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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Behold! More tables and chairs, away from all the informational stuff! Enjoy the food!

[OCD is up! This is the FIRST post for general mingling. Please use this post first, if your browser can handle the comment load. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are here and there is more room for mingling here.]

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Teddy would just say that heroes helped people. Or were supposed to, anyway...

"I can do other things with it too, but, um... It's a new outfit."

Ender looked away from Teddy's hand. Making yourself go green, like a frog. It was almost funny. "So what else can you do?"

"Look like other people," Teddy replied, looking away and shifting. "I'm also pretty strong."

'Pretty strong'. It didn't seem like that was all there was to it-- and it seemed to make the other boy uncomfortable.

So he dropped the subject. He didn't want to be the one who pressed and squeezed out the information; if it was up to him, he wouldn't need it. "I'm Ender," he said instead, offering a hand. "I'm not as strong, so don't break my hand."

Teddy laughed and shifted back, taking his hand. "Teddy. I can control it pretty well so you shouldn't worry too much."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said, shaking it a little while before letting go. Teddy reminded him of Carn Carby: and like Carn, he let the boy find a spot on his list of people who could be considered human beings. "People turn into animals here?"

He hadn't forgotten about that.

"Sometimes," Teddy replied. "But it usually only lasts a week at the most."

From his experience.

That one went into the file purely due to the ridiculousness of the idea. He'd seen a lot of ridiculous things. He'd have to wait and see if this one was true or not.

"Anything else I need to know about the weirdness?"

"Uh... has anyone warned you about gremlins?"

"Like the myth?"

"Well... they're kinda real here."

Moving islands, animal people and gremlins. He studied Teddy. He was too familiar with lies, and these didn't seem like it-- which meant either Teddy was crazy or the island was.

He wondered what Graff would think of that, pictured his face, and laughed a little.

"They are!" Teddy said, mistaking the laugh. "Just avoid them if you see anything small and green and toothy. Bites make people act crazy."

That's okay, he wanted to say, I'm not laughing at them, I'm laughing at something funnier.

Ender stuck his hands in his pockets. "Crazier than they already are?"

"Crazier," Teddy confirmed. "Oh! And there's a radio at the end of every night to let people know what happened during the day."

A beat.

"Uh, try not to listen to it too closely. Sometimes they embellish the facts."

So they'd be following his tracks closely here, then. It was nothing more than the usual; they always followed him, and at least now maybe he'd know a little bit about what they saw.

Ender decided to listen to the radio closely, from now on. To know what the people thought, what they said about things. "They make your head sound big?"

"..huh?"

"On the radio," he clarified. "I was making a joke."

"Oh!" Teddy ducked his head. "Sometimes. They also make things sound worse than they are. Like people are dating when they're not kinda stuff."

Dating? He didn't ask. "How do they know what happens?" he asked instead, because that was far more important. Eros had been small, with no way off except the IF base, and you could only go there with permission. It hadn't been hard to listen in, and he'd always known he was watched.

But the island was big, and it held fresh air. It would have to be bugs, or monitors, and Ender's hand came up of its own accord to reach for the monitor that hadn't been on his neck for years.

"Squirrels."

Oh, Fandom.

"Squirrels," Ender repeated.

"Trust me, it's just one of those things you get used to." A beat. "You might be able to bribe them with rum to not report on you."

Ender could get used to a lot of things. But 'squirrels' almost made him long for the quiet mechanical order of Eros-- where you knew they were listening, but at least they didn't have bushy tails.

"That's a useful tip," he said, "Why squirrels?"

"I have no clue," Teddy replied with a shrug. "Been like that since before I started here."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2008 - 2.0)

endsthegame - 2008-07-06 05:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2008 - 2.0)

notthehulk.livejournal.com - 2008-07-06 05:39 (UTC) - Expand

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