somethingwithturquoise | Room 204; Monday Afternoon [09/18].

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room 204

Room 204; Monday Afternoon [09/18].

"Ooof."

It wasn't as if she'd had a really taxing day or anything, just Creative Writing class, but Summer felt exhausted. It took a lot out of a person to realize that someone had been here, acting like her, pretending to be her, who wasn't her, and she had no idea what she'd gotten into, what she had said or done or anything. And she should probably take are of figuring it out. When she'd dug up her class schedule (what had even happened in those past classes? At least the classes weren't as stupid as the summer ones, though), she found out she even had a Little Sibling, what the fuck? So this Paris Geller person was being introduced to Fandom by a robot. Sure, it seemed fitting, but that robot was supposed to be her! She didn't have the energy to go hunt her down now, though. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she'll do it, tomorrow she'll have recovered a little.

Right now, all she seemed to have the energy for is flopping onto her bed, rolling onto her back, and staring at the ceiling. Feeling impossibly clean and peaceful and safe, and missing the weight of another body in the bed beside her.

Summer sighed.

Why did this all suddenly feel so weird?

[[ door and post are open! ]]

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Ringo didn't have any classes on Monday, which meant she'd headed out early (earlier than she'd usually go to class, at least) for some quality AirTrek time. By the time she got back to the dorms in the afternoon she was tired and sore (in a good way!) and knew from experience that walking around the dorms mostly at random was actually a pretty good way to cool down after a hard day.

Also, it let her see if any of the other floors had stuff in their common room worth stealing.

Also, also, it gave her opportunities to run into people!

"Hey, Summer!" she chirped, sticking her head in the open door. "Oh, you look like you've had a long day."

"Hm?" Summer heard a voice and lifted her head, instinctively touching the little silver mark near her left eye as if trying to wipe it away, but it still wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh, hey, Ringo," she said when she saw who was there, pushing herself up to sit and face the door. But her shoulders still slouched and she sighed. "I've had a long month. Hey, I, um, didn't say or do anything weird to you over the past few weeks by any chance, did I?"

Not knowing what "she'd" been up to around here lately was going to drive her nuts.

Edited 2017-09-19 00:04 (UTC)

"Um." Ringo pursed her lips, thinking back. "I don't think so?"

"Unless I missed something?"

Which was not something Ringo was going to discount as a possibility.

"Good," said Summer, nodding a little. Granted, she and Ringo didn't really spend a lot of time together, but that was at least one less thing to worry about. She tilted her head a little as she considered the other girl, shrugged, and decided to explain. It wasn't like she wasn't planning on keeping it a secret.

"Because if I did, it wasn't really my fault, because I wasn't even here. I just got back yesterday. And that was pretty much a robot here instead of me since the start of the semester. So, you know."

"Huh?"

Ringo stared for a second. "A robot?"

"But, um, it totally looked like you!" Not that, you know, they hung out all the time or anything, but still, if someone had asked Ringo if she could tell the difference between Summer and a robot, she would have said yes.

"Yeahhhhhh," Summer sighed again. "Even I gotta admit, my grampa did a really good job with those robots. They fooled my mother even."

Even if that really wasn't saying much.

"I'm just really hoping she didn't do anything really stupid and I'm going to have to do some major damage control on my reputation or something..."

"Your grandpa?" Ringo frowned at that.

"Your grandpa built a you-robot? But, um, what for?"

"Ummm." How best to explain this, really? "Well, mostly just to trick my mom because we were all hanging out in another dimension and I guess he didn't want her to worry?"

That...was probably not a helpful explanation. Summer shook her head, waving a dismissive hand. "You know what? It's a really long, complicated story. All that matters now is it's over and I'm back. Come on in, if you want. Maybe you can fill me in on anything interesting that's happened this semester, any interesting new students? Any weird Fandom stuff that I missed? BDG was, like, absolutely no help whatsoever on that front."

"That does sound kinda complicated," Ringo agreed, her eyes crossing slightly as she tried to think through that. Which she gave up on a couple of seconds later with a shake of her head.

"And, you're right." She beamed. "What matters is that you're back. So welcome back!"

"Thanks," said Summer, and she smiled, and it just felt really good to hear that, even from someone she wasn't terribly close with. Maybe even because it came from someone who she just sort of knew and it wasn't a big deal, but she was still happy to welcome her back. It was...really, really nice.

"It's good to be back," she added. "Which is, like, sort of weird? Because I didn't even want to come here in the first place, but, man, that seems like forever ago, that's insane."

Ringo grinned, shaking her head. "I think this place has a way of, you know, growing on you. I mean, I first came here because I wanted to, but I never expected for it to feel as much like home as it does? Like, home is still, you know, where my family is, but this place doesn't feel so far from that sometimes."

Shiemi stepped into the room after work carrying a new plant (of course) and bag of apples, both of which she set down on her desk before noticing her roommate was back. "Ah. Summer? Sorry, were you sleeping?"

"Where are you from, anyway?" Summer asked, seeing an opportunity to not talk or think about herself and her own home for a little while and seizing it with gusto. "What's it like, and your family?"

"Tokyo!" Ringo smiled happily as she thought of home. "With my three sisters." That thought made her smile go downright dopey.

"But, um, the city's like. I don't know how to describe it? Huge? Busy? Practically bursting with life? It's home, you know?"

Summer shook her head, still looking up at the ceiling, which might not have been as easy to catch, so she also waved a hand dismissively. "Nah," she said. "Just thinking..."

