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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

More tables and chairs had been set up further out on the lawn, where there weren't as many trees, and so there wasn't as much shade either. Still, it was bound to be quieter over here than closer to the main area.

[OCD is up! Have at it! 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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I am," he agreed. He settled himself down on the grass next to her. "By which I can conclude that you aren't?"

"Nope," she said cheerfully, popping the 'p' for emphasis. "I'll have been here a year in fall, and it's the best damn school I've ever been to, so by the way welcome to Fandom. How'd you end up here, anyway?"

Best school she'd ever been to? That made it sound like she'd been to a lot. And also made the whole place sound a damn sight less intimidating.

"Well," he began hesitantly, "I used to attend the Watchers' Academy in England, but my father and I decided it'd be for the best if I were to spend some time away from home."

Well, not quite as many as she tended to make it sound like, but she'd been to a few schools, yeah. And now what Quinn had said about the British guy at the shuttle stop was clicking.

"Wait. The Watchers' Academy?" Kennedy turned to eye her phone suspiciously, like Constance was behind this somehow. "You're training to be a Watcher?"

"I was," Wes replied. "You're familiar with Watchers?" Well, that was a change.

"Mine's been a pain in my ass since I was six," Kennedy blurted out. But affectionately, really.

And her phone beeped with a new email alert. Case in point.

"...yeah, I didn't mention I was a Potential Slayer, did I?"

"Oh, you are!" Wes exclaimed. That was new. He thought about warning her that if she was a Potential Slayer she might want to stay away from him so he didn't corrupt her or make her hate him, but then he wouldn't have anyone to talk to, and that would be tragic. At least now he could be happy to have met someone from his own universe, and save the awkwardness for later.

"Who's your Watcher?" he couldn't help but ask. Even kicked out of the Council, he still remembered the names of his colleagues and superiors.

Oh, awkwardness. She tended to steamroll right on by things like that anyway. "Constance Aluko. What, do you guys all know each other or something?" Kennedy asked, honestly curious; Constance was always really vague about her colleagues. "God, this is kind of cool. I love not having to explain that whole deal to someone for once."

...because it was embarrassing, honestly. The whole 'but I might maybe be special someday!' thing.

"I believe I might have met her before," he said, trying to remember. The rest of what she said he wasn't so familiar with - yes, he'd had to come to terms with the fact that he might or might not be a real Watcher one day, but he'd never really left the Watchers' Academy enough to have to explain it to anyone else.

"Yes, it's similar for Watchers," he said finally. "Not all of them have the opportunity to actually assist a Slayer or even a Potential Slayer in the field. I was lucky enough to have a trial opportunity, just for a few months, early this spring, but I'll likely never have the opportunity to be a real Watcher."

Okay, he'd definitely never have the opportunity, but that didn't mean he still didn't entertain fantasies that he'd be so amazing here at Fandom that the Watchers' Academy would re-accept him for the following fall and put him directly in the field as a Watcher.

"Huh. Cool," Kennedy decided. By way of apology (sort of, as much as she ever really apologized) she added, "She's not really big on explaining that side of things to me. I'll have to mention that when I call her next time."

And wouldn't that be a fun conversation.

She leaned back on her hands and looked at him, quizzical. "Good assignment, bad assignment, kind of blah one?"

The assignment itself? "Good, I suppose," he ventured. "I was supposed to assist the two active Slayers in a trainee capacity. Then again, it culminated in an unmitigated disaster wherein one of the Slayers turned on her team and helped their local mayor try to destroy the Hellmouth."

He hoped that wouldn't make her, like, not want to be a Slayer now, or anything. ~~Not that it was very likely, 'cause, Kennedy.~~

"Oh, God," Kennedy said, her eyes widening. Hello, details that Constance had conveniently left out! "That sounds like last year's thing. You were there for that?"

No, Wesley, if the awed-bordering-on-almost-fangirly look on her face was any indication, it wasn't going to change her mind about that.

"That's kind of seriously awesome. This is me, jealous."

"Jealous?" he repeated. Of what? Of being kicked out of the Watchers' Academy and the Watchers' Council and being effectively shut down for entrance at any of the universities at which he'd once been near-guaranteed a slot? Or of being disgraced from his family and banished to Maryland, of all places.

"Good lord, why?"

"You were there, right?" Kennedy suddenly wondered if she'd misunderstood him somehow, but didn't think too much of it and plowed on ahead. "On the Hellmouth, I mean. Like, right in it. That's only like the one thing I really want."

And couldn't get her way on if she tried to throw money at it, which really sucked.

"Oh. Yes, I was on the Hellmouth," he said. "I was appointed as a trainee Watcher of the two Slayers based there, Buffy and Faith. But I doubt that you'd find it a particularly enjoyable place. In the two months I was there, I was taken captive twice, nearly killed three times and eventually dismissed from the Council."

...and you know, Constance's total spazout when she'd mentioned meeting Faith? Maybe kind of made sense now.

"Well," Kennedy said slowly, because this was going to take a while to wrap her brain around, "Hellmouth. Kinda the source of all badness, right? I know things get hairy there."

Yes. In theory, which was an entirely different thing from in practice.

"But I'd still want to be there, where it's all going down... god, dismissed? Ouch."

"Quite," Wesley agreed.

"So your goal is to be in the thick of things, then?" he asked. "Admirable."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]

Re: More General Mingling [Summer 2010-2]