Room 116: The Five Gs

[Will Stanton]

Most people didn't have these problems, Will thought, as she carefully examined Sam and Tereza's room.

Not getting into the room, mind you; she had just slipped under the crack in the door. No, it was the delicate and awkward balance of dealing with so many people and so many variables, all in one room.

She started taking a mental inventory of the room, poking around corners and checking under shelves, as she carefully considered all the factors in play.

There was Sam, of course. The Irish drummer girl who had helped her through thick and thin, and who she regularly repaid by hurting. Whether it was snapping at her for releasing years of painful memories, insisting that she was part of the divine, or befriending someone she couldn't stand, Will was just glad that Sam remained her friend through all that. Plenty of others would have kept her at arms length, but Sam seemed to be made of a natural forgiveness vortex or something at times. She wanted Sam to be happy. Plus, she looked great in green, and Will valued that.

Then there was the Morrigan -- all three of her. When your goddess tells you that she wants a challenge, you'd best rise to it. Not for the first time, Will wondered what it was like. To be connected to the Astral like that. She had a brief glimpse, once upon a time, but it was only a limited corner, and not something she could really comprehend. To be both a regular person and an immortal goddess of power...it was hard to wrap one's head around.

And it's not like it was just one. The Morrigan had three different aspects to it, often each with their own agenda. Will would never say it out loud, and would deny it furiously if asked, but Badb might be his favorite -- at least, in peacetime. Badb was the...loudest, and the most unpredictable. When fighting was going on, that was terrifying. When things were calmer, though, and Badb let her hair down, things tended to get shaken up.

Was it Badb who enjoyed teasing him so? Asking for a challenge would seem to be her style, she mused -- especially, a challenge where she was ill-fit to actually win. Hiding against a telepath? No matter what remains of the chemical mix were still in her system, it seemed like an uphill battle. Then again, uphill battles were where the most glory could be won, so there's something to be said about that.

Any Goddess with her salt could see into someone's soul, Will mused, as she opened up the medicine cabinet and took a quick check. That had to be it. The Morrigan knew why Will would be anxious about trying to hide in Sam's room, and goaded her into it. The fact that Will enjoyed it so much embarrassed her to no end; it made her stand out as weird even in a school devoted to weird people. Trying to explain it's fascination and feeling usually only made it worse.

Sara hadn't been a fan. She had frowned, saying it seemed pretty intimate, and she wasn't wrong. It could be very intimate, and that was it's appeal. It's just...it was dedicating yourself to a specific purpose that really soothed the soul. That's why it never really clicked when she had tried being various things for Sara. Sara always treated her like, well, Will. Carefully, and delicately. Well, if you're driving a muscle car, and you're treating it carefully and delicately, you're not really USING it. You want to ride it hard and push it to the limits, not be worried about how it would feel at the end of the day. That's why it was better, usually, when people didn't know that she was the object in question -- but then, that's a violation of trust, which is why it embarrassed Will so. Had the Morrigan known that? Or was she just playing with him? The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Of course, they weren't the only ones who might stumble across her hiding in plain sight. Tereza lived here, too. Tereza was a pretty cool chick, in that Arthur Fonzerelli sort of way. She seemed to give almost no fucks, which was nice, as so many people gave too many fucks in this world. They'd actually hit it off pretty well, and Tereza had always offered to be there when Will needed it, which she appreciated greatly. What Will didn't know is if Tereza was aware her girlfriend's wildside had invited someone to sneak and hide in her room. Or, for that matter, that Will was more than a little envious of her -- envy being green, too.

And if Tereza didn't know that, it was quite possible the wolf did. Will had met wolves before, and there's a reason she was a cat person. Wolves could be territorial and possessive, and Will wasn't sure how one would take to it's territory being invaded. Probably not well! The wolf didn't think Will was much of a threat in the past, but that might change if she caught her before Sam did.

