From the Causeway to 16 Unicorn Street | Friday Afternoon

[playsforkepesh]

Sometime in the late afternoon, Alliance Specialist Samantha Traynor emerged from a portal about halfway down the causeway with her compact, neatly-packed rolling suitcase in hand, managed not to lose her footing on the landing, and took a moment to survey her surroundings before continuing in the direction of the castle.

Well. The town wasn't overly American. In fact, it looked downright European. That was comforting -- it was what Sam was used to, in the limited time she'd spent on Earth thus far. And during this particular stay on the homeworld, she wouldn't even have to bartend to pay her rent. That certainly did wonders for the planet's approval rating, as far as she was concerned.

As she reached the building that had been arranged to be her new home, Sam took a step back to size it up and gave an approving nod. "Nice," she commented to herself. "Certainly looks roomy."

Now, you couldn't tell from looking at her, but the way Sam was standing and surveying the building was really just her catching her breath from that walk and psyching herself up for making her way up the stairs with her suitcase. To the naked eye, though, she just looked very appreciative of this fine specimen of architecture. She was sneaky that way.

[[open! catch her on the causeway, catch her on unicorn, whatever.]]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

Not an actual physical appearance to startle her right now - just an incoming email sent to her omni-tool.

FROM: Kaidan Alenko, Lieutenant Commander
Subj: Welcome
Message: Specialist Traynor:

Hey. Just heard from the Alliance about your posting. Can't be there right now because of some island festivities, but drop me a line about where you're staying tomorrow and I'll help you settle in.

-Lt. Cmdr. Alenko.

[playsforkepesh]

It was really for the best that no one was around to see how wide Sam's eyes got when she received Kaidan's message. She counted out an appropriate length of time before responding -- what was the etiquette for replying to an email sent by one of the heroes of the galaxy? -- and hoped her enthusiasm wasn't too obvious in her reply.

Yeaaah, it was definitely pretty obvious.

FROM: Specialist Samantha Traynor
Subj: Re: Welcome
Message: It's an honor to hear from you, Lieutanant Commander. I very much appreciate the offer; there's no pressure to help if you're busy, but if you'd like to lend a hand, I'll be unpacking at 16 Unicorn Street all weekend and can use all the help I can get.

Specialist Traynor

[lovemykilt]

Priestly had presumably, it's on the way caught sight of Sam as she passed Luke's, and this week being what it was, decided that clearly the best plan was to follow her head outside and greet her in a friendly manner.

"Hey," he said, offering her a friendly smile. "New in town?"

[not_a_whiner]

Honor? Hear from him?

.. Kaidan was never going to get used to this stuff. One of many reasons he tended to avoid hanging around current-day Earth or the Citadel.

FROM: Kaidan Alenko, Lieutenant Commander
Subj: Re: Welcome
Message: Specialist Traynor:

Okay. It's a date.

Don't be startled if things seem a little-- off-- today or tomorrow. I'll explain later.

-Lt. Cmdr. Alenko.

[playsforkepesh]

"Was it the suitcase that gave it away?" Sam asked, a little wryly. She held out a hand for Priestly to shake. "Hi. Samantha Traynor."

It was a shame that Priestly wasn't going to be making much headway here, sex-pollen-wise. He... wasn't exactly her type. On account of his masculinity and all.

[lovemykilt]

Alas, terribly sad! He was always down for making a new friend anyway, though.

"Priestly," he said, shaking the offered hand. "And that and the fact that this is a really small town."

[playsforkepesh]

"Ah, right," Sam agreed, nodding. "I did notice that. Population about a hundred, isn't it?"

[lovemykilt]

"Somewhere around that? I've never actually counted. And a lot of them are teenagers going to the school."

[playsforkepesh]

That got Sam's attention. The briefing she'd gotten on this town hadn't been terribly detailed - it had had more to do with the business she was going to be working at than the island itself. "There's a school here, too?" Huh. "What I've seen of this place so far doesn't call to mind images of some sort of sweeping American high school with sports fields and auditoriums."

Her English accent might give an impression as to why that was a bit of a novelty to her.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly snorted. "Yeeeah, we might be home to the least 'American' high school in America." What with the large percentage of students that came from worlds that didn't even have an America, for instance. "It's actually the castle up there." He nodded in the direction of the school. "The kids are pretty active in town, too. Hope you don't mind teenagers."

[playsforkepesh]

"I can't say that I know any," Sam admitted. "But if they're anything like what I was when I was that age, they should be relatively harmless and deeply embarrassing to themselves, so they can't be too terrible."

[lovemykilt]

"Definitely with the embarrassing." Possibly less with the harmless, but she'd figure that out soon enough. "What brings you to Fandom?"

[playsforkepesh]

"A business called Portalocity," Sam shared. "I'm, well, the new branch manager, I suppose." That felt really weird to say. She figured it would take time to call herself anything else but a lab technician. "Have you heard of it?"

[lovemykilt]

Damn. Well, maybe she'd be able to whip it into shape?

"Yeah. That's actually pretty much the way to travel around here, unless you've got a friend with multidimensional teleportation capabilities."

Or didn't mind being entirely subject to the whims of the island when you crossed the causeway.

[playsforkepesh]

"Well, I... suppose its popularity should be an asset for me," Sam ventured, though she was very, very wrong on that front.

"What do you do?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly tilted his head down the street in the direction of Luke's. "I run the diner. Best non-fancy food joint in town."

If he did say so himself.

[playsforkepesh]

"Well, I may have to stop by later this weekend," Sam promised. "Is there any chance that your coffee is strong enough to give someone energy to unpack all her things and familiarize herself with a brand-new town and office?"

[lovemykilt]

"Maybe if I use the French Press?" Priestly supposed. "I can definitely cook you up something protein-full enough to give you a boost, though. Any time."

He managed not to leer on that, though just barely. He was getting really tired of whatever was going on trying to make him leer at everything.

[playsforkepesh]

Sam didn't seem to notice. Maybe she was just being polite, but most likely, she was just too portal-lagged to pick up on any leering.

"Well, that's quite the incentive," she said with a little smile. Socializing wasn't always Sam's strong suit, but she was doing her best here, and Priestly seemed nice. "We'll see how soon I can tear myself away from the riveting unpacking I have ahead of me."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly nodded. "Yeah, that's always one of the irritating parts of moving, isn't it. Almost as bad as all the packing you have to do before hand."

[playsforkepesh]

"Worse," Sam countered. "Unpacking in a new place means you need to figure out where everything should go. It's a nightmare if you're indecisive."

[lovemykilt]

"You know you can just move it later, right?" Priestly asked. "Unless you've packed some really heavy stuff in that bag."

[playsforkepesh]

"See, that's just the problem," Sam explained, with the air of someone who knew that what she was about to say was neurotic and embarrassing. "I know as soon as I put everything away, I might just want to move it all over again. I could be at this for days."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly could think of way better ways for her to spend the next several days. But she was new and probably not full of sex pollen yet, so he kept his mouth shut on that subject.

"Would an extra pair of eyes help? Someone to go 'that looks fine right there, stop fidgeting with it'?"

[playsforkepesh]

"You know, I may just take you up on that." Sam's smile was a little less awkward now and more of an actual facial expression that pleased people used. "Maybe later in the weekend, though. After I've had a chance to put away my delicates."

Oh god, had she just said that?