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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

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!]

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Yeah, the way Karolina's lips twisted said about the same thing.

Also the fact that she actually said, "That sounds like a villain."

"Oh." Sparkle scrunched up his face a little bit at that. "I'm running out of Beatles songs, here, and I don't know if 'Hey, Jude' is really that much of a codename, you know?"

Or just, like, Hey.

"It could be amusing," Karolina pointed out. "In a confusing way, whenever anyone tried to call you by it. But also not very practical. But codenames can turn out to be pretty impractical anyway."

When people forgot to use them, or couldn't keep up with what others wanted to be called. Like the debate over Bruiser vs Princess Powerful.

"Mr. Moonlight is pretty much my last offer," Sparkle decided, because clearly it was so important to Karolina that he find himself a codename, sure. For use doing his... codename things.

Breaking and entering, most likely.

"It sounds way less like I'm going to smash people around with a hammer and all."

"Mr. Moonlight?" Karolina repeated. "Hmm. You know, I think I like that one. It seems like it could fit."

It reminded her a little of Sister Grimm, really.

"Definitely less hammer-y."

"Kind of even still a little Sparkly," he added, shooting her a grin. "And it's all... nocturnal and mysterious. Like Ratman. But way less sickeningly filthy rich, I mean."

He'd never be sickeningly filthy rich. Therefore, he'd never be Ratman. Alas.

Karolina kind of wanted to ask what counted as sinckeningly filthy rich, to be honest. She didn't, though. And it didn't really even show she was from a family with slightly more money than average.

Anymore, anyway.

"So," she said, "what do you intend to do with your new codename, Mr. Moonlight? Codename things?"

"Oh, definitely," Sparkle decided, putting one hand on his hip while the other... continued to hold his mountainous stack of Mexican food. "Slip through the streets under the cover of darkness, looking for injustice just begging to be thwarted."

Like, say, class disparity.

"And what kind of injustice are you expecting to find here?"

Okay, the east coast was kind of crawling with villains, as far as she could tell, but the same went for heroes. And what would any of them want with this place?

Good questions, all of them.

"Actually, I don't know. Maybe locked doors?"

A grave injustice, those were.

"... How are locked doors an injustice?"

Like she'd never broken in anywhere.

"Because they're locked in order to keep people like me out," Sparkle reasoned. "They're a clear indication that whoever owns that door thinks that there's some nasty undesirable less-than-human scum crawling around, and they can't bear the thought of getting their nice, clean carpets dirty with the invisible crap that obviously clings to the boots of every teenager, every unwanted nobody that ever lived. They're saying, 'hey, you, on the other side of the door. You're not good enough for us. You're dirty.'"

Well. The logic seemed sound to Sparkle, anyhow.

No so much to Karolina, though.

"... I just thought people liked their privacy."

"Sure, which is why they always throw those big parties, invitation only but they invite people they don't even know, couldn't care less about, doesn't matter because there's plenty in their wallets and that's real important, you know? You see it all the time. Nice neighbourhood, people brag they don't have to lock the doors or anything because it's so nice and safe, and then a bunch of teenagers move into this house down the road and they're just cockroaches, and nobody wants to risk getting cockroaches in their home so the next thing you know they're locking the doors and complaining about property values, and it's not enough that they keep you out of their home, they're trying to chase you out of yours too. Because you might track your mud all over their nice clean sidewalks."

Sparkle shoved the end of a churro into his mouth and talked while he chewed. He could multi-task that way.

"It's never about privacy. A closed door will give you privacy. A locked door is about us and them."

Karolina chewed on her lip and frowned lightly as she listened to him. A bunch of teenagers moving in somewhere rang a few bells, but for her it had been an abandanoned, caved in mansion, and no one had known they were there, so they'd been left alone.

You know, except for the LAPD.

"So," she said, slowly, once it seemed he'd finished. "Who tried to chase you out of your home?"

Come on, now. You didn't say all that if it didn't concern you personally.

"Different people," Sparkle replied with a shrug. "Doctors, lawyers, anyone with more money than middle-class. It's a government-funded home, even. All done up properly, paperwork and licences and guarantees that we get the best educations and clothes on our back and enough food that we don't need to steal anymore and that doesn't matter at all, because we're troubled."

Neighbourhood after neighbourhood. The faces always changed, but the story never did.

"Those are the people that nobody wants around, you know. The ones who wouldn't have anywhere else to go if the people who lock their doors get their way. These are good churros, you should try one."

"I already had a few," Karolina replied, still watching him, a little subdued and worrying her lip between her teeth. She picked at the other things on her plate, though. "Sorry about... all of that."

Not even remotely her fault, but, you know. They'd had money, and they'd lived more than comfortably in a big house in a good neighborhood. Even if that was all gone now, she could still manage to feel guilty by association.

"Why? You ever kick someone out who had nothing else left?"

Sparkle was withholding judgement for a moment. Possibly because this was a really good churro and he couldn't be bothered with holding a grudge. Possibly because he was more level-headed than he wanted to let on, and was actually sort of interested in seeing what Lucy in the Sky here had to say.

"No, but... My parents might've."

It was a very short while ago that she'd thought her parents were good, socially conscious people. Now she wasn't even entirely sure there had ever been any real charity involved in the Pride's pretend charity at all.

Plus, she was eventually going to wind up in another solar system just to atone for her parents' wrongdoings. She took these things a little hard.

"We weren't really middle class. I used to think I knew how they'd react to something like that 'cause they were supposed to be good people, but now I'm not so sure."

"A little hint about figuring people out," Sparkle shared. "All you really have to do is imagine the worst you could possibly ever see them doing. And then remind yourself that you're wrong, and it's probably way uglier than that."

Sparkle was an optimist, truly.

"But you're not your parents. So don't you ever, ever apologize for any shit that they might have done. It isn't on your head, not until you turn around and do the same damn thing."

"I know," Karolina said, but with some rather shaky conviction. She couldn't really help it. She was more like her parents than she was like anyone else in the world, and that was a heavy thing that made her worry.

Still, she tried for a little smile, not wanting to get morbid on such a nice day, with a near-stranger. "I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Good," Sparkle replied, and he seemed to be satisfied enough at that. Hell, he'd slipped back into a wide, pleasant smile, and was making a reach for more of those churros, there. "You don't seem too bad, yourself."

It probably had something to do with her codename. He had a soft spot for people who were unashamed to be total geeks about stuff like good old music.

And really, Karolina was unashamed to be a total geek about a lot of stuff. Give her a few days to settle in, and she was going to be in a 'ball of glee' mode at quite a few things on the island.

She chuckled a bit, and looked down. "Thanks," she said. "Neither do you."

"Oh yeah? Just wait until you get to know me, Lucy in the Sky," Sparkle replied, still grinning. "There won't ever be a dull moment."

Karolina just nodded at that. And maybe grinned back at him a little, too.

"Well. Good!"

Beautiful friendship forming right there, for sure.

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

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