xp_logs | Meggan and Molly

Meggan has a nightmare about Selene, and Molly tries to help provide some comfort this time. From there, they sneak downstairs for another midnight breakfast, and talk about the future.

Molly yawned, stretching as she tried to find a comfortable position. She wasn't sleeping very good cause she had a lot of coke floats before she went to bed so she wanted to stay up. A voice made her open one eye, and at first she thought it was Roman like before but then she realized it was Meggan's voice.

Rubbing her eyes, Molly pushed the covers back, mashing down the mountain of blankets with one of her legs as the other one stayed underneath the cover. She started to wonder if she'd just imagined it when she heard a whimper and a faint rustling sound followed by more whimpering.

"Meggan?" Molly said quietly.

Far too curious now, Molly sat up and glanced over at the other bed. Her eyes widened.

"Dude."

She hopped out of bed, quickly crossing the other side of the room as she looked up, squinting a little.

"Meggan? Meggan? Wake up! You're um...kinda...not on the bed anymore."

She was afraid she was gonna fall on the ground if she floated OFF the bed.

Meggan was reliving a few of the more gruesome sights in her nightmare, a few of the things she and Selene had done before Amara and Jubilee had found them. Rolling over in bed had only aggravated the soreness of her shoulder, making the dream worse. Causing her to instinctively float to stop it, to relieve what she could. Molly’s words finally pierced through some of the more surreal moments coupled with terror, leaving only confusion for a moment when she realized her roommate shouldn’t be there. Hadn’t been there.

There was a groggy realization of what Molly had said, and she jolted awake in a rush. “Oh. What,” she gasped. Once Meggan was actually awake enough to look down, feel the bed that wasn’t under her, the words finally registered. She focused on lowering herself back down slowly, and taking calming breaths, not wanting to just fall back down--or bounce, and go straight to the floor. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you,” she said softly once she was back on the bed.

Molly shook her head. "It's cool...I was already awake," she said. She remained standing, close enough to the bed without actually being ON the bed, as she glanced Meggan over. She bit her lip.

"Are you okay? Was it a bad dream?"

It had to be bad if she was crying in it.

"Cause of...the bad stuff?"

A glance at the clock showed it was around midnight. “I think so. Yeah, because of the bad stuff,” Meggan confirmed. She scooted over a little, both to get herself comfortable, and offer Molly a seat if she wanted to sit, rather than stand there. She was glad Molly had missed out on that horror show. “Reliving some of the nastier stuff that went on. Amanda says it’s normal.” Her brain must have just felt like it was the right time for reruns, after a couple nights without them. There were many levels of bad, and while it wasn't the worst it was up there.

Molly climbed up on the bed beside Meggan, thinking about that for a few moments.

"I guess that happens a lot, huh? Bad dreams cause-a bad stuff..." she said.

She adjusted her daisy hat, pulling it down a little more on her head so it wouldn't fall off.

"Sometimes I still dream about bad things, like Nanny and the Robot and other bad guys. But...when I wake up...I think about the dream again and then put good guys in it. Like the X-People. And they fight them and kick their butts. So...then it doesn't seem as scary later. Maybe...Maybe that'll work for you?" she said.

She didn't like to see Meggan sad and scared.

“Maybe. It’s a very good idea to do that,” Meggan offered with a nod. There was a tiny flaw in that idea, though, she realized. Only on her own end, not Molly's.

“Just as long as it’s not right after the dream where I’m the bad guy,” Meggan said with some reluctance. For the rare ones when Selene seemed not really up for putting in an appearance, just her and the things they had done, and the results of it. “In which case, I guess it’s better to do a find and replace for the person that I thought did that to me, so they can kick her butt, huh? Again.”

Molly tilted her head, frowning. Tapping her chin for a moment she sat up and waved her hands excitedly.

"Oh! No, it's not you. It's like...a pod person! Or...or...your evil twin Morgana! So you can be in the dream too and when you kick your butt its your evil twin's butt instead and not your butt. Cause superheroes have evil twins too. Like Bazaaro. He's Superman's evil alternate universe twin. And Captain Kurt had alternate universe evil twins too. And Spock!" she said, nodding rapidly, completely not realizing she'd just called him Captain 'Kurt' instead of 'Kirk.'

"Cause...that stuff happens all the time but the good guys win. And you know what you look like too, so you know how to beat you cause you're you and they're evil you so you're the best person to stop you...y'know? That way when you win it's awesome."

That made sense, right?

