InsaneJournal

Who: Ororo Munroe & Commander Shepard
What: A potential business relationship
When: 11/2 or so
Where: Urdnot Ranch
Rating: PG, discussion of bigotry, gender dysphoria/trans* issues
Status: Complete



Ororo was slowly starting to get more comfortable with the fact that she’d dreamed. Dreamed. But she still had work to do. And she wanted to see if she could work something out with Urdnot Ranch for her job. They could both benefit.

She’d driven - with some hesitation - back to Urdnot Ranch. She both wanted and didn’t want to see Scott Summers again, so she did experience a bit of relief when the receptionist said she would try to find someone named Shepard.

Like with all things, Shepard stepped into Wrex’s role with a gusto. There weren’t many changes she wanted to make, mostly revolving around some efficiency matters since Wrex had been terrible with computers and prefered to do as much on paper as possible. Her blonde head popped out of his office and she gave Ororo a grin. “Come in!”

Jen the se(x)retary just rolled her eyes. This was already an adventure.

Ororo blinked. “Oh. Hi. Shame on me for assuming ‘Commander Shepard’ would be a guy.” She laughed, holding out a hand. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Ororo Munroe; I’d been talking to Scott Summers about maybe linking up our two organizations for some joint projects.”

Tyra held out her hand and shook it firmly. “You’re with that youth LGBT group, aren’t you?” IT was a bit of a personal thing to her, of course, so she wanted to know more. “Have a seat!”

A good, firm handshake. It was almost like the day with Scott hadn’t existed. “Yeah, Operation Go Home is my employer. They’re just great.” She came into the office and sat down, smiling. “I expected Mr. Summers. Though I’m totally fine with you!”

“He’s dealing with some personal issues today,” she replied, sitting down in Wrex’s chair. Her chair now. That was going to be strange. “And I suppose I need to be the leader again, I don’t mind.”

“Is it a common thing, that you need to be the leader?” What did she mean by that? Was the ranch so often unstaffed?

She waved a hand. “The commander thing. Wrex and I go a long, long way back, from when I was a marine. Having him in charge was a little weird for both of us, I think.” Wrex had been more used to leading troops into battle, and had been less than good at peptalks. “The place is mine now.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you for your service, in that case.” Ororo smiled. “I would say the same to him.”

“I’ll pass it along. It’s personal for me, a little bit. I figure it’s good to disclose that.” Shepard looked around, then opened a little fridge. “Water?”

“You can disclose whatever you feel needs disclosing. What’s personal, exactly?” Ororo smiled. “And sure, some water would be nice. Thank you.”

She offered over a bottle. “I spent most of my adult life as a marine. It’s really fucking hard fighting for a country that would kick you out the moment they found out just who you spend your leaves with. Was something I never shared with my parents. Runs in the family, you know. I suspect they knew, I wasn’t that discrete at times, but never indiscreet enough to get drummed out. But I could have reupped a few years ago, and decided not to.”

“Ugh.” Ororo made a face. “It’s just offensive, thinking that sexuality would have any effect on how someone fights. The only people it affects is homophobes. I’m pretty sure I’m right in saying you kept your head down and obeyed orders and were generally just a credit to company morale.”

“My entire unit knew, none of them cared one whit about it, except when it came time to trade stories over a poker match.” Tyra grinned at the memory. “They knew I had their backs, and they had mine.”

“That’s great.” Ororo laughed. “And I’m glad you had allies. At least you weren’t alone in dealing with it? I mean, I know that doesn’t make it right, but I hope I’m making sense.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. It makes me happy to see people trying to help kids who are a lot worse off than I ever was,” she replied.

Ororo nodded. “The people who created this organization just do such great work. I mean, it’s just an epidemic, these kids suffering.” She shook her head. “You guys don’t focus exclusively on LGBTQ youth here, though, right? You deal with any kid who needs help?”

“Any kid who needs help, the occasional adult.” Shepard leaned forward on the desk. “Originally the focus was on kids who were getting lost in the system. One step shy of juvy or life in the penal system. Trying to turn them around. We’ve had a lot of success, but we’ve also opened our doors to more, as the need became more clear.”

Ororo nodded. “Because the need is obviously huge.” Unfortunately. “My idea is that we could send some of our kids to you for short periods - teach them skills and that kind of stuff - and in return, we can educate your staff and provide extra counseling for any kids who come to you who have gender or sexuality issues.”

