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

[bigdamnprincipal]

Despite the not-so-great weather earlier in the week, the weather today looked nice and... well, decent for the end of December, and while the rest of town might still have signs of last week's snow, there were no traces left outside the school. (It just meant one less uncomfortable question for the big siblings to deal with, you're welcome.)

The buffet table was ready, set as far as possible from the glittered-out blue and gold tables and chairs. The winter bonfire was crackling for warmth and food-toasting opportunities. The lists of siblings and roommates had been double-checked. It looked like everything was ready for a picnic!

[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!]

Comments

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord was here, of course. He was really rather expected to be, after all, and he had to admit he was curious about this current batch of kids. Maybe a good look at them would let him get some idea of things they might need to learn in his class this semester.

Yes. That was absolutely why he was here, and not at all so that he could check out the picnic tables to see if there was anything he could bring back to his sick and dying (slightly overdramatic) elf friend.

He could multitask.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

Green but not a Drell. No gills, no nictating. Big. Thumbs in her belt loops, Jack wandered over to Fjord and gestured with her chin at his face. "Good scar," she said the way someone else might've said 'nice eyes' or 'I like your hair'. Definitely with approval.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Huh. Interesting way to start a conversation.

No stranger than anything Beau might say. Fjord decided right away that he could appreciate this woman's directness, too.

"It's one of a handful," he replied, easily. "Have an eye for that sort of thing, have you?"

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

Direct was a word for it. "Yup," she agreed easily, "Got my share. Given my share. I try to make sure there's more latter than former." By a long shot.

"Edged blade, sharp, clean lines, no stitches," she rattled off a second later, "Missed your eye by not much, must've swelled up like a melon. Crossing scar with both lines the same age. So who wanted to leave their mark on your face?"

It looked like the sort of mocking slice she might leave were she someone to let someone live long enough to scar if she had enough reason to take a knife to them in the first place.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord blew out a breath, but so help him, he wasn't going to let the evaulation deter him from keeping that pleasant little smile on his face.

She had a good eye. He respected that.

"Better question is who actually managed," he replied, but didn't answer that question, either. Wasn't like there'd been a shortage of people willing to make the attempt through his life.

Wasn't like canon's dropped that chunk of lore yet, oh no.

"This how you always start conversations?"

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

"Better question is whether you left 'em breathing," she countered, "My answer'd be 'not a chance'. Yours?"

A moment while she reflected on the question. "Don't start many conversations," Jack said with a shrug, "Not really into schmoozy. Never learned." Badly socialized, mostly feral.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

"Fair enough," Fjord replied, looking her over.

Not quite a Beau situation. Reminiscent of. Straightforward. Bad at people.

Trying?

"My answer varies, situation to situation. In this case," he gestured to his face, vaguely. "Let's say it wouldn't happen again."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

Far more scars. Most of them covered by tattoos but that didn't make them less visible if you were actually looking at her.

Definitely trying. Mostly failing. She didn't people well but she hadn't punched anyone yet so it was a banner day all up in here for her.

"My answer doesn't usually change," Jack said. Then grimaced, "Didn't.. usually change. Does now." Trying. "It makes my big dumb brother unhappy otherwise."

Not to mention what Liara thought about it. Liara, however, wasn't here. Jack mentally stuck her tongue out at her because that was the kind of mature goddamn adult she was.

"Good for you, though. Whoever did that's a sadistic f.." You could probably guess what word she bit right off. She knew from sadists.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

He'd met one or two.

Most certainly nothing like she'd known.

Some fairly ugly ones all the same.

"Indeed," he replied, lifting his chin a little. Sizing her up.

She'd be good for these kids, perhaps. Possibly better than he was, anyway. Seemed like she at least had a clue.

More often than not, he didn't.

"Name's Fjord," he added, offering her his hand. "Teaching... some fucked-up excuse for a class about fitting in, I think. Or standing out. That'll be up to the students."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

Fair was fair. She'd sized him up before even walking over.

It took her a second to realize what the hand was for. A flicker of quizzical blankness before memory filled in that blank. Shepard and Kaidan, shaking people's hands. Almost never something offered to her. She quickly took it and shook it, though, when she remembered. The hand was strong and she had calluses and scars all over it but she wasn't even trying to compete for grip. Fjord was huge and she wasn't stupid.

