[[a survey + eventual survey discussion closed post]]

[ravkanwitch]

As promised, there’s a new stack of paper on the welcome table in the main lobby; each sheet has many questions on it along with a cup of pens on the side and a brightly colored box with a large slot cut into the top of it. Nina’s ready for her new project. For most characters, if they don’t see this, a very charming and friendly Nina Zenik will be tracking them down with the sheet of questions and a pen eventually…

“MANSION SURVEY: Help us take stock and plan fun and activities!*

*answers are private to Nina and Susan only”

[[Please check out the Fun Mansion Questions tab in the Mansion Demographics spreadsheet and have your characters fill it out! Check the discord if you don’t have a link.]]

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Practical indeed," Susan says, slotting this information away in the back of her mind to add to her list of the attributes of the residents here. "Do you enjoy acting when it's for fun, then?"

[ravkanwitch]

"Oh, absolutely," Nina says, eagerly. "I think my gift for languages also helps me memorize lines quickly as well."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, have you got a gift for languages?"

[ravkanwitch]

Nina nods happily. "I think we briefly mentioned... the language situation in the mansion the last time we talked? That was before everything broke down for a day, though. I know four of the languages from my world fluently and two or three pretty well. I've also been trying to learn English, French, Chinese, and Danish wherever the translator doesn't work. Danish is oddly similar to Fjerdan!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Oh, yes, that's right. Fascinated, Susan says, "Do you think that different languages lend themselves to different - oh, I don't know. Modes of behavior while speaking them?"

[ravkanwitch]

“From my experience, yes, I think so— I always feel a little more restrained when I’m speaking Fjerdan. Much less emotional!”

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Fascinating," says Susan. "And you say it's like Danish?" She's never thought of the Danes as a particularly unemotional breed of man.

[ravkanwitch]

“Danish and some… Norwegian? I believe. Maybe a little Finnish too.” She’s been looking at a map of Scandinavia while experimenting with her language lessons.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I thought I was all right with languages," Susan says, thoughtfully. "Until the translator failed. You should have heard me trying to stumble may way through schoolgirl French with Lancelot.'

[ravkanwitch]

Nina laughs. "French is difficult. English is also difficult! I had to resort to three word sentences and sign language with Janet."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"We ought to have asked about languages, too," Susan says, glancing at the surveys. "In case the translator should fail again, it would be helpful to know for certain who can communicate with whom."

[ravkanwitch]

"We should have," Nina frowns. "Maybe we can add another survey later. This is pretty good information, though."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It is," Susan agrees. "A solid start." Something occurs to her, and she turns to a new page in her notebook. "Do you remember everyone's dishes at the meal? Perhaps we also ought to add that to the end of the surveys."

[ravkanwitch]

"I remember most of them... but even if I don't, I know Sagramore has a list that I could probably track down." She gives Susan a mildly admiring look. "You're very put together, you know. You're exactly what this place needs."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Oh, Susan rather likes hearing that! "It's good to be organized," she says. "Who knows what might happen next?" She purses her lips as she rifles through the surveys again. Someone had mentioned - ah, yes. Lancelot. A joust. "I do wonder if we mightn't get even more organized. Working collectively, I mean. For example - what if the dead should return, or some other threat? Some people train with others here and there, but there's no consistency." She passes Lancelot's survey over to Nina, tapping the section where he'd mentioned a competition of arms. "This might be an exciting way to ease people into the idea of the occasional group training."

[ravkanwitch]

“Oh, and Nightingale held a magic salon a while back. What about a competition of arms and a competition of— magic. Highly controlled, of course.” She frowns, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. “Perhaps not even using magic against each other.”

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perfect," says Susan. A tiny smile crosses her face. "Janet could select her welters teams there."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina tilts her head a little. "She did tell me about welters! She's also very competitive, so I'm sure she'd join the competition."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, absolutely," Susan agrees, making some more notes in her book, this time about competitions-slash-skill demonstrations.

[ravkanwitch]

"I suppose we could come up with a list of people to talk to about both things, then," Nina suggests. "Theater and also the competitions. We can split it up, too."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And the remainder who have yet to complete the survey," Susan adds, trying to sort out who hasn't based on who has. Little John is definitely missing. Also, it seems, Ragnelle. But who else? She can't find one from Thomas in the stack... "How shall we use some of this information?"

[ravkanwitch]

Nina considers, furrowing her brow. "Is there a way to organize so that it's easy to look at later?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose we might write the answers out again by question? Or we could create a table, to organize by both respondent and question... but the paper would have to be quite large."

[ravkanwitch]

"See, this is where you might lose me," Nina admits. "I'm not the best at organizing information. But please show me your organizational ways, if you'd like."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Here," says Susan, and takes out a sheet of paper to demonstrate. "In a table, you would make columns and rows. So we might list out everyone's names, and then have a column for favorite book, and favorite play, and favorite color." She quickly sketches out an example of this with the three surveys she has in front of her.