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 weather was warm, the food smelled good, and there was a good chance the new folks were a little extra glittery. What else could go into a perfect day for the picnic?

[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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"Short of actually spending a few months here themselves, maybe?" Keyleth grinned wryly. "Unfortunately probably not."

"And nobody wants that," Norman said, gravely. "I'm pretty sure my dad would spend at least the first three months complaining about how ridiculous and impossible everything is, and my mom would spend it going around and comparing notes about interdimensional horoscopes or something."

Keyleth laughed a little bit. "So no chance it might end up being good for them, huh? You never know!"

Yeah, probably not.

"Well," Norman mused, "maybe some time around here would finally teach dad that you don't need a screwdriver in order to change a lightbulb."

... Perry Babcock was a special soul.

"That someone would not be me," Keyleth said, "since I didn't know that until just now either, but thanks for the free life lesson!"

"It's an important life lesson," Norman noted, "unless you like being electrocuted? It's kind of a wonder my father isn't a ghost yet, too."

Norman loved his family. He really did.

But he'd be the first to call them kinda dumb.

"There isn't really electricity where I'm from," Keyleth replied, a bit sheepishly, "so it's probably a really good thing you did tell me that."

Neither she nor Jules would likely be the best choices for the job if a lightbulb in their dorm room needed to be changed. The More You Know!

"Yeah, I can picture that going... not well," Norman replied, grimacing a little. "Tell you what... if you ever have trouble with any electric stuff, let me know. I might not always be able to fix it, but I should at least be able to tell you if something is a job for a professional if I can't."

"Sure! I mean, I don't know how often it'd come up, but I can do that." Keyleth flashed him a smile. "I'd really appreciate the help, too. The only thing I know about electricity is lightning, and I'm a long way off from being able to control the weather."

"You and me both, there," Norman replied, giving a bit of a lopsided smile. "With the weather thing."

Presumably, if Aggie had been able to do it after dying, he ought to be able to do it while alive.

But, uh, Aggie also had three centuries of pain and anger to work that stuff out with.

So...

"Wait, really?" And now Keyleth was staring at him a little bit wide-eyed, in an awed sort of way. "That's a thing you might be able to do?"

"I, um, I'm not sure," Norman admitted, after a pause. "Mostly I haven't gotten very far past making light and drawing summoning runes for ghosts I'm on a first-name basis with..."

Fidget. Fidget.

"But if I'm anything like this other person I knew who was like me, then maybe? Eventually?"

"That would make sense," Keyleth decided after a moment of thinking it over and chewing on her thumbnail. "It'd be so useful, too. If you ever figure it out, I'd love to know, okay?"

"I'll let you in on the secret if I ever manage to get that far past 'glowy lights,'" Norman promised with a little smile. "I'm not entirely sure I ever will, but... it would be pretty cool, right?"

Maybe?

"I'll be rooting for you," Keyleth said, with a double thumbs-up to emphasize it. "I'd offer to help, but I'm not sure how magic works differently in your world than it does in mine, and that could just get . . . messy."

"That's fair," Norman replied. "Better safe than sorry. I had a teacher actually from Earth for a while, but he's not living on the island anymore...

And 'living' was a pretty loosely-used term for what Bob did anywhere.

"Well . . ." Keyleth chewed on her lower lip and looked contemplative for a moment or two. "Maybe you could show me what you do know, sometime? The specifics might be different, but there could be some general principles that would still help. Focusing techniques, or something like that."

Not that she thought she was remotely qualified to teach, but the urge to be a supportive friend won out here.

"Actually, that would be great," Norman replied, smiling a little more. "At this point what I've got to work with is... mostly just books, you know? From the shop. The ones that Bob didn't set aside as total trash, though I'm still not convinced that they're all relevant to at least somebody, somewhere. The whole all the realities thing, you know?"

He smiled crookedly at that.

"Any little bit helps, even if it's just stuff to help focus. I get nervous."

Keyleth laughed a little bit, shakily.

"Oh, I definitely know that feeling. Yeah. I'd love to help you out with that, at least."

Norman smiled. And then held a finger up in the air and, in a faint, green-glowing light, drew a simple flower.

It wasn't really able to go anywhere, but look, Keyleth! He could give you flowers, too!

"Thank you. I mean that. Thanks so much, Keyleth."

Because his direction otherwise mostly kind of hinged on things he'd been told by people who weren't here, and trial and error.

Sometimes, mostly error.

Maybe it couldn't really go anywhere, but Keyleth's face lit up anyway, because she could appreciate the gesture.

"Aw, it's so pretty, Norman," she exclaimed, looking absolutely delighted. She made a quick gesture of her own, murmured a few words in the druidic language, and for a moment or two the trill of a songbird could be heard just beside the flower.

"It's a gift that can feel like a burden sometimes," she said, a touch of sadness flickering across her face. "Boy, do I know that. So if I can help you share it at all, I'm happy to do that."

That songbird trill got a big, warm smile out of Norman for a few moments, a fitting counterpoint to his flower even as both the sound and the light faded away in tandem. He glanced back up at Keyleth, and...

Oh, that sadness. That, he didn't miss.

And so his smile softened a little.

"Nobody should have to shoulder their burdens alone..."

You included, Kiki.

Except she couldn't really get into the habit of relying on people, could she, when there was a good chance she'd end up outliving them all by centuries, could she? That was her reasoning, anyway.

But maybe if she made sure not to make a habit of it . . .

She looked up and smiled, about as much of a gesture of acceptance as she felt she could make without feeling guilty about it. "That's what friends do, right?"

It was kind of a shame, really, that out of the two of them, he was the one with the ability to see ghosts.

"It's what friends do," Norman affirmed. And then his smile went a bit wry. "So they tell me."

His own back home had needed to pretty much beat that same lesson into his head, once. It was still new, comparatively.

Maybe. But then again, that might end up being too heavy of a burden to bear over a thousand years.

"We can do that, then," Keyleth decided.

And held up a hand for a high-five.

Re: General Mingling [Fall 2019]

always_someone - 2019-09-02 11:42 (UTC) - Expand

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