Usually she wasn't. Today she was trying and that made her feel incredibly stupid.

"Jack," she returned, "Civics. Teaching the teens how to recognize when the law ain't justice and what to do about it when that happens."

When. Not if. She had almost no faith in the 'justice' system. Too much experience.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord would be so very amused if he realized so many people were thinking of him as huge.

He was, certainly, by human standards. So far as half-orcs were concerned, he was almost laughably small. Whether that was a result of his rough childhood or something else entirely, even he didn't know.

Maybe didn't want to.

"Important lessons to learn," he noted, making the handshake brief yet firm, also not aiming to make a competition out of it. A handshake was a sign of peace, of greeting. Anybody who made it anything but wasn't worth shaking hands with in the first place. "Important difference to be able to spot. Good."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack was, as far as she knew, entirely human even if her own people kept trying to classify her differently.

"Especially here, now," she said while she let her gaze run over the kids again. Checking on them. Finding nothing to worry about.

"My galaxy's from further in the future. It's not this planet but it's similar enough to be creepy. Real creepy. Not a good time out there." Across the causeway. "My favorite big dumb idiot said a lot of the kids come from places worse off. Figured it'd be some useful life skills."

A beat.

"Better than gladiator training them until they're all good little murderers, anyway."

It had been, after all, the only sort of schooling she'd had.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

"I imagine someone on the faculty would object to that approach," Fjord agreed, frowning thoughtfully. "There'll be combat in my class, most likely, but I'm told the training room has safety protocols in place. Nobody can actually get hurt."

Which was a relief, honestly. He had no idea where this class was going to lead, but he'd seen enough of the students around here to know that someone was going to want to throw a fireball eventually.

"Your class sounds far more practical."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

Beau was chewing on a piece of bacon (that she had grabbed from the table, because she wasn’t dipping into her pocket stash yet) when she wandered over.

“Look at you, all in some like official capacity!” Sorry about the slightly mocking tone, Fjord. Hopefully you were used enough to it by now to know it wasn’t really meant to be?

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Between Beau and Jack, Fjord was going to be a master at figuring that tone out in no time, really.

"Some sort of official capacity if you squint," he replied, grinning crookedly. "Apparently they still intend to let me teach."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

“Aw, man, I guess nobody got my warning in time,” Beau said, then let out the most inelegant snort-laugh. “Huh. You know, this is my first time actually getting a look at the school? Kinda not what I expected.”

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Well, that snort-laugh was met with a grin, at least, and then a pause while Fjord glanced up toward the school.

"Little less school and a little more castle," he agreed. "Threw me right the hell off when I first saw it, too. I expected something a little more... school."

A little less castle.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

"It's super laid back for a school in a castle, right?" Beau gestured toward some of the students. "I was thinking there were going to be uniforms and shit, not . . ."

Was that girl using her hair to walk?

"You know. This."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

One girl was using her hair to walk. Another one looked a little bit like maybe she was half gnome, half tabaxi... At this point, Fjord mostly just took note of all of it, shrugged, and continued on with his day.

Mostly.

"They're letting me teach," he pointed out. "The Soltryce Academy, this place is not."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

"Definitely not an Empire school," Beau agreed. "Which was my only point of reference. You know, from whenever I wasn't ditching class. The whole castle thing had me kind of suspicious, but this looks like it might not totally suck."

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

"I'm not hating it so far," Fjord admitted. "For a castle, it's pretty laid-back on the inside."

Not that Fjord knew what castles usually looked like on the inside, granted.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

“How many castles have you been in, exactly?”

IT WAS AN HONEST QUESTION.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord just smiled crookedly, and then gestured to the school by jerking his thumb toward it over his shoulder.

Exactly that many, Beau.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[notallbluemonks]

“Uh huh,” Beau said, smirking. “Though that’s kinda still one more than I have, so.”

Which was possibly true. It hadn’t been established otherwise in canon yet.

Re: Meet Your Teachers! [Spring 2019]

[built_fjord_tough]

"Well, we can remedy that," Fjord mused. "You're going to need the grand tour sometime if you want to swing by my lessons, after all."