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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

The nice thing about the fall welcome picnics was that, well, they didn't typically happen in the fall. It was definitely still summer in Fandom, with sunny skies and a light breeze blowing through the front lawn of the school. Folks had gotten up bright and early to make sure there were plenty of tables, chairs, and blue and gold streamers to decorate the picnic area.

And glitter. So much glitter for the new folks to learn to love.

Getting the food out was the finishing touch, and then everything was ready for the new (and not-so-new) arrivals!

[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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Hannibal winced. "That is unfortunate. And perhaps it's a good thing you'll be spending some time away. If you aren't always there, it will be easier to keep it secret." He smiled. "And easier for me to feed you for two. Ermengarde shouldn't have all of the fun."

"...That's an interesting idea of fun you've got going on there," Karla said dryly. "On the other hand, who am I to argue something that gets me more tasty food?"

And what he said did have merit...

"That's a good way to pitch this to my Court," she mused. "After all, it'll give me one day a fortnight where I am safe. Okay, not that the island is particularly safe, but it's never gunned for me personally."

Fandom was nice and generalized with its danger and murder attempts.

Hannibal nodded in acknowledgement. "It's a pity the time difference doesn't go the other way. Still, maybe not such poor timing on the island's part after all. And should you need to spend a bit more time here, I'll see I always have a room or two ready. You know where my house is." He nodded to the edible map.

"I do," Karla said, breaking off the tiniest bit of his roof and examined it on the tip of her finger. "I may end up taking you up on that. At least a guest room for naps. Probably somewhere close to your dining room, so I can eat and then nap and then eat again."

Perfect life.

Hannibal chuckled. "Closest to the stairs, then. I'll see to it."

He eyed her and the bit of food on her finger. "The decision is entirely yours. The other meat is pork and beef. And the flamingos," he pointed out the little birds by the shore and not on his lawn, thank you very much, "are shrimp." It had seemed appropriate.

"Well, I'm eating one of those right away," Karla grumbled, snatching at a flamingo and savagely biting it. Look, she had flamingo-based issues. Actually, she had water-fowl issues in general. "I think I'm working my way up to trying yours. I'm both intrigued and kind of horrified."

Hannibal gave her a pleased smile. She was considering it; that was good.

He made sure none of the others or the squirrels were listening in.

"There used to be a particular bit of forest in Baltimore. It was a very important habitat for endangered songbirds, and useful for many other species as well. A beautiful and necessary place. Unfortunately, there was also a city councilman in Baltimore. Several years ago, he brokered a deal to pave over and develop that land, despite all arguments and pleading to the contrary. He profited very nicely from it, you see. Both in bribes and in investments."

[I know we're long past radio on this, but if anybody's reading - NFB from here, nobody overhearing or anything, k? :)]

"He hurt the land?!" Karla asked, outraged. "Destroying an important bit of the ecosystem for a-a-a parking lot or something?!"

Well-played, Hannibal. Well-played.

Hannibal knew his audience!

"I threaded a tree's roots through his veins, let it grow, and planted it in the center of that lot," he murmured. "I took his organs and replaced them with flowers as beautiful as he wasn't, and as toxic as he was."

It really had been beautiful, apart from its place in his plan. He was rather proud of that tree (http://media.tumblr.com/60c8ef1cca243b137657b6bef17cebd4/tumblr_inline_n3mke3fY0Y1rnite0.png).

Karla couldn't see the image--they weren't linked at all. But she could sense the deep, artistic satisfaction he was feeling right then.

"By the standards of this world, you're horrifying," she noted softly, before licking the crumb of meat off her finger.

"I'm aware," he answered calmly but with a touch of wistfulness. "I see the beauty in many things people in my world are taught not to. And I pursue it where I can." He made a few gentle adjustments to the miniature.

"It's a common perception in the dominant culture I live in, that to kill you must place a low value on life. On the contrary, I see life as a precious gift, something to be savored as much as possible. I have little patience for conventions that prevent people from reaching their full potential, and less for those who would cheapen it for others for their own convenience and profit."

It didn't leave him with a lot of friends. He wasn't entirely certain he should be dropping his mask this much for one of the few he did have, but he had his hopes. And he'd try not to look too thrilled at her eating that, but that was mostly for the sake of his dignity rather than trying to hide anything.

