fandomhigh | Oh the Humanity!: Friendship is International Adventure, Thursday, period 1

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Oh the Humanity!: Friendship is International Adventure, Thursday, period 1

"So was it fun being a wolverine?" Pinkie asked, poking Eliot in the hip with her hoof.

"I don't know how many different ways I can say 'I don't wanna talk about it'."

"Fifteen so far. Did you like having fur? I don't know why humans don't have better coats. Or scales! I bet wolverines have great teeth, too."

Eliot sighed. "Hi," he said to the students, who had hopefully begun gathering by now. "Welcome back. I hope you all enjoyed your break." The portal opened up behind him, and Pinkie led the way through, Eliot bringing up the rear as usual. The portal opened up into a street in a low-lying, closely packed city full of old buildings and clear Islamic influences. "Today we're spending some time in --"

"ZANZIBAR!" Pinkie crowed, drawing stares from a few locals.

"Stone Town," Eliot said, not so much a correction as further specification. "The major city of the archipelago of Zanzibar, Tanzania. That's in Africa, for those who aren't as up on Earth geography."

"This entire place is a UNESCO heritage site," Pinkie said. "Which means it's super old and super important! Just chock full of interesting places to see!"

"Lots of history around here," Eliot agreed. "It was one of the most important ports in the Indian Ocean through the 19th century. Unfortunately, it also housed the largest legally operated slave market in the world. If you're up for it, the old Anglican Church houses a museum about the slave trade. Not a lot of fun, but worth taking a look at and learning about anyway."

"If you don't want to get depressed," Pinkie said, "There's some pretty fantastic beaches and gardens here, too! I think I wanna go snorkeling."

Eliot tried to picture Pinkie snorkeling. The fact that he could kind of worried him. "Me, I'm gonna head for the Tea House. Best food and views in town."

In case anyone else was interested in a food tour of the world. Maybe Eliot would do that for a workshop this summer. . . .

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If you can drag Pinkie from her snorkeling or Eliot from his kebab.

It was some damn fine kebab. Plus he knew one of the waiters from back in the day. In a good way, even.

Kathy waited for Eliot to finish chatting with the waiter, not wanting to interrupt. But that gave her plenty of time to slip her shoes off and look over the menu to figure out what she wanted to eat. Her breakfast of birthday cake had been delicious, but ultimately unsustaining.

Oh god, everything looked so good.

"You had Middle Eastern food before?" Eliot asked. "Honestly, ya ain't gonna go wrong with pretty much anything they've got here. It's all top notch."

Kathy shook her head. "Not much? I mean, gyros and kebabs, but from stalls and street vendors, not so much from right here," she said, going over to join him at his table. She sat on her knees, falling into the Korean position without even thinking. "I'm trying to figure out how not to order the entire menu, really. Any suggestions for what I should not miss?"

Eliot was pretty sure she could absolutely eat the entire menu, but he went ahead and pointed out a couple entrees and sides he thought she'd like. "So how've you been? Have fun on break?"

Right, but ordering the whole menu might make them look weird! Or something!

"Break was...fun," she said, with a blush that gave away more than she intended. But she was used to that anyway. "Helped repair some houses, got electrocuted by a robot, got to walk around underwater and look for sunken treasure. You know, standard school trip fare." If you were from Fandom, anyway.

"Glad to see you survived your recent bout of fuzziness."

"I turned into a wolverine. Of course I survived." Wolverines were hardcore, okay? "What's this about getting electrocuted by a robot?"

"Yeah, I was more worried about Parker and Mr. Hardison taking issue with you turning furry over Valentine's Day," Kathy said, trying not to sigh that her brilliant deflection hadn't worked. "Why does everyone always want to know about the electrocution-bot?"

Which, of course, was exactly when the waiter showed up to serve Kathy her tea and take her order. Sigh. At least he didn't look terribly judgey about their weird conversation?

Maybe he was saving that for when she put in her ridiculous order.

Please, this guy was used to tourists. He never understood any of their conversations, even when he spoke their language.

"Maybe it's 'cause you try to oh-so-casually stick into conversations like people're gonna miss it if you do it right," Eliot suggested.

"It's bound to work sometimes if I get enough practice?" Kathy suggested, looking hopeful.

"Ain't likely," Eliot said. "You gonna spill, or you gonna try to change the subject again?"

"You're really good at that," Kathy complained, before giving him the whole story, from the murderous skeletons all the way to sucking down a strength potion to put her back on her feet and then single-handedly beating the remains of the robot into a dented tin can while Dante stood watch over Anders and occasionally sucked up another bolt.

"Got more'n twice as much experience as you," Eliot noted. "Gettin' old has some perks."

His 40th birthday was a little more than a month away. It was messing with him just a little.

"Sounds like you guys did a decent job on that thing. You get checked out after, make sure it didn't do any permanent damage?"

"Dante heals like it's his job," which was good, considering the things he normally got hit with. Electrified robots barely even rated, for him. "And Anders is a healing mage, so he waggled his fingers at me to make sure I felt better later on, once we were rested up."

That last was said directly to her teacup, in an effort not to blush again. A mostly failed effort, but it was there.

"Then I got home and got immediately called to LA," she continued, unable to hide the way she drooped a little at that. "Got my periodic reminder that most of us aren't immortal--no matter how close we are to someone that is."

Eliot was definitely going to ask about why being magically healed up required talking to her tea -- but that second bit was more important. "Aw hell, kid. I'm sorry. Who'd you lose?"

DEFLECT! DEFLECT!

"The thing is?" Kathy said, shoving her hair out of her eyes in a frustrated gesture, "I feel like I shouldn't even be that bummed out over it." Sighing, she explained. "Not a hero. Technically, I didn't lose anybody. But Regenerator lost his wife. Not to the Seventeens or anything like that. To a stupid accident and a major medical fuckup."

Seriously, the wrong blood? The wrong tainted blood? That hospital had so much to answer for.

"But--he's Regenerator. Genny can heal anything. So for him to lose his wife--" She shook her head. "I guess it kind of made it all the more real, in a weird way. It probably doesn't even make sense."

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