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

It might have been the start of the fall semester, but it was definitely still summer in Fandom. The sun was shining and the temperature was already starting to get high, even as the NPC crew set things up for the day.

Luckily, the school knew how to take care of folks on days like today. Beneath the blue and gold streamers and balloons, tables had been set up with cold drinks and food, and an entire section devoted to offering up different ~~moddable~~ ice cream flavors. As always, there was a stack of nametags set down next two signs: one listing the Big Sibling/Little Sibling pairings, and one listing rooms and roommates for the new students.

With everything set up and the crew out of the way, it was time for the picnic to begin!

[~~Please wait for OCD!~~ The 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. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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"No," he admitted. "I didn't want to take any away from the tray, just in case there were lots of new people..."

And besides, he had a whole pocket full of Oreos that he kept forgetting about! Oreos!

"Perhaps you should try one." Just so you can tell the horror.

Zack gave Maladicta a kind of curious sort of look, at that.

"You think so?"

But she'd called them poison! Now he was confused!

"Just a little bit," she warned. There was no way she was dragging him to the clinic.

That's what phoenix downs were for!

"Well, okay," Zack replied, shrugging and reaching for a cookie.

... The next few moments and the expression that followed could only be described as 'brain-breaking horror. And possibly a good deal of spitting on the ground, and trying not to make horrible gagging noises.

Oh, the truth was a painful thing.

Maladicta gave him a helpful pat on the arm. "Buy them from now on."

"Yeah, no kidding!"

Oh, that was nasty. Maybe they'd used too much mustard...

"That taste is never going to leave."

"I'm sure there's a mint around here somewhere..."

"You'd be pretty much my hero forever if you could find one," Zack informed her, trying to keep from flailing too incredibly much, because- and he had to spit again, here- ew. "Man, this is why I don't cook."

And why the dishes at Fina had never let him try.

And who could resist being a hero forever?

Maladicta wandered away, leaving him to his pain for a few minutes as she hunted down what promised to be mint flavoured. Gum. Right.

"I'm not really sure what this is."

Zack didn't care what it was. He'd lick a battery before he'd eat another one of those cookies, and it probably showed clearly in the grabby-hands he was giving, there.

"It's good enough! It's good enough!"

Pressing it into his hand, Maladicta kindly kept her snickering to a minimum. "A lesson well learned?"

And the gum went right into his mouth! Ah, relief.

"And how. And thank you, by the way." He gave her a sheepish smile. "I'm Zack."

"Maladicta," she replied with a grin. "A pleasure to really meet you."

"I try to be pretty approachable," Zack said, laughing a little and shrugging. The gum was making things way better right now. "But meetings can be a little hectic, making certain people are getting the hang of things. We get as many people with experience there as we do amateurs, after all."

"Amateurs can be just as useful," Maladicta pointed out. "They tend to approach things from a different angle."

"Oh, I don't have anything against them," Zack amended. "They seem like they're trying harder, you know? So sometimes they see things that I might take for granted. But I don't want them pushing too hard with a weapon they can't handle, or anything like that."

"That's where a good commander comes into play."

That got a crooked little grin out of Zack.

"Kennedy and I aren't doing a good job?"

He would have said 'and Jak,' but they were kind of down a Jak, now.

"I think, I see things in a more military manner these days."

Zack considered that, tilting his head at Maladicta thoughtfully.

"Well, what would you do?"

"I think an order of authority might help keep people from getting hurt. If they know who is in charge, they know whose job it is to keep them safe."

Zack blinked a little at that.

"But isn't that us? I mean, Kennedy and I?"

"There are, but who is in charge of who? Where is the chain of command?"

"Well, we're sort of..." Zack blinked. That was a good question. "Equals, I guess. I mean, I have seniority or something, maybe? But she's got just as much say in the whole thing as I do."