Xaviers!

The new dorm assignments haven't been up for very long yet when Miriam seems to have already moved her things. Which seems to include a new door? The heavy, almost black wooden door is reinforced with iron bands and studs and looks more than a little out of place. The dorms might be designed with the manor's old-fashioned style in mind, but even that isn't quite as... medieval. It also, should Sam come looking for her new dorm, doesn't budge in the slightest, seeming to be barred from the inside.

"...well that can't be regulation," Sam blinks as she reaches the door that doesn't match her new key.

Shrugging, she reaches for the ornate knocker and raps it a couple of times to see if the mistress of darkness is in.

There's an awkward silence following the loud thunks of the knocker.

"Come in." Miriam's voice finally comes from behind the door, sounding almost resigned. Then, after another couple moments there's a quiet "Bloody hell..." and then the sound of a metal bar being moved, after which the door finally swings open a couple inches from it's own weight. Inside Sam can see the dull twilight resulting from heavy curtains having been drawn closed and the lights being off. Otherwise the room looks more or less like any of the other ones, strange door aside.

"What's this, a bloody keepsake?" Sam asks as she makes her way in.

"Yes, I brought my favourite door." Miriam can't help but snark at Sam. At least she looks better than the last time they crossed paths in the XUB, but the feeling coming off of her in waves might arguably be worse. She's guarded, worried, and there's an intense kind of focus to her, like she's clenching her teeth mentally.

"I didn't mean to. It followed me."

"You might have to run that one by me."

"Congrats on losing the resting batface, at least."

Sam can feel the dismissive response bubbling to the surface of Miriam's mind but when it bursts it comes with a sense of realization.

"It's... a place. A lot of places, actually. All around. In your head, in mine, in everybody's and in the spaces inbetween and it keeps bleeding through."

"What, like a mindscape? You pulled a door out of your mind?"

"Yeah..." she says, voice drifting slightly into absentminded for a moment. "Except not really. It's just something that's... somewhere and my mind, your mind, everyone's mind is just like a map. Or a web. Or maybe paint that's bleeding into each other. And then it just... soaks through and it helps me find the grain of sand that's here and not get lost on the beach..."

She seems to realize she was kind of rambling as if half-asleep and her eyes focus on Sam again. "So... maybe?"

"It doesn't feel like a construct or a projection or anything. It just feels like it's there."

"It is. I found it easier to stay... focused if I keep something here so it's easier to find myself." she says and Sam can get a vague impression as to why, even if the how is kind of questionable. On some level Miriam is more than a little apprehensive about this whole dorm arrangement, so the door stems from a bit of a defense mechanism of just keeping Sam out. But that's just the reasoning behind it, the door itself shows no signs of being a mental construct or illusion or anything. It is frustratingly mundane in it's wooden... doorness.

"Look, I know we don't always get along, and I know we've both gotten... well, weirder since we arrived."

"But I'm sure we can set down some ground rules without... er... conjuring medieval doors that my key doesn't fit in."

"You might have gotten weirder, I've gotten worse." she snipes before she catches herself.

"Look I'll... figure something out. I'm not as good at this as you are."

"You've been my neighbor most of the year. Is this really that much worse?"

"You're already complaining."

"Well I'm sorry, my notions on accessibility are a little traditional if you don't want me to have to come in the window all the time."

"I didn't mean to lock the door!" she snaps and again there's that bubble of realization bursting out alongside it. Haley apologizing for her awful telepathy discipline.

"Fuck! I... you're right. You're right!"

"Okay so... this is a new power thing, aye? How's it happened so far?"

"It had to have been the drugs. I had bit of a... I don't even know... bad trip? Zoned out? Horrible realization about my life? After that talk we had in the XUB. You know, when you were pretending to be your girlfriend for god knows what reason and I noticed immediately because I'm not a complete moron."

"You know, near as I can tell you're the only one that noticed."

"I guess you're pretty decent at what you do. Occasionally."

"Or people just aren't picky when they're getting a beer."

"Just take the compliment before I change my mind, Samantha."

"So ah... here's the elephant in the room. You probably figured out that I got really close to my girlfriends."

"A truly strange and novel concept."

"I'm more figuring out the etiquette here. I wound up dating my last roommate, so it didn't quite come up."

"I'm flattered, but I'm not a big fan of dog-hair in my threesomes."

"So I'm guessing that's a flat veto on having her over."

"It's a joke, Sam. I... suppose if you don't go too crazy. And I'll be out most of the night anyway."

"I'm just trying to get to a point where you and I don't tear each other's heads off by semester's end, aye?"

"I know I'm... a lot, sometimes."

"Are you alright? You've always been... annoyingly considerate but you seem especially wary about your whole polycule wolfshack situation."

"Viv's buggered off to Wales for awhile and Tereza and I are... in a weird place in the meantime."

"Do tell. What happened?"

"I mean, Viv's not cross with us or anything, she just had to help her mum with something."

"But there's kind of... two sides to Tereza?"

"You probably are as close as it gets to an expert on that sort of thing."

"Aye well... hers don't agree quite as often."

"And they like... different parts of me"

"Is she... jealous of herself?" Miriam can't help but laugh.

"...sort of?"

"There was an incident where I gave one side of her what she wanted and I... sort of got accused of cheating on my girlfriend."

"With my girlfriend."

"That's almost impressively stupid. And trust me, I know stupid."

"Well she felt a little silly when she said it out loud."

"But you know, these things don't always make sense when you do that."