BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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One moment, there was nothing in the lounge except seating, banners, balloons, and a sign reading 'FANDOM HIGH'. The next moment, a swirl of a portal opened up and a small, white cat-like creature hopped out of it with a flirt of his tail. The concept of interplanetary travel was not new to Kyubey and he was mostly of the opinion that it just made sense that interdimensional travel was not much different, aside from the scale.

With a jump up onto a nearby bench, Kyubey glanced around at the airport—it looked much the same as any human airport that he'd seen--before settling down, head resting on his paws.

He was early, as he'd meant to be, which meant he was the first one here. Good, good. He'd get a chance to see the quality of the new students before gauging the potential of the current ones. The lure of so much energy, just waiting to be harvested… well, he couldn't be careless.

With a twitch of his ears at that thought, Kyubey waited.

Watched.

[Please to be waiting for the OCD is up, up, and away!]

Comments

Wait for the Shuttle!

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Are you all set to go to the island?

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat had never been very good with gate travel, but, this time, it felt...different. For starters, she couldn't remember much of it. It must have been the drugs Medic had given her to help her with the trip, because one minute, she was there on Mercy of Kalr, preparing herself, and the next...what seemed like the next...she was standing in the middle of a clearly uncivilized station, holding onto a fishbowl containing that fish that Translator Zeiet had coughed up, the one her Bos had insisted she take with her because it would be 'good company.'

Whatever Medic had given her, it must have been potent.

And now she looked around with somewhat wide, lilac eyes as she tried to reach out and connect to the Station, to figure out where she was or even just where she was supposed to go now, but all she received in response was silence. She tried addressing the Station outloud, even, which only garnered a few strange looks from some of the people bustling by. Not knowing what else to do, Tisarwat began to wander, occassionally addressing the Station, just in case, but still to no avail.

Eventually, she found a desk with a few attendants, and she went over, hoping they could be of service. "Excuse me," she said, adjusting her grip on the fishbowl, "but can you help me? Your Station seems unresponsive."

The two attendants behind the desk took one look at this purple-eyed teenager, in her neat brown uniform with matching gloves, holding a fish, and then exchanged a look between themselves. "It's that time of year again, isn't it?" said the one, while the other already began to write something down on a piece of paper. "You're probably here for the Fandom High shuttle," she said, scratching at her beard with her bare hands before sliding it over, which made Tisarwat feel reluctant to take it. But she did, and then tried to smile at the incredible rudeness of the attendant, who went ahead and used that bare hand to point her toward a certain direction.

But Tisarwat thanked them, shifting the fish against her hip so she could look at the paper as she made her way, taking heart in the fact that the word 'shuttle' had been used, meaning that this crass, outdated station was just a waypoint toward her final destination.

When she reached the lounge, she double-checked the paper, considered the decorations, and figured that this must be the place. She regarded the whole thing with a great deal of reservation and uncertainty, but the decorations were at least hardly as notable at the ones that were strung all around Atheok Station when they'd arrived right in the middle of their Genetalia Festival. But what they lacked in phallic objects they made up for in glitter.

Tisarwat figured all she could do now was wait and see if she could start putting together more about where it was she was apparently going, moving into the lounge and taking a seat, settling the fish in her bowl in her lap, taking everything around her in with intrigued, but slightly horrified, lilac eyes.

Fleet Captain, she decided, was definitely testing her right now.

She'd better not mess this up.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[abbreviateme]

Kyubey thought about just…staying quiet, unnoticed, and observing what would surely be an interesting wait for the shuttle but, well…

He was going to the school as a student—the better to blend in as his own preliminary research on the island indicated that there may be people who'd be able to notice him even while he was unnoticeable—and that meant, as far the island was concerned, he and the person who'd just taken a seat were peers.

(Ha.)

"Oh, hello!" Kyubey said, raising his head with a cheerful toss of his ears as he got to his feet. His voice amiable though not particularly excited and his mouth didn't move as he spoke. "Are you a new student as well?"

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

"Student?" Tisarwat blinked a little, surprised that the little creature she'd assumed was just someone's pet or perhaps some wild animal rummaging around the Station (she wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that it would be infested with some sort of vermin, but at least this vermin was cute?) began to talk to her. So not a pet at all, or, if it was, an intelligent one capable of speech.

Interesting.

"No," she said, "I already finished my Aptitudes." Just a few months ago, in fact, though, with everything she'd been through in those months, it felt like years ago. Thousands of them, in fact.

"Is the place where this shuttle is going a school?"

And with that, she had to tamp down a sudden sting of panic rising from her gut, putting to mind words like re-education. But Fleet Captain wouldn't do that to her! Would she? After everything she'd done for her?

But then again, if Tisarwat had already served her purpose, and all that remained was...her..perhaps she had simply been deemed...obsolete.

