fandomhigh | Welcome Party for the Summer Students and Staff

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

Welcome Party for the Summer Students and Staff

Despite the slightly overcast sky, the weather is still good for welcoming all of the new arrivals for the Fandom High summer session. The graduation decorations (and gremlin debris) have been cleared from the front lawn, and replaced with tables of information packets, food, and drinks. A series of signs point the students to the information table first, where they can pick up their room assignments from the office drones, and then continue on to the food tables to mingle.

And no, there are no inflatable gremlins around today. It's far too early to start scaring the new folks. ~~That's what the mingling section is for!~~

[OOC: All right folks, have at it!]

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"My peculiarities?" Walter asked. "Generally the fact that I'm a vampire hunting butler suffices. Or did you mean the school's peculiarities? Because there are more of them than I can count."

"Oh, I meant the school's particularities," said Seras, "Just...anything in general that would be good to know about, and...Wait. You're a what?"

"Butler. Who hunts vampires." Walter grinned and waved his fingers at her. "It's a job."

A job...

Seras blinked, wondering if the National Health would cover the medical insurance for that.

Vampire Hunter. Right.

Her somewhat overloaded brain then supplied her with an image of Walter dressed in Elmer Fudd gear, crouching behind some bushes and muttering about 'waskawwy wampiiires'.

Seras gave her tea a suspicious glance and cleared her throat.

"So, if I may clarify...you are a teenaged vampire hunting butler from 1944. You sound...busy. Why did you come to Fandom High?"

"My employer's idea. Not mine." And that would be the sound of Walter sounding just a tad disgruntled.

"But I like it here. I've made some very good friends, and I really haven't had a chance to get out of practice. There are too many odd events around here to keep me on my toes."

Seras nodded and sipped her tea.

"That's...that's nice."

She rolled her eyes inwardly. Oh, well said. Small talk was not Seras' forte. She was very out of practise. Still, she would make the effort. Because, frankly, how often does one run into vampire hunting butlers from the 1940s?

"So...were you a vampire hunter first? Or a butler? Or are the two one and the same where you're from?"

There. She'd brought the concept of multiple dimensions up in casual conversation.

She was getting better at this.

"They sort of happened at the same time. I picked the wrong pocket and ended up with a job when I got nicked. Something about cutting off his hand seemed to impress him." He shrugged. "War orphans have to eat, too, you know?"

War orphan...

Seras forced her tired brain to flash back to her history lessons. Right. The Blitz. 1940-41. And all the three or four years after.

She gazed at the young man standing in front of her and tried to reconcile his flesh and blood presence with the black and white photos of rubble and smoke in her text books.

She nodded. She knew.

Well, not exactly. But, strangers invading your home and destroying everything...

Okay. Yeah. She knew.

"Right. But here, I'm a student, I work at Cafe Fina, my roommate is an alchemist. Tell me a bit about yourself. What brings you to Fandom? This place seems to bring very interesting people."

Seras blinked. Walter was one thing in his 1940s London and another here in Fandom? Was it really so simple? Seras certainly still felt like the old self she'd wanted to leave back in 1993.

She shrugged. "I came here for the curriculum, really. I'm fifteen, so I'd have to sit my A levels soon. But, I'm not interested in post secondary. And, there's courses here in criminology and police work. That's why I came..."

Seras trailed off. There was more to it, but she didn't really feel like getting into all that. She'd come to Fandom to get away from all that. Still, Walter had been frank with her...

"...And I wanted a...a change," she said finally.

There. That was true enough.

"You couldn't ask for more of a change than Fandom," Walter said with a smile. "If you're here for preparation for police work, you will have to take Professor Tick's class. I hear very good things about it."

"Professor Tick..." Seras repeated to herself so that she would remember. Had she read about him in the information packets?

"Which classes have you taken so far?"

Walter grinned in the face of how serious she seemed to be. "Gardening, Creature Languages, Sociology of the Paranormal, and Maths. Creature Languages was my favorite. It's a shame the teacher left at the end of the term. I hope they have it again in the fall. I'd like to learn more."

Seras nodded.

That did sound interesting.

"I imagine 'Sociology of the Paranormal' was helpful for your...line of work."

"That's why I took it," Walter said, nodding. "But it had less practical use than I thought. It was still interesting, and the talk about time travel was worth the class."

He looked around and grabbed a brownie from the junk food table. "What floor is your room on? I didn't ask Gwynn."

"4th Floor. Room...410," Seras replied, consulting her papers.

"Wait, don't tell me. It is the cursed floor of evil and badness, right? My room being the most cursed of all?"

"No." Walter snickered at the question. "The fourth floor is usually very quiet. Most of my friends live on the fifth floor, though."

Seras nodded.

Quiet was good. She was here to study, after all.

But, Walter's mentioning friends intrigued her too. She'd been so focused on the class and the Not England aspects of Fandom High that she'd almost forgotten that there'd be other people attending too.

"Do you need to go meet your friends or something?" she asked, realising that they'd been chatting for some time now.

"You can't be tiring of my company already," Walter said. "I can see them here and there and they look like they're getting to know new people." And Nadia wasn't being harassed by that obnoxious kid.

"You should check the common rooms. There are usually people to meet there."

Seras shook her head.

"No, not at all."

Actually, there was a lot she'd like to ask Walter. But, most of it would probably be better kept until when or if they became better acquainted.

"I think I'm just tired in general," she said, "Six hour time difference and all that. I should probably find my room and crash."

"The travel can be tiring," Walter remembered it well. "It's a small island. I'm sure you won't have much trouble finding me."

Seras nodded and smiled, hoisting her duffle bag onto her shoulder.

"I'm really glad to have met you," she said, holding out her right hand.

Walter shook her hand. "I'm happy to have met you. It's a small island. I'm sure we'll bump in to each other soon."

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Welcome Party for the Summer Students and Staff

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