fandomhigh | Fandom High Graduation Ceremony, Class of 2012, Early Saturday Evening (Part 2)

Were you all enjoying your graduation, children? Ingvar certainly hoped you were. It was so much fun, after all! Though... it could be a little more fun, couldn't it? It felt as if something was missing somehow. Something to really make it... fun.

Ingvar knew what it was.

And so, while the graduates were still on and around the stage, the earth began to rumble. Large black clouds of smoke pushed out of Ingvar's volcano and into the air, obscuring the sky and the moon. Soon, the air was covered in a thick black blanket of darkness.

The tune of the rumbling shifted.

Around the stage, clear protective walls sprung up. This was not Fandom's first tango on graduation day, thank you. She knew how to take care of what was hers.

Unfortunately, Ingvar knew its mother well. Moments later, it began to rain: a thick downpour of familiar plastic poppets in varying levels of creepiness, but also nice, brown, fluffy ...red-eyed, sharp-clawed teddy bears. And leading the charge, teeth-first--

"DROP BEARS!"

[OCD is up! Have at it! Audience | Grads: Fight! | Grads: Hide! | Aftermath | OOC 1 | OOC 2]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So being a knight all these years counted for nothing?" he teased.

"Upon careful consideration, no," Tahiri said, and even managed to keep her expression completely solemn until the last word.

Ben reached out to tickle in retaliation. "Hey!"

"It doesn't count," Tahiri informed him between laughs, aiming a poke at his ribs, "because I didn't get to see you become a Knight."

Yes, she'd just made up that rule.

Ben burst out laughing. "You made that up!" he accused. "There wasn't a ceremony anyway. Dad just told me to build my lightsaber."

"It's better without a ceremony anyway, I think," Tahiri answered, a faint smirk her only acknowledgment that she had made that up. "That's a much more personal thing, whereas this is an excellent opportunity for all your friends to see you looking exceptionally silly on stage for a couple of hours."

"But then I got to beat up some teddy bears," Ben said, "and they weren't even Ewoks. Win for me."

Tahiri laughed. "Probably a good thing for you they weren't."

"I was already almost eaten once this month," Ben exaggerated, "so they were too late anyway."

Tahiri raised her eyebrows. "Only once? You're losing your touch, Ben."

"But they were terrifying."

And also bunnies. With little wiggly noses.

"'They,' he said," Tahiri said pointedly, "as if I already know exactly what they were."

"About this big," Ben said, demonstrating, "beady eyes...long ears...buck teeth."

Bunnies.

So Tahiri's mental image was a little closer to Master Ikrit at first. So what?

There was no holding back the snort of laughter when she realized what he meant.

"You almost got eaten by rabbits."

"They were really mean rabbits!"

"Obviously if they were trying to eat you they were," Tahiri replied. "And now you can add one more escape from hungry Skywalker-loving creatures to your list."

She paused. "Wow, better hope a gremlin doesn't stow away in your luggage when you go."

That was mean, Tahiri.

"I'll make Ender open them first, just in case," Ben decided. "It'll give me another five seconds to escape."

That's not nice, Ben.

"That's terrible, Ben," Tahiri mock-chided him. "Although he does seem much less of a draw for the gremlins."

"I think he could probably negotiate his way out of it," Ben said with a bit of fond pride.

"With you?" Tahiri asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh, most likely."

Ben blushed. "Shhhh."

Tahiri laughed. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

Because no one would ever guess, of course.

Ben, acting on impulse, leaned in to give her another squeeze.

"Thank you," he whispered, meaning it in an entirely different way. If Tahiri hadn't been so...her...about him and Ender, he would have lost something very precious to him.

After the place she'd been when she first came to Fandom and everything Ben had helped her figure out since then, she couldn't possibly have seen it any other way.

"More than welcome," Tahiri murmured, hugging him back. "I'll just have to come around and pester you every now and then while I can."

"You're always welcome," he replied. "Maybe I'll get you an invite to Ender's place on Naboo and we can really mess with the timeline."

Re: And then Fandom had enough...

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