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Post by TEREBELLUM DIA on Sept 24, 2013 15:59:46 GMT -8
ARCTURUS DIA09 May 2012 @ 1:00pmWhen the plane finally touched down, it was with a sickening lurch that, while may have been fine for Terebellum, caused the passenger next to him to empty the contents of his stomach into the airsickness bag that Terebellum was grateful the staff had provided for them. To say that this trip had been a pleasant one would have been one, big, inconceivable lie. The plane ride from Grise Fiord to Resolute hadn't been that bad. (Then again, he had been the only one actually on the plane.) The plane rides from Resolute to Vancouver was bad not only because of the length but also because a pack of tourists that had gone north for sight seeing decided to complain the entire way about how much it had sucked. Terebellum would have loved nothing more than to turn around and calmly ask them to shut up because it was their fault that they were destroying the arctic in the first place but held his tongue. The ride from Vancouver to Los Angeles was even worse. The funny looks he had gotten from International Airport Security had been patronizing enough. But no. Terebellum couldn't understand how they were able to pack so many people into one plane but they did. The ride was stuffy, warm, and the person next to him only made his trip to his new assignment that much worse. Needless to say, Terebellum wanted to return to his childhood town already. As the plane rolled into it's assigned spot, Terebellum listened uninterested to the captain of the plane as he welcomed them to Los Angeles with the current time and weather. While it was nice to know what time it was, the temperature completely flew over his head. The United States did not use Centigrades and Terebellum had never deemed it particularly important to know how to convert the two. The United States was the only place the metric system was not used, and the United States was also the only place Terebellum had never expected to go after he finished training. Terebellum shrugged it off. It was cloudy today, he had heard LA was warm but without the sun, it couldn't be that bad. Once off the plane, Terebellum looked around him in awe and confusion. The airport was only one small area of Los Angeles and already there was more people than he had seen in his life. After some considerable effort, he was somehow able to find the baggage claim without getting lost more than twice. Asking for directions might have been helpful but he was sure that he would find it on his own. Eventually... As he stood in front of the large rotating machine where he presumed his bags were coming from, Terebellum looked around to see if there was any indication as to who was going to be picking him up. Supposedly Arcturus was going to be picking him up but from what he heard about her, she was way too busy to worry about stuff like greeting her little cousin that she had never met before. He was already mildly annoyed at everything that had happened in the past twenty hours. He wasn't going to be stranded here, was he? He was beginning to get hungry.
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Post by ARCTURUS DIA on Sept 24, 2013 17:56:12 GMT -8
Phone calls that started with the phrase 'we have some backup flying in' said in the droning, all-too-familiar tone of one of her family's higher patrons were the worst kind.
Two days ago, she had gotten it. And two days ago, she had tried to see if anyone else could go and play greeter. Naos had been out, too young, and as soon as she'd sent a missive to question Mirach about it, she got a response that indicated several horribly outcomes, at which point she'd given the world a giant middle finger, and confirmed that yes, godammit, she would do it. She'd hated how pleased the family advocate had sounded when they heard it. They always loved when Arcturus would go to greet family members – society leader and accomplished combatant and strategist, one of their current high points of bragging, go there and show off our power to the poor unsuspecting new agent. And people wondered why she still disliked her family. She'd managed to be turned into being dedicated to the society, but was still quite iffy on her family.
Nevertheless, she went, driving that piece of crap rental the whole way there, almost running someone over in a fit of roadrage in a battle for a parking spot, grudgingly leaving all her weapons in the car, and half-assedly making a sign with 'DIA' on it out of a piece of paper she had in there. Obviously, thus far, the trip had gone swimmingly. Luckily, security didn't stop her for anything, but she did spend a good twenty minutes figuring out where the hell she was going, perhaps longer – and almost shook the older security guard when he told her she was on the wrong side, which added another ten minutes as she walked across to said area. Luckily, she found the markers of the flight her...well, she'd call him cousin like she did all the others, because god knew how they were actually related.
Unfortunately, whoever had sent her must have never lived in a large city, because they didn't seem to realize how LA International functioned. Nothing short of a horribly disfiguring scar that ran the length of someone's skull would make it so she could pick out whoever she was meant to pick up, and the best she got was 'blonde, young, probably looks really confused'. Oh did you mean over half the airport? Well, perhaps not half, but a good fourth. Add in another ten minutes of looking around, and she was about ready to begin stopping every blonde she saw. She looked at the clusters of people, of all the blondes within range (four of which fit the shit description to a T), and growled in annoyance.
Frustrated beyond belief, she just decided shouting at all of them was the most sound plan. “Where the fuck is the blonde Dia I'm after?!”
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Post by TEREBELLUM DIA on Sept 25, 2013 8:16:08 GMT -8
Terebellum pulled the suitcase off the rotating metal and took another look around the airport baggage claim area. He had both his bags with him now (everything else had been shipped to his new apartment ahead of time) but there was still no pickup driver in sight. Then again, he wasn't even sure what to look for. Names like Terebellum and Arcturus did not denote gender and even if they did, it wouldn't matter since whoever was assigned to the role was stuck with it. Still, you'd think that they'd know how the respective person looked. He could be standing right next to his cousin and not have realized it.
He was getting desperate and was half tempted to go up to an employee to ask for help - perhaps they had a phone he could borrow so that he could contact headquarters - when the sound of frustrated screaming reached his ears. Terebellum turned around to find a clearly irritated woman glaring at him and a number of other people. He picked up his bags and walked over to the woman.
