BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

[slothbabyproductions]

The Khan family was not known for doing the minimum for anything. Which is why the entire family drove down in multiple cars the entire way from Jersey City to BWI. Three hours in the car of her mom and dad asking if she had everything. Asking if she needed anything. There's a Target on the way in case she needed or forgot something. Meanwhile Aamir kept texting her complaints about Abbu's driving skills and asking if Kamala needed anything.

"I'm fine," was the common answer to everything. Again, again and again. Then there was hugs and fussing over everything when they got to the airport and reminders and more fuss. To which everything Kamala laughed and said "I'm fine."

And then they got in their car and left.

And Kamala was standing in the Portalocity Lounge taking it all in while holding her stuffed sloth and a pile of luggage next to her.

Deep breath. "I'm fine."

...

"Why is there so much glitter?"

[OCD Incoming]

Comments

Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

Only one charger is working under the seats and the outlet isn't working. What's your battery percentage?

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[aroughtempestiwillraise]

Gale had full spell slots and was raring to go! Was that... was that not what you meant by battery percentage? Because clearly that was the only thing you could have meant, right?

He certainly could have opened a a portal of some sort to arrive directly to this school in order to set up his lodgings, but where was the fun in that? As such, there was an archmage and his tressym companion, snoozing on his shoulder. Also looking at the glitter. "Oh, they most certainly haven't swept here in some time," he muttered.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala turned to see... wow. Okay. An adult and-

Okay, that is not exactly a cat.

"Hi! I'm Kamala. This is the place for Fandom University right?" She asked double checking. "And if you don't mind me asking what exactly is that?"

Yes. She was pointing at the tressym.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[aroughtempestiwillraise]

"What is..." Gale asked, turning a little as thought maybe there was something behind him. There was not. Well, other than the strange seats available to them. "Oh! You mean my companion! You have a keen eye. That would be Tara. She's a bit tired from our journey here from Waterdeep to Merry-Land."

Which was as foreign to him as Earl-Lay Ack-Seize.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

Waterdeep? "OOooooooh," Kamala said remembering one nugget from her briefing from Fury. "Right, You're way way not from here. Is Tara friendly?"

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[aroughtempestiwillraise]

"Well, I can hardly speak for her on such matters, but she has been a dear friend of mine since I was but a child." Then, after a moment. "So long as her boundaries are respected, I think she is far more the social creature than I."

Yeeeeah. Gale, buddy. Still a cat.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

"Well you don't seem to be too anti-social," Kamala said, carefully reaching out to give Tara a pat.

Look, strange looking felines wasn't new to Kamala. At least this one didn't try to swallow you and pull you into a pocket dimension in their stomachs.

"It doesn't have tentacles, does it?"

Didn't hurt to check.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

"Thor. Hey. I need you to get a look at this weird cat and tell me what the fuck it is."

It appears to be a cat with wings.

Thank you, god of thunder. Very helpful.

"Well, you know how it is with glitter," Don said at a more normal level of volume.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[aroughtempestiwillraise]

Don't worry, Gale was very friendly. Or maybe just desperate to get away from the glitter. He was going to need so many castings of prestidigitation to be free from it's crafty curse.

"Hello there!" The cat in question just shuffled her wings and slept harder.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

"Are you headed to Fandom? With your...cat?" Or did it have some fancy name?

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[aroughtempestiwillraise]

"Ah! I must correct you there, she is a tressym," Gale said. "Which is remarkably similar to your common feline, I will grant you. But could not be further for it."

Other than the sleeping in sunbeams. And demanding scritches. And knocking things off of high places. And the wanton murder of pigeons.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[x_wondrous_x]

Clad in his black overalls and bowler hat, Stewart had skulked through the airport on the way to what was apparently his shuttle terminal. There was, perhaps, a soft growl of disapproval in his throat as he narrowed his eyes at the obscenely glittery banner that heralded the act that he was, indeed, in the right spot, even if its entire sparkly existence left him questioning whether he'd made the right choice, or if it would be better to just turn back now. But no. Chin lifted in defiance, he knew he must persevere. Opportunity awaited; would he deny it? Or embrace the call of potential, even if it meant that being perfunctorily pre-punctual would result in habing to fester under such a cheerfully shimmering herald?

For now, he was in a state where such lofty goals seemed slightly more teneble than the alternatives. Was it really much worse than festering in his mother's basement? Surely not. So, after taking a moment to toss his hulking duffle back sideways to slide it toward a chair and shrugging off his backpack, he, too, slid along the floor in front of a chair, threw his bladed hands up parallel to frame his face, before folding them down and twisting them in a brief spurt of voguing, his arms a sharp and precise flurry of movements around him, before crossing his feet below him to execute a tight little turn, finishing it with a kick of his leg out as he fell back into the chair, landing in a slouch with his arms folding in front of him. A moment, to hold the pose, and then he lifted a hand to pull down the brim of his hat over his eyes and settled in to wait.