It made a strange sort of sense in Meggan’s head, even if she hadn’t seen nearly enough Star Trek to know how many encounters with evil twins they'd had. “Didn’t everyone in that alternate universe have a goatee? Give evil twin pod person Morgana one of those. They’d know which to do a swift kick to the butt of, before the dramatic fight music starts, if it’s easier to tell us apart.” If she wasn't the only one able to tell them apart at first. Draw on a goatee or mustache, make her look ridiculous. Because it might help--it really might--to be able to laugh at her evil, possessed nightmare envisioned self, instead of going into a crying jag at any point. Like she seemed to have done during that last one.

“I think you mean Kirk—but Kurt in a Starfleet uniform would be funny,” she corrected gently. So long as it was never ripped up like the real Kirk’s, because that was a waste of a good shirt.

Molly giggled. "Dude, you'd look wicked with a goatee. That'd be awesome!" she said, then tilted her head quizzically before she realized the correction.

"Oh! Kirk...Hmmm, I think I'd like Captain Kurt better too. As long as he isn't a redshirt."

“I don’t think Captain would be a red shirt,” Meggan replied with a small smile. “So Kurt would be safe. Unless the ship he’s captain of isn’t the Enterprise. Those tend to be shot at even more from the parts I’ve seen, because they aren’t the main characters…so he shouldn’t transfer.” Maybe he could teleport away before it was blasted to bits.

“We could always find out. I can grow fur really quick anywhere if I need to...so I might be able to try a goatee for a minute. A little bit later, once I’m sure I won’t mess it up and have a beard instead,” she offered. Maybe during the day, when she wasn’t sleepy, when she wouldn't disappoint her. “If you really want to see it.” The night might just end with her attempting a concentrated patch, she knew.

Molly nodded eagerly. "Yes please! Then I'd be able to know which one of you was evil. Cause evil goatees magically grow and you'd have to make yourself grow one so that'd be different, right?"

She peered at Meggan for a moment.

"Are you gonna be okay?" she said, before smiling.

"We can go down and make food like you did for me!"

Meggan nodded, quietly hoping she was finished with bad dreams for a few days. “I think so,” she tried to reassure her. “You just remind me of that promise later, okay? I shouldn’t forget it, but just in case.” She paused at the thought of another midnight kitchen raid. Please don’t let her be the one passed out at the table this time around. That would just be too funny.

Even if there was a chance of Meggan falling asleep, it still seemed tempting. It was better than risking the return of a bad dream right away, even if she didn’t think that would really come back right now. “That…sounds like a very good idea. How about no pancakes this time? We’ll get something different. We could sneak down and mix a bunch of cereals together, see what it’s like.” Falling asleep in pancakes would just leave a sticky mess, but cereal spill could be cleaned up better.

Molly nodded. "Ask Meggan to make a beard," she said to herself then beamed. "Check,” she added, drawing one with her finger as she said it.

Meggan's proposal made Molly stroke her chin before the smile returned.

"Hmmm...I must say I am a cereal mixing aficionado...Let's do it!" she added, hopping out of Meggan's bed.

A little patchy wisp of a goatee didn’t really count as a true beard, but she probably would do either for Molly. Just to see if she could get it right, whether or not it was just for her entertainment. Although that was a good reason, too. “Good, we’ll be stealthy just like the last time, so we won't get caught--and leave no messes behind,” Meggan advised with a tiny grin. It only took a moment to push away the covers once Molly was off the bed, and hunt in vain for her shoes—before she remembered she’d just put them next to the headboard, on a shelf in plain sight.

Chocolate and marshmallow Lucky Charms could battle it out with something good for them like Cheerios once they reached the kitchen. That probably cancelled out anything healthy about that one, which was the point. Testing junk food combinations was better than going back to sleep just yet, better than dwelling on anything to do with Selene causing drama in a dream. It was a good way to get her mind off it all.

"We will be....like ninja!" Molly said, twisting herself into a martial arts stance, or at least her idea of one: in this case, the crane move from Karate Kid.

"Okay...how about...cocoa puffs and strawberry...something....what kinda cereal has just strawberry?" she said, tapping her chin.

"Not Fruity Pebbles...I tried that once and it was kinda bleh..."

“The only ninja ever to go on a quest with cereal as the main prize at the end.” Meggan agreed with Molly’ last comment, it wasn’t the best tasting cereal. ”Strawberry? I think I saw something like that downstairs the other day—all the sugar you can handle, and wheat that’s supposed to cancel everything sugary out.” On second thought, maybe that wouldn’t taste so good—strawberries on cardboard. “Oh! There was one with strawberry slices in it—they were covered in chocolate, and little flecks of honey. We could combine that with the cocoa puffs?”

While she couldn’t recall the name of it, she knew where it had been on the shelf just two days prior. Surely she could find it again. Try it alone, before combining it with everything.

