fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

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!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

The weather was thankfully behaving, so it was fairly warm outside as everything was set up for the picnic. Tables and chairs had been set up, and there was plenty of food and drinks, along with nametags, and two signs: one listing the Big Sibling/Little Sibling pairings, and another listing rooms and roommates for the new students.

[~~WAIT FOR THE OCD PLEASE.~~ OCD IS UP, HAVE AT IT. This is part one of the picnic, for specifically meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here and here, in an effort to keep browsers from breaking for as long as possible. *g*]

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That perked his interest. Free things always had a hidden cost but something you worked for was hard but as fair as things ever got. And a job meant a skill. A skill meant more work. Work meant food and perhaps even a home, much like an education. Both at the same time was practically a miracle.

"There're jobs here? I know I'm thin but that's just from not getting much to eat and I can still work. I'm all right with the elderly and the insane" he'd dealt with both in turn after all and finally just Nanny who was both "and I can do serving without spilling. Plenty of cleaning, though I'm not a cook, but I'd learn."

He glanced at his schedule.

"Well, I'll have to learn anyway."

"There are jobs here, down in the town, though I don't believe any of them involve working with the ederly." The insane he wasn't prepared to commit himself to, since it could apply to most of the island at one time or another.

"You'll be able to fit it in with your schedule, wherever you end up working, I'm sure." He took a deep breath and smiled. "So, I'll be your big brother while you're here, and help however I can. You have your schedule, which is a good start. Do you have any questions you want answered, or shall I simply try and explain how things work? And may I ask where you're from?"

Edited 2008-01-04 17:20 (UTC)

"Kiamo Ko in the Vinkus," he answered, the last first. "In the land of Oz."

Though he still couldn't really understand being out of Oz. Oz wasn't really made for leaving unless you were a saint or a wizard.

"And I'll have questions once I know enough to know what to ask. Not now, though."

And I won't mention that if I ever had an older brother, he tried numerous times to kill me.

But--

"Is there food anywhere?"

"That's an excellent question to start with." Karal gestured towards a nearby picnic table. "And there is, as much as you like. You can eat and I can talk, and thus two things are accomplished at once."

If he had any pride (he didn't, really, not when it came down to the important things), he might have waited.

But he didn't. As stated.

As such, it was an example of just how quickly he could move that he was at the table in two heartbeats and had something (who cared what it was?) in his mouth by the third.

Karal blinked in surprise, but hurried after him. "You can get something to eat in the cafeteria during the week, if you're hungry. I'll show you where it is, and there's a common room on each floor - the fridges almost always have food in them." He winced slightly. "Just stay away from any frozen baked goods."

Blink?

Headtilt.

Why would you eat something that was frozen? And how did you bake something frozen on top of that?

"You probably don't need to worry about that," he said hurriedly. "Not yet, in any event. Though if you see green creatures," he sketched a shape in the air, "about this large and with sharp teeth, those you need to avoid. They're called Gremlins, and if they bite you, they'll cause you to behave very strangely."

The headtilt did not go away.

In fact, the head tilted farther.

Karal laughed a little. "This is a place like no other in all the worlds," he said, trying to sound gentle and comforting. "It can be very strange, and sometimes it can be scary, but it's a good place, one where you can simply be yourself."

"I'd have to know who that is first," he admitted, not really meaning to but there was just something about Karal that prompted it from him. It seemed as if, well, to put it crudely...

He actually gave half a damn whether Liir lived or died. This, to him, was entirely novel and while not off-putting, somewhat disturbing.

"This is a good place to find that out," he replied, lifting one hand as if he'd touch Liir on the shoulder.

He thought better of it, though, not wanting to startle him, and settled for smiling again. "And I'll help you in any way I can, you have my word."

He looked at the hand that had almost touched him and shrugged, as if to say that was normal.

Then he nodded.

"Your god has a name, doesn't he?" he asked after a moment.

"Vkandis Sunlord," he said, unconsciously touching the golden sun medal hanging around his neck. "But he's not known on this world."

"It makes Him easier to call to, I suppose. Ask for help?"

Idle curiosity. Almost.

The Unnamed God. Oz had the Unnamed God.

As if he was ashamed of the place.

"I--" He hesitated, never having thought about it in that way. "It is simply His name, or what He has chosen to name Himself to us."

"But he has chosen to Name himself to you."

Where Elphaba might have been more pointed, or more bitter, or perhaps even indignant, Liir is merely curious. Different worlds. Had the Unnamed God made them all or did each have their own creator?

Ones worthy enough to be signed with a name, even.

