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!]

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[needsacatchphrase]

"Hi!" Jane said brightly, offering a hand to shake. "Jane Foster. I'm your faculty advisor."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh," Arden said slowly. And then brightened. "Oh! A faculty advisor! I have one of those now! Hi!" With a grin, she reached over and took Jane's hand, shaking it with enthusiasm. "I'm Arden! Which you know. Right. Hello anyway, lovely to meet you."

[needsacatchphrase]

"It was a guess," Jane admitted with a conspiratorial grin. "It's a small place for the most part."

That somehow had a decent amount of people who were friends with her ex. Not weird at all!

"But it can be, uh, weird? If you're not used to some things."

Like aliens. Or magic. Or the occasional building destroying fight.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I've already caught a little bit of the weird on the bus ride over," Arden said carefully. "Are y'all from the other side of town, then?"

[needsacatchphrase]

"Other side of town?" Jane asked, frowning a little in confusion.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden shook her head. "Never mind," she said quickly. "A saying where I'm from. You know...kind of like...not from around here."

Nailed it.

[needsacatchphrase]

"Well, yes and no," Jane said, wobbling her head from side to side as she considered it. "Where I'm from, well, I didn't exist for five years because of some genocidal lunatic from space. But that's a home thing, not a here thing."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

You know what, this seemed like an excellent time for some quality what the fuck? blinking.

[needsacatchphrase]

"It's fine. It's fine," Jane said in a way that meant it really wasn't, but she was just cheerfully powering on through life. Ask her about the weird hand in the Indian Ocean sometime! Or don't. It was... confusing. But that was Marvel for you! "But that's the sort of weird I'm approaching this place from. If that helps?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Arden said as politely as possible, "but it absolutely does not."

Genocidal lunatic? From space? Not existing for five years?

[needsacatchphrase]

"Well, it's a thing," Jane said with a sigh. "Some people around here are from the same world. Or same-ish. I haven't figured it out fully. I'm actually an astrophysicist by trade, so alternate universes or timelines isn't that farfetched if you think about it."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"They're at least enough in the casual zeitgeist that I can accept it in theory," Arden said, a bit flatly.

[needsacatchphrase]

"Oh, I can give you some papers on the subject if you're interested!" Jane said with undue enthusiasm because this was her jam here. Just ignore the whole armor and cape getup.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden had been trying to! She'd filed it under the same 'really advanced drama department' header she'd put Stark's mask under.

"Oh, I...don't think that's...I doubt I have the background...so you were saying about them in general, though?"

She'd been homeschooled by entities who were only vaguely interested in her formal education. She definitely wasn't ready for astrophysicist papers.

[needsacatchphrase]

Awww. But it meant she really was a Thor when someone made jokes like that!

"It's really not so complicated once you get the basics down," Jane assured her, definitely not getting the reason for her hesitation. Because science. Oh, the hopeful smile she had in people being interested in the subject matter.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"The basics being...?"

Sorry, Jane. She was going to let you down so very hard here.

[needsacatchphrase]

"Well, it really depends on if we're discussing observational or theoretical--" Oh god, save yourself, Arden. She was going into post-grad lecture mode.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I'm thinking of majoring in criminal justice!" Arden interjected. "And I don't think that's the kind of observation you're talking about!"

And unless the math was roughly on par with If the perp starts running away at four miles an hour..., it was beyond Arden's ken. Or desired ken, for that matter.

[needsacatchphrase]

"Oh. Oh!" Jane said, stopping the lecture before she could get into wormhole physics using the movie Event Horizon. Which was probably for the best for everyone involved. "Well, that's good too. There's a Trooper Station in town in case you wanted to shadow anyone there for some experience. I could help with that, I'm sure."

Since the whole kind of superhero thing probably didn't really apply to the proper criminal justice system.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, I mean, I'm more interested in becoming a Watch--errr, I mean a Private Eye than an actual cop," Arden said quickly. "It's just the best major to get me there. Since they don't really offer a BA in Snooping or whatever."

Though, if anywhere did, it would be Fandom, let's be real.

[needsacatchphrase]

Considering Jane was teaching a class on Ass-Kicking... yes. Very likely.

"I think there's also a PI on island," she said, thinking about it. "At least I've heard about it on the radio. I've never really needed to go."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Like a commercial or something?"

People listened to the radio when not in a car?

[needsacatchphrase]

"Ah," Jane said before closing her mouth to figure out how best to explain it. "No, it's more like the gossip around the island. If you listen tomorrow, you'll probably hear about this conversation and a lot of others. I'm not really sure how, but people insist it's squirrels. It can be both invasive and weird sometimes."

And sometimes it was read by Tony Stark. Which was just weird for her.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"...Is this like the conspiracy theory that all birds were replaced by government spy cams in the 70s?" Arden checked.

This conversation was actually not getting less confusing than astrophysics.

[needsacatchphrase]

"...why am I even surprised people would think that?" Jane said after a moment. Because she'd been on the internet, thanks. Mostly because of Darcy, but still. Weird theory. "But no. Unfortunately I'm being honest with you there."