fandomhighdorms | Entries tagged with dolf wega

wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com

Okay, so this wasn't the happiest event Student Council or the Reserves had ever put together.

It wasn't even in the top fifty.

Still, there were some of the trappings of a standard student event: Free food, for one, represented by a table of pizzas. Odd decorations -- CPR dummies, in this case.

And, of course, people standing in the front of the room waiting to talk.

"Hey," Quinn said. Her hair was pulled back simply , and she looked tired. "We know this is not the best week, so thanks for coming out. A lot of us are feeling sort of run down by what's going on, and we wanted to get people together outside the library. There's pizza, and if you want to brush up on CPR, Dave and Wesley are both pretty handy."

She glanced over to Wes now to see if he wanted to add anything.

"We'll be doing some demonstrations in a brief while," Wesley said. "In the meantime, help yourself to anything you'd like to eat, enjoy yourselves, er, as best you can, and feel free to come to us with any questions you might have."

Way to put people in the party mood, Wes. Really. Two thumbs-up on that one.

Quinn didn't have much else to add, so she tried to smile and wandered off toward the first aid area and hoped people would follow.

[[OCD up! Have at!]]

glacial_queen

Today, the Reserves met outside. The leaders figured that people might need a little fresh air and the chance to move around a bit. There was the traditional table of ~~moddable~~ snacks and beverages for anyone to partake of. Assuming they had the appetite.

"Today, we're going to be talking about how to deal with an invisible enemy," Karla said, because they enjoyed being topical. "Of all the senses we have, most of us rely far too heavily on out sense of sight. That hinders us greatly when it comes to enemies that are invisible, or when it comes to fighting in the dark or when we're fighting enemies from ambush."

"Or when you battle disease, that some might have given you purposefully," Dolf said quietly. He hadn't quite managed to disassociate any of this from the Crimson Death since Cally's message yesterday. "There are many kinds of enemies that can't be seen, and not all of them are things you can hit. Or they might be things you can see, but that creep in when you least expect it, take someone and then go." Experience with that? Never. "But there are ways to deal with this. Keeping watch, and even just knowing."

"From a martial perspective, it's important to utilize your other senses as much as you can, to avoid letting a lack of a visible opponent become a handicap," Wesley added. "In an ordinary fight, one might not even realize all the clues provided to you by simply listening and being present in your physical space -- but when you're no longer able to see what you're fighting, it becomes that much more imperative to take advantage of these things."

Off to the side, there were basketballs and strips of cloth set out. "For martial and support," Wesley continued, "we'd like you to pair up and take turns approaching one another. One of you should wear the blindfold and try to -- gently -- toss the basketball at the other, using the rest of your senses to the best of your ability to try to locate them, while the other tries to be as quiet as possible. You can trade roles when you're finished."

"For magic," Karla added, "we're going to do the same thing, only use power to try to deflect or shield against the ball while blindfolded. If your powers don't work that way, we can talk about other ways to practice using your gifts while unable to see."

[Co-written with the usual suspects!]

leavingthenest.livejournal.com

Rapunzel was feeling pretty good this morning, and as part of that she was trying to get back into a regular routine. She'd gotten up early, tidied up her room, and almost immediately headed to the common room where she'd made a huge batch of muffins.

And now that said muffins were in the oven (and smelled positively delicious as they were baking!) Rapunzel had a moment to sit down and brush her hair. A few moments.

A lot of moments.

This could take a while.

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

It was Wednesday the first time Dolf dragged himself out to do something other than mope around his room (or, that one time, mope around the picnic). He was hungry again, and while he could just steal something from the fridge and run as he'd been doing... he lingered.

He wasn't sure why. Maybe it was wanting a better lunch, for once.

He wound up standing by the counter making sandwiches. The first couple were for himself; after that, he just kept going. He could always put some back in the fridge in case someone needed to eat them, and right now it was kind of cathartic.

And a good sign that he wasn't a pony anymore.

[[ open! ]]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

It might be Cinco de Mayo to some people, but to Dolf it was a more important day. Not that he would have gotten very gung-ho about it if he'd still been back home-- not that this was technically all that gung-ho, because all he'd done was put out some snacks and tuck a few plastic red-white-and-blue Dutch flags behind the furniture-- but it was still important.

It was Liberation Day back home right now. And-- well, with everything that happened to Triela, he wasn't in the most festive mood. But he should be, today of all days, especially after he'd kept two minutes' silence during the Day of the Remembrance of the Dead yesterday. He still possessed a keen sense of historical perspective.

So: flags, snacks, and the one live stream of one of the Liberation Festivals that he could find. He'd find some joy in himself for the sake of freedom today, even if it killed him.

[[ open! ]]

trigons_child

After all the candy and sugary treats devoured when most of the island's inhabitants were transformed into children, Raven was very careful to provide a lot of healthy snacks for this meeting of the Reserves. There were fruits and veggies and whole grain goodness, but in the end she'd caved enough to provide some sweets as well.

"We are celebrating the end of the semester," Raven said to begin the meeting. "We have survived not only our classes, but everything that Fandom -- and our own worlds -- have had to throw at us. We thought we would take this time to take a break from the stress of finals and relax among friends, though perhaps we can also speak of what we have faced over the past several months and what we learned from it, about ourselves and our companions and our abilities."

"I think the most important thing I learned," Tara began, "and this might sound cheesy, is -- trust yourself and trust your friends. I've seen people do amazing things. Things they, they would have sworn they couldn't do if you'd asked. But stress people out enough, and bam. Magic happens. Not just literal magic, either."

"But there are always consequences to your actions," Karla added, sounding a little subdued. "And those consequences can have much further-reaching effects than what you might expect. Be careful of those around you, especially your friends. Just because they are likely to forgive you doesn't mean you have the right to treat them poorly, even for the sake of the 'greater good.'"

"Sometimes you owe your friends more than that," Dolf piped up. "Sometimes the 'greater good' is your friends, and sometimes you need to just look out for them to get the right things done." Not that he had any idea what Karla might have been referring to, but it had been his experience. "So we want to talk about it, and help make this part of the preserve a nicer place for today. Just to talk about the things we have done this year, and what they mean. Because everything means something, and everything we fight for is something important."

The boy was really ridiculously earnest.

"For my part, I have learned much the same as Tara has said," Raven said. "No matter how frightening something is, no matter how ashamed you are of something that is happening to you, you should not keep it to yourself and deal with it alone. The friendships forged in Fandom are strong, and our unique abilities and upbringings may bring valued insight into one another's problems. None of us are alone here."

She smiled and looked around at each of the students attending the meeting. "And if you have any words of advice for new students that will be arriving in Fandom, we would like to hear those as well."

[Co-written with the fabulous

glacial_witch,

life_inshadow, and

swordsandsoccer.]

Current Mood: good

knowsnokungfu.livejournal.com

Chuck was not a fighter, by any stretch of the imagination, and usually spent these invasions safely holed up indoors if at all possible, leaving the heroics to the people who liked swords, or could punch someone out without even trying. It was better that way.

This invasion however? He was in his element. Of course he was. It only took one restart at the dorms lobby yesterday to figure out the lay of the rules and since then he hadn't had much trouble hording coins, dodging turtle shells and jumping on toothy mushrooms.

He wasn't venturing far from the dorms, simply because he didn't need to to play at this. He'd set his sights on clearing the lawn outside the dorms entrance. Waging war on the creatures that dared to come near him here was good enough for him.

... And maybe he liked the option of running back indoors when spiky balls or turtle shells flew at his head.

Still. He was helping!

[[Open, should anyone else who can still leave the dorms want to join his ground defense.]]

Current Mood: bouncy

vanillajello

Really, it probably should have been a shock to wake up in a room you hadn't even seen for nearly twenty years. And yes, it had been a little disorienting at first, but please. Not only was Kate Desrosiers a Fandom High alumna, she had also taught at the school herself, and had visited pretty frequently over the years since. There were few strange occurrences that could shock her anymore.

