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

It was Fall! It was stupidly humid today and it was about a billion degrees, but the picnic area was full of apples, pumpkins, and those decorative corn stalks that looked cute until it rained. There was food on tables--including more Cup Noodles than strictly necessary--and chairs scattered throughout the lawn in front of the castle.

Welcome, new and old, to Fandom High! It's only gonna get weirder.

[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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Jon narrowed his eyes at her. He had been so very good so far, but he'd nearly killed the entire world, had been hauled through dimensions by eldritch fear entities, and had been driven here in a Cup Noodle bus. He was just about at his end.

"Why do you ask?"

He was sick of not knowing, and if a little compulsion would help...

Edited 2021-08-28 21:20 (UTC)

Which pretty much made that the most useless compulsion ever, because Summer was so prepared for exactly that question, and then some. She practically had notes, Jon. The was not her first newbie rodeo over here.

"Weeeellllll," she didn't even seem thrown by the narrowed eyes, really, because, yeah, she got it, Fandom was a lot even when you first got there, and, well, let's just say, it did look like this guy might have been through some shit recently, "because I'm kind of looking for him. I'm his Teaching Buddy, which means I get to be his school-assigned friend to sort of show him the ropes around here, which, I mean, like, is kind of a big deal, because I don't know if you've noticed or not already, but this place has kind of a lot going on, so it's good to have someone be kind of a primer or a guide to get the new teachers settled in and kind of give them an idea of what they're in for. You see, Fandom's kind of this multidimensional, multi-versinal hub for...all sorts of people. I mean, look over there, you see the giant red shark guy? That's Sidon, and possibly one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and also him coming back to teach makes my job so much easier, because pointing out the giant shark prince from another planet is probably one of the easiest ways to be all, 'yeah, so, this place? Might be a little weird.' I mean, some people don't even know that they're even coming here to teach, some people get trapped here for a while and can't even get home for a while, so it's really not a surprise that they need people to explain that to all the newbies, because god forbid there's actually some sort of system in place to let people know all of that beforehand, am I right?"

She then took a breath and smiled.

"So, yeah, anyway, that's why I'm asking. Sorry if you're not actually him, but obviously you're new, so if you're not, I'm pretty sure I just did whoever is your Teaching Buddy a huge favor. Unless, ohmygod, you're not a student, are you?"

It was Fandom! Stranger things had happened!

Jon blinked.

He took a deep breath as he tried to parse all of that.

"No, I'm not a student." Another deep breath. "I am Jonathan Sims," he conceded. "But I don't know how or why I'm here, and I am certainly not a secondary school teacher."

Still breathing? Yes. Good.

Summer's head bobbed a little in a nod, as if she half-expected this response, and was already on it, phone now in her hand. "Well," she announced, "according to the school's records," and now she was turning her phone toward Jon, with the class schedule pulled up and zoomed in on Tuesday, Period 4: Sims: Fear in Literature, "you are. Unless this is a situation where, like, we got the wrong Jonathan Sims, which I'm not sure actually has happened, not to my knowledge, but I wouldn't put it past this place at all to do something like that, really.

"This is a cell phone, by the way," she added. "I'm...not really sure where or when you're from, so don't, like, freak out too much if it all seems like craaaazy technology. They're totally normal here, and essential, so if you don't have one, I'm totally going to hook you up. Then we should probably talk about a place for you to stay, things like that, but if any of what I just said right now is true, this is probably a lot right now, so actually? Let me reel it back a little."

She shook her head, closed her eyes and took a breath as if resetting and then put out her hand.

"Hi! I'm Summer Smith. I'm here to help you get settled in. It's really nice to meet you, Jon."

Then she leaned in to whisper, "Seriously, if you have questions, do not hesitate to ask."

She figured there might be a few!

Jon's look got decidedly more sour when he saw the name of his class. "No, somehow I'm certain I'm the right Jonathan Sims."

Unless there was another one with his dumpster fire of a life? Dear lord, he hoped not. If he...right. Focus. He could do this.

Deep breath.

"I know what a cell phone is. I'm from London, 2018. No...no, probably 2019 now, I don't know the exact date. I don't even have a wallet or ID with me, I wasn't exactly carrying them." Martin probably had them in his bags. Jon hadn't thought about it.

He eyed her hand. "Um. I don't...that is, I try not to..." He clenched and flexed his burn-scarred hand as best he could. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"Oh." Summer blinked a little at that response, at how battered he looked, and then nodded, pulling her hand away and offering a more faint smile now. "No problem," she assured him. "Nice to meet you, too. If it, uh, helps, it's 2021 here now, we're in Maryland, not too far off from Baltimore, but if you took the shuttle in, you probably figured out that much."

There was a slight pause; the momentum of her previous monologue seemed to have died down a little, especially as she was starting to get more of the pieces of the puzzle that was her current teaching buddy, which was definitely a little more complicated than her last one had been.

