Tensor

She had a roommate now! Which was pretty awesome, although Wicked had unpacked in a hurry so there was room for her new roommate and stuff. For now, she left her spirit friends tucked away. Because it was probably going to be weird enough to be rooming with the girl who summon ghosts without coming face to face with a few of them right off the bat.

Wicked really, really hoped her new roommate was nice. And didn't mind the ghosts. Or all of her macabre themed stuff. Since she was stuck with the death motif because of her powers, Wicked had decided to just run with it. So everything she owned was black or dark colors, and had skulls, skeletons or ghosts on it. They were mostly cartoony and cute, but it could probably be weird for anyone else.

Clint didn't bother knocking. If Teddy was in his altogethers, he could clutch his pearls and dive for a towel for all Clint cared.

(Though his lizard brain was quick to add that Teddy didn't seem the type to stand around in his altogethers which was really too bad for the rest of the world, who would have naturally enjoyed the show.)

He slumped against Hank's doorframe, leaving a muddy streak, and looked forlornly around the room. No Hank. Not even buried under a threatening pile of books.

Library? Cafeteria? The great outdoors? There were so many places Hank could be hiding... Fuck it. He pushed himself up and, leaving the door open, stumbled toward the bed. Some lingering sense of decency had Clint stripping off his muddy clothes and shoes, tossing them to where they'd do the least damage. He grabbed one of Hank's towels and tossed it onto his bed, curling up on it to keep the mess off his sheets, one arm flung dramatically over his eyes as he buried his face in Hank's pillow and fell immediately into painful sleep.

There was a sign neatly taped to Brian's door. It said, simply:

<--
Tea, biscuits, heat pads and sympathy this way.

Beneath which was a comic-style sketch of a muddy Brian stumbling toward a pile of provisions. It was clear enough who had left the message, though Teddy hadn't signed his name.

Josh closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair, sighing heavily. He was tired. So tired. He was tired of fighting. He was tired of ignoring each other. He was tired of pushing things away so he wouldn't have to face them. They festered like infections, feeding in the dark. The worse type of illness. Something his powers couldn't touch.

His half of the room had never been so empty. Instruments gone forever. All their bases, stands and accompanying pieces moved into the closet. Along with every last scrap of sheet music, book and cd he owned. His external hard drive, filled to the last byte with mp3s was under his bed. He still couldn't bring himself to wipe it.

Every knick knack and photograph had likewise been shoved under the bed until he decided what to do with them. The only personal items still out and about was his fish, his laptop and his schoolwork. His tree...his tree was safe with a chlorokinetic he trusted. She'd take good care of it until he could have it near him again.

Looking up at the ceiling, Josh wondered how the hell they'd gotten to this point. And more over, whether or not when Julian walked out the door tonight, if it would be for the last time.

It had been a day full of basking in the sun and working on a paper for one of his classes, and normally for Santo that meant vegging out in his room for the rest of the evening, watching television. Sometimes he sacked out in the lounge but there'd already been a bunch of girls in there watching something romantic, with frilly dresses and giggling. So! His room was the best bet. But he did have his door open in case anyone wanted to drop by.

Her head hurt and her hands were still shaking. Lois felt like her very bones were shaking too, every part of her vibrating so hard it might fly apart. Every few seconds, a flare of pink light lit her up from head to toe, but so far she hadn't actually dissolved anything else. Her chest ached like someone had kicked her ribs in, probably from suppressing tears. But on the bright side, her stomach didn't hurt anymore.

That had been the first symptom of speaking to her older sister, the person who had been her constant companion as a ghost, as a pair of shoes to fill, as a shadow she thought she'd escaped. Then came an eye-stinging sensation like she might cry and, she guessed, considerable pallor since Wicked hadn't wasted much time asking her what was wrong. But she'd said 'No, nothing' and kept refreshing her journal, biting her lip so hard that it nearly bled.

Then came the shaking hands that forced her off the computer and, as she paced around putting a few last things away, a sudden flare up of her powers that dissolved a shiny cushion one of her mother's friends had given her for her new room. Wicked had noticed that, too, and Lois anxiously excused herself to make a call.

She was locked in the bathroom now, cringing every time the pink light flared and hoping there'd be no more dissolving. A hastily made call to her trainer reassured her that this was normal, everything would be okay, and she'd have some help soon.

Still, she couldn't help feeling this was an inauspicious start to her new life. She'd come all this way to escape Ali and somehow practically landed on her doorstep. Being powered was the one thing she'd had over her sister and Ali overshadowed her there, too.

By the time her trainer arrived, she'd given in. She cried.

The half hour nap that Anna had taken after her shower had not been nearly long enough, but the whole needing to get up soon or face having to actually drive somewhere to get food prospect was enough to drag her out of bed again. She had pulled on a clean uniform and, along with her roommate, had trudged over to the food court at the student center. The cafeteria was just too far.

There was a little bit of a crowd in the food court, but they seemed, by and large, to understand that none of the cadets were much in the mood to stand in lines while people took their precious time deciding what they wanted to eat, and the pair had made their way through relatively quickly.

"I'm not doing any homework tonight," she informed Ali as she dropped her tray onto a table and then dropped her ass heavily into her seat. "I am way too fucking tired for that."