Dori & Mega, Dori & Fred, Dori & Laurie ((Backdated))

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((Backdated to Oct 29th, during the day. Due to external factors. ;) ))

Doreen and Megan discuss music and various things.

Doreen was watching a movie on her laptop. Watchmen to be precise. She had seen the movie hundreds of times by now, but since she couldn't type right now there wasn't much she could do other than watch movies and munch on the food everyone kept bringing by. Callie alone had brought by enough random baked goods to feed a small army.

She paused, Doreen smelled someone coming. The scent wasn't one she knew very well at all, yet.

Megan walked slowly into the med lab room, peering curiously into the bland but comfortable room. Her classmate was sitting up in the bed, a laptop perched on her lap. Megan hadn't actually met Dori yet, as she hadn't been to class since Megan started, but they'd talked over the Internet some. "Hi Dori! How are you doing?"

Dori looked over and smiled, matching the face with the smell. Now that it was matched up she'd never forget it, "Oh, hi! Megan, right? Nice to meet you."



"Yeah, we finally meet! When are you coming back to literature class?" Megan came closer and peered at the laptop screen. Watchmen! A pretty good movie.



“After the claws go away, so maybe never,” Doreen said simply. The drugs made her frank. And blunt, “I kinda miss it, but not all the reading.”

"I would offer to get you back up to speed when you come back, but I was never that great at writing essays in literature class," Megan said, frowning. She had always earned B's and C's. "Oh, I got you something." She pulled a purple pen drive out of her pocket and offered it to Doreen. "There's 2 gigs of music on here, if you want to transfer some new music to your laptop."

"Oooooh, thank you!" Doreen said then thought about it, "Can you put it in the right drive?" she asked, "I'm having a hard time moving my hands."

"No problem." Megan popped in the drive and when the dialog box appeared she asked "Where do you want them? I-tunes folder?"

"Yeah, that will be cool," Doreen said, "Really cool."

A few minutes later, the file transfer was complete. All the new music was organized in folders by artist, except for a few random tracks that didn't fit with the rest, like "More Than a Feeling" by Boston.

"Hmm... how did that get on there?" Megan wondered as she noticed the lone Boston song. "I included a bunch of British punk and British garage rock, if you're feeling adventurous."

"Cool. Is it different in England?" Doreen asked.

"Yeah, some. Well, mostly it's weird here because cars drive on the opposite side, and I haven't gotten used to your measurement systems. But I mean... as far as people... from my few trips out to town, it seems like you have all the same basic types that we do in Wales."

Fred comes by next, and some revelations are reached, and then more important, food.

red wandered down to the medlab, his messenger bag slung over his shoulder. He knew the place pretty well, with his constant visits here. When he'd heard what had happened with Dori and her hands, he'd gone to pick her up something and pay a little visit.

As it was, he couldn't seem to locate her. He stuck his head into one of the 'private' areas that was cordoned off with a curtain.

"Hey Dor, you in here?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Doreen said, the words were sort of slurred, a product of the pain killers. Movies were scattered about and despite the miserable situation, she was doing okay. Because she wasn't hurting.

"You can come in. I have lots of food people keep bringing by! It's tasty!"

Fred grinned and moved closer, careful not to knock over any of the scattered belongings. He hefted a pile of comic from his bag and set them next to Dori, "Well, if you get bored of eating or watching movies, reading always passes the time. Most of these are from my collection so they're pretty, uh...eclectic." While he hadn't given her any horror comics or anything, a lot of the comics in the stack were old issues of 'Doom Patrol' and 'Concrete', which Dori seemed old enough to appreciate. Then again, Fred wasn't always the best judge of things...

"You might have to help me read them," Dori said, "My hands are still pretty messed up." It annoyed her, but at least she was getting better and her hands were all stitched up.

Fred sat the comics down, "Yea, I'll read them for ya if you'd like. How, uh, How are ya, girl?" He moved to the foot of her bed, looking about the room. He was never the best with the medical rooms, and seeing the normally extremely active Doreen here...well, it was unnerving.

"I'm okay. My hands still kinda hurt," Doreen said, "But the claws are gone, and that's good," she said, "Well, not gone. I guess I'm going to have to learn to keep them in." That part was going to be very hard. "I hope I can do it."

