fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

The glittery welcome banner had been hauled out from storage, by now looking decidedly worse for wear, which made it a good match for now fairly battered Jedi robes Theron was wearing as he sat under it, trying to meditate.

Master Till'in hadn't quite kicked him out of the enclave with nothing but the (donated) clothes on his back, but the whole detachment and lack of worldly possessions gig meant they hadn't had much to spare either. Especially for random strays without connections to the Order like they were still selling Theron as, and among the practical skills Master Zho had taught him was enough financial sense not to waste his limited creds on replacing perfectly serviceable clothing just because he wasn't actually entitled to it.

At least no one where he was headed was going to recognise them for what they were.

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Norman looked up at the sign, and then nodded his agreement. Yep, that was totally what the sign said!

"Yeah." This was going to be such an awkward conversation, wasn't it? "First time going to boarding school?"

"Yeah." At least Theron was going to be quick to lean and adapt. Just not from Norman's example. Sorry, Norman. "Or any school, really."

"Home schooled?"

Look, it was as good a guess as any. Norman offered Theron an awkward little smile, to go with the awkward conversation.

"I've never been to boarding school before, either. But my grandma seemed to think it would be a good idea. I know better than to argue with her."

"Pretty much." That was as good a term to use as any. "My...grandfather thought I could benefit from a different learning environment."

That was a much nicer way of putting it than his only parental figure had skipped out because he wasn't, and never would be, up to scratch. Theron mightn't have the Force, but he could certain-point-of-view it as well as any Jedi.

Norman nodded at that. That seemed to be the way of grandparents, as far as he could tell.

"Well, hopefully it lives up to the brochure," he decided. "It sounds like a friendly kind of school, at least going by that."

He didn't sound entirely convinced, but he was going to hold out hope all the same.

"Well if it's a friendly school there's nothing to worry about." Theron was discovering the joys of sarcasm as a coping mechanism.

Ah, sarcasm. There was a coping mechanism that Norman knew all too well, himself. He allowed himself a little, kind of sardonic smile.

"Presumably, yeah. I'm guessing you'd rather not be here, though."

Thereon flashed a small, genuine grin to go with the fake casualness. "Not really anywhere else for me to be."

"Well, if you have to be somewhere and you don't have anywhere to be, I suppose this might not be a bad start," Norman replied. He didn't even blink at what Theron had said. He'd always had somewhere to be and he still hadn't belonged, there.

Places to be could be complicated.

"I'm Norman. I promise I won't go trying to blow optimism up your butt until you relent and agree to be happy about this, or something."

Neil had always been better at that than him, anyway.

Theren's face contorted as he tried to pasre that mental image. "Theron, and thanks for not blowing anything...I think."

Okay, with a face like that, Norman couldn't help but laugh just a little, softly.

"You're welcome," he settled on. "And good to meet you, Theron. I promise, I'm not really the 'blowing anything' type, anyway."

This was the sort of conversation that came from watching movies full of sex and violence, and talking to ghosts who didn't much care about 'age appropriate conversation,' right here. Grandma would be scandalized, if she wasn't at least partway to blame.

When he hadn't been standing on his head or meditation, Master Zho had taken Theron to enough seedier places in the galaxy that he got the double entendre and he was enough of a teenager to snigger.

And Norman kind of felt stupidly proud of himself for that. Was this how making friends worked? And normal human interaction? Huh!

"Anyway," he said, after a few moments of grinning in faintly subdued victory, "if it turns out to be awful, now at least we both know someone we can complain about it with. That's important."

Probably.

Theron wasn't sure. Being raised the secret child of the Jedi grandmaster didn't exactly lend itself to things like making friends.

"Probably," Theron echoed Normans narrative, still grinning.

"And if it doesn't turn out to be awful... even better, I guess."

Yeah, Norman was calling it now. This was how making friends probably worked. Well, when it didn't involve somebody just following him around until he relented and agreed to play fetch with a dead dog or something, anyway.

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BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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