"Arcturus Dia?" he asked her as politely as possible. He was still irritated but clearly this woman (he should start referring to her as cousin now or something if they really were related) was in an even worse mood than he was and did not need any of his attitude. Seeing as how this person is his older cousin and the one that he would be in the care of for the next who knows how many months (years?), he decided that it would do well to show her the respect she deserved.
(Terebellum was suddenly glad that he could at least show respect; eco-tourists to Grise Fiord have consistently told him he needed to work on his social skills before but he just ignored them.)
"I'm Terebellum. You're my cousin, right?"
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Post by ARCTURUS DIA on Sept 28, 2013 15:45:31 GMT -8
Luckily, it seemed her go-to 'fuck it' tactic worked well, as it, funnily enough, often did. Perhaps, on a better day, when she had more patience and hadn't been forced to drive here in a small, shitty rental car and hadn't gotten lost four times, she'd have looked for him like a normal human being. But today was not that day. Her face fluctuated relief at finding the kid as she watched him wade through the people to her, though the annoyance from half a day of shitty was hard to break. She looked the kid up and down critically as he came to a stop near her and questioned her on her name, which she simply nodded in response. From what she knew Terebellum was still in training, so she'd get to legitimately size up his abilities soon enough, instead of attempting to glean them from a glance.
“Yeah, somethin' like that. Goddamn I hate airports.” she responded, and she could practically feel the droning voice pressing in her mind 'Now Arcturus, you're supposed to be a proper figurehead of our family, especially to reassigned agents, they should be walking into a place where they want to work for the society and blah blah blah blah'. She sighed, straightened her shoulders, adapted her serious face, and did this properly, before that goddamn secretary showed up magically at her shoulder and bored her into a coma. “I guess I should do the proper...'The Dia family and their associates welcome you to Los Angeles and hope you enjoy your stay, any questions or concerns about your assignment can be ran through myself, being the highest end of the family stationed here and' oh I just don't care.”
She stopped abruptly and waved one hand in the air dismissively, signaling her throwing formalities to the wind. Normally she'd like the intimidation factor of the 'your fate is in my hands' speech she was supposed to give her family, but he could figure that out himself when she saddled him with combat assessment and training. “I know what I could use is a beer but food may work, too. Hungry, kid? If you're not too bad because you'll just have to wait for me to stuff my face.” she motioned with her hand for him to follow her, remembering well where the food court was after having passed through it three times trying to find him. Hell she already had an idea of which one she wanted to eat at, too.
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Post by TEREBELLUM DIA on Oct 2, 2013 8:15:47 GMT -8
Well his cousin seemed pleasant if a little frazzled and irritated? He thinks. He wassn't too sure what proper behavior is supposed to look like in the states. This might as well have been a whole different planet to him. At any rate, it was nice to finally meet face to face but Terebellum wasn't exactly sure what to say so he chose to stay quiet for the most part while she introduced himself and sort of went through procedure, not that it mattered to him. Procedure wasn't followed as strictly up north either. They were such a small outpost that there was rarely any specifics that needed to be done. While she spoke, Terebellum took the time to observe his cousin. hE couldn't pinpoint exactly how old she was because, quite honestly, other than Inuits and rich, white people, he rarely saw people of other races. She was definitely old enough and in a high enough position that meant he was to be obedient to her though. Ila had drilled the idea of respecting his elders into his head through years of training and punishments if need be. No, he did not want to experience those again. Other than that there was something off about her that she couldn't exactly pinpoint. He tried not to stare but clearly something was different about her than he was used to and he couldn't exactly figure it out.
When his cousin mentioned food, Terebellum nodded, grateful that they would be getting something to eat. He followed her obediently and as best she could without getting lost in the swarm of people. Since they probably had to start building a relationship somewhere along the line, Terebellum decided that he would make conversation by asking the obvious. He might seem stupid for it but it was something.
"Arcturus, what are we eating? I'm not sure what big game there are in the Los Angeles area so I don't know if I'll know how to prepare it. If it's aquatic game I think I should be alright though. Just until I get used to hunting here."
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Post by ARCTURUS DIA on Nov 11, 2013 16:32:02 GMT -8
She'd been told beforehand that were he'd been stationed had been isolated, and that he'd been separated from most others. She'd thought they'd meant separated from the society, not actual society, so to say she was blow a little bit sideways at his question was an understatement. Arcturus honestly didn't even know how to respond to that, and for a brief moment, she simply stared at him, expression almost comically stunned. She regained herself after a moment, however, slowly attempting to find a way to bets explain that wasn't how shit worked when you lived in the middle of a city.
She wondered if it was a first world sin to not know what a McDonalds was. Probably.
“Ha- oh god okay, they warned me you were a little...cut off from everything, but I've never had to introduce someone to the world of the service industry.” 'Also, what in gods name did they think sending me. Yeah because I'm the first impression everyone needs of whats considered modern polite society.' “Also, you can call me Arc.” she added in afterthought - being called by her full first name reminded her of the droning tones of the upper echelon of her family as they pinned expectations on her or...ugh, Giovanni. “I'm pretty sure there's more than I can explain in a short conversation, so we'll skip to the demonstration. Well. Once we find the food court, which seeing as I passed through it four times today, I actually know what way to go.” 'Please don't make me eat those words five minutes from now.'
Luckily she didn't. She'd managed to guide the kid with her all the way to the large area filled with food smells, chattering people, and small restaurants surrounding the outer rim of the area to form an oval around it. She spread her arms slightly as if she was presenting him with a grand prize, a smirk curling her lips. “I'd ask what you'd prefer, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the answer to that will be something way out there, so you're going to have to suffer my tastes, which are being drawn rather strongly towards those eggrolls I smell.”
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