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

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

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

The fall semester was about to get into full swing, but summer wasn't about to let go of the island just yet. The sun was out, the temperature was holding steady at a comfortable 80F/27C, and most importantly, the tables were beglittered.

Speaking of tables, there were of course the ones that were filled with a vast array of food and drink, and also the ones with nametags and lists to facilitate the meeting of new roommates and siblings.

There was room to sit, room to sprawl, room to walk around and mingle... and it was a big lawn, so if you needed to get away from the crowd for a bit, room for that too.

[OCD Up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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Aloy's hand shot up for her Focus the moment Tip pulled out her phone. "What is that?" she asked, her private holographic HUD informing her primly that what Tip was holding was 'primitive', build year... "A communications device?"

"Yep. Called a 'phone'. You can talk to other people who have one, either voice or text, or take and send pictures, or access the internet -- a big information and communication repository. And it has games and music and stuff. Where I'm from, it's pretty much a standard issue, must-have kind of deal." She tilted her head. "Do you mind if I ask, what do you keep touching?"

It was a good thing Tip had rattled off all the functions like that, because beyond the name the Focus had given the machine ('communications device'), she'd had nothing. Not even a full understanding of what 'communications device' even meant.

"My Focus?" she said. "It lets me see things."

Tip frowned. "Like . . . for near-sightedness?"

That didn't seem quite right, but hey, there were probably people out there who thought glasses were absurd.

Aloy blinked. "No," she said. "Like machines."

"It lets you see machines better?" Bill lifted up from his perch on her hair and circled her head excitedly. Tip glanced up at him. "Is that something Boov have?"

NO, spelled Bill in Boov. And continued circling.

"Right," Tip said. "I don't think either of us quite follow what you mean, there."

Aloy sighed the sigh of someone who had long given up explaining the Focus to anyone - 'anyone' mainly being Rost. "When I look at your machine with my Focus, it tells me it's a communications device," she said. "When I look at machines out into the wild, I can see their patterns and their weaknesses. Among other things."

"Huh. Your world has wild machines?" She'd actually heard weirder. For instance. . . . "What does it say about Bill?"

[ooc: Bill is a tiny insect shaped sentient robot who blows bubbles to spell messages. He was built as a billboard.]

Aloy sighed, her fingers sliding up to activate the Focus as she looked at the little thing.

"It's not particularly sturdy," she said, "Seems to be all displays and rotors. Though the processing part looks a little bigger than I'm used to."

"What do you think, Bill?" Tip asked.

Bill rambled on a good bit in bubbles above their heads.

Tip frowned. "Um. . . ."

Bill gave a little loop by way of a sigh and then spelled YES.

"Pretty good assessment," Tip concluded. "He's a billboard who accidentally developed sentience. That's pretty cool."

"Aren't most machines sentient? Like animals?" Aloy said. "Besides what the Old Ones left behind."

"Wow. Um, no? Not around here. Or my world. Animals where you're from are sentient? Like, they communicate and have a concept of themselves as existential individuals?"

Sure, Fandom had the squirrels, but Tip still wasn't used to thinking of animals like that.

"Like animals," Aloy repeated. "They graze and some of them work in groups... some don't."

That sounded more like instinct to Tip than sentience, but hey, she wasn't exactly a philosopher, so she didn't figure it was worth arguing about.

"Well, there aren't really any machines around here that do that. There are probably some that are students, but in the preserve and stuff I'm pretty sure it's all just animals and plants."

In Aloy's worldview, animals were sentient. Just a tasty kind of sentient.

"So no machines like that anywhere in the woods," Aloy said. "Check."

"Right." Tip nodded. "I feel like we got off track. What other questions do you have?"

"I don't suppose you have any other handy tips on getting home?" Aloy asked.

Dryly.

"You could try Portalocity," Tip said. "But I gather most folks who don't come here on purpose get locked in for at least a few weeks. You might like it here anyway, though."

"The man who raised me, Rost, he's going to be worried if I'm gone," Aloy said. "This place seems interesting, but he should know I'm alive, at least."

"You could try sending him a letter? The post office here delivers to all sorts of worlds."

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

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