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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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.

“Not officially, no,” Jules told him. “Its certainly considered polite if you can, but I arrived here rather suddenly myself and didn’t have any sort of income for the first little while, and nobody got upset with me over not buying dinner.”

And then she’d finally been able to send word to Arsinoe, who’d convinced Billy to send her a small stipend every month.

She really should look in to a job, because she felt awfully guilty about just taking her friends’ money like that.

Edited 2020-05-10 20:56 (UTC)

Julius looked relieved at that. He didn't have much and knew better than to hope anyone at home would be sending him more.

"I'll just volunteer to wash dishes or something instead," he said.

Not that he ever had, but how hard could it be?

"There you go!" she grinned encouragingly. "I don't think anyone in their right mind would object to help with that."

... Even if they ended up having to show him just how to properly do the washing-up, at first.

It was just...water and some soap, right? Easy!

"So long as they don't need any help cooking it, I'll be okay," he said with a smile. "Thanks, Jules. This actually made me feel a lot better."

Hot water and soap, for one thing. And you couldn't just half-ass the scrubbing, Julius!

"You're welcome. I'm glad you're finding my advice helpful and I'm not just completely bungling this sibling thing, at least."

Not that this was her first go-round, exactly, but the last time she'd done anything like this, she'd been six.

Edited 2020-05-10 22:08 (UTC)

...Scrubbing?

"Well, it's only been a conversation, but you're already my favorite sibling," Julius said with a wry smile.

She hadn't even tried to maim him once!

Yes, scrubbing. As you're sure to find out eventually, Julius.

"That's flattering but also a little concerning, considering you have actual siblings," Juillenne said, with a slight frown.

She couldn't in good conscience reciprocate the sentiment, since Arsinoe would always come first, but he was absolutely firmly on her list of 'people who need her protection' thanks to this single conversation so there was that?

Oh don't worry about it, Jules! Julius wasn't anybody's favorite; he was used to that.

For now though, he was just giving an awkward little laugh that would hopefully play it off a little bit? "Oh, you know..." he said. "You never tried to hex my door as kids or anything, so you started out pretty well."

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