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

[bigdamnprincipal]

The forecast for today might have called for rain, but thankfully, there was no sign of bad precipitation in Fandom. The weather was bright and sunny, but still a bit chilly, so the first thing people might have noticed when they arrived was the bonfire set up in the middle of the lawn. There were tables and chairs scattered around the bonfire, some a safer distance away than others, and each table had been graced with a good portion of gold and blue glitter because the glitter supply was never, ever going to run out and certain people in the administration had just come to terms with that.

There were tables of moddable food and drinks, complete with the ingredients to make s'mores, as well as name tags and the lists of Big Siblings and roommates. It was time to welcome some new people!

[OCD is 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!]

Comments

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"I think he just went back to Australia," Raven said. "The face catching fire thing isn't really that common. It's just Mr. Starsmore, really." Raven bit her lip. "Um. How much do you know about Fandom? I mean, clearly the face catching fire thing is weird for you." It was weird for basically everyone who wasn't Jono or, like, Cecil. "But people around here have some, uh. Very different definitions of weird."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"Oh, good," Amy said, sounding very relieved. Maybe she wouldn't have nightmares about her own face catching fire after all.

"I know I have a big sibling assigned to me, but we haven't met yet because that thread isn't as far along," she said with a shrug. "But Mr. Starsmore was talking about some quirks I can expect. Like people with wings that aren't part of some kind of Comic Con costume."

She peered at Raven hopefully. Maybe Raven would reassure her that it was just a prank?

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"Wings, huh?" Sorry, Amy. She'd just worked out the shape with Kaylin a few weeks ago. Raven couldn't help growing a pair of feathery hawk wings from her shoulders and giving them a flap before shifting back to her usual shape. "Nope, don't know if anyone around here has wings right now."

She was probably making a bad impression. But she had to work up to the whole "I'm a shapeshifter and when I sleep I'm blue and scaly" thing.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

This transformation had had rather less build-up than Jono's reveal, which was why Amy's immediate reaction was to clap her hands to her mouth in stunned surprise.

"Oh, wow," she said into her palms. "Okay. Okay, wow."

That about summed it up. Give her a second, she'd come up with more words soon.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

Honestly, Raven was happy with any reaction that wasn't running away screaming or attacking her. "Sorry," she said, not looking sorry at all. "Couldn't help myself. Did Mr. Starsmore explain what mutants were to you?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

Amy mutely shook her head. But she did drop her hands to her sides, so that was progress.

The mention of what she had thought of as a word with little relevance to her life outside of Bio-Chem class was surprising, but she thought back to ninth-grade science and recalled, "Isn't it just, like, people whose genes did something different from their original DNA?"

Amy had thought it was more like having red hair when both of your parents were blonde, though. Not... whatever this was.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"Exactly!" Raven said brightly. "Like when someone has one brown eye and one blue. Only where I'm from, the mutations get a little more . . . exciting. Like Mr. Starsmore's face. Or people being born with wings. Or me being a shapeshifter."

There. That was smooth, right? Totally smooth. Charles would be proud.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"A shapeshifter," Amy repeated. So that was what it was called when you could grow wings in an instant and then just as quickly discard them. "I'm sorry, I'm probably being really rude, but does that mean you can look like anything? I'm sort of behind the times on the latest in the teen supernatural genre."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

". . . They write teen supernatural novels about shapeshifters?" Because if so Raven needed to read those right now. "Yeah, you've got the gist of it," she said. "I can change my shape into anyone or anything I like. I even was an elephant, once. But it was hard to go that big, so I probably won't do it very often."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"They might," Amy said, although she really didn't know. She would have to ask Karma, who lived for that kind of stuff. "It seems like the kind of thing that would make a compelling book for that audience. Like, with an extended metaphor about not really knowing who you are until you try new things and experiment with self-expression..."

Okay, Amy, now you were rambling.

"But anyway, wow. I guess, thanks for telling me before I woke up to find a lion in your bed or something? Or is that rude to say?" she amended, looking worried.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

Raven shook her head. "As long as you don't freak out and come after me with a pitchfork, you won't really come off as rude to me. Though if I wake up as a lion that's more likely to be a Fandom thing than a shapeshifter thing. Unless I have a really weird dream?" Now who was rambling? "Uh, actually, you're more likely to wake up and see this."

