BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia had had a trying morning, thus far.

She'd boarded a train in New York at the crack of dawn with a large trunk that she was pretending to struggle to carry. Hector had given her a cursory pat on the top of her hat and a tug to one stray curl, accompanied by a stern look that Celia knew meant Don't make me regret this. She'd fallen asleep on the train, and the conductor had awoken her...here. She'd not expected Maryland to be quite so much...brighter, or louder or confusing -- and in fact, Celia had been to Baltimore before, once, and she was very sure that this was unsettlingly different. She'd stumbled off the train, been ushered through a security checkpoint filled with people dressed strangely and giving her even stranger looks and now she was...here.

If not for the glittering sign bearing the name 'Fandom High,' she'd think she was in the wrong place.

Celia slumped gratefully into a chair, dropping her trunk on the floor beside her, and let out a sigh. Then she immediately straightened up. It wouldn't do to have her new classmates think her a lazy slob at first meeting.

[YAY NEWBIE SHUTTLE.]

Comments

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

Jonothon wasn't going to yell. Jonothon was going to speak, nice and calmly, to anyone waiting in the Portalocity lounge. He didn't even have to open the doors to the bus for that. He would, of course. It would be difficult to get people on the bus otherwise. But he didn't have to.

//All aboard for Fandom Island.//

It was entirely possible that he was perfectly fine with being temporarily demoted to bus driver if it meant that he could break new students in to Fandom's little quirks... gently. Talking was gentle, wasn't it?

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia immediately started, looking around in confusion.

"...I heard that in my mind," she ventured, looking to the man on the bus doubtfully.

She was willing to believe it. But she had to be sure she wasn't hallucinating first.

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//Good,// Jono replied, looking vaguely amused at the observation. //That means that we've achieved communication. It's useful for things like telling new students to get on th'bus, I've found.//

He was teasing, but it was a gentle sort of tease, punctuated with a slight raise of his eyebrows and the faintest hint of a smile somewhere around the corner of his eyes.

//Didn't startle you, did it?//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia considered her answer carefully before deciding in favor of honesty. "A bit. I just haven't met someone who could do it that well, before."

She'd met so-called magicians who could make you believe they'd spoken in your mind. But it was all smoke and echoes and angled boxes, in the end. She suspected that this man's gifts were like her own, however -- completely real.

Where had her father sent her?

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//There are people out there who are much better at it than I am,// Jono offered, looking at her curiously before offering her a hand with her trunk. //And plenty else, besides. It's not unheard of, where we're headed.//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia could have lifted her trunk by herself and then had it fly around her head, but she wasn't quite ready to show what she could do. She accepted the offered help gratefully, staring at Jono. What he'd said was much more interesting than her powers, anyway. "It's common there?" she asked, incredulous. "Telepathy is?"

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//Powers in general, mostly. Telepathy is somewhat less common than it was when I was a student at the school. At least, so far as I'm aware.//

Seriously, he could have thrown a rock and hit a telepath of one persuasion or another back in his student days. Jean, Dinah, Emma, Sookie, Spock, Karla, Cable...

He hefted the trunk into the undercarriage of the bus with some effort - he was starting to miss the muscle mass he had even just a few weeks ago - and then dusted his hands off on his trouser leg.

//That won't be a problem, I hope?//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

That... was definitely a weird feeling. It was like the voice was inside his head, which of course was crazy. More than likely it was a problem with the subdermal implant that handled all of the handwavey alien-language translation for him.

He stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around, as if that would somehow help. "What language was that?" he asked Jono. "Because something screwy is going on."

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//Er... It's English, mate.//

Jonothon watched the boy stick his finger in his ear, raised an eyebrow, and then tilted his head a bit.

//By way of telepathy.//

Just to be clear.

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Ohhhh, telepathy," Joker replied, rolling his eyes. "So, the voice I hear inside my head is really your voice... inside my head..." He frowned. "Huh, I guess that does kinda make sense, now that I say it out loud. I mean, it's still pretty much impossible, but... I guess right now the word I'm looking for is 'what the hell?'"

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//Impossible and I have been acquaintances for quite some time,// Jono noted with a shrug. //You get used to it, eventually.//

Really, Jono wouldn't have agreed to drive the shuttle if he hadn't been expecting a few 'what the hell' reactions here and there.