Maybe re-education really was what was best for her now...

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[abbreviateme]

With a tilt of his head, Kyubey studied that answer, and the one who gave it, with an unblinking red-eyed stare.

"Yes," he said cheerfully. "Fandom High School! It is a place for students from all sorts of circumstances. Though I understand there's a town attached to the school, so perhaps you'll be there to work instead, if you're… really not a student."

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

Oh, now this was interesting!

"Hi," Kuroko called out, waving from her own seat not far away. "Did you travel with that fishbowl like that?" Open and everything? Sounded stressful!

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat had been watching Kuroko's automated luggage with envy when she arrived. She'd been told not to worry about her own luggage, that everything was being taken care of, but she still felt uncertain about it. She'd feel so much more comfortable knowing it was present and accounted for and, even better, moving along thanks to its own equipped mechanisms.

There was some reassurance, too, that wherever she was right now, it wasn't quite as primitive as it was uncivilized.

But then there was the matter of the fishbowl. Tisarwat looked down into the bowl, at the shimmering green and purple of the fish's scales.

"I guess so," she said, looking back up at the other person. She shrugged, smiling a little sheepishly. "I don't actually remember a whole lot about getting here."

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

"Oh? Was it a crazy trip?"

"Oh! Or are you one of those people who needs to take something for, like, airsickness, and everything's fuzzy the whole time?"

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

One moment, in the space, there was nothing. Just an empty spot in the lounge.

In the next moment, there was a snap-hiss of energy, static electricity building and releasing, and a golden disc of pure light appeared in the air about six feet off the ground. As it started descending, it began spinning faster and faster.

At five feet, blonde hair began to appear. Then a face, looking down into the disk and yelling, and more and more of a young teenage girl appeared as the disc passed, until she it was about at her knees, and she was still yelling -- in Russian -- and waving her hands.

An older, bald gentleman stuck his head out. "Illyana, you know I don't understand you when you use Russian. If you want to sound melodramatic and get your point across, please use Infernal like a civilized mage. Don't forget your bags."

His upper body emerged slightly to place two duffle bags just outside the edge of the circle. "Please call me when you get there, dearest? And Stephen? He's just as unhappy about this as you are."

"Wong, I will close this Stepping Disc," the girl snarled. "GO."

She wouldn't, they both knew it, but he dropped out of sight and the disc continued its downward descent until it hit the floor and then dissipated in a flare of sparks.

Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina scooped her bags and stomped over to slouch against a wall, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up over her head.

High school!

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Well, that was definitely one way to make an entrance. Tisarwat might have felt bad about watching that all go down if it weren't for the fact that it was a little hard not to. What was that? Some sort of personal gate? Something like that could have...significant benefits and implications. What a weird place this was! The Station clearly didn't even have an AI, hardly anyone wore gloves, and yet people could just use personal gates like it was practically nothing. Nothing about this made sense.

And now Tisarwat was torn between wanting to ask and the fact that the person left behind didn't appear to be in a very chatty mood. Maybe she'd wait it out, take the opportunity once they were on the shuttle.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Yana had...mellowed. A little. After stuffing her face full of pastrami sandwiches to recover from pushing her power so hard. Space was easy. Time sucked.

She glanced up to see the purple-eyed person watching her, though it seemed like they were trying to be discreet about it. Which...Illyana appreciated. Almost.

"I've eaten, I won't bite. Probably," she said, polishing off the last of her snacks. "What?"

Illyana, most civilized humans use complete sentences.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Well, Illyana was very clearly the opposite of civilized, which made the effective use of personal gates all the more tragic in Tisarwat's lilac-colored eyes. Her discretion had gotten a little bit more difficult when Illyana had started to eat, as any attention Tisarwat was paying to her at that point was entirely a disgusted fascination. How could anyone just eat like that, with their bare hands and everything?

She'd seen Translators shove unspeakable things right down their gullet without blinking an eye before, but at least they did it with gloves on.

Tisarwat almost didn't know what to say at first. So she shrugged, as she decided whether to address the biting, the eating, or the traveling first.

"Hard not to notice an entrance like that," she noted.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

Well, that was an eye-catching arrival. It caught Kuroko's anyway.

Once the disc thing disappeared, she spent a couple of seconds trying to decide if that had been some sort of weird tech, or if it was a manifestation of some Esper power she hadn't seen before.

Well, there was an easy way to find out, right?

With a shrug, Kuroko stood up from her seat, gave her robotic trunks a wave so they knew she didn't need them to follow her, and walked over toward the wall where the blonde girl was slouching. "Hey, that was pretty neat."

What a cunning conversational gambit.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Well, it was a better one that cat-creature's!

"Thanks," she said, mouth half-full of pastrami sandwich. "'S my mutation."

