WHO: Raven Reyes, Luna WHEN: During the powerswap WHERE: Luna's house WHAT: Luna is dealing with having Aracely's powers and Raven comes to see her. WARNINGS: low STATUS: gdoc, finished!
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Luna was in her room-- in the house she shared with Lincoln. At one point, it was a home with Octavia, but she was lost to the portal. Just as Raven was lost and Luna’s home was taken. Lincoln took her in. They were good friends and at one point, lovers. But nothing was weird between them. Maybe it was how Grounders treated one another, there weren’t any unspoken words or mind games. Luna thought that the Skaikru people were awfully dramatic.
At that moment, she was glad she wasn’t near anyone. She could hear voices on the edge of her mind, thoughts of people who came close to the cabin. Luckily, the cabin was on the outskirts of town. She levitated above her bed, upside down in a lotus position with her eyes closed. Luna could sense Raven walking up to the house and quickly tried to get down. This caused her to fall onto the bed. It wasn’t graceful and she was glad Raven didn’t see.
Luna rushed to the door and opened it just as Raven was about to knock. “I could feel you here,” she breathed, sounding like she had just ran a mile.
It took Raven a bit to travel on foot, as it often did. It was weird, still, to know that she put the work in to make her limp nearly invisible only to have her body and mind update to a point where it hasn’t been as seamless. So her gait was strange. It probably would be for a while yet.
She was almost wishing she’d taken a cab over- the years living in San Francisco and New York had made transit easy enough to navigate and the Texas heat had made her normally cool skin tacky with sweat, along with her hair frizzing out, but it was too late to worry about it now. Her hand had been raised to knock, but suddenly Luna was there while her arm stayed raised, suspended in the moment.
“Hi,” she greeted a moment later, a small smile on her face as her arm finally decided to drop back down to her side. “I’m guessing that’s part of your temporary powers?”
Luna stepped back and held an arm out to Raven, allowing her to come in. Once she shut the door behind them, she sat on one of the low benches that served as seating in their living room. There wasn’t a television. Luna curled her legs under her and watched Raven walk. She still had that leg issue, she thought, after all this time. “Sit down, I’m sorry we don’t have more plush chairs.” The cabin had appeared and mostly had grounder decor in it. Their beds were soft and their oven worked, which was all that mattered. The cabin was pretty and served its purpose.
“Yes, I can hear thoughts. I’m trying to think of other things, songs and stories to keep my mind from wandering into other’s.” Her voice was calm even if she was a nervous wreck. “You didn’t get anything in this mess?” She started to float up a little and quickly curled her fingers around the edge of the bench. Her teeth gritted.
“It’s fine,” the other woman dismissed as she took in her surroundings. It had been so long since she had seen something that resembled the earth she had once known, and while it wasn’t unwelcome, it was a little jarring. So much had been destroyed, so many were lost, but Lincoln and Luna were both here and alive, which Raven was grateful for.
She took her place next to Luna, stretching her legs out in front of her, a contrast to her companion’s form. “I still have my own messes,” Raven cracked, her voice free of bitterness. Luna’s grip on the bench didn’t go unnoticed and not for the first time since this mess has started, she was glad she was not afflicted.
“You know, stuff like this happened all the time back where I used to be,” she offered, trying to distract Luna into no longer being airborne. “One time I was in my thirties, I think. It was insane.”
Raven’s white knuckle grip loosened when Raven sat down. There was a calming feeling of having Raven next to her. A feeling that made Luna feel bigger than she really was, warmer than she really was. She wanted to protect Raven.
“Your own messes?” Luna looked at the other woman’s face when she spoke, her jaw a little tight from trying to concentrate. “Your thirties? --You didn’t go through six years in space, did you? You were older than me last time you were here.”
“My leg,” Raven clarified simply, stretching out the affected limb as much as she could. It ached, mostly, but it wasn’t unbearable.
She sighed, the memories of her time back in her home world disjointed. It was strange, because sometimes she recalled everything as though it was the only life she had ever led, but then there were the times when something would make her laugh or sad, and she had to sit and think about why and where and when it happened.
“I did. I had a few birthdays in Blackpoint- that’s where I know some other people from, but I was only twenty-two there. I’m twenty-five now.” Raven tightened her ponytail after she spoke, an action that centered her. “How long has it been since you arrived here?”
Luna only knew about the six years after Priamfaya situation because that was where Murphy was from. She added in how old they were now and if they surpassed her. It was sort of sad, wondering which of your friends made it to be older. It made her even sadder to know she would go so far off the right path.