Shepard tilted her head, but really, did she need to even think that over? “That idea is something I’m entirely for, Miss Munroe. There’s unfortunately some overlap.”

“Unfortunately, yes. We do pretty well on giving the kids shelter and a place to go, but we’re too small to teach life skills. The damn budget’s overextended.” She shook her head. “And while I certainly can’t speak specifically as to your people - I’m sure they’re fine - sometimes even the best people are a little out of practice dealing with stuff like gender dysphoria or internalized homophobia. Operation Go Home kind of makes that our business.”

“Oh, I’m not even going to pretend that I know how to handle dysphoria,” Shepard replied. For that matter, she’d have a hard time getting intimate with someone who was pre-op. Post op wasn’t a problem. But that was an internalized feeling she tried to ignore.

“To be honest, I couldn’t either. But I’m a cis woman, so it isn’t really my area of expertise. I’m glad we have people who know better.” Ororo smiled. “I’ve seen ugly stuff up close, but you’d be amazed at the amount of people who can be nice to me, to make a point of not being racist or whatever, and then go back to gay-bashing in the next breath.”

“Not too surprised. They’re being polite to your face, but they’d probably bash you too behind your back,” Shepard pointed out. One bigot is as bad as another. She at least had an advantage of being white, even if she didn’t like that being an advantage in anything.

“Probably.” Ororo rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’ve gotten used to it. It could be worse for me. I’m black and was raised Muslim.” She made spooky hands sarcastically.

Shepard put a hand to her chest. “Oh my god, we’re all gonna die.” And if the poor woman was a dreamer, that was a trifecta of potential suck right there!

“I know, right? And on top of that, I started dreaming.” Ororo laughed. “I am clearly the anti-Christ.”

“Met him, you’re definitely not like him,” Shepard assured her, only half-jokingly.

“Anywhere else but Orange County, I think I’d decide you were joking.” Ororo looked up at her, getting serious for a second. “Honestly, how fucked up is this place?”

“Mostly a joke. Mostly.” She sat back in her chair. “The county or the ranch? The ranch is about as normal as the county, really.”

“So, very fucked up.” Ororo said, not without a trace of bitterness.

“I feel it prudent to warn you that there are aspects of this ranch set up to specifically deal with those fucked up things,” Shepard said. “Could you imagine what a person could do, if they have a traumatic dream and also some kind of power? We have counselors, and people who’ve experienced that here.”

“That makes sense, though so far none of Operation Go Home’s kids have turned out to be dreamers, thank God.” Ororo couldn’t imagine that. “Your staff are dreamers, then? Mostly?”

“I don’t think Jen out there is. But I am, Wrex was. Scott. Some of the teachers and a few of the kids. Wrex and I dreamed of the same place, but not the same as Scott.”

“I’ve met Scott, like I said.” Ororo said, knowing she sounded small out of nowhere and hating herself a little bit for it. “He frightened me, I have to say. I think I dream of the same place he does.”

“I’m sorry,” Shepard said, sincerely. Two words that could mean a whole lot. “We’ve talked about it. Though I’ll admit I’ll take his over mine, any day. And I’m sorry he scared you, but there are some scary things about these places we dream about. I haven’t meant many people who dream about sunshine and rainbows.”

“He didn’t mean to. He just did.” Ororo didn’t hold it against him. More like against the county. “I feel like I should just pick up and move, but I’m not that kind of person. Besides,” she added, joking a little, “I think my cat would kill me.”

She nodded her head, and decided that ‘we also have a space ship, a hypersonic jet, multiple futuristic tanks and an underground facility’ would have to wait awhile. No sense in breaking Ororo. “It’s not so bad, once you get used to it.”

“I hope I will get used to it.” Ororo said, shrugging. “Jury’s out as of right now.” It felt like it wasn’t anything she could ever manage. It felt too big, too intimidating.

“Something tells me you’ll be able to manage it,” Shepard said. “You’ve got a backbone, I can tell. The kind of person I’d have recruited.”

“Recruited?” Ororo echoed. “You mean, in the military?”

“Sort of. My dreams are complicated, and I spent a large amount of time gathering allies from assorted governments and militaries to work against an external threat.” Sounded a lot more professional than ‘I got a bunch of aliens and mercenaries to join together and fight the end of galactic civilization.’

“What kind of dreams do you have?” Ororo raised an eyebrow. “I mean, that sounds very complicated. All I’ve dreamed about so far is growing up in Cairo and having a plane crash into our house.”

