Fifth Floor Common Room, Friday Morning

[trigons_child]

Raven had had a much more restful sleep that night, thanks in no small part to the strength Professor Anakin had added to her shields. And he hadn't thrown her out of the school for using her powers on Chuck, so that lightened her mood as well. (And she hadn't listened to the radio and heard herself referred to as having a weird kink about doors.) She decided to test her shielding by venturing into the common room. Someone had left the TV on, and she found herself mesmerized by what was on, a strange show featuring a scruffy madman who had somehow schemed to turn the woman he loved into a mummy. He was currently fondling her bandage-wrapped form while her sister debated how to rescue her.

[ooc: No, really, I checked TV Guide, that's what's on right now.]

Comments

[withoutverona]

"It sounds as if it must be. Do you miss it at all?" Romeo asked.

[trigons_child]

"A little," Raven said. "But I did not wish to spend all my life there." She left out the part about not wanting her evil demon father to harm those of Azarath in an attempt to claim his daughter.

[withoutverona]

"It must feel chaotic here, by way of comparison," Romeo guessed.

[trigons_child]

"Oh yes," Raven agreed. "I thought I was prepared enough to be here, but everyone feels so strongly, so passionately...." She failed to stifle a tiny bit of wistfulness in her tone.

[withoutverona]

"It must all be very strange to see," Romeo said thoughtfully, assuming she was having a hard time getting used to dating and other emotional matters as such a central feature of life. "Though compared to home, people are calm here."

And Romeo could be emotionally intense even for Verona. Rachel was perhaps lucky she'd found him on a morning where his main feelings were about wanting coffee.

[trigons_child]

"I find that hard to believe," Raven said. "More chaotic than it is here? There is so much love and joy and pain and fear here that I could not shut it all out when I first arrived."

[withoutverona]

"More chaotic." Well, it would be until people in Fandom started wanting to kill each other over who crashed a party...

"Why would you need to shut it out?" Romeo asked, wondering if he'd missed something.

[trigons_child]

"I am an empath," Raven said. "I can feel the emotions of those around me, and too much at once from so many people can be painful to endure. I must shut them out and not allow them to affect me."

[withoutverona]

"So throwing you into a dorm full of teenagers must be almost too much to bear," Romeo speculated with a little wince. After eighteen months in Fandom, he'd learned not to be surprised.

[trigons_child]

"Yes," Raven said. "I had learned to shield myself when I was much younger, but it was not enough for the passions of Fandom. Professor Skywalker is helping me to make my shields stronger."