fandomhigh | BWI - Portalocity Lounge [Friday Morning]

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI - Portalocity Lounge [Friday Morning]

Chloe got off her flight from New York and followed the signs to the lounge. She dumped the duffle bag of clothes that Andrew had hastily purchased on the floor and slumped into one of the uncomfortable airport chairs.

She was still against this plan but she realized on the flight that sulking wouldn't make it any better so she was going to put on a brave face and make the most of it.

[open for all new teachers & students!]

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Elena had been packed and ready to leave by dawn. Had she stayed longer, had she slept on the matter, she would have lost her nerve. She wasn't entirely convinced that she still wouldn't.

She had spent the better part of Thursday at the Gold Saucer, losing money on the chocobo races, before catching her portal here.

She was overtired and a bit jet-lagged (portal-lagged?) but still found herself walking up to the tall windows and staring out. The sky was so clear here. It seemed to go on forever.

"I-i, it's pretty," Tara managed (stammering like the dork she was) from a spot near the blonde girl. "Hi. Are you her for c-camp, too?"

Stupid, stupid stutter.

"It's amazing," Elena said, giving the other girl a gentle smile and turning away from the window. "I could watch for hours. I never get tired of it."

She offered a hand. "Elena. Boarding school, I thought it was. Is there a camp there, too?"

Tara took the hand and shook it. "Tara. And I think it's both?" There was the ghost of a stutter around the 'b" in both. "My scholarship was for the camp but the letter said something about renewing for the sh- school year."

She didn't expect her father to let her take the renewal, but the option was there.

"You're on a scholarship?" Elena asked, clearly impressed. "I'm just here because a friend pulled some strings." She owed Reno some booze, for that.

"I wasn't even thinking about it being summer term. Ah, well. If it says I'm not enrolled until fall, I'll just hang around, see if I can find a job."

"I, I didn't apply," Tara said, flapping a little as she tried not to make it sound like a big deal. "We, we got a letter and it said I had one. I don't know why."

"You'd just live on your own until fall?" she sounded awed.

"It sounds like they recruited you, then," Elena smiled. "You must be smart. Were you excited, about coming here?"

She flushed, kicking at the ground self-consciously. "I don't mind being on my own," she said. "I have been, for a while. Oh, that sounds like I'm saying I'm all aloooone in the world, or something. I'm not, I have people." The other Turks, mostly. A surrogate family holding itself together after the world didn't end.

"I just like having a space that's mine, I guess."

"A little excited?" Tara said. "But I'm gonna miss my mom."

But not her dad. Or her brother.

"That's really cool," she added hesitantly. "This is the furthest I've ever been on my own."

"She can always visit," Elena said. "There's some weekend for that, I don't remember when. But it's hard, being away from people you love."

It was a different matter entirely, but Elena didn't count her father on that list, either.

She turned to watch the sky again. "I've never been this far, either," she admitted. "I'm from ... I don't exactly know how to explain where I'm from."

"M-maybe," Tara shrugged. She doubted her father would give her mother money for plane fare, if she was even still strong enough, but it was a nice thought.

She gave the girl a sidelong look. "Is it in the middle of nowhere? 'Cause, uh, that's where I'm from."

"No, nothing like that," Elena said. "Well, I suppose it sort of is, depending on how you define 'nowhere.'"

Midgar was now a pile of radioactive, oozing rubble; that was fairly 'nowhere.'

"Did you ... did your brochure say anything about ... dimensions, or realities?"

Edited 2009-07-03 02:45 (UTC)

"N-not that I rem- remember?" Tara said, biting a nail. "Maybe I didn't read everything."

She was calm, though. Some of the magics her mother had worked with her on involved using other dimensions, even if you didn't go into them.

"It might say different things for different people," Elena allowed. "I'm ... I'm from a world called Gaia. The city of Midgar, which isn't there any more, but that's a long story. I've heard that this island has people from all sorts of places."

....

The fact Tara knew other dimensions existed in theory didn't mean she was prepared to meet someone from one of them. She stared for a long moment, trying to decide if Elena was pulling her leg.

"You're serious," she said, tilting her head. "That's ... really cool. W-what's your w-world like?"

Elena was silent for a few seconds, trying to decide how much to share. Tara seemed nice, and nice people didn't react well to stories about ShinRa, or the sorts of things she'd done for them. She'd like to not lose friends on her very first day.

"Different," she decided. "I was in ... a bad part of town." Slums, but they hadn't been too poor. Not considering some of the other people. "We didn't have any sky. Where I live now, everything's too polluted. It's gray and flat. I hate it."

She glanced back at Tara. "Where in nowhere are you from? I mean, what's it like there?"

"No sky?" Tara glanced out the window at the blue field in front. "Th- that seems cruel."

She bit her lip. "It's called Weaverville, in, um, N-northern California," she said. "It's really small, nobody has ever heard of it. It's all trees and hills. We don't even have a Wal-Mart."

"It is," Elena allowed with a wry smile. "I hope the dorms have nice, big windows. I'll be the boring girl sitting and staring out mine for hours at a time."

She looked away from the sky, finally. "Is it peaceful?" she asked. "The trees, and the hills. Nothing much ever grew in Midgar."

The lack of sunlight made that hard.

Elena, Tara thought, was incredibly pretty and alive. It was nice.

"I guess," she conceded. "I always liked walking around in the f-f-f-forests." She made a face. "Hard word."

"It's okay," Elena said easily, stifling the urge to give the other girl a quick squeeze. Tara needed ... a big sister. Or a bad influence. Maybe both. "When I get really nervous, I say the most horribly inappropriate, stupid things. Usually right in front of someone that I'm trying to impress. 'Thank you, sir. I will definitely remember not to tell anyone about your instructions. The ones I just shouted to the entire room.'"

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BWI - Portalocity Lounge [Friday Morning]

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