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)

[fewer_explosions]

Liara glanced from Karla to the burger and back. "Your biotics are very inauspicious," she observed. "Is that normal in your species?"

They didn't glow blue or anything!

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Biotics?" Karla asked, because she didn't speak Space!Science. "You mean our food? Umm, yeah, this is all pretty normal. For Fandom, anyway. You can get fancier stuff elsewhere, but it's not going to be that different."

If she thought this was inauspicious, just wait till Liara ate at the cafeteria.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"No, I mean--" She flailed generally in the burger's direction, her arm glowing briefly blue.

The burger flew towards her, encased in a blue field. It... took her some effort to catch it, lettuce dropping into her lap.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla pulled up a shield, letting that shimmer to life around her before it faded away into invisibility. "If I think about it I can glow," she explained floating the lettuce back to Liara's plate, "but, for the most part, using Craft doesn't have a physical marker, apart from whatever physical change I'm making."

She created a witchlight over her shoulder, and sent it bobbing over to Liara. "No glow. I call this Craft--you call it biotics?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"Yes," Liara said, eyeing the witchlight. "It's mass manipulation...?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Erm..." Karla said, wishing she'd had a few more science classes here. "It's just a light?"

She wasn't stupid, Liara! She was just...differently educated!

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"No, I mean biotics-- it's... mass manipulation using dark energy," Liara said. "It... comes with that glow, I didn't know if that's what you were doing, as well."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Dark energy?" Karla asked, wondering if that was possible a name for the Darkness. "Umm, I don't think so."

She tapped her Sapphire, resting on it's usual spot just below her neck. "My...species, I guess--" no, Karla. It would be your genus. Biology, you're doin' it wrong. "--is called the Blood. We create psychic energy with our metabolisms and store the excess our bodies can't handle in our Jewels. Then, when we wish to use Craft, we manipulate that energy into doing what we want. I think."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

Liara frowned. "So you aren't human?" she checked.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla shook her head. "Not exactly," she said. "I'm not baseline human, anyway. Among my people, I'm considered human, because we have non-human Blood as well? But what you would probably consider human, we call landens. Though, it's possible than even the landens back home wouldn't be considered entirely human, either. I'm from a completely different world and I don't know if they'd match baseline human all the way down to the genetic code." She shrugged. "But I'd say it's close enough to count."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"Goddess," Liara muttered. She'd only followed about half of that - genetics wasn't her field of interest! Nor was the study of alien species! "...Are there many human subspecies?"

Goddess, she'd have her work cut out for her, not-offending-people-wise.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"On this island? Yeah," Karla said with a smile. "Witches, mutants, demons, aliens, I think someone's an angel...and to make matters worse, we're all from different places and times, so what I think is fine is horribly offensive to someone else."

Like claiming to be the adopted niece to the High Lord of Hell, Rilla.

"Most of the people on the island look human, but are kind of...human-plus maybe?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"That seems... confusing..." Liara admitted. "I... how many genders does your species have?"

It felt like a reasonable thing to ask, just so she could try and wrap her head around the diversity here, and didn't start assuming that some secondary or tertiary gender was actually a subspecies or something.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Two," Karla said, suddenly all sorts of confused. "Why, how many does yours have?"

You know, she'd been writing off some of the oddness in the...girl's?...psychic scent as just being alien, but now that the question had been asked, Karla had to wonder...

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"We are a mono-gendered species," Liara said because her writers needed to get the memo about sex vs gender. "But I have always been told that we are fairly unique in that respect. I... didn't want to offend by making assumptions."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

Karla really, really, really wanted to know how that worked. How did they have offspring? How did their culture work? How much would she have freaked out hearing about that only a few years ago?

...How much would she freak out a little bit later? These were all excellent questions.

Karla managed to choke down her barrage of questions, making just a few oddly strangled noises in the back of her throat. She tried to turn that into a coughing fit instead. "Food went down the wrong pipe," she explained. Then facepalmed. "Actually, that's just an old saying. We only have the one esophagus. Umm, you look like a female of the human species. Do all of your people have you, uhh, features?"

Like, oh, breasts?

Karla was very smooth.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"Yes," Liara said earnestly. "Well, not exactly like me. Obviously our skin tone varies, as do our features, and our size."

Not exactly what she meant, Liara.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Obviously those," Karla said, nodding her agreement. "And, uhh, you can all breastfeed your young?"

Oh, such the tip of the iceberg as far as questions went.

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

By now, Karla was receiving a quizzical look. "Of course," she said, pausing briefly, then crossing her arms in front of her developing chest. "These aren't meant for aesthetics."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"I'm a Healer," Karla offered, because that would somehow explain everything. "And, in my culture, gender is very important, both physically and culturally. So I'm just intrigued at the idea of a society that is nono-gendered because it is completely the opposite of anything I have ever known."

Intrigued, confused, slightly horrified...details!

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"I... know some species have similar situations," Liara attempted. "I am not an expert, however. I am only forty-five years old."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"Ahh, you're from a long-lived race, then," Karla said with a nod. "Forty-five is middle aged for most humans; sixty will be middle-aged for me. But there are several races of the Blood back home who live for thousands of years, and for them, too, forty-five is still quite young."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"My species can live up to a thousand years, or slightly longer," she offered. She racked her brain for anything else Karla might find interesting. "We... go through three stages as we age?" she attempted. "Once I finish going through adolescence, I will be considered a maiden."

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[glacial_queen]

"A maiden," Karla said, blinking in surprise. "For us, that's a gendered term for a female who has yet to have her Virgin Night."

She wasn't an anthropologist of anything even close to it, but this was fascinating. She eating the chips off of Liara's plate and motioned her to continue. "What does being a maiden mean to you?"

Re: General Mingling (Summer 2012)

[fewer_explosions]

"The expectation of maidens is that we go out into the world and have as many experiences as we can," Liara said, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I am... not sure if that is what I would want. But it is the expectation."