So really, all this randomly-getting-transported-overnight stuff really meant at this point was that she was saving money on gas for her car.

Having rolled out of bed and boggled at her old room for a moment, Kate did what came naturally. And that was wandering on down to the common room, getting the coffee machine going, and getting started on a batch of muffins. If memory served her right, the smell would be enough to lure people in. She was kind of curious as to who all she'd see.

And if there was anyone in particular she was hoping to run into... Well, you would not be the first to know.

[ooc: You can't possibly think this could be anything other than open.]

glacial_queen

About ten minutes after the usual start of the Reserves, Karla came dashing into the Preserves. "Hi...everyone," she said, panting. "Sorry...late...Portal..."

Was there a law that said that the Portals had to open up in the most inconvenient place possible? Was there?

"Gimme...sec?" She waved to Dolf to begin while she caught her breath. Or maybe pick up where he'd left off, she wasn't sure if he'd been waiting for her.

"...Hi," said Dolf, looking... surprised. Surprised was a good word. He'd put out a lot of stuff on the tables, stuff that wasn't just food, but also bandages and clothes. Though there were cookies. Many cookies. "Um, everyone, Karla is here, so we could have waited another... three minutes?"

Sigh. "Uh, we were talking about putting boxes of important things around the island in case we might need them...?"

Straightening now, Karla looked over at the tables and nodded. "Oooh, yeah, that makes sense. Little caches of items and gear to make safe drops at places. I like that. So, okay..." She was getting her breath back, at least. "So, we have a lot of ~~moddable~~ stuff here. Let's brainstorm what we'd want to find in little safety stashes around the island and start putting those boxes together. Let's see how comprehensive we can make them without ending up with something too big to be useful."

"Yes, that," Dolf said, helpfully. He was distracted from anything else he might have liked to say by the noise of a crying baby. "...She has been loud," he muttered, sprinting off to one of the tables and picking up little Lies. "And then when we are done talking, we should take some of them out and put them places."

[Co-written with the wonderful

swordsandsoccer]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

So as it turned out, Dolf had not, in fact, spotted the gremlin in the storage room at Turtle & Canary. What had happened was that the gremlin had spotted Dolf and embedded its tiny teeth neatly into Dolf's ankle about two seconds before he finished closing up the shop.

The Swede had not cared about the wound on his ankles. Bah! Ankles. He had cooking to do!

And so lo and behold, the Swede - with a charming beard made of cotton taped to his face - was in the first common room kitchen he could find. "HUNGRY?!" he shouted at his audience (which at the moment consisted mostly of chairs) "MAKE MEATBALLS!"

He yanked open the fridge with way too much violence, and began throwing food haphazardly at the counter. While shouting in... not Swenglish, exactly. Dunglish. Whatever. He didn't care. He was SWEDISH. "MELK!" He practically hurled the pack of milk against the back wall, then threw a bowl after it.

Fandom better be prepared for dinner tonight.

[[ so dolf now thinks he's Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time guy. open common room is open. ]]

glacial_queen

Today when the Magic Reserves met in the Preserve, they would notice that there were trees on either side of the field festooned with pink and green streamers. They were the streamers that had marked the path for the sorority's run through town yesterday and Karla had seen no reason to let them go to waste.

"Kiss kiss," she said, after everyone had arrived. "Today we're going to work off some of our excess energy by playing British Bulldog--with a Fandom twist, of course." Pointing at the areas marked off, Karla explained, "That's home base. Your job is to get from the home base at one end of the field to the home base at the other. You're safe when you're there. However, as you're running, there are others people--bulldogs--who are going to try to catch you. If they catch you, you become a bulldog, too."

"The last person standing wins," Tara explained, still cheerful from her mother's visit. A game felt like a good way to spend the meeting. "And if you can shield, try to shield some of the people who can't. It helps slow the bulldogs down. And it's just nice."

"And sometimes if we wind up in a battle, it might be important to get someone who can't fight to the other side," Dolf added, always happy to drag things down by pointing out about attackers and death and stuff. "So see it as good practice for the next time something goes wrong. ...And if you are a bulldog, try not to hurt anyone, this is just for training."

"I understand this game is often fraught with injuries," Raven said. Because she would worry about that. "But if anyone is hurt, I will be happy to heal you."

"So, there we are," Karla said cheerfully. She pointed at a few people in the crowd. "You lot are bulldogs, everyone else head to home base. Let's go!"

[Co-written with the usual suspects. OCD on its way]

life_inshadow

Magic & Support Reserves were meeting in the Danger Shop today, where a table of sandwiches and chips -- no cake, not after last week -- was set up near the door. The room as a whole looked like a large, grassy field with a slingshot at one end and a hill at the other. On the hill, smug-looking helmeted pigs nestled inside a complex structure made of ice and wood.

Tara was still frowning at the programming console. "So, uh ... I think whatever the other reserves did in here yesterday got stuck or something," she ventured. "We're ... trying to defeat the round green things. Which are pigs. And there are birds for us to load into the slingshot and use as weapons -- I think they kinda like it -- but if you want to use a different tactic, go for it...?"

If she sounded dubious about the whole business, it was because she still didn't understand the point of this game.

Raven wasn't down with the idea of using birds (projected images or not) as weaponry -- even if they liked it. She regarded the structure with her own puzzled look. "If you have any sort of mystical gift, such as telekinesis, you may of course use that instead," she said. She might have to send her Soul-Self over to knock over the blocks of ice and wood.

"I believe the pigs are supposed to be evil," she added to provide motivation.

Karla was really trying to figure out what the Fighting Reserves had been up to with this simulation. It was just all sorts of weird. "So use the birds--or your powers--to defeat the evil, uhh, pigs and we'll be good," she said, nodding. "Think of ways this can be used in defense of our island, okay?"

"...By throwing birds at an invasion?" Dolf's level of dubiousness was incredibly high. "Do we even have birds we can throw?" Seriously. He was not so sure about this. "Well, it is good to learn about throwing things, at least." He could do that. Even non-magically. "Which can be very useful, and using your environment," see, now we were getting somewhere, "...and, um, using bird eggs to make a good omelette?"

Yes.

[OOC: Written with

trigons_child,

glacial_witch, and

swordsandsoccer, concept shamelessly stolen from

brat_intraining and

inneedofcoffee.]

wwiii

It was definitely going to be one of those evenings. One of those weird ones. The sort that reminded unsuspecting passers-by that, in no uncertain terms, they were living on Fandom Island.

How did it manage such a thing?

Well, that there were two boys in the common room, exchanging gossip, probably wasn't all that new. That they were in their underwear, on the other hand, was probably an indication that things were a little off. One of the boys, the one who was wearing the world's most boring grey boxer shorts, was at least still wrapped in black leather from his nose down to his navel. The other, in white briefs, had his large white wings folded behind him.

Both of them were quite comfortable on the floor, surrounded by cushions from the couch, sparkly make-up, and girly teen magazines. Warren was painting his fingernails in a vivid shade of sparkly blue. Jono was hugging a pillow to his chest, reaching over occasionally to pet a bewildered kitten with a big pink bow around her neck, while reading off the questions to an 'Is He Really Into You' quiz to Warren.

By the end of the quiz, it became apparent that whoever 'he' was, they simply weren't as into Warren as he might have hoped, and with an indignant squeal of "Omigod! Not fair," the winged one capped his nail polish, reached for his pillow, bounced to his feet, and let Jonothon have it.

Oh, it was on.

[I totally blame

glacial_witch and

trigons_child for this one. The common room is open, for anyone who wants to either rescue the boys from this indignity, pull out a video camera, or join in the pillow fight!]

trigons_child

It wasn't Hawaii, but it was in the mid-50s today, so Magical/Support reserves was meeting outside to make the best of the warming temperatures. There was a table of the usual snacks, including quite a few lovely cakes with various tasty frostings (with all organic ingredients, of course, since Raven had procured them).

