fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Port, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport, Portalocity Port, Saturday Morning

Timing had worked in Bruce's favor this morning. After a long overnight flight from Japan, he was really early for the shuttle to Fandom. That was according to plan. This way he'd get to see how people came into the room marked "Fandom High," whether they were nervous, or excited, or annoyed at the very thought of having to go to school.

Those first impressions didn't necessarily mean anything, but Bruce felt they often gave a good insight into how his new classmates would react in a stressful situation. You never knew when that kind of thing might come in handy.

[OOC: OCD is ~~coming~~ up!]

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It went like this:

There had been a portal. Through the portal came first a snowball, then a girl, and then a boy. The girl was holding a brochure in her hand for Fandom High - one, for the record, she had not been holding a moment ago.

There was a quick, quiet conference as they poured over the leaflet, and a distinct "I hate magic," from the girl before they separated.

The result was that the girl was now sprawled out over a few of the airport chairs, legs dangling over the end of the row as she re-read the brochure, occasionally watching people with open curiosity.

[Proto shamelessly modded, but Makita is here!]

Claudia couldn't help but notice this girl's distinct lack of luggage and watched her back with equal curiosity.

Was that thing... clanking? Makita's eyes went to the other girl's suitcase before flicking back up to her face.

"You got something in there that wants out?" she asked, half-teasing and half-curious.

Dammit, she'd totally sat on the on button again. Claudia gave the suitcase a firm, hopefully not too obvious whack and smiled innocently. "Would you believe that's an overachieving hair dryer?"

"I can believe a lot of things," Makita replied, "up to and including that it's somehow aerodynamically possible for a bumblebee to fly."

"But considering what this says -- " and she waved the brochure -- "Yeah, sure, why not. Overachieving hair dryer. Does it eat small children?"

"If it does, it's playing it very close to the chest."

"Does an overachieving hair dryer have a chest, or would it be playing it close to the plug?" she asked, gazing up at the ceiling in thought. "I suppose it's one of those unsolved mysteries."

"I think having a chest might be part of its over-achievement." This was one of the weirder conversations Claudia had ever had. Most people just looked at her funny when she got going. "But that's just my working theory."

Hey, Makita just figured the other girl was some sort of kaster. Most magic users were a bit touched-in-the-head, in her private opinion, but that didn't mean they weren't entertaining.

"When it starts twitching the cord like a tail and making eyes at the hairbrush, let me know. It might be time to stage an intervention."

"Makita, by the way."

"I'll do that. I'm Claudia. From Minnesota."

"Mini-what?" Makita looked confused.

"Minnesota? Up by the Canadian border, next to Wisconsin?"

More blank staring. "Are those Transnational satellites?" Makita asked sheepishly. "International geography was never really my strong suit with my tutors."

Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

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Re: Waiting for the Shuttle

notmyownage - 2010-01-02 05:39 (UTC) - Expand

"I'm sorry, but did you follow a snowball through that portal?" Bruce asked Gorka as he approached. The fact that there was a portal involved at all was an entirely different issue. But, really, what did he expect with a thing called Portalocity?

"Yup. What, did you expect me to walk through it without testing it first?" she asked. "I poked a stick at it, too, to make sure I wasn't going to lose a hand or a head in the transfer."

"I suppose that makes sense," Bruce said. "I probably would have tested it, too. So that actually is some kind of portal to another place?"

"This is not Nokgorka, no?" she clarified, looking around, and there was just the slightest hint of an ~~Chechen~~ accent to her English. "Or anywhere else in the Commonwealth. I'm not sure where 'here' is, but you all sound like Transnats to me."

"I'm not sure what half of that meant," Bruce admitted. "But 'here' is Baltimore, a city in the United States. On the planet Earth." He decided to add that just in case.

Makita let loose with a slew of highly disgruntled-sounding Russian, which involved cursing a great many people, their mothers, an immortal or two, and magic in general.

"I do not know any 'United States,'" she admitted once she ran out of steam. "The Elders just informed me I was going to school, and this was my Gate, and here I am."

"But the planet Earth part makes sense to you?" Bruce checked. "That's... strange."

"Third planet from the sun, Milky Way, lots of people running around?" she clarified. "Yup, right planet."

That's right," Bruce said. The options were that either she was lying - not terribly likely, considering the Russian cursing he managed to catch while she was yelling earlier. Or, considering that he had no clue where Nokgorka could possibly be and the presence of what was apparently a magical portal, it was theoretically possible that she was from an alternate world.

Which was odd.

"But you haven't heard of the country that effectively runs the world's economy. Is it possible that this is a different Earth than the one you know?"

Makita shook her head. "It's always been a fight for power between the Western Transnationalists and the Commonwealth, for as long as I can remember," she admitted. "Papa says - said - that the East is only now starting to take hold in the economy, mostly because the Reds are crumbling."

"So I'd say that it's more than possible." Makita groaned and let her head bounce back against the seat. "Stupid magic always makes things harder than they need to be. 'You've got orders, Makinoshka,' they said. 'School will be good for you two,' they said. Arg."

"Well, it could still be good. Just... confusing," Bruce said. "If it helps orient you at all, the United States is in the Western Hemisphere, north of the equator. Right now, we're on the Atlantic Coast."

"And it's an English-speaking country, as you've noticed."

Bruce brought the knowledge.

"The Atlantic?" Makita tilted her head to look at him. "I was right, you are all Transnats. Papa would be so disappointed in me; I've been abducted by Capitalists."

"Nokgorka is, ah," she pulled a nubby little pencil out of an inner coat pocket, and quickly sketched out a decent re-creation of the Eastern Hemisphere, sketching in a country to the South of what would be Russia for him. "There. That's Nokgorka."

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