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

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

God, what is this, 2015?

"I will," Arden said, meaning it far more sincerely than it was being typed, because I am very tired. "I heard that Graham and Belle go sometimes, too. Or did, I guess, back before Graham went back to Daventry. Do you have a favorite place yet?"

[mustbeawitch]

"I've become quite fond of Italian food," Lydia confessed. "And the cat cafe was quite fun, although I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a cafe run by intelligent cats." We were all disappointed about that, Lydia. "I've some hope that Sir Graham will continue to join us from time to time despite his new address. Portals exist, you know!"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Well, now we know what Mr. Boston has to do with all his Tiktok money," Arden said. "Open up a cat cafe right here on the island!"

Maybe invite your sister to come visit...

[mustbeawitch]

What could possibly go wrong?

"Arden! That's a fantastic idea! I shall suggest it to Mr. Boston the next time I see him. I doubt that he would engage in such labor--he's quite enough to do between being Mr. Blackwood's familiar and a TikTok star, you know--but surely there are other magical cats in need of employment."

What could possibly go wrong?

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Wow, did you feel that? The kind of weird feeling that suggested 'weirdass BDE'?

Huh, funny that.

"Now I'm picturing, like, a magical cat support group," Arden chuckled. "Where they can meet up and share tips like cat cafes hiring and how to get Tiktok brand deals and stuff. And, nah, Mr. Boston just needs to start it and then, once it gets going, franchise it."

Boom. Instant cash. Surely enough to support an illicit nineteenth century lovechild!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia was nodding along enthusiastically until Arden hit a word she wasn't familiar with. "'Franchise?'" she echoed. "What is that?" Expand her 19th century vocabulary, Arden!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Uhhh, okay, so like, when it comes to restaurants and stuff, a franchise is a weird kind of deal that..." Okay so she couldn't really define it, but she could get the point across! "So um, imagine Mr. Boston opens his cat cafe. And it gets really popular and he opens up a couple more. Now the cafes are a chain. It becomes so popular that other people wanna do the same thing - but not just open up any cat cafe, but specifically one of the stores in Mr. Boston's chain. So what Mr. Boston does is franchise it. He makes it so people can open up more cat cafes with his name on them, but they have to pay him for the privilege, and they have a bunch of rules to follow about the store itself, like, how it looks and what it serves and stuff like that. And so Mr. Boston starts getting money from the people paying to franchise his store, and the franchise owners get to open a store that's already got name recognition and possible fans, and the public knows that whether they go into Mr. Boston's cat cafe on Fandom or in Baltimore or on St. Josephine or in Daventry, they're all going to be pretty much exactly alike."

She glanced back to Lydia. "Did, ah, that make sense?" Cause goddess knew that the phrase 'cat cafe' was starting to lose all meaning for her.

[mustbeawitch]

"Let us assume that it did," Lydia said slowly, "and move along to other matters. Have you met Eleanor's sister yet? She's just enrolled, apparently, and seems rather nice, I thought. It must be lovely to already have her sister here to 'show her the ropes,' as it were."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Yeah, I met her, too! She didn't tell Ellie she was coming, wanted to surprise her. And there's another new student, Henry. He's from, like...ye olden times or something. I don't think I saw any other newbies, though."

[mustbeawitch]

"Yes, I met him as well," Lydia said. "He comes to us from the year 1403!" Which had caused Lydia to say the f word, although Mr. Henry had been kind enough not to notice. "He said you had told him about...what was it? Lurgies and digetry?" More modern words she didn't know!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"1403??!" Arden hadn't gotten his year, she'd been busy explaining the horrors of the slave trade to him. You know. Normal welcome picnic conversation. "Digi--oh! Allergies and dietary restrictions."

Apparently if you had an allergy back in the 1500s you just died.

[mustbeawitch]

"Allergies?" Lydia repeated, because if you had an allergy in the 1800s you also just died. "I do hope he doesn't have too terrible of a time settling in. To think he won't even have known this continent exists! Oh, I should probably have told him about that..."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Brain: 1400s! No! 15th Century! No! 1400s! No...COMBINE THEM

"You know, where you eat something and it makes you sick? Sometimes itchy, or makes it hard to breathe, or you just have some kind of uncomfortable reaction to it...?"

[mustbeawitch]

"Oh! I didn't know that had a name." The twenty-first century had a word for everything. "It does seem incredibly inconvenient."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Because they thought that maybe you shouldn't just die. Novel concept.

"Right? I knew another foster kid allergic to chocolate. He broke out in hives every time he had some."

True nightmare scenario.

[mustbeawitch]

"The poor thing couldn't have chocolate?" Lydia gasped. "How cruel, to have chocolate all around you and not be allowed any."