Unfortunately, the cakes had drawn some attention in the form of gremlins who were in search of a sweet treat. Said gremlins also didn't care about long-winded speeches, so when Raven stepped forward to begin to speak on the day's topic, a piece of cake suddenly came flying through the air right at her head.

Raven frowned indignantly as she scrubbed frosting from her cheek. "That was not very nice," she scolded.

"Really not," Tara agreed, frowning hard at the space the cake had come from. "Guys, if you don't want to come to the meeting, you don't have to, but you shouldn't act like preschoolers while somebody is --"

And that was where she got cut off by a gooey slice of chocolate cake splatting against her chin. Apparently, the gremlins didn't like lectures any more than they liked long-winded speeches.

"Stop that!" Dolf roared, grabbing at his belt for his bread knife and... finding he hadn't brought it this time. Stupid school weapons locker rules-- "Stop it now or I will stop you--"

Splat.

Karla, still slightly off-kilter from her dream last night looked from the gremlins to her leaders and back. Clearly, words weren't going to work. All right, fine. Fire with fire, then. Taking what was left from her plate--what? she'd been hungry!--she threw it back at the gremlin who'd flung cake at Dolf.

Her victory was short-lived as two more slices when flying towards her face. And then, the air was full of flung cake and frosting, lobbed at anyone and everyone.

Cake fight!

[Co-written with the delicious

glacial_witch,

life_inshadow, and

swordsandsoccer.]

Current Mood: annoyed

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

Cally needed to learn about football. Well, that is, Cally had expressed some interest in knowing about football, and Dolf would be doing her a disservice if he didn't help her out in that. So, rather than check the scores on his phone, today he was going to sit right here in the computer lab and search for games to show her.

Preferably recent ones. And ones being played between teams that mattered, so it'd be easier for her to get into it.

Finally, he picked the FC Twente - AZ game from last night. That'd probably be a good one to start her on. Nothing that involved explaining the history of a team like Ajax or Feyenoord, and still good football.

He had no idea what he was getting into.

[[ open! ]]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

"Hello, everyone," Dolf said. He was looking a mite bit sheepish today. "So last weekend was really weird, I think we can all agree on that. And a little, uh, unexpected. We had to run around and take care of a whole bunch of people and we hadn't expected to, which can always be a rough thing. I used to do it a lot when I was in the past, but you have to know what you're doing. And not just if it's kids, either. Anyone who needs your help. It's important we know where to begin with that. Like making sure they have water and food, and a place to stay. If they haven't eaten or drank much, then you should be careful how much food or water you give them. Sometimes it can be too much and hurt them. Small amounts."

He gestured at the table that had all the food resting on it. "Like two cookies, and some water, or what else you think is reasonable."

"It's also important to make sure that whoever you're taking care of is and remains as healthy as possible," Karla added. "Both on their own behalf and to help protect the rest of the group. If they are sick or injured, they may not always be able to communicate that to you--perhaps they are too young, or don't speak the language, or they may be unconscious and it's up to you to determine why. Keep an eye out for obvious indicators, like fevers, difficulty breathing, bleeding, and pain. Make sure to institute good sanitation practices and stick to them. One sick kid can infect dozens more, and people who are already hungry or exhausted or injured are also more susceptible to illness."

"And even if you're really nervous about being with them and don't know exactly what you're doing," Tara chipped in, "it's important you stay calm. It's like with animals -- being upset will just make them more upset. Just relax and try to kind of go with the flow once you've taken care of whatever's immediately wrong. Maybe watch a movie or something so you can all rest."

"While we use these meetings to try to best prepare ourselves for things such as this, many of our classmates do not," Raven said. "If they are suddenly thrust into the role of caring for a child or having someone else totally dependent on them, they may easily become overwhelmed. We are here to provide support for our fellow students and all who live and work on the island, and in this matter, they may need it just as much as in an invasion. So, please, keep an eye on your fellow students and offer them aid if you think they need it."

Dolf flashed the group a smile. "So today we will practice with working together, and taking care of people," he said. "But we thought that it might be easier working with animals. ...In the Danger Shop, so they aren't real. Or really hurt. Just pick one and make sure they have food and water and are feeling okay."

glacial_queen

Karla had been surprised how easy it was to catch the little naked baby-things. Apparently, you only needed to stand outside with someone for a little while before attracting a horde to come and shoot arrows at you. After several near-misses, the leaders of the Magic Reserve had a number of them and a few ideas for today's meeting.

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, jerking her thumb back at her shield, where the naked baby-things were milling about and pointing at the members of the reserves. They seemed quite good-natured about their captivity. "Today's activity is two-fold. The first thing we're going to do today is practice shielding. People are going to pair up and run from one side of the field to the other, trying to keep themselves and their partner from getting hit by an arrow, either by magic, ingenuity, or both. If you do get hit, the arrow won't hurt; instead, you'll find yourself madly in love for a few minutes, but it wears off quickly and we won't let you do anything stupid. That's a promise." Karla's mouth twisted a little. She really didn't like love potions, but at least with these little guys flying around, they'd all know what was wrong and why. "Which brings us to the second half of our meeting: dealing with friends when Fandom's whimsy affects their minds."

"It is probably best to make sure they are somewhere safe," Dolf tried. He was mostly lurking near Karla in hopes that that would help him stay out of the arrows' range. He was not fond of arrows. "Though sometimes that isn't possible. In that case you should probably keep them busy before they do something bad. This might sometimes be hard, so it is probably a good idea to talk about it, and to keep it in our heads at all times."

It wasn't strictly cowering what he was doing.

Tara wasn't cowering either, but the cupids got an askance look.

"And don't tease them about it, if they're sensitive," she suggested. "I get that it's tempting, but sometimes people just don't want to be reminded. Ever. I know it's tempting to film things, but I seriously think that's probably bad karma."

Even if it wasn't bad karma, it was still rude. Hilarious, but rude.

"Most of the time, people who are affected by Fandom don't try to do anything really crazy," Karla continued, "but people's feelings can be hurt or strain can be put on relationships and whatnot. An important thing to keep in mind is that those affected really aren't themselves and can't help it. Talking about things--either before or after an incident--may be very helpful, too. Open and honest communication usually is."

Glancing up at the shielded creatures, Karla nodded at the assembled members. "All right! Pair up and get ready to run!"

[Co-written with

life_inshadow and

swordsandsoccer. OCD ~~coming~~ up]

life_inshadow

Reserves met in the lobby today, since going outside felt like a cruel joke. The snacks were a bit sparse -- chips, cookies, hot and cold drinks -- but still more than enough to get through an hour.

"Hey," Tara said earnestly, once it seemed like everyone had found a chair or a piece of floor. "Thanks for coming this week. We wanted to talk about something the importance of communication, even when things are going wrong."

"A lot of us have secrets, at home," she continued, since that was a topic she knew something about. "We can't use our powers, if we have them. We've been told we're bad or worthless or evil or cursed or -- anything mean that people wanted to say to us, we've heard it. And that fear stays with us, so here, even though we know our friends don't think of us the same way ... we still feel alone. Even though none of us really are." She was silently grateful to Tahiri and Illyria, there. They'd freed her from her own fear.

She continued, with the slightest glance to the other leaders, "Most of the time, our secrets don't do anything but make us feel bad and keep us awake at night. But sometimes there's something we don't want to talk about that might be a risk for other people. Today, we're going to talk about how to tell our friends when there's something in our past that might come back to hurt us or someone else."

"And then if things go wrong, we all suffer," said Dolf. He was still looking conflicted today, but he was trying not to let it all shine through too much. "So we think that today we should talk about communication, and making sure we all know about the same problems. Just in case something goes wrong. You might think it is not a good idea to tell us something, but often it really is."

