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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

Thankfully, the weather on the island today was fairly nice for the tail end of December, but there was still a medium-sized bonfire going in the middle of the lawn, partly due to tradition and partly due to the potential for shirtlessness (which, Zoe supposed, was also tradition.)

The usual tables were set up with warm foods, nametags, and lists for the new and old folks to find each other. Once everything was set up, it was time to celebrate a new year and the start of a new semester!

[OCD is up! I'm consolidating this down to one post, so bring all your new and old folks over here! Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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"That happens," Rufus said mildly. "The school has a system in place to assign siblings to... help out... new students."

Rufus was deeply regretting having even entertained the thought of signing up for this.

"I'm Rufus," he added. "Your school-assigned sibling."

Congrats, Pinkie! You had a brother now!

"Eeeeeeeeeeee!" Pinkie squealed, and went for a big bear hug. "I've never had a school-assigned sibling before! Or a brother! I've got a couple sisters but no brothers at all this is going to be so great!"

People so rarely tried to hug Rufus--the last had been Peridot, broken beyond sanity--that he didn't register what the hell she was doing until it was too late.

Oh gods, he was being clung to by someone cheerful and excited. It took everything Rufus had to not shove her off of him. Everything he had.

"Yes," he gritted out, stiff as a board. "It will be great." Rufus scrambled for a way to get her off of him. "... Tell me about your sisters?"

He did not care. There were no words for how little he cared. But maybe she'd get excited again and let him go.

Well howdy, it actually worked! Scrambling desperately for freedom would have, too, actually. Pinkie was a hugger, but she knew better than to hang on when the huggee was clearly uncomfortable.

"Well, there's Limestone Pie and Marble Pie, they're twins, but they could not be more different! They're the ones who'll probably take over Mom and Dad's rock business. Maud could, she's the oldest, but she's more interested in the rock science side of things. And then there's me. I'm the pink sheep of the family!" Being, you know, not earth-toned or grey-scale. "And you'll be . . . the peachy kinda pale sheep?"

"That is the colour of my skin," he agreed, relieved enough at being free that he was going to make conversation with... Pinkie. "Though if everyone in your family has different colouration, is there any point to anyone being the sheep of the family?"

Rufus was many things. But never a sheep.

"I think in that metaphor everyone's a sheep," Pinkie noted. "And we're all different shades, sure, but Maud and Limestone and Marble and Mom are shades of gray. And Dad's brown. I kiiiiiinda stand out."

Well.

That was...

"I think you'd stand out even if you were gray or brown."

"Awwwww, thanks!" Rufus, you were her favorite student here so far.

Being the only student she'd met yet, this said absolutely nothing.

"I'm sure you're swell, too. So . . . what's a school-assigned sibling supposed to do?"

"I'm supposed to answer any questions you might have and help you adjust to the school," Rufus said, rather than pointing out that he hadn't meant his last comment as a compliment. "I'm also supposed to warn you that the island is a strange place, as well as occasionally dangerous."

Pinkie waved her hand. "If you mean sometimes it gets attacked by giant magical monsters from another world I so have that handled. Old hat." Though she admittedly had not faced off against any without her friends before. "Ooo, I have a question! How did the school know I was gonna be here when I'm pretty sure I was accidentally knocked through that portal? Is it a semi-sentient entity with omniscience with regards to future events involving the faculty and students?"

So, she wasn't entirely terrible. Rufus would take it. A tiny bit of silver lining.

"That sounds about accurate," he admitted. "Most of the faculty will just shrug and tell you that it's just something the island does. Will you need assistance contacting your home?"

"Good question." Pinkie pulled out her phone -- as brightly colored as the rest of her, yes -- and poked at it a little. "Looks like I've got service, so I should be good, I think!" She tapped furiously away to send a text to the group message, her tongue peeking out of her mouth as she did. "Aaaaand -- it sent!"

The message included a truly excessive amount of emojis.

He pitied her family but supposed they were used to her by now.

"Excellent," he said. Then, since Rufus was trying to not be the worst here, he asked, "Will your appearance here cause you difficulties with your family?"

Oh, she totally didn't send that text to her family.

"Pffft, I bet they'll barely notice I'm gone." Except for all the whipped cream that would be slowly going bad in the refrigerator. "I'll let them know later."

...

Ah, yes. This was likely how Tseng felt all the time while dealing with him.

"... Do I want to know who you let know of your situation, then?"

"My friends, of course!" She showed him her phone, the group text bright and shiny on the screen. It featured tiny avatars of seven various pastel colored teenage girls, all madly texting back to make sure Pinkie was okay. "That's Twilight and Rarity and Applejack and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer."

There'd be a quiz on those names later.

He squinted at the phone, appalled all over again at the sheer amount of colour. And their names. Dear gods, their names.

The sad thing was, he might actually remember them. Rufus had a very good memory.

"They seem to care about you a great deal," he observed. "You have good friends."

"The best!" Pinkie cheered. Like, actually leaped into the air and waved her arms like she was holding pom-poms. "Our friendship is so great we have even used it to save the world. More than once!"

"Ah."

He hated this, the way he kept feeling like he was floundering.

"No wonder you're so unfazed by the concept of this place's difficulties."

"Guess so! I mean, the first time we were attacked by an evil magic demon we were all like 'WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?' but by the second time when the sirens invaded the battle of the bands we were all 'we so got this'."

Weren't you glad you were having this conversation, Rufus?

Not even remotely. Not even remotely.

...

And yet, damn his curiosity.

"Tell me," he asked, "how did the power of friendship fix either of those things?"

"You know," Pinkie said after a moment. "I'm not super sure? I think it's just, like, a really super big reservoir of magical power. When we all worked together we could all tap the power and then we transformed and grew pony ears and changed clothes in mid-air and ZZZZZZZZAPPED! the bad guys with rainbow lasers! Or with our music. Or, oo, one time we all just fed it into Sunset Shimmer and she actually talked the bad guy down!"

... He regretted asking.

"A varied sort of power," he allowed. "It sounds... impressive..."

"I'll say! It's almost as neat is making sprinkles explode."

She was partial to that one, herself.

That sounded terrible. And useless.

"Is that your power?" he wondered. "Or your hobby?"

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

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