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

[mouthy-merc.livejournal.com]

There were plenty of large umbrellas set up for those who didn't enjoy a good pelting of various summer related materials. Because some people are weird like that.

There was also a splendid selection of food and beverages under a canopy to keep from ingesting suntan lotion. See? Your faculty thought of everything. Except how to make the island behave.

That you'll have to deal with.


[Please wait for the OCD is up! 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 here and there is more room for mingling here.]

Comments

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla had come back to the island from Naboo; Jono's Showcase was tomorrow and she'd sword that she'd attend. Getting to come to the last newbie picnic that most of her friends could attend was just an added bonus.

She'd been wandering around getting increasingly more melancholy when she'd spotted the newbie under the tree. Yeah, this was was definitely a newbie; she would have spotted the familiar face if he'd shown up last picnic. She wandered a bit closer, just to make sure he looked as similar as she thought he did...

"Kiss kiss," she said, sitting down on the grass beside him. "Hi, I'm Karla. Welcome to the island."

See? She was learning! She hadn't immediately started off with 'Why do you look like Jono?'

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

That question would have confused the hell out of Evan. Jono was on fire, weird girl. They didn't look anything alike!

"Thank you," he replied, blinking up at her as he closed his book, keeping his page marked with his thumb. "I'm Evan. Nice to meet you."

See, he was raised to be polite!

And yet...

"... Kiss kiss is just a greeting, right?"

He didn't really know this girl, was the thing...

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla laughed. "Absolutely," she assured him. "I honestly have no idea what I would do if I said that and everybody tried."

Well, either laugh or commit violence, depending on who 'everybody' was, but it seemed easier not to mention it.

"Besides, my heart belongs to another mutant," she said casually, waiting to see if he'd go for that bait. "So you're safe from me."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Yeah, the 'mutant' part was definitely an attention catcher, right there. Evan blinked a little at it, looking at her curiously.

"Are you a mutant, too?"

It kind of seemed like the next logical step. There weren't many non-mutants running around dating one of the handful that happened to be left, after all.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

And yet, there was Karla, shaking her head. "Nope! But I'm a witch-Queen from another world entirely, so I like to think that's close enough. I'm not exactly human, anyway, at least, not by the standards your world would set."

Okay, so he looked like Jono and was a mutant, she figured she could go for the next step: name-dropping. "That boyfriend I mentioned is Warren Worthington III, do you know him? And I'm good friends with Emma Frost and Jono Starsmore. They are different versions of the ones you might have heard of back home, but they're all here on the island."

She nearly added Bobby, too, but she knew how protective of his identity he was and didn't want to give it away.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

What, because he was a mutant, you were just going to assume he knew every other mutant out there, personally?

... Well, it wasn't a bad guess, seeing as he did actually know most of those names. And there weren't exactly many mutants out there. And all.

"I was classmates with Warren at my last school," Evan replied, looking at her curiously. "But he prefers to be called Angel, and I think he's way too old for you. Um. Unless maybe there's some time travel or something involved. I've already met a boy from some place called Westeros that I've never heard of, and a girl from February."

All of this seemed pretty par for the course, so far.

"Mr. Starsmore is one of our teachers, but Ms. Frost isn't affiliated with the school." A beat. "She did visit with Cyclops a few days ago, though?"

Look at all of that fancy name-dropping, right back at you!

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Actually, Karla was betting he'd at least heard most of those names from TV and the internet. The X-Men were fairly famous, after all, and Jono had been plastered all over the news for awhile. It wasn't so much to assume, nyah!

"Emma hangs out with Scott?" Pardon Karla for a moment while she snorted. Look, it was that or make a snarky comment about Warrens who dated below their age bracket. And the idea of Emma spending a great deal of time with Mr. Emo ManTears or Mr. Holier Than Thou (depending on the universe) was hilarious. "And what does Jono teach?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Mr. Holier Than Thou was extra holy, these days. He was very literally nothing too shy of being a god in his own right, and Emma was right there with him.

"I really don't know Mr. Summers or Ms. Frost all that well," Evan admitted, shrugging his shoulders awkwardly. "Headmaster Logan really doesn't like Mr. Summers. I've never actually met either of them." A beat. "But Mr. Starsmore teaches a few things. There's a Dealing With Physical Changes class that's his, I think."

Evan hadn't been in that one. Chamber kind of scared him, actually. He had this... this look in his eye when looking at Evan that he just couldn't put a finger on.

"And he made a tikka masala one time for lunch that was really good!"

It had been the first time Evan had ever eaten Indian food. And now he wanted more.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Headmaster Logan?" Karla was just going to stare at Evan like he was a little crazy now, yes. "...He wouldn't happen to be tall and showers frequently, would he?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

"Um... no? He's actually kind of short. And smells funny, like beer and cigars and... things I really don't want to think about," Evan decided. "I don't think I know any other people named Logan..."

Which helped to narrow it down, really, didn't it? The description, 'tall and showers' kind of fit a lot of people, thanks.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Okay, than I'm still confused," Karla mumbled, half to herself. "The Logan I've met a few times wasn't really the Headmastery sort. What with the quick temper and the angry and the 'rawr, you asked me to fetch water, I'm going to threaten you with claws' thing he's got going on."

Karla's relationships with Logans were special ones.

