fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

So ... this was the East coast, huh?

Cosima wasn't sure what she had expected to see, and the bland nothing of an airport lounge wasn't giving her much of an impression of her new home yet. She felt a sudden twist of worry mixed with homesickness. Maybe she shouldn't have obeyed the impulsiveness that had led her to transfer to some tiny boarding school thousands of miles from home. Not that San Francisco was doing anything great for her lately, but at least she knew people there.

If she looked at it logically, she knew not to let her nerves wreck the experience. School would be fine, and if it wasn't, she could go home at the end of the summer -- or even sooner if she wanted. But logic wasn't the easiest thing to have when you were 16 and alone in a strange airport.

She lounged in a hard airport chair, earbuds in, and poked at her phone until she found a new science podcast to listen to. It was comforting.

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And meet your fellow ~~inmates~~ students!

Meet your drivers and get on ye olde shuttle bus!

Up early because excited.

"This galaxy's technology," Atton muttered under his breath as he futzed around with the dashboard from his seat behind the wheel. Or, well, eyeballed it, because there wasn't much to futz around with. He could drive just fine, he'd had plenty of classes and even some practice. Didn't mean he wasn't wishing for a large speeder right now.

Anyway, he was there, being the slightly friendlier half of your driving pair this morning. Hope you enjoy your trip!

"Is this thing meant to be making that noise?" Cara there were reasons you weren't the one behind the wheel. This would be one of them.

"Yes," Atton said. "Unfortunately. You'd think they'd have gotten that one ironed out already. Stupid ancient technology..."

Look who you're talking to, Rand.

The less friendly half of your drivers stood by the door of the bus, a completely approachable figure in red leather.

"Anyone who doesn't want to walk to Fandom needs to get moving," Cara called out. "And be quick about it."

One of the only other sane people on the island? "I still don't see the appeal," she said. "Horses take longer, but at least there's a least one working brain involved."

She had a low opinion of their fellow road users.

"I guess," Atton said.

Horses. So ridiculously low-tech. Maybe useful in a crunch, he wasn't going to count them out, but really.

"Personally, I'd like a nice big speeder here. It'd shave off so much time, and we'd be under less risk of crashing and burning."

On the upside, nobody was likely to start shooting at the bus, which put it a whole few notches above the last few things Atton had been put in control of.

But getting shot at would be such a valuable learning experience for the students they were here to collect.

"We could always make them walk," Cara suggested. "Tell them it builds character."

Yeah, but people always put the blame on Atton when he inevitably found himself forced to crash-land the vehicle.

"Tempting," Atton admitted, "But I think just getting through the picnic is probably going to force them to build character enough. Or run to their rooms because they think everyone at their new school is on fancy hallucinogenics."

Ada had begged. She'd pleaded.

She was sitting in an airport anyway, sitting on a duffel bag. Uncle Chester had promised to send along her steamer trunk later, but for now, she was trapped in airport hell and forced to wear shoes.

Sending to school on an island was a terrible idea; the walls didn't move and she was going to be surrounded by water. But Uncle Chester had promised that no one was going to blink twice at a 'biological impossibility,' and Ada knew there was no way she was going to catch up on her studies in time for the government tests. It was the best option she had, and so she'd make do.

She pulled a deck of cards out of her back pocket and started shuffling. "Follow the lady?" she called, flipping out a Queen of Hearts before making it vanish back into the shifting cards. "Dollar in to follow the lady."

Please. The airport was full of townies. If she didn't cheat someone out of their wallet, Chester would be ashamed of her and she'd have no right to call herself a Miller.

That was because Cara wasn't allowed to drive, due to the school administration being only mostly insane.

"So we're not warning them about the pony?" That was cruel, Cara.

"I kinda like having the pony on the island as like, a shock-jolt," Atton said, shrugging. "I mean, she's a very tangible way of telling these students 'either what you're being told is true, or you're on hallucinogenics too, so you might as well roll with it'."

"An agiel to the ribs does have a way of convincing people," Cara agreed. "How many of them do you think she'll break?"

Most of Eric's stuff had been shipped ahead and would be waiting for him when he arrived at the school... camp... whatever it was, exactly, he still wasn't entirely sure, but Coach thought the change of scenery would be good for him. The reason he had had it shipped ahead was so that he could use his baggage allowance for the plane to bring something very important: namely, a couple dozen strawberry rhubarb tarts to share with his fellow new arrivals.

He peered around the waiting room, spotting the girl with earbuds. His sunny expression faltered a little as he considered what to do. Part of him wanted to go over and introduce himself, the other part figured that earbuds usually meant someone didn't feel like being interrupted. So he settled for sitting in a chair across from hers, offering a little wave if she happened to glance up.

"Depends on how you define 'break'," Atton said, eyeballing the terminal through the window. "Genuinely freak out to the point where they have to leave, zero to one. Lead to place terrified phone calls to their parents, one to three. Stare and splutter like an idiot, probably half to all of them..."

Cara considered that, watching the gaggle of teenagers. "Sounds about right."

Clearly they were the best two people for this job.

Hey, Atton could be helpful to people! ... when pressed. Usually when pressed.

"Much more interesting is the question of what the island is going to throw at them first," he mused.

"They should all be glad they missed the last month." Cara'd only had a visitor one of those weekends, but she'd been enough. "Maybe a gremlin bite, they've been far too quiet lately." And there were going to be more Skywalkers than usual on the island.

Cosima watched the girl play with the cards for a minute, brow creased with interest, before she finally got curious enough to take her earbuds out.

"So, what are you doing?" she asked,in a tone that held far more inquisitiveness than it did judgement.

Atton was not going to go into the last month, thank you very much. He was barely back to some level of equilibrium as it stood.

"True," he mused, "I haven't seen Anakin run around in anything stupid in a while. I mean, besides the usual."

It took a minute -- Stuff to Blow Your Mind was, well, blowing her mind -- but evetually the podcast hit a dull part and Cosima glanced up to catch Eric's eye.

"Hey," she said, waving slightly at him in return. "Headed to Fandom too?"

Cara was also a big fan of repression, it never had any negative consequences!

"Maybe they'll take one look at his hair and realise they've made a terrible mistake."

Repression was a step up from running away, which was Atton's usual stress response? IT WAS HEALTHIER.

"I think he's convinced he lives in a shampoo commercial."

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BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge

Wait for the Shuttle

The Trip to Fandom!

OOC [newbie shuttle]

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