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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

Throughout the lawn, tables and chairs had been set up and scattered, some out in the bright, sunny center of everything, and some in the darker, more remote areas.

Eat up, folks! Don't let that food go to waste!

[OCD up! This is the picnic post for general mingling. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are all here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Are you new too?" Anders asked, for no particular reason except the boy looked like he could use someone to talk to. "You look about as overwhelmed as I feel."

"I was just in Scotland," Nathan answered, sounding a little dumbfounded. "And now I'm here."

Which meant that, yes, he was new. And confused. And overwhelmed.

"I don't know how that happened. Am I dreaming?"

"If you are, we all are," Anders said dryly. (He didn't know what Scotland was, but that was a separate subject and one that could be saved for later.) "I don't know what happened either. I stepped through a portal and ended up in a BWI, whatever that is. But so far almost everyone's been nice."

Anders was right about that. Besides the persistent buzzing that he'd gotten better at ignoring, no one seemed to really care who he was or what he was. It was an unfamiliar feeling.

"I don't think I've ever been to a party," he remarked after a moment. This seemed like a party that Jessica would be invited to while he stayed at home in his room. "There's a lot of food."

Another unfamiliar thing. He rubbed his wrists idly. "I don't know what a BWI is either." Nathan was sorry for the string of unconnected thoughts, Anders, but yes, things were strange.

"It was a big building and then we got in this moving ... thing to come here," Anders explained helpfully. "Like a wagon but without anything to pull it."

He glanced around the park. "This is a nice party," he decided. "More food than the ones at home, that's for sure."

Nathan's head bobbed in agreement. Food wasn't this plentiful where he'd come from and he'd had to work for hours before he tended to get fed. Having it offered so freely...Nathan couldn't help being slightly suspicious of the whole thing.

"Did you know you were coming here?" Nathan asked, curious if he was the only one to be here unexpectedly. "I had no idea yet my name -- " The only thing he could read, sadly. " -- is on the list over there and I seem to be expected. That can't be normal."

Anders shook his head. "No, I was just trying to get away from where I was. Couldn't set a particular destination. But they had my name, too."

Suspicion settled in his stomach as he said that. Everyone had been so nice, and it wasn't really the templars' style to set a trap this elaborate -- they were usually more the type to grab you and shove you into a wagon. And yet, a trap would explain how they knew his name, and why others seemed to be in the same situation.

He decided to keep his guard up.

"And now I'm nervous."

"Sorry," Nathan said and did sound apologetic about it. He kept rubbing his wrists through the fabric of his shirt. The tattoo was itching. "I'm nervous too, if it helps. I don't much like surprises these days."

"I don't blame you," Anders said. "I ran away. I'm not convinced this isn't a trap. But if it is, at least they fed me this time."

He watched the motion of Nathan's hands. "Are you hurt?"

"Huh?" Very eloquent. He glanced down and noticed the motions he was going through which he guessed had invited the question. He stopped rubbing. "No. Just itchy."

As good an excuse as any, he figured. "What did you run away from?" Nathan couldn't help but be curious when someone else was sharing what sounded like similar reasons for ending up here.

Anders could have offered to fix the itch, but it seemed too minor to go into healer mode quite yet. He nodded at the explanation.

"I left the Circle in Ferelden," he said. "Perfectly lovely place, if you don't mind being locked up for having been born with magic. What about you?"

"You were locked up too?"

The other words made little sense to Nathan but he knew the concept of being caged. He knew that very well.

"Which, uh, seems to give away what I was doing beforehand. I ran away too."

Anders nodded grimly. He wasn't surprised. "Were you in a Circle too, or was it something equally wonderful?" he wanted to know. "I'd been there since I was 12, and trying to get away almost as long."

"I don't know what the Circle is. Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "I'm just not supposed to exist so the ruling body has been trying to make that become a reality."

It was vague, he knew, but he was still feeling everything out. Though, with what Anders had told him, Nathan didn't think he had any malevolent ulterior motives here.

"It's all right," Anders told him vaguely. "Sounds like you had it worse than me. I'm allowed to exist as long as I do it where and how they want."

"That doesn't sound like much of an existence," Nathan said, frowning. "Do the people who you ran from, do they know you're here?"

"Possibly," Anders said. "They have my phylactery, anyhow. If I'm as far from home as I seem to be, might take them a good long time to track me with it. But that's a problem for another time."

He shrugged a little. "What about you?"

"I don't know but I don't doubt that they'll find me eventually," he said, pursing his lips at the thought. "It might take them awhile though. That's a luxury I haven't had for awhile."

It'd give him time to think and plan without the thought of having to look over his shoulder every five minutes.

"This place might give me a brief advantage."

"That's what I'm hoping for," Anders nodded. "A brief advantage, and a soft bed to enjoy while I have it. I hope it works for both of us."

He realized he'd skipped a thing or two. "By the way, I'm Anders."

"Nathan," he supplied with a nod. "And I'll take just being able to sleep in peace. To not worry about being woken up by something or another."

He hadn't been able to get that kind of freedom for a long while. "I hope it works as well."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]