And then she startled out of her daydreaming and sat up suddenly, because, "Holy crap, Shiemi! Right! You'd probably know more than anyone, because, duh, you live with me. Have you noticed me acting, like, really weird or whatever lately, like, specifically in the last few weeks, since the start of the semester?"

"Eh?!!!" Shiemi dropped the apple she'd picked up, almost in tears as she looked back at the girl. "You... you just said... Did you just swear?"

Awww. Ringo's reaction was just so excited and sweet, and so why did it just make something hard and gross form in Summer's chest? She was just overly tired from everything, that had to be it. Still, though part of her felt like crying, she easily found a smile for Ringo.

"I've never had a sister," she said, "much less three. Just a dumb little brother, but he's okay. And it's funny, I've been to all sorts of really crazy places in different dimensions and everything, but I haven't been to many places just here on Earth. The most Earth I've seen was through Dr. Lecter's international food class. I bet Tokyo's just wild."

Summer didn't remember swearing, so she took a moment to go back over what she said, and then just sort of looked at Shiemi with her eyebrows lifted.

Did she honestly mean crap?

"Ohmygod, Shiemi," she said, and she couldn't help but laugh a little, careful that it didn't sound cruel or anything, "I have missed you so much."

She lifted her hands, two raised fingers, to stop any questions that might immediately stem from that. "Before you say anything, before I say anything, you might want to sit down because I have to tell you something that's going to seem really...weird."

"It's awesome!" Ringo grinned. "You should come visit sometime! I could give you the tour or whatever."

"Oh, and sisters are pretty great. I mean, sometimes they're soooo annoying, but even then, they're the best. Maybe you can find some. I mean, it's never too late for more family, right?"

"I mean, Rika-nee was already, like, eighteen when we decided to all be family."

And Summer couldn't help laughing at that, holding up a hand, shaking her head. "You've...clearly never met my family," she said. "Believe me, they're enough. More than enough, but, uh, joined? Are your sisters adopted?"

That might explain a lot.

Almost before the girl could finished speaking, Shiemi was rushing across the room to crash-hug Summer. "You're you again! HOW?" she sobbed.

She was just a little happy to have her real roommate back, yes.

"Hmm, I guess sort of?" Ringo squinted thoughtfully, then shrugged. "We all sort of adopted each other, is maybe the right way to put it? I mean, we all took Rika's family name since she was the only one who had one, but, yeah, adopted is close enough."

Hey, when did the roofs in this place start leaking, right onto her face, right under her eyes, huh? Because those couldn't possibly be tears in her eyes or anything from that reaction, shut up.

Summer was totally digging all the hugs right now, even if she didn't want to admit how much she needed them, and she smiled as her roommate went crashing into her, hugging her back.

"It's....a really long story," she said. "Long, and I don't think you'd like it very much, to be honest. But it doesn't matter anymore. You could tell there was something wrong, huh?"

And that sent another surge through her, because she couldn't help but feel that the only thing more depressing than the fact that there has been a robot of herself here in the first place was the possibility that no one would have even noticed.

"See, so that's a little different," Summer pointed out. "You guys got to choose your family, it sounds like. Mine kind of got stuck together."

She made a little bit of a face, though. "Kind of. My parents...kind of just got divorced..."

She had hesitated to say it; she didn't want to bring the mood back down, but she was also weirdly curious to what apparently-happy-family-Ringo here would have to say about divorce.

Ringo's face fell slightly, though not quite as much as someone might expect. "That sucks," she said softly, eyes intent on Summer's face. "You okay?"

That was the part that mattered to Ringo. She wasn't sure how to even think about divorce herself. She'd never had parents of her own to even begin to guess what that might feel like.

"Not at first, I wasn't," Summer admitted, "but I'm better about it now. I kind of get it now. It's just..." She shook her head a little. "Really weird. They've always been fighting and threatening it with each other for as long as I can remember, but they always made up, and then, boom, final line, and they're following through with it, and it's just so weird. Part of me is really sad, and the other part is just, like, ugh, finally. I, like, can't even really picture, like, a happy normal family. You're really lucky. But you're also right, family's more than just people you share blood with. My...time away has shown me that I've got family here, too..."

"Yeah." Ringo's smile was distant for a moment. "You do. But I get that that doesn't mean you just, you know, forget about everything else."

"It sucks that people you care about can't always be happy, huh?" Ringo seemed perfectly comfortable assuming that Summer cared about her parents. Why else would she feel partially sad?

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that."

"It's okay," Summer smiled faintly, sadly, "but thanks, I appreciate that. It helps to just have people sympathize, you know? And, like I said, it's just weird. And it's weird feeling like here is where I go to try to feel normal again, but, whomp, there it is."

Ringo giggled. "I know, right! I mean, no one would ever accuse Fandom of being even close to normal, but," she shook her head slightly. "It's definitely where I feel the most normal. You know, where I can just be, me? And not be so worried about who everyone else thinks I'm supposed to be?"

"From the first moment! I thought maybe you were just sick but it lasted for so long." Shiemi have Summer another squeeze and then pulled back. "You don't remember?"

Man, she was just soaking up all these squeezy hugs for people like they were the sun. Summer smiled faintly, shaking her head. "Nope," she said. "I wasn't even here. I've been in a completely different dimension for the past few weeks, and my grampa sent a robot version of myself here in my absence. Which is, like, super weird, right? Who does that??"

"A robot?" Shiemi was amazed. "I didn't think I could be tricked by a robot. Wow."

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Room 204; Monday Afternoon [09/18].

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