//Is it really that odd?//

He saw the floating trunk, there.

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Well, there's impossible, and then there's impossible," Joker countered. He saw Jono eyeing the trunk there, so he called up the controls on his omnitool -- glowing holographic controls that floated in the air above his wrist, that is -- and moved it closer to them. "I mean, Newton and Einstein would be flipping their lids right about now, but they didn't know about eezo. Telepathy, though? That's a bit much."

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[talentforlying]

John responded by cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling. Loudly. In case someone did not understand telepathy. "OI! Any of you lot that are off to school, move your arses to the van. It's time to go inspect the asylum!"

It was possible that Constantine sounded entirely too cheerful about this.

"All aboard the shuttle driven by two mad Brits without American permits!"

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//At this rate, you'll scare them all off, mate,// Jono noted, glancing sidelong at Constantine, clearly amused. //Tell me, have you even got a permit at all?//

Jono didn't. His had expired years ago.

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[talentforlying]

"I got ten on me!" John retorted indignantly. "Er, one might be in my name?" Or, you know, an actual permit and not one he'd made himself.

Because Constantine was a terrible human being, and when he taught, he told his students to get fakes.

"I know how to drive American-style, swear on me mum."

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//And I can probably fake it about as well,// Jono decided, shrugging his shoulders dismissively. //Didn't run us into anything on th'way here, at least.//

Well. There had been a curb. But it was a big vehicle. It had survived.

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[talentforlying]

"That kerb might not agree," he pointed out wryly. "But nothing fell off, so we'll call it a win, yeah?"

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"You know, I wouldn't yell that too loudly when there are cops around," Joker pointed out. "Just sayin'. If we get stuck here, I'm gonna be so pissed."

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[talentforlying]

"Airport cops," John replied dismissively with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, the day I can't talk my way around a bunch of under-paid, under-trained, egotistical lackeys is the day after you nailed the coffin shut on me."

"B'sides, they generally just want us out of here fast as possible, before the norms start staring or asking uncomfortable questions. The weirder we are, the more inclined they are to look the other way just to make us leave."

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"So you're calling us a bunch of freaks?!" Joker asked, getting a little angry. "You think it's okay that we make them uncomfortable and they want us to go away?!"

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor couldn't stop herself from staring at the tall gentleman in all of that black leather. But not, perhaps, for the reason Jono might have expected.

//I ... I heard you,// she projected in his direction. //Can you hear me?//

She should have waited for a reply, but this was too important; it was bursting out of her.

//Is it you that I'm here to see??//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//I can hear you, luv,// Jono replied, focusing for a moment and looking toward the source of the little return voice that he was picking up. Once he'd singled her out, he blinked. //Though I'm not certain it's me in particular that you're looking f-- Lord, aren't you cold?//

What was she wearing?

... Were those diving boots?

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

They were. It was the fall collection for runaways.

//I'm Eleanor,// she thought back, quickly. //The Little Sisters sent me here. Am I ... am I made from you?//

It was an odd question, but she didn't know how else to phrase it. She'd been able to speak telepathically with the Little Sisters because they were formed from her, and with Father because of their bond; was he the prototype that all the Littles and Bigs had started from?

It couldn't be the other way around, or she wouldn't feel so blind. She could swoop in and see through the Little Sisters' eyes. With him, it was only the voice.

It was only then that his last question registered.

//A bit,// she admitted. //I should have expected Reykjavik would be chilly.//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[furnaceface]

//Made from? Er, I don't think...//

How did you even answer a question like that? Especially when you were as gene-muddled and used to being surrounded by clones as Jono was? He furrowed his brow in thought, and then started shrugging out of his jacket, grabbing a few things from the pockets and stuffing them into his trouser pockets, instead.

//Here, put this on. It'll help with the cold. And you're actually in Baltimore right now, luv. Looks like you missed Iceland by a bit, if that's where you were aiming.//

Re: The trip to Fandom!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

She had meant to object -- she didn't need his charity any more than she did Elsa's -- but what he said struck her so absolutely that all other thoughts fled hastily from her mind.

"Baltimore?" she said. "Baltimore, in the Colonies?"

She considered for a moment before shaking her head vigorously. "Impossible," she said. "We were on a ship to Reykjavik, from Ammassalik, Greenland. It couldn't have gotten that far lost."