fandomhigh | Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Portalocity Port, Saturday Morning

Tony's first airplane ride wasn't as interesting than he'd hoped. It was rather like riding the bus, only with less space and more pretzels. Although "boring" was probably the way to go when it came to air travel.

He'd spent a bad half hour in Customs after his flight had landed. They'd pulled him from line and fingerprinted him and for a bit he was afraid he'd be barred from entering the US. But they apparently realized he was neither a drug dealer nor a terrorist and let him through.

He retrieved his oversized duffle from the baggage claim and followed the instructions on the crumpled printout of an email from the school. He took a quick detour to buy a horribly overpriced breakfast sandwich with his shiny new American money. (Dollar bills? What was wrong with coins?) He made a wrong turn on the way back, but he managed to orient himself and find his way to the Portalocity terminal.

A piece of paper tacked on the wall in one corner of the room said "Fandom High." Looked like he was in the right place. He sat down on a bench under the sign, duffle near his feet, and clutched his laptop case as if it might walk away. (It wouldn't, would it? Arra would've warned him if that was a possibility.) It seemed he was the first to arrive. Not surprising, since he'd taken the red eye out of Vancouver. Late-night flights made it easier to say goodbyes to vampire ex-boyfriends.

[Newbie airport shuttle! Open to all new students and teachers, no matter which world they're from. Posted early for great slowplay. ~~OCD coming.~~ We can has OCD!]

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"I guess so," Tony said. "How did you end up here?"

"I had orders," Tahiri said. "The Jedi Council sent me. Don't know why they want me to go to school again, but they do."

"What's the Jedi Council?" Tony asked. "Some kind of government?"

"They're in charge of the Jedi Order," Tahiri tried to explain. "We're not part of the government, we just work with it sometimes."

"Is that a religious thing?" Tony asked.

"Sort of, I guess," said Tahiri, who'd never had to explain the Jedi to anyone before.

"Sounds like things are really different where you come from," Tony said. Yay for stating the obvious.

"Yeah, no kidding." Tahiri scratched at the side of her neck. "Your world is weird."

"I suppose it is," Tony said. "What's yours like?"

"Overrun by Hutts at the moment," Tahiri said, wrinkling her nose. "But they had to go somewhere after the Yuuzhan Vong took over their planets. The planet I lived on for a while after that's been taken over too."

"Sounds like some things are pretty universal," Tony said. "I don't know who the Hutts are, but there's stuff like that happening on Earth."

Tahiri paled, making the scars on her forehead stand out in contrast. "The Yuuzhan Vong aren't here, are they?"

"I don't think so," Tony said hastily. "And the conflicts on Earth aren't happening right around here. Mostly overseas."

She let out a long breath. "Okay. Good. I mean, good that they're not here. Sorry."

"No, it's cool. I probably don't want them around here either. They don't sound like good neighbors."

"Only if your definition of good neighbors involves taking over your house and breaking all your machinery."

"Nope," Tony said. "If they showed up, guess I'd move, too."

"You'd probably be smart if you did," Tahiri mumbled.

"This should be a nice change from your world," Tony said, changing the subject. "Do you know what classes you're taking?"

Tahiri looked down at the crumpled bit of flimsi she was still holding. "Diplomacy, Relationship, and Tactics," she said, "and Ethics. Which makes sense, with what we do."

Although diplomacy, she supposed, was pretty much out of the question with the Yuuzhan Vong.

"I'm in the Diplomacy class, too," Tony said. "Never taken anything like that before."

"It's pretty standard for Jedi," Tahiri said. "I didn't get that far into those classes before the academy was destroyed, though. What were you studying?"

"I, uh, took some time away from school," Tony said. "It's a little weird, coming back to it all."

"You're telling me," Tahiri agreed. "Going to classes after fighting in a war is just going to be weird."

"On the other hand, classes won't seem as tough in context," Tony pointed out.

Re: Waiting for the shuttle!

weetuskenraider - 2008-08-30 23:43 (UTC) - Expand

wantstodirect - 2008-08-30 23:56 (UTC) - Expand