Nametags, they all wore nametags here so that the person you needed to find was easy enough to find. Why did the Unionist ministers insist that the Unnamed God had no name?

Perhaps because they couldn't find him.

All these thoughts whirled around, getting in his way, getting in the way of decent conversation even and Liir soundly shut them up before looking around the lawn.

"Forget I said anything. Is there anything you can think of that I would need to know? I don't want to muck this up on my first day."

Karal was feeling a bit bewildered by his little brother, but he was determined to do a good job.

"Very well," he said. "There's not so much you need to know about, the gremlins, as I said, and that there are people from many different worlds, so they may do things which seem strange to you. Classes will begin on Monday, and it's important to be there for them."

He wasn't sure about the next bit, but it was important. "From time to time, danger comes to the island. Invasions, attacks. You will be safe from them if you stay inside, though, and there are people here who will protect you if you cannot protect yourself. And you should always come and find me, or contact me and I will come to you, if you are ever uncertain or having difficulties. Any time, not simply if we have an invasion."

Edited 2008-01-05 21:39 (UTC)

Liir was sort of bewildering, usually to himself.

But--

"And if I don't want to hide?"

He'd hidden before, whatever his foolish boyhood lying had told him at the time because he hadn't wanted to fight the soldiers who'd been the only attention given to him as a child. He'd run and hidden and been left in a sack when the troops had taken Sarima and her children and her sisters and everyone. And the Witch had been gone.

No, hiding didn't suit him at all, no matter how impractical he was.

"It's not hiding, it's--" He cut himself off. "If you want to fight, you can fight. If you want to spy, you can spy. If you want to help discover a solution, if there is one to be discovered, you can help with that, too."

Karal studied him, not sure if he could understand. "Here, all who can contribute, do so. We all help each other, we work together, and together, there is nothing we can't do. You're part of that now," he added, voice gentle.

"I don't want to get yelled at," he said firstly, if only because the memory had been burned into his mind so thoroughly. "And I'd rather if the people here weren't... if nothing happened to them."

Because he'd been doing such a smashing job of finding Nor when he'd ended up here. If any of these people went anywhere, he wouldn't know where to look. He didn't know if he'd look, but best to plan for the eventuality.

"All I can do, though--"

A faint pause.

"If, say, a student was, er, very good at jumping very high," oh brilliant, boy, just spit it out already; you're as obvious as a maiden's blush "would he be allowed to, er, jump. Very high."

And his hand most certainly didn't clench around the broom. Those white knuckles were ... not.

"Jump very high..." Karal was looking distinctly puzzled, but he looked at Liir, at the grip he had on the broom, and tilted his head. "Jumping very high would be permitted."

Karal knew Cedric. He'd spent a great deal of time with Hermione when they'd crossed the desert. He thought he knew to what Liir was referring. "Just for interest's sake, there are wizards and witches here who fly on brooms," he added casually. "And all manner of those who use magic, in many different ways."

"I don't," and it came out quick, rapid fire, because he wanted that clear. He'd learn, learn as much as he could with his stupid head on his stupid shoulders, but he didn't have her magic and he didn't have her skill. He just had--

"But I can fly. It's not my magic. It's someone else's. But I can fly. That is, if I'm allowed. I hate doing it but I can."

But there was a strange intonation to the way he said 'hate'. It's the hate of someone who loves something so deeply, they can't even admit it. And Liir couldn't admit how much he loved it because he did hate it.

He hated that he had to come back down again.

Karal had to fight down the urge to hug him. He sounded so...lost.

"There is freedom here, Liir. To find out who you are, what you want. So long as what you do doesn't harm anyone, you're quite free to do what you will." He smiled, again trying to reassure. "I would not recommend putting a horse in someone's office, though. No matter how much you dislike him."

That got a bird-like quirk of the head.

"Why would you put a horse in someone's office? Where would you get a horse? It's not as if they grow on trees? Wouldn't that be something of a present, though? Or was it a dead horse and--"

For a mind fresh to use, that kind of a comment was just teeming with possibilities. He couldn't help but try and think enough thoughts to make up for all the ones he'd skipped when he'd been content to just be a lesser-liked, hairless Chistery to the Witch.

Or so it seemed sometimes.

"Though--"

There was the issue of figuring out what he liked. Other than flying, he didn't really know.

But he didn't say that. It might sound pathetic.

Finally he said: "There are a lot of things here I'm unfamiliar with."

There. He sounded the least hopeless. Only mildly pathetic. Unknowledgeable as opposed to unteachable; he wouldn't want people getting that impression, no matter how hard it turned out to be to teach him.

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