Current Mood: tired

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

They had actually set up a portable DVD player in the lobby today - after putting up posters to point out that reserves were still being held right there.

"We thought it would be a good idea to just do a movie today," Dolf started. Really, it was just that he'd never gotten to do this with the last group of people he was in charge of-- not that he figured they would have done well with films, but anyway. "And we were told this movie is really good, so..."

Yeah, he had no idea what it was, but the Americans had all seemed into it?

"So take some popcorn and enjoy it?" Tara finished. She wasn't that into it herself, but it was in the DVD collection and she had no better ideas. "There's soda, too. And chocolate."

"So there is also something to eat and drink together," Dolf finished. "I know this isn't our usual thing, but it is winter outside. And maybe we can talk about the movie afterwards and see if it has anything that might be useful for us to do later? Ideas are always welcome!"

Keep dreaming about the movie, Dolf.

glacial_queen

The blizzard may have stopped, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground and considering today's activity, Magic Reserves was being held inside today. The usual tables were set up however, and they positively groaned under the weight of all the ~~handwavey~~ food. More than just snacks and drinks, there appeared to be several whole meals there, including a few all-vegetarian options.

"Hey everyone," Karla said, looking more subdued than usual. "Thanks so much for coming today. We have kind of an unusual activity planned today, but it involved eating and talking, so hopefully no one will mind much. In any situation, whether it's invading creatures or something terrible happening to the island, one of your most valuable resources for getting through it whole is your allies--your friends. Knowing who has your back and who you can trust frees you up to focus on other things--potentially life-saving things. So today, we're going to share food and talk to and about one another. Get to know folks we might not already, and reaffirm the bonds we share with others. Because this way, when we're facing trouble, we can remember that we don't do so alone."

Dolf, hands in his pockets, nodded. "There is not really much else to say," he said. "Sometimes we just need to know people will pick us up if things are bad, and that there will be food and drink when we need it, too. That we're warm and with each other, we can be safe." His words weren't as smooth as Karla's, obviously, but at least the lad continued to be earnest. Boy scout.

Tara appreciated the Boy Scout thing, today more than ever. "We're safe here," she echoed softly, sounding sad but composed. "Today is for enjoying that, and enjoying being family for each other. Even if the families we came from weren't up to the job. And if anyone wants to talk to any of us, we're here."

[Co-written with the wonderful

swordsandsoccer and

life_inshadow. ~~Hang on for~~ OCD up!]

glacial_queen

The roof was the traditional place for brooding, and so, after the walls of her room had finally gotten stifling, that was where Karla had fled. As much as she hated to admit it, the weather was a bit of a draw as well; she wanted to rail and curse and demand gray skies and rainy days to match her mood, but she couldn't deny how nice the sun felt. It couldn't really lift her spirits, but they might have been slightly lighter after she'd been sitting out for awhile.

[Open like a roof, though warning for emo. It's likely that information about Raven will come out in conversation, so please let me know early on if this is not okay.]

life_inshadow

"Hey, welcome back," Tara said, her hands were in the pockets of her jeans, and she looked fairly comfortable as she started talking. "So, uh, we figured this week we'd do something sort of goofy and fun and summer camp-y to take our minds off how cold it is and the snow and everything. We're having a scavenger hunt."

She paused for a moment to pass out sheets of paper with the list of things to look for on them. "So what you do," she explained, "Is, you have an hour to go around the island, either alone or in pairs. You can use whatever powers you may have, if that makes it easier. Mostly, though, this is about being innovative and really seeing what's around you. At the end of the hour, whoever comes back with the most things from the list wins."

Raven had her cloak wrapped around her, as usual, with the hood up, shadowing her face. "You are, of course, allowed to make creative interpretations of what each item is," she said. "You are not bound to literal interpretations of the list."

"Just be careful, okay?" Karla added. "There's ice and snow everywhere. Also? If someone gets gremlin bit, we can't guarantee we won't take pictures."

"There's not that much snow and ice, though," Dolf interjected, who had seen it a lot worse in his time. "So that is no excuse if you miss all of them. And look around really well! All the things you see today might save your life or someone else's tomorrow!"

Because it wouldn't be him if he didn't throw in a fretty warning. He coughed, cleared his throat, and added, "And good luck, everyone. We'll be waiting."

[OOC: Preplayed with the amazing

trigons_child,

glacial_witch and

swordsandsoccer.]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

Two days ago, Dolf had convinced Triela to come out and play football with him. After all, they were some of the few people on the island who actually knew how to play it - and it had been a very long time since the last time he'd gotten to play a real game.

And so by Tuesday afternoon, he was at the gym, about thirty minutes early. Mostly so he could kick the ball around, set up the makeshift goals, and so on. He had his bright orange SNEIJDER jersey on, and white shorts, and equally white socks - football clothes.

Oh yes. He was ready. Now he just needed Triela to stop on by.

[[ dolf is here for one and for SP, but open gym is open ]]

glacial_queen

The sixth floor had been transformed into a proper Winter Wonderland, complete with twinkling lights adorning the walls, and... snow?

Yes, snow. Inside. Don’t ask how it got here. Or why it wasn’t melting despite the fact that the room itself was a comfortable temperature. If someone did ask, the only answer they’d get was a mysterious smile from Karla and a slight waggle of her fingers. Whatever conclusion they wanted to draw from that was fine.

But it wouldn’t be a party without the food, of course, which is why there were several tables with all sorts of (vegetarian-friendly) snacks and drinks, and, yes, a cake. Made by Sookie and not either of the two people organizing this party. ~~Which meant it was safe for human consumption~~. Speakers hidden behind fake trees were playing soft New Agey music, with a few instrumental holiday carols thrown in. Even some of the tinsel from yesterday had been saved and used to decorate.

Come in, relax, and help the birthday girl celebrate her first party in style.

[Bit of OCD ~~coming~~ UP! WHY DO I ALWAYS FORGET THIS? UGH.]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

A couple of weeks back, Dolf had splurged the last of his pocket money on something ridiculous to make himself feel better: a football jersey. He'd felt pretty stupid about it afterwards, considering the state of his finances, but there was nothing to be done about it.

He hadn't used it, either. It'd just been stuffed in his closet.

But he'd had a very, very long week, and he needed to relax; so for the first time, he yanked on his jersey and made his way to the gym. He rifled through the storage room for a good few minutes until he found a real football, and then he padded into the gym on his sneakers.

Within minutes, he was bouncing the ball on his knees and kicking it around the room, trying to scrub the rust off his football skills. It'd been far too long.

[[ open! ]]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

The only reason that Dolf had picked this particular common room was because it was the first one, which meant more people might see it. He was worried about the amount of food they had left in all the fridges; it might keep them going for a few more days at the rate they went through it, but what if this went on for months?

So he'd taken it on himself to do a bit of optional rationing, because he knew he didn't exactly have the authority to tell everyone what to do. He'd gathered meat, and ham, and cheese, and bread, and gotten to work.

Sandwiches. Sandwiches made in the ancient calvinist Dutch tradition of no-more-than-two-slices-of-anything-and-make-sure-there's-only-one-ingredient. He set a large plate full of them down in the middle of the room.

Then he added a note. Please eat no more than three. If you eat some, don't take anything from the fridges tonight! Only you can help with food rationing!

It was possible he took this a little too seriously, even for an invasion. Blame it on the starving children.

... No, seriously. He'd seen a lot.

[[ open! ]]

brat_inslayage

The food supply wasn’t what it usually was at these meetings; the coffee was courtesy of the common rooms rather than the Perk, and the snacks were whatever could be scrounged up around the dorms. The atmosphere might be a little more serious than usual, too, but then again this sort of thing was what they spent most weeks preparing for, wasn’t it?

