fandomhigh | Newbie Shuttle, Portalocity Terminal, BWI (Saturday Morning Fandom Time)

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

Newbie Shuttle, Portalocity Terminal, BWI (Saturday Morning Fandom Time)

After everyone was done shouting at and/or hugging him to say goodbye – and there had been a lot of both –Victor Mancha had two choices in getting from Los Angeles to BWI. The first was taking a commercial flight, which would have been reassuringly normal.

The problem was that, even if he somehow got past the metal detectors, he suspected his circuitry might count as the kind of portable electronic device that wasn’t very takeoff-and-landing-friendly. He didn’t exactly have an easy off switch, and crashing a plane by mistake seemed like a big step towards super-villainhood.

Which meant he got to the Baltimore airport via portal. He’d never been through one before so he didn’t have much to go by, but it seemed like a nice portal: If nothing else, it smelled far better than Cloak’s ... cloak had. Victor was grateful to know that hadn’t been the state-of-the-art in teleporting.

And now he was on the East Coast other than New York for the first time. Once he’d exhausted the little potential for exploration the terminal had, he sat in a semi-comfortable airport chair, suitcase at his feet, and tried to break the Tetris high score on his phone while keeping watch for any other kids.

[OOC: Operation newbies: Go! I will be slow for a few hours after 5:30 EST, but otherwise around all night.]

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Holmes was waiting in a strange land, surrounded by strange people. Somehow he had pictured America being... different. Perhaps it was the clothing. Perhaps it was devices that all of them seemed so enthralled with.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was in the completely wrong time.

Yes, it could have been that.

Which would be why he was pretending to sleep as he observed people. Possibly looking like a homeless person.

"Excuse me," Frank said, "I think this is the Fandom waiting area, um, sir?"

Frank, trying to get homeless people to move was rude. Even if they weren't actually homeless and you were actually talking to your future teacher. Still rude.

So terribly rude.

"Is it?" Holmes asked, opening one eye to give the boy a look.

"That it is," Frank confirmed. "So, you know, if you wanna just... skedaddle, maybe...?"

"Then," Holmes replied slowly, as though he was contemplating all the implications of the situation. "I believe I am in the correct spot."

...

"Oh," Frank said, deflating somewhat. "You're a... teacher here?"

Teachers here were homeless? Ooh boy.

Heeeey. He had a home! Somewhere. Details. Mere details, Frank.

"I endeavor to be one," Holmes corrected with a wave of his hand. "How well the students are at learning is where the true challenge lies."

"Oh," said Frank. "Well. I'm Frank. I'm a freshman. Maybe I'll be in your class?"

He really hoped not. He preferred his teachers a little less sleeping-in-the-airport-y.

"We can only hope."

"Sir, if you're going to Fandom, I think our shuttle's about to leave," Victor said.

From a safe distance because ... possible crazy homeless person.

Because Victor was not a rude young man. Unlike the first person to approach him.

"Thank you," he said, getting up and stretching. Staying still for so long did things to a man of his age, you know. "Now, if you would be so kind as to inform me of the precise year."

"Two thousand twelve," Victor said, raising his eyebrows. "Uh. Why?"

His eyes were widening a bit; the man's clothes weren't that far off from what he'd seen in 1907, now that he thought about it.

Holmes clapped his hands together, inhaling sharply at that. His smile had a sort of manic edge to it as he replied. "How invigorating. I have always wanted to go mad!"

LOOK, IT WAS A LOGICAL ASSUMPTION SOMETIMES.

Madre de dios.

Victor could have said a hundred things, but what came out when he saw that smile was --

"Has anybody ever told you you look kind of like Tony Stark?"

Thank you, fanboy programming.

"...no, I believe that would be a new one," Holmes admitted slowly.

"You do," Victor told him, like the enormous dork he was. "Oh. Uh, what year did you think it should be?"

He would have to keep that in mind should it be of use later on. God help everyone. "Eighteen ninety-one."

Re: Wait for the Shuttle! [5/04]

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onemoreproblem.livejournal.com - 2012-05-05 03:36 (UTC) - Expand

Hey, Fawn used to perform in subways with her family for spare change, so a small part of her heart went out to the sad bum in the bus station with nothing better to do for his life. When she had the chance, she quietly went up to him and, since he didn't have a hat or a cup, just went to press a quarter into his hand.

Holmes opened his eyes at that, frowning down at the coin in his hand. Then back up at the girl. Back to the coin again.

"God bless, miss," he said dryly.

And, really, Fawn should have left it at that, since everyone knew that you didn't talk to bums. Really, everyone knew that you shouldn't give them money, either, but she felt so bad for him, and then she realized that she would be taking a risk talking to him. Considering that she was being shipped off to boarding school for being a freak, she felt like doing something risky.

"Do you get a lot of traffic here at the bus station?" Fawn asked, after taking a moment to try to think of something interesting to say to a bum, and not really coming up with anything good.

"I can't say that I can complain so far," Holmes said with the utmost honesty as he flipped the coin with his thumb, catching it again as it started to descend.

"Do people give you a lot of change?" Fawn asked, tilting her head slightly as she watched the coin-flipping and wondered if it was hard to do. Something about it seemed disingenuous; if she were a bum and someone gave her a coin, she would try to hide it in her hand, hold it close to her heart, and not let anyone see that she had it. But she tended to be that way with a lot of things.

A bum would have also attempted to steal from her, given the chance. But that was hardly the point.

"I think that would depend on the kindness in their hearts."

"Not necessarily," Fawn pointed out. "Some people might do it not out of kindness, but out of obligation or guilt. And some people might be kind, but too afraid to give money to a stranger."

"And here you are," Holmes replied. "Having a conversation with a vagrant. So, is it obligation or kindness that spurs you on?"