...she assumed since Strange had said she could 'port to the station that everyone else was going to be mutants or sorcerers. Yes, she was furious with him, but she knew deep down he'd never send her somewhere unsafe.

"Showed you mine. What's yours?"

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

"Not as flashy," Kuroko answered with a little grin.

There was a soft, almost electronic hum, and suddenly Kuroko was standing about five feet to the right.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

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Kyubey...

"That does not appear to be a very efficient mode of travel," Kyubey observed in his lilting, cheerful voice. "Though I suppose it could be more efficient than it looks...?"

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

RUDE.

"Inefficient is sending me to high school for my emotional development when I should be learning magic," Illyana snapped, eyeing the creature with both interest and distrust. "I just traveled through space and time, so, don't diss my teleportation discs."

Though that sort of jump always left her starving, and Illyana started rummaging in one bag for the snacks she knew Wong had probably stuck int here. "Had to cut through a freaking hell plane, stupid multidimensional nexuses..."

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

Kuroko was glad that international flights let you buy additional baggage allowance. She'd had to save up her allowance for it, but it had been worth it. Of course, a decent chunk of the cost had been buying the five brand new exactly-the-right-size trunks which she'd packed to capacity that had been necessary to get the minimal amount of her belongings onto the plane.

Now that she was in an unfamiliar airport, she was glad she'd splurged enough on the trunks to get automated ones. The way people stared at her as she walked through the airport trailing a little train of humming wheeled trunks that followed her on their own was a sharp reminder that the technology here was decades behind what she was used to. Still, a few stares were a small price to pay for not having to find one of those luggage carts which would have, inevitably, had a broken wheel that tried to ram her stuff into walls.

Aaaaand, there was a giant "FANDOM HIGH" sign. Probably where she was supposed to go. She thought that the balloons were a bit much, but at least whoever had set this up had stopped there. She knew some people who would have kept adding decorations until the sign disappeared. Kuroko walked over to one of the seats and stopped to stretch, her arms going up and back and her spine arching. It had been a long flight, after all.

By the time she finished working out the kinks in her spine and flopped onto the seat, her trunks had all gathered up and settled onto the floor next to her. They even mostly managed to get out of the way of anyone else.

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

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As far as strange things went, luggage that moved by itself wasn't very high on the list.

"Hello!" Kyubey said, winding his way over to hop up on a seat closer to the new girl. He was small, about the size of a kitten, and he studied her curiously. "Are you also one of the new students?"

Re: Wait for the Shuttle!

[backstageteleporter]

Kuroko took a couple of seconds to study the new arrival, not totally sure what mental box to stick it into. She provisionally decided on 'AI robot pet/assistant thing'.

"Why, hello." She smiled. "Yes I am." She glanced around. "Are we expecting any non-students to join us?" She was not at all certain how this whole shuttle thing operated.

Trip to Fandom!

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Once the shuttle arrives, that is! It's, er, rather cute this time around?

Re: Trip to Fandom!

[sith_happened]

Anakin was really hoping no one was looking out the door as he arrived in the bus, which was completely covered (inside and out, you lucky students) with approximately one kazillion glittery origami cranes, flowers, frogs, and on and on and on.

And with Anakin coming out of the bus in traditional Jedi robes, it was no time at all before he was waylaid by five Hari Krishnas, and then three little old ladies who were dying to find out if his parents had been at Woodstock and what his views were on nuclear war?

So when he came stomping into the airport, he was in a delightful mood. And so, so glittery.

There were some very, very grounded students when he got back to Fandom, but for now..."FANDOM HIGH!" he bellowed. "TIME TO GO."

Re: Trip to Fandom!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

This was...not at all the sort of shuttle that Tisarwat was expecting. But, once again, she found herself relieved that this Fandom High place was more included to decorate with what looked like birds and flowers and frogs rather than genitalia.

It wasn't enough to make up for the lack of gloves, of course, but she had a feeling she'd taking what little things she could find when she could.

There was the possibility that this was all a mistake, too, and, with one more look at this so-called 'shuttle,' Tisarwat tried to think of every single god in the hodgepod pantheon of Radchaai gods and prayed to each and every one of them (this was no small task) for that mistake.

She stood up, being mindful of the fish in her bowl, and walked over.

"Excuse me," she said. "I'm actually not sure I'm in the right place. Is there an official passenger roster for this particular...shuttle?"

It felt so wrong even calling it that.

Re: Trip to Fandom!

[sith_happened]

"I have one, yes," Anakin said, pulling out a sheet of paper from his robe pocket. "What's your name?"

He wasn't exactly sure what he'd do if it was a random person just hanging out with the Fandom kids.

OOC

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And just how would enough energy be harvested if the world ended now?

It'll be work-related SP from me for the next few hours, but I'll be around late-afternoon and all evening!