"Ninjas should do that more often. Cause what else do they do but beat people up? After awhile you're gonna run out of people to beat up," Molly said, then thought about Meggan's suggestion.

"OOH! That would be really good. Chocoberry Honey Flakes!" she said. She liked honey. Maybe it'd be good with chocolate?

“They would, wouldn’t they? Or people to surprise with those little throwing stars. Or impress with vanishing in a puff of smoke,” Meggan realized with a small grin. The only way she had ever thought that last one could work well outside of an action movie was if the ninja could teleport, fly, or do something else tricky to mess with someone’s head. Or they set up trap doors in advance.

“Just the right combination. Half of each type goes into the bowl, so neither of us gets too little of that mixture,” Meggan suggested. They were just going to be buzzing from a chocolate/honey overdose by the end of the night, weren’t they? Why not go all the way? "Would you want some of that chocolate drizzled on your cereal? Or is that too much? The kind of stuff I put on your pancakes last time," she reminded her.

Molly tapped her own nose thoughtfully. "Maybe a little bowl with chocolate? Then it'd be chocolate milk too..." she said, grinning.

If every night ended with chocolate it'd be awesome.

Silent for a few moments she glanced over. "Are you feeling better?"

She hoped it helped and stuff.

Meggan nodded, wholeheartedly approving of that idea. Sticking a bar of chocolate in there was much faster than looking for chocolate milk, when there was a good chance they might be fresh out of anything but regular.

“Little bit more than I was, yeah. I think so. I’m getting there,” Meggan admitted. She was getting there faster than she would be if she’d stayed in bed, and stayed there waiting for sleep to come back after that dream. Nightmares were never fun, but having someone to help distract from them was never a bad thing.

"That's good," Molly nodded with soft encouraged excitement. She stood on her tip toes, peering at the cereal selection. Dude. It was like a grocery store.

After a few moments she peered at her again.

"Do...people change roommates a lot? Cause...Yvette...y'know....moved in with Laura....Do...people gotta move rooms when they get to a certain grade?"

“They can if they want to, and they have before,” Meggan replied. “Or if people have moved out for some reason like graduation and the one left behind really wants to be with someone, they’ll rearrange.” Oh, that was right, she remembered. Senior year was this year. The sudden realization that she would be sitting through SAT’s or something very close soon enough this year, too, almost derailed the explanation, before she got back on track by locating the treasured cereal they sought. She held it up for Molly to see, before reaching for the bowls. She could worry about tests later.

“When you’re 18 or a senior, or both even, sure. You can move out of one room and over to a new spot,” she continued carefully. She thought she understood what Molly was getting at, and where this was going. “That’s usually the way it works...unless the senior doesn’t want to go just yet.” Would putting in a tiny request to stay put for just one more year work if it came up? She hoped so.

Molly perked up when she saw the fabled box of cereal and held up her fists in victory. "Sweet!" she said, then slowly nodded a few moments after Meggan's explanation.

"Do...you wanna go?" she said quietly with a hopeful look before peering back at the box of cereal. She shrugged.

"I mean...y'can if you wanna cause...yeah...but...you're a fun roommate...and we do stuff...."

Meggan shook her head as she poured Molly her part of the cereal first. “No, I’d like to stay with you. Long as I can do that, really, I’d love to stay your roommate.” They did have fun, even if some of that included late night distracting the other from a bad dream.

Pointing at the younger girl with the spoon, Meggan gave her a comforting grin before handing it to her. “When I’m not anymore, you’ll have to figure a way to tell me if you’ve had a bad dream, you know. Text me. E-mail me. So I can get you a shockingly late breakfast, if that helps.” She frowned, thinking for a moment. “Maybe call it Night Owl Breakfast? How's that sound to you?"

"A NOB?" Molly said, then burst into giggling at the thought cause it sounded like a cool...whatever the word for making a word out of words were (acc...something) before going quiet a moment as she actually thought about what Meggan said.

She nodded a little. "I'd like that. All of that," she added with a soft smile.

"Are you gonna become an X-Person some day too?"

She couldn't remember if she asked her that or not.

“Exactly,” Meggan laughed. “Text NOB to me, hopefully I have it set to vibrations that wake me up or buzz a little, and you’re good to go. A midnight meal.” No ringing, though. Ringing would wake up whoever her roommate was in the future, and then the sneaking around would be ruined.

Meggan hadn’t been asked that last one before, but it was Molly doing the asking—so she wasn’t completely thrown by the question. She shook her head. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it before. I just always thought of it more as a Kurt thing than a me thing.”

