Nerds of a Feather Learn Together

[chefbayardee]

Who: Open to everyone!
When: Consistently in the evenings of May 9th-12th
Where: Curti Center Library, a larger conference room.
What: The howling hordes of airship pilot- and engineer-wannabes gather in one poor, poor place. And other nerds could probably study there, too.
Warnings/Notes: Feel free to write your own top-levels like with Makoto's birthday.

Wholly out of the blue, a message pings into your iMog slate, through the Kali Shashidhwaja Linkshell. When you open the notification, a horrible sound plays, and the text message's contents burst onto the screen in an explosion of confetti.

So I might've raided the Curti Center's library for everything on space, airships, piloting, and magitek. I also might have conquered conference room 3A in the library for the next few evenings. Come keep me company!

Please. It's quiet and lonely and I'm scared to leave by myself.
And I have cookies! ლ(❛ω❛ლ)

For whatever reason, you decide to head on over to the Curti Center, and you're met with a large conference room, with piles of books on the table divided by a few trays of cookies, and a few dry-erase boards because chalk is for bohemians. One, clearly at Hunk's corner of the table, has a sketch of an airship with arrows and chicken-scratched notes pointing to seemingly-random areas, as well as a blue-marker doodle of a bizarre creature circled multiple times and surrounded by question marks.

Another board across the room is partially taken up by a chart titled SKILLS! and broken into three columns: PILOT, MECHANIC, SCHOLAR. Hunk's name is written beneath each, but maybe you should write your own- there's a reason you're here, after all! And resting in the marker tray are about seven pamphlets on the Vaikuntha Pilot License Examination.

Oh, and there's a moogle sitting sternly upon the lectern next to the door, munching on a kupo nut as he gestures towards the bowl next to him, with "Donations" scribbled onto a piece of paper taped to the side.

Go wild, but shhhh! You're in a library!

( Potential baby top-level ideas include "asking your study neighbor what in the world something means," bellowing "HELLO YES I AM PILOT," and "I wandered in because free cookies but I don't want to be here and can't leave without causing a scene, help." )

Comments

no get back here, puns are great

[chefbayardee]

"Nice to meet you, Selphie!" Hunk was thrilled that the girl took to the handshake (it'll be a weird day when someone doesn't know what that is!) and the pun-based banter was just what he needed today.

"It looks like you didn't put anything on the boards, aside from that work of art." He smiles, and gestures with his head towards her doodle. It was better than what he could come up with, if nothing else. "You're not full-steam ahead for the airships, are you?"

He knows she's here for the trains. It's pretty obvious. But maybe her trains were also airships? Hunk quickly learned not to count anything out.

[boomchucka]

"Likewise!" Selphie was always happy to meet new people and make more friends. She was always willing to roll with the punches and if that included puns then it included puns! She was fairly outside of the box like that compared to some of her other close friends.

"Well, I was looking for something else entirely when the gathering caught my attention and I like airships don't get me wrong but trains will always be my main track. Trains are more accessible where I'm from than airships, you see. And you know... the cookies are a pretty tasty bonus."

She regarded Hunk with a slightly puzzled look. "I can put my name on the board if that's easier though..."

[chefbayardee]

Hunk just watches, hints of a smile on his face as the girl rambles, talking about the trains and the cookies (he does smile at the compliment!) and... the board. He glances to it, and just shrugs.

"It'll get erased at the end of the night anyway, no big deal," and he chuckles to drive the point home. "I'm not very used to airships, buuuuut..." His eyes roll and his smile grows as he draws out that last word. Then he pauses, and looks right at her.

"I'm pretty well trained on spaceships." And he's grinning like a cheshire cat. A lot of people think space is pretty cool, himself included.

♥♥♥♥♥

[boomchucka]

Selphie nods along as he speaks before she bursts out into bright laughter at the latest pun. She's only been in space twice now that she thinks about it a bit more carefully but it doesn't stop her from appreciating this conversation.

