fandomhigh | BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning | August 28

In most instances, no one would bat an eye at seeing a boy and his dog. In this instance, some people might actually run away screaming at the sight of this boy and this dog. Percy Jackson didn’t look all that intimidating on his own. He was average height, dark haired and carried a ball point pen in the pocket of his jeans.

Of course, the huge hellhound sitting behind Percy might have turned a few heads if not for the Mist. Thankfully, most mortals didn’t see Mrs. O’ Leary, Percy’s inherited hellhound sitting lazily in the BWI airport lounge (how the hellhound had fit, Percy didn’t know).

Percy himself didn’t look as relaxed as his dog. His eyes were jumping left to right, almost as if he expected something to attack him or for Luke to emerge from the crowd with that more smirk than smile look on his face.

This was about the fourteenth school Percy had been to since age twelve. He didn’t expect it to last. He wanted to be at Camp Half Blood. Instead, he was waiting in an airport lounge for a shuttle to cart him and his hellhound to a place called Fandom.

Percy frowned. He didn’t think this day could get worse.

[Open shuttle bus! Mrs. O’ Leary is a big ole hellhound that most mortals probably would not see because of something called the Mist. If you’re not exactly all the way mortal, you’d see her though. She’s not going to attack anyone, I promise.]

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William was clutching his single rather battered suitcase in one hand and his hat in the other while trying not to gape at, well. Everything. He could practically hear Sister Genevieve's voice admonishing him about catching flies.

"Oh, I. Uh. Hello. Am I in the right place?" he asked.

"That depends on what you're looking for," Percy replied after a moment spent gaping at William. "So. What're you looking for?"

Percy was just hoping the answer wasn't 'you'. He'd had that happen too often already.

"I was told this was the place to wait for the carriage to Fandom High School?" William said hesitantly.

"You're in the right place."

Though, carriage? Percy made a face at that. He thought carriages were for old movies that had been made before he'd even been born.

"That's what I'm here for too. So, you're not lost, at least. We can stand here together and wonder where we're going."

"Good, good," William nodded. "That's- oh. I should introduce myself. William Murdoch." Taking a moment to juggle hat and luggage so that he had a free hand, he held it out towards Percy.

"Percy Jackson," he said, still guarded against someone new even if he didn't think William was a monster. He hadn't thought that about Mrs. Dodds either and look what happened there.

"I'm guessing you're not a local," he added after a moment spent looking at the hat and luggage and watching him stare like an airport lounge was completely new to him.

"Not a local, no," William shook his head. "I'm from- or rather, I caught a train from Montreal."

"Canada?" Percy thought that was a long way to come just for a school that was supposedly on a small island. Even with his penchant for getting kicked out of schools, he'd never gone that far.

"How do you get from Montreal to Virginia?" he wondered. "Seems like a hike."

"This is my first time in the States," Will confirmed with a nod. "As for how I got here, though the train ride itself was rather dull, I couldn't in good conscience turn down the chance to expand my horizons- literally as well as figuratively, of course."

"Yeah." Unfortunately for poor William, Percy's gaze slid off of him onto the others arriving and to the lounge itself. It was nothing against the other boy, he just had a tendency to do that.

"That mean you're excited?" he eventually asked when his attention returned. "To be able to expand your horizons, I mean."

Will took note of the odd behaviour but said nothing, simply filing it away in the back of his mind. "Well, yes," he nodded. "Certainly better than sticking around St. Patrick's."

"St. Patrick's? That a religious school or something?" It sounded like it. That was one type of school Percy had avoided in his years of getting kicked out of schools.

"It's... run by Jesuits, yes," William admitted. "Religion is a key part of education there."

"I've never been to a religious school," Percy remarked idly. "Have any fun there?"

"Some," William couldn't help but grin. "Mostly unsanctioned, of course, but it is possible." He still had a while to go before he'd become the kind of guy who 'goes out of his way to avoid fun'.

"Unsanctioned?" he repeated. That was another of those weirdly formal words. Percy's mind took a little while to process it. "That mean it's against the rules?"

"Very much so," William nodded. His tendency towards unsanctioned fun had earned him a lashing or... twelve, but that wasn't the sort of thing one brought up to a near perfect stranger.

"See, I know a lot about unsanctioned activities myself," he said, using William's vocabulary since it sounded better. "It's probably part of the reason I'm here, in fact. A little too much fun, I guess."

Or a little too many monster attacks.

Wow. Just wow. Cindy hadn't seen anyone dressed quite like that since the mid-70's. 1870's, that is.

Which would account for the gobsmacked expression.

"If you're looking for the shuttle to Fandom Island, you are," she told him, trying not to smile too broadly.

"Shuttle?" William frowned, not too sure what to make of the term in that context. "I'm expected on the carriage, yes," he said.

Oh, dear. Cindy was torn between explaining a few key bits of information or letting him find out for himself.

Hell, school was supposed to be a learning experience, right?

...Look, you take a red-eye flight from Paris with no layovers and a grumpy Bigby going through nicotine withdrawal and bitching about how everything stank and see how helpful you feel, all right?

"Our conveyance will be here shortly," she said instead. "I am Ms. Perrault, one of the teachers at Fandom."

Well, she wasn't a nun, which set her apart from all the other female teachers he'd had up until now. So there we go, here for mere hours and horizons already broadened some.

"William Murdoch," he introduced himself. "Newly arrived student." As if she hadn't figured out that last part.

Pay no attention to the fact you can see her knees below her skirt, Murdoch!

"And I'm guessing you're very out of your element here," Cindy replied, taking another glance at his clothes. "Don't worry. Fandom throws everyone for a loop when they first arrive."

That was supposed to be reassuring, yes.

Give him a minute to focus on something other than how are the lights so impossibly bright and he might notice the skirt. Maybe.

"Out of my element is a good way to put it," William agreed. "This is my first time in the States." Yes, so far he was blaming all the strangeness on the fact that he was in the US. Denial: not just a river in Egypt, and all that.

He could join the PEI contingent with that.

"I can assure you that you'll find Fandom very different from what you're used to," Cindy said with a straight face. "Even moreso than this waiting area. I am quite certain you'll adapt."

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BWI Airport | Portalocity Lounge | Saturday Morning | August 28

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