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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

Other places might have been expecting a cold front ~~wtf polar vortex~~, but the weather in Fandom was just right for welcoming in new people. The bonfire was mostly going for decoration, but there were also the makings for s'mores among the food offerings.

Mmmm, summer food.

The food was ready, the tables and chairs had been spread across the lawn with just the right amount of glitter on them, and everything was ready to welcome a new batch of folks to the island!

[OCD is coming! 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 have a sister named Juillienne," Julius said, kind of on autopilot.

Because yeah. Between that bus and the castle and all these people, he was, in fact, mostly overwhelmed.

Belatedly, he remembered to take the proffered hand. "I mean hi. I'm Julius. Hello. Nice to meet you."

He was very smooth.

So, so smooth. Juillenne's face probably clearly expressed just how smooth she thought he was.

"And this," Jules added with a flourish, when a large mountain cat made her way over with a chicken drumstick in her jaws, "is Camden, by the way."

"That's a mountain lion."

Julius felt that part needed saying out loud. And it meant he didn't feel weird about taking a slight step back because mountain lion. Though he would have done that for any pet; animals generally didn't react well to dragons, regardless of form. Apex predator and all that.

"Well spotted," Jules said. "She's my familiar."

Camden, for her part, was watching Julius warily though not fearfully. Listen, she was used to being the apex predator around these parts, and now there was this newcomer?

Hmph.

That was much better than the snarling violence that Julius had half-expected, honestly. He'd take wariness.

"Oh!" he asked, brightening. "Are you a shaman, then?"

Mages, at least, were familiar.

Cam had been around human society long enough to develop some restraint in that area. She was still very much a wild animal, but a wild animal who knew about picking one’s battles.

“What’s a shaman?” Juillenne asked.

Please don't pick a battle with Julius, Camden. Pretty please? He promised not to pick one back!

"Uhh, one of the kinds of magic users?" Julius said. He wasn't very clear on the differences between them. Human-magic was very different than dragon-magic and he hadn't even studied dragon-magic very much. "They are very involved with spirits and, umm, animals and things. The physical world?"

Sum total of his knowledge there.

Juillenne shook her head. "I'm a naturalist," she said instead. And war-gifted, but that wasn't the sort of thing she dropped on just anyone. "I can influence plants and animals, but there's no gift I know of that deals with spirits."

Well. There was the fact that Queen Katharine was possessed by the spirts of dozens of dead queens, but it's not like Jules knew anything about that, anyway.

That still sounded sorta like shamanism to Julius? But it wasn't like he knew for sure what the differences were.

"Is this a mage school?" he asked. That could...sort of make sense why Bob would send him here? Maybe? Except, again, draconic magic wasn't like human magic, so what would he learn?

Trying to figure out what was going on was giving him a headache.

Well, at least being here for a year had cured Jules of the twitch every time someone grouped what she did in with magic.

"No," sorry to dash that hope, Julius! "Well," she amended. "Plenty of people here have gifts or magic of one sort or another, but this isn't a school specifically for that. Though I do believe there is a class on that over the summer, if that helps?"

"I..." He glanced down at his schedule. "I am apparently signed up for it, even. Not that I think I'm going to be able to do much."

He was definitely blaming Bob for that.

“Oh?” Jules said. “Are you giftless, then?” she asked, without any judgement. There were some in her world that looked down on that sort of thing, but the Milones didn’t hold with such nonsense.

"Uhhh..." That kinda hit home in a way Jules probably didn't intend. "I have magic. I'm just - not great at it."

Yeah, she had the distinct feeling that she’d struck a nerve there. “Oh,” she said sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”

Julius' jaw dropped at that. "You...I'm sorry, huh?"

This was, quite literally, the first time anyone in his life had apologized to him.

"You seemed a little out of sorts about the 'magic'," ew, "thing?" Jules said hesitantly. "I know it can be a bit of a sore subject, sometimes. My foster-sister was very sensitive about it when we were younger."

"No, no," Julius said. "You apologized. To me."

"Yeeeees?" Jules drawled. "Because I realized I'd perhaps been somewhat rude?"

Julius shook his head. "No, no. I just - I appreciate it. Is all. And I don't think you were being rude at all, honest."

This was one of those times when explaining things would just make them more awkward.

"Okay," Jules said, narrowing her eyes a little. "Well, good."

A feeling of sudden fierce protectiveness blossomed within her, not unlike that day eleven years ago when she and Aunt Caragh had gone to the Black Cottage to take Arsinoe home.

And if a couple of the plates of food on the buffet table rattled ominously, well. There was totally a bit of a breeze today, right?

Edited 2020-05-10 05:35 (UTC)

Julius did glance back over at the noise, but with all the people congregated at the tables, who was to say what happened. "So, umm. I've never been to boarding school," he said. "We had, err, tutors for most of my life."

Specifically, his sister Freya of the much maligned F-clutch. "So, uhh...any pointers?"

“Oh, me too!” Jules said brightly. “Well, nothing so fancy as tutors back in Wolf Spring, but this has been the only school I’ve ever been to, boarding or otherwise. As for pointers...if you’re ever hungry, check the common rooms. chances are someone will be there with food. If it’s Monday morning, Wayne makes breakfast on the third floor. If there isn’t someone already there with food, there’s the ‘take out’- do you know about take out?”

Yes, she was starting with food because she’d met teenage boys before, thank you.

"Yeah," Julius said with a chuckle. "I'm glad it's an option, though. I've never cooked anything in my life. I don't know if any of my siblings have."

They mostly depended on the army of servants that made the mountain run. And takeout whenever they left said mountain.

The Milone family was the most prosperous in Wolf Spring, their fields rich and orchards bountiful, their woods full of game. Had they any other gift, they too would likely have employed servants to care for all that. But they were naturalists, and so they did not.

"I know enough to feed myself, but it's hardly a passion," Jules admitted. "And there's more variety here than there ever was back home, anyway, so I'm happy to let someone who knows what they're doing take care of it."

Dragons were lazy, entitled, and status-conscious snobs. Having humans to do things for them meant that they didn't have to do it for themselves. And then Bethesda had decided that wasn't enough and had indentured an entire clutch of children, turning all of the Fs into servants, too.

"Do people take turns?" he asked, already trying to figure out how much he'd have to save to make sure he could cover his night of takeout.

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