fandomhigh | 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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"Hey, geek types I can work with," Sparkle decided. "What's your poison? Video games? Comic books? I like Nintendo, myself."

A sucker for Swarthy Italian Plumber racing, yes. So sue him.

"And music. I play a mean tin whistle."

So, totally a geek.

"Video games, computers, electronics in general, and superheroes," Victor said, then thought about it. A lot of the shine was off his fanboyness, so -- "Mostly the first three these days. What games do you like?"

"I can't help with the tin whistle thing, by the way."

"I'll cope somehow," Sparkle replied, waving that off. "I'll get you to sing or something."

Fear.

"And, you know... whatever I can get my hands on. We have a copy of Dark Rhapsody. I beat that, like, a million times. Maybe a million and two. I lost count."

Three. Three times.

"Hardcore," Victor said, only half mocking. "You have it with you? I didn't bring my Nintendo."

Molly had pouted.

"Nah. Harry and Doreen were keeping an eye on it, and they can't keep their mouths shut. It isn't like the game is actually mine, you know."

Property of the home, for the enjoyment of all. Even if Sparkle was the only one who ever played that one.

Because he'd beat the crap out of anybody who messed with his savegames.

"Yeah, can't imagine a lot of things are in a home," Victor said. "I just lived with friends, and there's a definite ... lack of personal property sometimes."

He shrugged. "If the school has a system, I'll play you sometime."

"And I will totally kick your ass," Sparkle decided, grinning broadly. "What games do you play, geek?"

Geek was totally a term of endearment.

Because Sparkle still didn't know this kid's name, mostly. But he might just go on calling him that anyway.

"It's Victor." Not that his teammates tended to remember it wasn't actually Sparky, Senor Cyborg, or Toaster, but the fact Vic was used to being called things that weren't his name was beside the point. "And, uh, pretty much anything? I like racing games and Space Battles stuff."

"I guess I can handle Space Battles," Sparkle mused, and then shrugged. "Better at racing games, anyhow. You get a lot of practise in when you need to play one of those multi-player ones or else everyone starts bitching about you being a controller hog."

He almost actually looked proud of that. It took skill to be a controller hog in the places that Sparkle tended to end up.

"And it's Sparkle," he added, in all seriousness, with a sort of 'laugh and I'm pretty sure I have a clear path between my foot and your balls' sort of look in his eye.

"Real name or code name?" This was Victor, not laughing! Though he was nodding in sympathy at the control hog thing.

"Uh, real?" Shit, Victor apparently hadn't been kidding about being a superhero geek, either. "My parents thought they were being clever when they went and stuck me with one of those 'Boy Named Sue' names. Whatever. I like it."

He'd been named after sparklers. Sparklers were cool. Ergo, Sparkle was cool by association. Or something.

He pulled another Twizzler from the bag and took a bite.

Victor held up his hands apologetically. "No judging," he said. "Besides, Victor's not some super-awesome name either. Not like we get to pick 'em."

"Guess we don't," Sparkle agreed, a little smirk creeping back onto his lips. "Probably wouldn't change much if I did decide I wanted some kind of codename, though. I mean, not that I'd have anything to use a codename for. But still."

Breaking and entering! He could totally use a codename for that!

"Still," Victor agreed. "So you don't have ... special abilities, or anything?"

He figured that might sound less weird than 'powers.'

Nope. Still sounded weird.

"I'm just as good with lockpicks as I am with black nail polish," Sparkle shared, though it wasn't really clear going by the casual look on his face if he was being serious or not.

"So, totally one to watch out for," Victor said, and he wasn't really being serious.

He was starting to get the idea not everyone at the school was superpowered -- at least, almost no one he'd talked to had mentioned it.

Sparkle had to scoff at that, a quiet little snort as he shook his head.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm trouble," he replied. "I mean, why else do you think they'd send me here?"

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

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