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

Sure, someone could question just how all that ice cream was staying cold and not-melty without any immediately apparent means of refrigeration?

But really, of all the should-be-impossible things Fandom makes possible on a near-daily basis, this one at least was fairly benign. And delicious. So shh, don't question it, just enjoy it.

[OCD 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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"I don't know," Ringo scowled, the expression clearly directed at herself. "It's like, nothing I say ever seems to help. I mean, when she's having a tough time." Because if Ringo couldn't help, she didn't know what to do for Kathy.

She sighed, shaking her head. "And, it, it wasn't just Kathy. Everything just felt so, I don't know. Off. Even hanging out with you felt, I don't know. Different somehow?"

She was clearly having a hard time articulating, well, whatever it was that was inside her head.

"Why's everything got to be about helping her anyway? Just be a friend," Dante said, frowning, though that last part-- "Different how?"

"But friends help each other," Ringo objected. She shook her head. "And I don't know?"

A frustrated scowl flashed across her face. "That's what's so aggravating. I can't, you know, explain anything."

"Just be there," Dante sighed. "Look, I know words suck, but you're not makin' any sense at all right now."

Ringo scowled again, and while most of the expression was still directed at herself, part of it was aimed at Dante. "You think I don't know that?" It was part of what was so frustrating about it all: it didn't make any sense!

Dante... was just going to go and hold up his hands.

Fuck if he knew.

Yeah. To be fair, Ringo wasn't expecting him to offer much. He'd never been the sort to talk about feelings, after all. Besides, if Ringo couldn't figure things out from inside her own head, how could she expect someone else to do it for her.

Her lips twitched upward into a bitter little smile. "See?" she said softly. "Different." And she knew it was probably on her.

"I'm not any different," Dante said. "But talking to you is more like watching you fight with yourself for half an hour until I get hungry or bored."

"Sorry I'm boring."

Not what he'd said.

Then her expression softened, becoming genuinely apologetic.

"Actually, I guess I'm sorry I'm," she fell silent, shrugging helplessly as she gestured at herself, "me."

Dante rolled his eyes. "You were always a pain in the ass, but not like this," he said. "Look, I don't care, if you wanna spend every conversation stuck in your head, it's not bothering me. Clearly is bothering you, though."

She nodded jerkily.

"Yeah. It is. I just, I don't know, want to go back to how things used to be." When life was simpler.

"When'd you start tying yourself up in knots like this?" Dante said. "Maybe that's a good place to start."

Ringo shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted unhappily. "I didn't really notice. Maybe it had been when Kathy had died. Maybe it had been when she'd come back. Maybe it had been the thing with Dante's brother.

Or maybe it hadn't been any one thing. Just a slow accumulation of experiences that Ringo didn't know how to process properly.

"... A lot of stuff happened," Dante said. "It's not any of that?"

"Maybe it is? Maybe it's all of it?" Ringo let out a frustrated growl. "Or maybe it's all just in my stupid head."

Dante shrugged. "Or maybe yelling at yourself's not useful."

She rolled her eyes, but there wasn't much heat in it. "You got a better suggestion?"

Other than 'almost anything else'?

"Either sit down and think this through or get really drunk and forget about it?" Dante suggested.

"I tried the first some," Ringo sighed. "It hasn't worked yet."

Her eyes grew distant.

"Maybe I should try the drunk thing." It usually seemed to work for Dante, after all.

Dante opened his mouth.

Then he remembered the last time Ringo'd gotten drunk.

He shut it.

Then: "Maybe not," he said. "You suck at it."

Ringo rolled her eyes and flipped Dante off.

"Then do you have any actual advice?" She didn't sound like she had much hope that he did.

"Stop being aggressively weird at people and yelling at yourself in public?" Dante said. "Talk to a therapist or whatever?"

"If no one who knows me has any good advice why would I go to some total stranger?" That idea just seemed crazy to Ringo.

Even though it probably was really good advice. Clearly not something Ringo was good at taking.

"'Cause they're total strangers trained to help with shit like that?" Dante said, shrugging with his hands as well as his shoulders. "Like, fuck, Ringo, I don't know. If running away for months still makes you come back a worse pain in the ass than usual, maybe the usual's not what you should be doing."

"Okay, Mister Expert-on-this-stuff-now," Ringo shot him a half-hearted glare and planted her hands on her hips. "Got any recommendations?"

Re: General Mingling [Fall 2017]

rebelseekspizza - 2017-09-01 10:48 (UTC) - Expand

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