Room 505, Monday Night

[thatsamilkshake]

The homemade cookie stash not having been completely depleted by her newest little sibling, Francine was nibbling on one while sorting clothes from her suitcases into Wash Me, Didn't Wear, and Wore In Curacao But Washed It In New York. She'd had to occupy her time at the Muse somehow; might as well be the laundry room.

If one were to take that as an indication that both of her holiday trips had been heavy on the tanning and/or shopping and light on the successful completion of Other Things, one would not be wrong.

At least the beach was relaxing, she didn't get a sunburn and she'd bought a lot of postcards?

[OOC: Oooopen!]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

Which somewhat undercut the hardass attitude he couldn't quite manage anyway, but hey, Francine was impressed. Sort of. "Um. He's blond and tall and I think his dad may be a jerk, and he's got wings?"

[longislandiceme]

Give him a few years and the deaths and resurrections of a few friends, and he'll be able to pull it off. At least, intermittently.

"Okay, yeah. It's that last one I'm concerned about," Bobby said. "Cause that's not- not usually the sort of thing you tell someone you've just met, pretend sibling or not. So how would you know that?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"Oh. I see." Er, once again, sort of. "We had a course on how superpowers work, a few semesters ago. Mister Beaubier spent a whole class on Warren; I never expected to actually meet him, even if it's a younger him."

[longislandiceme]

Beaubier? Bobby frowned. Well, frowned more. He didn't recognize that name at all.

"Why would... this place makes my head hurt sometimes," Bobby sighed.

[thatsamilkshake]

"How did you know about him having wings?" Francine asked. "That class was like a year before you got here."

Which would be the 'er, sort of.'

[longislandiceme]

"He's one of my best friends. Well, one of him is. I mean, I know a Warren back home, but he's not the one who's here now," Bobby explained. Or babbled. One of those.

[thatsamilkshake]

The fearsome thing is how Francine had actually been here long enough to get that. "Like he's not the Warren from class, or at least he isn't yet."

[longislandiceme]

Bobby nodded. "There's a few differences," like a certain vulnerability that was a big part of the reason Bobby was even having this conversation. "But that doesn't really matter, 'cause he's still my friend and I've gotta watch out for him." And if the Warren from his universe heard that, he'd probably laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more, given Bobby's status as the baby of the original team.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I get that." Francine nodded towards the second bed in her room. "My best friend showed up here when I wasn't expecting it too. She's mine --" Wow, did that sound oddly possessive and yet not at all bad. "--but even if she'd been from some other time or whatever, I'd still feel the same."

[longislandiceme]

"The different-realities thing gives me a headache sometimes," Bobby admitted. "But I'm glad you get it," he added with a smile.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Are you worried about people knowing about Warren's wings?" she asked, since after all, Warren had been. "It's pretty safe to show that kind of thing around here."

[longislandiceme]

"People keep saying that," Bobby replied, in the tone of someone who was very much waiting for the other shoe to drop. "It's not really something I'm used to. Or he is, for that matter." Not knowing, of course, that Warren had kind of already let the cat (er, wings) out of the bag on his own to a few people.

[thatsamilkshake]

"It's weird for most people here, I think," Francine said. "No matter where you came from. Super powers don't really exist where I'm from." She glanced down at her own hair. "Or if they do they're really weak and people write them off as coincidence or fakes. It took a while to get used to the idea that there's places where it's not like that, and a lot to get used to the idea that I might not be normal myself. Whatever that is."

[longislandiceme]

Bobby, on the other hand, just plain resented the fact that he wasn't normal. "There's a big political thing back home. People know about- mutants," he'd almost slipped and said 'us', there. "But they're seen as 'a menace to society'."

[thatsamilkshake]

"They're like that with magic, where Merlin's from," Francine said. "Only it's not political, it's just 'if you have powers you get burned at the stake.' "

[longislandiceme]

He'd been about to say something along the lines of 'Merlin? Paper-airplane guy?' when the rest of her statement caught up with him.

He paled visibly, and managed a strangled sort of "Oh" at that revelation.

[thatsamilkshake]

"He's from the past. The Dark Ages," Francine only thought to say afterward.

[longislandiceme]

"Right, yeah, that- makes sense. Well, no it doesn't, really, it's sick and wrong, but I mean you don't really hear about burnings at the stake happening much these days."

He'd never had to worry about being burned at the stake, it was true. But a bunch of guys waving shotguns and talking about "getting rid of" a thirteen year old kid, it was sort of the modern-day equivalent, wasn't it?

[thatsamilkshake]

"You won't catch me arguing with you. So far it's my go-to example for 'it could be worse...' "

[longislandiceme]

"Unfortunately it hasn't been done away with so much as... updated, for the times," Bobby made a face.

Um. What happened to the dream, Bobby? Xavier's dream? Of peaceful co-existence?

"But like you said! Not so much with the happening here."

[thatsamilkshake]

"No," she agreed. "I think... I think for some people this place is kind of a break where they can see what home might be like if things were better -- before they go back and try to make it that way."

[longislandiceme]

Yeah, Charles Xavier would totally like Francine. "I hope that's how it works, then," he managed finally. Which was... a lot less cynical than what he'd originally wanted to say.