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

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!event: welcome picnic

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

It always felt like a bit of a stretch to call an event in January a "picnic," and the weather today wasn't helping with how seasonably cold it was outside. Thankfully, there was plenty of warm food to keep everyone toasty, along with as many carafes as The Perk would offer, filled with hot water for tea, light and dark roast coffee, and hot chocolate.

It was time to welcome in another new semester, everyone!

[Going OCD-free this time, stay warm together!]

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"Understandable," Liliana said, though she doubted he'd be getting home anytime soon. "Come to the store on Monday - that's two days from now. Aim for middle of the afternoon; I rarely open the shop before ten and I take a..." A smile curved her lips "...long lunch."

That was an odd pause. What was she doing on her lunches?

Sairis nodded. "Two days from now, in the afternoon." This was all so overwhelming.

Okay, focus on the things that made sense. Next steps. "I should be able to live in the dorms. And there's a bank. And I need to get a 'phone'. And I have classes."

See her and Ignis interact for roughly three minutes and the answer would be perfectly clear.

"Correct," Liliana said. "Though, I would suggest dorms today. Take tomorrow to gather your wits, explore the dorms, meet some fellow students, breathe. Monday for classes, bank, and meeting with me. By then, you'll probably have more of an idea what further questions you have for me."

"Right. That makes sense." Then, because Karkaroth hadn't exactly raised him with manners but he'd somehow picked them up anyway, "Thank you."

"Of course it makes sense, I'm excellent at what I do," Liliana said with a smile. "Whether that's necromancy or being a faculty advisor."

She nodding towards the nag. "Speaking of, darling, are you planning to keep that around?"

"No," Sairis said. "I was planning on exorcising him as soon as I arrived. Though now I'm not sure where I can leave the body. Do you know where the local knacker is?" That seemed the most logical thing.

"There isn't one," Liliana said. "Not on the island, certainly, and not in Baltimore, either. Your best bet is likely to have it walk out to sea where it can feed the marine life."

But where did people get their glue and soap? And what did they do with their carcasses?

Sairis shook his head. This place was stranger the more he found out about it. "I suppose that will work."

Then he'd have to spend a while just staring at the ocean. It was a lot of water.

At the store for the first and what made him think Lilian had extraneous corpses for the second?

"Better than leaving it to rot somewhere in the woods where someone vastly unprepared to deal with death and the dead could find it," Liliana said. "This plane is very distanced from death. It's almost remarkable."

"There are still plenty of things dying all around," Sairis pointed out, a bit confused. He knew there were; he could feel them.

"And they don't notice or understand," Liliana said. "Death occurs in the wings, off-stage, for many of them."

"That may be the strangest thing so far," Sairis said slowly. That judgment might not hold up, but for now it was definitely odd.

"You'll find others," Liliana said with a soft laugh. "I'm a Planeswalker and even I get surprised by some of the weirder things I see here."

"A planeswalker?" Sairis asked.

"You know those coins in my purse?" she asked. "I have the ability to walk from one 'coin' to another at will and under my own power. Where you traveled here by accident, I simply chose to 'Walk."

"Is that something you can teach?" Sairis asked hopefully.

"No," Liliana said. "Nor can I take anyone with me." She reached into purse and pulled out more coins, holding them between her fingers, facing him. "The coins are individual planes. Surrounding them and keeping them apart are the Blind Eternities." She flexed her fingers, keeping the coins tucked between them. "They're full of chaotic, deadly energies that rip apart anything that's made of organic matter that ends up in them. Unless, of course, that matter was born with a spark of the Blind Eternities stitched into their soul, and that spark managed to ignite. Billions are born without a spark, and of those precious few who are, even fewer ignite. Those who do are Planeswalkers."

Well, that was disappointing.

"And I'm guessing there's no way to tell if someone has a spark, or ignite it, or create one?"

He could still hope.

"If your spark had ignited you'd know," Liliana said. "As it is immediately followed by an unexpected planeswalk to another plane without your knowledge, understanding, or volition. And if you had planeswalked here, your horse would have been torn into very small shreds in front of your very eyes."

If she sounded dead certain about that...well, you can draw your own conclusions about why.

"And no, it's something you must be born. A fragment of the Blind Eternities stitched into your very soul. The ignition of one's spark almost uniformly triggers in a moment of extreme trauma, when you want, with every fiber of your being, to get away from wherever you are and what's happening around and/or to you. You are free to experiment with that kind of situation on your own, if you wish."

Sairis was ready to say that was what had happened, but then she had to add that part about his horse. Damn.

He grimaced at the rest. "If it was going to happen, it already would have, then." And no, he wasn't planning on explaining.

"Oh, that's not true," Liliana said immediately. "Urza--" her nose wrinkled and she looked like she was considering spitting "--his spark didn't ignite until he was in his sixties. And one's spark doesn't ignite in childhood--" Unless you were Aminatou, but that was different and also, Liliana hadn't met her yet "--likely to ensure you have a better chance of survival once it does. Looking at you, I'd guess that you're not even a full decade beyond the earliest your spark could have ignited.

"Although, again, to be clear, we're talking incredibly small odds that you even have one. If my source was correct--" and how horrible to consider the Astrotorium as either 'a source' or 'potentially correct' "--there are currently eighty-three extant Planeswalkers throughout the Blind Eternities. Whole planes have come into being, saw the rise and fall of various civilizations, and then died without ever producing a single Planeswalker."

And then there was Dominaria, where there might be something in the fucking water.

"In that case, I'll pass on voluntarily traumatizing myself to find out," Sairis said. Because he was sensible. "Even if the odds were better."

"Wise," Liliana said. "Love to hear it."

The world provided plenty of opportunities for trauma, he didn't have to make his own.

"Anything else I can do for you now, darling?"

Sairis tried to think of something, but there were so many things going through his head right now...

"If you could point me toward the dormitory, I think I need to sit quietly and think for a while first."

Another approving smile and an imperious nod. "Again," she said, "wise. Those are the dorms," she added, pointing to the large building across from the castle. "Rest and give yourself a moment to catch your breath and rest."

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sairis - 2026-01-08 03:33 (UTC) - Expand

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