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

As was usually the case with these things, good weather was once more blessing the gathering of Fandom folk new and old. There was a bonfire, but it was mostly for decoration. And for s'mores, the makings of which were available at one of the nearby tables.

There was plenty of food, and there were tables and chairs set up all across the lawn (with light dustings of glitter where you least suspected it, naturally), and everything was ready for another welcome picnic!

[OCD 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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"Why? You didn't have anything to do with it." Was that cruel? Maybe. But seeing him hurt.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Wha--?" Prompto started, blinking at Yang for a moment in confusion at those words. "Why would I....why would I be sorry?"

How could she even ask something like that?

"I don't know, maybe because I car--"

But the look on her face right now, all those messages he sent unanswered, stopped those words right in his mouth with a new stab of pain right in his chest, because maybe he shouldn't care, she obviously had no interest in him caring, but how could he not?

So he just moved on to the easier question.

"And I'm here to teach," he said. "I've been planning this for weeks. Ignis started teaching her last semester, Nina and I set it up for him, and now we're both going to do it for the summer. Maybe even for the fall, too," he added, feeling suddenly, oddly, territorial or something. Because what? All of a sudden, she could just show up after all this time and then act like he didn't have a right to be here?

He almost turned the question right back around at her, but he wasn't going to just come blasting in here pretending like he had ownership over a whole island.

But he did kind of wonder.

And there was a good chance, based on her last response, that the answer was going to be something like maybe she didn't have anywhere else to go.

And that took the wind out of his fury sails pretty damn quick, and he huffed out a breath of air because he didn't know what else to do.

"Look," he tried, holding up his hands like a white flag, like a cease fire, "this is throwing me pretty bad, too, okay?"

"Throwing you? You talked me into long-distance, and then you ghosted me!" Oh, there was that familiar rage again, Yang was going to hold on to that for a bit because it felt safer than the numbness.

But the rage was gone as fast as it came, and Yang shook her head. "Don't worry, I'm hopefully not here for long, and I'll stay out of your way," she said, tired. "I'm just waiting until I'm ready to go after Raven."

"Wait," said Prompto, sticking on that first part before he could even begin to point out that this island was way too small to avoid anyone, even when he was going to be splitting his time between here and Insomnia and long before he could ask about Raven, "hold up. I ghosted you?"

Sorry, Yang, that was definitely going to cause a bit of incredulous staring.

"What is this, some weird alternate timeline bullshit, or something?"

He almost kind of hoped that was the case, because that would mean, maybe, there was another timeline where this wasn't happening to her.

"You're the one who went no-contact, Yang!"

And he, like the complete lovesick puppy he was, saved everything to prove...

...it.

"Fuck!"

Well, he had saved everything, which would have proved his point, except that now his phone was fried and in analysis for being tampered with.

Great. Just great!

Yang pulled out her Scroll and flipped it open, scrolling down until she found Prompto's name and then tossed it at him. "Yeah, cowboy. Ghosts and cobwebs!"

It had all the messages from Yang's first year at Beacon, all outgoing with cheerful green 'sent' images next to them. Of course, none of them would look familiar to Prompto.

And if he stayed looking at each of them long enough, about a half hour of being connected to Fandom's wifi, seven of the dozens of 'sent' messages' would change to a red 'failed' status, now that it was on a different network than the CCT. The rest would change to an orange 'connection not found' eventually.

If that was because of a mystery man who had his phone? Well, who knew. Certainly not Yang.

Well, it was a good thing that quick reflexes was always one of Prompto's strengths, even in a moment of utter confusion and growing devastation, because Prompto somehow managed to catch that Scroll easily so that he could properly boggle down at what he was seeing.

"I...I never got any of these," he said, eyes wide, wanting nothing more than to look away at what was spreading out to him as a wide field of missed opportunities and so many avoided nights of wallowing in self-pity and loneliness until Noctis or Ignis or sometimes Nina and even Gladio forcefully pull him out of it. His jaw hung slack for a moment, shaking his head, before he finally lifted a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Not a single one," he said. "And I sent you....did you not...? Either?"

He'd show her his own receipts, too, except...

"I swear I tried to contact you, Yang, but you never responded. I'd....I'd show you, but my phone, it's..."

A victim of literally the worst timing in the world.

"I don't have it anymore. I literally lost it just a few days ago. On...on Wednesday."

“Everything I ever got from you is in there, it’s the same Scroll I had when I was at Fandom.” Dammit, Prompto, why did you have to make that face? It was really hard to keep the anger going when you looked like that.

“Gnomes in the wires, I guess, she said, putting her head in her hands. “Or maybe Cinder. Who knows how long she had control of the CCT system.”

So....in other words...she definitely didn't get any of the things he'd sent, because, scrolling through again, still a little unable to believe it, there really was nothing from him there.

He shook his head, feeling like a whole year of his life, suddenly...even more...had just been completely...wasted.

Or at least a whole lot of emotions and self-loathing and second-guessing himself.

But at least that wasn't anything new.

Not really sure what he was feeling now, Prompto just sort of blinked and handed the Scroll numbly back to Yang. His brows knitted thoughtfully.

"Who's Cinder?"

Maybe if they focused on something else, he could start figuring out what to feel about all of this.

She let out a half-bitter/half-hysterical laugh. "Cinder is psychopathic bitch who was backing the crime lord of Vale City who almost killed Ruby. She pretended to be our friend, set me up to be framed for assault, directly murdered two of my friends, caused the attack on my school, took out the CCT -- the interkingdom communications system that also connects to Fandom -- and is responsible for everything terrible that happened."

~~Well, at least as far as Yang was aware.~~

Yang sighed, and just looked really tired. "It's been a weird, really long two years, Prompto."

Yeaaaah, all of that definitely did seem to make intercepting text messages and phone calls pretty small potatoes, comparatively, didn't it?

Prompto winced a little, frowning deeply as he started to rub the back of his neck, head ducked as he shifted his weight awkwardly. "Yeah, it...that, uh...sounds like kind of an understatement."

And he was probably....not helping with lessening that weird, long feeling right now, either, he bet...

"I'm..."

He what? Was he just going to say he was sorry again? Like that would help? Was he going to tell her that he was there for her if she needed him, like that would help? What he wanted to do was, like, hug her, or something, try to make things at least a little better, but there was a good chance that if he tried, all he would do was make it even worse.

"Do you...need to....talk about it, or anything?"

Yeah, right, Prompto, that was exactly what she wanted to do, talk about it with a person she apparently thought had been ignoring her for two years! Good suggestion! You were just amazing at this!

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

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