fandomhigh | BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Entry tags:

!event: newbie shuttle

BWI Airport Portalocity Lounge, Saturday Morning

Nina was totally on board with walking through the big, swirly magical portal thing with Lady Teresa, Shin, and Mistress Jeane looking on. Okay, no, she really wasn't, but Lady Teresa watched her with eyes full of faith and that a) made it hard to do anything to let her down and b) distracted Nina from her envy over Mistress Jeane's scantily clad… va-va-voom.

"Keep in touch, Nina," Lady Teresa said as the portal popped into existence in front of them.

Nina hefted her bookbelt and grinned. "I'll be fine, Lady Teresa, I promise!!!!!!! I'll write you right away and tell you all about it!!!!!!"

It was, like, totally super satisfying as some of her classmates got to shove her trunks through the portal before her. But then it meant she had to go through it and--there was no way she was letting Lady Teresa see that she had any qualms at all about this!

"Lord Shin," she said, as she turned to go, "you'd better make sure to look after Lady Teresa!!!! I won't be there to pick up your slack, you know!!!!!"

And then, before he could respond to that, though she heard Lady Teresa laugh, Nina strode through the portal, her back straight, her stride strong, her nerves jangling… and promptly, on the other side, tripped over her trunks.

"Owwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina popped up to her feet immediately, despite her aching knees, just in case, like anyone could see her, and stuck her tongue out at the portal, which blipped out of existence, utterly shameless.

It was only once Nina primly sat down on one of her trunks (and did not at all collapse onto it, really) that she took a good look around her.

Glitter, check. Balloons, check. Banner for the school, check…

And literally no one else.

"Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!"

Was she late?!?!?!?!?!?! Was she early?!?!?!?!

[~~Please to be waiting for the~~ OCD is up, up, and away!]

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"Small system," Kanan said vaguely. "Nowhere near where you think you are, I guarantee you that."

He looked her over thoughtfully.

"Don't get many classes on charity work in your neck of the galaxy, I take it?"

Lana laughed. "Dromund Kaas isn't known for it, no. I'll admit, I'm curious. As far as where we are, all I know is it's neither Republic nor Empire, and it's considered neutral territory. What's the system called, for a start?"

"The Sol system," Kanan replied, squinting one eye and shrugging. "One star, one inhabitable planet, no known life, currently, throughout the rest of the galaxy beyond."

There, he'd just let her chew on that one for a moment.

Lana stared. "The entire galaxy? Force, what happened?" She was less concerned with being in another galaxy entirely, though she'd come to that, but really - no other life in this one at all?

"Mostly we landed on a backrocket world and nobody's come to visit," Kanan replied with a shrug. "The locals here haven't made it very far beyond their own moon. It's kind of cute."

... Sith or not, it was nice to be able to call Earth cute with someone who wouldn't immediately get offended about it. Shut up.

"Oh." Lana breathed a sigh of relief. "So it's less that there's no life, and more they probably just haven't found it yet."

She gave him a confused look. "If it's so backward, what about the portals? Those seem fairly advanced."

"See, you say that, but you haven't been stranded here for a year solid because they couldn't figure out mynocks in the system," Kanan replied, a touch dryly.

"You have got to be kidding me." Lana shook her head. "Those things get everywhere."

"Including into portal systems, apparently," Kanan agreed. "No kidding."

Seriously, this entire conversation was so weird. Why was the Sith the normal kid?

Why was this his life? Wrapping his head around Sabine over the summer had been complicated enough, dammit.

Because Lana was mature and eminently sensible?

"I suppose that just goes to show there's another universal constant apart from the Force," Lana said wryly. "Mynocks."

Kanan's reply to that was bookened by such a wry smile.

"The Force and Mynocks," Kanan echoed, shaking his head in bemusement. "And where we're headed, most people don't know what either of those things are. You're going to be in for a bit of an adjustment."

... He wasn't going to warn her about all the Jedi.

...

Though maybe he ought to?

Damn this bus gig.

"It really is far, isn't it?" Somehow what he'd said brought that into sharp focus.

She took a deep breath and blew it out. "Well, I wanted a new experience and I wanted to learn."

Somewhere deep, deep, deep down, Caleb Dume was trying not to scream and stomp his feet. Because of course this girl's outlook was basically the one he would have gone into the same situation with and of course she was probably a Sith.

He stared at her quietly for a moment.

"You won't be disappointed in that regard." Kark kark kark kark kark... "You're Sith, aren't you?"

Kark kark kark kark kark.

"I am," Lana answered with a nod. She sighed internally at his visible trepidation. "And perfectly happy without either groveling or screaming, thank you." Since in her experience most people went one way or the other, depending which side they were on.

It was strange, having it confirmed like this. Like finally getting to meet your childhood bogeyman, and inexplicably, that bogeyman was in fact a teenaged girl. One that seemed perfectly reasonable.

It was making his mind itch.

"Wasn't about to do either," Kanan noted. "That'd make driving difficult."

He considered the girl for another few moments.

"You'll want to be careful on the island," he added, finally. "You're going to be outnumbered."

Yeah. Inner Caleb was flipping tables in there.

Lana grinned a little at his reply about driving, then frowned at the rest. "Outnumbered?" She grimaced. "Let me guess, the Republic's already here?"

She sighed and lifted her hands. "Neutral ground. I'll observe it if they will."

"Not the Republic, exactly." He paused, then frowned a bit. "Well, maybe."

He had no idea what the hell was up with the clones. He still didn't intend to get close enough to any of them to find out for sure.

"But if you're holding to that neutral ground thing, maybe there won't be a problem anyway."

So. Weirdly. Conflicted.

"Maybe?" Lana asked.

Maybe the Republic? Maybe no problem? That wasn't terribly reassuring.

Ah, frak.

"Jedi?" He frowned. "Ones who might not necessarily have a wealth of experience with Sith."

What with them being... basically as rare as Jedi were, around his time.

"Hm." Lana nodded. "Well, as I said - if they don't cause me trouble, I'll return the favor. Personally, I'd love to discuss philosophy and practices," she added, "but I'm realistic enough to know that's unlikely."

Kanan blinked.

WHAT THE KARK WAS GOING ON?

"That actually sounds like a hell of an interesting conversation," he admitted.

Lana grinned. "Well, I think so. From holos I've seen of the war and former Jedi I've spoken to, many of the forms and practices of combat are identical, or nearly so. Yet the codes are in almost direct - if not complete - contradiction to each other. How does that work?"

She shook her head and laughed at herself. "My apologies. You probably didn't mean it was interesting to you, specifically."

"They're two sides of the same coin," Kanan said, after a long pause. "Right? The Light and the Dark."

Yeah, go on and play dumb there, Kanan. Sure thing.

"I figure at least part of it came from Jedi who went Dark, or Sith who turned to the Light, sharing their combat training. Ideals are one thing. A fight's a fight."

Lana nodded. "Precisely. But forms such as Soresu and Juyo prioritize a particular sort of interaction with the Force. Yet I've seen Sith and Jedi use both effectively. This suggests that, at some level, both Light and Dark are being channeled in ways fundamentally similar. I find that fascinating."

Kanan... also found that fascinating.

Kark kark kark kark...

"I've never seen a Sith in action," he noted, lifting a shoulder. "Plenty of Jedi. Product of where I grew up, I guess."

You know. In the temple.

"It's an interesting proposal, though. I'll give you that."

Re: Trip to Fandom

unusual_sith - 2018-08-25 02:17 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Trip to Fandom

uncertain_dume - 2018-08-25 09:23 (UTC) - Expand

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