“In case no one has noticed so far, there is a maze taking over the town and goblins attacking people,” Maladicta said, clinging to her coffee like it was a lifeline. Possibly because it, you know, was. She also had a tiny, tiny owl on her shoulder that made the picture complete.

Or insane. Whatever.

"And there's no way we know yet to get in touch with people who got taken by goblins, and the phones off the island are dead," Tara added. She looked as if she hadn't slept much -- mostly because she hadn't. "It's just us. Not even all our powers are working right."

She moved over to tack up the notes from the planning meeting the leaders had held the day before. "This is part of what we know so far," she said. "It's not much, other than that this is really bad. But if you can add anything, please do."

Kennedy, as might be expected, had taken a position near Tara; she had her thumbs hooked in her belt loops, her fingers drumming an erratic rhythm, and a pretty serious look on her face. “It looks like physical attacks are a little more effective here, at least in some places. Those of you guys in our group who’ve been out there getting fighty, what’ve you noticed? Anything that works better or worse than anything else? We’ve got the brainy types breaking this down already, but we gotta be prepared to go in, so. Let’s pool what we know, yeah?”

Raven stood quietly for much of the discussion, hiding in the folds of her cloak, face shadowed by her hood. "Has anyone ventured inside the walls?" she asked. "My ability to teleport is affected near the walls, so I suspect a physical approach is required to enter."

"And even more important," Dolf said, seguing in quickly, "Is there enough food and water at the dorms? We need to look through the common rooms. If there isn’t enough for the next week, we will have to find if there is somewhere else we can get it from. Maybe there is something growing near the school?"

He took a breath, and added, "And those of you who do not want to go out, please go to the library to help with looking everything up. The more people the better."

[[cowritten with the smashing

inneedofcoffee,

life_inshadow,

trigons_child, and

swordsandsoccer. fighting reserves members, you totally got handwavily notified of the rescheduled meeting. ocd up, up, and away!]]

trigons_child

The meeting area was set up a little strangely today. Strings stretched between two trees, criss-crossing and forming a giant spider web, and a closer look would reveal tiny bells attached to the strings. A large patch of ground nearby had been covered with a swath of red-orange cloth about 15 yards across, and scattered about it were flat stones that were large enough for one person to stand upon, perhaps two if you were cozy with one another. There were red streamers dangling down from the trees overhead as well, and a pile of small red beanbags off to one side. But that didn't mean there wasn't a table full of food.

"Today we thought we'd try something different," Raven began the meeting. "Often times we must face physical hazards when attempting to find an object we require or reach a place we must get to. We've tried to replicate two examples. The first is this web, which is home to a deadly giant spider. You must get through the web without making the bells on the strings ring, for that will attract the spider to you." She paused a moment, then added, "There is not really a giant spider, that is only pretend." Just in case anyone was wondering.

She gestured to the red cloth on the ground. "This is a river of lava that you must cross, and the streamers represent lava that is pouring down from the above. You may jump from stone to stone to cross, but if you are touched by a streamer, it will make you fall. But as it is only pretend, you may go back and try again." Raven picked up one of the red bean bags and added, "You may also throw these 'lava rocks' at your friends as they attempt to cross to make it more difficult, if you wish."

"Or," Tara added hastily, "you can go through either obstacle in pairs and help each other." She didn't like the idea of making it harder on purpose. "Just ... try not to get fake-killed before you get to the other side."

"Magic or ingenuity can get you through," Karla said, idly tossing a beanbag from hand to hand. She had the strangest desire to hurl it at someone while yelling 'Fireball.' Go figure. "The important thing is to keep trying. Who knows when the island will throw something weird at us next?"

She looked at the small pine tree that was raining glitter on her shoes. "Besides this, I mean."

They made a good point. Dolf smiled at everyone there, his hands in his pockets, though he was aching to give the set-up a try himself. "You never know when learning how to do these things will be useful," he added. "So try doing it again if you're done. It might save you later, and teach you to be careful when it matters. It's not just a game, though we'll hope you have fun. Go!"

Raven glanced up at the glitter with a puzzled look on her face. "That does not count as lava," she clarified.

[Co-written with the hot-as-lava

glacial_witch,

life_inshadow, and

swordsandsoccer. Oh yeah. It's a LARP module. I used to do these for a living. It just needs some guys in rubber masks and wielding boffer swords. ;) ]

Current Mood: tired

life_inshadow

Never accuse the Magic and Support reserves of skimping on any holiday where food was a key element.

... well, okay, they never skimped on food in general, but this week they'd basically ordered every element of a Thanksgiving feast except the stuffed turkey. It was a pie and mashed potato-palooza, and there were chairs set up in a circle so people wouldn't have to try to master new feats of balancing while they ate.

"Happy ... holiday most of you might not celebrate," Tara said, once most of the group had shuffled through the buffet line. "M-mostly we're here to eat, but while we're eating I wanted to do something my mom always had us do when I was little. We can all go around and each say what we're thankful for. It can be something huge, like love" -- she glanced to Kennedy ~~if she was at the meeting~~ -- "or, um, something as small as a pretty new pair of shoes. The idea is kind of to remind ourselves that, even if things are really bad, there's always stuff to be grateful for. Like, I'm thankful we're all here and that the island seems to be in a good mood."

"And I am grateful for my friends and all they have taught me of emotions," Raven said. "And for my gifts of healing which allow me to help them if they are hurt. And for the guidance my teachers have show me in controlling myself. And ... for love." She could probably go on and on and on, because this was Raven after, but the others needed a chance to speak.

Dolf ... probably knew less about this holiday than the students who weren't even from this planet, but the assignment was easy enough. "I'm grateful that the children are safe," he said, quietly. "And I'm grateful that I am safe. And all of you. That we aren't badly sick or hurt, and that things here are good. And I'm grateful for Saint Nicholas for watching over the children." A pause. "And for toilets." Just so it wouldn't become entirely depressing.

Karla had experienced one Thanksgiving already, and as far as she could tell, it was a holiday devoted to food and being nice to people. And more food.

Namely, it was a holiday she could get behind.

"I'm grateful for Fandom, giving us a home away from home," she said after a moment's thought. "I'm grateful that we can find acceptance here, even if it's just among a small group of friends. I'm grateful for love and laughter and Lacey's fries, and food that delivers."

[OOC: And I am thankful to have people like

trigons_child,

swordsandsoccer, and

glacial_witch to preplay with.]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

"Good afternoon," Dolf said, waving at those gathered. He was doing a fair lot better at the 'not blushing' bit this week, and he was happy about it. "Some of us aren't here today because there was a problem. Don't worry, though." The two people standing here would most likely be worrying enough. "I'm sure they will be okay. Uh. Last week was a complicated one. Everyone felt a little weird, right? Today we'll talk about that, and about not worrying much. Sometimes things just happen, and we deal with them depending on what happens."

He glanced in Tara's direction. Somehow, he felt less nervous when he wasn't being the newest one out of four people. "Tara knows a few things about that, I think."

She did? Er. Of course she did. It was just that she was always a little surprised to realize it was her turn to talk, and part of her brain was taken up worrying about Kennedy. Which made what she was about to say distinctly hypocritical.

"What you need to remember," Tara said, "wh-when all your friends have gone off to save the world again, is that it's probably safe - -at least for them. I've seen a lot of people go and do really brave, really scary things, and they all came back in one piece. Spending all your time obsessing and texting every 10 minutes to check in is not going to help them." A slight smile. "Even when it's really, really tempting."

"We have to just go about our lives, and do what we normally do. Like -- going to this meeting, or going to classes. And maybe planning for a nice surprise when they get back."

"To take care of them," Dolf added. "And remember our aid lessons if they are sick, though we'll hope not." He smiled briefly, mostly for his own sake. "Sometimes, all we can do is wait and prepare. And work on ourselves, to make sure we can still help if something else happens. Would you be ready to go into trouble and help if asked? How would you travel there? What people would you take?" ... Going slightly off the point of the meeting there, Dolf.