Instead of arguing with someone who would know better about her ailment, Luna let it go. She could tell Raven there was nothing wrong with her all day but it wouldn’t mean anything because Luna had never been shot.
“It’s been four months.” Luna was making a point to breathe in deeply and exhale slowly. It took a moment, but her bottom dropped back down onto the bench. She no longer felt like she had to hold onto something. A sigh of relief when the voices of other people’s minds quieted. Luna smiled at Raven, almost as if she were just noticing her there. “You’ve lived so much more now since I saw you last. It’s almost as if we’re strangers again.”
“That’s a long time to be away from what you’ve known,” Raven responded, her own respirations echoing Luna’s. It was soothing, the quiet, feeling as though they were in unison.
“I think everyone thinks that about me.” It wasn’t wrong, really. Whatever time she had spent here she didn’t remember, but there were so many things that competed. Facts that she considered irrefutable weren’t because of her previous life in Blackpoint. It was amazing that her friends from home even wanted to speak to her. “I know that I’m different now, but it doesn’t make my friendships with all of you less important.” She took a breath, gathering her thoughts. “I think I value them more now. The amount of life that was lost…” She trailed off, “I spent time missing everyone, and I’ve known about the deaths that happened before the Wave. It’s just different to face that head on.”
“It is a long time to be away. And before that, I had the lab stuff.” She fiddled with her sleeve, remembering how the Griffins did their experiments. “I haven’t been with Floukru for a long time now.”
When Raven admitted that she was different even to the people she was close to, Luna blinked confused. “What exactly is your timeline, Raven? I’m confused.” She also reached out and touched Raven’s shoulder, not far from her own. “I still think of you as a friend, no matter how long time has passed between us.”
Raven’s mouth twitched upwards in a smile at the touch, reaching her hand up to squeeze Luna’s briefly. “Thank you. It’s confusing, but I’ll do my best.”
She took a moment to gather her thoughts, sorting memories by place and time before she started speaking, the words tumbling out. “Right after I was shot, I was brought through a portal to Hawaii. Blackpoint. You would like it there,” she added, “it’s an island. Beautiful clear skies and the ocean’s full of life. So I was there and eventually moved to San Francisco. That’s where I’ve lived for the past three years. But then I was brought through this portal, here, and when that happened, I got all the memories from the ground and shit forced into my head.” She took a beat, slowing the words to settle around them. “So I remember the years that have passed after Praimfaya, although it feels more distant.” Her lifetimes had collided suddenly when she came through. It still was alarming. “And that brings me here, with everyone that I knew from Blackpoint and you all from home.”
Suddenly all the voices filling Luna’s head didn’t seem so bad. Luna’s bottom lip stuck out ever so much, showing her displeasure with Raven’s situation. “That must be confusing for you. I’m told that I do some things after what I remember that I don’t think I would ever do. So I kind of feel what you feel, just not as bad, I suppose.”
Luna tilted her head like a bird. “Clarke is a nightblood now, you have an Azgeda spy amongst you, and Lexa is alive.” She sighed. “Things have a funny way of working out.”
“They do,” Raven chirped. There was no use to dwell on how messy her memories were, because she could just make some new ones. And she’d be damned if she didn’t enjoy those new ones that were yet to be formed. “But we’re here now, so we should make the most of it, right?” She gave Luna an unrestrained smile, somewhat relaxed now that she had actually voiced what was happening in her head. “This could be a good place to be.”
Luna toyed with the sleeve of her shirt-- clothes she got from Goodwill with her meager paychecks. Her grounder clothes were in a closet. She didn’t care if she fit in, but she had to admit that the thin material she was sporting was nice. “Praimfaya isn’t waiting for us, there’s abundant food, and people I can trust.” Granted, she only really trusted Lincoln and Raven, but that was better than no one. “This is a good place--” suddenly she grabbed her head. Through gritted teeth, she muttered, “However these strange powers and the swapping of them are a bit annoying.”
“Shit, hey.” The sudden onslaught of pain caught Raven off guard and she reached out in the hope that it would help Luna work through it. “Maybe we should get you outside? Could go for a walk…?” Her words lifted upwards into a question, concern still written on her face. “Further we go into the woods, the quieter it’ll get, right?”
Luna remembered how she calmed Raven down in Becca’s lab. She smiled softly, lips twitching ever so slightly upwards. When Raven reached for her, Luna reached back and stood up while pulling Raven with her. “Away from people, that’s a good idea. I should have done that in the first place. I just… can’t think.”