"So before we derail this conversation," Selphie continues with a wink. "Tell me more?"

[chefbayardee]

The laughter is definitely welcome with all the studying and stress, and Hunk just responds with a giggle. It's nice to see his humor be appreciated.

"We're gonna have to go way off the rails, spaceships are crazy like that." And he shrugs ever-so-casually as his tone gets almost dismissive. "My favorite spaceships are definitely the kinds that combine into a giant fighting robot." And then he pauses for a moment, blinks a few times, and he sounds genuinely concerned. "Did you have spaceships back home, or is this too weird for you?"

[boomchucka]

Forget the question about spaceships back home which is a completely different can of worms than what Hunk just mentioned to Selphie. Her interest is clearly piqued as she immediately dismisses the question about spaceships in light of the other topic.

"Okay Hunk," Selphie starts in a playful tone. "Tell me all about this giant fighting robot that sounds totally amazing and I'll tell you all about the Ragnarok which is also totally amazing."

She grins impishly. "And looks like a dragon on the outside."

[chefbayardee]

Apparently it's not too weird for her, she has something called a Ragnarok that looks like a dragon?! Cool.

"So I'm Paladin of Voltron- that means I have my own personal magic-robot-spaceship Lion. He's yellow, he's covered in armor, and he's awesome." Hunk grins like a proud and cheeky parent, even though Yellow is 10,000 years older than he is. "But when all five Paladins are in sync, we can form our Lions into Voltron, which is a giant robot person. We're the, uh..." He looks back and forth and chuckles sheepishly before looking at Selphie again. "The Defenders of the Universe."

But he doesn't skip a beat, and he immediately leans forward a bit, looking expectantly at the girl. "So tell me about Ragnarok the Dragon, that's a really cool name."

[boomchucka]

Selphie continues to nod along with Hunk's explanation and regards the Paladin curiously after his explanation about the whole giant robot concept. It honestly sounds like something out of a comic book that Selphie may have read as a child. Yellow to say the least, does get bonus points for being her favourite colour.

She can't help but smile as Hunk declares that he and his friends are the defenders of the universe. Again, it does sound like something out of a comic book but she won't bring that up. It just doesn't seem right to make a dig about a fellow hero after all. Which leads her to Hunk's question.

"The Ragnarok huh?" Selphie taps her chin thoughtfully before she's grabbing the marker and its cap before she starts doodling a picture of the Ragnarok in a free space on the white board. "Well, it's our world's only Airship that doubles as a spaceship and it's super advanced technology that we don't have access too and I..."

This time, it's Selphie's turn to giggle sheepishly before pointing the thumb of her right hand at herself. "May or may not have been the ship's pilot?"

[chefbayardee]

Honestly, the fact that Selphie smiled and seemed to enjoy the explanation about Voltron was enough for him. She didn't ask a bunch of questions or start screaming, which made a lot of sense considering what she said about Ragnarok. He never would've expected it of her, to be entirely honest.

"Well that's all just awesome, Selphie!" He chuckles and starts to bounce up and down on his feet just a bit. She piloted a giant dragon spaceship, of course she didn't go gaga over Vaikunthan Airships. Ragnarok was way cooler.

"Y'know, that sounds kinda similar to Voltron. We don't have access to the stuff to make anything like it, and it's from an ancient alien civilization." But then he pauses and raises an eyebrow at the girl, because he just realized something. "Do you think Ragnarok came from aliens? Or would that be too weird for you?"

[boomchucka]

"Man, I wish it came from aliens! It would've been an even better story that way!" Selphie replies cheerfully before her tone sobers up a bit.

"Actually though," she continues. "It was made by a nation with really advanced technology they aren't too keen on sharing at the moment. We're gonna butter 'em up though and then everything will be hunky dory!"

Selphie is intentionally glossing over the true purpose of the Ragnarok but that's another story for another time. Nobody needs to hear a condensed history of the wars of her home world during a period of very studious studying. A lot of things happen during wars that nobody really wants to talk about anyway.