Matt nodded. “Good. I just hope everyone else is as prepared…I’ll hear no end of it if we’re late. Assuming the plane doesn’t leave without us. Which, considering the…airline…” He stopped himself and glanced at Anna. “Sleep well?”
“Well enough, given…” Anna shot a look at Karen. “I’ll explain later. Well enough. We’ll just have to…” She stopped. “Wait, I’m missing something here, aren’t I? I usually am. What’s the airline,that it’s so strict? El Al EP?”
Noticing Matt, Nee’la smiled and waved, “Sorry to interrupt,” she said to Anna and Matt, “But I’m afraid me and Sha’la won’t be able to head off to Liberty City. We both have other plans.”
«Count your blessings, Anna» Cyril chirped jokingly «Security at Dovakhanese airports is so lax, it’s a wonder we’ve not had a terrorist attack. Don’t get me started on Phoenix Airways, either! They couldn’t keep a schedule if their life depended on it!» he added.
Nöêl walked into the room. «Sêlënâ, the uh… how do you say… airships! They’re a lot better» she noted as she struggled to bring out two heavy bags, he purse dangling on her shoulder. As soon as she heard that the Dannistrians weren’t going to be coming, she chimed in: «Oh, that’s too bad. I was hoping you could come. What seems to be the problem? Kha’lad and that other guy from Bai Lung are coming, though, eh?»
Katara shrugged, “I lost my key card a while ago, I think I was in training with Lyndale. Does any one know what time we are leaving? I still have to pack.” Katara looked around looking for Arian, when she didn’t see him, she got up to bring her dishes to get washed.
“Erm…your not coming?” Matt asked, glad to have an excuse for not having to answer Anna’s question. “Might I ask why not? I mean…” He trailed off, as a thought seemed to hit him. “Your not getting deployed again, are you?” Terrus seemed to forget about Katara’s question in his concern for the two girls.
Jill, however, having just walked in, did not. “Erm, if I remember correctly from what Matt told me at about 3 AM, we leave in…” Glancing at her watch, Ronin blanched. “Shit! Fifteen minutes! I slept late! I’ve gotta get my equipment!” With that, she turned, and ran from the room.
Still grinning at Anna’s glance at her when she’d been speaking to Matt, Karen picked up her own dishes and joined Katara at the sink.
“Here. Take my key card. You heard Jill. We leave in about 15 minutes. Fly if you have to, but get yourself packed. I’ll do your dishes. If I know Arian, he’s already ready to go.”
Laughing as Kat just looked at her, Karen added, “Move it! And make sure I get my key card back if you do do any flying around the corridors!”
Nee’la allayed Matt’s fears, saying “Don’t worry. We aren’t being deployed again. Not the last time I checked. We can’t come because we made other plans long in advance, namely to meet up with our relatives on campus.”
Then she turned to Nöêl and took a short pause comprehend her accent before replying “Well, like I said we have made plans long in advance to see our relatives. As for Kah’lad and Li, I’m afraid I have no idea. They both haven’t emerged from their room…” Nee’la paused before asking Sha’la, “Think we should go to their room and ask them?”
“Hmm…might as well,” said Sha’la nonchalantly.
“Li who?” Anna sounded confused. “Sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about. Don’t mind me. But if they haven’t said anything by now, odds are they aren’t-” She shot Jill an uncomfortable look- “-coming.”
“Li is an air force cadet who headed in here about a day or two ago,” Nee’la explained to Anna, “He may have some free time to follow you all to Liberty city. I think his room is down the corridor on this floor.”
As Nee’la pointed, Li emerged from his room dragging a holdall.
“Figured I might as well go on this trip,” he explained, “I think Kah’lad is a trustworthy enough guy to leave some of my stuff behind.”
Nee’la turned to Nöêl, “Well, there you go!” she smiled softly.
Nei Rushes in shrieking “OMG ZERG RUSH” and running around Matt
then falls to the ground in a cat like I just ran out of energy and this is where Im gonna
rest, deal with it, she looks up, “hay Matt” she says,
(just for funny, there is a catnip bush just outside Nei’s window, and no one knows of it, even her)
Matt laughed, offering a hand to help Nei up. “Come on. I’m not that obsessed with Starcraft!” A thought occured to him. “Oh, God! I forgot to pack it!” He glanced across the room, then shook his head. “Meh, I won’t have time to play it there, anyway.”
