fandomhigh | So You Want to Be a Pirate!, Wednesday, period two

The class met in the state room today instead of out on the deck, with chairs for all arranged around the large central table. There was a set of Jack's name-and-pronouns stickers on the table for anyone who wanted to fill one of those out, too.

"Right," Duke greeted from his own seat. He was dressed simply today, in jeans, a tank top, and a flannel, having not really felt up with trying to find a more piratical outfit in his new, more lady-like proportions. His name tag said Captain Duke and Him. Mostly. "So I figured some of you all wouldn't be up for a lot of running around this week, but it looks like the island decided to get pretty much everything in on the action. So today we're going to chill a little, and talk about treasure maps.

"So the theory is, that way back in the golden age of piracy, pirate captains would stash their ill-begotten goods on deserted islands, buried usually, and make elaborate coded maps that led to the treasure's location. This — pretty much never actually happened." Said the man who had an as-of-yet unknown hidden treasure stashed on his own damn ship. "But it's fun to imagine anyway. I've got some examples here if you want to take a look, and lots of paper for you to try to make your own. So that's what we're doing today. What's your treasure? Where's it hidden? What are the names of the landmarks along the way? All up to you. Draw up a map using Fandom as your base, make it as confusing to follow as possible, and then find someone to swap maps with and see if they can figure it out.

"Or, you know, chill out and oogle each other's new bits. You do you. In whatever shape you're currently occupying."

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'Fishies was hard the first time,' the words appeared. Del hoped they looked helpful. 'New is always hard the first time.'

"Well," Duke said. "You're not wrong there." He shrugged with a little smile. "Nice to know even an agent of change like yourself can still get thrown, though."

'All the time', the words appeared and glittered out, 'Being one thing always is hard. I never know what I'm going to be otherwise. New is hard but finding fun is easy and I try to find the fun in it.'

"That is a very good perspective," Duke said. "I think maybe I need to work on that."

'Do you need a treasure map for it?' Del had no idea how one worked at it. She just did it. But she was also spending this part of the week as a school of fish.

"I wouldn't have thought so, but now I'm curious what one would look like."

All the fishies wriggled and began booping another piece of paper into place. Another oddly specific map of the island was showing up as they passed over it.

In crayon.

The fish were not made of crayons nor were they holding any that could be seen.

Little red X's appeared. The lighthouse. The ice cream parlor. An X in a tree that was some distance from a small herd of Alots. Galactica point got an X and also a drawing of a sun rising with a smiley face over a horizon. The Perk got an X too. So did the playground at the park. Furnado got an X and a question mark, she didn't know if Duke was allergic to animals.

It took her several minutes.

'Now you can find some happy things!'

Duke watched all that avidly. "That's a good map," he said. "I've been the Perk, but I haven't tried most of these. Thanks."

That map was going to get framed and hung in a spot of honor on the Cape Rouge, yes. His first piece of Fandom art.

'The Perk has really good cocoa,' the words appeared, 'Even if it is only brown and chocolate and not all colors. That's okay. It's still good.'

"It can be any color it likes as long as it tastes good," Duke observed. "Though I'm guessing a lot of stuff around here doesn't come in as many colors as you might want it to, huh?"

'Most things don't,' the words agreed, 'That's okay too. Lots of things are nice even if they aren't so many colors. Maybe they're someone else's favorite color or maybe that is the color the thingies want to be. Even if it doesn't make me all the way happy I can still be happy for it.'

Del had a .. strange.. outlook on the world.

"You know, Del," Duke mused. "In some ways, you're the most zen being I've ever met."

'Thanks!' the fishies wrote. Another little shimmy. 'What's zen?'

Duke took a moment to think about how best to answer that. "Fancy word for going with the flow. Kind of."

'That's really easy to do when I'm fishies!' The words sparkled a little more, almost in a pattern like a laugh. The school gave an example and zoomed around in a circle, 'Fishies are made for flows!'

"That they are," Duke agreed. "One of the many things I respect about fishes."

So You Want to Be a Pirate!, Wednesday, period two

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