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

[mouthy-merc.livejournal.com]

The weather was nice, the school wasn't currently under attack from forces not of this universe and they were still in Iceland. Oh yeah, it was day one of the rest of the newbies' lives.

Welcome to fandom, kiddos. Try not to trip over left over sombreros from Thursday!


[Please wait for 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.]

Comments

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I kind of thought the same, but I guess the cops back home didn't agree."

Jim might have been bitchfacing. Just a little.

"I don't know what they're going to do with themselves, now that they don't have some fifteen year-old kid on a surfer to chase around mining equipment all day."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

Peter had to work very hard not to blink. He wondered briefly if this kid was on drugs. It'd go with the hippie look.

"Ah, so you're a 'junior offender'," he said, sympathetically, as he mentally decreased Jim's stock by a few hundred points. "From a mining town...?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Mining planet," Jim corrected, shrugging and working the bitchface away as best as he was able. "Montressor is one of those places that people only know as the first port you'll see for ages, the last you'll see for just about forever after that, and only worth stopping at if you need to refuel or something."

So, really, it was kind of like the convenient gas station, situated out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There was a spaceport. It was in orbit. Nobody sane ever actually touched down on the planet proper, though.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

...'planet'.

Oh, this was just working out swell: his roommate was a junior offender with an obvious drug problem from the middle of nowhere. Thank you, Father, for working so hard to ensure I will never be able to run for office.

Then again, maybe if he figured out a way to rehabilitate the druggie, then by the time he revealed himself as being Locke, the press might spin it differently. 'See? He is as reasonable and caring in real life as he is on the nets!'

"Planet," Peter repeated, working hard not to let any dubiousness show through. "Of course. Well, at least then you'll be an old hand at this 'stuck at a camp in the middle of nowhere' business."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"I guess," Jim sighed, shrugging and hitching his bag up over his shoulder again. "You can probably tell how thrilled I am about that."

At least, if his big sibling was right about anything, the cops around here couldn't fly in order to catch him if he wanted to go surfing around restricted areas.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"Parents," Peter said again, shaking his head heavily. "Even when they're trying to do you a favor, they manage to muck it up. It's so tragic."

He was mentally going through ways he could spin Jim's drug habit to his benefit.

"But I guess we'll find a way to make the most of it." For now, he'd try to ingratiate himself with Jim so he'd be able to determine a good strategy to either push him onto a useful path-- or get him kicked out of the camp. "This place doesn't look like it's all that full-up on camp supervisors or anything."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"No, I guess it doesn't," Jim agreed, allowing the faintest trace of a smirk to sneak onto his face. "What do you suppose people do for fun around this place, anyhow?"

He kind of wasn't from around here. He had no clue.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"It's a summer camp," Peter said, allowing himself a little eyeroll that was about the most honest thing he'd openly produced in this conversation thusfar. "Probably organised nature hikes or wholesome dips in the pool or campfire songs, God forbid."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"... Yippee." See, Jim could totally manage an eyeroll to match. "If it's anything like that, we'll see how many workshops I have to skip before they decide to ship me back home, then."

The pool thing didn't sound too bad. But there was no way anybody was getting Jim to sing. Ever. Not a chance.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

Ah, see, if he was lucky, maybe Jim would get himself drummed out, and Peter could say, later, 'Oh, him, well, I barely knew him-- such a shame about the drug conviction, I don't know where he went wrong, but there was always something off about him. Those poor parents...'

"I'm right there with you," Peter said, pulling a face.

He was anything but.

He was, however, also mentally composing a seething rant to Valentine at this point, which was soothing.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Jim's workshops were going to be awesome, and the island didn't suck as badly as he was fearing it was going to. Sorry, Peter. You were stuck with him for a while, yet.

"Yeah?" Jim tried a slightly sympathetic smile on for size. "What kind of home did you leave behind?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

Oh, don't worry. Peter had at least five different scenarios running in his head now, and he could work all of them in his favor. It was the chief Wiggin family talent, right after manipulation and creepy attachment to one's siblings.

