Xaviers!

Tereza crashed on the couch in the central room of Supernatural Room, picking over something that looked suspiciously like homework. She slowly read through the book on her lap, occasionally pausing to make notes or highlight something in the book.

((Open))

"How in the world you're having fun doing homework is beyond me." Miriam... snipes from where she has emerged from her room. It's always near impossible to tell what her actual mood or even intention is but she has to be aware she usually comes across as sarcastic and snide, right?

"It's easier when it's a subject I have a feel for, like Mutant Studies," she responds, maybe a bit tartly as she responds in kind. She taps the book, "Is my enthusiasm keeping you awake?"

"My sleep schedule is a joke." she gives kind of a non-answer. "And I've been kept up by worse."

"Been kept up by better as well from what I hear," Tereza quips, looking back at her book.

"From Sam, I assume. She did not go into any detail, did she?"

"Absolutely lurid detail," Tereza lies with a smirk.

"Didn't think so. But you seem... suspiciously okay with the whole thing."

"What's suspicious about being okay with it? You expect me to be some sort of territorial beast?"

"Most people wouldn't be, territorial beast or not. And yes, I thought you had some kind of... pack mentality thing going,"

"Well, for starters, I'm not most people. And as for 'pack mentality', that's kind of a moving target these days."

"Trouble in paradise?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow.

Tereza shrugs, "Things are 'different', not bad, but different. The stuff at the arch forced some adjustments." She ponders, "But no, I don't think I'd say it's 'trouble in paradise'."

"The concert? What, the wolves fought over who gets center stage?" she chuckles slightly.

"No, it's... complicated. Sam got hit by the beam and she became 'different'. She's back to 'normal' now, but we're connected and I think it messed with that connection. I know it sounds weird, only way I can describe it."

"That explains why she asked me to take a look at her mind and see if something was off. Which, yes, an endless chasm into who knows where or what certainly qualifies."

"Never really been in *her* head, so I can't say how new or different that is. It does sound odd though."

"If it was somebody else's mind I'd assume it was colored by my own perceptions but her... metaphors are pretty distinctly her own. That can make it harder to read correctly but I'm certain what is down that pit is death. Whatever that entails. Maybe it's some kind of passage to an afterlife, maybe it's just nothing at all or maybe it's still just part of her and that Morrigan idea she's got in her head. She's powerful enough that it could be some kind of subconscious place she's constructed where she thinks dead people should go. I certainly felt like it was trying to swallow me and that was at least partially her. Not that it takes a god-complex to come to the conclusion I should not be walking amongst the living."

"Fair," Tereza acknowledges, "Yeah, when Sam feels like there's something she should do, she'll likely do it whether she wants to or not. That's how it is with the 'death' thing. She's getting better at doing the things she wants to do though."

"Whatever it is, it's in there deep. And as much as I'm loathe to admit that there's anything to the magical mumbo-jumbo of it there's clearly something. Maybe it's reacting to whatever werewolf... curse... thing you have going on."

"I'd be more likely to put it on that funhouse mirror version of her, but that's probably a bit self-serving," Tereza shrugs.

"You think she could still be in there, messing her up?"

"Or, it just might be the next step in this Sam's evolution," a voice said from the mirror. "The pit may be a natural part of her role in nature's plan; just perhaps opened prematurely or unexpectedly by events."

"I agree with Will, I don't think she's still in there. But I can imagine it's rough dealing with a dark copy of yourself."

"Yeah, I can't imagine." Miriam says a bit snidely. "I suppose Will is as close as we can get to an expert on the topic of the 'Morrigan'."

"Apart from Sam herself, of course," the voice chided.

"Fair, but I think she'll be the first to admit she feels a bit out of her depth when the ancient past starts creeping in."

"Change has a way of getting us all out of our depths," the voice said, the mirror frame shaking a little bit for...emphasis?

"She can't be that clued in on it if she comes to ask me for advice."

"Well, it's not as if she can look herself and I think she may actually trust you," Tereza points out.

"If last night is any indication, there certainly is some sort of trust, at least when alcohol is involved," Will 'helpfully' noted.

"I can only assume there were some pent up needs." she says non-chalantly. Throwing barbs at other people is so much easier than dealing with her own feelings about what happened.

"Possibly," Tereza shrugs, either not noticing the barb or letting it roll off her, "I don't feel like I have to be her everything, so it's entirely possible that you scratch some itch for her that I or Viv don't."

"Wouldn't be surprising," Will agreed. "Though figuring out which itches Sam needs to scratch can be a frustrating exercise in guesswork at the best of times, and the best of times for me is not 'college student'."

Miriam looks not quite disappointed but at the very least a bit surprised at Tereza's reaction.

"Well. Being a telepath helps a lot with telling just what itch needs scratching."

"I don't believe Tereza and Viv need telepathy to know what Sam wants," the mirror pointed out. "Or, at least, I've heard no complaints."

She raises an eyebrow at Miriam's reaction. "Refined I'm not. Sometimes that's what she wants, sometimes it's not. Are you surprised I'm not angry? Should I threaten to throw down, werewolf vs vampire, in front of the magic mirror over the affection of the war goddess?"

"That may well fall into the category of itch scratching for a war goddess," the voice agreed.

"I'm just surprised it doesn't bother you at all. You're so nonchalant about it, it seems like you don't care."

"If she hadn't talked to me beforehand, or she'd tried to hide it from me, I'd be pissed. If it makes her happy, if you make her happy, then it's okay. So long as you're not hiding it from us, then she can do what she likes. You don't have to be my cup of tea to be her cup of tea."