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

There were plenty of chairs and tables by the bonfire, and some further out on the lawn for anyone who might want to enjoy their food alone, or just gaze at the new folks and try to figure them out. All of these potential activities were valid!

[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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Liam wasn't teaching this semester, but he had signed up for Nina's community center class, so he figured that was a nice, handy excuse that allowed him to drop in on the picnic and get a feel for this semester's new arrivals.

This wasn't Octavia's first time seeing Liam since her return. She'd seen glimpses of him across crowds, his form down the street.

But this was definitely the first time she didn't turn away, and approached him instead. She definitely looked older, up close.

But the mild expression was the same as ever.

"Hey."

Liam, for his part, looked exactly the same. Not surprising, given the fact that he hadn’t been the one gone for seven years.

(But if the twenty year reunion was any indication, he’d look the same seven years from now anyway.)

“Hey,” he replied back. A little surprised, but certainly not displeased.

For the record, his plate? Also devoid of anything meat-based. Hooray for cannibalism-based trauma?

Octavia nodded, if only to keep herself from saying 'hey' again. Maybe she'd hoped - for no actual reason - that he'd have something more, right off the bat.

"How've you been?"

The words felt wrong in her mouth.

The exchange of heys had been a familiar habit that he'd fallen into without even really thinking about it, despite it being... a long time since the last time they'd done so.

"Pretty good," he said. "Verity and I just got back from a trip to Lowryland. An amusement park, with... rides and games and costumed characters," he added, forestalling the inevitable 'I don't know what that is'.

And Octavia wasn't going to ask for clarification on what 'costumed characters' was supposed to entail.

Her nod was as slight a movement as ever. "Was it nice?"

"We had fun," Liam confirmed. And there hadn't even been any dead bodies! In fact, they hadn't even known that was a concern, because the plot meant that little dark secret about the park wouldn't get revealed until Verity's sister was working undercover there.

"She'd been before, but it was my first time."

Octavia nodded again.

Other words failed to materialize, while she watched him. She hadn't had to face this feeling in a while: this surreal sensation that felt like looking into her past.

Sometimes, a silence could be comfortable. Before, between the two of them, it often was.

Now, though? Seemed more than a little awkward. Liam let it stretch on for a few moments before he made an attempt to fill it.

"What have you been up to?" He knew the basics, from radio. But secondhand squirrel information was- impersonal.

These days, Octavia's silences were really only comfortable with Duke and Lucifer, because Octavia was really only comfortable with Duke and Lucifer.

And even that was kind of shaky and fragile.

"We took a trip," she said. "To Florida." Originally, anyway. "Got back yesterday."

"Hah," Liam said, with an amused chuckle. "Lowryland's in Florida. Guess we all decided to head somewhere a little warmer for a bit."

"I guess," Octavia replied, mildly.

Then fell silent again.

Well, he’d thought it a bit of interesting coincidence, anyway.

“It’s good to see you,” he offered. “I’ve missed you.”

Octavia had never been good at small talk. Or even just plain conversation, sometimes. He would just have to accept her baby steps.

Even now, she knew the proper response would have been to say she'd missed him too, but she wasn't sure that was true. She'd buried all but the most persistent parts of Fandom deep in the bunker, and she still hadn't dug everything back up.

And right now, this felt a little like June all over again.

"Good to see you, too," she settled on, faintly softer though still mild. "You seem well."

Liam, no excuses were needed for free food at picnics!

Stark, having just refilled his plate, made his way over to Liam once he spotted him.

"Hello, Liam."

"Hey!" he grinned. "Happy New Year! Which I hear you rang in in style."

"Oh?" Stark smiled back. He had enjoyed his party attire and the reactions to it.

"I'm told I looked 'debonair.'"

"Nothing escapes the radio squirrels," Liam told him. Well, unless you bribed said squirrels.

"Debonair, huh? Yeah, I can see it."

Stark never bribed the squirrels. But then he hadn't really had any activities to hide from them.

"Annie and Summer both said so," Stark said. "And Faye said that fancy worked for me. I don't think I've ever worn something that fancy before. Never had an occasion for it."

"And did you have fun at the party?" Liam asked.

He was almost sorry he'd missed it. Almost.

"I did," Stark assured him. "And the shopping, before. We went to the mainland. I hadn't been off the island since I came back."

"Have to admit, I'm having a hard time picturing you at a shopping mall," Liam said, tilting his head at Stark thoughtfully.

"I hadn't been to one. Commerce planets, before, but never a mall here. I don't usually leave the island. Hard to blend in." He reached up and touched his mask. "I had a hood." And enough people in the group he'd felt reasonably certain nothing terrible would happen.

"Hmm, yeah, I can understand why." Though strangely, even some of the more visibly alien students had never had a problem while on any of the school trips, for some reason?

"Your reality has entire planets dedicated to commerce?" Liam asked.

... Not that Earth was all that far off from being just that, if you really thought about it.

"Can't remove it. As you know," Stark said. Not unless he wanted to be disappeared into a lab somewhere and he really did not. "I think the scarf might have stood out even more."

"Yes, we have commerce planets. The mall reminded me of them, somewhat. Just smaller." And with Cinnabon.

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

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