fandomhighdorms | 5th Floor Common Room: Tuesday night

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5th Floor Common Room: Tuesday night

It was New Year's Eve and while there didn't seem to be a lot of people around or anything big going on, Mercy still felt that she wanted to mark the turning of the year somehow. She'd found a live broadcast on TV counting down the time till midnight and was switching back and forth between that and some of the various TV show marathons that were on.

She'd ordered more Chinese than any human could possibly eat, figuring either people would join her at some point or there'd be tons of leftovers for the next few days.

Either way, she was here, curled up on the couch with Chinese and hot chocolate and something sweet for dessert in the frig, watching TV and counting down to the New Year.

[Open like a common room for anyone around.]

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Due to a fluke in inter-temporal travel, Raven was actually getting New Year's twice, this year. Once watching 1953 turn to 1954 and once watching 2013 turn to 2014.

She wasn't complaining.

"Ah," she said, as she made it up to the fifth floor. "There is someone else around! Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year!" Mercy said with a smile. "Come, have a seat and eat some of the tons of Chinese food that got delivered!'

"Now who could ever refuse an invitation like that?" Raven said, coming over to sit down on the couch, her feet curled up underneath her. "Have you been here the whole break? Or did you just get back in early?"

Mercy made a little face. "I went home for Christmas, but came back a few days ago. My mom's other family is great and they're good to me, but I love them best from a distance."

She shrugged. "It was a nice visit, though. How about you? Did you get to go home?"

"I did! I wouldn't miss Christmas at home with my brother for anything ~~yet~~. I thought I was going to get back just in time for the picnic, but the wonders of time travel, I'm here a whole four days ahead of schedule." She gave a little blase 'time travel, what can you do' shrug -- entirely put on, it still boggled her mind. "Where's home for you?"

"Time travel..." Mercy shook her head. "I've experienced it enough here, but it still kind of weirds me out sometimes."

She opened her mouth to say Aspen Creek, but caught herself. Damn, when would she ever stop thinking of that as home? Maybe when she'd made a new one for herself. "Asp- Portland, Oregon. It's where my Mom and her new husband and their two girls live. It's a nice enough place. Um...Sounds like you and your brother are really close? That must be nice."

"I've never been out that way. I've been to Europe, but never out west. I've heard it's lovely, though." Raven shrugged again, looking through the take out a bit before selecting a box and digging in with a fork. "My brother's pretty much all I have," she said. "Well, and his parents, but they don't really count. They're lovely, but like you said: easier to love at a distance."

Mercy nodded, relieved to meet someone else who felt at least sort of the same way. "I grew up way up in Montana," she admitted. "It's gorgeous up there. Cold all the time, but gorgeous."

She snagged a crab rangoon to nibble on. "Wish I had someone like your brother. It would make things easier, you know?"

"It does," Raven said. "Sometimes it seems like it's the two of us against the world. I'd way rather have two of us than just me. You don't have anyone like that?"

Mercy shook her head. "I thought I did, but it turned out he just wanted me because he thought I could give him kids."

She scooped up another crab rangoon. "We'd been dating and his dad found out. We were going to run away together, but that's when his dad told me... Anyway. I ended up going to live with my mom."

Raven winced sympathetically. "He sounds like he'd fit right in in 1954," she said. "At least his dad gave you a heads up before you got in too deep. Still, that must've hurt."

He probably was a product of the 1950s. Mercy thought, not realizing she was off by many hundreds of years.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "It was worse 'cause I lost my home too, when his dad sent me away."

"But, I ended up here, and nobody judges me here or makes me feel like a freak, so that's a bonus."

"I've noticed that, too. There aren't that many places out there where a girl can just relax and be who she really is. Fandom seems like it's ready for just about every type."

"Back home if I told anyone what I was, we could both end up dead. Here," Mercy shrugged. "Nobody really cares that I can shift into a coyote."

"You're a shapeshifter!" So, okay, maybe someone cared. But that was definitely delight in Raven's voice. "Oh, do you just love being able to grow fur?"

Mercy looked over at her in some surprise, but smiled at the happiness in Raven's voice. "I shift so fast it's not like I feel the fur growing, but it's really amazing to feel the wind in my fur when I'm running. You... sound like you know what it's like."

She didn't smell like a werewolf. Not that any werewolf would describe the shifting process as pleasant in any way.

Not even remotely a werewolf, no. "Well," Raven said, glancing around automatically to make sure she couldn't see any squirrels lurking about. "I haven't spent much time with fur, necessarily." She speared a piece of sweet and sour chicken with her fork, looking terribly casual as she shifted her mimicked dress from its current simple circle skirt style to something a little more current. "But I know a trick or two."

Mercy's eyes went huge. "Oh wow! That's amazing!"

So much better than just being able to shift into a coyote. Maybe... was it glamour?

"I... are you one of the Fae?"

Raven shook her head. "I don't think so. I've just always been able to change shapes. Charles thinks I'm probably like him, a mutant. I don't really advertise it, much. I'm not sure how they'd like it if the administration found out I'm actually usually walking around naked."

