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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

The benches in this section were a little further from the bonfire than the others. If people were sensible, they might want to keep all their clothes on over here, but Fandom, of course, has never been graced with an overabundance of sensible people.

[~~Please wait for OCD!~~ OCD is up! This is the SECOND post for general mingling. Use this post if your browser can't handle the comment load of the first mingling post. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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"No, I --" Tahiri trailed off, wincing. "There's really no easy way to explain what I am to you. Have you met Jaina or Ben yet?"

"I've met Jaina," Leia said, then added, "And Anakin. They've told me a lot of things I've found hard to believe."

She was getting better about it, but hearing the name from Leia made Tahiri flinch ever so slightly. "I'm . . . friends with Jaina," she said carefully. "We grew up together, sort of. So I've known you for about half my life."

It was a technicality, since Jaina's classes at the Academy hadn't coincided all that much with hers and Anakin's when they were younger, and it hadn't been until they were older that they actually spent any time together, but there was no way she was broaching that other topic.

"So we're not related?" Leia said, noting the flinch. Being mother to one from the future was difficult enough to grasp; wait 'til she found out there were three. And then one again.

"Not technically," Tahiri replied, and now was a good time to draw on her Jedi training to keep herself from broadcasting too much. Leia wasn't even confirmed as a full Knight in her time, but that didn't mean she didn't have latent Force abilities. "I'm pretty close, though. You're sort of the closest I have to family and . . . Force, this is weird."

"You're not the one who just found out she's mother to a fully grown daughter," Leia said wryly.

"No, but on my first day here I met someone who's a baby in my time," Tahiri countered. La la la not mentioning the Leia's nephew part and how she was dating him, la la la. "You're not the only one . . . from our galaxy, or at all around here."

"I've gathered that," Leia said. "So who else, and are they related to me like Jaina?"

Tahiri considered, then bit her lip and shook her head. "I think that's up to them to say, if they want to. It's all very complicated, and I don't want to make it worse."

"Is that any way to treat near family?" Leia said. "Keeping secrets?"

Oh, ow. She should have known. Leia always did know how to get to her, and Tahiri bit her lip, thinking her answer over.

What she finally came up with was, "Divulging other beings' secrets isn't any way to treat them either," but more hesitantly than she'd like.

"True," Leia conceded. "But I'm going to find out all these things eventually, right?"

"Eventually," Tahiri allowed. "But when the time's right."

Force, it was rough enough not being able to talk to people at home about what she knew from Jaina and Ben. This added a whole new level of awkward. She fidgeted uncomfortably and stammered, "Look, I -- I know a lot about what's going to happen, it's true. But you have actual family here, not whatever I am, and they should have the right to tell you first."

"They?" Leia repeated. "So Jaina isn't the only one related to me here?"

Oh. Stang.

"She has a cousin here, too," Tahiri half-mumbled. That could be vague, right? For all Leia knew, it could be someone related on Jaina's father's side, even though considering the massive pile of festering Hutt slime that was Thrackan Sal-Solo she felt guilty about even the vaguest implication.

"I don't have any brothers or sisters," Leia said. Except she knew she'd been adopted, so there could be a sibling she wasn't aware of. But why wouldn't her adoptive parents have mentioned that? It wasn't a younger sibling, because she knew her parents had died shortly after her birth.

YAY. This just kept getting more awkward. Someday Tahiri would learn to keep her mouth shut, but not today. Oh, no, not today. ~~Or yesterday. Whatever.~~

"You were adopted, you know," she pointed out probably unnecessarily, and oh, there was a possible distraction. She smiled slightly. "Like me."

"I know," Leia said. "My parents never hid that from me. My birth parents both died soon after I was born. If I had an older brother or sister, my parents would have told me." She was sure of it!

"My parents died when I was two," Tahiri replied. Going with the distraction, going with it, for however long it would work. "And I still haven't ruled out Fandom dumping some relative I didn't know about in my lap someday, so if I were you, I wouldn't either."

She was going to think about this conversation later, and want to die of mortification.

"Apparently not, since you just told me I have a niece or nephew here," Leia said. She felt a little guilty about pulling attitude on Tahiri, because the girl was obviously uncomfortable, but she wanted answers. "Don't I deserve to know who my relatives are? What if I accidentally dated one or something?"

Tahiri laughed, uneasily, but it broke a little of the tension. Really, she ought to have known she'd never manage to outwit Leia.

Also, UM.

"I'm pretty sure that won't happen. If it did, you'd probably be hearing from me or Jaina or Ben really quick."

"Ben?" Leia said, pouncing on the name triumphantly.

Tahiri ran through various expletives in every language she knew (including some colorful Corellian ones she'd picked up when Han thought she wasn't listening, and oh, hello there even more of a headache).

"Yeah, Ben. Jaina's cousin . . . also my boyfriend." After I got over losing your son and I can't tell you about that but please, please don't kill me?

Ben. Her nephew. She'd have to track him down and find out who his parents were.

She gentled her approach, smiling at Tahiri. "So that really does make you family," she said.

Doubly so, if only Leia knew. Oooooh, convoluted.

Tahiri gave her a shaky smile in return. "I'd like to think so," she said quietly. "The you I know certainly treats me like it."

Re: More General Mingling [Spring 2010]

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Re: More General Mingling [Spring 2010]

weetuskenraider - 2010-01-04 02:08 (UTC) - Expand

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