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

Everyone had been keeping a close eye on the weather, and gave a sigh of relief as it turned out to be a pretty decent day. Sure, it was still a little warm, but it wasn't humid, or raining something strange. You had to take your wins where you could get them around here.

As usual, there was a buffet of food awaiting the folks on the welcome shuttle, and blue and gold tables and chairs were set up across the lawn, most still covered in glitter from the last picnic. Sorry ~~not~~! Happy picnic day!

[OCD is 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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"I can only imagine," said Amaya, shaking her head a little, "on account of the fact that that's pretty much how the other guy turned up here, too, shipwrecked, only he had the benefit of having been here before. You, I'm guessing, not so much."

She sighed a little, brushing her hands on her skirt and then adjusting her gloves as if getting ready to work on something. "We'll have to make sure to get you up to the office at some point, see if we can't straighten out a few things with the staff and that moose. Until then, you might as well stick around and enjoy yourself, the picnic's quite the event. To catch you up to speed, though, you're at a place called Fandom Island, that castle over there's a school for probably the most interesting bunch of teenagers you'll ever meet, and according to the moose, you'll be one of the teachers. Like I said, this wouldn't be the first time someone's just washed up on shore with the expectations already in place but that gives you a good idea about what kind of place this is. Go ahead and ask me questions; I'm sure you've got plenty."

Fjord hesitated, mouth slightly open, looking, not for the first time today, like he was at a bit of a loss.

"I was expected here," he noted, carefully. "And you asked for me by name. How is that possible? And I've never heard of a 'Fandom Island,' before. The sky was all wrong this morning, before the sun rose."

That last part wasn't so much a question as him attempting to circle back to something like a question again. It wasn't entirely coming together into one anyway.

Those were all very, very good points and questions and confusing facts, Fjord, but all Amaya could really offer you was an apologetic expression and a shrug.

"I'm always inclined to say a wizard did it," she said, "but everyone else seems to just insist that that's how the island is. Weird kinda magic around this place, but it's not a malicious kind, not usually. Some of the more science-inclined types call it a multiverse, but that might be getting a little ahead of ourselves for now. Where ever you were before, you're not there now, and the only way to get back is these things called portals. Some people can come in and out of 'em with ease, other people have a bit more trouble. Not sure which category you'll land in, but you'll find out in due time."

She gave him a bit of a wry smile. "And now I'm starting to sound like a madwoman, I'll bet..."

"It's the best explanation I've heard for any of this so far," Fjord noted, returning her wry smile with one of his own. "Until I find one that makes more sense, I suppose that will have to do."

It would, if nothing else, explain the stars.

"The weird magic," he said, after a pause. "The not usually malicious kind. What can you tell me about that?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Amaya admitted. "I've never been one to glean to magic, but, outside of things like your current situation, it usually manifests into weird little weekends when you'll wake up thinking your a vampire or being a kid again. I'll admit, it really messed me up at first, but, honestly, you kind of get used to it, and the worst that happens is you're a little embarrassed about it, but it's not so bad since mostly everyone else went through it, too."

She shrugged. "Harmless, really, but strange and peculiar none-the-less."

Fjord's grimace grew to the point where his bottom teeth were very nearly visible as well. Re-living his childhood seemed... like not a great time.

"Harmless and peculiar," he replied. "Got it."

He blew out a faintly exasperated breath. So, first item of business on his to-do list was going to be food. And then trying to find out if it was possible to make his way back to the Dwendalian Empire. Preferably before he spent a weekend as a kid.

"You wouldn't happen to have any advice for how I proceed from here? Places in town worth visiting, people who would be good to know...?"

"Picnic here's a good place to start, I guess," Amaya said with a nod after a little bit of thought. "It's a pretty big social gathering for the island as a whole, so you'll likely be able to run into most of the residents while you're here. Beyond that, like I said, checking in with the office up at the school," she hitched her thumb that way, "might not hurt, they might have some more information for you. People are mostly friendly, there's a few places like the apartments and the hotel that can offer lodgings if you need those, general store," a faint wistful smile for that one, "post office, the bank's real good about converting whatever currency you're used to into what they use here. I'll be happy to show you around a bit, if you like. That's pretty much what I'm here for. And if it turns out the only thing that's arranged for you is that you're teaching, I've got some space in my shop if you need it before you get yourself situated."

General store, hotel, apartments, bank... Fjord tried to make a mental note of all of it, and then just wound up nodding in resignation before turning a faint, grateful smile back toward Amaya.

"Thank you," he said, sincerely. "Being shown around would indeed be a great help, and I'm not opposed to making camp if need be, but even a temporary offer of a roof over my head is most kind."

Especially since he didn't have a whole hell of a lot to his name, and a handful of copper coin probably wasn't going to convert tidily to enough money to rent a room for the night.

