BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

[mostnonheinous]

Billie perched on top of a pile of luggage that looked suspiciously like it could have come out of the back of an upscale garage band's van. (It . . . kind of had. She'd managed to pack a few non-musincal essentials, but they were all shoved into the corners of the various road cases. She had her priorities, okay?) She had her phone out, scrolling through her latest playlist, when a video call request came in and she grinned.

"T!" she greeted.

"B!" said Thea from the phone. "You landed!"

"I landed!" Billie agreed. "I am so totally in Baltimore, dude!"

"You're so totally in Baltimore!"

They proceeded to run through everything that had happened to each of them since they last talked -- about an hour ago, before Billie's flight landed.

"I know it's totally too early to call," Thea admitted eventually.

"Dude, I was so totally going to call you." Billie grinned. "How cool is it that we're both on our own epic adventures?"

"It is most, most egregiously nonbogus," Thea said. "Oh! That's the opening bugle. I gotta go!"

"Yo, I cannot believe you moved to the Alaskan military school."

"That's the Alaskan musical conservatory, thank you!"

Billie laughed and nodded. "Right, right, excellent!" They both gave each other a one-handed air guitar. Which anyone walking by would somehow be able to hear.

You're welcome, passersby.

"Talk to you later, T!"

"Talk to you later, B!"

Billie deflated slightly as she hung up with her soulmate other half best friend, then went back to tooling around on her playlist, one ear of her massive, audiophile headphones slid back so she could hear if/when anyone else came to join her in the lounge. Or when the shuttle eventually arrived.

"Righteous," she muttered, bopping along to the music on her headphones. "First day of grad school playlist complete." She kept bopping, then looked around at her stack of luggage in the otherwise empty lounge. ". . . Now what do I do?"

[open! And a little earlier than normal, perhaps, because I managed to completely forget that I have an event tonight. :P]

Comments

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Riri had really been banking on MIT taking their time in revoking her access to TRVOR and all that. At least giving her enough time to get back to Chicago.

But that had not happened. Instead, that janky piece of crap had to cut out midflight and sent her crashing to the ground. Luckily the armor was good enough that she was left with only some normal bruises and a wounded pride. But not much of an idea of where she'd been dumped. So there she was, hauling what pieces of the armor she could, looking for a way to keep going.

Pay no mind to any of that being out of the ordinary.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

"Oh hey!" Billie said. "I know a robot that looks kind of like that! Are you from 2720 too?"

Not because Billie was from then. But that was when Dennis Caleb McCoy, the time traveling death robot, was from.

[let me know if you'd prefer the pieces not be THAT identifiable as robotic ;D]

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Riri looked down at the pieces she was both able to salvage as necessary for rebuilding and could actually carry without toppling over. Someone out there was going to be so confused by what was left behind on the side of the road.

"Uh, pretty sure it's 2025," she said slowly. Because, alas, the only known death robot was that one who attacked Sokovia. Or maybe that Vision guy. But that was pretty fuzzy. "You good?"

[all good!]

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

"I am most copacetic, thank you for asking," Billie said cheerfully. She hopped off her road case and offered her hand. "Wilhelmina 'Billie' S. Logan. New grad student!"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

She juggled the armor a little to get a hand out to shake. "Riri Williams. New grad student?"

Did she seriously crash in another college?

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

“Excellent, excellent,” Billie said, assuming that Riri was agreeing she was also a new student rather than trying to confirm that Billie had called herself one. “I’m really excited. Fandom sounds like an extremely diverse and stimulating learning environment.”

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"I'm sorry, I don't think I've heard of Fandom," Riri said, hoping to get more information on it. Because someone wasn't even aware she was enrolled. Because Mephisto the devil works fast, but the narrative worked faster!

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

“Really?” Billie tilted her head not unlike a confused dog in a sitcom. “Then why are you here?”

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"I'm a little lost," Riri replied with a little sigh, shuffling over to find a place to set down her load of busted tech. "And my phone is in pieces, so I can't even say where I'm at right now."

Also having money to get a plane? Hell no. A bus was more likely.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

Billie winced sympathetically. “I would be lost without my phone too. Hard to believe they’ve only been around for like, thirty years!”

She was one of a rare breed of young adults who was familiar with phone booths. That plus all the time travel made her extra aware of the march of technology through her lifetime.

“This is a lounge for people going to Fandom University.” She held up her phone. “Where are you trying to get to? I could get you an Uber!”

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"That's kind of you, but--" In no way could she pay her back. Since she was hauling around the pieces of what any money she had went into. "I'm trying to get to Chicago. So that's one hell of an Uber ride."

But the expression on the driver's face would be pretty hilarious.

"Maybe the administration has something to help out. Right?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mostnonheinous]

“Ooo, maybe!” Billie agreed. “It is an exceptionally long drive to Chicago from here. How did you get lost in Baltimore?” She frowned. “You weren’t zapped through space and time, were you? Because I thought we fixed that.”

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"I was actually heading back from Massachusetts," Riri said slowly. "You mean The Blip?"

You know. The point where people disappeared for five years because drama and the writers just not realizing they'd have to have that be a thing that would be factored into everything following it?

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

"Whoa, are you all right?" Erasmus asked. While not rushing to render aid or anything, since Riri probably wouldn't welcome that from the likes of him.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"Yeah, it looks worse than it is." Which was like she'd crashed into a street. In armor. Which was totally okay and fine and don't judge her life choices here, stranger. "You wouldn't happen to know where this is, right?"

Her phone was... toast. So checking via the usual methods weren't on the table.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

"It's the Baltimore airport," Erasmus told her. "You're in the lounge for people going to Fandom University."

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Riri nodded, letting that sink in. "Bus only goes there?"

Because a bus was probably what she could afford right now. Plane ticket? Ha! And since when did trains get so pricey?

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

"It's a shuttle," Erasmus told her. Which meant it was free! "I mean, it could be a bus or a van, I don't know." He just hoped it had room for all of Billie's everyone's luggage.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Riri's luggage was just... armor pieces. So maybe it'd all fit fine in a car?

She nodded, looking around the place before realizing she hadn't even introduced herself to the poor guy. "Riri, by the way," she said, juggling things to offer a hand to shake. He didn't exactly seem like the type to dap someone up.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

Wait, should he be issuing disclaimers? Shoot, most people back home already knew about That Necromancer Boy; he'd gotten lax. "Erasmus," he said, hands still by his sides. "Uh, I'm a necromancer...?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

"...oookay." Did not expect that kind of response. "Is that like a real thing or a Discord roleplay thing?"

Both could be possible, 'Erasmus.'

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

"Why--why would anyone roleplay as a necromancer?" He was a little afraid of the answer, honestly. "No, I'm the real deal. My father is Nikodemus Holland." Everyone had heard of Nikodemus Holland, right?

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Rule 34, baby. Never forget.

"He related to Dr. Strange?" Riri asked, going for the only magic person who was of note to the public at large.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[stringstothesoul]

"Who?" Erasmus asked. "Probably not. I don't know. I don't really know about his family." Warlocks tended to be loners by nature, and reading between the lines Erasmus was pretty sure any living family his Pops had had disowned Nikodemus when he didn't disown Erasmus.

Re: Arrive and Mingle

[mindofageneration]

Well, that was awkward. Maybe they sucked?

"So, necromancer is like raising zombies?" she ventured with only pop culture to guide her here. "Ghosts and stuff?"

The lack of skull based clothing was a big disappointment. Maybe try a tiny pair of sunglasses and a top hat?