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]

"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."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"...The moose?" Arden asked, because it was that or begin immediately grilling him about what he knew of the supernatural.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Did Arden like infodumps? Because that was the way to get an infodump.

"Oh, yes. Administration is run by a moose. He's sentient, not just random wildlife," Jon assured her. "I did say the island can be odd," he said apologetically.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I think we need to have an intense discussion of your definition of odd," Arden said mildly. "We've added a sentient wild animal into a mix that's already included two unrec-- two non-human species. I think we left odd behind roughly three stops back on the Crazy Train."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Well, um." Jon thought about where to even start. "Not all supernatural things or...or magic, or other beings...are awful." Look, that was odd to him. "And there are quite a few non-humans around here, and humans from other worlds than Earth."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Are there other kinds of non-humans around than the ones I've seen?" Arden asked, very casually, for absolutely no reason at all.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Er...well. It, um. I suppose it partly depends on your definition of non-human," Jon said awkwardly. For absolutely no reason at all. "Fosse, the...well, I think he's in charge of the grounds. He's a troll. There's a student who's an alien. One of the teachers is a sort of an eagle, I think, but blue. And, um, there's..." how to describe him? "...there's Beaker."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden nodded at 'troll,' and filed the rest of that away for later, though with a blink at the 'alien.' "But not of your standard, like, urban fantasy races or whatever, right? Elves, or vampires, or werewolves or whatever?"

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"Oh, right. Um. The owner at The Devil's Nest, one of the bars in town, is a vampire. Well, um, one of them is. The other is apparently the actual devil. The other bar, Caritas, has a house band made of zombies." He frowned. "I don't recall any elves or werewolves. Not at the moment, anyway." There was one cannibal, but he was entirely human, near as anyone could tell.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh, cool. I mean. That there's all that stuff around," Arden said with a little laugh. "I feel like I'm in some kind of portal fantasy, you know? Regular girl hops on a bus, ends up in some kind of storybook mashup."

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"The people here are generally safe to be around," Jon assured her, "though of course it never hurts to be cautious. And occasionally there are...well, sort of invasions? But they're usually spaced out somewhat, and we had one only recently, so you shouldn't have to worry about that for a while."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Invasions."

Glad to see she'd picked the world's most awful place to run away from home to.

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"They, um. They usually end up...well, not always fine, but with a, um...a lack of casualties?" Jon shrugged. "I've never known anyone to die during one. Not for good, anyway."

That was reassuring, right?