Crystal and Terry - Changes

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Crystal arrives at Cassidy Keep and is greeted by Terry, who quickly decides Crystal looks ‘wrong’, even if she can’t quite explain why.



Crystal stepped out of the car and headed toward Cassidy Keep. Although Medusa had chosen to stay at a hotel, Crystal had preferred the option of staying at the Keep itself. She could always stay in a hotel somewhere, but there was a limit to how many still-standing castles in livable conditions people could stay at. Besides, she didn't particularly feel like staying in a hotel room by herself. Crystal still wouldn't want to go back to sharing a small living space and a bathroom with five other girls, but right now she didn't want to be completely alone. Terry would be at the Keep, and she'd see other people from New York there as well.

Even though it was the day before the wedding, the contractors were hard at work, though granted they were mostly trying to repair and replace the various enhancements of the guests last week. That didn't mean it didn't still have Terry's teeth on edge and she was half wishing for a hotel room herself. She missed the sound of Crystal's car arriving and it took a casual comment from Jamie about it for her to know the other girl was here. Terry had abandoned her project -- reorganizing the books in the library that had been knocked off shelves -- and dashed down to the front door, pulling it open right before Crystal could try the bell. "It doesn't work. It's not wired." In grubby jeans and Bobby's t-shirt, she looked less like the owner of a historic castle and more like a lost tourist.

Her impulse was to give the Attilani a hug. But then again, this was Crystal. Terry kept her hands to herself. She took a breath then grinned, "Hi."

"Hello, Terry," Crystal replied, smiling at her. The last time she had seen Terry, Terry had been two years older than her, Crystal thought, and now she was... what? The same age or a bit older than Terry, more than likely. "Thank you for inviting me to your wedding and for allowing me to stay in your home."

It was strange, seeing how much two months (years) had changed Crystal. It wasn't quite the same shock as when Illyana had returned, years older in a few minutes, but at the same time it was almost worse for it. Everything about Crystal just looked...off to Terry. She smiled cheerfully anyway. It was much less off-putting than her last two weeks anyway. "We're glad to have you. I apologise for all the noise and dust. There's a timeline on the restoration side so everything has to move at that pace. Come on in, do you need help with your bags or anything?"

"If you can take one of the suitcases that would be wonderful," Crystal said. "It is not very heavy, and I can always push it along with wind if you prefer." A yellow suitcase on wheels stood not far behind her, and as she spoke the driver walked up with an identical-looking suitcase and a matching hanging garment bag. "Is the room where I will be staying on the main floor or up a flight of stairs?" Crystal asked Terry as the driver returned to the car. "I can float the bags up flights of stairs if needed."

"Second floor so two flights, actually," Terry edged around Crystal and grabbed the bag from the driver. "You'll probably want to carry it the whole way. And watch your step. There's nothing dangerous exactly but it's a construction zone and you never know where they're going to leave a stray paint can. I lost a good pair of trainers that way."

Crystal nodded. "I can travel above the level of those dangerous paint cans," she offered with a smile as she held the handles of the remaining luggage, "unless that is a problem, of course."

"Not so long as you watch your head," Terry responded and tilted her head. "Follow me. I apologise for the mess."

That was the second time Terry had apologized, and Crystal hadn't even stepped foot (or floated) into the castle. She would have to be very careful inside lest she give Terry a reason to apologize. With all of the warnings from the other girl, Crystal was beginning to wonder if she needed to revise her "livable" thought about Cassidy Keep. It was probably for the best that Medusa and Blackagar had opted for staying in a hotel. Still, as long as the ceiling didn't fall onto her head and as long as her bed didn't fall through the floor, she'd be fine. Although it would be nice to have it, she didn't even need hot, running water. Such was a perk of being able to create your own rain.

Very carefully, Crystal followed Terry through the door.

It wasn't so bad at all that, really. Terry's warnings were based more in leftover nerves and her tendency to want to mitigate disappointment in the first place. There was construction, certainly, but nothing dangerous, nothing overhanging and by and large, nothing even terribly messy in the areas of the Keep about to be hosting guests.

Terry led Crystal upstairs, chattering. "How was your flight? And Attilan?"

"It was a good flight," Crystal answered, noting that Terry's vocalized concerns seemed to be much worse than the actual situation inside. The dust didn't much bother her as it was kept away by a barely noticeable movement of air. "It was my first time to travel by plane in quite some time. Attilan is doing fairly well given the circumstances. We are still in a period of readjustment, and even more readjustment will be forthcoming in the months to come. What about you? Have you and Bobby had a good summer? Are you planning on remaining in Ireland or returning to New York?"

"I'm headed back in a couple weeks for school. Bobby's staying here to finish the restoration and ...keep an eye on the neighbours." Terry looked back and grinned, "It's been a busy summer. Not as busy as yours."

"I never suffered from a lack of something to do, that is true," Crystal agreed with a small smile. "I have had three summers, though, in the time you had one, and the summer is not quite over yet, is it? Almost, but not quite. It is still rather hard to grasp the realization that it is still the same summer I graduated from Xavier's."

"It's sort of the same for me, except in reverse. You look wrong," her hand waved near her face, "My memories are struggling to catch up with your two years gone."

"Two and a half years," Crystal told Terry. "I think it would have been much easier had we been gone for exactly two or three years, but no, it had to be somewhere in the middle. In mere seconds we found ourselves moving from late January to the beginning of August. At least it was the same day of the week, Sunday, in both worlds." She gave Terry a curious look. "How do I look... wrong, exactly?"

"Older, but not just in your face. I don't know how to explain it exactly. You don't look like a 19 year old kid. You look like a 19 year old woman." Terry shrugged, "It's hard to explain. You weren't an adult before is all."

"Oh?" Crystal considered this for a moment, then nodded as she continued up the stairs. "I suppose you are right. I did not consider myself to be a 'kid' during my stay at Xavier's, but I was not quite 17 when I graduated from the school. As for what I am now, well, it will certainly be interesting to see how I am perceived by your other guests who have not seen me since this summer's June. I wonder what they expect. I have changed, yes." The last statement was added more as an out-loud afterthought than a comment directed at Terry.

"It's 800 years old. They gutted it mid-century to put in the plumbing and the wiring can be touchy since it went in practically before Edison finished creating the lightbulb. But I like it. The first time I came here...I'd always been told that this was meant to be mine so there was a real sense that I was coming home," Terry pushed open the door to a room--small by modern standards but spacious when this tower had been added in the 1700s. "This is going to be yours."

Home. For nearly her entire year at Xavier's, Crystal had been waiting for the year to be over so she could go home. She'd gone home, and it had been home, and then... It was still home now, but it wasn't home in the same way it had been when her parents had been alive, back when she'd believed Attilan meant home and safety from the craziness of Xavier's. Little had she known that craziness was waiting for her in her own home.

Crystal entered the small tower room, her suitcase trailing behind her, and looked around the room, recalling the fact that Terry had been the one to show her around Xavier's her first day there, that the then-older girl had been the one to take her to her first room at the school. A bit over a year ago for Terry. More than three and a half years ago for Crystal.
"It is perfect," Crystal said, and meant it.

Terry let out a tiny sigh of relief and smiled at Crystal, "I'm really glad you're here."

"So am I."