And then there was the Other Sam. The one that, now, lived only in Will's memories. The one she had to constantly remind herself was in another place and another time.

It's hard, though -- Sam looked more like Other Sam than anyone else looked like their Other counterparts; something about shifters and residual self-image and ignoring aging curves. No one else triggered those memories like Sam did. The memories and feelings which, logically, she knew weren't hers. Precogs. When Other Nailah saw that she would die, she hadsecretly, chosen Will as the vessel for her ka -- after all, one clay pot is as good as another. What she didn't foresee was that it would transfer so much of her feelings and emotions to Will -- or that it would make her feel like Other Nailah to Other Sam. It had ruined her first marriage and brought her closer than ever to her friend, her Goddess, her lover. Even after she had reconciled with Sara, and been a key part in Other Nailah's rebirth, she still, from time to time, would share a moment with her Sam; a warm, loving moment. A relationship that she didn't have here; that she couldn't have here. A relationship which she fought against, mentally.



Girl, Goddess, Girlfriend, Guardian and Ghost. That was a hell of a lot of people to please, which brought Will back to her original point. Most people didn't have these sorts of problems. But, here she was, looking around in their room, aiming to be a challenge, while at the same time not aggravating any of them. Walking a tightrope was less dangerous; a fall could only kill you once, right?

Will did some quick mental calculations. Furniture was right out; she wouldn't be able to move the originals out, and even a very tired person would notice a second sofa suddenly appearing in the room. A poster, perhaps? How often do you look at your posters, really? How much of a challenge would that be? No, save that for when someone's actively looking for you. Clothes were right out; the Wolf might object to something that potentially had that much body contact, and that wasn't a risk Will was particularly willing to take. The carpet? Promising, but a bit large, and probably, again, something the Wolf would sniff out right away. Will didn't immediately see a laptop, and wouldn't know what was on the laptop anyway, so that was out of the question. Toothpaste. That had a strong, minty smell, and there's no way the wolf would catch her there -- but she might be stuck there for hours, because that's something that only really gets interacted with when someone's about to go to bed. What she needed was something that the occupants of the room would use, thereby making it a challenge, but not so obvious that it would be spotted immediately.

The clock/radio. That was it. Small, unobtrusive, likely to be looked directly at and possibly even flipped on, but not something SO obvious that it would immediately raise red flags. She took a second to flick through the preset stations on the radio and memorize them, as well as to see what time the alarm was set -- late risers, apparently, but then again, she was used to military discipline. Hiding the real clock by placing it on the top shelf of the closet, Will carefully balanced herself over the endtable where it normally sat, so she wouldn't knock anything off, and collapsed in upon herself, her skin turning black and plasticy; her eyes widening to become the clock display. She fell to the top of the desk with a soft clatter as she hit her final resting position. It was a near-perfect match to the regular clock, with the exception of a tiny, unlabeled, almost unnoticable three-position switch down by the volume control. It was set in the third of three positions.

Will waited, patiently.
((open))

[Tereza Rozanov]

The next morning, Tereza gets up groggily as the alarm goes off, walking over to the desk to slam her hand down on the snooze button, turning around to head back to her bed.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam gives a tense start, woken up more by the slamming than the alarm itself.

"...bloody hell, Tereza."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You'd rather I throw something at it," Tereza says grumpily, flopping back down on her bed.

[Will Stanton]

Will mentally flinched a little bit, as a massive hand smacked into her 'head', temporarily shutting her up. Someone needed to have a talk with Tereza about treating things with due respect!

Also, now she realized she'd have to cheep again in a few minutes, when the sleep timer would have gone off. Perhaps she should have chosen Sam's side of the bed, after all.

[Samantha McManus]

"At this rate, we'll need Tosh to make you an unbreakable one."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You sure you want an alarm in here that Tosh made?" She yawns and stretches, obviously not going back to sleep, but still groggy.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'd take a Tosh alarm over a Cam one."

[Will Stanton]

Deep breath, here we go...

*Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.*

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza gets up again, going over to the alarm clock and pushing the snooze button and then turning the alarm off. "I don't want to go anywhere," she says, stretching and yawning again before she starts digging in her closet.

[Samantha McManus]

"Getting dressed is generally not conducive to not going anywhere."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Are you suggesting I get undressed?" She pauses in her search, "That's generally not conducive to anything getting done."

[Samantha McManus]

"Well, what do you want to get done?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

She walks back towards the bed, "Well, I should probably make sure Isolde is doing alright. And I have my shift at the XUB tonight."

[Samantha McManus]

"So should I be encouraging you or dissuading you?" She smirks, getting up and going to give Tereza a kiss.

Then she pauses, looking towards the closet and cocking her head.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I certainly wouldn't presume to dictate to you," Tereza says with a smirk.

[Samantha McManus]

"...don't tell me you already broke one of those," she says, pointing to the top shelf in the closet.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"What?" Tereza says, looking where Sam's pointing. "No..."

[Will Stanton]

The alarm clock seemed perfectly functional up there, albeit unplugged. Had it been there last night? Probably, right? But since when had they had three alarm clocks?

[Samantha McManus]

"Honestly, if you had some trouble there's no shame in it."

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza takes the clock down and looks at it, "No, if I broke it, it'd be broken." She finds a spare outlet and plugs the clock in, watching as it starts blinking 12:00 AM.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well it looks like yours. Mine's a different brand."

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza messes with the clock in her hand for a moment, satisfying herself that it's completely functional. Then she sniffs at it. "Doesn't seem unusual, but I didn't have an extra."

[Will Stanton]

Shit. Next time, destroy the evidence.

Well, shifting back now wouldn't help, so Will just continued to sit there -- maybe they'd get so confused they'd chalk it up to the mysteries of life.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam walks over to the seemingly duplicate clock and quirks a brow, turning it over.

"...huh. They're not quite the same."

[Will Stanton]

Not the same? What had Will missed? She racked her digital brains, but being upside down, it was rather hard to think. Was the timing off? One of the preset stations?

[Tereza Rozanov]

"What do you mean?" Tereza pulled the plug on the one in her hand and brought it over for comparison.

[Samantha McManus]

"It's got like an extra switch on it," she says, moving the three-notch switch to its next position.

[Will Stanton]

While adjusting the switch, Sam must have accidentally bumped the radio setting or SOMETHING, because the radio clicked on just before the switch moved from third to second position.

It was just a readout of the weather report, giving the five day forecast. BEFORE Sam flicked the switch, it was the friendly, slightly accented voice of the weatherman. AFTER the switch was flipped, though, the voice changed to a very familiar American accent.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"What the?" Tereza peers at the clock, her nose wrinkling in instinctive sniffing as she gets closer.

[Will Stanton]

It smelled like plastic and electrics and batteries, and Tereza of course -- but also, just a BIT like an interloper.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm... pretty sure you can't just turn the presenter American."

She shifts the switch to the third position.

[Will Stanton]

The weather report abruptly trailed off.

"Uh...and then...sunshine out of the east. And now, some light music. Doo da doo de doo doo doo...ksssssh. Kssssssh. Kssssssssh."

Yeah, that voice was familiar.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza looks at Sam and then back at the clock.

[Samantha McManus]

"...Will, why are you a bloody clock radio?"

[Will Stanton]

"Teeen hours and 15 minutes. Ish. Give or take.

Seemed like a pretty good choice, all things considered," the radio said. "Hard to notice, but not unfairly so..."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You were hiding in our room? Who were you running from?"

[Will Stanton]

"Um...I'm gathering you didn't talk...." Will trailed off.

"The Morrigan thought that sneaking up on her would be an entertaining thing to do...a challenge, of sorts."

[Samantha McManus]

"I have... a very fuzzy recollection of that."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I have to give you props, Will. That was a good choice."