“Cairo is one place I wish I’d gotten to visit more,” she mused. “But they’re...well I dream of one possible future. We’re the new kids on the galactic stage, and trying to become members of the interstellar political system.”

“That’s ... even weirder than Scott’s.” Ororo admitted. “It must be interesting, though.”

“Pretty interesting. I marry a member of a long lived race of blue aliens who don’t have traditional genders, but resemble female humans.” She grinned at the thought. “We had eight kids after saving the galaxy.”

“Wow! I feel sorry for whoever did the work!” Ororo laughed. She’d never really wanted kids; the idea of having eight seemed overwhelming.

Shepard grinned. “That was her. The Asari can take the genetic material of just about any species and use it to reproduce. Technically they just remix their own, but I’m pretty sure at least one of those kids was a lot like me.”

“That seems somehow more handy, but at the same time, it takes out the fun part.” Ororo chuckled.

“Oh, the fun part still happened.” Her eyes gleamed. “I don’t know how it all works, but there’s kind of...mind melding involved. I suspect that has something to do with making it seem ‘normal’ to non-Asari. I still try to figure out how a Krogan won’t break one, or how it works with the Salarians.” Though Asari could be really tough.

Ororo had no idea what that meant, so she just laughed. “So you dream about space. Scott and I tend to dream about a weird mutant future. I wonder what else people dream about.”

“My girlfriend dreams of the same future Scott does. Her room mate seems to dream about wrecking on an island.” Her smile dampened somewhat. She hoped Lara was getting help. “I’ve heard of real crazy out there people. Like being animals.”

“Animals?” Ororo echoed, eyes going wide. “No thanks!”

“God that’s the last thing I’d want too. Aliens are bad enough. Wrex, you met him, dreamed he was a big scarred up turtle man.” For lack of a better description.

She hadn’t actually met Wrex, but she’d seen him. “That’s bizarre!”

“In the grand scheme of weird and crazy, I’d have to say my dreams aren’t that bad.” Terrible and horrifying, on the other hand… “Ran into someone who dreams about being a starship captain. Lucky bastard.”

“That would be kind of excellent, honestly.” Ororo grinned. “But yes. Anyway. Would you be interested if I sent a few of our personnel over here to work on setting up a few kids’ transfer?”

“I’m interested.” She nodded her head at Ororo. “I have a random question for you, but it’s relevant, and I’m interested in hearing your opinion. I was going to ask one of our staff doctors about living on site in Wrex’s old cabin.”

“For them or for you? I don’t see why you shouldn’t live here if you felt like it.” Ororo shrugged. She didn’t know the woman; was there a reason she ought not to live here?

“For them. I spent a lot of money on my house and I’m not sure I’m ready to move, or if I’d even recoup half the costs of the renovation.” Shepard sighed. Her house was a bit like a reinforced bunker underneath the facade and she liked the modifications.

“Ah. I see. Well, in that case. I don’t know enough about your operations to say anything about your people, but I bet I could get one of ours to stay temporarily, if need be.” Ororo nodded. “I think having someone here for the kids would be a really good idea.”

“That’s what I’m thinking too. Wrex used to be here, so … well I’ll ask Faiza first. She could use a bigger place and with a pay raise it’ll make up for her work in the city. But if she declines I’ll talk to your people.”

“I’ll let them know the offer might be coming, regardless.” Ororo smiled. She was getting more used to talking about the dreams, but it still set her on edge a little. Regular business talk helped. “I suppose I shouldn’t take up any more of your time, though.”

“I have plenty of it, but it’s probably a good idea to get back to work,” she replied, darting her eyes a little bit. She’d really liked the break.

“I feel like I should. I’ve spent a whole lot of time lately talking about the dreams, and I don’t know. I’m not ... ready yet.” Ororo shrugged. “Says something, when I’d rather talk about horrible problems facing teenagers.”

“I understand.” Shepard got Ororo another water to go. “If you ever just need to rant you can use my ear. I really don’t mind it.”

“Thank you.” Ororo smiled, both for the offer and the bottle. “It feels weird, that I’ve lived in Orange County for so long and have never experienced this. It’s new. And frightening.”

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad when I say that you’ll probably get over it,” she replied, raising her eyebrows. “Hope I see you around.”

“You will. I’m going back to work to talk about bringing our docs here right now.” Ororo could at least smile at that as she headed out.