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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"I'm Tisarwat," she said, offering her house name as well ~~which was so unimportant it wasn't even given in canon despite it being specifcally asked about, why.~~. "It's nice to you, too. Are you from this planet?"

That question, she would find, would be far more useful than she could have ever hoped for.

"Um, yeah?" Kuroko thought about that for a moment.

"Are you... not?"

It wouldn't be the weirdest thing she'd ever heard of, to be fair.

A native, then. Good.

"I'm not even sure exactly what planet this is," Tisarwat said. Not exactly a direct answer, but it didn't leave much room for other interpretations, she figured. "What can you tell me about it?"

Well. This was already a lot more interesting than Kuroko had expected, to be honest.

"It's called Earth? Full of people? Not really sure what's important to tell you about a planet you're new to?" This was kind of a new situation.

"Usually," Tisarwat said with a smile, "the first one's whether or not the air is breathable, but I think we've got that one covered. What are the people here like?"

"Oh." Kuroko smirked just a bit brattily. "The air is breathable." She took a deep breath just to emphasize the point.

"And, um, people? A lot of jerks, some downright evil bastards, and, you know, a few awesome ones."

Guess which type Kuroko was!

If Kuroko were to ask, of course Tisarwat would guess one of the awesome ones.

"So," she noted, "not much different from most planets. I guess I've been pretty lucky; not a lot of jerks so far."

"Well, people will be people, right?"

Kuroko wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Even if you wish they'd shape up."

"But, hey, there's still plenty of time to meet some terrible people," she teased, "so don't give up on it yet."

Tisarwat's smile came with a small laugh. "I hope so," she said. "I'd hate to come all this way and not get the full Earth experience, but at least I'm off to a good start."

Even with the abysmal lack of proper public decency, but that could be one of the first things to work on.

"So, um, how long have you been on the planet so far, anyway?"

That was definitely not a question that Kuroko had imagined herself asking anyone before.

"That I can consciously recall?" Tisarwat's gloved hand made a vague gesture. "Probably a hour, hour and a half at most."

It had taken her a while to make sense of some for those attendant's directions, something that would never be an issue if this place had a properly connected Station.

"So, with all that time to see the sites, what do you think of Earth?"

They probably wouldn't have nearly enough time if Tisarwat were to divulge her actual feelings about the place so far, and it hardly did any good to insult a person's planet so soon after meeting them and the planet.

"It's...different," she said, judiciously, sounding amused. "Very different. I've noticed, for example, that no one here really wears gloves, do they?"

Kuroko had seemed pretty inquisitive so far, so Tisarwat figured she might as well head what she supected would be a follow-up question about specifics, giving her own gloves a conscious sort of tug as she did.

Even with Tisarwat's diplomatic phrasing, Kuroko picked up at least a little on how... unimpressed the other girl was.

"Gloves?" Kuroko hadn't really registered Tisarwat's. "Usually not until it gets cold out. Or if you're going to do something physical." She snorted as a third option occurred to her. "Or if they just like how they look."

"Why? Are they really common where you're from?"

"Everyone wears gloves," Tisarwat explained. "It's considered uncivilized and indecent to be in public without gloves. It's a bit..." She gestured a little, her expression imploring for forgiveness, "shocking, actually. You usually don't see anyone without their gloves unless they're doing something physical."

The small laugh, the embarrassed duck of her head, should make it clear that she wasn't exactly talking about construction work, either.

It took Kuroko a moment to figure out what Tisarwat was getting at.

"Oh!"

She grinned. "Do people have, like, sexy gloves and stuff? Like all made out of lace and stuff?" Kuroko paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. "Actually, I might have a pair of those in my bags." Had she chosen to pack them?

"Should I put them on? Would that be more polite?"

Tisarwat was a little surprised by just how relieved the offer made her feel.

"Well," she said, "the sexy part is when the gloves come off, but it's always a little thrill to notice when someone had exceptionally fine gloves. Mine, unfortunately," she lifted one of her hands, spreading her fingers, turning the palm toward Kuroko and then the back of her hand, "are just standard military issue. But..."