His phone, for the record, was at 11%, because someone like to live dangerously.

(Or just desperately needed an upgrade because he could have sworn it was fully charged when he left Letterkenny...)

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

Okay, Kamala was not adverse to grand entrances but even that was a lot for her.

"You doing okay?" she asked, wondering if the pulled down hat brim was a cue to be left alone.

But if he did what was with the voguing?

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[x_wondrous_x]

Grand? Ha. That had been, truly, almost achingly boilerplate.

"Inconclusive," Stewart answered, lifting his chin in an almost skeptical way that anyone would even bother asking, which seemed to spark his curiosity enough that he also pushed the brim of his hat back up with a finger to peer with narrowed eyes at his fellow traveler. "Debatable? Answer Tee-Bee-Determined by future events still beyond comprehension. Perhaps even speculation."

He considered Kamala a little more.

"Are you...also bound for scholarly pursuits? At the...hopefully!...rather aptly named...F. U.?"

Had the school's initials been a big factor in his decision to come?

Yes. Absolutely, why wouldn't it have been? The only other one in the running was possibly Concordia University of Michigan.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

"Oh. I hadn't even thought of the abbreviation," Kamala said out loud in realization. "But yes! I'm an incoming freshman. I'm Kamala."

She held out her hand for a handshake.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[x_wondrous_x]

Stewart considered the offered hand for a moment before he took it, not to shake it, but to hold Kamala's fingers delicately in his own hand while he ducked his head in gentlemanly deference, a gesture of his other arm in a dramatic sweep to the side to complete the effect.

"Stewart," he offered back, with just a small pang of sadness for the lack of Roald's shrill growling echo of the name. "Also an incoming freshman..."

And if he sounded a bit bristling about sharing such a status with a person despite a clear disparity in ages....well....

He was just going to remind himself that a tertiary education straight out of a secondary one wasn't for everyone. Some people had been called to higher occupations first. The School of the Streets, as it were, the University of Hard Knocks. The....Tech School of Tribulations....

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

O...kay.

Sometimes Don wondered how much he'd really missed out on by never having actually been young.

"Good morning to you, too."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[x_wondrous_x]

Stewart glanced up at the sound of that, taking a moment to take the man in and doing very little to hide the decisive scoff that seemed to be his conclusion at the inspection.

"Is it?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow, tilting his head. "Do, praytell, illuminate," he lifted his hands, sweeping them palms up in front of him in a gesture to show his willingness to receive such information, "me on what you think makes it so good..."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

"Well," Don said. "We're alive, which beats the pants off the alternative."

Trust him on this one, kid.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[x_wondrous_x]

Stewart was looking at Don like he wanted to argue the point, but was carefully weighing whether or not it was worth it to get into such an engagement with someone like that.

"Contestable," he concluded, with a small, self-righteous sniff. "The accuracy of such a statement is highly subject to circumstance. However!"

There was a dramatic pause, chin lifted, taking further measure of the man before him before he seemed to settle into acceptance.

"I will allow that, yes , on this particular day, the current état de vie is........tolerable."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

Don had opted for the train down from New York, himself, but it didn't go all the way to the coast. Thor could have flown them over, but Thor could also have gotten spotted on radar and brought all sorts of SHRA-shaped annoyances to their door, so here he was: a backpack his only piece of luggage, plus his walking stick in one hand and the largest coffee Starbucks could legally sell him in the other.

"Oh, wow," he said aloud upon entering the lounge. "I...was not expecting that much glitter." Would anyone? Could anyone?

(His phone, for the record, was at a healthy 95% because he'd charged it on the train, so he would not be claiming any valuable charger space today.)

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

"It is a bit extra," Kamala agreed as she snapped a picture of the glitter to send back to Nakia and Bruno. "I'm afraid to sit down. I was over my glitter phase ages ago."

Like... 3 years ago? but still.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

"I'm sure it'll wash out. Eventually." Hopefully. "I hope the whole place isn't like this, though." Don had vague pollution concerns, and he hadn't even heard of a microplastic yet.

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[slothbabyproductions]

"I don't think so," Kamala replied slowly. "I mean I know the school is different but I don't think it's dedicated to sparkly arts and crafts."

And then she waved cheerfully at the old man.

"Hi! I'm Kamala. Incoming freshman."

Re: Wait for the shuttle

[ifwebeworthy]

"Yes, I've heard that about the school," from Thor, "but you never know. Some places offer underwater basketweaving, I've been told. It's nice to meet you, Kamala." Even if your narrative did call him old. "I'm Dr. Blake. I'm starting as a teacher this term."