Kitty and Dana, Sunday Afternoon

[om_starbuck]

New roommates meet and learn that if there's one universal language, it's got to be geekiness.


For the split-second Dana paused outside the door of her new room, she was nervous. She was the new kid all the time, sure, but not usually in her own house. Still, standing out here wasn't going to make it any easier. Buck up, soldier. Life was hard, war was hell, and somewhere out there, someone had it worse.

She pushed the door open, pulling her suitcase in after her, and...had someone's luggage exploded? Dana focused on the dark-haired girl that seemed to be the owner of the chaos, and smiled anyway; it was just a little mess, no reason to make a bad first impression. "Hi. I'm Dana Scully."

It certainly must have seemed that someone's suitcase had exploded. Kitty had chosen a side of the room, sure. The bed had sheets and purple covers which were currently shoved to one side and buried under a few stacks of comics (the stacks having apparently collapsed into a pile at some point.) Posters decorated one half of the room, including original Star Wars: A New Hope artwork and two psychedelic displays of fractal algorithmic art in bright, vivid colors. The bookcase was overflowing with everything from back issues of Scientific American to texts on robotics, artificial intelligence, and an entire shelf devoted to programming languages.

The dresser featured a stuffed purple dragon about the size of a full-grown cat, along with a host of small pictures and knickknacks. The floor was strewn with a few clothes that had undoubtedly missed the laundry basket in the corner, but was mostly taken up by Kitty herself, who currently had a box of electronics sitting in front of her, spilling out around her in a fan of cables, chips, and computer parts.

When the girl looked up, she had a piece of pepperoni pizza half-clenched in her teeth and a messy ponytail holding back a fall of plain brown hair. She dropped the pizza into her hand and started wiping grease off on her jeans. "Ohmygosh. Uh. Hi."

"Hi," Dana repeated, sounding slightly amused. "I'm your new roommate."

"Oh man." Kitty glanced around sheepishly, trying to shove a pair of shorts under her bed with one foot. "Sorry. About the mess. And all."

Another glance around and she threw the pizza back onto a plate on her nightstand, then shoved to her feet, wiping off her hands on her jeans again before walking through the box of computer parts to extend her hand. "Hi. I'm Kitty."

Dana couldn't help the eyebrow raise as Kitty (that was a name? Huh) walked through a box. Literally through it, as though it wasn't there. And it did have to actually be there, right? She didn't think she could see the ghosts of boxes past -- no energy to pick up.

She reached out to give her roommate's hand a firm shake. "Is that your thing? You walk through stuff?"

Wow, nice grip. Kitty grinned back at the other girl. "Yeah, pretty much. I phase. Quantum tunneling...I can just, you know, pass through other matter."

"Are you moving their molecules, or yours?" Dana asked, curious.

Kitty brightened at the question, inwardly finding herself get even more excited at the idea of a roommate. The girl actually knew her stuff. "Mine," she answered, twitching another grin. "At least, that's the theory. The doc hasn't had the time to really check it out yet, but they think I move my molecules around those of something else, briefly merging with it. Oh, and...I kind of disrupt electronics if I phase through them."

That was fascinating, though she couldn't help dropping her eyes to the box of electronic stuff Kitty had just gone through. "Permanently damage, or temporarily short out?"

"Oh!" Kitty jumped back and smiled at the box. "Not stuff that isn't connected to anything. Just, you know. systems that are currently running. These old parts are fine."

"Ah, I see." Dana smiled again. "So, uh, I'm guessing the empty bed is mine?"

Kitty flushed a bit and started to move around the room, grabbing clothes here and there, and kicking random parts toward her side. "Yeah. I mean, of course. Sorry. I knew I was getting a roommate, but they didn't tell me when you'd be here."

"Don't worry about it." Dana put down her suitcase, and picked up some stuff, offering it to Kitty. "Not a problem at all."

Taking the things, Kitty tossed them onto her bed, then grabbed her pizza and took a seat on the floor again, her back to the bed and knees kicked up. "So uh, how old are you? What's your thing? Do you take showers at night or in the morning? I'm supposed to ask all of that stuff, right? I've never had a roommate before."

Or any kids to live around at all, really. Curse (blessing?) of being an only child.

"Um...13, the teachers called it necropathy, I can shower whenever, and I don't know. I've only ever roomed with my sister," she replied, blinking.

"Whoa," Kitty sat up staring at her. "Necropathy? Like, what, communicating with the dead?"

Dana nodded. "Well, sorta. I can summon them, basically, using remaining electrical impulses. They look like they're trying to talk but...I can't actually hear them."

"Holy cow," Kitty breathed. She'd heard of plenty of different kinds of crazy powers so far at the school, but summoning the dead was...well. She would have said that it was something out of fantasy novel. Ghosts weren't supposed to exist, but she believed Dana heart and soul. "That's deep."

"Honestly? It's kinda creepy," Dana admitted with a small smile.

"That too," Kitty made a small face in sympathy, but it brought up another question, too. "So...does that mean we're going to have ghosts visiting the room?"

"Hopefully not." Maybe she would be able to, if she wanted - though Dana wasn't really in the mood to find out that someone had died here or something - but she couldn't imagine why she would. She wasn't always in control, though, so she couldn't categorically say 'no.'

