[[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

[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.

[ravkanwitch]

"Oh, I see," Nina says, watching what Susan's doing. "That way you can see everything in a single column."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes, precisely! Or we might present data in simple ways - for example, we could do counts of favorite colors or animals."

[ravkanwitch]

"Sounds great," Nina says easily, "I could definitely help with something like that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Of course you could." Susan sits back a little, giving Nina a good once-over. "How would you like to use this information?"

[ravkanwitch]

"The skills we can definitely use if something else happens, like the undead... " Nina considers. She gives Susan a wry smile. "Everything else, all of the favorites, we can use after those things happen to cheer everyone up."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I wonder if we mightn't use it to set up - oh, I'm loathe to say a chore chart," says Susan. "But opportunities for productive tasks, so that those who feel adrift here have more purpose to their days."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina is thinking as well. "Something like that would be great-- but also, some sort of messaging system, maybe? That way, if one of the monthly events happens, we can alert everyone to it."