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

[bigdamnprincipal]

Some extra tables had been set up in the shade of the trees on the lawn, away from the buffet in spots where it might be less crowded and much quieter. Well, aside from the mariachi band, but at least their music was entertaining? They might even take requests!

[OCD is up, have at it! This is the FIRST post for general mingling. Please use this post first, if your browser can handle the comment load. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are all here and there's more room for mingling here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

Comments

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra had seen a couple of people handle it well today, but this guy seemed like he might need reassurance, so she headed over to him to let him know, "Hey, I just want to let you know, the pink pony's totally real, the rest of us see her, too. You're not going crazy."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"That is- somewhat reassuring, I suppose," Ulrik said after a moment's consideration. "The not going crazy part. That such a creature exists... I'm not entirely sure what to make of that."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"She's from some other...I don't know, universe," Petra explained. "Where everybody is I guess a technicolor talking pony." What she'd gotten from Pinkie that time she helped her type a letter was kind of vague. "She's actually really nice? She just doesn't so much get that meeting her makes most people assume they're really high."

She smiled at him and added, "Hi, I'm Petra West. Welcome to Fandom High."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Another universe," Ulrik echoed, taking a deep breath. "This continues to get stranger. It's a pleasure to meet you, Petra, I am Ulrik- um, Oldenburg." There was just the slightest hesitation with the surname there, borne of the fact that he didn't generally use one.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"Pleased to meet you, Ulrik um Oldenburg," Petra teased. "Where are you from? I'm not great with accents," she admitted. "And you get used to it, you know? I mean, no, there's always something new, but the initial 'everything is nuts' curve, you get over that and learn to just sort of roll with it. I promise."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Hillerød," he told her. "That's in Denmark," he added after a moment. "That sounds... a lot like home, actually, although none of our ponies have yet to talk."

Something for which he was thankful, as he did not want to see the sort of trouble Kristina and a talking pony could get in to.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"Are they pink, though?" Petra had to ask. "Because if they are my inner six-year-old and I might have to pay a visit. And I'm from Rhode Island. Do you know where that is? I swear I'm not trying to be patronizing," she added quickly, "I just don't assume everyone knows American geography. Even other Americans." Pageants were a depressing crash course in having to explain you didn't live on an actual island.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"They're not pink," Ulrik informed her solemnly, "I am sorry to disappoint. I've seen Rhode Island on a map?" he offered. "Although I'm not entirely sure it exists where I'm from," he had to admit.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"Well, if it's on the maps, it probably exists," Petra reasoned, trying not to let her state pride be insulted here. "It's just tiny."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"It's not that," Ulrik shook his head. "It's- in what year was your Rhode Island founded?"

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"Colony in 1636, statehood in 1790," Petra said automatically. She had to learn this shit for pageants, okay? "Why do you..." Then she looked at his clothes and said, "Oh."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Yes, 'Oh' is about right," he nodded. "It was 1636 when I boarded the train that took me here, as a matter of fact." Yes, a train approximately a hundred and sixty years before they were really a thing. "And so I must regretfully inform you that there's a very real possibility that Rhode Island may never exist in the world I came from."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra gave him a look that said she suspected strongly the newbie was trying to screw with her, and informed him, "I'm not actually stupid. They didn't have trains in the 1600s."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps not in your timeline," Ulrik allowed. "But in mine, about five years ago, an American town named Grantville, originally from the year 2000, found itself in the middle of Thuringia. Which is a region in what you'd call Germany, up-time."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"And within five years you've got trains all over," Petra said, completely dubious now.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Of course not all over," Ulrik shook his head. "But within the USE, yes, there are a couple rail lines. The Americans apparently felt rapid transportation a priority."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"What the hell is the USE?" And why should the Americans' priorities mean anything to everybody else...? Petra was frankly amazed they hadn't all been burned at the stake as witches within a month.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Oh, there were certainly some who'd had that initial reaction. By now, though, most of Europe had reached the conclusion that 'god works in mysterious ways'. "The United States of Europe. It won't exist where you're from, I know."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"We have the European Union?" Which definitely hadn't felt the need to name itself after the USA. "But it's not like a country or anything, just, I don't know." She wasn't clear on all that. "An alliance?" She shook her head. "Are you--do you seriously still expect me to buy all this? I mean, it's a smart way to prank someone on America-centrism or whatever that's called, but I'm not buying it at all." Because she was the sort of person who didn't automatically assume Europeans knew American geography, yes.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Well, the USE had been named by Americans. And then given legitimacy by the king of Sweden, who'd subsequently declared himself Emperor of said new nation. As you do.

