fandomhigh | 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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"There are a fair number of telepaths and empaths here," Ben said. "I can introduce to a few later? It might make you feel more at home."

"I would like that." Even if Cally had her doubts that anything would make her feel at home that wasn't getting home, she would like to meet them. "I've never met a telepath not of my own race."

"There are some teachers who are also telepaths," he added.

"That," Cally said with a small smile, "I am far more familiar with." It was difficult to keep your disagreement with what you were being taught to yourself when the teacher was right there in your head.

Ben smiled back. "Me too," he said. "It's really hard to argue with your parents when they already know what you're thinking."

"I recall, yes." With more fondness than for certain teachers. "Mine are gone, a few years ago now; it's just my sister and me, but we definitely kept life interesting for them when we were small."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ben said sincerely. "My mother died a few years ago, too."

"I am sorry for that as well." He.. probably didn't want to hear about Auronar conceptions of the afterlife and how no mind can ever truly stop existing; she kept those to herself, though at the moment they gave her an odd sort of comfort.

"What I don't understand--" Cally stopped and offered another dry smile. "One of the many things that I don't understand, I should say -- is how I was expected here, when I arrived by accident."

"I'm not sure I can shed much light on that," Ben admitted. "Sometimes the people who run the school know more than we do."

If this place truly was a nexus between realities -- and it certainly didn't seem like any Earth she'd heard of, nor did Cally sense any untruth from Ben -- she supposed that was possible.

"Entities who could manage this place must have a great deal of knowledge at their disposal. Perhaps if they knew I was coming, they'll be able to help me contact my home, then."

"And if they can't, I'm sure there's a good reason for it," Ben hedged, thinking of how Jaina hadn't been able to return to Fandom for five years.

A good reason? That was an odd way to phrase it; if they couldn't, they couldn't, and ... Cally didn't know what she would do and was resolutely not thinking about that now, so she wasn't going to ask him what he meant.

"Let us hope that they can," she said with as much of that hope as she could muster. "Surely if there was a way here, there'll be a way back."

Edited 2010-08-30 00:47 (UTC)

Ben smiled at her. "And it's not such a bad place to find yourself, either," he said encouragingly.

It wasn't home, but.. "It's certainly preferable to where I was afraid I might find myself when my shuttle began to break up."

Ben winced sympathetically. "Been there. Here's a really good choice, considering that."

"Everyone's been very kind to me." Well. Perhaps 'warily tolerant' might apply more to the first few people she'd met, but under the circumstances, Cally was going to consider that a kindness. "You most of all; thank you for that."

"That's what I'm here for," Ben said with a smile. "I promise that there's no question to strange to ask me. I'm in room 204. What floor are you on?"

"The third, apparently. Three eleven; I'm sharing quarters with a boy called Nico."

"Another new student?" Ben guessed. "The name isn't familiar."

Cally nodded. "He was there at the... airport, as well."

"Are you okay with living with a boy?" Ben asked. "I know there are some cultural differences that be more difficult to overcome than others."

That question just made her blink at him. "Why wouldn't I be? I've shared plenty of dormitories with twenty students at a time, regardless of gender."

She and Zelda had only secured their own quarters together this year, in fact, on turning sixteen.

"That's a lot of students," Ben said with a little smile. "I prefer my room with just one person in it other than me. It gets really loud otherwise."

"Not when everyone's speaking in their heads," Cally answered. "But I prefer a few less, myself."

"That's a different kind of noise," Ben said, making a face. "You'll get a lot of babble here."

Re: Meet Your Big/Little Sibling [Fall 2010]

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