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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

With all the rain that had blown through earlier in the week, the school administration had been worried that welcome picnic day would be wet and gloomy. Thankfully, it was sunny, warm, and beautiful outside, and everything had been set up just in time for the shuttle of new folks to arrive. There was a buffet table of food and drinks waiting, along with the list of Big and Little Siblings, the list of roommates, and more name tags than they'd probably need for three picnics.

Also, there wasn't a single flower out on the lawn after last weekend. Just saying.

With everything in place, it looked like it was time for the first summer term to begin!

[OCD up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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Reno had plans to break out the booze. Later. After the picnic. Because somewhere in the past several years, apparently he'd gone from being the kid who always spiked the punch at the dances to the slightly more mature guy who hoarded his alcohol all to himself.

Yes, that was Reno's definition of maturity these days.

In any case, he was grinning as he lounged back against one of the picnic tables, looking around at the new faces. He didn't recognize most of 'em, but that didn't seem to bother him much. It was good to be back.

Well, hello there.

"Nice tattoos," Jack said, by way of conversation. "You new here?"

Well hi there yourself, Jack. Reno grinned up at her.

"Yes and no," he replied, offering her a hand. "I'm one of those crazies who can't seem to stay away, yo. Name's Reno. Graduated this messed-up school. Came back to teach once before, yo. You got some nice tattoos yourself."

"I'm Jack," Jack said, returning the grin and taking the offered hand. "And thanks. So, how crazy does a guy have to be to come back knowing what the place is like?"

Her tone was more teasing than actually surprised; she already knew the place grew on people. Like a fungus.

"The sort of crazy that runs around killing monsters for fun back home," Reno laughed as he shook her hand. "Here's a nice break, in comparison. And when shit does get nasty here, it's really just good exercise, yo."

Just the way he liked it. Except for all those times he'd become a zombie or had to walk backwards while being followed by stone angels or whatever.

"Seems like the island's body count's pretty low," Jack agreed. "What kind of monsters you got? Most of the worst ones I went up against were other people."

"Isn't that always how it goes?" Reno gave a smile verging on sympathetic, at that. "We've had more than our share of those back where I came from. Worked for a few of 'em, once."

A point he was simultaneously remorseful for and proud of. Life was complicated for a Turk.

"Then there are the less complicated monsters. The coeurls and behemoths and giant man-eating artichokes of the world."

"Yeah, I got my arm twisted into working for a bunch of bad guys once, too," Jack said. "Other times it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's way easier when we were just smashing aliens."

"Isn't it? For us it was beatin' the shit out of science experiments gone wrong, yo. Not as much as I would'a wanted to beat on the one doin' those experiments, but you can't win 'em all."

You couldn't even really win most of 'em.

"You fuck up, you don't die, you keep going. That's life."

"Not like most people get a say when mad scientists start wanting to mess with them," Jack said, a hint of bitterness in her tone. "But I guess you can't always get to the top guy right away."

She liked the rest of what he'd said. You fuck up, you don't die, you keep going. If she had the space for it, she might try to make that one into a tattoo.

"Guess you can't," Reno agreed, shaking his head. "Sometimes they got you by the scruff and there's not fuck-all you can do about it without makin' shit worse. And sometimes, you got nothin' left to lose anyhow."

He shrugged.

"That's life, too."

He wasn't going to pretend he was some sort of hero. There was no point to it.

Josh consulted his sheet of paper. "Reno?" he guessed.

"Good guess," Reno replied with a lift of his chin and a grin. "Yo. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're my teaching buddy this time around? Didn't know they did that for returning teachers, but then, I have missed a few semesters."

Try a few years, Reno.

"I got one too when I came back," Josh said. "Mine was a talking pink pony with a party cannon. I'm much more normal."

"No kidding." Reno blinked, and then broke into another grin, chuckled, and shook his head. "Fandom, yo. You ever need someone to drink off the 'my teaching buddy is a friggin' pony' with, I'm always willing, though."

Reno's focus was always on the real priorities in life.

"As luck would have it, we have two fine establishments in this town, and one actually enforces a drinking age," Josh said.

"Gotta love the Devil's Nest, right? I'm an old Caritas regular, myself, but that's only because I started drinking there back in my student days."

The island couldn't be completely rid of this one, apparently.

"Bartenders are probably all different there now anyhow."

"Tino's been there since I the place opened in the Middle Ages, I'm sure of it," Josh declared.

"Yeah, but Tino's more like... furniture," Reno decided. "Kinda insane furniture. Guy's not quite right, you know?"

As if Reno was much better.

"And after a few weeks here, you become an expert on not quite right," Josh agreed with a grin.

"Important life skills according to Fandom," Reno agreed. "I'll take him over their band, though. Shit, those guys stink."

"And they're zombies," Josh replied.

Josh thought he was hilarious.

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

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