fandomhigh | Continued Earth Tourism, third period

"Welcome and welcome back, everybody!" Lana said when they gathered at Portalocity. "My sincerest apologies for missing last week; I'm afraid I had miscalculated my time spent back home. So, introductions will be this week, but we'll still be traveling. And apparently spending extra time and adjusting the portals is something we can do," thank you, Raiden and radio! "so we'll still have plenty of time for our explorations."

She led them through the portal. "We're back in Italy today, but quite a bit drier. This is the Colosseum in Rome. It's the ruins of what was apparently quite a spectacular site a couple thousand years ago, holding gladiatorial combats and other such contests. Not far away, you can also view the remnants of the Forum, the center of political, religious, and commercial life at the time, and the Palatine, which houses the remains of the earliest settlement in the area and later palaces."

She handed out tickets. "I've never done this time-adjusting portals before, so I've arranged for four hours here, and we'll be back at the end of class. We'll see how it works out."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While wandering the ruins, Arden caught up with Graham. "Hey," she said, a little solemn. "You good, hon?" she asked, the backs of their hands brushing together as they walked. "You've been..." She thought about it. "I saw you in class."

He knew the one she meant.

"Hm?" Graham asked, slow to pull himself out of his reverie as he turned toward the sound of someone talking to him. He blinked a little, to notice that it was Arden, and again, to process what she'd said.

"Oh," he said. "Hey, Arden..." A slow blush started to spread across his face because, yeah, he did know the one she meant, but he smiled, faintly, sheepishly, when her hand brushed against his, and the other went to rub the back of his head.

"Y-yeah," he said, with a sort of nervous chuckle. "I'm...I'm good!"

Even he knew how unconvincing that sounded and rallied himself to for a better effort.

"I just..."

He sighed, shook his head, looked over at her apologetically.

"Sorry. Lotta heavy stuff, though, huh? In that class? And, I mean, this place!" His eyes went wide and her gestured all around them. "Wow! Kind of hard not to think of the Tournament. Can you even imagine? The trials being held in a place like this? Echoing with the sounds of steel against armor, Triumph tearing across the battle field, the crowd going wild with cheers and excitement!"

His gestures had gotten bigger the more he spoke, so did the words, ending with imitating thr sounds of the wild and cheering crowd as he filled in the hints of history that surrounded them, and then he settled with a hopeful sort of grin at Arden.

"Pretty incredible to think about, huh?"

Arden was looking back at him with an eyebrow raised. And then she softened. "I can see where it would remind you of that," she said. "But it's not Fandom that's got you..." Specific words were for chumps. "Are you here cause you couldn't go without another Fandom class? Or are there maybe other reasons that you're here, too? Like, Daventry-reasons, not Fandom ones."

"What?" Graham's valiant attempts to lighten things faltered again in response to Arden's questions, and he frowned, genuinely confused for a moment. But he blinked as he put it all together and vehemently shook his head. "No, no!" he assured her quickly, waving his hands in front of him. "Nothing like that! Trust me, I'm definitely here for Fandom reasons. I mean," he tried another smile, "the few times I managed to come and visit reminded me of just how much I miss all you guys. And the fact that I never did technically graduate just gave me a perfect excuse to make the case for coming back! And I mean, sure, being a knight really isn't all I thought it was cracked up to be, but I really do love it. And I'm excited to get back again...eventually. I just think I have a lot more to learn before I'm really ready, you know?"

And, you know, just a teeny, tiny, microscopic, miniscule atom-sized existential crisis about the wrong knight hopeful getting the title to grapple with, but they didn't need to get into all that!

Suuuuure they didn't. Totally not at all!

"We missed you, too," Arden said. "It's not the same without you." And while she let him have that for a second she added, "You don't feel ready? Why not? You and Triumph practiced so hard. What's up?"

"Oh, it's just--" Graham started, and then realized he wasn't really sure how to explain, and shook his head. He sighed a little, and tried again.

"Well," he offered, "it's a lot more paperwork than I expected, for one thing! And a lot less questing. I've enjoyed getting to go around Daventry and check in on how everyone's doing and seeing if they need any help with this or that or another thing. But it...sometimes it feels like a lot of pressure, you know? To do well and not mess it up, especially since, you know, I'm friends with Acorn and Whisper now, I don't want to disappoint them or make them feel like I just got lucky and it could be them in my boots. Well, Whisper, anyway, I think Acorn's pretty glad he didn't get it so he can work on his knitting. But then there's, you know, making my mom proud, and following in Dad's footsteps, keeping up the legacy..."

He trailed off a little, peeking over at Arden and considering her thoughtfully, deciding whether or not to mention it.

He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, and very fascinated with all this ancient brickwork at their feet, wow!

"And just making sure," he said quietly, "that I do right by Achaka. If any of us had won that tournament, it really should have been him, Arden. And the only reason he didn't....was because of me. So I need to get even better. I'm going to get better, and I'm going to graduate, and then I' going to go back and be the best knight Daventry has ever seen!"

As he spoke these dedications, his intensity was slowly ramping up in passion, and he lifted a hand, pounder his fist into his palm, wrapped his fingers down around his knuckles, and nodded.

"For Achaka."

Something about being here in the Collesuem, too, made his words seem to ring with more strength and gravitas than it may have otherwise.

At least it certainly felt that way to Graham.

They were surrounded by the weight of the ages, standing in the ruins of something that had once been grand and imposing. It made sense.

"Hey," Arden said softly, trying to tug him into a hug. Because everybody felt better after hugs. "Okay, so first thing?" she said. "Don't forget that you've gotta do this for you first. Don't be like Acorn and let other people's expectations - or your expectations of other people's expectations - push you into something. It's okay if it's, like, not what you thought it would be, or to find out that your dream changed. There are other ways to honor Achaka."

This time her hand stopped brushing Graham's and took it and squeezed. "It is a lot of pressure. And I know for a fact that you're gonna rise to it. And you are gonna be the best knight Daventry's ever seen, if that's what you wanna be. But best doesn't mean 'perfect' and if that's the standard you're holding yourself to, of course you're not gonna measure up. Take it from someone who knows." She didn't even know how he was measuring 'best' in the first place. "Are you helping people?"

Oh, Graham definitely felt better after a hug, and he was absolutely going to hug Arden back something fierce, and, in fact, he might have tried to hold onto that hug for as long as he possibly could before things started to feel, well, a little awkward.

And when he finally let her go and she had his hand and squeezed it, he squeezed it back with a grateful smile. "It is what I want to be. It's all I've ever wanted to be, ever since I was a wee little kid, you know? So that's part of it, too. Having to wake up every day and pinch myself just to make sure it's all even real! And, yeah...yeah." His grin grew brighter again. "I am helping people. Not, like, rescuing damsels from towers or slaying dragons and evil wizards or anything....yet!...but I've been doing what I can to make everywhere in Daventry a little better, working with the bridge trolls, keeping the leprechauns from causing too much mischief, keeping an eye out on those goblins, bringing food to the woodcutter and his wife since she got sick, herding children out of the big scary woods..."

The smile on his face grew a little dreamy, and then he laughed, shaking his head.

"When I'm not stuck on moat duty or having to do paperwork! It's mostly paperwork, Arden. Just look at these papercuts!"

He held up his hand and pointed out all the little miniscule slices along his fingers for emphasis.

Arden looked down at his hands and then glanced back up at him, lips quirking. "No one has suffered as you have suffered, babe," she laughed, nudging their shoulders together.

"Is it mostly paperwork because you're new? Like, 'cause you're the newest recruit?"

Continued Earth Tourism, third period

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity

Re: Class activity