Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, Saturday, All Day

[bigdamnprincipal]

If anyone in Fandom could control the weather, they weren't doing a particularly good job with it today. It was quite hot and sticky outside, so the lawn was filled with as many pop-up tents as could be acquired to provide some well-needed shade. There were plenty of cool drinks and moddable food that would hopefully survive the heat--it might not have felt like summer would be ending any time soon, but it was time to celebrate the coming fall nonetheless!

[Flying OCD-free! Have at it and stay cool!]

Comments

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"The bags and water are at that end," Jon pointed out. "There are packets of sugar and other sweeteners."

Look, he was English. He heard "tea" and was trying to be helpful.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden looked up at him in horror. "They have unsweetened tea here?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon was used to looks of horror, but the reason for this one took him aback. "Erm...isn't most of it...oh." The Eye decided to be helpful. Well, "helpful".

"Well, um..." He tried very hard not to let his own horror of what sweet tea was show on his face. (He wasn't much good at it.) "They might have what you're looking for the next table over, with the sodas."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

It's okay, John. You were allowed to be wrong. All tea is bad and deserves to go in the garbage.

She looked over to the tea. Narrowed her eyes. "That looks like it was made with Lipton," she declared. Judgily.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er...Maybe." Look, Jon hadn't made the stuff, okay? And he was not about to stand up for anyone who did that to tea which was generally a yummy brew. "You could, um. You could brew it hot and pour it over ice, I suppose." He winced to suggest it, but it seemed like the lesser of evils, at least.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Falsehood.

Arden immediately shook her head. This is what you get when you run away from home. Hardship and deprivation. "No thank you," she said. "I'll just add sweet tea fixings to my grocery list." And as God as her witness, she'd never go thirsty again.

Right! This was a public event, thrown by other people. Time to remember her manners. "There is a lot of new stuff here to try anyway," she added politely. "Hello, by the way. My name is Arden Finch. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Jonathan Sims. A pleasure, Miss Finch. I'm a teacher here. Welcome to Fandom." Thus ended his ability to make smalltalk.

"The Turtle and Canary in town sells everything, so I'm certain you'll be able to find whatever you need. And Summer can order things if they're not in. Erm." He looked around and pointed. "That's Summer."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

She looked to where John was pointing and saw a slim blonde woman talking to a man...doing some kind of Alexandre Dumas cosplay?

This was college, she supposed. Why not? Maybe Fandom U had a thriving drama department.

"Thank you, Mr. Sims," she said. "I got a map of town in my acceptance letter, but it didn't explain what anything was, just listed the names of the shops. I'd figured Turtle and Canary was a pet shop."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Ah, I can see how that would be confusing. There is no pet store on the island, but we do have a shelter where you can get a pet or anything you might need for them. It's called Furnado. It's run by Prince Sidon. He's, erm..."

Jon hesitated, hoping he wasn't about to break any brains here. "There." He pointed.

"Also I have a cat if you need to, um. To cuddle. Something." Issa might even allow it.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Well, Arden certainly looked surprised enough when she spotted Sidon - but a particularly perceptive man might notice it wasn't exactly the right kind of startled. It wasn't the shock of someone who was suddenly realizing that humans weren't the only sapient races in the world, but someone being faced with a sapient non-human that she absolutely could not ID.

But when she spoke, she gave off a very different impression. "What--?" She looked up at John with very big eyes. "...I think I may have gone too long without eating. Because I can't possibly be seeing what I think I am."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Yeah, Jon wasn't good at nuances which is not capitalized, omg fingers. "He's, um. A zora," Jon said, a bit apologetically. "If he looks like a large red shark man with another shark on his head, you are absolutely seeing what you think you are."

He frowned a little. "If you're not seeing that, then perhaps something else is going on."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Nope," Arden says, still staring. "That is absolutely what I'm seeing. Uh. And...we're all just eating and drinking and chatting normally while an oversized fishman wanders around, presumably telling people about the animal shelter he runs in town?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er...yes? Though to be fair," Jon added, "He's extremely enthusiastic about anything you'd like to talk about. He's really very personable. If occasionally exhausting."

Mostly to introverts.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"And, just to check...you're not from the other side of town, right?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er...well, I suppose so?" Jon answered. "I run the block of flats right next to the causeway, which is about as far across the island from here as you can get, anyway. If you're looking for lodgings, we do have flats available."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

You know, she really needed to stop asking that. Because anyone who answered yes would then immediately know she was as well and that was the last thing she wanted.

"Er..." she said. "Do you have a card or something?"

Someone was just realizing that she hadn't actually secured lodgings for herself.

That was fine, someone else was handling that on her behalf anyway.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, um. No. But...hold on." Jon hunted up a napkin and took a pen out of the folder he was holding onto for his advisee. "Here's the number if you want to call, or you can drop by - my flat's on the ground floor. If you're hunting, there's another block of flats a little closer to the school, and the dorms of course."

He was not going to voluntarily announce the boarding house, because nobody should be living in an eldritch being, people!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Sounds like the kind of thing someone partially possessed by an eldritch being would say.

"Oh, um, thank you very much, Mr. Simms," Arden said, taking his number and folding it carefully into her pocket. "Is there any--"

And then she stopped, because Gonzo had walked into her field of vision.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Hey, any sane person would agree! Which made it different from a lot of things Jon had done.

"Any..." Jon started prompting, then followed her look. "Oh, dear. That's an unfortunate cardigan."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"...You're questioning the cardigan." Arden just had to make sure she'd heard that correctly.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"W-well, it, um...no!" Jon hurried to say. "That is, I'm, um. I'm not about to judge anyone on fashion. Just the, um. The university abbreviation. I really wish they'd thought of something other than 'FU'."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden was soooo past judging John for him judging fashion sense. She was firmly on judging John for him judging fashion sense right this moment.

"...Okay, yeah, I can see where that's going to be awkward for me later," Arden conceded. "But...so remember how I had to check to make sure I was seeing what you was seeing with the shark prince? Can we do that again? But with the...individual...wearing the cardigan?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er...short, mostly purple and...blue, I think. Very large, um. Nose? Or possibly beak. I'm afraid I don't know them. One moment."

Jon walked over and talked to the person for a while, handed over the folder, and came back. "Apparently his name is Gonzo. He's my student advisee."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Ah," Arden said, like this made any sense at all. "I'm pleased you met up with him then."

Just you know. Making completely normal conversation. About absolutely bonkers things. And bonkers on a scale of the Triangle, which made it even worse.

"What is it that you teach, sir?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, um. Largely literature. Or, um, tea, if the moose is feeling vindictive. This term it'll be...well, folklore, but a sort of what to be careful of when dealing with the supernatural. As much as such things can be predicted. I don't know what you might be studying here or if that's of interest."