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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"Hmm?" Rapunzel looked at the girl who'd spoken, and smiled a little nervously. "Oh, no! Um, no, thanks, I'm kinda...used to it. Usually I just let it drag on the ground, but...there's a lot of people here and I don't want anyone to trip."

Or walk on it, period, but being concerned about their tripping was also a big worry for her.

"But thanks! Are you new, too? I'm trying to find my, um, new sibling?"

"Your --" OH RIGHT, siblings. That's why they were here, wasn't it? Not to stare at astonishing amounts of long blonde hair. Raven glanced down, realized she'd forgotten her own name tag, and masked a small shift in her mimicked outfit to include one by tucking her own hair behind her ear. "I'm one of the big siblings, actually," she said. "Raven." She offered her hand.

What did you even do with hair that long? Even at waist length, Raven's got caught on everything. And she had full control over every folicle.

"Oh my gosh, you're who I'm looking for!" Rapunzel dropped her hair neatly at her feet so she could reach out to shake the other girl's offered hand. "Hi! I'm Rapunzel. I mean, I hope you're who I'm looking for. I don't know if 'Raven' is a common name here, maybe? It's pretty."

"I think there's one other girl with the name," Raven said. "But she's already graduated, and only comes to visit sometimes. It's nice to meet you. Rapunzel's really pretty, too. Where are you from? Did you have a long trip?"

There. That was way more subtle than, say, directly asking if Rapunzel was from space or an underwater dystopia.

"Um, I'm from Corona," Rapunzel said carefully. "Which -- I think is probably kind of far away? I've never seen 'Baltimore' on a map, so I'm not sure where it is in relation to us now. But it wasn't that long a trip. I kind of...came here by accident. I was in the woods one minute and the next poof -- airport."

She was still struggling with her new vocabulary words for the day, but 'airport' had been exclaimed enough that it came naturally now.

Raven smiled. "You'd be surprised how many people end up there that way. I've never heard of Corona, but I'm not very good at current geography. Or even the geography in my time." The girl apparently caught a portal to get here -- however accidentally -- so she'd be at least a little prepared for time travel, too, right?

Rapunzel's eyes went huge, but not in fright so much as realization. "Time travel," she breathed. "Of course! That's why no one's dressed the same, and where the airport things came from, and -- that makes so much sense!" She was now eyeing Raven curiously. "What time are you from originally, then? The past or future of...this time?"

"The past," Raven said. "It's 2014 right now, and I'm from 1954. Some people aren't even from Earth, though, and they count time in a completely different way."

"People from other planets?" Rapunzel was feeling a bit lightheaded, but in a good way. "Oh -- wow. Wow. I didn't even know that was possible, to travel from the stars to here."

Maybe that was what the floating lights at home were! She felt a pang again at the realization she wouldn't be seeing them this year.

"Other planets and other dimensions," Raven confirmed, smiling at how excited Rapunzel was by it all. "And there are talking animals and people with wings or special powers, too."

"Special powers?" Rapunzel's smile waned a little, though she still looked curious. "Really? Like...magic?"

She began to self-consciously play with a lock of her hair, smoothing it out.

"Um, sometimes?" Raven liked it better when Rapunzel was super excited about everything. "Some people are just born with different abilities, though. Like mutants. It looks like magic, but it's just biology. They're not . . . they don't have to be scary. They're usually just people who happen to have different talents."

"Oh, I'm not scared," Rapunzel said quickly, shaking her head and letting go of her hair. "Don't worry. I know -- there's someone I know at home who does magic, and she's not scary."

That wasn't true -- Mother could be very scary. But that was beside the point at the moment.

"But...I've never thought of people's magic powers being explained with biology," she added, her nervousness turning back into interest. "You mean, there's people who can...do things, and it's part of who they are, biologically?"

That sounded like her. Mother had always said she was born with her gift.

"That's it exactly." Raven glanced around, more from habit than to actually see if anyone else was watching. "You wanna see?"

Eyes wide, Rapunzel nodded eagerly. "Yeah -- I mean, if you wanna show me."

There were other people with powers, like her, and she'd met one.

This, alone, was worth getting out of her tower.

It was a hell of a thing, wasn't it?

"Okay," Raven said. She thought for a moment, then went for a simple hair and dress change, blonde for brown, yellow gingham for deep charcoal. "Tada!"

"How -- whoa, how did you do that?" Rapunzel asked, verging on a squeal of excitement. "Are you like, part chameleon?"

At that, Pascal peeked out from under her hair, dropping his own camouflage and eyeing Raven with interest.

"That's amazing! You can just change what you look like that easily?"

"I don't know," Raven said, giving Pascal a little wave. "Maybe?" She did have scales, after all. "I've just always been able to do it. I can actually look like anything I want, but I think that spooks people a little. Not around here, but back home, definitely."

To understate it just a little.

Rapunzel nodded, growing a bit more serious. "Is it not common where you're from?" she asked, playing a little with her hair again. "I mean, I think that's amazing, but...people get scared when they don't know what they're looking at."

Or greedy, when they did.

"My brother can read minds," Raven said, relaxing back into her more habitual form. "But I've never met anyone else exactly like me. He thinks we're brand new, like the start of a new species. Do you know anyone back home like that?"

"Kind of," Rapunzel hedged. "I, um, I know someone who has an ability to heal people, since they were a baby. But...there's magic with it, too. I don't think that person is the start of a whole new species of people."

She hoped not, anyway. It sounded like a lot of responsibility that she wasn't ready for.

"But only the one person with powers like that. I've never met anyone like you -- well, except Pascal, but he is a chameleon -- or a mind-reader or...anything like that. That's incredible."

"Oh wow," Raven said. "Being able to heal people would be an amazing gift." And rather more useful around here than maybe at most schools. "So magic and abilities aren't that common where you're from, either, huh?"

"I don't think so," Rapunzel said carefully. "I mean, I've always been told that...people with gifts like that are very valuable, so there aren't many, and they aren't open about it or someone might try to take them to use their powers for their own gain. Magic, I think, is a little more common. The witch I know isn't very secretive about it."

She guessed, anyway. Mother liked to brag about when she'd go to taverns and bewitch men for her own gain, but Rapunzel wasn't sure if that counted.

"I never really thought about it like that," Raven said. Red Raven hadn't been taken, after all, she'd been blackmailed into using her gifts for someone else. Totally different. "You know a witch? A real one, who can do all kinds of magic tricks, not just one? That must be amazing."

Rapunzel sort of shrugged, looking a bit self-conscious. "Kinda? My...mother's a witch, actually. She doesn't use magic very often, but I know she can. But she's the only witch I know, so far. There are magic-users here, though?"

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