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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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.

"Then you have something in common with absolutely every person who has ever come to this school." He rubbed his temple with one finger. "I have a horse. And a dislike of a certain teacher. Add alcohol into the mix, and, well," he shrugged, blushing a little, "you get a horse in an office. Not my best moment at all."

He'd never seen it on his own face, but the expression that graced his features at the moment was the picture of his mother's: an exacting, measuring sort of look with just a hint of disapproval.

"I should hope you don't usually do anything so ridiculous."

A beat.

"If only for the horse's sake."

"No, it was just that once," he sighed. "Trenor actually seemed to quite enjoy it."

"Is he a Horse then or a horse?"

With people from other places and other worlds, they might not know the difference. Dorothy certainly hadn't.

Karal's sensitive ears picked up the difference between the two. "If you mean is he a person in a horse's body, no, he isn't. He is simply a horse, but a good friend for all of that. My friend Aravis comes from a world where there are free Talking Horses. Does yours have the same?"

A quick nod.

"We have animals and Animals."

Though the state of Animals at this point was rather abysmal. Not that any of them were pleased with him. He'd 'turned' on the Witch (as if they had any right to say that, as if any of them had fetched her tea or gotten her an extra blanket from the linen closet when she was screeching the keep down for one and keeping Nanny up with her work).

"Aravis?"

"My world has a number of non-human people, so it's something I'm familiar with."

Now, how to explain Aravis. "Aravis is my roommate, and one of my dearest friends. I'd be pleased to introduce you to her - I'm in room 413, and you are welcome whenever you like. But she can be...standoffish at times. If she is, please, do not take it personally."

"I'm used to standoffish. Actually, I'm used to 'push-offish'. I can be unobtrusive."

He looked down at his paperwork.

"I'm one floor down, I'd figure. I haven't met my roomate yet, though."

"Do you know who your roommate is, yet?" he asked. "And what's your room number?"

Not that Karal would be coming by to check on him, and possibly to leave some clothes anonymously. Not at all.

Except he most definitely would be.

"316, it says. And my roomate is to be an Evey Hammond," he read, pointing to the paper and the words that said just that. "Do you think that will be a boy or a girl?"

"Evey is most likely a girl's name," he said after a moment's thought. "That's something I found very odd, that they place girls and boys together, but, like all else that is strange here, it feels normal after awhile."

He shrugged.

"I used to sleep in whatever room would have me. And usually that meant Nor. It's not that odd."

"Nor?"

"My--"

Sister.

"Friend. A childhood friend."

Something in the way he said it made Karal reluctant to ask further. "That's good. It's one more thing you won't have to get used to."

"I guess I had to have something that was normal to me."

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

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