"You just informed me that the talking pink pony is, in fact, real, and you're having trouble believing anything I say couldn't be anything but a prank?" Ulrik asked her, rummaging around in his pockets as he did so. Pulling out a small leather pouch, he spilled out a number of coins as well as a bundle of bills. The coins were Danish rigsdalar, imprinted with his father's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IV_of_Denmark) face. And the bills... the bills were USE dollars, remarkably similar in design to their US counterparts, only in lieu of any presidents there was Gustav Adolph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Adolph). "I know it must seem quite odd, but like I said, I am accustomed to something of an 'everything is nuts' curve, as you put it."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"Well, 'five years ago we were medieval--Renaissance? Enlightenment? I get my historical periods mixed up--Europe and now no one blinks at trains and we have a totally different system of government named after the United States?' Come on. You have to admit that sounds pretty improbable. I'm not an expert but infrastructure takes, like, time? I mean it takes years and years to build like a rail line now, and we already have all the mines with modern technology and factories and things," Petra pointed out. "And I just...I don't know, it kind of gives me the heebies that Europe renamed itself after America, and not just because America doesn't exist yet but because this idea that America thinks it's the center of the universe is a huge deal that pisses off a lot of people. Probably some people at this school. I mean, I think it's pretty gross myself. But I will give you that printing money for a prank would be above and beyond."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"It's not as if it's the entirety of Europe," Ulrik said. "Just- more or less the portion that would've one day become Germany. Before the Americans it was just a collection of city-states constantly being ravaged by one mercenary army or another. They protected their territory, and started taking in refugees from the surrounding area," he shrugged. "And for some strange reason," he said in a tone that belied that he didn't really think it strange at all, "the Germans were really rather enamored of the idea of a republican government."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

"'The United States of Europe' really did not make that clear. At all," Petra told him. "Why couldn't they just name it Germany if it's Germany?" And the part where the Americans were apparently the saviors of Europe was again with giving her the heebies, but this guy didn't get that or have the cultural context to get that, she guessed--to him the Americans were just the people who showed up and, like, completely changed everything and that was awesome.

Unfortunately, to Petra, the Americans, including herself, were frequently the people who showed up and changed everything and then it turned out to suck in new and unforeseen ways. And then the Corporation tried to kill you.

Especially because, "Yeah, that is really weird. That Europeans at that point would suddenly decide a republic sounded awesome. But you're saying it's what happened, so. Okay."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

"Because it's not Germany," Ulrik explained patiently. "At best, it was the Germanies. A bunch of city-states being ruled over by squabbling Princes." He raised an eyebrow at her. "The common people, the ones whose farms were routinely burned to the ground, their women raped, their men murdered, and their children abducted to join mercenary armies were, yes, of the opinion that a group of people who actively opposed such things, and had a system of government whose leaders were actually chosen by the people they ruled over, was in fact a good thing."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2012-1]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra raised her eyebrow right back at him and said, "Okay, we seem to be having two different conversations now? Because okay, I totally buy that that happened," even if she still thought five years was an awfully short time for change that massive, "because I don't think you made fake money for a prank," even though she could still see some European kid (probably Kenzi) showing up here and being all, 'Oh yes, the Americans came in my universe and showed us the error of our European ways and now everything is so much better thanks to America!' just to mess with the locals. Especially since some of them might buy it. Which was ultra depressing.

"And look, I totally get, like, people thinking that sounded great. It's just that, you know, according to my history lessons if some Americans hadn't showed up with superior technology and weaponry the aristocracy wouldn't have decided it sounded like a good idea or got overthrown because they didn't decide that for at least a couple hundred more years, and a lot of modern history is Americans showing up somewhere with superior technology and weapons and going, 'hey, let us show you the light, and did we mention we have bombs.' And it's frankly gross. So I mean, great if it's working for you, although I think you're a little blase about how the history those people came from is being completely written over--thanks so much for not giving a fuck that my state and by extension me might not ever exist, by the way--but the way you're saying it happened sounds like America being imperialists again for someone else's own good, when they didn't know the way they were doing it sucked until America showed up to tell them. And name the place after themselves. Which feels gross to me. Again, great if it's working for you, I just don't like imperialism, I think it sucks. Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick here, I don't know, but, the United States of Europe?"

She was thinking about the island again, she realized, how the Corporation had taken over and shipped Tane's people out because they weren't using the place the way they thought it should be used, and then they'd completely wrecked it and, you know, turned it into a death trap.