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

The weather held out nicely during the day, and while that meant some of the tables were right out in the warm sun, others had been carefully placed under some shade, and the gentle breeze had cleared at least a little of the glitter up.

It wasn't totally gone, of course. That wouldn't be any fun!

[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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"A rational fear." Hannibal nodded. "I hope it never comes to pass, for both your sakes." Although depending upon how like Hannibal this Galen might be, perhaps the people around him should worry more.

"I myself went to medical school at a much younger age than is common, and have several degrees. Does your father study anything in particular?" He nodded to the beer she hadn't yet touched. "And would you prefer coffee? It's rather like your caf, from what I've been told."

"Crystallography," Jyn said, her hand going to the crystal she wore around her neck. "He wanted to find an energy source that would be able to power any world."

She reached for the beer -- shame on you for corrupting a minor, Hannibal -- and took a sip. "This is fine," she said, deciding she liked it well enough. It wasn't entirely unlike beer she'd had before.

The mention of caf, though, brought a question of her own to mind. "There are people from my galaxy here?"

"A few, I think," Hannibal answered, "although I'm not acquainted with them all." He looked around, but didn't spot Kanan or Hera ~~who had run off to dupe the bus key~~. "I don't see them at the moment." And even if he'd seen him, which he didn't, he wasn't about to introduce the poor girl to Skywalker.

And beer was hardly corruption.

"I've never worked much with energy or crystals myself, but that sounds like a laudable goal. Although I can imagine many ways in which it could be misused."

Galen Erso was definitely more naive than Hannibal Lecter.

Galen Erso was also a pacifist. He was pretty much an anti-Hannibal.

Jyn nodded. "That's what Saw was worried about," she said. She didn't understand a lot of what her father's work was about, but she knew enough that that kind of power in the wrong hands would be very bad.

Now now - Hannibal detested war himself. It was so wasteful and unskilled.

"This Saw sounds like a smart man," Hannibal observed. "And he's the one who sent you here?"

"Yes," Jyn said bitterly. Stupid Saw. Stupid rebellion. "I don't want to be here. I was doing fine where I was."

"I'm sure that you were," Hannibal said. "But perhaps you can do well here, too. This place isn't so bad - we have people from many different times and universes, and there's much to learn from them, even outside of classes."

"I've already learned everything I need to know." Which was basically shooting things, blowing things up, and evading arrest.

"What am I supposed to learn here?" Jyn waved her hand at the picnic. "How to be a good citizen? Fashion and etiquette?"

"Fashion and etiquette can both be remarkably deceptive," Hannibal pointed out, "and useful tools in a number of ways. What is it you think you need to know?"

"How to fight," Jyn said. "How to survive. I've spent the past eight years doing just that."

Hannibal nodded. "Since you are still alive, you do seem to know that. But what would you want to do, if you had a choice?"

Sure, Hannibal, ask the hard questions.

"I don't know," Jyn said after a moment's consideration. "I've never thought about it."

Maybe a scientist like her father, or perhaps study archaeology, as her mother had done.

"Here, for the most part," Hannibal said, "you won't have to worry about surviving or fighting. And when you do, I have no doubt you'll be ready for it. While you're here, you can begin to think about what you might want to do. Explore new ideas. Learn things because they delight you, instead of because you need to."

That made sense in a way. Jyn's childhood had been ripped away eight years ago, and she'd never had the luxury of dreaming about the future. But still, she was stubborn.

"What about the rebellion?" she said. "They need me. We were making a difference! That's more important." Clearly all was lost without her.

Hannibal had only educated guesses about this "rebellion", but he was reasonably certain that it would survive without her.

"The more things you learn, the more experience you get, the more you'll be able to bring back to them," he pointed out. "The things you find you enjoy the most despite their lack of utility may turn out to be just what you need later on."

Jyn crossed her arms and made a face. "Now you really sound like my father," she said. She could easily imagine him saying the very same things.

Hannibal chuckled. "I will choose to take that as a compliment. To put it another way, then - since you are here, you might as well make the best of it. It would be a shame not to learn everything you can, to get every advantage you can."

"I'll try," Jyn said grudgingly. She still wanted to go home and fight, she still was mad at Saw for abandoning her, and now her heart ached for her real father, but if she was stuck here, she might as well try to learn something.

"That is all you can ever do," Hannibal said. Hannibal would not have agreed with Yoda.

He eyed Jyn. "I am not your father, but some other man very like me is. Should you need anything at all while you are here - advice, assistance, answers, or something more material - I would consider it an honor if you were to ask me. Although I should warn you, I adore feeding people, and am very likely to ply you with food," he said more lightly.

"Thank you," Jyn said quietly. It was strange feeling a connection to Hannibal when he wasn't really her father. She wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Good food will be a big change from what I'm used to," she said. "You don't get many choices when you're constantly on the run and hiding from stormtroopers."

"I can imagine," Hannibal said. "I spent time as a child in less ideal circumstances myself; I now make it my practice to appreciate what I have. And I quite enjoy cooking whenever I can. My kitchen is always open to those who need it."

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

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