Logs:Roommates and Reunions

Roommates and Reunions
Dramatis Personae Kieow, Astrid
In Absentia	2020-12-09 '
Location <XAV> Girls' Hall - Xs Second Floor
The girl's dormitory is more densely lined with doors than the main thoroughfare, nearly all of which sport some kind of bulletin or dry-erase board, or some manner of poster. This hallway is slightly neater than its counterpart across the way, the door-hangings packed full of scribbled notes and responses, a slew of conversations traversing both sides of the corridor. Whatever mood has descended upon Xavier’s School since a rather large part of its student body has gone missing, it is about to be flipped upside down. It’s been another long day within a very long week within what felt like a very long month but was in fact seventeen days for Astrid. Getting through the rift felt like a miracle, but so did the ride back to Salem Center and eventually the school. It is impossible to say what is going to happen these days, and something as simple as a bus ride will not be taken for granted. The first opportunity she has to get back to her room she grabs, hoping to sleep for at least an equal amount of time that she was gone. It’s night time already, and she’s trying to be as quiet as possible getting back into her dorm room, not sure whether or not her roommate is still awake. Slowly twisting the door handle, she props the door open just enough to squeeze her head through. Kieow jumps in her bed and presses herself up to a sitting position, eyes wide in the darkness. Her vision is already adjusted to the dim light from the hall, so she is quickly able to see who is at the door. A look of pure joy mingled with the culmination of the pain of worry smears itself across her face as she tries to leap from bed, tangled in the sheets. "ASTRID!" She's a blur that topples to the ground, but quickly rises, kicking off the blankets that came along for the ride. She simultaneously grasps for her roommate and attempts to turn on the light - and fails at both. "You're all right? You're okay?" She cant decide what to do, so flips on the light first to get a look at the other girl. "Come in here!" “Kieow? You awake?” Astrid replies, eyes squinting in an attempt to make out all the commotion she is hearing but not able to see in the dark room. What little light spilling in from the hallway does nothing to help. Her eyes immediately close and open again once the light is flipped on, still squinting through her black plastic frames that are now very crooked. She looks exhausted. Her face is littered with little cuts that are now well on their way to being healed and she’s wearing a beige pair of pants and matching sweatshirt that looks like something that would be worn in a tv prison drama. Strangely and not at all fitting with the rest of her clothes is a pair of maroon and blue bowling shoes. She just nods to the two questions asked of her before rushing into the room, arms outstretched as she moves in for a hug. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you!” "Well, I am now anyway," Kieow admits, head tilting this way and that as she examines the other student, her hands on her shoulders for a moment longer before pulling her into a hug. "I was so worried. You're really okay? What happened? Where have you been? Jiminy Cricket! No one had any information. It was... terrible." She then steps back to look her over again. "I have too many questions. I am sorry." While in the hug, Astrid squeezes tight, clasping her hands together behind Kieow’s back until the embrace has ended. She remains just inside the door, smiling sheepishly with eyes lowered to the floor as everything that has happened to the missing students begins to flood back to her. “Really, I am.” She pauses looking back up. She doesn’t sound exactly confident, but her smile does begin to widen as she stares back at her roommate. “It feels so surreal, seeing you standing here. Seriously. Just being here. It just… doesn’t feel… real...” She pulls off her glasses, using the bottom edge of her sweatshirt to wipe clear all the smudges lacing the lenses. “No, don’t apologize. I don’t mind, honestly. We… well, we were pulled into a… a parallel world.” She pauses, trying to find a way to make the whole situation sound less crazy. “I know how that sounds, but it was so much like our own world and yet so different.” Her eyes begin to well up a bit as her gaze moves to a spot on the wall yet behind her roommate. Kieow takes Astrid's hand and gently guides her over to her bed. "Sit. Please. you don't have to do anything more exciting than that. Just... Sit and breathe. Here..." she releases Astrid and wanders back to her side of the room, pulling out small little pudding cups that actually contain fruit flavored jellies. Her fingers wrap around as many as she can carry and brings them back to Astrid's bed. "Maybe eating something will help. You know, hit all five senses. Remember what it's like to be home?" Astrid let’s Kieow lead her to the bed and falls down with a plop. “You wouldn’t believe everything that happened.” Again her glasses are removed, this time using her sleeve to wipe away the tears that were beginning to build up. “I swear it was this weird combo of horror and complete absurdity. How do you even process that?” She replaces the frames back onto her face and grabs one of the fruit jelly filled cups, gently holding onto it with both hands. “Thank you.” She adds, looking down at the plastic container. “We slept in an abandoned blockbuster in Bangor Maine. A blockbuster? Well, not Bangor here, but… well... you know… and that isn’t even the weirdest thing.” "I'm.. sure that makes more sense to an American and I'm guessing Bangor, Maine is less than ideal place, whatever dimension you are in, but I believe you. And I will believe you. Whatever you can tell me - or feel up to telling me." Kieow sighs softly and peels the film off the top of one of her cups. Mango. Yum. She pops the whole thing in her mouth, as it's only the size of a large marble and chews quietly. "But I do know what it's like to go somewhere far away, but still see things that are... well, feel normal, but are not." Astrid looks embarrassed, eyes falling back down to the little cup in her hands. “Oh yeah, I just always assume… well, it doesn’t matter really.” The plastic film is torn off the cup and the little jelly popped into her open mouth. It is impossible to say if the little jelly was even chewed before being swallowed. “The super abridged version of events then, right? More details later.” She takes a deep breath, slowly exhaling as she turns to face Kieow, preparing herself. “We stayed in a cabin, group split up, some headed to Canada, some to New York, stayed in a New York pizza place, I blew up the pizza place, got arrested, put in some crazy super Mutant prison, was broken out of crazy super Mutant prison, then ended up in a bowling alley before here.” She takes in another deep breath, turning to face her roommate. She smiles nervously, turning the now empty plastic cup around in her hands. “Oh… and I got shot with a dart by a killer robot.” Kieow listens quietly, keeping only as much eye contact as Astrid is comfortable with. There is a certain distance to her gaze, however, as all of the words are gathered and processed. This is when the rapid blinking begins as she fights off each and every question that starts to bubble up from within. "Okay." She nods and considers this a little longer before starting to count off things on her fingers. "So, cabin... Canada, pizza go boom, arrested... Super Mutant Prison... got out... then bowling. I feel like I am missing the beginning of the story." The recap of everything spewed from Astrid’s mouth makes her laugh. “Yeah. That sounds about right.” She falls silent, face screwing up into a half grimace as she thinks through her words beforehand for once. “Yeah, the beginning. That actually started here.” Her eyes drift over towards their window.” A rift, I guess, opened up by the lake and sucked us through.” The lake in question is not in fact in the direction their window faces. She manages to push forth a soft smile while looking back up at Kieow. She attempts to switch gears. “Enough of me. There will be plenty of that I am sure of it. How about you? How have you been?” Astrid nods, thinking about what it was like getting sucked through the rift. It felt like it all happened so long ago. “It was… well, not at all a boom or loud. No noise really. Almost like a warping, if that makes sense? Like the world shifted and then just abruptly righted itself in a completely different place.” She chews on her bottom lip, looking surprisingly cheerful. “I am sorry we caused you worry.” She pauses, leaning in so her shoulder bumps into Kieow’s for a reaffirming nudge. “I am not sad you got left here. I am glad for it.”