fandomhigh | BWI Portalocity Lounge, Saturday 9/2

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!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Portalocity Lounge, Saturday 9/2

Belle had packed up her trunks and was headed home to face a life of Ogre Wars and Gaston and no miraculous technologies or grumpy older gentlemen with mysterious powers.

She'd gone through her portal only to find herself...back where she'd been years ago when first arriving at the school. The very same lounge with the very same (presumably) glittery banner advertising the school.

There was, alas, a lack of Five to argue with so far but perhaps someone new to challenge her would appear until this was sorted out. She couldn't be meant to be back here, could she? This must just be an unscheduled stopover.

At least Belle had a book to read and the lounge was comfortable enough.

[Welcome to your newbie shuttle post!]

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Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Illyana raised an eyebrow, very deliberately looking the other girl over. "Do I know you?"

To be met with Arden's own eyebrow raise at the question and the tone it was delivered in. "And here I thought rumors of Yankee manners were exaggerated," she drawled, emphasizing her North Carolina accent. "No, you don't, not yet, but since we're going to the same place, seemed like a good time to say hello."

"Like a Yankee Doodle?" Now Illyana was just confused. "What does a children's song have to do with manners?"

"Regardless, no, I am not a Yankee -- probably. Whatever it is. And it has nothing to do with my manners. I learned magic, not deportment."

Did she purposely let her Russian accent slip in there a little bit? Yes, yes she did.

Arden had been referring to them being in Maryland than anything else. It was the South by a technicality, much the same way Connecticut was barely New England.

"M-magic?" Arden asked, looking thrown and attempting not to. "Like...a witch? Are you from the other side of town?"

And then, like a very normal person would do, she leaned over and...sniffed. Then sat back, looking perplexed.

"Here? In Maryland? Ew, that's almost as bad as being from Ohio. No, I am from Greenwhich Village, by way of Limbo and Russia."

Okay, the sniffing was kinda funny. "...if you are trying to suss out my magical pedigree that way, you are going to give yourself indigestion or a migraine. I'm a sorcerer, not a scented candle."

Edited 2023-09-02 06:39 (UTC)

"Your magic doesn't have a--"

Right. Ahem. Yes. Cool. Collected. Normal.

Arden gave a quick laugh. "Guess it just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read in urban fantasy novels or whatever."

She shouldn't. She shouldn't they were still in the Portalocity lounge, and this girl could be a baseline human for all Yana knew... though she doubted it.

"Oh, I don't know," she mused, giving in to her worse instincts as she leaned in, bringing her finger up to her lips in a 'shh' motion. "Books get some things right."

For a split second, it was an Illyana with horns, red eyes, and fangs smirking back at her. "Airports are liminal spaces, you never know what you'll find between worlds."

And then she leaned back, all blonde goth girl again. "Welcome to Fandom, New Girl. I'm Illyana."

She could just be a very well-read one! You don't know her! You don't know her life!

"The fuck?!" Arden rocked back, eyes widening in surprise again. "You are fr--" She paused. "What are you?" she asked in a soft whisper, though she sounded more like Illyana was a puzzle to solve than begging for an explanation to set her world back to rights.

"Oh! And I'm Arden. Aren't you also a new girl?"

"I am a sorcerer who had a very shitty and demonic childhood," she quipped. "--and a graduate of Fandom High, back again for college."

"I do not do 'passing,' I don't have the patience for it, so normal human college was not an option."

Arden looked like she was auditioning for the role of the fish in an upcoming documentary about marine life. Her mouth kept opening and closing, coming up with and then discarding a hundred questions. At least until Illyana mentioned passing and then her mouth shut with the small click of teeth meeting teeth.

"I didn't see anything about this being anything beyond a normal human college in the literature," she said stiffly a moment later.

Edited 2023-09-02 08:02 (UTC)

"The school board, they are notorious for, shall we say, 'leaving things out,'" Yes, Arden could probably hear the air quotes.

"People often show up thinking they're just going to a boarding school, or a place for troubled teens, and yet nowhere in the brochure does it mention the island is a multidimensional nexus and semi-sentient."

"It's what and also what?"

"A multidimensional nexus," Illyana repeated cheerfully. "Your Earth -- assuming you are from an Earth -- is probably not my Earth. Fandom Island is a place where all universes intersect. The library is phenomenal, it has every book ever written anywhere, and some that exist only in dreams."

"So, here is your crash course. Yes, all types of magic is real. So are aliens. Some people have powers that aren't magic at all. And the island is about as smart as a golden retriever puppy, and magical itself, so sometimes things get weird -- timelines loop on themselves, you wake up a different gender for two or three days, it rains candy... the options are endless."

"Think of it like reality as a whole is a piece of origami paper, and all our worlds are the little colored dots on the paper. Some of them fold over to be next to each other, some are farther away, but they're all part of the same paper, creating one little paper figure. Except the figure was made by a toddler, so it doesn't quite resemble anything real."

That probably helped SO MUCH. Right?

The 'origami shaped like a figure made by a todder' had definitely helped the analogy. 100%.

"...Oh," Arden said because, honestly, what do you say to all of that. 'Neat'? 'Sounds good'? 'Oh, you've lost your ever-loving fucking mind'? None of those seemed quite right ~~even if one seemed a little more apt than the others~~. "And they just advertise this place to normal people? With no warning?"

Hey now, Illyana was as in her right mind as she ever was.

“Maybe that is part of the charm?” Illyana said with a shrug. “No matter your situation, whatever preconceived notion you came in with is wrong, no matter what, but you get to meet people that you would never be able to meet anywhere else.”

"Who just happen to be aliens, sorcerers, and all manner of storybook stuff," Arden supplied.

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BWI Portalocity Lounge, Saturday 9/2

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