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 work on their tan while they ate, and some were in the shade where folks could stay cool and non-crispy.

All of the tables had some blue and gold glitter scattered across them, because there was always enough to go around. This school certainly was blesesed in all the right ways.

[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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And contribute to Aveline's perpetual headache? Yeah. She'd completely fit in.

Creators help everyone if Kathy ever managed to get to the Exalted Plains.

"Books? What kind of books? We don't have very many of those," said Merrill, whose interest was definitely piqued now.

Look, it was hardly Kathy's fault that everyone in Kirkwall was objectively wrong about things and needed to be told that!

"All kinds of books," Kathy said, breaking into a grin. "So many books that there's no easy way to answer that question. History, geography, mythology, mysteries, romances..." She shook her head. "It's like asking how many flavors of ice cream there are. You can list them off, but it's just easier for everyone if you say 'all kinds.'" And then the kicker. "And they're available to borrow, too. Of course. For free."

All right, no, that wasn't her fault.

"For anyone? What do you have to do to borrow them?" Merrill fully expected there to be some sort of system like the Vir Sulevanin, since apparently you didn't have to pay to borrow these books.

"You're a student at Fandom High," Kathy explained. "That's enough. You go into the library, find the ones you want, and then check them out at the desk--basically, you'll tell a librarian that these are the books you'll be taking with you and they note which ones you have. It's super-easy."

"That's it?" Merrill asked, genuinely befuddled (though really, it didn't take much). "And you can do that as much as you like?"

She might end up spending all of her time trying to find anything on elven history.

Given Fandom's multidimensional nature, that could get . . . interesting.

"They want us to be well-read and educated," Kathy said. "So, yes, you can do that as much as you'd like. There's no reason for you not to be able to."

Thank god for the printing press and the advent of cheap paper. Books everywhere.

Now that Kathy had gotten beyond the 'omg elf!' reaction, she finally noticed the staff Merrill was carrying. "Uhh, hey, weird question," she said, nodding to it. "Is that a walking stick? Or, umm, something else. I just ask because one of my best friends has something similar." Kathy had no idea that Merrill and Anders shared a homeworld, but even so, she was able to put together elf + staff = probably magic. "The stuff he can do with it is pretty awesome."

"Oh, do you know Anders, then?" asked Merrill. "Unless there are other mages I haven't met yet."

She patted the haft of her staff affectionately. "His staff is a bit fancier than mine, I think."

No, that wasn't innuendo. Please, like Merrill would know innuendo.

"Oh, you've met Anders?" Kathy asked, pleased. "No, no, he was who I was talking about. I'm glad to hear you two have been introduced! I don't know anything about magic, but he does, so he can definitely help you out with your questions there. Excellent!"

"Just a little while ago," Merrill confirmed, and went on brightly, "It's good to have another mage from home here, even if we've never met before. There's so much to get used to as it is."

"Oh!" Kathy said, blinking in surprise. "You're from Fereldan, too? That's amazing!"

"Not exactly, though that's where my clan has been living the last few years," Merrill explained. "But as far away as home is now, that's close enough, don't you think?"

"Oh, most certainly," Kathy said. "Once you're a world away, country distinctions seem to be less important." She paused to nibble a slice of pizza from her own plate and asked, "Your clan? Do you mean your Circle?"

"Circle? You mean --" Merrill's eyes widened. (Which was either impressive or scary, considering how big they already were.) "No, I've never been in a Circle, thank the Creators."

And somehow she never would, despite running and flinging spells around the city with the most paranoid templars in Thedas someday.

They were just very impressed by her apostate cosplay, obviously.

"You haven't?" Kathy asked, confused. "I thought that the Chantry rounded up all the mages and locked them away in Circles for the crime of being born?"

Kathy...didn't really approve of the Chantry, what little she knew of it. Which, in fairness, all came from Anders.

Well, given that whole Exalted-March-against-the-elves thing, neither did Merrill.

"They try to, certainly. With the Dalish . . . it's a little bit different. We mostly keep to ourselves, and not have more than one or two with the mage gift in each clan, and they mostly leave us alone."

"Clan?" Kathy asked. "I thought that elves lived in alienages...?" She flushed. "I'm sorry, I'm probably being super rude right now. I don't really know much about anything about your world, other than a couple of things Anders and Cassandra have mentioned."

Give her time, Kathy, she'd end up there eventually.

"No, they wouldn't be likely to know that much about our culture," Merrill said without any heat. "Humans and elves . . . we might as well live in different worlds sometimes. Alienages are for the city elves. They try to live the way humans do, and follow the Chantry teachings and such, but not the Dalish. We don't really go very near the cities most of the time. There isn't much left of our old ways, but we try to follow them the best we can."

"You're a traveling culture, then?" Kathy asked, her curiosity well and truly ensnared. "And you don't have much in the way of knowledge of your older histories?"

She bit her lip. On the one hand, she wanted to drag Merrill over to a table and ply her with food until she had told Kathy everything she could about being an elf in Thedas. On the other hand, this was Merrill's first picnic and she should be meeting new people and learning about the school and doing a hundred things that weren't 'entertain Kathy for hours.'

"You know, I'd really love to hear about all of this stuff sometime, but I don't think I should monopolize much more of your attention today," she said, looking truly disappointed. "Some time when you've had a chance to settle in, though, I'd love to talk to you more."

"You mean you want to know more about it?" Merrill asked, voice going a touch even more high-pitched than usual with surprise. "Really?"

If this meant Kathy was going to learn about elven history, and not just in the every-Dalish-child-knows-the-story-of-the-fall-of-the-Dales way, look out, multiverse.

"I wouldn't mind telling you about it all sometime, then. If I've spent so much time memorizing it all, I may as well."

"Of course!" Kathy exclaimed. "Who wouldn't? You're from a completely different culture and an entirely different world! I'd love to hear as much as you want to tell me! Are you kidding, it would be so cool!"

Though, granted, Kathy's idea of cool happened to skew towards the 'irredeemably nerdy', so she probably shouldn't expect this from everyone.

"I live up on the 5th floor, room 518. Feel free to stop by whenever, okay? Like, even if you just want me to show you where the library is or something."

KATHY DO NOT OFFER TO SHOW MERRILL AROUND. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TIME FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

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

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