About a very hectic half-hour later
“See, that wasn’t that hard.” Anna said, half to Matt, who was sitting in the seat next to her, half to no one at all. The bus that now puttered noisily along had been, oddly enough, totally non-descript. No markings, no declared destination, nothing. It was odd, but what wasn’t?
Matt shook his head, a weary look on his face. Opening his mouth, he tried to speak, but ultimately, just closed it again, and continued to shake his head. After several minutes, the driver of the bus, an Africa-Free-Pacifican wearing dark black glasses and apparently very happy to be where he was, turned to glance at the kids in the front row. “So, where ya’ll headed?”*
Near the rear of the bus, Jill sat alone, talking very energetically to someone on the phone about an apparent personal interview with President Matthew Terrus (who was known for his refusal to give interviews to news agencies).
*OOC: I can’t remember what movie it’s from, but does anyone remember that classic where the driver of the bus is a blind black guy? Well, yea, that was a reference.
OOC: No idea FPS.
IC: Li seemed rather excited to be on the bus. Or rather, he was excited to be on one that didn’t have people trying to mug passengers for their spare change.
“Back home, buses were mobile havens for criminal activity and weirdoes,” he said to Anna and Matt, who were sitting in front of him, “You only ever rode on them during the day. At night, forget it! Unless you’re a mascochist. All buses serving BLtown also tended to be something akin to deathtraps. Nothing as comfortable as this one.”
[hr]
Meanwhile, back at campus…
“Well, we seem to have most of the place to ourselves! So now what?” asked Sha’la.
“Firstly, we check when exactly our relatives are arriving,” Nee’la said, “Secondly, you are laying off the liquor.”
“Aww…” Sha’la mock pouted and then blew a raspberry, “Killjoy!”
“Well, I’m not going to be responsible if your hurt yourself due to being inebriated.”
“Hmph…” Sha’la pouted in a mock fashion again.
Kah’lad appeared in the commons.
“Still trying to bother me?” he asked, referencing Sha’la’s revealing nightdress, “And I thought the wardrobe malfuction yesterday was bad enough.”
“So? You like it?”
“No.”
“Aww…meanie…”
“Nowhere near as mean as you.”
Kah’lad shuffled over to the worktop and started boiling up water for some tea.
“By the way, where is everyone?”
“They all left for a trip to Liberty City,” Nee’la explained.
“Hmm…I heard. I forgot to tell Matt I couldn’t go. Sister will be visiting soon. Would like to have gone but sadly it’s not to be. I do remember Li saying he was going on this tour.”
“He is. So I wonder what else we can do today?” Sha’la asked.
“Have a quiet day in for a change. Things get far too hectic around here…”
«Where does it get power if there’s no electrical wire feeding it?» Nöêl asked.
«It’s powered by petrol diesel, you ditz!» Cyril said jokingly.
«Hey wait, I thought petrol was illegal! Doesn’t it explode?!» she asked frantically.
«No worse than biodiesel» he responded.
«Oh…»
— Begin quote from ____
. After several minutes, the driver of the bus, an Africa-Free-Pacifican wearing dark black glasses and apparently very happy to be where he was, turned to glance at the kids in the front row. “So, where ya’ll headed?”
— End quote
Nei rubs her temples again, and replies, " I havnt the faintest idea,
Heck I dont even recall boarding the bus, but at least I have a suitcase"
she pauses, “and a excedrine headache #8909”
“Liberty City.” Anna smiled at the man. “I mean, eventually, not…” It had dawned on her in the last few minutes that the road they were on was not the one that led to the airport. “Wherever you’re taking us.” She pointed to Li. “Just don’t take us to wherever he’s from.”
— Begin quote from ____
OOC: I can’t remember what movie it’s from, but does anyone remember that classic where the driver of the bus is a blind black guy? Well, yea, that was a reference.
— End quote
OOC:
I NEVER post in this thread.
That will not change.
But for the record, I remember what you were talking about FPS and it’s Ray Charles, in Spy Hard, a Leslie Neilsen movie.
And now my own homage.
“But surely you can’t be serious!”
“I am. And don’t call me Shirley.”
“Next stop, Sunset Boulevard! I guess it’s Sunset Boulevard.”
— Begin quote from ____
“Liberty City.” Anna smiled at the man. “I mean, eventually, not…” It had dawned on her in the last few minutes that the road they were on was not the one that led to the airport. “Wherever you’re taking us.” She pointed to Li. “Just don’t take us to wherever he’s from.”
— End quote
Li laughed. He resisted the urge to stand up and shout fake Communist phrases in a mock Bai Lungese accent.