fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

All of Jughead's possessions fit inside a single backpack.

He didn't mind it. At least it was crammed as full as it could be crammed, that was good enough for him. And if he could keep people from figuring out that was the case, even better. This was supposed to be a break from –– everything. Riverdale and all associated drama.

Still, when he arrived in the lounge and checked his phone, he found himself wondering whether Archie even remembered he was moving today.

Whatever.

He dropped his backpack on the floor and leaned against the wall. Good. This seemed like a decent spot to stand in while eyeing everyone else warily.

[ooc: And we have moved! Welcome to a brand new DW edition of the traditional shuttle post. ~~WAIT FOR THE OCD.~~ OCD up, have at! ~~EXCEPT YOU, WHO KNOWS WHO YOU ARE.~~]

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Summer had repeated the mantra of not starting any trouble straight out the gate, but her sarcasm couldn't be held back as muttered a deadpan little "whoo hoo" while she climbed aboard. Complete with twirly finger of friggin' excitement, too.

"Please, do try to contain your excitement," Kanan scoffed, though he was smirking easily as she boarded the bus. "The goal here is to get from here to the island safely, and I'm not certain I can manage that if you're going to party all the way there."

Bus Driver Man used counter-sarcasm. It was super effective.

And that was not Summer trying to hold back a smile, really. It was a big, big, disapproving, moody, mopey teenager frown. Really!

It probably helped that he was kind of cute. Summer had to hand it to Galactic Federation Fandom High Brainwashing whatever. At least they made it pretty.

"Well," she finally managed with a little cough, tossing up her chin, "if it gets to be too much for you and you need some help, you let me know"

Yeah, Summer thought she was hot shit because she'd driven her grandpa's interdimentional space ship a few times.

But did she have a ship of her own? Kanan had a ship of his own.

And yet here he was, driving the bus.

"Pretty sure this thing doesn't have a seat for the copilot," he chuckled, shaking his head a bit. "But sure, if it turns out that this thing is too much for me, I'll keep you in mind."

She was probably marginally less likely to run them through a red light or five on the way.

Hey, she didn't even have her own car yet. Baby steps!

"Good," she said, nodding, and another small smile slipped out as she headed back to a seat, "cool."

It was such a silly little interaction, but, weirdly enough, it made Summer feel a lot better.

"Cool," Kanan agreed, still wearing his little grin. "Not big on the whole boarding school thing?"

Call it a hunch.

And there the ire rushing right back. Summer narrowed her eyes, and then reminded herself that she should watch it, because she didn't need to get herself into more trouble by being outwardly antagonistic. Don't be the bitch, Summer. Flies with honey, not vinegar.

So her glare softened and she just shrugged. "Well, you know, school in general I guess. I mean, I know I should go, but couldn't I at least be with my friends at home while I do it? It's lame. It's kind of dumb, you know?"

Whelp, here he went, stepping in it. Kanan gave his shoulders a little shrug.

"It sucks," he agreed easily. "Being uprooted when you don't want to be, having to leave everything behind? Damn, nobody wants that. Not that this school is especially academic. I think I might be teaching the closest thing to academia this summer, and even that's mostly just an excuse to get some travel in while pretending I know what the hell I'm doing with a class."

You know. In space.

And there it was. There was the other shoe on the Adulting foot dropping. It wasn't too lectury, she had to give him that, but it definitely inspired a shoulder sag and a faint eye roll. And the cell phone was definitely back in texting position.

"Uh huh," she said. "And what are you teaching, Bus Driving for Convicts and Juvenile Delinquents?"

"Nah, the bus driving is usually just when I'm done my bartending shifts back home." Which... was no longer a thing, but hey, it seemed worth mentioning. "I'm doing this one because I had nothing better to do this morning and it gets me out of helping set up for the picnic."

At least he was honest about it?

"Exploring the solar system," he added, because she'd asked. "I figure if I can get away with flying students to other planets for half the summer, I can get away with teaching karking anything later on."

It...was worth mentioning the bartender bit. That was something cool, and kind of made the lectury bit a little more forgivable. Summer narrowed her eyes a little, struggling with her flip-floppy opinion of Mr. Bus Driver Bartender Man here.

She just had a lot to process right now.

"They have a class on exploring the solar system?" she asked, because that did NOT sound like the kind of thing she'd expect in a galactic government brainwashing school. Unless it was to explore the universe under their rule. Okay, so that made sense.

And then she scoffed and asked, "Which one?"

