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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Four nodded. "Of course," he said. "That's...a color I haven't seen people wear. Are you factionless?"

She seemed pretty clean for a factionless.

"Purple?" Rapunzel looked down at her dress, self-consciously tugging on it. "I...factionless? What's that mean?" she asked, frowning. "I -- sorry. I'm learning a lot of new words today."

Like "airport," for example. Next up, "electricity" and "telephone," maybe!

"Me too," Four replied a little ruefully. "It means you aren't part of the five factions that make up daily life: Amity, Candor, Dauntless, Erudite or Abnegation. You live in the fringes."

She smelled a lot better than the factionless he'd run into going back and forth from school.

"I'm...um, I guess I'm factionless," Rapunzel said, looking mildly distressed at this. "I didn't even know about the factions until today, so I guess that must be true."

"It's not a bad thing to be," Four said, "other than the food shortages and being ignored by society..."

"We've never had food shortages," Rapunzel said, clearly at least a little relieved. "And Mother never told me we were factionless. She probably would have if I was, right?"

Sure, Rapunzel.

"And even if she hadn't, someone else would have," Four said. "It's not exactly a secret."

"Right," Rapunzel agreed, because there wasn't any need to tell him that 'someone else' hadn't really been an option, right? "So I'm probably not factionless! Or maybe I am. But I don't think it's as big a deal where I'm from, at least."

Pascal appeared from under her hair then, dropping the pinks and blondes he'd been sporting to blend in and turning green before making an irritable little buzzy noise.

"I'm Rapunzel, by the way," she added to the boy, feeling brave.

"I'm Four," he replied. "...who's your friend?"

"This is Pascal," Rapunzel said, plucking him off her shoulder and holding him in her hands so Four could see. "He's a chameleon. Do they have those where you're from?"

She was fully prepared to tell you all about them if they didn't, Four, don't you worry.

Edited 2014-05-02 21:45 (UTC)

Four shook his head. "Not that I've ever seen. They live inside your hair?"

"Well, Pascal does," Rapunzel said, and then winced. "He doesn't live in my hair, really, he's not like...it's not icky. I just have a lot of hair, you know, so he hides in there when he's kinda freaked out. He can change colors, too."

As you do.

Four's lips quirked. "We general don't, back home." He gestured with his hand. "I'm in Dauntless, so I wear black. Wouldn't want to be mistaken for a Candor or an Erudite."

"So how are the factions different?" Rapunzel asked, already trying to puzzle it out using the names as information. "Other than colors. I mean...those sound like descriptors."

She was pleased that she actually knew what all those words had meant, too. That was one thing that was actually sort of nice about being in the tower -- plenty of time to read.

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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