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

Some parts of the East Coast might have been freaking out about a hurricane, but there was no such madness going on in Fandom. Sure, it was a little hot out, with the sun shining and not much breeze happening, but all the milk and toilet paper on the island was safe, and that was important, right? Besides, once the new folks started learning about their new home, there'd be more than enough freaking out to go around.

The usual main attraction had been set up first: a large buffet of food and drinks had been laid out next to all the information the new arrivals would need, and then the blue and gold tables and chairs had been arranged across the rest of the lawn. Everything was just about done when the shuttle arrived, and it was time for a picnic once again.

[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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"Okay, assuming you're that Lucrezia Borgia..." Mercy took a deep breath. "This is going to sound totally bizarre, but I swear it's true. You're about 500 years in the future and in a part of what you would call the New World."

Poor thing was going to have some big adjustments to make.

Lucrezia took a moment to stare at Mercy as if she was waiting for the other girl to take that sentence back. Or switch to Latin and begin babbling in tongues, or spontaneously catch on fire.

Any of those might have made more sense.

"But that is ridiculous," she said, in the sort of quick voice that hinted at a growing panic. "I am not in the future. I am me. I am myself. I went into the woods, and not into the future. I rode to Ostia. My family. I -- I shall never see them again?"

The weight of that was hitting her as a blow. Five ... hundred years? Mother, dead. Father, dead. Cesare, dead. All gone and forgotten in an instant.

Her vision was swimming, and she placed one hand on the table to steady herself.

Mercy quickly reached out to touch her on the shoulder. "No, no, don't worry. We have people here from all sorts of times and worlds. It's... a kind of magic. You can easily get home again through the portal, don't worry. I'm sorry, I should have found a better way to tell you."

Lucrezia steadied herself, cheeks flushing from her error.

"I will trust you, Mercy," she said firmly, "if you say that I will see Cesare again. I came here to escape my family, to some limited extent, but I did not seek such a permanent solution to the matter."

If Mercy had doubts about the name being coincidental, her brother's name would probably remove them.

"You have my apologies," she added, as the color returned to her face. "I did not mean to ... overreact in that manner."

"No, I'm sorry," Mercy said. "I didn't even think about you being afraid you wouldn't get home. My situation is... very different and not being able to get home isn't something I would have worried about right away."

"But I wouldn't lie to you. Fandom can take some getting used to, but it's a good place and I'll do everything I can to help you adjust. And you will see Cesare again."

"That's all I ask," Lucrezia said. It made her wonder for a moment that she would trade so much of her past to have Cesare, if he was the only thing she could hold on to. But he was the other half of her heart, in so many ways.

"So I am not in Ostia, nor am I anywhere near Rome," she said. "I am in this New World that Spain is set on colonizing. Are you one of those natives, then? I had thought your coloring to perhaps mean you were Moorish."

"I'm half Native American, yes," Mercy said with a smile. "Not Moorish at all, though it does sound amazingly exotic."

"We had a dear houseguest who was Moorish," she said, a sad smile flickering over her lips. "Some call them heathens, but I thought he was the most enchanting friend I had ever had."

She glanced at Mercy, thoughts moving from her deceased Moor to the very much living Native before her.

"You are from this land?" she said. "Spain has only now asked His Holiness's blessing on their conquests. Did that succeed? Do the natives now worship the Holy Mother Church, and has Spain's empire stretched across another ocean?"

Naivete, thy name is Lucrezia.

Mercy chuckled softly, her hand going once again to her necklace. "Yes and no. There are many Catholics, or at least Christians, here - we call it America by the way - but there are many other religions as well. Actually, freedom of religion is one of the founding principles of this country."

"I go to church every week, myself," she admitted. "I had a pretty strong religious upbringing."

Lucrezia reached for the other girl's necklace. "A lamb," she said, warmly. "How beautiful. I have a seahorse, myself. A gift from Giulia Farnese."

Back on the topic of religion -- which she only thought they had left -- Lucrezia added, "Papa wished to bless the conquest in the name of converting souls. But we allowed Marranos and Moors into Rome, without requesting they believe in the One True God."

Her faith in her family would be shaken further if she knew that all those Marranos paid for the privilege, and that finances had inspired her father's generosity.

That came as a bit of surprise to Mercy, but then it wasn't like she'd actually studied that time period much.

"That was very generous of him," she said. "So... what brings you to Fandom?"

Rodrigo Borgia was generally serving his own purposes, but that was another matter for another day.

"My brother received a letter," she said. "Educational opportunities, and alliances, for talented young scholars. Was any of that truthful?"

"You'll certainly get an education here," Mercy assured her, "Even if a lot of the courses are kind of non-standard. And there are people here from some of the most amazing places and times and worlds."

She shrugged. "You could certainly use what you learn here to your advantage back home, I'd imagine."

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

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