Water went flying out of her mouth followed by some really awkward coughing. Taisia couldn’t believe the information she was reading. Artur Badica. Hell no. It wasn’t that Taisia didn’t want to see him, it was that she was pretty sure he was on the long list of people she’d never see again.
Wiping her mouth, she stood up from the bench she’d been sitting on in one of the training room. Her team had been doing well but this was just… insane. The alert beeped again telling her she needed to come meet him, or he’d be lead to the hotel by a volunteer.
Taisia almost decided to let someone else handle it but knew that was kind of shitty. As she got up she thought about trying to take a quick shower but decided it really didn’t matter. Before she knew it she was by the intake room and paused. Nope, maybe she didn’t need to, turning around she heard her name and turned to smile awkwardly.
“So, you’re in Atlantis.”
So, this was weird. Incredibly weird, but fascinating all in one trippy kind of dream. Artur had no idea what was going on the moment he first woke up in an unusual room that definitely wasn’t his. They gave him the brief rundown of the situation and stated someone would be by shortly to greet him. The moment he saw who was there to greet him, he was a bit surprised. It wasn’t an unwelcome surprise, but still a surprise of who he thought he might see here. Taisia Belikova.
“Looks like it,” He studied her for a minute, still not so sure if this was some elaborate trick or virtual reality prank by someone with way too much time on their hands.
“Hey, Mai Tai,” he greeted her with a smile and stepped forward. “They gave me the cliff notes version back there, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna need to read the book for all of this to sink in. This is all real?”
Taisia rolled her eyes at the nickname, it oddly irritated and made her realize how much she’d missed him too. Nope, you don’t miss Artur, that’s not on the list of acceptable things. Taisia knew that. She just had to remind herself of it.
“The book is, is that it is real, welcome to Atlantis, where anything can happen and tomorrow you might turn green.” She answered knowing it wasn’t all that helpful.
“Well, you want me to show you around or you want to stand here and demand a book?”
“Green?” He made a face. “Of all the colors, I think I’d rather be a shade of red instead of green. You can turn green getting seasick on a boat.” Semantics, yes, but that was part of the fun. He’d always enjoyed his banter with Taisia Belikova, though he knew that it hadn’t always been simple banter. During the early years of school it had been a little more than just simple back and forth because he’d been an idiot royal asshole thinking that actually mattered a lot more than it really did.
“I’m greedy. I want the tour guy and the tour book to follow along with,” he said with a grin. “But the guide will do for now. What’s our first stop?”
Rolling her eyes she sighed. “You don’t get to pick what color you turn, and don’t worry it wouldn’t be up to me, but if were up to me, I’d go with green for you.” She shrugged. Taisia wasn’t going to let herself feel, or so she kept telling herself.
Taisia took a moment to think about it, where was their first stop? Where should she take him first. “You’ll just have to come with me to find out.” She decided with an answer as she lead him out of the base. The base was nuts, heck this influx was making Atlantis even more nuts, but she was okay with it.
He made a face thinking about being green but smirked at her insistence that she’d pick that out for him. They walked out of the base, and Artur was able to get his first real glimpse of what Atlantis really looked like. For the most part, it seemed like any normal city, but there was a fantasy element to it that he couldn’t quite explain.
“Ooh, a mystery. I like that,” he said, catching up to her after a couple second pause to gaze up at the outside of the base once they’d gotten a little away from it. “So, what all do you do here exactly? What’s a normal day in Atlantis like for Taisia Belikova?”
“A normal day is dependent on if things are a normal day or if you end up climbing trees, or turn into a monkey, or a bear, but assuming none of that happens, training. A lot of training.” Which wasn’t actually all that new to Taisia, training had been most of her life growing up, she didn’t really know any different. “We train, a lot,” she repeated in case he didn’t get the memo. “We also sometimes go for missions, there is some regular stuff, like Taco Tuesday, and wine on Thursday but you know me, I’m more about vodka and gummy worms so I don’t go for that one that often. Oh, I have a little brother here, he’s actually biologically my parents though.”
“So, crazy shit and training?” He made a little face but nodded. “Doesn’t sound so terrible then I guess.” Though, the training was less his thing and more hers. Artur practised his fire magic here and there, but he hadn’t needed to use it on a regular basis or keep his skills sharp like a guardian did.
“Biologically your parents? That’s wild.” He didn’t know how that worked exactly, but he figured it had something to do with this place rather than the magical, restoration reason. “I could go for some gummy worms and vodka actually,” he said with a smirk. “What’s the best place for good vodka?”
“You know,” she started but paused. “It’s actually nice to see you.” She meant it too although she wasn’t going to say anything else to it. “Come on, we’ll go to the right place.”
“Oh yeah?” He asked and gave her a side glance as they walked. “It’s actually really nice to see you too. Who knew that a jump into alternate dimension would have such a friendly face?” Artur nudged her a little with his arm and continued walking down the street to where ever she had planned for them to go. Being here was still weird, but it wasn’t so bad either.
“Who knew,” Taisia agreed with a smile as she lead him down an Atlantis street.