Fred's brow furrowed, "You mean, they're like Mr. Logan's?"

"Yeah," Dori said, "I wish they weren't. I already have one set of claws."

Fred smiled, trying to get Dori to do the same, "Hey, could be worse, right? And plus, hey, they, uh, could...help climbing, right?"

"I don't know what they're for," Doreen said, simply, "But they're still there."

Fred swallowed quietly, and sighed. He rested a hand gingerly on Dori's shoulder, "I know the feeling, Dor. The weird feeling like something ain't right? Something don't belong?"

"Yeah. Like that," Dori agreed, grateful for the contact, "It's weird, isn't it?"

Fred nodded slowly, "It is, and it always will be. In some ways, Dor, it always will be. It's suppose t'ah. It's what makes us different from, well, everyone else..." Fred shrugged...then smiled, "Y'know, in a way, it's almost better that way, iffen you think about it right..."

"Really?" Dori asked, "How's it better?" it was a genuine question, not a hint of sarcasm touched her voice.

Fred wrapped his arm around Doreen's shoulders, "Cause you're the better for it, Dor. The tougher for it. Those kids that made fun ah you back home. What have they ever had to deal with? Mommy and Daddy giving them the wrong car for their birthday? You're a real person Dor, with real problems. And you're sharper, smarter, better. You see what I mean?"

"You're so nice," she said, tearing up a bit. "Really."

Fred ruffled her hair a little, "Just being honest. Hey, I don't mind holding those comics for ya, but I figured, since you spend your whole day in the lab, you could probably use some real food. You want anything from the kitchen?"

"Yeah! I want lemonade and brownies and chocolate frosting and fruit loops and fruit roll-ups and... um... I dunno, stuff," she said, rattling through the list excitedly.

"Okay. Lemonade, brownies, frosting, roll-ups...heh. Think I can remember all that," he said with a chuckle, holding up his fingers as he listed off the items.

"I know you can. Oh, and not all on a sandwich or anything, because that would be gross." Somehow, that was a very important distinction.

Laurie comes by to check on Dori and promises to get Kyle to drop by.

"Okay to come in?" Laurie asked, knocking gently on the door to the medlab room, she held in her hand a tray with several covered plates, Dori's lunch for the day.

Still, if Dori wasn't up to visitors, she could just leave the tray on a stand by the door for when she wanted to come grab it.

"Yeah," Dori called, resisting the urge to rub her hands with everything going on with them right now, "I'm awake and stuff," she said. And bored out of her mind, really.

Laurie bustled in, setting up a small table and then pushing the tray over to Dori, she took off the steel covers with a flourish, revealing a pasta dish, and a chocolate cupcake with a red cross symbol for icing.

"Thought you might be getting hungry," Laurie explained, looking around for a chair to sit in.

"Yay, cupcake!" Doreen said, going for that first, "I'm hungry a lot," she said simply.

"I'm not surprised, if your biology is anything at all like Kyle's you burn through calories pretty quickly. I had to feed him a whole bunch of banana and mango smoothies at one stage when he was sick."

Laurie pulled a chair over from the corner and sat down with a small sigh of pleasure. She'd been on her feet for most of the day, first with getting to college classes, and then volunteering in Medlab, not to mention her standard X-men training routine.

"Don't listen to him when he tells you they're horrible. I make excellent smoothies."

"But Mango tastes funny, so that wouldn't be so good," Doreen noted, "Maybe if it was banana and peanut butter. That's also good in muffins thought," she reasoned. Dori spent a lot of time thinking about food, "You're not working too hard are you?" she asked, when Laurie sat down.

"Not too hard, no," Laurie noted with a smile for the younger girl. She was used to the strange combinations of food that mansion residents came up with by now. "Just long hours on my feet at the moment, but they'll get used to it eventually. How are the spurs?"

"Stupid. They're very, very stupid," Doreen said, with a glance at her hands. "I really don't like them."

"Any particular reason why you don't like them?" Laurie asked, tone gentle. She knew a little about unwelcome mutations, and incidents with manifestations.

"Because they're bones coming out of my skin," Doreen offered, "that really sucks."

Laurie nodded, wondering if talking to someone like Sarah Morlocke or Logan would help Dori at all, although considering how both of them were as fun as a storm on a wedding day, probably not.