"My parents don't care at all," Peter whined. "They like my younger brother and my sister much better. They put me here to get me out of the way for the summer."

Hey, why use lies when it seemed like the truth could work? "It's ridiculous. I'm already a straight-A student back home."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"That's... pretty rough," Jim decided, nodding a bit. He was actually failing at school, in a pretty bad way. But that was mostly because the material they were covering back home was boring as hell. He knew all that stuff already, so why should he bother wasting all of his time in those classes, anyhow? "But at least it's just a summer, right? Summer camp grades can't possibly matter all that much."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"It's not the grades, but the wasted time," Peter said, "I can think of a whole lot of better things I could be doing right now."

Seriously, never straight up lie if you don't have to.

(Also, if Peter had known about the failing, he'd be even more underwhelmed. He was bored to hell and back by the curriculum, but he used that to manipulate his parents into getting him a whole host of stuff he needed to 'keep him busy and distracted and challenged'. Through Val, of course.)

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?" And now Jim was curious. Congratulations, Peter. "Any of it that can be done around here, at least?"

Because... Seriously. Little island. On a planet that was apparently surrounded by a complete lack of atmosphere. There was no escape from the boredom. Ever.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"Oh please, we're not even near a major city," Peter complained. "I think they're trying to make us die of boredom."

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Well, speak for yourself," Jim replied after a moment taken to glance around. "I think this is the most people I've seen in one place... pretty much ever. Even if the summer camp thing is stupid, at least there are people here. Maybe some of them will even be interesting?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

Right. Recalculate and continue on. Peter followed his gaze. "They're as stuck here as we are," he agreed. "Maybe a bunch of us can cook something up."

And then once he'd determind whether any of them were worth his time, he could sneak back and start typing out the Locke essay that was due tomorrow.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, maybe," Jim decided. "If nothing else, I guess, it wouldn't hurt to get a look around the island before the workshops start on Monday. If there are any places in town that are worth hanging around, that would be nice to know."

Jim was going to get a kick out of the arcade. All full of two-dimensional screens with their LCD displays. Aww.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"We can both tackle one half of the island," Peter posited. "Take a swing around, see if there's anything worth phoning back about, then meet up at the room."

He was not yet aware that he was going to be spending most of today getting his brain horribly broken.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"We could do that," Jim noted, "except I don't actually have anything to call in on."

Communication devices were not really the sort of thing that you got your hands on in spades, when you were the only child of a single mom who made a living by feeding squirming things to aliens.

"But it isn't like I can't get around pretty quick. I brought my solar surfer with me when I came here, so I can get around fast enough to just double back to check on you now and then." He nodded over to the tree that he'd propped the surfboard-like thing up against.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

"I meant meet up back at the room. Phoning it back is just an expression."

He was sounding perfectly friendly about that! With only the slightest little hint of condescencion. It was teensy. "You think this island has big enough waves for surfing?"

This was going to be a long summer, if he didn't get Jim kicked out.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"Uh... waves?" Jim ran a hand through his hair, and then shook his head a little. "I guess, maybe, if there's a storm or something. I mean, we're in the middle of a lake. If you're going to surf on water, you probably want an ocean for that," Jim pointed out, sensibly. "The only water I really surf on is that stuff, up there."

He jammed a thumb up toward the sky. Clouds.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[lockestheway]

Despite himself, Peter had to follow the general trajectory of Jim's thumb up for a moment, just to check if there was something he'd missed.

"Right," he said, "I guess that's some fad I've missed."

You were just lucky he was from THE FUTURE, Jim.

Re: Meet Your Roommate (Summer 2011)

[answer2bheard.livejournal.com]

"You don't believe me?" Oh, there was a note of something verging on smugness in Jim's voice at that. Maybe amusement? Some mix of the two. "Wow, I thought maybe this place was weird when we got onto a vehicle with wheels, but I didn't think people here hadn't ever heard of solar surfing before."

It was kind of cute how they couldn't just casually hop on a board to fly around here. If... you know. Primitive.