fandomhigh | Newbie Shuttle, Portalocity Terminal, BWI {Saturday Morning Fandom Time}

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!event: newbie shuttle

Newbie Shuttle, Portalocity Terminal, BWI {Saturday Morning Fandom Time}

Miriam didn't much care if anyone saw that she was being dropped off at the terminal by the Baltimore Five-O, but she did roll her eyes at Officer Jackass for muttering something about dumping out the trash when he opened the back seat door so she could slide out. For a moment she was tempted to touch him to see if he had a nice painful death, but instead it was Officer Friendly sticking his hand into hers and slipping her several $20 bills and telling her this was her chance to turn her life around, don't mess it up, blah blah blah.

"Flying sucks," she said casually. She'd gotten good at not letting it show when she saw someone's death flash in her mind. "Next time you want a vacation, you should drive cross-country. It's a lot more relaxing. Trust me." He gave her a confused look and shrugged, then patted her on the shoulder one last time before climbing back into the police car.

The first thing she dug out of her messenger bag were her gloves even though it was way too fucking hot for them. There was no way in hell she was going to tell the cops just why she wanted them on or they'd toss her in the loony bin. The second thing was her cigarettes she could suck down some sweet nicotine before trying to find the waiting area for the shuttle to this boarding school. The glittery "Fandom High" sign made that easy enough. She claimed a seat and chewed on a thumbnail as she looked around to see who else was heading to this place. She gave it three days before she snuck out and hit the road again.

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"Here," Evan held up a finger for a moment, and then turned to rummage through his bag, surfacing a moment later with the pamphlet that Paige had given him. "This thing is a brochure, and the pictures on it are photos."

He went to school with aliens and people who had travelled through time already. One guy not knowing what buses or brochures were wasn't really that big a deal.

"People use a... a device that... kind of paints a really fast picture? That looks exactly the way things that you're pointing it at... look. Like."

He could have explained that better.

Stannis eyed the brochure with the utmost scrutiny.

"It seems potentially dangerous," he decided, "to have so much information in one place, though I must admit, it would have been a convenience to have a raven with one of these brochures sent to Storm's End. Then again, perhaps there had been, and Maester Cressen was simply holding out on me."

"It's a small town with a school in it," Evan reasoned, offering the brochure to Stannis so he could get a better look. "They put out brochures because the more people that come to their town, the better their economy. No people, no money, you know?"

Stannis nodded a little, distracted as he took the brochure from Evan and began to give it a very careful reading. He hummed a sound that sounded like an agreement as his eyes scanned over the words. "I understand the basic principals of economy," he said brusquely.

"Well, yeah. If nobody did, they wouldn't be basic principles," Evan offered, trying on a smile. He hadn't intended to offend, and if he had, he was going to try to be doubly pleasant to make up for that. "But I just mean... I think the need to have people coming in to the island is probably more important to them than... the dangers of handing out advertisements."

"I'm sure it is now," said Stannis, sighing a little as he rolled up the brochure like a scroll, "while they are at peace, but it hardly seems a strategic maneuver, should the threat of war occur. It's all well and good to be content with peace, but it never hurts to be prepared."

Being a mutant, Evan was pretty much constantly reminded of the threat of renewed hostility between his own kind and humanity, but all the same, it was difficult to look at that brochure and think that war was even really an option.

"Okay, fine," he allowed, though he didn't sound entirely convinced. "But who'd just up and attack a little town whose biggest draw is a school full of teenagers? I mean, I know people keep saying that the next generation is America's greatest asset, but that might be taking it a little too far."

"I'm being sent there for fostering," Stannis noted, "there must be some merit in what lies behind those gilded castle walls."

At least, that was what he was resolutely going to keep telling himself.

"S'mores and pipe cleaners, probably," Evan replied, smiling faintly. "They'll probably be teaching us how to pitch a tent, at least. But maybe there'll be some sports or something. Or swimming? There has to be swimming, it's an island."

See, didn't that clear everything right up?

Once more, Stannis's frown deepened. "But I know how to pitch a tent," he said, "and how to swim. I feel as though I will be wasting me time here."

"Well, there'll be more than that, probably. If they're holding their summer camp thing in the school, they'll probably have all kinds of different classes, there. Like... I don't know. Writing? Or... other... summer camp things? I've never really been to summer camp before, but I hear it's fun."

Yes, Evan. Clearly Stannis was in this for the fun.

"And I have never experience summer at all," Stannis said darkly, "but it can't be any worse than winter. I learned writing when I was but a lad; I was hoping perhaps for more...knight worthy activities."

"You've... never seen a summer before?" That managed to catch Evan's attention, yes. "Is... Westeros? Is that really far North, then?"

Because, wow, if this guy was from Siberia or something, he was going to have a hell of a time with the summer heat.

"I'll have to see a map before I can assume the location of Fandom Island to Westeros," Stannis admitted with a shrug, "but it is not unusual for an entire generation to grow from infants to men and women without seeing even a hint of summer. Some men live their whole lives in winter, and as the Starks of Winterfell remind us, even with summer upon us, winter is always coming again."

"I haven't heard of any of those places," Evan grumbled. "But with a name like Winterfell, I'm going to suggest it's pretty cold there, at least."

And everywhere else in the winter, yes.

"But their whole lives? Really? That seems kind of extreme. Are you from a different planet, maybe? Somewhere that isn't Earth?"

Aliens made more sense!

Stannis started grinding his teeth as he tried to wrap his mind on that one.

"Well," he reasoned, "I have never heard of Earth. It is possible that the words for these locations are just vastly different from your world to mine. I find the prospect of being from a different planet...unlikely."

"My last school had a couple of students from different planets," Evan replied, smiling apologetically. Sorry for your trauma, Stannis! "It's not completely unlikely, but I guess you getting to a different world would be pretty tricky if you don't even know what a photo is."

Seriously.

"But even, like, Alaska gets a few months of not-totally-winter every year. And you're saying you've never seen that. Unless you grew up on an ice floe with a bunch of penguins, that's kind of weird."

... Actually, that would have been kind of weird, too.

"No," said Stannis, grimacing a little, "I grew up in Storm's End, which is even further from Winterfell than King's Landing. And there were no penguins."

Evan considered that, and then he shrugged. No sense in suggesting that maybe Stannis was from a different time, if not a different world. That would probably go over just about as well.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out sooner or later," he decided. "In the meantime, welcome to summer? I'm sure you'll like it. Summer is all... green."

How do you sell summer to a kid who's only ever known snow?

Well, it wasn't snow all the time. This wasn't Canada or anything.

~~Or was it?~~

"That's what I've heard," Stannis said with a nod. "Maester Cressen tells that this winter was actually one of the shortest we've had, assuming it actually does end soon."

~~Dun dun dunnnnn...~~

"And how long do they usually last?"

Evan looked kind of enthralled with this conversation. Winter that lasted this guy's entire lifetime so far? How could that possibly be anything but fascinating?

Stannis shrugged. "As I said, some men can be born into winter and stay in winter their entire lives. Though it is much more common that a man is born in one season and dies in the other."

"I can't imagine what that's like," Evan admitted, fidgeting with the zipper on his bag. "I mean, where I'm from, we get all of the seasons, winter, spring, summer, fall, all in the course of a year. That's what a year is. The time it takes to get through all four."

Or, rather, one trip around the sun. But he was going to try not to break Stannis' brain too thoroughly, as it was.

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Newbie Shuttle, Portalocity Terminal, BWI {Saturday Morning Fandom Time}

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