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

[bigdamnprincipal]

Over on this part of the school lawn... yeah, it was still chilly. Stupid winter, doing its winter thing. But there were plenty of chairs and tables for people watching, feasting on warm foods and drinks, and generally attempting to meet the new folks!

[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!]

Comments

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

Uma nodded; that made sense in her worldview. Auradon was set up much the same way; King Beast and Queen Belle ruled over the whole country, but the smaller states were kingdoms in their own right. Triton ruled Atlantica, Jasmine and Aladdin ruled Agrabah, and then the Isle was a small chunk nobody wanted.

"So you came here to go to school?" she asked. "Up at the castle?" She gave him a distinctly unimpressed look. "You a prince or something?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

Norman almost laughed at that. Almost.

"Not even remotely a prince," he replied. "I've almost been burned at the stake by an angry mob, before. I'm not really what anyone would consider royalty."

Stupid angry mobs, anyway.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"Burned at the stake, huh?" Uma sounded intrigued, but not like she was entirely buying it. She'd grown up listening to the wild tales that villains liked to spin about their old glory days and what they'd do if the spell surrounding the island fell. "Why?"

What kind of place was this 'Massachusetts' if it tried to burn people--especially kids--alive?

That's right, Norman. Uma was judging your culture.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

Norman briefly considered a reply about how it all started when he'd failed to read a little girl a bedtime story, but figured that probably wouldn't go over well here, either.

"They were afraid," he replied, instead, simply. "Why else would they want to?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"Because sometimes people have to turn around and find someone weaker than them to make them suffer so they can feel strong," Uma said, lip curling.

She didn't realize how much she'd given away with that single sentence. It was a fact of life that every kid on the Isle grew up with.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

That was quite a lot, wasn't it? Norman nodded a little, chewing on his lip for a second before coming up with a reply.

"That, too," he agreed. "Not everybody does cruel things because they're afraid."

Sometimes they did cruel things because they were hurt, or jealous, or because they wanted to stop feeling small. And sometimes, the cruel just enjoyed being cruel.

"Not that I'm anything to be afraid of, anyway," Norman added. "Angry mobs can also be pretty stupid."

Angry mobs were fantastic at being stupid.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

She studied him frankly. "Yeah," she agreed. "You don't look like you need a whole mob to take you out." Again, sorry kid, but you kinda looked like a stiff wind would knock you over. "So what were they afraid of?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

Eh, Norman wasn't about to take it personally. She wasn't exactly wrong, after all. And he'd even grown some since he was eleven.

"Zombies, curses, witches," he replied. "Things they didn't understand, mostly."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"So why take it out on you?" Uma asked. "Are you a witch?"

She was actually eager to know the answer to that. She was the daughter of a sea-witch somewhere that didn't block all magic. If there were witches around who could teach her some stuff, that would be really cool.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"Not me, no," Norman replied. "And the one they thought was a witch wasn't really, either. Not until after they hurt her."

And there was a long and depressing story, right there.

"I was the one who was telling them not to hurt the zombies, I guess."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"Zombies?" Uma asked.

Sorry, wrong kind of fantasy canon.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"Um..." Norman shrugged a little. "Dead bodies, standing up and walking around again. Movies and stuff always have them eating people's brains, but these ones weren't interested in that at all. They just wanted to make amends for something horrible they did before they died."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"That sounds like some proper magic," Uma said. No wonder she'd never heard of them. There was no magic on the Isle and very little any more in Auradon. "So these other folks saw you talking to the zombies and decided you needed to be burned for it? Like that might maybe make the zombies go away?"

People were so stupid.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"... More or less, yeah," Norman sighed. "It didn't happen, obviously. But it was way too close for comfort."

And he probably would have been angry about it, afterwards. Blithe Hollow really couldn't have handled him and Aggie freaking out like horror-show poltergeists, tearing apart the town from the afterlife.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

...But would that have been so bad? Kinda sounded like it'd had it coming.

"What happened?" Uma asked. "Instead?"

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

Oh, it'd had it coming for three-hundred years.

"Well," Norman said with a shrug, "my sister and a friend of mine-" and his friend's brother, and the school bully, "-started yelling at the angry mob, and then we took off with one of the zombies to find the ghost who had cursed them and who was tearing up the town."

He shrugged again. Seemed like the thing to do while he was kind of awkwardly worried that it sounded like he was bragging.

"It got messy. But it turned out okay."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"Sounds complicated," Uma said. "And like the ghost maybe had some good reasons."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"She did," Norman replied, giving a firm nod. "She really, really did. She was mad at the people who killed her. She wanted them to suffer the way she'd suffered."

You know. The zombies.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

Hell yeah. Uma could definitely go along with that vendetta.

"So she got what she wanted in the end?"

He'd said it had worked out okay in the end!

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"For three centuries," Norman agreed. "And then she found peace again."

He could understand the vendetta. He'd gotten angry, too. One of the few things he'd ever encountered that had actually made him livid. But it had been time for Aggie to rest.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"So, that's what a happy ending sounds like," Uma reflected. "Huh."

Auradon's versions had nothing on this one.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"I guess it sort of is, yeah," Norman replied. "I'm sorry she had to suffer for three centuries right along with them. But when she left, she was... she was okay. She was better."

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"So who got sent to the Isle?" was Uma's normal and very obvious follow-up question.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[always_someone]

"To the isle?"

Norman wasn't following.

Re: General Mingling [Spring 2018]

[refused2berescued]

"Yeah," Uma said. "Who got sent to the Isle? There was the happy ending, which means that there was true love's kiss and then the villain was sent of to the Isle. Or if they were dead, resurrected and sent to the Isle."

And she didn't really care about who did the kissing.