The Transit Lounge [CLOSED, Noctur Only]

[Radiatia]

Hiroshi Vodotel International Airport in Nepschu, Chongluntz was by far the busiest airport in the Radiatian Federation - an airport that eclipsed its more well known rivals in size, in air traffic and in the number of travellers passing through each day.

Located on one of Nepschu's many small peninsulas, jutting out into the Oriens Ocean on Radiatia's east coast - the edge of the federation, and the edge of the continent Terra Occidens, the nation's largest airport was as Chongluntz in character as it was in geography.

Though it could easily lay claim to being the nation's most important airport - just as Nepschu could lay claim to being the nation's most important port city - it was Chongluntz and therefore it was humble. It didn't parade itself in the movies the way that Draco Zerra International Airport in Exegrad seemed to everyday; it didn't stand for the pomp and fanfare that was ever-present at Traiyan Silviu International Airport in Xerconia, and it certainly didn't have the notorious reputation that DEX in Das Engel 'enjoyed'.

It wasn't as if though Nepschu was the first choice destination for the average traveller - though there was a certain charm and beauty to the city, it seemed always to be caked in horizontal rain and there was something about it that just didn't feel Radiatian - perhaps it was the relatively clean air, or the lack of rednecks, but the city never got the level of fame that Exegrad, Xerconia and Das Engel did.

But nonetheless it was the gateway to Radiatia, and the gateway to Terra Occidens. One did not simply fly to Ankh Morpork, or to Dunstan, or Higgins and Brown(e) without first making their way through the transit lounge at Hiroshi Vodotel International Airport.

In much the same way, travellers headed for Ayand, or Dragomir, or Libertas transferred through here -- it was the bridge between east and west, one of the linchpins keeping Noctur together in the jet era.

It was the place where Nocturian travellers, intentionally or not, converged together.

---

OOC Information:

This thread is open for nations in Noctur to roleplay in - however in this roleplay, you must be playing as an average citizen (or several average citizens) of your nation, who are for one reason or another in the transit lounge at Hiroshi Vodotel International Airport.

They'll likely be either waiting for a flight, having just got off a flight and be waiting for a connecting flight - or god forbid, about to bravely face Radiatian Immigration officials.

In the meantime, feel free to have your characters meet and interact with other characters, enjoy the duty free shopping (and yes, there is a Greasy Joe's here.)

Thread Rules:

• Thou shalt be a player whose nation is in Noctur.
• Thou shalt roleplay in modern tech. I should hope this goes without saying.
• Thous shalt not involve your national leader, politics or any major global figure. The characters in this RP must be Average Joe civilian travellers meeting other Average Joe civilian travellers.
• Thou shalt not have characters committing crimes or acts of terrorism without my express permission as this would probably ruin the thread.
• Thou Shalt have fun. But not too much fun. The last time I had fun I nearly got arrested, and, well, yeah...

[Crata]

"Please remain seated with your seat belts fastened until the aircraft comes to a complete stop and the captain turns off the seat belt sign. To our knowledge, no passenger has ever beaten the aircraft to the gate anyway, so you may as well stay put."Source

Lisa A. Schroeder, a 23-year-old Crataan, chuckled as the plane touched the ground at Hiroshi Vodotel International Airport. It was her break from her studies at Libertas State University, and rather than staying at home preparing for the next semester - which she was aware she should rather do - she decided to take a trip to a country she had never visited. I'm sure I can put this as "international experience" in my resumé later, she thought to herself. After all, with Crata and Radiatia being completely different in many different ways, and Radiatia being quite far away, not many Crataans travelled to Radiatia.

But Radiatia was certainly one of the biggest markets in all of Noctur. Maybe I can make a paper out of this she thought. Then again, she was here for the sake of tourism. Decisions...

The plane finally came to a stop. Lisa stood up quickly, grabbed her luggage and left the plane as breeze of fresh air entered the plane.