"If you need anything before the wallet and ID situation gets worked out," she offered, "I've got you covered there, too. I manage the general store here on the island, too, and bartend on Wednesday, so I can definitely spot you on anything you need on both accounts. There's also a good clinic I can show you to, unless you're...?"

Look, she didn't want to say you looked like hell right now, Jon, but...you pretty much looked like hell right now, and maybe some of the finer deets could wait a little?

"No, I'm...I'm fine now, thank you. Just...bad memories. And a lot of traveling." He really did look this bad most of the time. "I just need..." He shut his eyes and tried to categorize things. Bare minimum? "A place to sleep, clean clothing, a bath, and maybe a glass of water."

And statements. Fear. But he'd hold off on mentioning that one.

Edited 2021-08-28 22:42 (UTC)

Summer nodded. "Gimme one sec," she said, before turning away enough to dash over to the food tables and return with a bottle of water.

"Not a glass," she said, grinning a little crookedly as she handed it over, "but it's a start. We can get you clothes at the store, so that'll be two. And I've got a tub and a couch although that begs the question: how are you with cats?"

"Oh! Um." Jon took the bottle and blinked at her again. He looked down at the bottle and over at the tables, a bit awkward at not having done that much himself, then opened it up and took a drink.

"Thank you. I don't want to put you out," he protested weakly. "I do quite like cats, though." He still missed The Admiral.

Edited 2021-08-28 22:55 (UTC)

Summer was absolutely dreading the clean-up she'd have to do to her tub after this, but thus was the burden of the esteemed Teaching Buddy! She shook her head. "Please," she said. "What kind of school-assigned friend would I eve be if I couldn't at least offer a time-displaced surprise faculty member who has, I'm guessing, already had a day so far a place to crash and a chance to avoid what could potentially be some gnarly infections? Besides, I had some friends let me crash on their couch when I came back from space a while ago, so now it's like I'm finally getting the chance to pay it forward.

"My cat's name is Pancakes, by the way," she added, because that was the most important information of all, "and you will love her."

"I'm sure I will," Jon answered, still a bit dazed by the bulldozer that was Summer.

He huffed in a laugh that had only a little humour in it. "And I have indeed had a day," he agreed, mimicking her intonation.

Summer's lip caught under her teeth for a moment as she gave Jon another slightly more appraising look.

"Can I ask what happened?" she ventured cautiously.

Jon's lips twisted in a wry smile. "The world ended. Then eventually I think, I hope, we fixed it, but I...I died. And then I was pulled out of the world. And then I was in the Baltimore airport."

As she listened, Summer lifted her brows at first, then she nodded a little, then she sort of looked like I died was just kind of a natural progression for this sort of a story, went a little sympathetic in her expression with the whole pulled out of the world bit, and then...

Well, that brought them to nicely up the present, didn't it?

"And now you're teaching high school," she said. "Harsh. But could be worse, as far as afterlives go."

And, honestly? Maybe he didn't look so bad after all, for someone who'd just, you know, died.

Well, it was hardly his first time.

He did manage a genuine laugh at that, even if it was a bit rusty. "There are definitely worse possibilities, yes. Though I'm really not a teacher."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Summer assured him, glad to have gotten a laugh, no matter how rusty. "They let literally anyone teach at this school. There was one summer where my boss," who, hey! Was also a dead guy! There were a few of them around!, "teach a class on napping. Hell," she realized, "I teach classes about jello half the time."

Edited 2021-08-28 23:53 (UTC)

"I...how do you...that is, I wouldn't think there's much to teach about napping."

Said the man who looked like he hadn't slept in ages. (Because he hadn't slept well in ages.)

Summer just shrugged, lifting her hands and shaking her head, because she had gone this long without trying to understand how or why Shunsui Kyōraku did anything he did and was not about to start now.

"So basically, yeah," she said. "If you manage to do better than nap class, I think you'll be okay. Honestly, I guess that's one thing he actually does bring to the table: setting the bar so low that even a worm could manage to jump over it..."

"Some worms jump fairly high," Jon muttered, more to himself than Summer.

He sighed. "Right. Definitely worse fates." He was mentally thanking Summer for that perspective, and desperately clinging to it. He could be torn apart, half his mind or body missing, completely taken over by the Eye, or just dead.

He was not mentioning any of that, and shoved it firmly to the back of his mind. "I could be teaching maths."

"Ahahaha!" Summer laughed exactly like you might imagine a woman who had spent the entire day pretty much with a target on her back would laugh, and now that target suddenly felt like it was burning through her shirt. "I know, right? Gross. Maths. Can you even imagine--Hey!"

She was just going to go ahead and try to gently goad Jon away with non-tactile gestures toward the general direciton of MHA.

"Let's go see what we can do about checking that whole 'bath' thing off your checklist next, yeah?"

Jon frowned at her in confusion. Then in bemusement as he Knew what the problem was. He glanced over toward Rosa, who...definitely seemed to have that look about her, yes.

He let Summer herd him. "A bath would be lovely, thank you."

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

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