Room 306, Sunday Morning

[princessarcasm]

Amy was finally down to only a handful of things left to unpack, and one of those things was the baggie of glow-in-the-dark stars Karma had given her when they were little.

Here in a shared bedroom, she had less space to work with (she didn't want to cover more than her fair share of the room's surface area, after all), but it felt weird not having them up.

So Amy found herself standing on her bed on top of a messy stack of pillows and rolled-up hoodies, trying to get high up enough to reach the ceiling. Unfortunately, the pillow stack kept tipping over and forcing her to rapidly move out of the way if she didn't want to fall all of the way off the bed.

She wasn't having an easy time with it.

"Fuck! Fucking fuck. How did I ever get these up at home in the first place?"

{halfway open door, open post!}

Comments

[tigerundercover]

Raven came back in from grabbing breakfast and spent just a few moments watching Amy's progress. Or lack there of.

"Do you want some help with that? I could see if I can find a step stool."

[princessarcasm]

"Oh, hi." Amy stepped off the pillow pile for a moment, considering that offer. "You know, that would be cool, but on the other hand standing on a stepstool on my bed would probably even less safe."

Or it would be more of an adventure.

Hmm.

"You could make yourself really tall," she suggested. "I'm not sure if that's asking for a really big favor or more like medium-sized or what, but that would be really helpful."

[tigerundercover]

"I could definitely do that," Raven said. "I wasn't sure if you wanted them placed really specifically or something." She walked over, stretching out her legs and arms as she went until her head was about even with Amy's while she was standing on a pillow tower. "I don't really know a lot of constellations or anything, if that's what you're hoping for."

[princessarcasm]

"Me neither," Amy assured her. "Just wherever's fine. They're not supposed to be an accurate replica of the night sky or anything, just a reminder of home."

She hopped off the bed and stood next to Raven with the baggie of stars, holding them up to her.

"Thanks, by the way," she added. "I'd say I owe you one, but I'm pretty sure you're just way more competent than me across the board."

[tigerundercover]

"That can't possibly be true," Raven said, taking the baggie and pulling the first star out to stick it on the ceiling. "I know more about Fandom and all, but that's just because I've been here long enough."

[princessarcasm]

"Yeah, but you can also do the shapeshifting thing," Amy said. "If I could do that, I'd have all my favors covered. All those annoying things like needing someone to help you move or drive to the airport are way easier if you can have huge muscles or wings on a moment's notice."

Amy was petite and couldn't even drive, so.

[tigerundercover]

"I can't fly," Raven said. "Too many details involved that I don't understand. I could probably glide, but that's not the same." And she wasn't quite brave enough yet to fling herself off something to try. "And bigger muscles are no replacement for having friends around willing to help out."

[princessarcasm]

"Oh. That sucks about the flying," Amy said sympathetically. If she could transform physically into almost anything but couldn't actually fly, she'd probably be pretty bummed. "And I guess I didn't think of it like that. I'm always going for the most efficient route where I get to interact with as few people as possible."

Which was its own kind of problem.

[tigerundercover]

"I used to be like that," Raven said. "But that was mostly because when I was little almost all the people I met thought I was a monster and wanted me dead. People weren't really ready for a blue scaly little girl who could turn into someone else."

[princessarcasm]

"Holy shit, that's terrible." And Amy thought she had it bad for being more popular than she wanted to be. "People are so messed up. One person's a little different and everyone needs to have an opinion on it."

She fiddled with the star she was holding for a second before wondering, "Was it like -- did you tell people, or did they find out on accident?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven shrugged. "Mostly they'd find out when I lost control and shifted accidentally. Sometimes they'd get suspicious because I'd get the details of who I was pretending to be wrong. And sometimes . . . I just got tired of hiding. People still get afraid of people who are different in worlds where there are no shapeshifters, huh?"

[princessarcasm]

"God, that sucks."

As much as Amy had resented Shane at first for spilling her secret before she even knew it existed, at least she had never had to actively juggle a lie that was so important to her.

"Yeah, I think freaking out in the face of other types of people is just a gross human thing across the board," she answered. "Like, um -- my mom found out I was sort of dating a girl a few weeks ago. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it still wasn't great. And now I keep obsessing over whether it would have been better if I had stopped her from finding out, or told her a different way, or something."

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded thoughtfully. "Sometimes there's no right way to do it," she said. "I got lucky -- when my brother found me I didn't have to explain anything. He just knew. It got easier hiding, when I had someone who knew who I really was." And she still couldn't imagine telling him she liked girls, too. "Your mom -- that's not why you're here, is it?"

[princessarcasm]

"Oh, no, she didn't kick me out or anything," Amy said. "But I wanted to get away after that. And there was a lot of other weird stuff that happened," she added vaguely.

"I had a friend like your brother who helped me out, too. He sort of... came up to me at a party and told me I was gay. Best resource ever, right?"

[tigerundercover]

"Sounds like it." Raven smiled. "There's something nice about having people who know you for who you are, even in spite of yourself." Raven placed one last star then tilted her head, shrinking back down to her average height. "There, how's that look?"

[princessarcasm]

"Amazing," Amy said. "Thank you so much, you're a lifesaver. And now I'm realizing I probably should have asked you if you were cool with having them up in the first place."

Womp womp.

"You are, right? 'Cause otherwise I'm back to jumping on pillows."

[tigerundercover]

"They're fine," Raven assured her. "My last roommate had a big bulldog. Some stars on the ceiling are nothing."

Not that she hadn't liked the bulldog. Better than Chuck, even.