atreideslioness: (laughter)
Ghanima Atreides ([personal profile] atreideslioness) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2025-09-02 02:17 pm

Reclaiming Your Childhood, Monday, Period 1 [9/2]

Students had handwavily been informed to meet at the old campground today, where they would find Ghanima and Trebor waiting, and a fire already in process.

"Good morning!" Ghanima started off cheerfully, once it seemed everyone had arrived who was going to arrive. "I am Ghanima Atreides, and this is 'Reclaiming Your Childhood.'"

"The goal of this class is simple: I, like most likely many of you, lacked what could be termed a 'normal' childhood," she said bluntly. "You may have noticed by now, but Fandom Island seems to attract the unconventional resident."

"And as a still relatively new parent, attempting to navigate the world with Trebor, I decided... why not? Why not give myself, and everyone else who was interested, a chance to do the things you always wanted to do, but never got the chance?" Ghanima continued. "So, to start off today, we're starting simple with s'mores!"

She gestured to the supplies laid out around the campfire. "We're going to do this in a few different steps. First, everyone pick out a journal and pen from the box over there. Do not worry, we are not doing therapy journaling -- unless you want to -- it is mostly so that you always have a pen and paper for my Suggestion Box. Trebor?"

Trebor, just happy to be helping, beamed, and held up a wooden box with a hinged lid and a slit in the top.

"Very good, beloved," Ghanima praised him. "The Suggestion Box is for things you want to do. It is one-hundred percent anonymous, so that you do not have to feel self-conscious about your requests. Just jot down a on your papers things you think would be fun, and put them in the box, or hand them off to Trebor and he can put them in the box. He cannot read yet, so do not fret on that front."

"Once you have had a chance to pick out your journal, let's get started on making some s'mores and doing some introductions." Ghanima smiled brightly. "Paper first, as it were, and sticky fingers second."
napking: (weetiny Gray)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-02 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Gray
napking: (whoa)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-02 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
As soon as Gray realized what the class activity was going to be, he stood up straighter and started looking around to see if Arden was in this class.
deathtofrendo: (just a sec)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] deathtofrendo 2025-09-02 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Quinn Maybrook
deathtofrendo: (Default)

Re: Choose Your Weapons!

[personal profile] deathtofrendo 2025-09-02 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Unlike the mun, Quinn wasn't exactly excited by stationery. So she grabbed a journal and pen at random.
napking: (Default)

Re: Choose Your Weapons!

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-02 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Gray dug around in the crates until he found a sloth journal and sloth pen, which was even his signature favorite color! Aw, yeah. Winning.
deathtofrendo: (introspections)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] deathtofrendo 2025-09-02 08:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"Quinn Maybrook," Quinn said. "And, uh. I guess most of my childhood was pretty normal? Until my mom became an addict, anyway. And then OD'd. And then Dad and I ran away from the city to try to get away from the grief and ended up at the center of a bunch of nutjobs trying to murder people."

A beat.

"So those bits were . . . less normal."
napking: (dubious)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-02 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm Gray," Gray said. He would love to participate in the s'mores but would pass for not-traumatizing-Arden if she was there reasons. "Uh. Where to start. I'm several thousand years old. Until I was eight I was raised by my dad, who was a really good dad! But he was also, uh, evil...and there weren't any other kids around. I was sort of raised in a war camp." After a brief pause, he said, very quickly like maybe if he got it out fast enough no one would ask questions about it, "And then I was kidnapped and I was in basically boot camp until I turned eighteen."

So. Yeah.
deathtofrendo: (introspections)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] deathtofrendo 2025-09-02 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Quinn at least didn't know most of the people who tried to kill her personally before they tried to kill her.

Her friends Rust and Cole did not have that advantage.

"Ever been in a massacre?" Quinn asked, sounding vaguely curious. Which was to large extent the most emotive she tended to be when she wasn't, say, feeling murderous herself.
deathtofrendo: (Default)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] deathtofrendo 2025-09-02 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah." Quinn nodded. "I've only seen three."

Only.
intheeyeofthebeholding: (wee - looking up)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] intheeyeofthebeholding 2025-09-02 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Jonathan Sims
intheeyeofthebeholding: (Default)

Re: Choose Your Weapons!

[personal profile] intheeyeofthebeholding 2025-09-02 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Jon picked a pen with a cat on it and a simple cloth journal he liked the feeling of.

He only noticed what the journal said afterward, and it seemed like it would be too awkward to put it back, so he just sort of grimaced and fidgeted with it. Maybe he could consider it to be aspirational.
intheeyeofthebeholding: (Default)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] intheeyeofthebeholding 2025-09-02 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"Jonathan Sims," Jon introduced himself. He was staying a respectful distance from the fire and just nibbling on a graham cracker. "Jon. I...well, I suppose...my parents died when I was young, and my grandmother raised me, so that's a bit different. But she did do her best. And there were...other things...that meant I was possibly more traumatized than other children my age. But I'm not really certain what a normal childhood would be."