Because she was a smart ass sometimes.

Kanan shot her an amused little look over his shoulder.

"The local one," he replied, shrugging. "I'm new to the neighborhood, so to speak, and so's my co-teacher. Figured we'd use it as an excuse to fly around out there now that we can get back to our own galaxy to re-fuel. Last thing anybody wants is to get stranded out around, what, Uranus?"

Shut up, the name of that was was never not going to amuse him. He was still very much a young twenty-something in some regards.

"Who the hell names these planets, anyway?"

"Some scientists with boners for Ancient Rome," said Summer, who could really be a class act over here. It didn't go unnoticed by her, though, that she felt way too comfortable talking with people from space and weird places now. The fact that he took it in stride like that gave him another cool point in her book, so long as he didn't start to act like some Galactic Federation jerkwad.

Besides, there was something else that caught her attention that sounded way more fun that the boring planets Earth was stuck being neighbors with. Something that made her slouchy shoulders disappear and her eyes light up a little bit.

"Also, did you say a picnic?"

"I have no idea what a Rome is," Kanan snorted, "but sure, scientists can do whatever they want when they name planets nobody lives on anyway."

He shrugged. Earth continued to be weird, news at six.

"And yeah, I said a picnic. Fandom has this thing for picnics when the new folks show up. Food, glitter, probably a few upperclassmen wandering around without their shirts on, it's a whole thing."

"Wait, so, like, real food?" Summer asked, leaning forward a little because this was Very Important. The thing about shirts didn't escape her, either, but she'll try to get to that later. "Like hamburgers, hot dogs, actual real food and not just pills?"

Remembering her assumption that he worked for the government, she hastily added, "Not that there's anything wrong with pills! Mmm, pills. So nutritious! But, I mean, come on, FOOD."

"... Why the hell would we feed you pills?"

No, really. What?

"There are even potato chips, if you're feeling adventurous. I'm pretty sure half the teachers would start rioting to get proper food served if anyone tried to pull a diet of karking pills around here. And that's if the students didn't burn the school down first."

Wait, why was the guy who worked for the brainwashing school questioning the chewable standard of living? Summer's eyes narrowed again.

"Because we currently live in a society in which all sustenance is done with a questionable cocktail of a variety of--OHMYGOD, you guys don't have to do pills?"

Please don't mind the little redhead freaking out in your bus, sir. A girl could only stand a diet of pills for so long, you know, and now brainwashing school sounded awesome.

"That's amazing!"

Beat.

"Not that pills are bad! We've very luck to have them. Hahaha."

Okay, now Kanan was just straight up turning around to gape at her.

"... Anything that can make a person act that crazy in the back of a bus over hamburgers can't be that lucky," he pointed out. "Look, I work in the diner in town on Sundays, if you survive the frakking food binge you're about to partake in today, feel free to swing by tomorrow and I'll give you a milkshake or an entire pie or something."

Milkshake? Pie?

That faint smacking sound was Summer trying to control her salivating. "Ohmygod," she gushed, "yes please. Thank you. Ohmygod."

It was probably a trap, or something, but she didn't care.

"There's, like, totally a gym at this school, too, right? Because I am going to get so freaking fat."

She could already see herself hording food, for at least the first week or two. Sending all sorts of selfies with pizza and ice cream and sending them to Morty, making him weep. Mwa ha ha.

"There's a gym," Kanan promised. "At the school, and another one in town. Plenty of opportunity to work off those hamburgers."

You know, from the picnic.

"Seriously, they don't feed you? What's with the pills? They have you on rations or something?"

"Kind of, I guess?" Summer shrugged. "I don't know. Everyone gets paid with and eats these pills, it's ridiculous. I guess it's not surprising that not everywhere gets stuck with them, just us. That would be our luck. Whatever. If I don't have to stick with pills all the time while I'm here, I might actually be able to stomach it."

That almost made the Empire seem palatable, Summer.

Almost.

"Pills," Kanan muttered, shaking his head. "You're making Republic army rations sound like fine dining, here."

At least they got to supplement that garbage with whatever they could find.

Summer wrinkled her nose a little. "Yeah, sorry," she said. "Things back home kind of suck right now."

"Well, hopefully this won't be a complete torture camp for you," Kanan replied, shrugging. "If nothing else, we have hamburgers."

Go Fandom!

"Mmmm, hamburgers..."

And this would be Summer slipping into a Happy Place right now.

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BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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