fandomtownies | The Park, New Years Eve Party 2010

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The Park, New Years Eve Party 2010

The gates and walls of Fandom were covered in lights big and small, and as soon as the sun went down, they went on. They could be followed, like a path, down to the park, where even the trees shone brightly in the night.

There were tables upon tables of food, and bottles of drink; chief among them was the cocoa, kept warm and snugly spiked with peppermint schnapps for those who dared to touch it. There were bonfires here and there, to keep the chill out of everyone's bones, and a thick sheet of ice laid upon the pond, ready to be skated on.

Thanks to the bright, cheerful lights, the decorations also became visible: angels and animals and flowers made of snow and lit with an almost unearthly soft neon glow, pinks and blues and gentle greens.

It was New Years Eve, 2010, and Fandom was ready to let the year turn in style.

[[ OCD UP! Arrivals | Food and Drink | Shadowy Corners | Dancing! | Skating! | Rest of the Party | Countdown! | Hooray! It's 2011! | OOC ]]

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"If only," Ender said, a little wry. "We don't really have anyone left to be ambassadors for, at least not at the moment. But I do know what can happen when it goes wrong."

He glanced at Nobody. "What about you?"

"I lived in a fairly isolated environment that might almost count as a culture hence my earlier question," he explained. "I wouldn't have qualified as an ambassador either. That would have been a title better suited for Silas, my guardian. He was the world traveler. I was just the graveyard child."

"So what were your experiences like in the graveyard?" Ender asked, interested. "Do you feel like there's a lot you have to catch up on?"

"My experiences were good. For my part, I thought they were normal but I've come to find they were unusual in comparison to most people and their upbringing."

He shrugged and smiled slightly. "I learned quite a lot but a lot of what I learned was of a historical nature. Many of the ghosts had been gone for a long time so what they knew was what they knew of their time. They couldn't leave the graveyard to see the world. That meant I got to learn about history from people who were there but it's taken me longer to learn about the here and now since it's just been me exploring the world."

"You do have the kind of education that a lot of people would kill for," Ender noted, "But one that's probably not so useful in a lot of areas of current-day life."

His mouth twisted a little. "And the classes here don't really help, I take it."

"They don't help but they are interesting nonetheless," he answered, nodding. "The subjects here aren't normal subjects that you'd find in regular grammar schools but they've advanced me in areas of life I wouldn't have thought about. I wouldn't have known how to make my life extraordinary without Professor Demon as an example."

Of course, his life had been a little ragged lately so he wasn't doing too well but the lessons were there.

"You'd probably do very well in PR," Ender said, with only a little bit of a sardonic edge, honest. "Do you have any idea what you want to do when you're done with Fandom?"

"I don't," he admitted, shaking his head. "There are several things I'd love to try and one point or another but I haven't really thought about careers and the future all that much. I suppose I'm just waiting for something to catch my attention."

"Another area where the diner is probably a good step," he replied, with a slight smile. "Did you ever talk to the ghosts about it?"

"About my future?" He nodded. "Sometimes. It depended on the ghost. Some of them were over two thousand years old and their advice consisted of getting me to join a military and help fight battles since that's what they'd done. Telling that to a young child was sometimes confusing."

"Maybe not the craziest advice," Ender said, ruefully, "Armies are of all time periods. But not a fate most people should want to chase, I think."

"Definitely not crazy but confusing as I'd never really been exposed to fighting save for the stories I heard from the ghosts. I'm not much of a fighter either. More a pacifist than anything. I'll defend myself but aggression isn't really something I do well."

That would probably have to change considering the time and place but he was fighting against that for the moment.

"I think there are a lot worse faults to have," Ender said, mouth curling back up into that tiny smile. "I'd say it's one you should hold on to, actually."

"I think I will. It hasn't done be wrong thus far," he agreed with a nod. "And, at this point, I'd probably do more harm than good if I did try and fight. I'm slightly clumsy."

"But you're smart," he said, "Lots of chances for clever people, or so I hear."

And if in the process of saying such, he was trying to nudge Nobody a little further away from the fighting path, then so be it.

"If I can use my intelligence to my advantage and not fight, it'd be ideal," he said agreeably. "I'd just...rather not. I think I've just had enough violence to last me."

"Trust me," Ender said, "I understand that." He glanced out at the fire. "I suggest you take every shot you can to avoid it."

"I plan to," he assured Ender. He paused and glanced around before asking, "Bad memories for you?"

"I'm seventeen, and I've already done my time in the International Fleet," Ender said, pointing at the patch on the shoulder of his uniform. "But it's good advice coming from anyone."

"You've been in your world's military already?" Bod asked, impressed. "That's quite the experience level at such a young age."

He had no idea. "Not experience I'm all that eager to repeat," Ender said, "And enough experience to be worried whenever invasions strike and people who wouldn't normally pick up arms do so."

"The last invasion we had, I left as I told you," he shared, nodding. "Before that was the...Silent Hill thing where I did carry a knife but that was more defense than anything. The world wasn't safe."

"I'm not enough of a pacifist to tell you not to arm yourself if there's immediate danger," he replied, wryly.

Bod smiled thinly. "I'd rather not, of course, but I will if it's necessary. I don't let personal beliefs stop me from keeping myself safe. That would just be foolish."

"An old friend of mine used to say he was only fair-minded before and after battles," Ender said, glancing at Nobody. "But no battles at all is much preferable, if we can choose it."

Re: Rest of the Party - NYE 2010

therewaslife - 2010-12-31 20:20 (UTC) - Expand

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