Look, he was in this class because trying to have fun sounded like a much better idea for him than listening to other people's trauma, which could only end badly.
intheeyeofthebeholding: (Default)

Re: The Suggestion Box!

[personal profile] intheeyeofthebeholding 2025-09-02 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
At some point, Trebor would be handed a neatly folded note with a somewhat less neatly written "Carousel" on it.
mylandmyrules: (Young Nell Smiling)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] mylandmyrules 2025-09-02 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Nell Ingram
Edited 2025-09-02 22:49 (UTC)
mylandmyrules: (Hopeful)

Re: Choose Your Weapons!

[personal profile] mylandmyrules 2025-09-02 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Nell picked out a beautiful flowered journal and some garden flower gel pens.
mylandmyrules: (Default)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] mylandmyrules 2025-09-02 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm Nell and I've been here for a while."

Nell had not signed up for this class, but she figured the moose must have had a good reason and she was pretty much always one to make the best of things.

"I grew up in a cult and was married at 12, so my childhood wasn't exactly what most people here would call normal."
singlenakedwhat: (weetiny neutral)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] singlenakedwhat 2025-09-03 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
Henry
singlenakedwhat: (seriously?)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] singlenakedwhat 2025-09-03 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
"Henry," Henry introduced herself, grateful for the fact that not having (or at least, not volunteering, in her case) a last name wasn't all that unusual here in Fandom.

"My dad," was murdered by the man who would later become her mentor, "died when I was a little kid, and I grew up on the road with my mom. We didn't really stay put anywhere for very long."
afraid_of_marshmallows: Anais Lee (zzzWeetiny - Not Best Please)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Arden Finch
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel in 4 Weddings and a Funeral (Brow Furrowed - Oh Please Don't Sad)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
Arden was there and already looking a little green around the gills. "I'm gonna move upwind," she muttered. "You mind grabbing me the writing stuff?"
Edited 2025-09-03 03:36 (UTC)
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (Looking at You - Soft)

Re: Introductions & S'mores!

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
"Uh..." Arden was as far away from the fire where they were making s'mores as it was possible to be without actually leaving the clearing. "I'm Arden Finch. Junior. I'm an orphan, my parents died when I was just a few days old, so I spent the first seven years being bounced from foster home to foster home, before I was...taken in by the woman who became my legal guardian. I left her house the day I turned eighteen and came here."
napking: (whoa)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-03 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I got you," Gray assured her. "Any special requests? Favorite color?"
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (Default)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
"I like birds," she mumbled and skittered off.
napking: (dubious)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-03 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Gray did know that!

A few minutes later, Gray was back with his haul. "Okay, I got you this journal and then these mini notebooks. I couldn't find any bird pens, but I thought these were pretty, and this one seems fun, and look at these cute erasers! Oh, and look at my sloth stuff!"

Was his attempt at a distraction from the s'mores action helping, Arden? Please say it was helping.
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (B&W - Cold Shoulder)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
Arden gave him a kind of sickly smile. "This is a whole haul, Gray, thanks. And yeah. Lemme see your sloth stuff? I bet they're cute. Anything anime?"

She was trying so hard, Gray.
napking: (dubious)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-03 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
Gray shrugged. "She didn't stop me. I didn't see anything anime in particular, but the strawberry cat pen is kind of kawaii, see? Look, it can punch things." Like any marshmallows that came nearby.
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel (Looking - Sideways Colorful)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
And it was toasted marshmallows specifically. The worst.

"Lemme see?" She reached for the pen, making it punch the air. "Kawaii...?"

Because Arden didn't speak weeabo and look at me, I'm roleplaying.
napking: (hoodie lyfe)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-03 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Raiden might disagree but Gray thought the toasted marshmallow aversion was more tragic than not being able to eat fried chicken.

"It's Japanese for 'cute,' basically," Gray explained. "But in Japan it's also a particular aesthetic of things that are cute in a certain way. Like--" He racked his brain for examples someone who didn't speak anime would know. "Like Hello Kitty, or meta for Pikachu."
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel in 4 Weddings and a Funeral (Talking - Earnest Gesticulation)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh!" Arden said. "Like...very round?"
napking: (Default)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] napking 2025-09-03 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah!" Gray agreed. "Big eyes, usually. I guess the strawberry cat doesn't count for that."
afraid_of_marshmallows: Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey in Fast & Furious (Sad - Disappointed)

Re: During the Lecture

[personal profile] afraid_of_marshmallows 2025-09-03 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
"It can be cute even if it's not properly kawaii," Arden decided, making it punch the air more. Look at that double arm action go!
what_big_teeth: ((wee) steadfast)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] what_big_teeth 2025-09-03 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Eleanor Zarrin
even_bigger_teeth: ((wee tiny) smug)

Re: Sign-In

[personal profile] even_bigger_teeth 2025-09-03 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Luma Zarrin