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 tables and chairs set up all around the lawn. Some were in the sun, where folks could soak up that precious vitamin D, and some were in the shade where folks could stay cool.

All of the tables had at least a little glitter on them though. It was a welcoming gesture to get glitter someplace you didn't know glitter could go!

[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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"Wha--? Really!?" Ringo's eyes were wide. Because that sounded kind of awesome.

Jalian nodded. "It was a different class - problem solving - but the same teachers. They learned many useful skills."

"Well." Ringo's smile looked a bit anxious. "That's not quite what I expected from the class." Back home it would have probably mostly involved hiking. "But it sounds fun?" Which, well, it did.

"I hope it will be," Jalian said. "Classes here are only occasionally stupid." She was looking at you, Ender.

Ringo's laugh was sort of like an audible shrug. "I guess it's still school, right?" Some things were constant, after all.

"Is it the same where you're from?" Jalian asked. "Ken Selvren don't have schools, only lessons." And they were generally things like the clan's history and how not to get eaten by bears.

"Well, the classes are different, I guess, but, yeah. The school thing is pretty much the same."

After a moment, Ringo realized that she'd fallen silent, frowning in thought, and she started. "Um, are lessons very different from school? I mean, I guess you wouldn't have a building and classes and stuff..."

"That's not a rude question, is it?" Jalian seemed very nice, and Ringo didn't want to offend!

"No." Jalian shrugged. Not many things were rude to her. "The Huntresses would sit with us at night and tell the stories of the clan. Or they would lead us into the woods to show us what we needed to know. It wasn't this sitting in a room with paper I've seen. With the Corvichi, it was building and repairing things, learning that way."

"Wow. That sounds totally different from what I'm used to." Ringo was coming to the, probably sort of obvious given the hair and eyes in retrospect, idea that Jalian was from somewhere, well, totally different from what Ringo was used to.

"Did you like that better? It sounds, I don't know, like you had more freedom to do what you wanted?" Or something?

Jalian shrugged again. "All girls learn the same things when they're little - fighting and defense, hunting, trapping, the history of the clan. After that, you could learn more about one thing if you wanted, but everybody had the basics. Everybody must do their part."

"Oh." Ringo took a moment to process that. "It sounds like it's kinda dangerous. I mean, like, not just sometimes, but all the time?" Because, sure, there was danger in Tokyo, but this sounded different.

"Less when I left than when I was growing," Jalian said, "but yes. Not where you're from?"

"Well, it's not exactly safe." Ringo's nose wrinkled as she thought about it. "I told you about people getting killed back home, but, well, I don't think it's the same? Like, most people are mostly safe and happy, with enough food, and no real dangers that aren't accidents."

Sure, there were lots of ways to get hurt or killed, but it felt safe.

Jalian nodded. "Ken Selvren does better than most, but there is always danger."

"Have you found it weird? Being here, I mean?" Ringo figured that Fandom was probably similar to home, with the same kinds, and lack, of danger.

"Many things here are strange!" Jalian laughed. "But that seems true for most."

That laugh was a bit infectious, and Ringo found herself laughing along. "Well, I guess that's true. Maybe not as big a deal, but the glitter is a start to strange for me."

"And." Ringo hesitated, then nodded as if convincing herself to continue. "Your hair and eyes. I am guessing that it's not dye and contacts?"

"No," Jalian agreed. "Well, yes, the glitter is strange. But - ken Selvren," she translated, "is 'the clan of the people with silver eyes'. My hair," she rolled her eyes, "that was brown, but - do you know what a neg-entropy timeline is?"

Ringo frowned, trying to work through the words, but ultimately shook her head. "Sorry," she said a bit helplessly. "I don't think I've ever heard of it." Heard of them? One of those!

Jalian nodded. She'd mostly expected that, but it would have made things easier. She groped for a metaphor, then brightened. "With your ATs, if you could go only forward, but you needed to get to a place behind you, you could look for a road or wind or vehicle to push you backward, yes?"

That got a hesitant nod at first, but then as the metaphor worked it's way through Ringo's brain, she nodded more firmly. "I think I see what you're getting at." So far, at least.

"That backwards thing is the neg-entropy timeline," Jalian explained. "You're only meant to go forward, but you can make it carry you backward. If it doesn't kill you." Which was true for precisely...two people ever. "But still it might damage you. Maybe your wheels would be stuck going backward." She grinned. "My color is going backward. My hair and skin both."

Ringo's lips pursed as she tried to wrap her head around that. "I think I kind of get some of that? Maybe?"

Probably less than half, but that was okay.

"Are you okay? I mean, it's not, um, bad for you is it?" Jalian wasn't sick, or something like that, was she?

"Not any more," Jalian assured her. "It nearly killed me going through it, but now it just is the colors."

"Oh." The relief in Ringo's voice wasn't even subtle, and she smiled. "Good."

She paused, a thought striking her. "You don't mind, do you? It's not, like, a bad reminder?"

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

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