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

Whatever aspect of the island made sure the weather was nice on picnic day didn't seem to be able to control the temperature. It wasn't freezing, but it would definitely more comfortable out on the lawn with a coat on. Thankfully, the conditions were just right for a bonfire in the center of the lawn, so people could gather and stay warm once they'd made their introductions.

Once the tables and chairs were set up and everything was properly glittered, all that was needed were people!

[OCD is up! 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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Damn Annie's professionalism. She would have totally loved a hug.

"Oh, man, you're the guidance counselor?" The rest of the nametag had caught up with Annie, and like, what a position. "I literally cannot think of a weirder place to have to counsel people." Especially these kids, at this school. You had all her sympathy and admiration, Karolina.

Karolina's chuckle bordered vaguely on sheepish. "I mean, I actually went to this school when I was a kid?" she said, as if she was all that much older now. "So it's really not that hard for me to, like... Relate to what the students here are going through."

"I kinda feel like I missed out, not going here for high school," Annie sighed, "'cause I know a couple other people who've told me their experiences here as students were - enlightening."

Annie was pretty sure she'd be a lot less hard to faze if she'd had half a decade to get used to the idea of turning into a bat, and so forth.

"Though man, I bet it gets you ready for the real world like nobody's business," she added, ever the optimist.

Karolina's head tilted way to the side. "I mean, it probably depends on what their real world is," she mused. "'Cause I think we have some kids where Fandom is just same old, same old to them, and then we have some who probably go on to be fazed by, like, nothing after they graduate."

Oh, wait.

"You've... been here long enough to know about the whole multiverse thing, right?" she checked. "I'm assuming you have, but I'd probably feel like a bad buddy if I didn't ask."

"Oh, totally," Annie assured her, waving a hand. "I'm from a world with superheroes, but literally no one here has heard of anyone I know, and no one here seems to be a hero the specific way I am, and - yeah. Super clued in to the multiverse thing."

Which didn't mean it wasn't still the weirdest.

"So where does your world fall on the scale of, like, mainland-normal to Fandom-abnormal?"

"I think about exactly where yours does, actually," Karolina admitted with a little chuckle. "Because, superheroes."

Though that thing about no one having heard about anyone she knew made it seem likely that it wasn't one of the ones that were really close to Karolina's own.

"I, uh... Used to be one, actually."

"Really?" And Annie's smile grew, just a little at that. "I kind of still am one." Even if she had to get herself over to Baltimore to do her thing when there weren't bears. "Did you retire?"

Karolina was young for retirement where Annie was from, but some heroes took breaks to start families or go to school. Guidance-counseloring seemed like a very logical reason to not be superheroing, honestly.

Karolina's bright smile faltered just a little bit. Got maybe a little more wistful, or wry. Something. "No, I think I just... grew out of it," she said. "I was in LA for a few years after graduation, but then I started studying social work, moved back here, and, it just wasn't something I did anymore."

"I get that," Annie agreed easily, nodding. This place seemed like it kind of had that effect, honestly - not that she was any less ambitious about pursuing a spot on a team, herself, but Fandom had a way of...making you want to settle down, here. "Though I'm jealous of the LA factor - I'm from Iowa."

Which meant she was doing fine with the weather today, but she would also take any opportunity to pine enviously over a warmer climate.

"I'm sure Iowa's nice, too!" Karolina said, regaining some of the brightness in her smile. "Though I think I have to admit, I'm not sure I've ever heard of any superheroes being from there, before."

The whole thing was really pretty LA and New York centric, where she was from.

Honestly, where Annie was from too, but people had to come from somewhere. "There's not a lot of us," Annie admitted. "I had a team when I was younger, but it was more of, like, a multi-state thing."

She glanced around a little ruefully and added, "Kiiiiind of used to being the only hero in town, honestly." It had been an adjustment.

"Yeaaah," Karolina said slowly, with a little chuckle, "that's one thing that's definitely never happening in this town."

Because this town was deeply ridiculous like that.

Still, Karolina grinned at her. "But look at you, you're teaching now, too!"

"Yeah, about that." Here, some actual teaching-buddying for you, Karolina! "Is it normal that I had no idea I was teaching until like, a half hour ago?"

It was super normal. It was just...Fandom. Annie was already kind of there on that realization, but she needed to hear it from someone else.

There was something faintly apologetic about Karolina's smile right now. As if she had any control over the school's whims.

"It's normal," she confirmed. "I have a friend teaching one of the, uh, the community center classes, this term? And because we haven't talked in a while, I have no idea if he signed up to do it, for once, or if the moose is making him do it."

A beat.

"Oh, and there's a moose that works at the school office."

"We're subject to the whims of a moose?" Annie asked, mostly sounding sort of tired about it rather than outraged. "I mean, it's at least something I have some familiarity with." She could have gotten, like, math. Or - God help them all - home ec.

See? She was well on her way to being a Fandom teacher. Accepting the moose was the first step!

"It was performing arts, right?" Karolina checked. "That's even like a normal class. Which, I can tell you, is not a given at this school."

Annie had to smile. "Yeah, Kitty told me about her superheroing class?" Which, like, Annie kind of wanted to take herself. "But yeah. Promise not to laugh, but I'm kind of a former...pageant champion. I can do a little bit of everything, so - probably an okay class for me to lead."

Not that she was like, at all practiced at any of those skills, these days.

"My parents were soap opera actors," Karolina said, wryly, "so I don't judge."

And her former therapist would be so proud of her for managing a reference to her childhood understanding of her parents in casual conversation, to boot. But that was neither here nor there.

"But yeah, it sounds like you're gonna be fine," she continued. "First week's usually just introductions and getting to know the kids. And then you'll just go onwards from there."

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

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