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

The lawn was arranged with tables and chairs - some near the food, some not - and there was plenty of food to go around. The school had even wised up and put to-go boxes by the plates, so people didn't have to put food in their pockets to take it with them for later. No one was gonna judge you for making some pocket bacon, but at least now it wasn't a necessity.

[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!]

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Tip had been to enough of these now to have a system down pat. She even had her usual spot to people-watch from.

It was fun to watch the newbies' brains slowly break down.

"WINTERIZE!"

... Please excuse Sparkle. He was a clothing shop owner on a mission and he had a large number of bundled scarves, hats, and winter gloves to burn through, here.

So that was why a bundle of deep red ones were being tossed at one of the new kids, there. You're welcome, Trevor.

"Incoming!"

Why yes, that was a small bundle consisting of a winter scarf, some gloves, and a hat, all being thrown Entrapta's way. Yes, they were purple. Sparkle could appreciate a good colour scheme when he saw one.

It took Sparkle a moment of rummaging before he managed to locate a set of winter gear that looked like maybe it would fit this particular new kid. But he wasn't going to let 'looks suspiciously like a cat' stop Sparkle from more or less dive-boming this kid with a bundle of winter gear - a scarf, some gloves, and a winter hat - all in a shade of kind of earthy orange-brown.

"Welcome to Fandom!"

Sparkle was hell-bent on nipping the whole, 'influx of very cold people who don't understand winter' thing in the bud. If he didn't recognize 'em, he was throwing winter gear at 'em.

Mae was from the mountains; she was actually perfectly well equipped for winter. But she was not going to turn down a free hat.

"Thanks! Does this come with hot cocoa, too?"

Astrid had only gotten back that morning; she'd only even known she was coming back two days ago, after another long week of meetings with her case worker and lawyers and just wanting to visit her mother again, but it wasn't allowed. She still wasn't sure if she wanted to be back; the short term house she was staying in was nice, the people were terribly kind and the other kids left her alone. They gave everyone a few presents for Christmas, nothing much, dollar store trinkets or donated things, and she knew that if she stayed in California, she'd be reassigned to a family like Starr and Uncle Ray again, but that didn't seem so bad if it meant getting to visit Ingrid more often.

At the same time, being so close and not being allowed to visit was achingly painful. She could feel her mother's presence through every pore of her skin, every blood cell flowing through her veins, but she couldn't see her or hear her or touch her...

...the distance, she hoped, would help dull the pain of longing. She thought about just hiding out in her room, maybe get started on a new painting for the semester, but she also thought maybe being around people would create enough noise to block out all the thoughts swimming in her head, the conflict of being both relieved to be back and wishing she wasn't, the chaos of a heart being pulled in two opposite directions.

She grabbed some food, but she wasn't very hungry. It remained mostly untouched while she bent over her sketchbook, back to drawing out the things she saw when she peeked up and through the curtain of blonde hair, just like the first picnic, probably just like every picnic from here on in.

Trevor dropped his plate of food in order to defend himself properly against... some clothing. "Do I look like I need charity?"

Yes. A little bit.

"There's got to be cocoa at the tables," Sparkle mused, "but if you show up at the clothing shop sometime, hit me up and I'll make you some."

It was Coffee Crisp flavoured.

It was divine.

"Doing the same thing for all the new students," Sparkle rattled off, because...

Yes. Yes you did, Trevor.

But he'd been one of those kids who had looked like he'd needed it once, too. He understood pride.

"Part of the Fandom Island welcome package."

And here Mae had been drinking regular marshmallowed cocoa all these years like a sucker.

"You own a clothing shop and you're just giving winter gear away? Even I know that's not how you make money."

Which did not mean she disapproved at all.

"Boots and jackets, people have to pay for," Sparkle rattled off easily. "Either that, or I'm just a total sucker."

It was possible he was a sucker.

He tended to give those things away too.

These picnics were going to be the death of him. But, Prompto reasoned that, since he didn't exactly gorge himself on food while in Hyrule, plus there was all that fighting and traveling and running around, he could let himself indulge a little with a couple slices of pizza, right?

...he'd regret it in an hour or so, but, hey, once this was all over and the new kids were getting settled, he could always just ease his mind about it at the gym.

One good thing about being ~~obsessed with~~ particular about your food? When you did give in, it was, like, a million times better than when you ate it regularly. This pizza was practically divine right now.

Mae had her money on total sucker, yeah. But a cool kind of sucker. You know, for a grown up.

"So it's more of a 'the first one's free to get them hooked' kind of a deal."

"Clothing and food. Might think you're running a charity." One that, you know, actually worked. Unlike the shitty Church ones back home.

That he was not allowed near because damnation, hellfire, blah blah blah.

"Sure," Sparkle laughed, "get people all fucked up on winter warmness and then make 'em pay for their next hit."

At highly discounted rates.

Sucker.

"Eh, food has nothing to do with me." He paused. "Anyway, I need to empty my bag so I can run off with some of that, myself."

Never let it be said Sparkle wasn't willing to swallow his pride for the sake of smuggling some dinner rolls back home, okay.

"That's the way it usually works, yeah." Mae didn't have a high opinion of capitalism. "So where's this store of yours?"

She might have to come by and steal something.

That Trevor would accept as a valid reasoning for shoving free clothing at him. He nodded, maybe a little grateful to not have to fight having something warm to wear out of his sense of pride.

"Most of it seems edible."

Because he knew so little about what any of it was.

"Next door to the ice cream shop, across from the park," Sparkle rattled off, gesturing in that direction. "It's called Demon Marcus." A beat. "I didn't name it."

An actual half-demon had, though. It balanced out.

"It all more or less is," Sparkle confirmed. "Maybe various degrees of edible, but none of it'll kill you if you put it in your mouth and swallow."

"Did your dad name it?"

Cause that sounded like a dad-joke name.

That phrasing definitely got a side-eye from Trevor. Who was just completely unable to take that in the perfectly innocent way it was intended. Probably because Warren Ellis.

"Can't be worse than anything else I've eaten."

And Sidon, of course, was there, taking the occasional break for pizza or sushi offerings from the buffet table in between energetic and enthusiastically trying to meet all the new people, because he was Sidon, and that was just what he did.

Also, it never really hurt to have a giant red shark fellow running around to get some pretty good gawking out of his incoming peers.

Oh, hell, yeah. Warren Ellis had that effect on people.

"Probably isn't," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "It's better than most of the shit I grew up on, anyway." He paused. "There are fridges in the dorms, you'll want to put your name on your package of food so nobody runs off with it, but it'll keep longer if you put your food in there." A pause. "And if someone does take it, kick their asses."

He was helpful.

"My dad is an asshole and doesn't even get the satisfaction of naming me," Sparkle said, in that bright, too-casual tone he reserved for just before he was about to break into a huge series of absolute bullshit statements if he was pressed on the matter.

He had a last name, sure. On paper. Somewhere.

He hadn't spoken it in years. That wasn't about to change any time soon.

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

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