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

[vaguelyretired.livejournal.com]

There were some extra tables 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. If you wanted to get away from the crowd, or stake out a spot to talk to folks, these spots would be where to go!

[OCD is up, have at it! This is the SECOND post for general mingling. Use this post if your browser can't handle the comment load of the first mingling post. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

Comments

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive had watched the guy for a couple minutes, and -- okay, maybe it was some of that annoying help-the-helpless instinct of hers, even though she'd tried to stamp that out back in Ojai, but anyone who looked that shaken at a picnic probably could use a hi, at least.

So, when he returned with his food, Olive wandered over and perched on his bench. "Are you new, too?" she asked, a little sympathetically. She wasn't sure, but if he was, maybe they could commiserate on the whole everyone's-crazy-here thing. (Or maybe he was one of the crazy ones and she was being an idiot, per usual. Even odds, really.)

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"Actually no," Victor said, glancing over. She got a shaky smile, and not just because her hair reminded him of Lillie's. It was an I'm-going-to-be-okay kind of smile. "Sorry. This guy I met said I look just like his best friend at home. I'm kind of ... getting used to the concept."

Which would probably be easier if he didn't have android issues about it, but Olive didn't need to hear that just yet.

"Anyhow, hi. I'm Victor. Nice to meet you."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Olive," she said, gesturing to herself and mulling that over for a second. "That's...super weird. Maybe it's like that movie with the twins who were separated at birth? That'd be kind of cool." She winced, and added, "Sorry, it's my first day and I've adopted a sort of laissez-faire outlook on this whole...everything here, because if I try and think too hard about things like long-lost identical twins and don't contextualize it, my head will probably just explode. But that must be ridiculously weird for you."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"No, it's okay," Victor said. "I just know for sure I'm not a twin. Not the cute kind where we're going to get our parents back together by the end of the movie, anyhow."

He could be a clone of another android designed as a sleeper agent, but mentioning that possibility would sound a little nuts.

He ran a hand back through his hair. "Do you have any of this stuff at home, or is it all totally new weirdness for you?"

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Totally new," she said, sighing. "Like, the weirdest thing that happened back in Ojai was when we switched high school mascots." Well, and there was her whole thing, but that would also seem nuts, for entirely different reasons. "So yeah -- no intergalactic exchange students, or time travel, or...you know, generally, identical faces that don't know about each other. Whiiiich might actually make me the weird one, here." She wrinkled her nose. "It's a slippery slope."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"Ojai like Ventura County, Ojai?"

He hoped she'd say yes. Victor needed more Southern Californians.

"And uh, we have ... all of the above, at home. Also mutants and superheroes. The weird thing to me would be not."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"SoCal represent," she said, pleased he actually knew where it was. Most people who weren't from there thought she was greeting them. The rest of it took a little longer to process, and she gave him a very serious look. "Okay, seriously, are you guys all just trolling the new kids? It's a really elaborate prank if you are. Like, this is more effort than I would ever put into like, anything."

That was why she sort of was beginning to believe them.

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

Victor did a little fist pump. "I'm from L.A," he explained. "Anybody who realizes this coast is weird gets a couple awesomeness points."

He looked back at her. "Promise it's not a prank. You ever seen this many kids agree to go along with, like, anything?"

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Generally if teenagers are putting this much effort into something, it's to be jerks," she pointed out. "But everyone here is kind of deceptively nice, so far."

"And the east coast is bizarre. Everyone walks way faster here." She'd just noticed that in the airport, when she'd almost gotten walked over a couple times.

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"Right, but even if we were mostly jerks that way, there'd be a couple people who would get all anxious or guilty or whatever about it and make a mission of telling newbies the truth." He hesitated. "... actually, that would probably be me."

He got the narc rep back in L.A. for a reason, after all.

"And people here walk way too fast," he agreed. "Plus, there are no In-n-Out burgers. Anywhere."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Well," she decided, "it's good to know that if I feel like I'm being hazed, I can come to you for an honesty check. Consciences are a bitch, aren't they?"

A pause, and, "Yeah, I dunno what I'm gonna do without In-N-Out. How will I get through life without being able to order stuff animal style?"

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"You can order it but they just look at you funny," Victor advised.

There was a tiny smile around his lips, if you looked.