"Well," Kitty waved her piece of pizza as though formally decreeing something, "whatever happens, we'll handle it together, right? We're roommates, now. That means we've got each others' backs."

Dana nodded seriously. "Exactly." She hopped on to her bed, breaking into a smile. "So...what's it like here?"

The ice apparently broken, Kitty broke into a wide grin of her own. "Amazing. I mean, I've only been here for a week, but this place. Dana, it's like, superhero mansion. There are people here with powers that will break your brain trying to figure them out. And then there's the campus, which is something out of The Great Gatsby. I haven't even found all of the different little lounges and sitting rooms yet, and there's a huge gym with an indoor pool and a track, and riding stables. Oh!"

Kitty abandoned the pizza. "And there's this entire complex underground, with an infirmary and labs, and this facility called the Danger Gym, which is like, a mechanized, holographic training room for powers!"

Dana's eyebrows jumped up her forehead. Brain-breaking powers, a huge mansion, a gym with an indoor pool, and an underground complex with labs, an infirmary, and a holographic gym? Jeez, welcome to mutant-world. Population, impossible.

"That's...amazing."

"Right?" Kitty answered, grinning. "I've asked the headmasters if I can get the schematics for the Danger Gym. I can't wait to get a better look at it."

"That technology," Dana mused aloud thoughtfully. "I mean...it's just something that doesn't exist. Or it didn't, anyway, until a few seconds ago. I mean, 3D virtual reality, sure, but...this sounds like something different. I wonder who made it? I mean, can you imagine what else mankind could do with that kind of tech?"

"I don't know," Kitty echoed. "I've kind of been wondering the same thing myself. It sounds like Headmaster Xavier has enough money to fund a small country, though, and apparently he has friends in many different areas of the scientific community. Who knows what he's capable of cobbling together with all those resources at his hands?"

Dana nodded. "Yeah, but...think of what else we could do with it, if the technology were more widely available. It would be incredible."

"Well, sure," Kitty agreed, but frowned slightly. "But that would mean answering questions about why it was built in the first place. It would mean telling the world about us."


"Maybe." Dana's voice was thoughtful, and she was seriously thinking about it. The idea of this amazing technology that she would've sworn didn't exist until today, the sort of things it could be used for -- the idea they might be hiding it. But, then, she didn't know the teachers reasons for hiding it. Maybe Kitty was right, and they were better off this way.

She still wasn't sure she liked it, but she had orders. Sorta.

"You know, it's not like the military isn't building similar kinds of tech," Kitty pointed out. "They're working on stealth tanks using holographic engines and virtual reality environments for recovering soldiers with disabilities."

"But we aren't the military." Not that Dana was opposed to the military, but it wasn't exactly her goal to be running around in a tank. "But that's true. Maybe it's just more widely available than I thought."

"Mostly just to governments and private investors," Kitty pointed out, her tone a little wry. "I'm guessing you're not one of the really rich kids? There seem to be a lot of them around here."

"Nope, not rich. There're a lot of rich kids here? Really?"

"Super rich," Kitty confirmed, motioning with her pizza toward her computer. "I've been looking them up. Not, you know, snooping or anything..."

Dana was curious, though hopefully she didn't look too curious. She was, though. "And who are all these rich classmates of ours?"

"Well," Kitty took a bite, ruminating on how much she should say - but really, none of it was stuff Dana couldn't look up herself. "There's Warren Worthington III, who is the son of the guy who runs Worthington Industries - you know, the pharmaceutical company? Then there's Shinobi Shaw? Apparently, he's like, the illegitimate son of Sebastian Shaw of Shaw Industries. Elizabeth and Brian Braddock are twins (there are a lot of those here) who are like, legit nobility from England.

"There's more too!" Kitty insisted. "Alison Blaire - Dazzler, the pop singer, is here, and a couple of kind of famous athletes too. Apparently Roberto da Costa is this really rich kid from Brazil who is some kind of soccer phenom, too."

She was filing all that away, though Dana wasn't really sure when she'd need to know that kind of stuff other than just knowing for her edification. Something was poking at the edge of her brain, though. "Braddock...that name sounds familiar...."

She went over to her suitcase, pulling it open, and rummaging inside for a magazine. Science Today, there it was. Dana pulled it out and flipped through pages, finally landing on one and looking mildly triumphant. "Braddock like Dr. James Braddock, the physicist?"

"You have no idea how cool it is that you know that," Kitty grinned, giving an emphatic nod. "That's him!"

"You know his work?" Dana asked, somewhat impressed. Of course, she already had ascertained that Kitty was smart, and was definitely a geek (which was a good thing, since Dana knew she was one, too), what with the books and the hardware scattered around. Still, that was a far cry from following recent physics theories. "Awesome."

"Don't get me wrong," Kitty waved a hand. "I just looked up his research when I saw it in the twins' bio. The only physics research I follow is in the major science and technology journals. Most of the time I'm more interested in the engineering and programming genius anyway. I just think it's majorly cool that you're a hardcore science nerd. I was terrified I'd end up in here with someone who didn't know a neutrino from a fig newton."

Dana gave her a teasing smile. "I do like fig newtons."

Kitty grinned, eyes shining bright. "Then wait til you see the kitchen."