"We could.  But that doesn't really solve the problem that, at the moment, if either of us falls too far we have no way to regain our lost height.  ...I really should have done something about that before right now."

She carefully tries to explain more of her idea in halting signs. «Lower poles, make new poles, link poles, do again, drop lower than web.»

"...A net?  We could do a net, and I was already planning on expanding downwards kind of like that, but your horizontal velocity pulling some of those moves means that that isn't foolproof.  And I need something for me either way, just in case something unexpected happens and I fall off while you're asleep, or something."

She wobbles her hand in a "sorta" gesture, then signs some more, «Net good addition. Think...»

She trails off and frowns at not having the signs she needs, then grabs for the scroll and starts typing.

My idea is for the poles to interlock a bit like a carabiner, and keep them attached to the island by having the top section be a pair of U-shaped sections that interlock at the middle, with their poles hanging off the side, so the whole thing stays put.

Could attach a net to it a ways down, too, yeah. That's a smart addition.

Then she turns it around to Momo.

She translates this to sign almost absent-mindedly - though she has to look up some of the words herself.  However, she's pretty sure she's missing something here.  «...How is that going to...»

"What happens if you can't catch the poles?  Have I miscommunicated what my concerns are, somehow, Neo?  Because I find myself confused.  Not that I don't think the poles are a good idea, I had already been planning on that sort of general structure, but what I'm concerned about is what happens if you can't reach anything to recover from falling off the island, in a very general sense."

She types another paragraph below that.

Can shoot a swing-line that spreads at the end, catch a pole with that, drag myself closer. I'm picturing lowering these really far, far enough to have a good minute or three to try to grab one.

"I hadn't been aware of that, I don't think.  That will probably work, I suppose, unless you've been rendered unable to shoot webs somehow.  And it's not as if I've never been trained to do similar, though it's not something that often came up.  Still, I'd rather have backup plans, so I'll make the poles and then get to work on another option."

Without further ado, she starts making things to hang things on, intending to have two beams laid diagonally across the island, and fitted to the corners, interlocking at the center of it.

And Neo cheerfully starts fitting things into place as Momo makes them, carefully making sure the top beams are stable and secure.

"Ah, yes, like that.  Thank you.  I'm not sure how many poles I'm going to be able to make, but I suppose I may as well start on them.  And the net."  She makes the net first, light but sturdy, designed to fit neatly onto the somewhat extended (though not very much extended, given the logistical constraints of making things wider than the island while on the island) breadth of the framework.

Then, she starts making poles - but poles that have additional fixtures that one could hook an ordinary grappling line onto, or even climb on.

Neo climbs out to attach the poles and net. She has to swing from pole to pole to get all the corners of the net on, but soon enough it's attached, and they have an additional safety measure. Then she keeps extending poles lower on all sides, for as long as Momo is comfortable making more.

It's not a small number, but it's not anywhere near "falling for several minutes" levels of length by the time she has to tap out.

She swings back up and scoops Momo into a twirling hug, then sets her back on her feet and signs, «Impressed.»

This produces a very blushily stunlocked Momo, as she tries and fails to formulate a response that both adequately acknowledges her feelings at receiving such a compliment, and communicates that doing things like this is really not particularly unusual for her.

"...Thanks?  I...  Don't feel that I did anything too impressive with these, compared to your spider-suit?  But I'm.  Well.  That was nice?  Regardless?"

«Most things you do with your Q-U-I-R-K impress. Takes much skill,» she signs, though she has to resort to spelling out quirk, not having a sign for that yet.

«Quirk,» she replies, «which is not the same as quirk.»  "...I...  I do suppose that's true, even though it doesn't really feel like it's particularly skillful in comparison."

Neo just smirks and boops Momo's nose.

"Well.  I certainly can't gainsay that."

She laughs silently and flops down onto the grass with a grin. «What next?» she signs. «Planning for portals? Recruitment priorities if we see someone we might get along with in a portal world?»

"...I suppose we should have those.  As far as recruitment...

"I'm not a support engineer.  From what I understand of Ruby, she is, or at least she has the mindset necessary to fit in at Hatsume Industries, but the process by which she came to be one of you has left her bereft of most of the practical skills necessary to do that properly, and that takes a while to build when you do have a good environment to build it in, which we do not.  ...We need someone who can make genuinely new things, instead of my skills in putting together the same old things in different combinations, if we're going to make this work long-term.  Things are going to escalate beyond my ability to improvise.

"Which means that we probably also want to find a wizard.  Ideally one that already does research, or has some other history of improvising, adapting, and overcoming, as the old saying goes.  Because if we don't end up in a high-fantasy world at some point, I'll be very surprised, and we'll need somebody to handle that because neither of us are, to the best of our knowledge, particularly magical.  Quirks being, as they say, 'bullshit', aside.

"And then our recruitment pool is further constrained by only wanting to bring along the people who would legitimately neither be worse off nor leave their world worse off for their quite possibly eternal absence, as far as recruiting the willing goes.  I'm not going to introduce the complications of considering someone who would not want to be here, or who we need to remove from somewhere on ethical grounds, for a position, at the moment.  But we probably do need to be thinking about that in case it comes up."

"...Portal prep.  I'll make recon drones.  The most dangerous threats we face are likely to be environmental as much as anything, to start, so we should have gear built for extremes...  ...We'll need those anyway, eventually, with the weather."

«Catalog lists tags on known capture targets, engineer is a tag,» Neo signs, still lying on the grass. «So are witch, crafter, and healer. Can look up worlds in catalog before entering after portal opens. Won't know if world worse off unless we know the world or have summary. Can get collected summaries of most in any world close enough to our era.»

"Then we shall have to hope we're lucky enough to encounter worlds that we recognize and can weigh consequences for, until we get that chance."

She nods. «Default no in doubt unless they're desperate to get away, avoid making Sable and Ruby sad.»