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Nothing I'm not used to," Olive said, smiling over at him. "How'd you end up all the way out here, anyway?"

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"There was girl drama," Victor answered slowly. "I needed to not be around the people I knew until I got my head together. Plus I'd kind of ... temporarily dropped out, I guess."

Not that he'd thought much about whether it was temporary or not, at the time.

"Anyhow, I got the pamphlet about this school back in May, and it seemed like it was about time for a total change. And to go back to school. So here I am." He nodded to her. "Your turn. Why'd you leave Ojai?"

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Well. He'd shared. She could at least return the favor, even if she'd kind of planned on not broadcasting this information for awhile.

She winced sympathetically, first and foremost. Dropping out over a girl sounded...intense, to say the least. "Um, I kind of got expelled. Kind of. Okay, not kind of -- you can't 'kind of' get expelled, it's like being 'a little bit' pregnant -- but yeah. Not something I'm thrilled with. And I'm normally not Little Miss Expulsion, but it was sort of a...phase."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

Victor was not the best storyteller in the world; the dropping out was before the girl stuff, not because of. Not that any of it had exactly been easy.

"Seriously?" Victor looked genuinely surprised. "Like, a ... cherry bombs down the toilets, kind of phase?"

Normally he would have guessed drugs, but this girl so didn't seem the type.

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"More like...there were kind of these rumors circulating about me, and rather than combat them I ran with it instead, and I....might have crashed a pep rally with a burlesque song and dance number," Olive said, blushing a little. "That kind of phase."

She held out her hands in a 'what can you do?' sort of gesture. Didn't everyone have these sorts of problems?

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

So Victor could talk to superheroes and aliens all day and not get especially thrilled about it anymore. But the story Olive was telling? That impressed him, mostly because it was so completely beyond the kind of problems or solutions he could imagine.

He was speechless.

"Wow, okay, if you have to get kicked out that must be the way to do it," he finally blurted. "Go you."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive grinned at him, then, her blush deepening a little bit under her freckles. "Thanks. I like to think it was kind of worth it. I mean, most of my old friends aren't really talking to me anyway, so getting kicked out isn't a huge deal. My reputation's shot, but...hey, what's a reputation in high school, anyway? Everyone's gonna talk anyway."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"I never got any good rumors, unless you count my best friend calling me an alien to bug me," Victor told her. "But yeah, you're right. In ten years when you want a job, are they gonna ask your old homeroom what they thought about you? And if your friends are worth having, they'll come around."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, kind of different rumors than that but same principle," Olive said, wincing. And now she was eyeing him. "Are you an alien? I mean, I don't care. Sorry. Is it rude to ask? This is my first day of multi-dimensional nexusing."

Thanks, Jessica.

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

"Nah, Jorge" -- Spanish pronunciation -- "just meant I was being weird," Victor said, although he was fidgeting. "But I am, um, kind of half robot, actually. Promise I'm not kidding."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive was sort of staring now, yeah, but in light of the fidgeting she was going to try and be sensitive, even though her immediate impulse was to beep and do a robot impression and ask if that was what he meant, seriously.

But she didn't want to be robotist.

You're welcome, Victor.

"Like for serious?" she asked after a moment. "Like...okay, sorry, I have questions but I don't wanna be rude so I'm just going to sit on it? But that's kind of awesome, actually."

What? She didn't know any half-robots at home. Probably. (She suspected Marianne was full-on evil droid, let's be real.)

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[ultron_junior]

Victor cut his eyes over to her to make sure she didn't look like she secretly thought he was totally insane. She didn't, so:

"No, it's okay," he said. "And you could ask whatever, if you wanted. I only mind talking about it if the other person freaks and acts like I'm trying to exterminate them or something. But yeah -- there are things about it I don't love, but as far as powers and stuff go I could have done a lot worse."

Re: More General Mingling [Fall 2012]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Okay how are you only half-robot?" Olive asked, tilting her head. "Because like, in the movies and stuff there's robots and there's humans and then there's humans who act like robots -- I know a lot of those -- and there's robots who have AI and souls and stuff, but, you know, science-ly, I don't know how you go halfsies."

She paused, and added, "Seriously, tell me if I'm being intrusive. I just...this is kind of fascinating. And I don't mean to treat you like a science project either because that is so not what I mean by that."