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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

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!]

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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.

"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?

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."

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."

"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."

Edited 2012-08-26 01:29 (UTC)

"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.

"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."

Edited 2012-08-26 01:43 (UTC)

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.)

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."

Edited 2012-08-26 02:14 (UTC)

"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."

Victor shook his head. "Basically the, um, robot who made me took the best nanotechnology he had and merged in human DNA to build my tissues," he explained. "The DNA came from my mom, who raised me, so I figure I count as at least half human."

Was that a tiny bit defensive? Maybe it was.

"Right now there's a lot of metal in there still, but it's supposed to all look like a regular person by the time I'm 21." A pause. "I have no idea about where the soul comes in. I figure I have more chance of having one than some people I've known."

"I think you count as as human as you want to be," Olive ventured with a small smile, "but I also think a lot of us are total dickbags, so I don't know why you'd want to. But that's pretty cool. Is there a word that's more sensitive than 'robot'? I'm all culturally ignorant so I have no idea. And for what it's worth, I'd have never guessed if you hadn't said something, so. I think that regular person transition thing is working out."

Victor smiled. "There are ways to tell what I am, but usually they only show up if something's going wrong," he told her, with absolutely no intention of enumerating them. "And yeah, you guys can be dickbags, but you're also kind of the standard, you know? Pretty much everybody who has a shot at it wants to pass as human."

He thought about her other question. "I mean, if I look at a dictionary cyborg is the most technically correct," he said. "Usually I say android because it sounds less ... bad sci-fi. But I'm not all that fussy."

"Android means looking like a human, too," Olive pointed out like a good girl who knew her Greek and Latin roots. "And yeah, I get wanting to pass as human because we're standard. It sucks not fitting in. Not that my issues are your issues, but I get the impulse, at least."

"It's a pretty universal issue. Plus, some people really have it rough when they come out," Victor said. "Even me -- I mean, I don't care about people here knowing, but I'm not going to march into a government lab and say, hey, here, cut me open and take a look."

He considered it. "Actually, that's probably stupid to do if you're human, too. But you know what I mean."

"I mean, it's not very high on my to-do list, generally?" Olive offered. "And I'm like a hundred percent homo sapien, to the best of my knowledge." Chip was adopted. Maybe she'd been built. Something to ask her mom about in order to see what she'd say, for sure. "But I think it's kind of awesome to be comfortable telling a stranger this kind of stuff. My roommate came right out and told me she's got powers, too, so it wouldn't freak me out to find out later." She shrugged. "I dunno. I don't have anything up my sleeve that's that and I still can't be that open. It's pretty brave."

"Which roommate did you get?" Victor asked, more or less idly. "And yeah. I mean, I'm kind of special 'cause I was never really in a situation where I had to lie, so I never got used to it? But I can't blame the people who have been hiding their whole lives, or who just don't want to deal with some of the crap other people might throw at anyone who's different. We aren't all that open."

"What you said about the pep rally," he added. "That sounded pretty brave to me, too."

She shrugged. "More impulsive than anything. Kind of a 'screw all you guys' thing, and I needed to get people's attention for my send-off, anyway. But I guess it was kind of brave. Takes a special kind of stupid to run around a gym in hotpants and a boa." Olive rolled her eyes, mostly at herself. It would've been better if she'd figured out a way to not get expelled for that, but she wasn't totally displeased with how things had gone.

"As far as roommates go, her name's Karolina. She can fly, apparently. So if the dorms catch fire and we have to jump out the windows on the fourth floor, I think I'm set."

Way to think on the bright side, Olive.

Victor brightened at that. Karolina was doing better, if she was sharing her powers that early in a relationship; he was weirdly proud of her.

"I know her from home," he said. "... technically that's a different version of her, but either way she's a very cool girl. And not just because she can fly people out of burning buildings. I'm in 401 with a guy named Alec."

"Oh, cool," Olive said, brows rising up. "I don't know if I've seen anyone else who knows people here from home." Obviously people might travel in packs. Why didn't she consider these things? "She seems pretty cool. Shy, but I kind of tend to word-vomit so that's probably on me." He had probably noticed this, Olive. "And it's good to know I'll have at least one semi-neighbor in there. I've never lived in dorms before."

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

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