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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

There were chairs and tables set up all across the lawn; some were by the bonfire, for the people who wanted to be warm and central to everything else at the picnic, and some were set farther away from the action, for the people who wanted more peace and quiet.

There was no escaping the glitter though. Sorry, but not really.

[OCD is 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!]

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"Really good," Amy said with a vigorous nod as she thrust the plate in his direction. "Just the right balance of sweet and crunchy. Help yourself-- I allocated thinking they were going to run out, but now I'm starting to think the food supply is limitless."

Anders took one, hesitated, then took a second, swirling each n the dipping sauce before adding them to his plate.

"It is, or close enough," he confirmed. "At least, I've been here eight months and I've never seen them run out. Maker knows what they do with the extra."

He took a careful bite of the first shrimp. "Oh this isgood," he said, barely remembering to swallow before he did.

"I know, right?" Amy was prepared to stay on the East Coast forever if it meant food like this. "It's not like I'm coming from a food shortage or anything back home, but this is all a little... wow."

She took pleasure in imagining Lauren's reaction to the vast array of empty calories.

"I'm Amy, by the way," she added, realizing she hadn't covered that yet. "Sorry, most human manners probably encourage introducing yourself before offering to share food with someone."

"Anders," Anders said, surreptitiously adding a third shrimp to his plate. "Nice to meet you. And don't worry about manners. We're all terrible at them."

He was joking. Kind of. But Fandom did seem to encourage a certain amount of getting straight to the point that wasn't always expected at home.

"Where are you coming from, Amy?"

"I'm from Texas," she said, briefly affecting the more exaggerated Texas drawl that she usuallly reserved for when she was imitating her mother. "The land of cacti and aggressive freedom. Are you British?"

She guessed it could explain the clothes, but she would have expected someone British to be more of a stickler for etiquette.

"Fereldan," Anders answered, marking what the girl had said about Texas down as something to ask about another time. "Don't worry if you haven't heard of it, it's -- you've gotten the 'different realities' speech by now, haven't you?"

"A few times now," Amy assured him wryly. "Then I'm guessing you've never heard of Texas. That Cassandra girl hadn't either. Just trust me, it's pretty underwhelming. Lots of closed-minded people with lots of guns and bad ideas."

That was Amy putting it generously.

"What's Ferelden like?"

"Lots of closed-minded people with lots of dogs and mud," Anders shrugged. "I think if I ever took anyone home, they'd be surprised how underwhelming a place with darkspawn and such could be."

He slanted his eyes toward the Seeker girl. "Is that the girl in armor's name? Cassandra?"

"I don't know what darkspawn are, but the name screams underwhelming," Amy agreed. "Yeah, that's her. You know her?"

She seemed like a... trying person to get to know.

"Not from home, but we've met," Anders said dryly. "It went spectacularly. I'm sure we'll be trading bedtime stories and braiding each other's hair anytime now."

He was going to let Amy hold on to that misperception about darkspawn.

Edited 2015-01-04 01:35 (UTC)

Amy didn't want to pry too much, so she turned to sarcasm instead. "Well, be careful," she advised. "She seems like the type to yank your hair by accident."

Or on purpose. Probably on purpose.

"Are a lot of people around here that intense?" she couldn't help asking. "Everyone else I've met has been pretty... bubbly."

It was probably for the best that Amy hadn't pried, unless she'd been hoping for a lecture on mages and Chantry law. Anders grinned his agreement with the warning, then shook his head at the question.

"No, not at all," he reassured her. "I won't pretend we're all sunshine and baby kittens all the time, but most of us don't snarl. Or at least not unprovoked."

Mages and Chantry law would probably really fascinate Amy some other time, but the whole subject was a little heavy for a day that had already been so overwhelming.

"I'll occasionally snarl if someone takes my coffee first thing in the morning," Amy admitted, "but it's the snarling with a sword for emphasis that gets unsettling. It's just weirder when the, uh, snarler is armed."

Not that she would tell Cassandra that. On account of being mildly terrified of her.

Anders rubbed at his nose at that. "To be fair," he said thoughtfully, "waving swords around for emphasis is a habit of soldiers at home. You usually only need to worry when they start sticking them in people."

"Not that I'm qualified or anything, but if I was running soldier training, I might discourage the waving weapons around," Amy proposed. "It sends a weird message to the people being protected."

But, yes, she saw his point.

"If I get... sworded by anyone, though, I'm going right past 'worried' and more toward 'how do I get off this island?'"

"It makes a difference that half the people they're 'protecting' have their own swords or knives or staffs to wave around," Anders said. "But you do have a point. And good sense. If you ever get stabbed it'sdefinitelypast time to go home."

"Yeah, I didn't really think about that," Amy admitted. "Sorry. Whether people should get to wave around weapons whenever they want is my stepdad's favorite thing to start debates about. My usual arguments might not be applicable to a... multi-world type of scenario."

"It's hard to account for things you probably didn't know existed," Anders shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, it's obnoxious to wave a sword around at home, too. But she probably didn't mean to be threatening."

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

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