fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

"Portalocity lounge," Mae read aloud, and heaved a sigh of relief. "Finally. First time I ever travel alone and I get lost in the stupid airport." She walked into the lounge, looked around, and hopped up onto the bench, her duffel bag tucked under her feet. There was plenty of room, since her legs were too short to reach the ground. "Of course, it's bigger than, like, all of Possum Springs put together, so I guess that can't be too surprising. Good thing Mom and Dad insisted I take the early bus."

She tapped her heels on her duffel bag and eyed the door. "And now I'm talking to myself. Good job, Mae. Perfect first impression." She made her eyes comically wide and waved to an imaginary audience. "HeY, I'M mAe, i'M TOtallY NOrmAl, niCE To MEeT yoU." She frowned and tapped her feet harder. "Good job, Killer."

Another glance around the lounge. There wasn't a lot to look at yet.

"I wish I had a video game."

[NEWBIE SHUTTLE TIME! Possibly slightly early, but I want a distraction]

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Mae eyed the interior of the bus dubiously.

"Is that Fandom the school, or Fandom the strip club?"

Honestly . . . she was kind of hoping strip club.

That would have made for a very different educational experience, granted.

"The school," Kanan sighed. "The island doesn't have a strip club."

Which in hindsight was actually kind of weird, considering some of the locals.

"What kind of town doesn't have a strip club?"

Possum Springs had a strip club. And Possum Springs had only recently gotten a highway.

. . . Actually, that was probably part of why Possum Springs had a strip club.

"A very small one on an island," Kanan supplied, "where nobody wants to bare too much ankle for too long."

Imagine the chaos if gremlins ever wandered in.

Actually, that thought was hilarious.

"Oh my god I'm going to high school in pilgrim times."

She meant that metaphorically, poor bean.

"Nah," Kanan replied, shaking his head. "The island just has an infestation nobody likes experiencing first-hand."

That was an improvement, right?

"Oh yeah?"

Mae. Try to look a little less excited about that. You were going to get a reputation before you even made it to the island.

Well, that was a look. Kanan smiled a little crookedly in reply. Sure, there was nothing weird about a girl with a cat head where he was standing, but that much excitement was hard to ignore.

"Gremlins," he explained. "Little green guys that bite."

The look faded.

"Ohhhhh," Mae said. "Gremlins."

Sure thing, Mr. Douchey-Hair Bus-Driver Man. Pull the other one.

"I could have said 'abnormally large rats,' but then I'd be lying."

...

"I'm pretty sure."

You could never be entirely certain on that island.

"Then I would just assume you meant possums," Mae said. "And are a confused city dweller who doesn't understand the ways of the small rural berg."

Which would actually be a step up in her estimation from 'guy who apparently thought he could pull one over on a canny 15 year old'. Or 'guy who thought Mae was about eight years old'.

Admittedly, she was not much larger than your average eight year old.

"The hell's a possum?"

Hello, Mae. Meet a confused small-town dweller who'd grown up in a city that was an entire planet.

That was not this planet.

Mae would think that was pretty awesome once she wrapped her brain around it being, you know, a thing in real life and not just stories.

"An unusually large rat," Mae said. "With more sharper teeth."

She loved possums. And not just because her home town was named after them.

"Oh, yeah? We have something kind of like that back home."

In a very broad sense of home that mostly didn't actually include Coruscant. They had very different pests on Coruscant.

And if he was being honest, womp rats didn't look a hell of a lot like rats, either.

"Haven't seen any of them around the island, though."

Maybe the gremlins were eating them?

"That's too bad," Mae said. "Possums are cool."

She was into most creatures that the rest of the world had written off.

"Where's home?"

"Nowhere near here," Kanan replied, shrugging. "Different galaxy. No one particular world these days, though."

And there he went, totally not actually pulling the other leg, see?

Hey, she had to learn eventually anyway.

And here was Mae, giving him a faint eye roll before just rolling with it, anyway.

"Rambler, huh?" she said. "We get people like that back home, too. Riding the rails, taking odd jobs wherever, never staying in one place for very long."

It sounded kind of awesome to Mae. Though she rather liked having, you know, a bed.

Meanwhile Kanan had a bed he was just as happy without.

"It's a great way to pick up new experiences," he offered. "Not so great if you enjoy stability, though. Bit of a trade-off, there."

"Stability is for suckers," said the girl who had barely ever left her hometown before. "You gotta live by your wits."

Ah, the wisdom of youth and inexperience.

"Having wits and stability doesn't hurt," said the man who couldn't go back to his hometown if he wanted to live to see thirty. "Call me greedy, I guess."

"Okay, Greedy." What? Her dad wasn't here to make the jokes. Someone had to! "So why does the school bus look like it should have a pole in the back of it?"

"Because I'm the guy who won't let the students steal the bus," Kanan sighed.

As if that explained everything.

Why was this his life?

". . . How incredibly shortsighted of you."

"It isn't even my bus," Kanan sighed. "You'd think I wouldn't worry about it so much."

But no. Here he was, with a bedazzled steering wheel cover.

"Did you steal it?"

Again. Mae. Control your face.

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