---

Hiroshi Vodotel International Airport certainly seemed to have character, Lisa thought. Certainly not as modern as the airport of Libertas (Crata), but where the airport at home seemed to be indifferent to her, Hiroshi Vodotel International seemed to almost welcome her. Her connecting flight to Das Engel seemed to be delayed, and so she had some time to kill in the transit lounge.

Most of the seats were taken. Lisa took one of the few empty seats and wondered what Radiatia would have to offer.

[Radiatia]

"Travellers on R-Fed Airlines Flight RF5462 to Drachen City are advised that the flight has been cancelled due to adverse weather. Please report to the R-Fed Airlines desk on the second floor for more information."

A bulky, bearded man reading a newspaper looked up as Lisa sat down next to him. Outside the rain was falling harder, and large rain drops could be seen bouncing off the fuselages of the planes waiting at gates outside.

"Howdy." Said the man, nodding at Lisa. "You been delayed too, huh? It'll be that dang snowstorm up north. They say it's the worst snowstorm in years, although between you and me I ain't never seen a nice snowstorm, ya know what I'm sayin'?"

[Crata]

"Yeah, I've never seen a snow storm either. This weather though... I guess I am just unlucky. It's never just sunny when I'm traveling."

She looked around the lounge area. There was a snack area in the back. Was that... Greasy Joe or what they called it? The rest was mostly what you'd expect from an airport - some small shops with ridiculous pricing, pretending it'd be cheap because it'd be duty-free, lots of open space, people, men with guns - security she imagined - and lots of windows. Lisa looked outside for a bit.

The clouds seemingly got darker by the minute. She let out a small sigh.

"This is not going to improve anytime soon, is it?"

[Higgins and Brown]

"Liza, don't stare."

"But why are there so many of them?"

"It's just what other countries do."

"Do they run the countries, like adults do at home?"

"No. Now be quiet, it's rude to talk about people when they can hear you."

"But there's so many of them, only a couple will be able to hear me."

"Liza be quiet this instant! We can talk about it at the hotel!"

Vini had first been humoured by his daughter's observations since getting on the plane. There she had spotted someone dressed in strange, foreign, clothes and spent a considerable amount of time trying to talk to them (they were not naturally adept at speaking Brownite). After that she had spotted unfamiliar religious practises, someone being served meat for lunch, and someone reading a newspaper in a strange alphabet, and after that she was actively on the lookout for anything new and was quizzing everyone in their section of the cabin as to where they came from and what they did. Over the course of the six-hour journey she had talked to so many people, and napped just enough for Vini to remain sane.

The strange alphabet, it turned out, was Brownite, and Vini had got quite self-conscious and slightly embarrassed as a father when 7-year old Liza had loudly admitted for the whole cabin to hear that she'd never been taught it at school or home. He'd been anxious ever since and now all he wanted to do was get out of the airport and into a quaint Chongluntz eatery and relax in quiet isolation with his daughter, out of the rain that he could now hear pounding against the walls of the terminal.

Liza's biggest culture shock was coming into the terminal and seeing all the children. People in Higgins & Brown just didn't have many children. Two was the most that families were generally allowed under the traditional religious guidelines. Like most modern Higgins-Brownites, Vini wasn't aware of the details of the guidelines or how they applied to his marriage but knew from a young age that he wouldn't have more than two himself. His ex-wife had made the decision only to have one.

Suffice to say, the Tithatribally airport had had very few children in it, whereas this queue was full of families waiting for entry visa stamps - families with three or even four children, and some from far off places with twice that number. The noise was horrendous to Vini's ears. You just don't hear children in Columbanus County like you do abroad. He'd always considered himself lucky to live in a country with fewer children for this reason, despite what he knew it meant for Higgins & Brown's political economy.

He reflected that maybe he should've told little Liza a little something about Chongluntz and the wider world before taking her. Her only previous trip abroad had been to Algrabad with school, and she'd come back with hours and hours worth of observations and a little communist propaganda...