Amaya nodded, smiling faintly, and feeling pretty good. Being helpful was sort of what she did best, really, even in the small ways. Especially in the small ways.

"Think nothing of it," she said. "It's the least I can do. Almost a shame I got rid of my last place and got something smaller to suit my own needs, otherwise I could have offered you a whole room. Now the thing that's got me real curious all of a sudden is...if you weren't expecting to be here, but they've already got you pegged to teaching, what do you think it's likely to be?"

"Likely?" Fjord considered that for a moment. "I suppose the most obvious choice would be something to do with sailing, or navigation," he suggested. "I have spent quite a few years working merchant ships along the Menagerie Coast. I can't think of much of anything else I'd really be qualified to teach."

The magic thing... was new. And a class about making friends seemed a little bit out there.

When he said sailing, Amaya looked a little surprised for a second, the expression flashing across her face for a moment before she turned thoughtful. "You don't say," she murmured, shaking his head. "The last one I got as a Buddy was also a sailor. If it weren't for the two of you sounding different and you being...well...green, I'd almost think the problem was me and I'm in some sort of a time loop. Guess the moose just likes matchin' me up with sailors, which I don't mind, though. Spent a good deal of my youth around merchants and pirates."

"Apparently the green's a bit distinctive around here," Fjord replied, smiling wryly as he glanced around.

Yeah. Not a wealth of green people.

"But it's good to know I can depend on somebody who knows not just what to expect here, but a thing or two about what it is I came from, as well."

"So where are you coming from, anyway?" Amaya asked. "Not that I'm likely to have heard of it, people seem to come from all over around here, even outer space, but you never know."

"I came from Port Damali, along the Menagerie Coast," Fjord offered. "First thing I noticed about this place was that the sky is down one moon and the stars are completely wrong, if any of that means anything to you?"

"I get the stars thing," Amaya nodded reassuringly. "I'm no navigator or astrologer, but some things are just hard not to notice. We've only got the one moon where I'm from, so that didn't seem so different. Two moons, though, really? That has got to seem pretty strange to see."

"Two moons isn't strange when it's all you ever knew," Fjord pointed out. "The night sky here is so dark by comparison. One is more faint, but it still makes for quite the shock when you look up and suddenly you're missing part of the sky."

That brought a little bit of a shudder out of Amaya, even though she knew the visceral response she had to Fjord just describing it would never even come close to what it must feel like to actually have the experience itself.

"That sounds a lot like someone you never really quite get used to, either," she said, "though I'll admit, there's a lot of things around here that might surprise you, how soon you get used to 'em. Tell me, Fjord, you guys got electricity in your two-moon world?"

"Like... lightning?"

No. That would be a no.

Amaya couldn't help grinning a little at that. "Just you wait until you get a load of electricity," she said. "It'll blow your mind."

Hopefully not literally. "It's....like the energy in lightning, only concentrated into machines to make them run. Not like magic, though. It's not magic, it's science!" And her eyes lit up as she said it. "What this place lacks in moons it makes up for in technology."

"Well then..." Fjord smiled a little. "That sounds like something I'll just have to see for myself. It sounds pretty fascinating."

"Oh, it's great," Amaya said with enthusiasm. "And it's everywhere. I'm pretty sure all the buildings on this island are equipped with it, maybe with a few exceptions. They've also got these here," she dug her phone out of her pocket. "They're communication devices. Again, all machine, no magic! You just put in a number and you can talk to anyone through it! Much faster than letters, though I wish it were a little more user friendly. It's a bit of a hassle that I have to take my gloves off if I want to do anything that involves needing to touch the screen."

Oh yeah, Fjord was kind of entranced, now.

"Communication devices? How does that little thing work, exactly?"

Because 'put in a number' and 'talk through it' weren't actually as helpfully descriptive as one might think, for someone who had never encountered a telephone.

Amaya was pretty quick to pick up on the technology, it was true, but the details of it...

"It's science!" she repeated, with all the enthusiasm of someone who'd only recently discovered it, fell in love with it, but still didn't really comprehend it entirely. "It uses little tiny pieces of metal to transfer energy and information. Go ahead," she held out the phone for him to take if he wanted to take a closer look, "check it out. You can take it apart if you want, too, I don't mind. I've busted up and pieced this thing back together more times than I can count."

It never...quite worked as well afterwards each and every time, but not to the point where it was problematic, except those first few times.

"I don't think I'll go so far as to take it apart," Fjord said wryly, though he was reaching to take the phone to inspect it all the same. "But, ah, I see."

Poking at the little pictures on the surface made it do things. What those things were, he wasn't sure, exactly. But definitely things.

This is really unlike anything I've ever seen before."

"And that's just the beginning, big guy," said Amaya, folding her arms in front of her and grinning a little as he poked around the phone. "Welcome to Fandom Island."

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

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