fandomhigh | 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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"About myself?" To her credit, Kuroko really did try to sound like she was modest and a little uncomfortable with the idea, but... One of Kuroko's favorite subjects was Kuroko.

"It's not as interesting as your own story, but if you're curious."

"As you know, my name is Kuroko Shirai. I'm 16, and have been a Level 4 Esper since I was 12." She sounded quite proud of that fact. "I graduated from Tokiwadai Academy's junior division near the top of my class, and I'm a senior field operative in Judgment." Oh, wait. Kuroko frowned. "Actually, I suppose I'm on reserve status because I don't think Judgment operates here in America."

It took a couple of seconds, but then Kuroko realized something important and sighed.

"And none of that means anything to you, does it?"

Tisarwat grinned and made a small gesture with her hand. "Not the detail," she admitted, though she'd been soaking it all in, "but I think I understand the important parts, especially that that all sounds much more impressive than just a lieutenant at seventeen. I might need a it more context, though. Like Esper? What's that? And you say Judgement like it's something much more than just looking down on someone for having a tear in their gloves."

"You don't have Espers in all that big space of yours? Like, you know, ESP? Um... it's, like, powers, I guess? The ability to impose your imagination on the world around you?" They were kind of a Big Deal back home. Maybe even The Biggest Deal, depending on who you talked to.

"And Judgment's, like... police, sort of? I mean, not like we don't have actual police, but for a lot of things Judgment just takes care of it so they can focus on important stuff?"

Little things like directing traffic, rescuing kittens, and foiling bank robberies.

The ability to impose your imagination on the world around you. Now there was a phrase that made nearly every last fraying bit of Anaander's consciousness fraying and sizzling. Of course a power like that existed. It just sounded a bit like Kuroko's Espers made it much, much easier than sweeping over the galaxy and leaving other no choice in the matter.

But what she said was, "We don't have anything quite like that that I can think of, but, like you said, it is some pretty big space. Were you...born with Espers, or is something that you learn? How does it work? Is Level 4 very high?"

"You're not born with it, exactly? I mean, sometimes there's a genetic component, but it's not that standardized? Like, the different types of powers are categorized, but things in the same category aren't identical, just similar? And different people develop their initial abilities in different ways?"

Kuroko shrugged. "And it works by, well, knowing it will work? It can take a lot of training to push yourself beyond the limits you've imposed on yourself, you know?"

"And I don't know why I brag about the level thing. Habit, I guess? I mean, in theory it's all supposed to be very objective, and Level 4 is supposed to be really impressive, but I've started to suspect that the levels aren't really about power or difficulty. They're probably some scale those old bastards made up to measure usefulness or something."

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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