fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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]

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"Oh, I'm sure it'll all just be fun and a nice icebreaker for everyone. And that there will be plenty of safety gear."

And no doubt Kamala will regret everything on Monday when she realizes she's up against cops and Jedis.

"But first aid sounds cool. I took a red cross course a few years back. Is it something similar to what you'll be doing?"

Good luck with those bruises, Kamala.

"That's the idea. Maybe a little more, uh, extensive than that. Given the nature of the place, you know." He meant the 'multidimensional nexus' thing, not the 'university level,' but who knew how Kamala would take it.

"Oh, you mean the interdimensional thing? Yeah it's different than most schools," Kamala said with a nod. "But the guy who recommended it for me said it was mostly safe. And I mean, he was in charge of SHIELD at one time, so he should know."

Way not to completely name drop, Kamala.

"Former director of SHIELD?" Don asked. "You don't mean Nick Fury, do you?" Please mean Nick Fury, Kamala. Don had no idea what the other options were up to lately, but they were all worse.

"Oh, you have SHIELD where you're from too?" Kamala asked, happily. "Yeah, Nick Fury. He's up in space now dealing with aliens and other threats. My mom keeps calling him Nicholas. It's so embarrassing."

Don didn't quite trust anybody who sounded that happy about SHIELD these days, but, well...Kamala was young. "That sounds like something Nick would get into," he agreed. "Or it used to. I haven't seen him in...at least ten years." Because Don had been dead.

Of course, Don was also thinking about a white guy, but that was beside the point.

Kamala was young! Idealistic! Naive! Please don't shatter those dreams!

Nick will probably do that anyway.

"Oh well he was supposedly-" Finger quotes "Dead" Finger quotes "-for a while but of course that was all a ruse. Spy stuff. But now he's doing space stuff."

At least as far as Kamala knew. "Do you know Fury well?"

Oh, sweet summer child.

"Right," Don agreed, "yeah. Half the time it is a ruse. And no, I don't know him well at all. I just used to be tangentially involved with the Avengers, is all." Back when they all had secret identities and/or lived in a mansion, not a tower.

There was an audible gasp from Kamala.

“Wait! You’re an Avenger?!”

Yes, Kamala was blatantly ignoring the tangentially part.

“Is everything in Scott Lang’s podcast true?”

"No, no, no," Don said quickly, as he realized the anthill he'd just put his foot in. "I'm not an Avenger." Technically, that was true: Thor was the Avenger, not Don. "Just, y'know, sometimes they needed someone to patch them up. So I can't really talk about it. You know, HIPAA?"

Then he frowned and asked, seemingly only half of Kamala, "Scott Lang has a podcast now?"

Scott Lang is dead, Thor told him.

Oh, yikes.

"Oh yeah, it's really good. I like it better than his book just because his personality really comes through," Kamala said with a nod. "I get why they put him in the Captain America musical even though it bugs me that it's not historically accurate. Do you know anything about his skin care routine? That man knows how to stay young looking. Anyway, I think it's super cool you know the avengers. I only really know Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel. She's my bestie."

"The Captain America musical," Don repeated slowly, as if he was testing out each word alone and in combination. After he'd tried it out for a moment, he had to admit that, "I think we might be from different universes, and it pains me to say that because I want to know more about this Captain America musical." Was that disrespectful to Steve's memory?

"Oh, I so want to hear about your Avengers!" Kamala said, looking giddy.

AU fiction material! Huzzah!

"But you're in luck. I have the Disney Plus theatrical version downloaded."

Yes. She already had it pulled up on her phone for Dr. Blake. She's a teenager. Of course she could bring it up in an instant.

"Oh, I don't know if that would be really--" Oh, she was showing it to him.

"..."

Give him a minute.

"Do you think you could send this to me?" There were several people he couldn't show this to right now, but in the future, maybe, and oh, man, would it be worth it.

Blake. No.

"Blake yes."

Kamala looked at Dr. Blake with a raised eyebrow. Did he just agree with himself or…

She shook it off. Lord know how many times she’d said something out loud while daydreaming. “I can’t share my subscription but here I’ll drop a link to youtube and you can share it from there.”

"Oh, yeah, I can figure out the, uh, the technicalities of showing it to people in another universe on my own," Don agreed. Natasha was gonna punch him and it was gonna be worth it. "Just out of curiosity, where are--uh, Scarlet Witch and the Wasp?" He didn't know if he should use their government names, but...these Avengers did have more than one woman, right? "And are those supposed to be Skrulls or blue Kree hanging out with...I'm guessing that was Loki?"

"Scarlet who? I don't think I've heard of her. Wanda Maximoff has red hair. Are you thinking of her? And Ant-Man and Wasp didn't join the Avengers until-"

Kamala paused. The last text she got before she left Jersey City was very explicit.

"Okay, I know we're from different universes but I've been told not to reveal the future. Pretty sure Nick Fury will revoke my entire life. Anyway, yes, that is Loki. Brilliant actor. I give the producers credit for diverse casting. Ah-mazing in Act III. And the aliens? Those are the Chitauri. The Kree and Skrulls are a whole lot of drama I had to deal with a couple of years ago. Carol's been working with them trying to get that all resolved."

"I don't think you have to worry about revealing the future to me," Don said. "Especially when Ant-Man and the Wasp were founding Avengers where I'm from, so clearly things are really different." Especially since Hank and Jan weren't even the Ant-Man and Wasp Kamala was talking about.

He did not mention that he'd never heard of a Chitauri and was now mentally marking them down as a potential future threat, since Kamala seemed worried about timelines.

"Really? Ant-Man and Wasp were founding Avengers? That would have been so cool!" Kamala said filing that thought away for one of her 'What If?' fics. "But to be on the safe side I'm keeping my lips shut on some of the big stuff. Fury still hasn't forgiven me for stealing one of his tablets. Which technically wasn't stealing because he and Monica left it on the couch in my living room. Which had to be a ton of security violations but somehow I'm the one who got a lecture."

Technically the lecture was on invading Kate Bishop's privacy. Which Kate didn't really mind so really the lecture was pointless.

"Yeah, Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man, and Thor. And then of course Cap after he got thawed out." Don thought about for a moment and realized, "So we just had the one woman at first, too..." But that was in the sixties. What was your excuse, MCU? (Yes, he had let a 'we' slip there, oops.)

Then he frowned and said, "I mean, you really shouldn't have looked at it, but if Fury was sloppy enough to leave not only a tablet but an unencrypted one on your couch, that feels like it's definitely on him."

“Thank you! Exactly what I was saying!” Kamala. “Thank you Dr. Blake. Most guys your age don’t get these things.”

Well. That sounded bad.

“Uh. Not that you’re old or anything.”

In real time he was probably about Kamala's age, if not younger, but he was trying not to think about that part. "Thank you, I think?"

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BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

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