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

Picnic-ing in January - still not the best idea ever! But there were tables and chairs set up in the sun, and a nice bonfire going, and plenty of warm food for everyone to encourage socializing for as long as possible.

[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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Oh. Oh wow. There was just so much to eat!

Velma looked at the tables of food and tried not to stare. Her mouth watered at the sight of it all. There were hamburgers. Cheeseburgers. Bacon cheeseburgers. Fried chicken. Potato chips. Cookies. Brownies. Cheesepuffs.

She used to love cheesepuffs.

Marketing would have a collective heart attack at the idea of one of their superheroes eating most of the food on offer here. Spandex was unforgiving of flaws and a few pounds could mean the difference between an endorsement deal that landed you on prime time commercials and one that sandwiched you in between infomercials and inspirational programming.

But she didn't have to worry about spandex anymore. Or endorsements or contracts or what Marketing thought of her dietary habits.

Velma helped herself to an entire plate of cheesepuffs.

Oh look, someone new and pretty. It was only a matter of time until Ezra showed up.

And that time was now. "Hello there," he said, as he sauntered over. "Good to see the new faces taking advantage of one of Fandom's best perks."

Caught!

For a second, Velma could only think that she'd been spotted breaking one of Marketing's most sacred laws: Thou Shall Not Consume Empty Carbs. A beat later, she remembered where she was and that, whoever this guy was, he wasn't a Marketing exec out to bust her.

Even so, years of training were already at work. Brain had barely registered 'stranger' before she was up on her feet, angling herself to make sure he saw her best side, posing with her hand on her slightly-angled hip, feet shoulder-width apart. Chatting With Civilians Position Number Twelve, the one Marketing had decreed to be most advantageous for her height, weight, body-type, and coloring. "Hi," she said, giving him a smile the could--and had!--sold toothpaste. "I am. It's been awhile since I saw a spread this impressive."

Or was able to enjoy it.

If Ezra noticed the practised care that went into her way of facing him, he made no show of it. "Well, best take advantage of it," he said. "We only do this kind of extravagance for special occasions like new attractive people coming in. Other than that, it's cafeteria food for all."

Velma looked around at the people clustered on the lawn. "I take it that every arrival involves a high percentage of attractive people," she said. Other than the lack of people displaying obvious powers, it looked like the cover of a Marketing pamphlet or something.

She held up a basket. "I can handle cafeteria food for a bit," she said. "My big sibling baked me pies."

Pies. She'd eaten half of one before she'd met her roommate and had been in heaven. Any one of the fifty or so heaven dimensions they'd cataloged.

"Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as he peered at the basket, then looked up. "And which of our merry gang of high schoolers was that? I feel like I should be doing something to get pies out of them as well."

"Eric Bittle?" Velma said, looking around for her tiny big brother and finally pointing him out. "He gave me an entire basket full of things. I mostly cared about the pies, though I'm confused about the glitter."

Why had he decided that she needed it? Why had he decided she needed so much of it?

"It's a Fandom tradition," Ezra replied easily. It was mostly true, too! It was a weird weird tradition to have glitter available in vast quantities. "You'll get used to it. It tends to be all over the place at all major parties here. Not entirely sure why, but, I happen to look great doused in glitter so I don't exactly care."

"Hi," Kathy said, leaning over to help herself to a handful of chips and a spoonful of dip. "I like seeing a person who can enjoy a good cheesepuff."

"Rediscovering how good they are," Velma said, debating whether she should go back for more. Reluctantly, she decided not to. After six years of not eating anything like this, too much more would probably make her sick.

"Been awhile, huh?" Kathy asked, adding a handful of cookies and three hamburgers to her plate. "Glad Fandom could help you there. Hi and welcome, by the way." She put her plate down and offered a hand. "I'm Kathy and whatever you've heard about this place, the reality is almost certainly weirder."

Velma winced. Right. She probably should have given Kathy a little more to go on. She'd forgotten how to talk to people as Velma instead of Velveteen. "Hi. Velma. You knew I was a new kid right away?"

That was a dumb question. There weren't at that many people around the bonfire. It was probably like recognizing when a new kid got recruited by The Super Patriots, Inc.

"I kinda figured that out when my roommate was eight feet tall and green," she said. "But I'm used to weird, so I'm sure I'll be okay."

"Well, you're not freaking out about the huge green guy, so you're probably right about that," Kathy said. "Used to weirdness back home? Or just generally unflappable?

Honestly, Kathy hadn't run into any of the latter who weren't also from the former, but it never hurt to ask.

"I'd like to say unflappable, but it's more the first one," Velma replied. "I mean, I arrived here by magic mirror and even I think of the Seasonal Lands as weird."

She was watching how much food Kathy was piling on her plate. Velma might have fallen on the cheesepuffs, but this girl looked like she was preparing for a famine. "Hungry?" she asked.

Kathy also glanced down and laughed a little self-consciously. She'd forgotten how weird it probably looked to people who weren't used to it. "Yeah," she said. "I have powers that really ramped up my metabolism, so I eat a ton whenever I can."

Hopefully Velma's big sibling mentioned people with powers? Or it was one of those things covered by general world weirdness.

"The Seasonal Lands?" she asked. "What are those?"

Velma had just answered this for her roommate, which made explaining it a second time so much easier. "Parallel dimension to our own. My own, anyway. There are four, one for each season. And in each Seasonal Land dwells that season's holidays and various Spirits of the Seasons. No one's really clear on how much they influence us and we influence them, but there's a lot of give and take there. So, in Autumn, Halloween is kind of the focal point? Because it's the part of autumn that we've invested the most thought and energy and power into.""

"Wait, if Halloween is the focal point of Autumn, does that mean Christmas is the focal point of Winter?" Kathy asked, eyes alight.

Look, she really, really loved Christmas.

"That's right," Velma said, nodding. "Santa's Village and Workshop are where the main Spirits of the Season live: Santa, Mrs. Claus, the Snow Queen, Jack Frost, and Jackie Frost. Jackie and Santa are bound to the holiday itself, the Snow Queen and Jack Frost are more involved with the Season as a whole."

"You have a real, honest-to-goodness Santa?" Kathy asked, gasping. "Not just, like, a metaphor? But a real jolly old elf who delivers presents at Christmas and everything?"

"I think he's also a metaphor? Or an allegory? Something like that?" Velma said. The Super Patriots, Inc. were legally obligated to make sure their superheroes were educated to the standards of the state in which they resided, but there wasn't all that much oversight. "But also physical. He was the one who told me about this place."

"You know Santa." Kathy wasn't sure she could handle hearing this. "You. Know. Santa." Was she hyperventilating? "How do you know Santa?" That came out in a squeak.

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

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