Now Molly had made up a song composed of entirely the word 'NOB' over and over and in her head but it quickly quieted down as Meggan spoke again, looking serious. She was a little surprised at her answer.

"Why?" she asked, curiously.

"I mean...you can fly and stuff. And turn into things. That's pretty cool! You can beat up bad guys with it," she said, illustrating this suggestion by punching the air with her fist.

"And you and Kurt can like...work together and stuff. Maybe...you can like, practice in the Danger Place and see if you like it?"

“Maybe some weekend after the stitches are out? I’ll think about it.” Meggan couldn’t deny that it might be a good thing to at least try, just to see what would happen. Better than not trying at all. How to explain? “I’m not the best at fighting, but yeah—I could probably camouflage myself to the color of the ceiling, levitate up there for a while and drop down? Stuff like that. Or a floating kick, if I had to.” She could get away faster if she had to.

Although, on the other hand she could just as easily picture Kurt and Amanda’s faces if she did end up liking it and wanting to try. “I’d love to work with him. I think it would take a lot of convincing if I did think I wanted to join in on the big things,” Meggan explained. “They just don’t want to see me getting hurt, because of things that've happened.” She did understand that things landed on the extremely dangerous side of the fence sometimes, and knew that they would want to know that she knew.

Molly furrowed her eyebrows. "But...if somebody's tryin' to hurt you and nobody's around and you don't know how to fight back wouldn't that be bad too? I mean...just cause you're their little sister doesn't mean you're gonna stay little forever, y'know? Cause sometimes when grownups wanna protect kids it winds up being worse cause then they protect them too much and they can't do anything at all," she said, shrugging as she stared down at her slippers.

"I like it when me and Monet train, cause she teaches me stuff. I didn't know how to do stuff before either and now I'm getting better so...practice is good at making stuff better...maybe. Maybe that'll help with fighting and stuff."

Meggan blinked. Well, she did have a perfectly good point there. “I think it’s more that hitting’s a last resort for me, I guess.” She just didn’t like hurting people, even if sometimes you had to do it. “Oh, I know how to punch--I did when Kyle got me, bopped his nose to make him let go. I can do smaller stuff, but you’re right. It does make it better. It’s good to practice some more.” Wade had said as much, too. It was an especially good idea in light of everything that had gone on in the last couple of months. When he came back, he could help with teaching her a few extra ways, too, like he had offered. Before she had been a little too busy with classes.

She looked at Molly for a second, before grinning. “For giving such excellent advice…think you might be up for an extra portion of chocolate flakes in your cereal, plus a small piece of chocolate at the bottom of the bowl? Or have you had enough?”

"You bobbed Kyle in the nose? Is that why he hid in a tree?" Molly said. Wow, she could hit hard!

The question of more chocolate made her perk up and she shook her head. "More chocolate please!"

She tapped her chin, then brightened. "Maybe we can...like...go on a mission in the Danger Place together! That'd be fun! Like with alien robots or something."

“Oh, no, definitely not,” Meggan laughed after a moment. She knew that would not have been the reason. “It wasn’t because of me bopping him and breaking his nose that he did that--he’d have been all healed up by the time he snapped out of it. I think...it was more because of whatever happened in the nightmare he was trapped in--and the Nightmare guy messing with his head so after he was awake he attacked.” She had just been unlucky enough to be nearest. “So...timeout in a tree. To think.”

"Oh," Molly said quietly, nodding. She fidgeted with her hat, frowning. "That's bad." No wonder he hid in a tree.

A sliver of chocolate went to the bottom of the bowl, before she covered it with another thin layer of flakes. That ought to be enough. Meggan’s own bowl contained more strawberry slices with bits of honey from the cereal than chocolate, but she liked it like that. The first bite had turned out delicious. “We’d have to work our way up from whatever the level is before the alien robots with laser beams coming out their eyes,” she warned jokingly.

"Yeah...I guess it'd be like the nemesis level. Or the before the nemesis level," Molly said thoughtfully as she eyed the chocolatopian concoction.

"Ohhhh...wow. It's beautiful."

“It is, isn’t it?” For a chocolate lover, it was paradise indeed. Even if she didn't have the piles of it like Molly, she still had her fill. “Just remember the names of the cereals we combined--just in case you want the same mix next time we sneak into the kitchen under cover of darkness,” Meggan advised. Too much or too little of these honey flaked bits of goodness might change how tasty it was. Right now, it was perfect. A great way to aid in chasing away memories of bad dreams.

Molly nodded with a big grin as she poured the milk carefully into the bowl and took a bite, munching with content.

"I like this plan," she said, pondering the next chocolate-related thing they could eat if it ever came up again.