She hesitated, as if she wouldn't want to intrude.

"If you wouldn't mind, it would make me feel more comfortable."

Especially since she'd pretty much admitted that thinking about no one wearing gloves right now was basically like thinking everyone around her was practically naked.

"For a Radchaai, it's much more polite."

"Well, now you've got me curious about whether I packed them or not." She reached over and tapped one of her trunks which rolled itself around in front of her and clicked itself open.

"It'll probably be in here if I did," she announced. The left side of the trunk was packed with lace and netting and... okay, it was a bunch of sexy lingerie. Kuroko hummed thoughtfully as she dug carefully through some of it, looking to see if she'd included that pair of gloves from that one set...

"Oh," she didn't look up from her search, but a question occurred to her. "You said a, um, Radchaai? What's that?"

Tisarwat found herself far more interested in the trunks themselves rather than the content of them, remembering how they moved earlier and how the one Kuroko opened responded to her touch. Just how autonomous were they? What level of command did they require? They seemed simple, especially compared to something like the Geck spider mechs...

...how did she even know about Geck spider mechs? Tisarwat blinked, fought the urge to shake her head, and tried to ignore it by smiling at Kuroko's question, even though it really proved just how far flung she was right now, that someone would ask what Radchaai was.

"It's who I am," she offered, after thinking of how best to explain, "it's my people. The Radchaai control almost the entirety of the known universe, where I'm from. To think that someone would have to even ask what Radchaai is, is...."

Disturbing.

Exhilarating.

Tisarwat laughed. "So weird!"

"Aha!" Kuroko held up a pair of delicate lace gloves in black silk. "I did bring them." She pulled them on, wiggling her fingers for a moment to get a feel for them.

"Better?" she asked as she tapped her trunk again and it closed itself and moved back into line with the others.

"Also, that sounds kinda like a big deal."

"Much better." Tisarwat didn't even bother holding back a sigh of relief, even though she was a little surprised by just how much she felt it, and the grateful smile that went with it. "Thank you, Kuroko. And those are beautiful; they suit you so well! Were they a gift?

"And, yeah," she laughed again, "it's definitely a big deal."

Kuroko heaved a dramatic sigh. "I wish they were a gift." She rolled her eyes. "But for some reason, no one ever buys me sexy stuff to wear."

"And most of the people I know, if they tried, I mean, it'd be a nice gesture, but there's no way it'd actually be sexy." Poor Kuroko. It was hard being blessed with the only sense of adult fashion among your friends.

"So are you, like, a big deal, too, then? Like, from an important family or something?"

Well, if things didn't go too badly once this shuttle they were waiting for took them somewhere hopefully much better than this terrible Station, Tisarwat was pleased to already have something already to tuck into her pocket to pull out later to earn a bit more of Kuroko's favor, she hoped.

But the question was enough to distract her from that.

"Who? Me?" Tisarwat laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, no, definitey not me. My house isn't very important at all, I'm honestly lucky I was able to land a position as a lieutenant. I thought I'd been doomed to some boring desk job where I'd have to fight to climb up the lowest rung of the social ladder."

It was weird, too, how just a few months ago, that exact scenario was actually Tisarwat's goal.

Lucky.

Sure.

"Lieutenant, you say? That's not bad at all for someone your age."

Kuroko paused and considered what she'd just said. "Well, assuming that the rank is similar to what it'd be here, and that you're as young as I'm assuming you are."

Which, given that Tisarwat wasn't even from Earth was, maybe not the best set of assumptions to go with.

"I'm seventeen," Tisarwat offered, her smile amused as Kuroko worked through that, "which is how old most Radchaai are when they complete their Aptitudes, but very few get placed into a lieutenant position so soon. My circumstances were...unusual."

Which seemed a fitting enough word to describe the Lord of the entire Radch forcing her consciousness on you to send you to spy on a rogue spaceship bent on killing her, really.

And hardly made for good, light, getting-to-know you banter between two new, civilized friends.

"What about you, Kuroko? How old are you? And tell me about yourself. I think I've hogged the conversation with stuff out me more than enough."

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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