"Does it hurt at all? When they come out, that is" Laurie asked, steering away from the relative merits of bone coming out of skin vs suckatude of other types. While she might have pointed out what someone like Marrow might go through daily, it wasn't exactly going to help.

"Yeah," Doreen said, "It's like taking sandpaper and lemon juice and just tearing the skin open."

"Was there anything you were needing while you're here?" Laurie asked, searching for a topic of conversation that wouldn't depress the girl.

She had a feeling that other people wouldn't have had to struggle to be comforting, and for the most part neither did Laurie, but right now she just couldn't think of anything she could possibly say that would comfort Dori, especially not when she seemed to be taking this new manifestation so to heart.

"I wish I could type. That'd be awesome. I mean, I have a lot of movies I can watch, but not being able to really move my hands sucks," she said simply. "I never thought it wouldn't be good to have a reason not to be in class."

"Now that, we have the technology for. Nathan and a couple of others used to regularly end up doing strange things to themselves, so Forge developed a voice to text system for the journals. Give me a sec, I'll be right back."

Laurie stood and exited the room, heading off to get one of the specialised laptops, Dr McCoy should be able to give her access to one.

"Oh you don't-" Dori trailed off as Laurie left, "-have to," she finished lamely. It would be nice to have something to use the school blogs, but speech to text programs had never really worked for her. And it really wouldn't work for her non-school related blog.

Laurie bustled back in, carrying a small laptop, and placed it down triumphantly in front of Dori. She took her seat beside the younger girl's beside again and grinned.

"Now, this particular software isn't' at all like the commercial ones, Forge and I think Doug worked on it for awhile, so it'll do things that those others don't, including translating different languages. I'm not entirely sure it'll translate squirrel, but we could always talk to Doug if you wanted to modify it. Although considering what you said about Monkey Joe's swearing issues, that might not be wise."

"He only swears when he's angry," Doreen said, looking the laptop over. Typing or trying things out that required her moving her hands was still a no. She had to admit though, the idea of Monkey Joe 'writing' a post amused her. "He really isn't that bad."

"I must admit that he and I have not yet met," Laurie noted with a smile. "Although Marius seems to believe that he has it out for him, which I'm sure must lead to a truly fascinating story, considering I don't know of anyone who has had a squirrel take a complete set on them before."

"He's under the bed," Doreen said, a choked squeak the answer, "He knows he isn't supposed to be here but he won't go anywhere else," she explained, "Well, except when he goes and uses his litter box. And it has to do with food. Monkey Joe says Mr. Laverne is always stealing his food."

"Have you talked to Marius about that?" Laurie asked, smiling as she heard the squeak from under the bed. "It's possible that they've just misunderstood what's been happening."

“Mr. Laverne says Monkey Joe is evil,” Doreen explained, “I don’t think they’ll work it out,” the last was whispered like some great conspiracy theory.

"Possibly not," Laurie acknowledged, voice lowered slightly in response to Dori's own whisper. "Think Monkey Joe would come out if I asked nicely? It can't be nice under your hospital bed, and I'm pretty sure we could get Dr. McCoy to agree to let him stay as long as he's careful."

“Yeah, he listens to me sometimes. And he likes people. He might come out if you have a snickers bar. He loves those,” Dori said simply, “I like them too.”

"I think I sense a conspiracy," Laurie noted, but she was smiling as she said it. "Lucky for you both that I just so happen to remember wheren Dr Grey-Summers stashed the candy bars. I'll bring him one the next time I come to visit, and speaking of that, I should let you rest."

It may not have been a ploy for candy originally, but Doreen wasn’t upset that it was the end result, “I like candy,” she said brightly, “And rest. Rest is okay. Stupid pain pills make me all tired.”

"That's usually the point," Laurie noted, and stood from where she'd been sitting. "Now, was there anything you needed me to bring other then candy when I next come by?"

“More candy?” Doreen asked, “Does more candy count? Oooh, and bring Kyle. And more candy. But don’t bring Kyle because he’s supposed to visit me on my own I guess.”

"How about I feed Kyle candy and then bring him with me?" Laurie asked, a wide grin forming. She was pretty certain that Kyle would come and visit Dori on his own anyhow, but that didn't mean she couldn't poke him to do it sooner.