant based monsters. see what there is out there or what not. A pitcher plant?
You say, "I know Kaydie would have liked the direction this is sliding in. "
Kahakuloa: (URL: http://www.carnivorous--plants.com/pitcher-plant.html) http://www.carnivorous--plants.com/pitcher-plant.html
Merin: getting called away back and forth
You say, "I'm getting an idea based off those, yah"
Allison Farris: (URL: http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Black_Forest_Lizard#Black_Forest_Lizard) http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Black_Forest_Lizard#Black_Forest_(URL: http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Black_Forest_Lizard#Black_Forest_Lizard) Lizard
Merin: well now we have cassowary
Merin: and maybe a rare mutant version
You say, "up, the Cassowary will be added onto the hunting chart to REPLACE the "ostrix""
Merin: a non magical cassowary with a plant growing out of it would be fun, like the flox and whanot.
Project Ikarus: Hehehe
Project Ikarus: Flwolf.
Kahakuloa: yaaaaaaa haku would be telling everyone to NOT TOUCH the magical plant looking birds
Allison Farris: omg those things are terrifying
You say, "As Bear learned, any creature that kills a forest phoenix sprouts flowers and that's where Floxes and Flynxes and Fleeks and stuff comes from "
Merin: oh god I want a lizard
Project Ikarus: I think Haku is probably right though, in that any magical cassowary is probably considered protected. xD;
Kahakuloa: ohgdsi'mtiny
Merin: Also for a while Sae will be protecting the young cassowaries lmao
Project Ikarus: Lizards are good though. We could probably have more reptiles on the chart. lol
You say, "And that's our second suggestion for one. I think Allison, yours looks more like a leaf, yeah?"
Allison Farris: I was more feeling the volcano lizard ones on the list I linked
Merin: he's prolly out there right now with a bunch of them following him like baby ducks
You say, "Haku you are like, superduper tiny"
Allison Farris: wtf Haku are you a bug or something
You say, "he ate the cheese, hahaha"
Project Ikarus: Cheese can make you tiny
Allison Farris: WHAT
Kahakuloa: I'm a dwagon
You say, "allison, say eat-cheese"
Kahakuloa: it's eat-cheese
Project Ikarus: You're a lizard
You say, "You're a lizard, Harry"
Aberrant: You'll have to unsheep yourself.
Aberrant: You and I are mice.
Allison Farris: apparently I don't remember switching to mouse lmao
Kahakuloa: tineeponeeee
Aberrant: You nom down some cheesy comestibles. You start to feel rodenty. In fact, you're starting to wonder where you could find some rodental floss! (Lasts 1 hour.)
Allison Farris: OOOOH ok
(14:37:27) The Village of Nasmara is now online.
You say, "while Merin is a plaid horse."
Allison Farris is kind of an idiot
Kahakuloa: anyways.
Project Ikarus: SO ANYWAYS. lmfao
The Village of Nasmara gives a wedge of cheese to everyone!
Allison Farris: yes anyways back to what we were talking about XDDD
The Village of Nasmara gives a slice of cake to everyone!
Merin: HAHAHA
Lacuna Wolfshock nibbles cheese
The Village of Nasmara gives a vinca flower to everyone!
(14:38:27) The Village of Nasmara has logged out.
Kahakuloa: can we sum the suggestions and advice up ?
Project Ikarus: So that@s all the things we had for the OOC meeting. If you haven@t joined our RPR group, and I@m sure most of you have, please consider doing so. If you have joined up on the RPR group, keep on checking it regularly for updates. We'@ll be tweaking the hunting and gathering chart to in order to reflect that CASSOWARY BIRDS now live on the island, and we are considering new monsters to freshen up the list. Won@t Vensyn have fun with that?
Lacuna Wolfshock nibbles cake
You say, "yeah babe, we'll be putting the logs up on the new RPR forumsbear and have a summary"
Aberrant: You're so subtle. I hardly catch it sometimes.
Project Ikarus: xD
Allison Farris: Lmao
You say, "one of these days it's just going to be me bolding certain letters to get your attention. "
Lacuna Wolfshock: kekeke
Aberrant: You forgoot the R.
You say, "didn't. It's the one in Yours"
You say, "your*"
Lacuna Wolfshock: it is at the end of your xD
Allison Farris: HAH
Aberrant: Oh!
Aberrant: Haha
Project Ikarus: OKAY. We'll begin RP now with an emit folks can respond to, and then settle into whatever groups or post orders seem natural. Thanks for coming!
Kahakuloa: haku and Landi are already at the stage
Kahakuloa: eat-flower
Kahakuloa: eat-cinva
Kahakuloa: eat-vinca
Kahakuloa: ....
You say, "It's sniff"
Aberrant: You can't eat flowers.
You say, "You sniff-vinca"
Aberrant: Haha
Kahakuloa: YES YOU CAN
Aberrant: NOT HERE YOU CAN'T.
Allison Farris: FLOWERS ARE EDIBLE
Kahakuloa: I eat rose hips and dandelions all the damn time
Lacuna Wolfshock nibbles vinca.
Allison Farris noms flower anyways
Kahakuloa: sniff-flower
You say, "and now he's a fairy"
Kahakuloa:
Allison Farris: oh god now hes a fairy help us all
Kahakuloa: >)
The stage is set, literally! With a few of the shopkeepers coming out to lend services of their goods to the party, makeshift tables, tablecloths, lamplit-centerpieces and platters and trenchers of pulled pork, ground beef and perfectly seared marinated goat cutlets. Bowls of jackfruit pods, apple sauces and seeded breads, and Maksa-signature desserts heap into bowls, inviting sharing and dipping. Woven grass garlands dotted with fat jungle flowers hang festively in the trees and sway in the ocean breezes. The Fallenblades, usually ever-so-dour, are nearly friendly with people and seem to insist on gluing flower petals to their bald heads. Moving from dwelling to dwelling, they announce, @THE JUBILEE IS STARTING! EAT FOOD. SHOW HAPPY! THE GREAT FREDRICK AND THE BLESSED MOTHER HAVE COME! REJOICE!@ before slamming the door shut and moving on.