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

Entry tags:

!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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Oh, yeah, he definitely caught that wince.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "Didn't mean to poke at old wounds." Especially considering this was the first time he'd so much as spoken to her! Awkward.

"Not your fault," Kathy assured him. "The problem with old wounds is that they're hard for anyone else to see. And I'm not normally so sensitive, but..." She waved a hand at the picnic. "Old memories, you know?" She gave a soft laugh. "Had to text my boyfriend to send me something to make me smile."

"That I get," Liam agreed, with a somewhat guilty glance down at the Global clipped to his belt.

He'd slowed down on the texting Verity once he'd started to find people to talk to, but only slightly.

Kathy didn't understand the glance down - or what exactly was attached to his belt, but that was okay!

"So what brought you to the island?" she asked, going for a new topic since the last one had apparently wound down.

“Not the Apocalypse, exactly? But near enough,” Liam said. It had certainly been the end of his world, in more ways than one. “I didn’t really have a place there anymore, and I needed somewhere I could figure out how to just... be.”

"That's the hardest part, isn't it?" Kathy said. "My friend Raven really struggled with it. When you're living in a world where it's also danger and death and gogogo, it's hard to get used to a life where it's slow and quiet. Figure out who you are when life isn't on the line."

“Yeah,” Liam agreed. “I’m definitely doing better than I was,” being able to acknowledge that, even when some days he felt like he was doing worse, was in and of itself a step in the right direction. “Built myself a life here, met my wife... But sometimes- well. It’s like you said. Old wounds.”

"But it's hard," Kathy said with an understanding nod. "Because you feel like you should be over all that stuff by now, right? How can they still hurt? And you wonder if you've really come as far as you think."

“Exactly,” he nodded. “Like, what right do I have, really, to be upset when I’m here, I’m- alive,” there was a bit of a stumble over the ‘alive’, but he continued on, “I’ve got people who care about me, and a job I’m good at...”

Kind of heavy conversation for a first meeting, but something about Kathy pulled at him, a feeling that she was something of a kindred spirit.

She definitely noticed that stumble over the word 'alive.' Mostly because she'd done the same damn thing in her time.

"My boyfriends keep reminding me that I'd never say that to someone else," Kathy said, with a nod of complete understanding. "And to give myself the same grace I'd give that other person. But it's hard. And they have to remind me there's no deadline on being 'okay,' no time limit on how long it takes me to process and deal."

"My wife, too," Liam shared, fond smile springing to his lips as he mentioned her.

(Dominic... well, the intimacy he and Verity shared with Dominic wasn't quite the same as their partnership with each other, and beyond that, the other man was not exactly a paragon of emotional health himself. But he was a steady presence nonetheless, doing his best to be supportive.)

"I suppose that means they must be on to something, huh?" he added lightly.

Edited 2020-05-11 08:30 (UTC)

"I mean, one of my boyfriends could also eat pizza for every meal for a month and still be good, so I'm not quite sure I can trust in his judgment..." Kathy teased. "But...maybe in this one thing."

“I have three words for you,” Liam said drily. “Leftover pizza omelettes.”

He loved Verity with all his heart, but her idea of breakfast was not fit for human (or human-alien hybrid) consumption.

Kathy frantically looked around for any nearby squirrels. "Never say that again," she hissed. "Dante still listens to the radio sometimes and he must never know."

Liam had the grace to look abashed, at least, since that was a horror he’d never wish on anyone. Well, at least beyond thinking about it, anyway.

“Pretty much the reason I decided I had to learn to cook,” he told her. That and he’d discovered that he genuinely enjoyed the process. He wouldn’t be heading to compete in a cooking show anytime soon, but he was getting pretty good at it, he thought.

"I grew up cooking," Kathy said. "Helping my mom out and all that. Now, though, if I want to eat anything that isn't takeout, it's pretty much up to me."

Though Dante was getting the hang of eggs. And had at least tried to make her soup once.

"Also, since I'm the one cooking, I don't have to feel bad about asking people to make my stuff vegetarian."

Liam, of course, had missed out on the whole ‘growing up and helping mom’ experience. And even if he hadn’t, well... he reason he hadn’t just known how to cook was that neither of his human parents had really known either.

But that was neither here nor there, because...

“I know how that goes,” Liam nodded. “I actually switched to cooking vegetarian meals myself a few months ago. And I know she doesn’t mind, really,” at least not now that she knew the reason behind the change, anyway, “but Verity misses the odd steak sometimes.” Because he hadn’t yet progressed to the ‘able to cook meat for other people’ stage just yet.

Yeah, it took some time. There had been plenty of occasions where Kathy had done everything but the meat, and had given the guys the option of 'prepare it yourself or enjoy your vegetarian option.'

"I mean, I miss steak, too," Kathy said with a soft laugh. "I've worked my way back up to sometimes being able to eat fish. And I had a hot dog at a carnival a few weeks ago. But, for me, it's a long, slow process."

Whereas Liam had gotten within about ten feet of the hot dog stand, stopped dead in his tracks, and then practically bolted for the safety of the cloyingly sweet smell of the cotton candy vendor.

He blinked, staring at her for just a moment as he processed what she was saying.

"But one that's working," he said finally, a note of hope in his voice. Sure, lots of people chose a vegetarian diet and were perfectly happy with it, and there were plenty of dishes he'd learned to make over the past few months that he enjoyed... but at the same time there were things he missed too.

Kathy nodded. "I doubt your reasons for going vegetarian are the same as mine," she said slowly - she might not know how cooked flesh smelled, but she sure did know how it tasted - "but I can tell you that it's been about three and a half years for me."

Though she'd had a bit of a resumption of trauma in the middle there, which had made it last a little longer.

“Our reasons might not be the same, but it sounds like it wasn’t much of a choice for you either,” Liam said quietly. “That’s- it’s kind of reassuring to know I’m not entirely alone in that.”

Three and a half years was a long time- especially from his perspective- but he was just going to focus on the fact that there was progress.

"Here's to similar trauma," Kathy said, toasting him with her bottle of Yakult.

And they’d only find more similarities!

“Not something you hear every day,” Liam pointed out. “Though maybe more common in Fandom than literally anywhere else,” he conceded after a moment.

"I sometimes wonder if that's why we end up here," Kathy said. "A place to prep us for upcoming traumas, or to help us recover after them." Her eyes went sad as she added, "Still seems arbitrary though. Why one person out of billions?"

Why me and not her?

“I know why, in my case,” Liam shrugged.

Still didn’t make it hurt any less, even if he’d spent a lot of time thinking it should. Also wasn’t of much help to anyone else.

Edited 2020-05-12 21:58 (UTC)

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

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