fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

There was a crackle of energy before reality split and portal opened up into the Portalocity Lounge. A few seconds later a figure popped through the portal wearing what appeared to be an environmental suit attached to an air supply hose going back into the portal. He then pulled out a tablet device and took some readings before stripping off the environmental suit revealing the teenager known as Barry Ween.

"Okay, Jeremy. I'm here and the atmosphere is breathable. Send the rest of my shit through," Barry said into his comm headset. "No. Just push it into the portal and pull back the suit. Jesus Christ! How fucking hard is it to push it through numb-nuts? Just fucking push it!"

Three suitcases and a large crate appeared through the portal. "About fucking time. Okay, now press the button to close the portal. Which one? The big fucking button that has a label on it that says 'PRESS THIS FUCKING BUTTON AND NOTHING ELSE.' Are you fucking kidding me? No. No. No! Just fucking forget it! Don't touch anything I'll shut it down remotely."

A couple of taps on his pad and the portal disappeared with a "plip." "All right it's done. Don't touch any of my fucking stuff while I'm gone, Jeremy. You hear me? All right. I'll check in with you later."

Barry looked up at the glittery sign bearing the name 'Fandom High' and grunted before going back to his tablet and taking further readings; muttering to himself occasionally when he found something of interest.

[Woo! Newbie Shuttle!]

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"Baltimore Washington International Airport," Barry said not looking up from his tablet. "Specifically the portalocity lounge for Fandomhigh. You going there?"

At the last part he looked up and blinked.

"Okay, that's some serious hair."

Rapunzel turned to the boy who'd spoken -- a boy. She'd never seen one before, except in books. She tried not to stare (even though she really, really needed to know if he had pointy teeth), and ignored the stab of panic at the fact that he'd noticed her hair.

Well, of course he had. She'd known people would look at it. Even she knew that wasn't normal.

"Thanks," she said, too-casually. "Um...I don't know what anything you said means. I mean, I know what you mean about my hair, but what's a Baltimore...whatsit?"

"It's a city," he replied still looking at the hair trying to scientifically explain what kind of diet this girl was on to carry that much hair. "We're at an airport and... how in the world do you carry that around without getting split ends?"

"I brush it a lot," Rapunzel said, over-confident before her face melted into confusion again. "What's an airport?"

She had the feeling she may have taken a wrong turn. Possibly.

Barry sighed. Clearly she was from another planet or just a bumpkin. He pointed toward one of the BWI windows where a plane was coming in to disembark passengers.

"That's an airplane. We fly around in those and they land here which is an airport," he said trying to be patient as he tried to calculate the average speed of brushing one's hair with the amount of hair that Rapunzel would have to brush it times the amount of conditioner used...

Oh wait, he was having a conversation.

"I'm guessing you don't have those where you come from. I'm Barry Ween and this is the stop for students and teachers going to Fandom High."

"Fandom High," she repeated carefully, frowning thoughtfully. She had definitely taken a wrong turn. She turned to look out the window, and actually jumped with a little shriek when she saw one of the big...white things moving around.

She tried to recover, once she realized it wasn't going to hurt her, and turned back to Barry. "Um. Um. Um...I'm -- my name's Rapunzel. It's nice to meet you, Barry."

So much for using an alias. And so much for recovering from her little shock, since she was also staring around the room in barely-concealed abject terror now.

Pascal chose this moment to peek out from under her hair on her shoulder, where he'd been blended into the mix of blonde and pink and purple, and peered around with a mildly interested coo.

Oh, yeah. She so wasn't from around here.

"Don't freak out," Barry tried to say nicely. "Those things hardly crash anyway. Where exactly are you from anyway?"

"Corona," she said, proud to finally have an answer. She may not have known much about the history of her country, but she at least knew its name. "Um, kind of. Those things -- they fly?"

She'd finally noticed one of the planes taking off outside. Oops.

Barry almost started into the physical mechanics of an airplane but thought better of it. "Think of them as giant birds," he suggested as he pulled a package of double stuf Oreos from his bag. "That take people places. Here. Have a cookie. You know what they are, right?"

"I know what cookies are," Rapunzel said, wandering over to take one. "Thank you. Giant birds, huh?" She looked around again, until she was distracted by the instinct to twist the Oreo apart. "These are funny cookies. I mean, in a good way. Thanks for sharing."

It hadn't even occurred to her yet that they could be tainted or anything, considering he was a stranger and could be a ruffian or thug or what have you. She really was a little naive, honestly. Tsk, tsk, Rapunzel.

Naive? Barry hadn't noticed. Not at a really. She reminded him of Jeremy in a way. (Without all the swearing)

Hence the Oreos.

"You're welcome," Barry said screwing off one of the tops of an Oreo. "Yes. Birds of metal with jet propulsion instead of flapping."

"You lost me again on the jet whatever," Rapunzel said, but she was much cheerier about it with the Oreo, at least. "This place is different from where I came from."

No kidding.

Yes. Barry kind of guessed that.

"Don't worry about it," Barry said waving his hand dismissively. "You've got a whole new world to learn about."

Wrong movie Barry.

"So how did you end up here?"

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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