fandomhigh | 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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"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.

"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.

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

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?

"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.

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.

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...?"

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

Both could be possible, 'Erasmus.'

"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?

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.

"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.

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?

"Uh, none of the above," Erasmus told her. "Priestesses make zombies." And he wasn't stepping on their turf. They were terrifying and respected. (Must be nice...) "And ghosts aren't really real," but he was aware that explaining why would make him sound like a pedantic nerd. "Necromancers raise the dead. Some necromancers." The ones like him with actually useful powers.

Also, 'raising the dead' was totally different from 'making zombies,' okay? It just was.

You aren't making it seem any less like a White Wolf RPG there, Erasmus.

"Zombies are raised dead, though." Oh yeah, nerd debate. Just what everyone wanted.

"They're soulless," Erasmus countered, in tones of 'duh.' "They do menial labor."

"So robots. People robots." Oh god, that was so creepy.

"I'm not sure I know what that is?"

There was probably some form of mechanical automation in like, factories and whatnot in his universe, but the player suspected it was tightly controlled by Fairy Law.

"Wait, you don't know what a robot is?" Riri asked like this was somehow impossible to not have that cultural touchstone. "Lost in Space, ~~Star Trek~~ Galaxy Quest, ~~Star Wars~~ Space Battles?"

Erasmus was just sort of staring at her. When it seemed like she was done listing titles or whatever, he asked, "You really like space, huh?"

"Were you homeschooled?" Because that was the best explanation she had!

"Well, yeah," Erasmus said. "The other parents didn't want a necromancer around their kids." He made this sound very normal.

"Wait, what? Why?" Magic reasons?

"Because I'm a necromancer?" Again, he made it sound like this should have been obvious.

Riri just stared at him for more of a reason than the very nebulous 'magic' powers he may or may not have.

"People don't want necromancers around their kids?" Erasmus tried again, more slowly this time.

Honestly, it didn't make a lot of sense. The kids weren't dead. It wasn't like he could get necromancer cooties on them or anything.

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