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

[bigdamnprincipal]

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!]

Comments

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[bjornstjarna.livejournal.com]

It didn't take Soren long to realize, once he'd spotted the food, how hungry he was.

So he piled his plate full of everything that looked appealing, some familiar, some not (no honey soda to be seen, so he grabbed a red can of something called 'Coke' instead), and found a place at a table to sit.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Excuse me?" Kathy said from behind him. She gave him an awkward smile and pointed to the plate of cookies sitting just beyond his plate. "Do you mind if I grab a few of those? I didn't just want to reach over your plate or anything."

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[bjornstjarna.livejournal.com]

"Wha-?" Soren said, around a mouthful of burger. "Yeah, sure, go ahead," said, hooking one finger under the edge of the plate and inching it a bit closer to Kathy.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Thanks," Kathy said, giving him a smile. "Welcome to the island."

She'd finally gotten to the point where she could spot the newbies, apparently. It looked like she really was settling in.

"I..." she stopped, looking at the mark on his face and tilted her head slightly. "I don't mean to be rude, but does that tattoo mean something? I think I've seen a girl around the island with the same one."

She hadn't said anything to her, but she'd noticed it. Mostly because her first thoughts had been, My parents would murder me if I got a tattoo. Then bring me back to kill me again if it was on my face.

That was the kind of thing you remembered.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[bjornstjarna.livejournal.com]

"That would be Vider," Soren said with a nod. "Where we're from, it's meant to mark someone as a berserker. We can be- dangerous. Unpredictable. So we're required to announce our presence in this way." He paused, then, to see how she'd react to a stranger admitting they were 'dangerous and unpredictable'. Regardless of whether berserkers were something that existed where she was from, most people would find that sort of information troubling.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[spin_kick_snap]

Well, Kathy wasn't about to suddenly cozy up into his lap, but she wasn't backing away in a hurry, either. She'd gotten a little more courageous in the months she'd been on Fandom.

Random invasions would do that to a girl.

"A berserker? As in, you can lose your mind and go into a blind battle rage?"

And her parents said she would never learn anything from MMORPGs.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[bjornstjarna.livejournal.com]

"Essentially, yes," Soren said. "Do they exist in your world, then?" maybe they were just marked differently, where she was from?

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[spin_kick_snap]

Ooooh. How to explain, 'Nah, there was once a culture that had such things, but now we make video games and comic books about them'? Okay, sure, that would probably work, but it seemed disrespectful. If this guy came from a place where it was taken so seriously people were marked, explaining that they were now marketed for entertainment might just be rude.

"Not exactly," she said. "They were once, at least in certain cultures, but now they exist mostly in histories and mythologies."

And video games and RPGs.

"I think they're from a couple hundred years ago?"

Western mythology wasn't her strong suit. Besides Greek mythology, of course. Everyone knew Greek mythology.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[bjornstjarna.livejournal.com]

Well, many berserkers were part of pop-culture in Soren's world too, in the way war heroes often were.

"At least you sort of know," Soren said with a shrug. "My roommate had no idea." A beat, and then he added: "I'm Soren. Soren Bearstar." The new surname wasn't really 'new' anymore, but it still made him straighten a little with pride as the words left his mouth.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2014]

[spin_kick_snap]

That still might not prepare him for illiterate barbarians and orcs that foamed at the mouth. Either way, it wasn't something Kathy was going to bring up now.

"I'm Kathy. Katherine Li, really, but I just go by Kathy." Unless her mother was fussing or her father was angry, she was just Kathy. "Nice to meet you, Soren Bearstar."