He took a deep breath. "Today we should share stories of problems we got out of safely, and home to our friends and family," which wasn't a bad topic for him at all, "And talk about what to do when we have to wait. I will start with the first part."

glacial_queen

The Reserves were kind of fidgety today. Karla, at least, was filled with a kind of nervous energy that made it hard to keep still. This would be a nice break from her current state of constant near-exhaustion, if it hadn't come with all kinds of, well, emotional distractions. The kind that made it hard to concentrate.

Mostly--since we're all being honest here--because her libido was racing along faster than a NASCAR driver. And she didn't even get that reference. ( snipped for sexy honesty? )

life_inshadow

The reserves meeting had been moved into the dorm lobby for the day, and the theme of the snacks was definitely comfort food: Hot cider, soup, cookies.

Lots of cookies.

"Welcome back," Tara said, with a slight smile that was the most she could manage. "This week, some of us went to help a friend and ended up -- m-more than a little over our heads. We're all okay" -- at least physically -- "b-but it made me think. What can we do when we can't really do anything? How do you wake up the next day and go on? And what do you do s-so if something similar happens, God forbid, you aren't so -- so -- stuck?"

She drew a breath and went on, "Speaking, uh, just for me? I'm going to be doing a lot more training. it scares me. Power scares me. But it's better than not being able to help the way you'd like to."

This was the first time Raven had been out in public outside of going to class, and she was doing her best to act like everything was normal. Her shields were much stronger now, thanks to Anakin, and that helped a great deal. "I will be doing the same," she said quietly. "I will identify where my weaknesses lie and do what I can to eliminate them. Hopefully such a situation will never happen again, but if it does, I wish to be prepared."

Karla had no stake in today's discussion. She was too busy trying to sneak onto the table where all the yummy smells were coming from. Besides, she was an Arcerian kitten. That meant she was already perfect, as cats were wont to be.

Dolf wasn't feeling left out, honestly. He was just feeling a little-- something. He didn't know. The implication that something really bad had happened had left him feeling like his own problems shouldn't matter to him as much as they did, in comparison. "...I wait and hope," he muttered, trying not to think anything along the lines of scarlet fever or something equally disconcerting. "Wait and hope and if you can't solve it, maybe someone else can. But keep hoping, mostly." And try not to collapse anywhere crying next time.

[OOC: Preplayed with the delightfully oblivious

swordsandsoccer, the delightfully emo

trigons_child and the delightfully feline

glacial_witch.]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

The dorm hallways seemed a little quieter than they had been before. Worried that something might have happened without his knowledge, Dolf had gone to the computer lab to look up last night's radio broadcast. He had a tendency to miss them, but he also knew they liked to report on every detail.

He listened to it, but was none the wiser. Maybe he had just become paranoid without knowing it. He resolved to take yesterday's advice to Raven to heart, and pushed the slight, uneasy feeling away from himself - or at least as far away as he could manage it.

To distract himself, he started to google, and to check old websites he used to look at when... well, when he was back home. He wound up watching the new Dutch prime minister's first grilling in the chamber of representatives with some befuddlement. The last thing he remembered of Mark Rutte, he was still being contested by Rita Verdonk for the leadership of the Liberal Party... and he hadn't even been into politics at the time.

Sufficient to say, he was busy reading up after that.

[[ open lab, open post ]]

trigons_child

Today's snacks were distinctly fall in flavor and included cranberry baked brie and crackers (whole wheat, of course), roasted pumpkin seeds, and apple slices and caramel. It was possible Raven had gone a little overboard with nice treats in an attempt not to worry too much about the missing member of the Reserves today.

Said missing member may have also inspired the topic.

"Today we are going to discuss communication," Raven said. She didn't, to her credit, launch into a tirade about vague text messages and how they should be avoided because they were terribly distressing, Karla. "Though many of us come from different worlds and cultures, we all know how to communicate in some way, be it words or gestures or writing or telepathy or countless other ways. We have come to rely upon things such as the telephone or the internet to communicate with one another, but if something were to happen to deprive us of that technology, what other methods of communication do we have to pass important messages about dangers facing the island? What skills or powers might you possess to help deliver information quickly or safely or secretly?"

Tara would have had her own, milder, tirade to deliver, but she was also not going down that particular path. "Some of you are telepaths and can communicate that way," she said. "And ... some of us could work on spells that would let us talk mind to mind. It's not something I've tried, but it's in books. Or you could use a basic code, like pig latin or, if you're writing things down, the thing where 1 is A, 2 is B and so on. It all depends on how secure you need to be."

Dolf didn't know a certain Reserve member all that well, and so he was blissfully ignorant to any of the subtext of this particular meeting. He smiled at the group in all his ignorance. "Runners work, if you don't have powers," he said. "But they can be slow. It can also be good to have some signals decided, like with smoke or light, if you have a fire or a torch. I think communication happens through things we decide on ourselves, which is why it is important to talk about it. It can keep people from being killed or worse." He... wasn't making things much better for the subtexty mood that he wasn't picking up on, was he?

"As a fun way to show the importance of communication, we are going to play a game called "Scribblish," Raven finished up. "Once we are done discussing, I will pass out cards containing short phrases. If you wish to participate, you may attempt to draw what the phrase describes without using letters or numbers. Then you may pass the drawing -- without the initial phrase -- to the next person, who will attempt to describe what the drawing is of. The next person will draw the new phrase without seeing the previous drawing or the initial phrase, and so on until there have been three drawings and three new phrases." She managed a tiny smile. "I am told the resulting miscommunication can be very humorous."

[~~Please stand by for OCD.~~ OCD is up! Co-written with the sensational

life_inshadow and

swordsandsoccer, but not

glacial_witch, since she's run off to do "plot" stuff.]

Current Mood: discontent

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

There was an adult man standing near the reserve leaders that afternoon. John Watson was keeping to himself, for the time being - he'd been invited here by Raven, but he had no intention of interrupting the children. Instead, it was Dolf who started to speak at first, a smile on his face like he hadn't just spent two days running around looking like a girl. "Hi," he said, "We have talked about being hurt before, but it is also a good idea to pay attention to what to do if others are, and you can help. We have a doctor here who will be telling you all some things about first aid. Bandaging and so. I know some of you have magic to heal people. You can talk about that too."

He was nodding, maybe subconsciously, at his fellow reserve leaders on that score. They knew more about that.

"As with everything, magical and regular healing require a balance," Karla said with a nod. "Regular healing isn't instantaneous and requires supplies that you may or may not have on hand: bandages, splints, silk and needles, stuff like that. Magical Healing, however, may also require supplies--which may be harder or more esoteric, depending on the magic user--and usually takes a heavy toll in energy from the caster, the patient, or both. Debating which is more appropriate to the occasion is important, even if you are a magical Healer."

"It might be a good idea for those of us who can heal magically to note our limitations," Raven said. "If there are any types of injuries you cannot heal or have difficulty with, or how much of your strength or resources are consumed. Perhaps there are ways we can teach one another. I would certainly be interested in such an exchange of ideas." Though her own gifts were without limit. Well, almost.

John had watched and listened until it sounded like they were through. Then he coughed. "My name is Doctor John Watson," he began, "I'm a clinic worker. I'm here today to demonstrate some first aid." Pause. "Non-magical first aid. Bandaging, the use of anti-septics, a few basic steps, mouth-to--" Wait. Teenagers. "Nevermind that." He coughed. Again. "You'll be practicing on each other, I've brought some supplies," he gestured at the table, where there were bandages and iodine and other such things. A few basics up front: the point is to preserve the wounded person's life until professional help can arrive at the scene. Don't move the wounded too much. Ensure that they can breathe, and if possible, that they are in the recovery position."

