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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Although the summer had been record-breakingly hot, the weather outside today was actually kind of pleasant. There was a cool breeze blowing across the lawn, making the smells of the buffet wander, and hopefully enticing people to come over to the school and welcome all the new folks.

The blue and gold tables and chairs had been set out as usual, along with nametags and the lists of Big and Little Siblings, and rooms and roommates for the new students. Assuming the shuttle arrived with all of the students and teachers in one piece, everything was set for the picnic to begin!

[OCD is up, have at it! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here and here, in an effort to keep browsers from breaking for as long as possible. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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Jono had been keeping an eye open for new faces among the teaching staff today, yes. Partly because he was aware that Zoe had left, and partly because... well... if he was going to be working with these people, he ought to at least introduce himself.

And if he looked at least a little relieved that this new face looked a little less into mutant terrorism than the last one he'd noticed, well, could anybody blame him?

"Afternoon," he greeted, offering Minerva a little nod. "Lovely day for a picnic, hm?"

Not a dollop of falling sunscreen to be seen!

"It's a very lovely day," she agreed. If she was a bit surprised by his skin color, compared to some of the others around here, she didn't show it. "I'm Minerva McGonagall. Do you work here at the school?"

"New this semester," Jono replied, smiling faintly and offering a handshake. "Jonothon Starsmore. I run the theatre in town, but I'll be teaching the students how to open up and actually be a part of society, if I'm doing my job right as a teacher."

It was a weird course. He'd grant that.

It was weirder still that he was the one teaching it. He'd grant that, too.

"That sounds like quite a noble goal," she said, taking his hand with a firm shake. "The previous principal informed me that many of the students at the school are... unique? But not all of them?"

"I suppose that would be one way to put it," Jono replied, with a wry smile as he shook her hand. "Have you got any experience dealing with students who have powers? Or warriors? Royalty? Deities?"

The list could go on and on.

Minerva couldn't help but laugh at that. "My previous school was one for witches and wizards," she explained. "They were all warriors in their own ways, though not royalty, no matter how much they might have liked to pretend. Is that what all the students here are like?"

Jonothon couldn't help but grin at that, maybe a bit in spite of himself. Oh, she'd get along fine, here. He could tell.

"Not all of them," he replied, shrugging. "Some are just normal children, no powers to their name, just looking to grow up to be doctors or ballerinas or accountants, perhaps. And there'll be a good number of them that have no idea what to make of this place for other reasons. Time-tossed, from different worlds entirely. I think, if there's one thing any of the students here have in common, it's that they probably have no idea, at least at first, just what it is they're here for."

Even the ones who had chosen school in this place. Everyone fit, because nobody managed to quite fit in at all.

"And they all get along? Those with powers and those without?" Minerva said uncertainly. "You'll have to forgive me if I find that difficult to believe. Where I come from, most witches and wizards come from a long line of people with magical abilities, but there are some who didn't even know magic existed before they began to be able to do it. The fighting over superiority, and the insistence that the second group is lesser somehow... it's terrible, for lack of a stronger word."

Really, that was what the Wizarding Wars were all about at their core, superiority and refusal to believe that those without magical ability could be good, worthwhile people in their own right.

"I've always believed children could outgrow the prejudices of their elders, but to think that there's no fighting seems a bit extraordinary."

"Mm, I know that's how it must sound," Jono replied, his own smile wavering for a moment. "Where I'm from, people like me are... something of an endangered species, decimated because we can do things that most humans can't. Because we're different, and hating is easier than learning in all too many situations. But Fandom... it's not like that, somehow."

He lifted his shoulders a little.

"I was a student here, too. And, if the student body hasn't changed all that much since my time as one here, then I'd say there are far more willing to stand up for the rights of the people around them than there are those who would want to persecute anybody for not being all the same."

"Really? I believe you," Minerva said. "And it's telling to have a student choose to come back and teach at their school. Now I have even less apprehension about the decision I made to come here. Thank you, for that."

Oh, yes. Jono definitely liked having this woman in charge.

"Well, if my being here makes you feel better, I'm hardly the only one." He glanced around, and then pointed out a few other familiar faces. "Ronan, there. Jaye. Jaina. I think Professor Skywalker as well, for that matter, and I'm certain I'm missing a few. This place is home, for no small number of us. We'll come back for it. We'll fight for it, if it comes to that. And no small number of the students feel much the same way."

Minerva had thought she was distancing herself from Hogwarts, but now she wasn't so sure. "You sound like one of the students from my last school," she said. "Whenever there was trouble, they would be the first ones in line to fight, no matter how much we tried to stop them." She laughed softly. "Everyone deserves to have a place they feel safe. I just hope I can help keep it that way for you all."

"Keep an open mind," Jono replied, still smiling, "have faith in your staff and students, and you'll do fine. I know it probably sounds bloody near cocky of me, but we've pulled through the worst and lived to tell the tale. I can't promise we always will, but we'll definitely do our best."

He shrugged, falling back into his usual posture, broad shoulders slightly bunched, head slightly bowed, chin lowered as if he was trying unconsciously to hide his face behind the coat collar that was sitting flat against his shoulders today.

"Welcome to Fandom, Principal McGonagall. I hope you weren't planning on being bored while you were here."

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

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