Mercy giggled. "No, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be happy about it."

Then she frowned. "A mutant. That... doesn't sound like a very positive word. Your brother can change shapes like you, too? Maybe it's, well, like me... I know I'm a walker, but I've never met another one, we just know there used to be a bunch of them. Maybe there just aren't many, well... shifters like you left."

"Just the opposite, apparently. When I'm from, there are only a few mutants -- people whose genetics have mutated to give them abilities others don't have. But I've heard that by now, my world has bunches of them, born all over the world and with all sorts of different abilities. Charles is a telepath, I can change shape, all because before we were born, our genes decided to grow a little differently than they did before." Raven tilted her head. "I like the name 'walker'. It's a little bit . . . mysterious. So you're from an ancient race, and I'm from a brand new one."

"That's really kind of cool," Mercy said rolling the words over in her mind. "An ancient race and a brand new one. Cool..."

She looked up at Raven. "Your brother is a telepath? My... um... my guardian, people said he could read minds. He denied it, but he always seemed to know what people were thinking. And he could absolutely talk to people in their heads."

"That sounds like Charles. He knew what I was the moment we met, even when I looked like his mom. Well, that was partially because I didn't realize his mom wouldn't go near the kitchen with a ten foot pole, but also because he could read my mind. I made him promise not to do it again. There are some things you don't even want your brother knowing."

"I'd like to see someone make Bran promise not to read minds," Mercy said with a grin, then stopped. "Wait... you guys... you have different - you didn't grow up together?"

Raven shook her head. "We're not related by blood, no. If I only had that to go on for family, I wouldn't have any at all."

Mercy looked down at the food in front of her. "I have my mom, but I didn't grow up with her. And when Bran sent me away, sent me back to her, well... it turned out she had this whole other family that she'd never told me about. One of her other daughters was only a couple years older than me. And they didn't know anything about me till I turned up on their doorstep."

She set the crab rangoon down on the paper plate in front of her and wiped her fingers on a napkin. "I had two really great foster parents, but they died a couple of years before Bran sent me away. Well, my foster mom died and my foster dad killed himself."

Raven gasped, her hand going to her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry! That must've been terrible!"

"It was a tough few years," Mercy said quietly. "Samuel - the guy I was going to run away with? - he was the one who really got me through those years right after my foster parents died. But I think it really wasn't until I got here that things got better."

She managed a smile. "It's kind of the first place where I belonged. Even back in Montana, I never belonged and they made sure to rub it in my face. My mom's other family is, well... normal human. Here, everyone's different."

"Even the normal humans," Raven agreed. "It really is nice, isn't it? Well, except the bits where sometimes things want to kill us."

But, then, she'd gotten a bit of that back home, too.

"Yeah, when doesn't that happen?" Mercy said with a grin. "At least it's usually not personal like it was back home."

"I will drink to that!" Raven said, and looked around. "Is there any champagne?" She didn't really expect it -- as loose as rules were around here, just having a bottle lying around a dorm common room was a bit much -- but it was worth asking.

"Not that I've seen," Mercy admitted. "Ginger ale's probably as close as we could get in here. I'm kind of making do with hot chocolate."

"Actually, that sounds good. It's pretty cold out there."

"I can make you the regular kind or my special kind," Mercy offered. "I make it with dark chocolate and just a little bit of spice. It's delicious."

"Well, I think I have to try this special chocolate. Thank you."

Mercy grinned and made her way over to the kitchenette area to begin heating up the milk. "It takes a little time because you can't just microwave the water and dump the stuff in like you can with the packages. You have to use real milk."

She was pretty skilled at making it, though, so she was done fairly quickly and brought the large mug over to Raven. "If you don't like it I can make you a normal cup - you won't hurt my feelings or anything."

"I'm sure it's delicious. I probably haven't had the 'regular' kind, if you use the microwave to make it. I'm still a little afraid of that thing."

"Well, you don't have to, you can heat the water up in a kettle, like for tea," Mercy explained. "Are you from an earlier time, then?"

"1953. Well, four now. I always take a little while to get used to the new year."

Mercy nodded. "I'm from a little earlier than Fandom time, but not quite that far back."

"That seems to be more typical. I've met a few people from further back than I am, but not many. Most folks who aren't from around now are from a completely different type of world."

"Isn't that amazing? I mean, if you really think about it. Where would you ever find a place like this?" She shook her head in wonder. "Sometimes I just marvel over it."

"To Fandom," Raven proposed, holding up her mug. "And to luck."

"To Fandom and to Luck," Mercy agreed, clinking her mug to Raven's and then caught a glimpse of the TV. "Oh, and look, it's almost New Year's! They'll be dropping the ball in another minute!"

"Oh my gosh, it's so pretty!" Raven cheered, taking a sip of her chocolate. "And this is amazing. I think it's going to be a good new year."

"I hope you're right," Mercy said with a smile and watched as the ball began to drop. "...three, two, one! Happy 2014, Raven!"

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5th Floor Common Room: Tuesday night

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NFB here, plz.

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