"Always make sure a wound is clean, by use of, say, ethanol or an equal antiseptic." He then picked up a bandage and motioned for Dolf to come closer. "There's a particular technique to bandaging a wound. You don't want to cut off the flow of blood by packing the layers too close..." He proceeded to go through all the steps of bandaging a pretend wound on Dolf's arm. The boy held still and attempted to smile through the enforced standing-upright, though his arm was quickly starting to protest.

Though it was done, after a few minutes. Dolf's smile became real then-- "It might also be important to know how to make a sling for a broken arm..." --and promptly fell again. Sigh.

Tara couldn't heal magically, so she'd been quiet (and, all right, a bit jealous) as Raven and Karla spoke, but she watched the demonstrations with clear interest. She'd taken a first aid class, but refreshing her skills was always a good idea. "For our activity today," she said, once Dr. Watson seemed to be done torturing Dolf, "we're going to pair up and practice bandaging each other. There are supplies over on that table, and, uh ... please give it a try. This could all be really important someday."

She just hoped that day wasn't soon.

glacial_queen

Unlike last week's meeting with its healthy offers, today's snacks were a tribute to comfort food. Pastries and hot chocolate were well-represented, though there were some fruits and teas, too. "Good to see we managed to survive another Parents' Weekend without something dreadful happening to the island. Or because of it, as the case may be." Trufax, Karla lived in fear of the day something decided to invade while her family was around. "While we definitely want to give everyone a chance to talk about the weekend, we'd also like to focus on something else."

If for no other reason than because people might be all PW'd out by now.

"One of the best parts about coming to Fandom is that there's always someone out there with a different viewpoint. Sometimes it's hard to accept or find common ground--" and Karla was just going to not look at anyone right there, "--but as long as the conversation stays civil and polite, there's no reason that dissimilar viewpoints have to lead to anger or hurt feelings. In fact, different experiences can lead to something very useful and important: new ideas. Synthesis between several different views, leading to something new and interesting. We all have to learn to think outside the our personal boxes."

"That leads us to today's activity." From behind the leaders, Karla picked up a big cardboard box and spilled the contents out onto the end of the table. Out spilled several lengths of cork, candlestubs, and several boxes of tacks. "Form little groups and decide how to affix your lighted candle to the cork wall, without letting any of the candlewax drip onto the ground below. The only materials you can work with are your candle, your box of tacks, and whatever powers and ingenuity your group can lay claim to."

"You may use whatever knowledge or gifts you possess to light the candle," Raven said. She had to wonder if teleporting it to a volcano would count or not. "But it must be lit when you affix it to the corkboard."'

"But don't burn yourself," Tara winced, because ow. "And...like Karla said, if you need to talk about your guests, we're all here."

life_inshadow

Tara was in a good mood as the reserves gathered this afternoon, if one tinged with the slightest edge of nervous mania. Kennedy had told her just that morning that Constance was coming for the weekend. Constance the Watcher, who was going to want to meet Tara, and probably judge absolutely everything about her, and was there time for Tara to dye the random blonde streaks in her hair back to her natural color?

... Focus, Tara. She blinked rapidly at the group as she gathered her thoughts. "Hi!" she said. "M-most of you probably know this, but Parents' Weekend starts the day after tomorrow. That means a whole lot of our parents, friends, guardians and siblings are going to just show up and, uh, expect us to show them around."

"Which would all be stressful enough at a normal school," she continued, "But here, we have some special concerns. Like, do your parents even know you use magic, or hang out with people who do?"

"We don't have an activity today," she finished. "Just ... let's have a discussion. Should we tell guests everything and just let them process it, or is there a place for, um, little mostly white lies about what we're doing?"

Raven had felt a pang of loss at the mention of Parent's Weekend, but she kept herself composed. "I do not believe in lying," she said. "I believe they cause imbalance, and you run the risk of causing more trouble if you do not tell the truth. But the world I am from also has many people with magical abilities and super powers, so it would be easier for me to be truthful. If my world were not like that, and I had a visitor on the island, I think I would try to avoid the topic rather than lie."

Karla looked a bit sheepish when she began talking. "Really, I think there's a lot we already have to hide from our visiting relatives. Boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates of the opposite gender, grades, how close we came to dying in the most recent invasion..." Not that Karla had chosen any of these hypotheticals from her own life or anything.

"What's the point of hiding something like magic from our families compared to stuff like that? It's like saying we're ashamed of who we are and what we can do. I know that, back home, there are people who have to hide their abilities or face really serious consequences. I think that we should be proud to live somewhere that we don't have those worries. Hiding then sort of seems disingenuous."

"We should be proud when we can," Dolf announced, vocally. It was a topic he was pretty passionate about. "Even if sometimes people will want to hurt us for it. If we are doing good, then no one gets to insult us for who we are or what we do. Some will have to be careful about it, others not, but remember you have skills and you work hard, and no one here will let them get you." His voice tapered off at the end, as he realised he didn't have the words to rant more about it. His foot kicked at the ground in frustration.

Tara watched Dolf for just a second more to make sure he'd be okay before wrapping things up. "I see their arguments, but ... it kind of depends on who your parents are. My dad's really, really different from my mom, so lying to him sometimes makes sense." To say the least; bitterness crept into her tone. "What do the rest of you think?"

trigons_child

Raven's turn to lead the meeting meant that the snacks were dominated by fresh fruits and a veggie tray -- with hummus, of course. Much healthier than any sort of sour cream based dip! There was also cheese and crackers and some muffins and cookies as well, though made with organic whole wheat flour. And some that were gluten-free and marked as such, as were anything with nuts or dairy. Shut up, Kennedy.

"Most of you should be aware of what happened on Friday," Raven began after people had arrived. "Fandom was beset by vicious flying fish that attacked without any provocation. And once they were slain, they returned as undead creatures, like the zombies in Caritas." Only without nearly as much musical talent.

"Dolf quickly set up a support station in the dorm lobby." Raven glanced over to where Dolf stood and gave him a smile. "Many of us who could heal or tend injuries stayed there, and weapons were provided to those who required them to defend themselves." Her voice didn't falter at all, but her smile faded just a tiny bit at the implication of violence. She was becoming more accustomed to it, but that didn't mean she liked it.

"Today we'd like to share what you did during this day, be it fighting, supporting, or just staying out of the way," Raven went on. "Is there anything you would have liked to have done differently, or known how to do better? Is there anything you think the reserves as the group could do differently or better? Please, do not be afraid to speak up. If there ways we can improve, we would very much like to hear them."

"I, um, didn't get outside," Tara admitted, self-conscious. "I had a really bad cold. So anything you can tell me about what you did would help me. A lot."

Raven looked at Tara as she spoke, her expression making it clear she thought Tara should have come to her if she'd been sick. Your cold, give it to her.

"Also, for those of you who went joined up with the Martial Reserve, how did that work out for you?" Karla added, with a comforting smile at Tara. "It's important that we learn how to most effectively combine our skills across all three Reserve divisions."

Dolf had been nodding along up until that point. "And, uh," he started, "It went good this time. No one died. But I want to know which one of you will want to be there to help at the support station next time something happens. Let me know so I can call, okay? More help is a good thing."

"So who wishes to go first?" Raven said, addressing everyone again. "And if you do not feel comfortable speaking in front of everyone, please, feel free to approach one of us privately to share your thoughts."

[~~Please stand by for OCD.~~ OCD is up! Co-written with the fantastic

life_inshadow,

glacial_witch, and

swordsandsoccer, who has no hyphen in his username and should be shunned. Shuuuuuuuuuuun.]

Current Mood: okay

thinkbetterofme.livejournal.com

Faramir's morning had consisted of a high amount of sneaking around. Well, at least a higher amount than was usual, he had escaped Maladicta's room before she'd woken up. It sounded much more exciting than it had been as she had merely offered him the spare bed once he found his roommate in desperate need for some privacy. It was almost like having Boromir here.

