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

[stars_and_money]

There was the bonfire for everyone who thought Maryland in January was a little too cool for their taste, as well as the moddable warm food and drinks, and chairs and tables in the school colors of blue and gold. Some tables were also set a little further away from the crowds.

Because there were always people who preferred the fringes.

[OCD 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 all here and there's more room for mingling here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

Comments

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

Jack, still bemused by the fact that he'd found himself coming to an island where apparently he'd registered for classes and had a room assignment with a roomie who couldn't see him, had decided to make the best of the picnic. It was a nice January day, there was a spread of good-looking food on the table (and if he froze a few cups of punch with straws in them just because the thought of popsicles in January amused him, who was going to complain?), and the crowd looked interesting enough for him to stick around to watch.

So, there he was, perched barefoot on a tree branch, his staff in hand, and wondering if the bus driver would come after him if he had a little fun and made it snow over the heads of unsuspecting individuals as they walked by below him.

It was so, so tempting...

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"You!" Minako hollered, reaching out to grab his leg and give him a shake. "What's the date? How could I miss an entire semester? Did I sleep through it?"

Hello, strange boy. Welcome to Minako's world.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

If it had been anyone but some mortal girl that he'd never met in his life, Jack probably would have answered Minako's question with something along the lines of, 'Why, it's Christmas morning, Mister Scrooge!'

As it stood, he was going to just kind of stare down at her, blinking. The bus driver had been a fluke, maybe. Some weird guy who maybe took a little too much stock in those Rankin-Bass holiday specials or something. But two people seeing him in the same day?

"It... You... maybe?" Yeah. All of the staring. "It's... January."

If you wanted more than that, Minako, you were going to have to give him a moment to pinch himself. Nope. Still awake.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Minako was going to flop melodramatically against his tree. Sorry, tree. "Ano, I only went home for a weekend! Stupid stupid time-skips! I missed my drama final!"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty sure you would've passed with flying colors," Jack mused, staring down at her. "Uh, time-skips?"

His sibling couldn't see him. He had mostly been clinging to whatever he could pick up from the people talking around him.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[beautifulsenshi.livejournal.com]

"Eh, time doesn't always line up right. Like, I went home for a weekend to deal with an, um, family emergency? And they thought I'd only been gone a week instead of the better part of a semester. And now I've missed the last month or so by spending a weekend at home." Minako waved a hand in annoyance. "Some people it runs linear, some people discover they've been gone mere hours. I mean, given the level of WEIRD around here, I shouldn't be shocked, but it's annoying."

"Are you new or something?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy scented him before she saw him. In her defense, though, she wasn't exactly expecting to find one of the new students sitting up in a tree in January.

She looked up at him curiously. "What are you doing up there?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"I'm... watching?" Jack was going to be doing a lot of stupidly staring at people today, perhaps. "All of the people at the picnic, doing... picnic things?"

And then, because he really had no idea what to make of the fact that they were now on person number three who could see him just this morning alone, he glanced over his shoulder just to make certain there was nobody else sitting in his tree with him.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[walkswithcoyote]

She followed his gaze over his shoulder, but couldn't see or smell anyone or thing there. Then again, this was Fandom, so that didn't necessarily mean anything. "Is someone else up there with you? You guys could come down and grab some of the food. It's one of the best things about this picnic."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, nobody there. Jack stared back at the tree for a moment more, before slowly looking back down at the girl who was most definitely looking straight at him, and then tentatively pointing a finger at his chest.

"You... are talking to me, right? I'm the only one in the tree, so far as I can tell."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[walkswithcoyote]

"Um... yes, I'm talking to you," Mercy said, looking at him curiously. "Why? Am I not supposed to or something?"

Had she broken some sort of taboo talking to him? There were some many people from different cultures it could be possible.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[abitlowkey]

"You are not wearing shoes." He would get along splendidly with Anna.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"Should I be?" Jack was beyond being shocked that people around here could see him, and was mostly just stuck on feeling weirdly self-conscious that they could. This was person number four just today, after all. "It's not really like the cold bothers me."

Because Jack Frost. It was sort of his thing.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[abitlowkey]

"Are you dead?"

Ikol cawed in annoyance at that conclusion, but stayed silent beyond that to allow Loki to continue on his path of questioning.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"Um... do I look dead?"

Actually...

"I mean, I'm not. Not last I checked." He would be incorrect. "Do dead people usually run around without shoes?"

Yes, apparently!

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[abitlowkey]

"From time to time," he admitted. Then he gave Jack a firm poke in the arm. Because of godly reasons.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[glacial_queen]

Karla glanced up to the boy in the tree, saw the nametag, and laughed. "Is it you?" she asked. "Really, really you? It would explain the chill here. Or were your parents whimsical enough to name you that?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

Jack looked down at the nametag he was wearing, and then down at the girl who was looking up and laughing at him as though she knew who he was. Not just as though she was someone who had heard about him and accepted that he could be real. No, she was someone who believed.

Maybe she'd forgive him a moment taken to just kind of pull in a breath of cool air, and hold it, and stare down at her as though maybe he wanted to jump out of the tree and cling to her for dear life? Because there was a difference between being accepted, and being believed in, the way people believed in North or Bunnymund.

"It's... me," he confirmed, clinging to that laugh. "Jack Frost, the one and only. Or, at least, that's what the Moon told me, once."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[glacial_queen]

You had Rankin and Bass to thank you that, Jack old boy.

For her part, Karla was unaware of any potential clinging and was just nodding as if the Moon telling people stuff was old hat. "Figured it was, considering the cold and the barefoot and all. But it never hurt to check, with as weird as Fandom gets sometimes. Welcome to the island, Jack."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"I'm already feeling pretty welcome," Jack admitted with a quick grin. "I mean, most people here still look right through me, but the people who can see me are making up for that in a huge way."

It was a lonely life, being Jack Frost.

"So... how weird does Fandom get?"

He hadn't really gotten much of the official New Kid Spiel about weirdness, yet.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[glacial_queen]

"Oh, you haven't fixed that invisibility thing yet?" Karla asked, all sympathy. "I'm sorry things didn't work out."

You know. With Elisa. That time he was a tailor. Karla had seen the movie.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[dressedinblood]

"Hello?" the picnic's other barefoot attendee, who was seriously poorly dressed for the weather beyond that, called from the ground below. "Is there a reason you're in a tree?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"The view is better from up here," Jack replied, giving the barefoot girl a curious tilt of his head, and then a tentative smile. He'd clearly stumbled across some sort of wonderland that was made of belief in the impossible, and joy. Possibly mostly joy. "And people aren't as likely to run into me while I'm up here."

Really, it would take effort, wouldn't it?

"Which... is kind of a bigger problem than you'd think, honest."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[dressedinblood]

Anna was not really so much with the joy, Jack. More brooding.

"I don't see why," she said, because she was only invisible when she wanted to be. Or when she forgot to be visible. Whatever. "People usually aren't that rude here."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2013]

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

"It's not usually a matter of rudeness," Jack replied, shrugging his shoulders and swinging his legs a little, kind of awkwardly, from his tree branch. "Most people just can't see me at all. Or hear me. Or touch me."

Being walked through. Not a party. And for all of the people who seemed to be able to see him around here, there were still plenty who couldn't.