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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

Despite the fact that they were still in Antarctica, the weather for the picnic was beautiful. It was sunny, warm, and clear enough to see many of the icebergs circling the island from the school's location. If people were still cold, there was more warm food than usual out on the tables, and hot drinks were being kept well-stocked.

Along with the tables and chairs near the food, there was a table of nametags, and two signs: one listing the Big Sibling/Little Sibling pairings, and one listing rooms and roommates for the new students.

It was time for the picnic to begin!

[OCD is up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for 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.]

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"Well, yes," Ronan said, a little -- but only a little -- put off by the tone. "Let me rephrase, then: I believe I'm the person assigned to you by the school to help you acclimate, given the title of 'big brother' in hopes of encouraging some form of bonding. Better?"

"That's more like it, Irish," said Katchoo, on whom the accent had not been lost. "Just so you know, though, I don't need hand-holding."

"I didn't figure you would," he replied, smiling a bit at the nickname. He wondered if it was going to spread. "I think it's more for... well, Fandom is rather a bit different than you might expect."

"Because there's icebergs floating around what's supposedly Virginia," Katchoo grunted. "I kind of wondered what kind of boarding school would take me."

"We're near Antarctica, right now, actually. The school's been traveling somewhere new every couple of weeks all summer so far." Ronan smiled. "And... well, not everyone here is from Earth. And even those who are don't all seem to be from the same Earth. Mine's different, I know -- no one else has wizards where they come from. Not like I am, anyway."

Better to get it all out there, now. Besides, she seemed like she could handle it.

Cue more staring from Katchoo. She'd had some clients -- and heard stories from Emma and the others -- who'd had weird roleplay fantasies before, but this was new.

"Wizard? Is that code for something?"

Ronan grinned. "Not unless your world doesn't use 'wizard' to mean 'person who can do magic'. I... well, I can do magic. My world has it. A few others do, too, or some other funky stuff like superheroes. Here, watch-" He called to mind a rather familiar spell, and ran his hand down one sleeve; as it passed, glitter appeared in its wake. "See?"

"Uh huh," Katchoo said, putting maybe a bit too much effort into sounding unimpressed. "Learn that one in Vegas maybe?"

Ronan laughed. "Not quite, no," he said. "Here, how about this?" Another spell laid out in his head, another one -- perhaps not quite so familiar, really -- and this one learned from friends on this side of the Atlantic. ... Well, the side of the Atlantic where Fandom usually was. A quick word aloud to finish the spell, and with a subtle pop of imploding air, Ronan was gone.

Only to return a few seconds later, holding out a gray, dusty rock. "For you," he said, smirking, "from the moon."

There were a dozen things Katchoo could have said right about then, considering she'd never seen that kind of sleight-of-hand trick pulled off by anyone.

What came out of her mouth was, "What the hell did you just say?"

Ronan laughed, still holding out the rock. "It was the end of a spell," he explained. "It's the Speech. It's -- well, where I come from, at least -- it's the language with which the One spoke the universe into being. If you know it, and have the power to back it, you can do wizardry with it -- tell the universe to do something, and it does it."

Katchoo snorted. "Yeah, if I could tell the universe to do something and it just did it, I wouldn't be here now."

She did take the rock, though, and turned it over gingerly in her hands. It did look a lot like the moon rock she'd seen in the Puncture High science classroom . . .

"It's... not all fun and games," Ronan said, one hand coming up, almost unconsciously, to his chest. "But there are perks. Like," and he nodded to the moon rock, "traveling to the moon."

"It's like I fell asleep on the plane and woke up in a comic book," Katchoo muttered. "This is unreal."

"I can see how you might feel that way," Ronan said, laughing a little. "I'm lucky -- I came here from a world with ambulatory Christmas trees. ... One of whom is a friend of mine."

Really, she was just going to smile and nod at all of these things, only without the smiling.

"And I thought my life was crazy before." It was more than she wanted to say, though, and she immediately clammed up again.

Ronan nodded. "You'll get used to it," he assured her. "Well. You'll get used to wondering how you ever thought you'd gotten used to it."

Somehow that wasn't that reassuring -- and yet it kind of was.

"So about par for the course then," Katchoo said offhandedly.

"Pretty much, yeah," Ronan replied. "I think you'll have no trouble adjusting. But if you need anything, I'm in room 507."

"Heh," Katchoo said, not that much mirth in the expression. "I'm in 505, turns out. With some crazy costumed nerd who thinks he's a robot."

She was going to cling to that mistaken belief for just a little while longer.

"Yeah?" Ronan asked. "Sure he's not actually a robot? I don't think we've had any before, but I've only been here and year ~~and, hey, even Anders doesn't know about himself yet~~."

"I'm trying to hold on to the little sanity I have," Katchoo replied; sometimes, if she was lucky, it was a response that made people leave her alone, though she wasn't so sure how well it would work right now. "Let me have my version."

"Sanity," Ronan said, quite firmly, "at this school, is rather distinctly overrated."

"You're not helping," Katchoo said, looking at him like he'd just kicked a puppy.

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

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