So now, after tending to Baru's, Faramir was in the salle, hoping that his disappearance that morning would not have angered Maladicta into standing him up. He was testing the practise blades which the school provided as he waited for her. They felt uncomfortable in his hand, their balance not quite perfect, but it seemed better to use them instead of real blades.

[Open salle, omg.]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

Dolf had taken one look outside and known that this wasn't a time for him to leave the building. He wasn't a fighter; battle scenes just inspired in him blind panic that he really didn't need, not when he was trying to help.

But he'd stocked up on some supplies, just in case. And they could be useful. So by mid-morning, he had filled up the lobby with first-aid equipment, and food and water for anyone wanting to mill around.

He'd also left behind a few baseball bats - what little he'd been able to find in the way of weapons - and left them near the door.

And then there was nothing to do for him but wait, staring at the door and the windows and wondering if this horrible plague would ever pass, and hoping the other reserves would come through. He kept his phone on, just in case.

[[ open! ]]

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

"Hi," Dolf started, waving at everyone before any of his fellow leaders had a chance to really get a word in. (It wasn't that he was trying to be first, but he'd gotten the hang of it a little, last week, and-- well, it was just easy by now, to take point when he could.) "So today we want to talk about being sick. Other people being sick, and being sick ourselves. It can happen that sometimes someone just gets sick and passes it on to everyone else, and then people start dying. Sometimes at the worst possible moments. We have to be prepared, if it happens, to do the necessary things."

He looked pretty serious about the whole thing, too. He still remembered the outbreak at the children's camp, over two months ago. "If a sickness is contagious, then we need to seperate the sick," he continued, "Find a comfortable camping place. Don't deal with them without putting something over your mouth. Burn their things if they die or go away so the sickness doesn't jump to anyone else. Wash a lot." He took a deep breath. "Of course every sickness is its own thing. Sometimes people are very warm, burning. They need to be cooled, until it stops. With water. Good food and water for everybody anyway. Sometimes people cough, then you really have to make sure you have something for your mouth. They can have problems walking, or their tongues can turn strange colours, or they'll get spots-- different sicknesses, some dangerous, some not."

"It used to be different, and maybe it's different for some of you, still. This time is very clean, so sickness that used to kill doesn't, anymore. We learned to separate people and look after them. That's what we are trying to teach you now. To recognise sickness, and to take care of it." Which was about where he'd realised he'd just set in and started talking, so he fell silent and looked to the other leaders.

Karla was happy to pick up where Dolf had left off. "Keeping everything as sterile as we can is key," she added. "Anything that has come in touch with infected fluids or tissues needs to be burned, bleached, or boiled before it is used again. If we're not yet sure what is causing the illness, boiling water for a goodly amount of time before drinking it is important: there are many diseases that travel in water. Fevers can kill if they get high enough, so watching someone's temperature might mean the difference between life and death. You don't need to be a doctor or a Healer to help combat sickness. You just need to be careful and smart."

"You should also," Tara added, "make sure sick people are eating and drinking, if they can keep anything down at all. Toast is good, and tea or ginger ale. Orange juice. Chicken soup. Bananas. There's a reason they call it comfort food, right? If you have access to any drugs, you could give them some penicillin if it's the right kind of infection, or Tylenol to bring a fever down. Just be careful 'cause it won't work on everything, and some people will be allergic to it. "

Which reminded her of another point. "Remember not everyone in Fandom has a totally human biology, so don't do anything if you aren't sure it's safe."

"And keeping the spirits up of someone who is ill is very important as well," Raven said. "They may be upset or frightened, and they will need someone to talk to or just a hand to hold. Tending to their emotional needs can be as critical as their physical ones."

Dolf had been nodding along with all of that. Once silence fell, he started to speak again. "Today we'll work on recognising signs and dealing with them," he said, earnestly. "We have a list of possible symptoms. Find a friend, and one of you will pretend to have symptoms, and the other should deal with it. And you can add new symptoms, if you can think of others."

swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com

It wouldn't be the first time Dolf surfed the TV channels in the common room; he'd gotten over the shock of being reintroduced to audiovisual stuff pretty quickly. It was the lack of familiarity of the channels that still threw him, at this point, and he was determined to do something about that.

It might be a case of a very small victory, but it was something, and kept him from feeling like he had to relearn everything.

Still, he had to admit he was very, very relieved to find that, given enough presses of the next channel button, Eurosport finally appeared. Sure, it wasn't football but the Vuelta, but it was still strangely comforting.

[[ open! ]]

glacial_queen

"Thanks for coming," Karla said, once everyone had assembled and had a chance to grab something to eat and drink if they were so inclined. "So, those of us who were on the island a few weeks ago remember that great chunks of the island went missing before we were able to set everything aright--including most of the town and all of the restaurants. We were lucky that it didn't last long enough for there to be a food shortage--" in part because the cafeteria had remained, even if people would argue whether the cafeteria had anything that counted as edible in it "--but the point is there could have been. Considering most of us can be described as two-legged locusts, that would have been a serious problem."

"There are any number of reasons why we might get cut off from our usual supplies: an invasion, a trip that doesn't goes as planned, a bout of Fandom weird, whatever. But there are ways we can prepare without wringing our hands and bemoaning our fates: specifically, we can learn some basic skills to let us live off the land if such a thing ever happens. Hunting, gathering, knowledge of edible, medicinal and magical plants are all useful bits of knowledge to have and might serve to keep you and your friends alive should something unexpected happen."

It took Dolf a few seconds to realise the attention was now on him. It hadn't been more than a few weeks since the last time he'd had to speak before a large audience like this, and while they were vastly different people... he scraped his throat. "Hi, I'm Dolf," he started, "I'm here to lead Support Services from now on. Uh," and now that that was out of the way, he did feel a hint of nerves. Not so much because he didn't know where to go with this, but because he hadn't been here for all of these invasions, and he wasn't sure yet what to prepare for.

"...Like Karla said, it can be very important to know what you can eat," he segued, at last. "Some might already know what is good and what is not. Some might not. Meat is also important, so is hunting. If you are under attack, or have to come up with food yourself every day--" he struggled against the English language a little. "--it is important to know these things." He leaned down and picked some leaves off the ground. "This, you can eat, if you smash it enough," he said. "Other things can make tea. There is lots in the forest to be found if you're really hungry. Not just meat, but the plants. It takes work to recognize sometimes, but it's there."

He closed his mouth, exhausted with the language, but then opened it again to point at a few random plants around them. "Edible. Poison. Uh--" He blushed. "...don't try that."

Only then did he send a questioning look in someone else's direction. He'd completely forgotten about his nerves, and now he wondered if he'd said too much.

Tara didn't think he'd said too much, but it felt like time to step in. "And, um -- people who do magic can find supplies here, too." She knelt to pick a flower. "This one is in most protection spells. The bark of that tree helps find lost objects. And the red berries on that bush over there make a good base for love spells. Not that I think people should do love spells."

Karla shook her head at Tara's last comment and stepped forward again. "Yeah. Definitely avoid the love spells. But, no matter why you might find yourself out in a place like this, it's filled with things you can use to keep yourself fed, healthy, and stocked up on spells. So, today, we're going on a scavenger hunt in the Preserve. We've got some lists of common plants, herbs, and fungi that can be found in most similar areas. See what you can gather and harvest and bring it back to compare."

[~~Hold on for~~ OCD up! Co-written with the wonderful

life_inshadow,

swordsandsoccer, and

trigons_child.]

wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com

Wes was having a... strange day. For one thing, he still had a few globs of pie filling in his hair from his Badass class earlier, and he was still annoyed at the way his Science of Deduction teacher had criticized his "tiny brain." So he retreated to the common room to decompress. Showering might have been a better choice, but sitting in the common room with a stack of books seemed more appealing. So he did.

Fandom High RPG

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