"I thought maybe you came from a world like my Warren's, where Logan is tall, clean, and sometimes prone to crying. Also, no, I'm not crazy, I took a picture to prove it." 'Pics or it didn't happen' was a valid response to that description of Logan.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Was that wide-eyed, baffled stare enough to convince you that Evan was still not completely convinced?

Because... What? Crybaby Logan?

Did. Not. Compute.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla called in her phone; it appeared in her hand from nowhere and she flipped it open and scrolled to her pics. "Here's the first one," she said, showing Evan a picture of Logan in the pilot seat of the Blackbird, his head almost brushing the ceiling. Next to him was Ororo, for comparison. "And the other." She pushed a button to the next picture, again it was Logan and Ororo, though now they were in a park, standing a little ways away from everyone else. Logan had tearstreaks in the ashes on his face.

"I'm not crazy," she repeated. "Also, this Logan thought a great way to defend against a horde of people was to have a handful of us spread out in a single line."

She was still pissy about that, yes.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Evan squinted at the photo, and wondered, briefly, if maybe it was Photoshopped. Because... what?

What?

"... Well, our Logan started the school up again because he didn't want people our age fighting at all. I mean, he was teaching us how to fight, but I think if anyone decided in his Fighting With Fighting class that we were going to do it in a line, he'd kick our butts for it."

A beat.

"And I have never seen Headmaster Logan cry. That second picture actually kind of scares me a little."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Your Logan is the proper Logan," Karla said with a nod. "This is the world where Warren and Ki--err, Shadowcat are both teenagers, Iceman has a thing for Rogue, and, well, Logan cries in his many, many showers."

Where he probably used a showerpuff and floral-scented exfoliating gel.

"...He doesn't want you fighting?" She'd put aside her exasperated amusement to actually consider that. "That's comforting. Sometimes I think that Professor X's school forgets that it is supposed to be a school."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Evan couldn't picture Ms. Pryde as a teenager, either. Or Mr. Drake with Rogue like that... And streaky crybaby Logan was still terrifying.

"Oh, we're definitely a school," Evan replied, perking up a little bit. "With world history and art classes, and, um, Iceman teaches algebra."

He really wasn't sure why she was using all codenames when she'd almost slipped up on Ms. Pryde's first name like that, but he was starting to figure that maybe, just maybe, he ought to be doing the same.

"Rogue teaches Linguistics."

Just to clarify that neither of them were teens.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Mostly she was using the first name of the people she knew were 'out' on the island and the codenames for everyone else. And, well, she didn't actually know Rogue's name.

"Wait, Bo--err, Iceman teaches algebra? Hang on a moment, I have to text him." She took a moment to send off a quick text to Bobby, then vanished her phone again. "He's another teenager I know," she said, careful not to imply that he'd gone to Fandom.

And then she asked, "Hey, has anyone told you about squirrels yet?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Evan was probably going to see Bobby soon enough in class, anyhow. Since Bobby was TAing for Kennedy, and all. But for the time being? Ah, blissful ignorance.

"... The squirrels? They don't bite too, do they?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Possibly, but I haven't heard anyone complain about that, yet." That didn't mean she wouldn't put it past the little furry monsters, though. "Biting would probably be easier, though."

Karla glanced around until she found the one intently listening in on their conversation and pointed upward. "They spy on everything you do or say," she said. "And it gets reported on the news the next morning."

Again, Evan would probably think she was crazy...until he spotted its mini reporter had and the pad of paper it was scribbling on.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Evan glanced up and squinted at the little squirrel, looking more curious than anything else, really. If he could get his head around Krakoa, a few squirrels with notepads weren't really all that difficult to manage.

"The little fedoras are kind of cute, I think," he decided, smiling a bit. "But they might get bored with me after a while. I mostly just spend my time reading."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"You'd think that, but you'd be wrong," Karla told him. "Believe me, I've spent plenty of time reading or studying only to hear it reported on the radio. They watch you even while you're napping."

Which, yeah, was creepy.

"But you can offer them rum to leave you alone," she added. "And they can't hear telepathic conversations. So if there do end up being things you don't want them to know about, there are a few options for privacy."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

Evan gave Karla a wry little smile.

"I guess, if I was any good at telepathy."

He'd get there! He just needed to work on it!

"And I'm way too young to buy rum, so I guess I'll just have to try to be extra boring for a while."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

That deserved a wink. So he was getting one. "When you say you're 'no good,' do you mean you don't have any telepathy or that you don't have any practice at it?"

Jono was no longer a telepath, which had her assuming Evan wasn't one, either, but his phrasing gave her pause.

"If it's the latter, we have several telepaths on the island who might be willing to help you hone your skills." Like Emma!

"And, also, Caritas, one of the bars in town? Has no age limit and doesn't card. So you can go buy rum as soon as you make your way over there, if you wanted it."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[genesishero]

"My parents would probably throw a fit if I actually went and took advantage of that," Evan noted, clearly missing the point of being sent away to boarding school. "I mean, even if it is for squirrels."

A beat.

"And... Telepathy? I..." Wasn't sure if he should be running around telling people the entirety of what he was capable of. "... Not really."

That answered nothing, Evan.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Don't think Karla missed that, either, Evan. "I ask 'A or B' and you answer, 'No,'" she teased. "Your teachers will love that."

Hmm. Interesting.