fandomhigh | BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

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]

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"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!"

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?

“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.”

"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!

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

"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.

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!”

"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?"

“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.”

"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?

That would sound like something that might happen in most universes, to Billie!

“Is that what people are calling it?” Billie asked, because why assume that ‘the Blip’ would be something else entirely? “I knew I should have checked the media coverage before I left. I only read up on what they thought of our most extemporaneous concert.”

This mix up was going to stand because it was perfect, honestly.

"I just went back to class after," Riri said thoughtfully. "You're in a band?"

“Oh! No. Well . . . maybe? Wyld Stallyns hasn’t officially reformed or anything. But you could kinda call Thea and I unofficial members. We were on stage for both of their most major performances.”

For once, that ‘most’ was used the way, uh, most people would use it.

Was it time travel? Please say it was due to time travel.

"Never heard of them before," Riri admitted. "Maybe I'll check it out later."

“Yes!” Oh no, you have unlocked a favorite subject, Riri. Run. While you still can. “You have definitely heard them, you probably just didn’t realize it. But I can introduce you to their greatest tracks. And then you have to check out Death’s solo work. The world wasn’t ready for an entire album of bass solos, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t lay down some truly righteous lucks of his own.”

Yes. That was Death-Death. The Grim Reaper. He’d probably be Billie’s godfather if religion were acknowledged with more than general Christian world building and a cameo by Jesus.

Actually, Bill was probably her godfather. But Death was at the very least a beloved uncle figure.

Riri was going to assume it was a stage name for her own sanity, thank you. Look, she hadn't even met the Not Exactly The Devil yet!

"That sounds... interesting."

She earned this, hadn't she?

Every moment.

“So ‘the Song’,” yes, those were finger quotes. No one knew the title was ‘Face the Music’ okay? “Featured Wyld Stallyns mostly on lead guitars.” What? That term has always been used as a plural for a single band! “But there was also Jimi Hendrix — also on guitar — Louis Armstrong and Ling Lun on trumpet and flute respectively, Mozart on keyboard, Grom on drums, and — of course — Death on bass. And the whole universe on backup everything of course. All organized by yours truly and my main best-friend-slash-cousin-slash-better-half Thea. But Those Who Rock had a totally different line up, with Station and the medieval princesses playing with, of course, Bill and Ted and Death. . . .”

Oh. She should probably check if Riri’s eyes had glazed over. That happened sometimes when Billie got going.

So, so glazed. And she took classes on differential equations!

"Sounds fun," Riri said once she thought Billie was done. Because she was trying to be polite here. Also because she was pretty sure this was the Discord roleplay thing. Erasmus was off the hook! "Is music what you're in school for?"

“Totally. I know a lot about music and history already, but there’s so much more to research. Who taught Grom to play drums? She’s from the Paleolithic!”

She was getting the feeling she was being humored, but that was okay.

“Want to see Hendrix practicing? I totally recorded him when Thea and I went to pick him up. It’s what convinced Louis to join up.”

Assuming it was some really committed cosplay was the only way she was mentally going to make it through this conversation.

"You know what, I'm good," Riri decided for her own mental health. "But I'll check out the band once I get my phone back. Promise."

“Okay,” Billie said easily. “So what’s in Chicago?”

"Home," Riri said, making a little bit of a face like maybe it wasn't quite that easy. "Born and raised. You west coast or something?"

It was the whole... vibe from Billie.

“San Dimas, California,” Billie agreed, pleased to be recognized. “This is my first time on the east coast since I was like, a baby.”

"Hopefully you packed something warm... in all that." Holy crap, Billie. Why did you have so much luggage?

“Oh yeah.” Billie nodded earnestly. “I’ve got long pants.”

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BWI Airport, Portalocity Lounge, Saturday morning

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