fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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!]

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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.

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?"

"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...

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."

Tisarwat didn't even know what she was anymore.

And this thing was...cute, yes, but also creepy, she decided, that blank stare matched with that cheerful voice. She shifted uncomfortably where she sat, hiding it by making it seem like she was just adjusting the fish in her lap.

"I guess I'll find out when I get there," she said. "What's your name?"

Kyubey shrugged his tail and daintily leaped down off his bench to pad over to sit at her feet, looking up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kyubey," he said politely. "What's your name?"

Cute, but creepy, but...polite. There was at least that, and Tisarwat smiled a little, nodding her head.

"Tisarwat," she offered. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too, Kyubey. Are you from this planet?"

Aatr's tits, she didn't even know what planet this even was. But she didn't want to seem stupid by asking, and it seemed impolite to just ask outright exactly what Kuybey was.

It wasn't like he could help not blinking!

Kyubey tilted his head at that question.

"I'm not," he said easily. "From that question, I would guess you're not either?"

"You guess right." Tisarwat smiled at that, appreciating the insight involved in turning the question back around at her. And, in a moment, decided to take the risk she had previously avoided.

"Honestly," The smile went a little sheepish, and she made a small gesture, "I'm not even sure what planet this is."

She didn't recognize it. At all. Which was equal parts disturbing and exhilarating.

"The locals have very limited space travel," he shared, since it was true. "As such, they refer to this planet simply as 'Earth' and their sun and solar system as the Sun and the Solar System."

Which was unlikely to help Tisarwat out all that much.

"They call this galaxy the Milky Way," he added, "and this planet is the third planet from their sun."

On the contrary, this was all...incredibly helpful. And...terribly interesting. Fascinating. Tisarwat leaned forward, careful of the fish.

It wasn't every day someone came across a whole galaxy that even the Lord of the Radch had never even heard of, after all.

"You're so knowledgable." Tisarwat's smile was grateful. "How many planets in this system? Any of particular interest?"

He was knowledgeable!

"That depends on what interests you," Kyubey said, doing a loop around one of her ankles and then hopping up to sit one seat over from her, wrapping his tail around his feet.

"There are officially eight planets in this solar system though public opinion is mixed on that as, until quite recently, there were nine instead--one was reclassified."

A conflict of opinion regarding classification? Tisarwat's head tilted as Kyubey respositioned himself.

"I can't imagine the citizens of the entity in question were very pleased about that," she mused.

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