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

[bigdamnprincipal]

Good weather had fallen over Fandom this morning, so the picnic conditions were looking fantastic. The bonfire was there for good measure, along with the makings of s'mores, because it was almost truly summer, right?

There was plenty of food, and there were tables and chairs set up all across the lawn with varying degrees of glitter stuck to them. Everything was ready for another welcome picnic!

[OCD-free! Welcome the new folks gently! Or not!]

Comments

[even_bigger_teeth]

"There's a poor gentleman from the middle ages?" Luma asked, and not even just because it was easier to focus on something else that wasn't all the finer details of her decision to join Eleanor in going to school here. Again, though, another one of those hints of what made this place so different, and even the suggestion that being a half-a-century behind the times here wasn't actually that big of an issue.

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia gestured vaguely toward Henry. "Mr. Henry of...somewhere," Lydia said, because it had already left her mind. "I believe it had a z in it. I know Eleanor and thus presumably also you come from a few decades back, but speaking as someone who predates modern plumbing and electricity herself, this place can be a lot to get used to!"

Wait. "You did have those things when you're from, didn't you? I've just realized I never asked Eleanor and I don't know how recent they are."

[even_bigger_teeth]

Luma had to smile at that. Still not enough for teeth, of course, but, already, she was starting to feel better about her decision, and that she might be able to actually feel comfortable here. She was already starting to feel some of her trepidation being replaced with excitement, even though she was pretty sure something was going to go wrong sooner rather than later. Things were almost going too well. There had to be a catch.

"It's 1976 back home," she explained. "Which is just shy of fifty years from now, I think? It's 2025 here." She laughed a little, ducking her head as she did it so that she didn't mess things up now by showing her teeth, and she tucked her hair behind her ear as her head came back up. "Which doesn't sound like it could even be a real year! But, yes, we have indoor plumbing and electricity, although it was always a little faulty at the old house, because we lived so far in the woods and everything was so old, from my grandparents' time when they first built it. But we got more modern things for the new house, it's been an absolute dream."

[mustbeawitch]

Perhaps Luma could try ignoring the catch in hopes it would go away! That was what Lydia would do.

"1976," Lydia repeated dutifully, although she probably wouldn't remember it. "How wonderful. It feels like the far distant future to me, and yet it is in the past! I'm sure Eleanor will be able to tell you better what to expect from this time, relative to yours, than I ever would. You're so lucky to have your sister here. All of mine are back in England with their own concerns and lives."

[even_bigger_teeth]

"We actually haven't spent much time together since we were much younger," Luma admitted, her expression getting a little wistful for those halcyon days where everything was so much more simple, before Eleanor had to go and ruin everything by actually eating someone, which they were explicitly not supposed to do, "so it'll be good, to have that now, I think."

She hoped.

"How many sisters do you have? It's just me and Eleanor, but I grew up with my cousin Rhys. We're close enough that he's practically like a brother."

And Eleanor had ruined that, too!

[mustbeawitch]

"I am the youngest of five girls, myself," Lydia told her. "I was always particularly close to my sister Kitty growing up," although that was...complicated. "When we had to be separated it was...very difficult." Both emotionally and magically. "I would do almost anything to be closer to my sister Lizzy, but that's just not possible, so...it's good that you have this chance to spend more time with Eleanor," she decided.

Lydia didn't know the first thing about a Rhys but she very much doubted Eleanor had ruined anything on purpose!

[even_bigger_teeth]

"Five?" Luma's eyes widened as she tried to even imagine it, shaking her head and unable to. But what she could understand was the difficult note in Lydia's voice, because it was something she'd felt, too, not once, but several times, so she nodded.

"I hope it helps," she said. "There's been a deep rift between us for most of our lives, so I hope this rectified that. Especially since..." Her brows furrowed with her own complicated pain. "We had a very difficult separation with Rhys, too. He's..."

Oh, how to explain it?

"...not himself anymore at all."

[mustbeawitch]

"I'm afraid my relationship with my sister Mary is a bit like that," Lydia said. "Well. Mary is as she has always been. I would say we don't speak, but we haven't been in the same place in years. Certainly we don't exchange letters, though. But you know what they say! Where there's life, there's hope!" Lydia wasn't holding out much of that, to be completely honest with you.