"Are you often melancholy, Hannibal?" Karla asked. "You aren't a male of many friends and many of those you have, you have to...obfuscate certain truths about who you are."

Hannibal chuckled. "Have I often seemed unhappy to you? No, I have always been very aware of the consequences of my choices. I am generally happy with them. But I am to some extent alone, and that has occasionally meant I have been lonely." Though he was very pleased with Will at the moment.

"I do my best to obfuscate without lying," he said. Well, except for what was in his food. And even then - well, puns were a wonderful thing. Was it his fault English had so many animal names for human traits? "For the most part, my friends see as honest a version of me as of anyone. They simply don't see the whole picture."

Karla came closer at the moment than anyone save for Will; he wondered if she knew what a rare circle that put her in.

...NOT RARE LIKE THAT.

BETTER NOT BE!

"No, but then, I don't often see you nominally alone, do I?" Karla asked. "And while you're a male of few emotions--at least, that I've felt--that doesn't negate the possibility of unhappiness. At least, at times. I don't think you're unhappy with your life."

She paused. "Have I warned you against showing the contents of your larder to Jono yet? I know you are good friends, but that isn't something I'd suggest doing without a lot of preparation."

"True," Hannibal allowed with a slight smile. "And I do have rather passionate emotions at times; I simply have a lot of necessary experience controlling them." Because nobody wanted an out-of-control Hannibal, him included.

He gave her a look of mingled amusement and curiosity. "My dear, I don't make a habit of it. But why Jono especially?"

That would be terrifying ~~BUT AWESOME YOU SHOULD DO IT~~.

"Because Jono's had a very bad run-in with someone of similar tastes," Karla warned. "In that he very nearly ended up on the menu. While still alive." Karla wrinkled her nose. "At his ex-girlfriend's behest. Don't tell Jono, but with a few notable exceptions, he has dreadful taste in females."

Seriously, Jono. Seriously.

"But I know you two are close, and I figured you might appreciate a head's up before you decided to tell him. If you ever did."

Hannibal nodded gravely. "I should hate for him to think I had any such plans for him. Given the island's apparent bent in its whimsy," he added wryly, "I can't promise not to eat him in any sense of the word, but I do find consuming one's friends to be, if nothing else, in extremely poor taste."

Three puns for the price of one! You'd wanted that, hadn't you, Karla?

"Thank you," he said more seriously. "I appreciate the warning."

NO THAT HAD NOT BEEN ON HER WISHLIST, HANNIBAL.

Hopefully the extreme groan she worked up would pass that message along. Puns were the wooooorst.

"What two consenting-within-the-confines-of-Fandom-whimsy adults get up to in their spare time is no business of mine," she said, waggling her eyebrows. "That is, unless they wish to gossip and then I'm all ears."

Hannibal chuckled. "A gentleman never kisses and tells. Then again, gossip is so very fun. I shall have to consider."

And excuse you, Karla, his puns were the best!

That was not exactly a high hurdle to surpass, Hannibal!

"I mean, I am here all semester. We have to make some kind of conversation, don't we? And if I turn into one of those females who can only talk about what and how she's gestating, I will have no recourse but walling myself up in shame."

Is that what you wanted? For Karla to bewail you from behind a wall, 'Curse you, Hannibal!'?

"We can't have that," Hannibal proclaimed gravely. "Still, there are things such as medicine and healing to discuss, after all."

"True, though I won't have the Craft to be able to show you anything," Karla said, glum. "So it will be theoretical until..." she paused to calculate. "January."

Hannibal chuckled. "As I doubt we'll be visiting any surgeries, all of mine will be theoretical in any case," he pointed out. "I look forward to discussing theory."

"Well, it would have been nice to show you some of what I can do anyway," Karla grumbled. Blasted blastocyst. "The next ten months are going to be so annoying. It will be a toss-up to see whether I lose my mind over being Craftless or being smothered first."

Hannibal smiled. "While I can do nothing about the former, should you ever need an escape, I'll have that room ready for you. It comes with good food and perhaps a watchful medical eye, but no smothering, I promise."

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

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