fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Saturday morning, an elderly teal and white RV pulled into the dropoff lane outside the airport and disgorged a lanky teenaged boy and his bags onto the pavement, the driver asking him as he went if he had his laptop, migraine medication, and assorted other essentials. "Now get going and make some friends," she told him. "I've got a consult to get to in Virginia."

"I love you, Grandma," he said, and closed the door of the RV. As Xylda peeled out on her way to, he assumed, her next mark, Manfred headed into the airport, stopping off at Starbucks for a caffeine infusion before following airport employees' instructions until he found the right room. He was apparently the first one here, but he knew it was the right place because of the incredibly glittery banner.

High school, here he came.

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All the cool kids are doing it.

The shuttle is here! Yay?

So the post doesn't fall out.

Well, it was yay enough for Kanan, anyway. It had been, what, months since the last time he'd been behind the wheel of a bus?

... And sure, the last bus he drove had blown up, but that was beside the point. This one didn't hover, that had to count for something.

"All aboard for Fandom!"

Astrid had never been much of a stranger to airports and planes, and she knew plenty about jet lag, but she'd never really had to deal with jet lag in a way that really mattered. Poets who moved with their daughter to Europe on a whim didn't exactly keep a set schedule. It was early on the east coast when she arrived; it had been even earlier in California when she left. She had sort of planned to get some people-watching sketching done, but now she was just sort of hoping for a nap if she got to the waiting lounge early enough before the shuttle to the new school showed up.

"....whoa."

That was....a lot of glitter.

Astrid just sort of stared at it in a moment of sleepy fascination before she shook her head, gave an idle look around the room, and started to lug her well-traveled suitcase to a well-lit corner where she could just sort of watch everyone while they waited, maybe pull out her sketchbook, maybe just nap and hope someone woke her up when the bus got there.

Sabine had had a very tiring few days of jaunting around the multiverse that she hadn't known existed before, never actually getting where she needed to go. Then when she got to Baltimore, she ranted at a clerk who, when given her name, told her she was on the list for Fandom. Which was unexpected.

She was curious. It'd also been the first chance she had to get the few things she had brought with her. So she was sitting here, a girl in armor and pink and blue hair with her arms folded over her chest.

"Yeah, it's kind of a lot of sparkle, isn't it?" Manfred asked. He had briefly considered putting his sunglasses on.

For a brief second, Astrid seemed as startled at someone talking to her as she had been about the glitter.

"It's..."

Probably overcompensating? She thought about Starr taking her shopping, about her getting all gussied up to go to church.

"...definitely eye-catching," she decided. That seemed...more kind than it deserved.

"Hey, uh, if you're trying to get to a convention or something, this is the wrong room, I think," Manfred said, trying to be helpful.

It was the most reasonable explanation he could think of for the armor, but he was prepared to be wrong here.

"Yeah, it's...definitely that," Manfred agreed. "I guess it serves its purpose, at least? You can't miss it."

Well, that was...a look. Astrid shifted in her seat a little for a better view, slowly reaching for her sketchbook in the easily-accessible front pocket of her bag, pulling the pencil out of its spiral binding.

If she got the other girl in profile, it could almost look like the poster for a taking-itself-way-too-seriously sci-fi movie or something.

A slightly singed (don't ask) redhead came in lugging a duffel bag that was emitting purple bubbles (again, probably better not to ask).

"Meep meep meep?" Beaker asked politely.

"Meep meep!" Beaker replied politely.

Sabine still wasn't exactly comfortable with this, but she wanted to know what was going on, and also she kind of needed to get away from all things Portalocity for a bit before she lost it.

"So what's the deal with this place?" she asked, tucking her helmet under her arm. Not that she was sure she'd get an answer.

"Do I look like I'm going to a convention?" Sabine asked.

Mando armor was known everywhere!

"Uh, yeah," Kanan said, giving the... meepy kid a little grin as he honked the horn of the bus twice. Meep meep, see? "You're here for Fandom?"

"True," Astrid allowed. All she could think about was how her mother would disparage it as gaudy and tacky and gauche, and now Astrid was starting to warm up to it a little more.

But not enough to spend all morning talking about it. Her eyes shifted from the banner--blinking slightly to adjust to the change in less sparkly light--and got a good look at the guy talking to her. He definitely didn't look anyone she'd seen in foster care so far, but, then again, most of the kids his age skipped the homes straight into juvie.

"You're going to Fandom High, too?" she guessed.

Huh. Kanan had a... feeling about this one. He wasn't sure what sort of feeling, but there definitely was one.

He was going to chalk at least part of it up to the Mando armor she was sporting, there. He considered her thoughtfully, and then nodded to the bus.

"Looks like you stumbled over Fandom High," he explained. "Happens to the best of us. Going by your age, I'm guessing you've been enrolled as a student. And going by that question, I'm guessing this is the first you've heard of that fact."

Sabine noticed her after a moment, and knew that look because she did exactly what the other girl was doing.

Not that she'd say that right away. "What are you doing?"

Beaker gave an extensive reply to that--all in meeps.

Sorry, Kanan. The nodding that accompanied it probably meant yes?

Beaker held up his duffel bag questioningly. Did Kanan want a bag leaking purple bubbles and smelling like feet inside the bus or underneath?

"Kind of?" Manfred asked. "But you could also be going to...summer camp...?" Since that was what this was the room for.

Sabine tilted her head at him. "Are you okay?"

Well. It was clear that this place put a lot more money into transportation than the State of California did. That was encouraging. Astrid sighed a little, picked up her suitcase, and climbed aboard, yawning a little before dragging herself toward the back and hoping no one claimed those seats first.

"Uh," Kanan replied, and then he gestured to the luggage compartment under the bus. Most students were welcome to bring their things aboard; there weren't that many of them, after all. But between the smell and the bubbles.... "Yeah, you can put that underneath. Last thing anybody needs are bubbles getting in my face while I'm trying to drive."

He probably wouldn't blow this bus up! But bubbles wouldn't help that any.

"Tired kid," Kanan noted, taking note. Less worrisome than the Mandalorian, less confusing than the meeping kid. "I'm guessing you had a long trip here, huh?"

Looked like it, anyway.

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BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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Trip to Fandom

OOC

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