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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Once people got through their introductions and initial brain breaking, some of them would surely want to sit down. Luckily, there were plenty of tables and chairs set up across the lawn, some in the shade, some out in the open, some close to the buffet, and some in as much of a shadowy corner as one could get in an outdoor space with no actual walls. It was all part of the Fandom experience, really.

[OCD is up! 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!]

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"Hey, Ryan," Bruce said, making his way over. "Congratulations. You're officially no longer one of the new kids."

"I'm a bit surprised I've survived so far!" said Ryan, laughing. "For a while there, I was sure that I wouldn't be returning for the fall, but this place isn't so bad after all."

"Once you get past the initial strangeness of pony teachers and gremlins, it's actually a good place to learn," Bruce said. "I'm sorry I haven't checked in more regularly. It's been a busy summer."

"It went by really quickly. I almost wondered if this island could speed up time along with traveling from place to place," said Ryan.

"Sometimes it falls out of sync with other dimensions, so, yes, it can play with time," Bruce said. "One of my friends went to her home, was only gone for a few weeks, and was several years older when she returned."

"But I think this case was more 'time flies when you're having fun. Or being terrified.'"

"Out of sync? Maybe that explains why I haven't heard anything from my parents yet. I just assumed that they didn't want to feel guilty about leaving me behind," said Ryan, thinking.

"Both are possible," Bruce said. "It might be worth a call just to see."

"I'll give it a try, but it might depend on whether they've settled in a place that has phone service," said Ryan. "My parents had said something about going to help refugees in Africa, and they weren't very specific about which camp they were headed for."

"So you never really know when you'll actually be able to contact them?" Bruce asked.

"Pretty much. My mother said she would write once they got settled, but it seems that's taking a while," said Ryan. "Knowing my parents, if they can find a place that has no electricity, running water, telephones or postal service, they'd think it was perfect."

"What about you? Do you like that, too, or do you prefer modern amenities?" Bruce asked.

"There's something nice about getting away from it all, but I like being able to flip a switch to get lights," said Ryan. "I also like not being eaten alive by mosquitoes at night. I'm not really crazy about bugs."

"I can't blame you. They're annoying enough around here," Bruce said. "I can't imagine what they're like in the areas your parents work in."

Okay, he could. He'd done some research on them, but he still had a lot more study to go before he was an expert in that field.

"The worst was in El Salvador. I got bitten by something that the locals called an assassin bug. At first, it looked like just another mosquito bite, but then it started swelling. It got so bad that it looked like someone had inserted a baseball under my skin," said Ryan.

She was leaving out the part about how assassin bugs got their name because they transmitted a lethal parasite.

"And you came out of that okay?" Bruce asked. He wasn't overly familiar with assassin bugs, but animals didn't tend to get names like that without some justification.

Ryan winced. "More or less okay," she said. "It left my immune system a bit weaker so I have to be careful to avoid infections."

There was actually a lot more to it, but Ryan just wasn't ready to share those details yet.

"That's the other nice thing about Fandom. The infections you're likely to get here are just the kind that turn you into a monster," Bruce said.

"Yeah, that was really... interesting," said Ryan. "I helped out at the clinic, so I got a pretty good look at how it affected victims. I'd never seen anything like that, but I was impressed with how well the rest of clinic staff handled things."

"And now you're better prepared in the unlikely chance that you and your parents come across an alien infection in the future," Bruce pointed out. "Very unlikely."

"I'm fairly certain that the jungles and rain forests of this planet have things that almost look alien if you go searching for it," said Ryan. "Strange rocks are now at the top of my list for things to watch out for."

"Good call. It's nice to know you learn from the mistakes of others," Bruce said.

"Why make mistakes when others can make them for you?" asked Ryan with a smirk.

"I knew there was a reason why I liked you as my little sibling," Bruce said.

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

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