Raven's shape seemed to explode into overturning blue scales as she shifted into her natural shape -- plus mimicked dress, to temper the shock at least a little. They could get around to the "always technically naked" bit later, if Amy continued to react well to everything else.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

It was startling to see the transformation, but not as startling as it had been the first time, so there was that? If nothing else, Amy's hands stayed at her sides this time.

"So this is what you naturally look like?" Amy guessed, piecing together what Raven just said. "Um, you look good. Uh - not that it matters what I think, I mean, it's your body and all, but as far as things that would make me grab a pitchfork go, this is not even on the list, I promise. No pitchforking here."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

One of these days, hearing people say she looked nice in her natural shape would stop giving Raven a surprised, bubbly feeling inside.

Today wasn't that day.

"Thanks," she said, trying -- and kinda failing -- to play it cool. "Hardly anyone's threatened me since I got here, but it's still pretty much easier to just be blonde at most people. But trying to keep that up while I slept almost drove me nuts when I first got here, so I figured it'd be good to make the reveal early."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"Yeah, I guess it's kind of like clothes for you, huh?" Amy said, not realizing that that was pretty on-the-nose in more than one way. "Like I'll wear a button-down to do a presentation in class or something, but you can't make me sleep in one. You have to be comfortable sometime."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"That's it exactly," Raven said, relieved. "I get the feeling you're going to get along just fine around here. You're pretty easy going, huh?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

Amy grinned. "I like to think of it as taking things in stride," she said. "My last high school had less of the drastic physical transformations, more spontaneous politically-charged flash mobs for peace during sixth period algebra. It's not that different if you think about it."

That was sarcasm. It was pretty different, but the point was that Amy had learned to adapt.

"So where you're from, are there a lot of mutants?" she wondered.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"Actually, it's only my brother and I back home, as far as we know. From what I can tell, my time period is only just starting to develop these sorts of mutations. There are other worlds where there's bunches, though. Mr. Starsmore is from one where my brother started a superhero team."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

Other worlds? As weird as that sounded, she thought she understood what Raven meant, so she wasn't going to press the question.

"Seriously, there are superheroes? I mean, there's the physiological stuff, but then that's a whole other lifestyle." Amy scrunched up her nose. Superhero media had always struck her as beyond unrealistic. Why would anyone wear tights, the world's most uncomfortable garment, to fight crime? "More power to them, I guess."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

Well, she certainly wouldn't get any argument from Raven about tights. "I know, it's really weird. But totally right up my brother's alley. He's always been the sort who wanted to save everybody."

Raven herself, for instance.

"So what's it like where you're from?" she asked. "Do you join in any of those protest rallies?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"Noooo," Amy said at once. "Not at all. That's more my gi-- my best friend Karma's scene." She really had to stop talking about Karma like they were still 'dating.' "I'm more the watch-from-afar-in-solidarity type."

There were pictures of her on the internet holding a megaphone and wearing an 'Occupy Hester' t-shirt, but that was a whole other story.

"Overally it's a pretty uneventful area. We don't have any mutants, but we're home to the best amateur beauty pageant scene in Texas," she boasted sarcastically.

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

Raven probably wouldn't find those pictures. She wasn't that good at the internet, yet.

"Beauty pageants are fun," Raven said, mostly to be nice, but without any irony. "All those dresses."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"My stepsister's a big fan," Amy offered a little more mildly. "I wouldn't wear taffeta if you paid me, but everyone's got their thing, I guess."

Whatever that meant.

"Where are you from?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

"Westchester, New York," Raven said. And after a beat: "1955."

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[princessarcasm]

"Oh." It was a testament to the rest of the weirdness of the day that Amy's eyebrows were only going part of the way up, instead of actively grazing her hairline. "Wait, does that mean you have an ID that says you're in your seventies?"

Re: Meet Your Roommate [Spring 2015]

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded. "I never thought of it that way. Nearly 80, even. Perhaps I should join the AARP."