maskormenacelogs | Where're we going, where're we going

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Where're we going, where're we going

WHO: Utena Tenjou and Laurel Lance
WHERE: Heropa #009
WHEN: Early May
WHAT: Laurel gets a new housemate! Let's see how that goes
WARNINGS: None yet.

Home sweet home. Or at least, it was supposed to be. Utena's done this song and dance before: first you got your keys, then you got your address, and then you introduced yourself to your new housemates and hoped that they aren't too crazy. Utena tried to ignore the sense of deja vu she felt as she walked to her new house, but her memory got the better of her, and she couldn't help but wonder what her housemates would be like this time. Would they be nervous and paranoid like Hyunsoo was? Would they be cold and strange like Lapis was? Or would they be something else entirely?

There's only one way to find out. Utena pauses once she reaches the stoop and takes a deep breath, before she unlocks the door and steps inside her new home. She takes a moment to slip out of her shoes before walking down into the hallway, keeping her eyes peeled for anyone still around.

"Hello?" She raises her voice, and asks, "Is anybody home?"

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For most of her adult life Laurel had lived alone. When she started off in law school and onto her first job she could only afford rent on a tiny yet comfortable one bedroom apartment. Since coming to Heropa Laurel had found herself sharing a home with people from other worlds, people she would never have met before her arrival here.

Laurel was sitting in the living room when she heard a hello at the door. She got up from the couch, moving to the hallway to see who it was.

"Hi there." A small smile. "You must be my housemate."

And her new housemate is... a completely ordinary human being. There's no bright blue skin or confused blank stares, there's no freakouts or accusations, just a normal greeting from a normal looking adult. She's not sure how awkward that's going to be, but you know what? She'll take it.

"Yeah," she says, smiling back at her. "I'm Utena, Utena Tenjou. I ca-"

Came back, she's about to say, but that's not quite right, is it? She stops, and clears her throat.

"I just got here a couple hours ago."

Probably the most surprising thing for Laurel was the pink hair. She didn't know anyone who had such a bright colour; it was pretty cool in Laurel's opinion. Not a colour she had tried before.

"Nice to meet you, Utena. My name is Laurel, Laurel Lance."

She holds out a hand to her as she speaks. Might as well do a proper introduction.

"Only a few hours? Wow. I hope you didn't get too lost coming here."

There's a brief pause before Utena takes her hand; she's not quite used to greeting people this way. She shakes it off quickly, though, and takes it, giving it a firm shake.

"It's nice to meet you, too," she says. "And it wasn't too bad. I've been here before - well, sort of. I lived up north in Nonah, but I've been down here enough to know my way around."

Well, sort of. She miiight have gone down a wrong street or two, but hey! It was an easy fix.

"Yeah, I heard that people can return even after being sent back home."

It happened to her sister Sara. Laurel knew that Sara belonged in her own world but it was nice to have her family around. It made things a heck of a lot easier to deal with.

"Do you have any memories of your time here? That's something I have always meant to ask someone who did come back."

"Oh, yeah," she says. "I remember everything pretty well - well, sort of. The last time I was here it was October, but it feels like I was just here yesterday. So my sense of time is a little off."

"At least you came back to better weather." Laurel says with a slight smile, hoping to lighten the mood. "I'm sure you'll get used to it in a few days."

Hopefully.

"Would you like some tea? Coffee, maybe?"

Hopefully. Utena pushes those thoughts aside, and begins to relax, smiling back at her.

"Tea would be great, thanks. But what about you? I mean, how long have you been here?"

"Me? Almost a year now."

Laurel moves towards the kitchen as she speaks, turning her attention to Utena for a few moments.

"Which is kinda scary now that I think about it. I can't believe how much time has passed."

Utena groans, shaking her head.

"I don't even want to think about being here that long - uh, no offense. This place isn't bad, it's just... well, there's stuff I need to take care of back home, too."

"None taken." She sets out two mugs, reaching for the already prepared pot of coffee for herself. "I get it completely. I mean, I have stuff I need to get back to. People."

Laurel pours some coffee into the mug closest to her, placing the pot down afterwards. She pauses, thinking something over.

"Did you want black tea or green tea? I have both."

"Black's fine," she says. "And I guess we all have stuff waiting for us, huh? And people, too. It'd be nice if they were here with us, but... I don't know. It feels kind of selfish hoping that they'll be dragged here, too."

Laurel takes out a small teapot, a strainer and some black tea-leaves from the cupboard. She doesn't waste any time in preparing the tea for her guest, letting it stew for a few minutes.

"My sister is here. Part of me wants her to stay here with me, but the other part knows that she has something to get back to at home. So I get why it would feel selfish."

She checks the tea, then closes the lid and fills up Utena's mug. There was enough left over for another cup if she wanted it.

"Well, they say that time doesn't really pass back home - oh, thank you."

Utena takes the tea, but decides to let it cool a bit before taking a sip, and she just continues her train of thought.

"It's like time is frozen. And we all go back eventually, right? So you two wouldn't really miss anything, if you spend a little more time here together."

She could stand to take her own advice, but knowing something is true doesn't necessarily make it easier to deal with.

"The thing is, I don't get to see her all of the time at home. She's been travelling a lot lately." Laurel sighs, taking a sip from her coffee. "I totally respect her decision of course. In fact I was the one who encouraged Sara to go in the first place."

Sara was trying to find herself again after being lost for so long. Laurel couldn't deny her sister the chance to do that.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Me?"

She shakes her head and says, "No, I've always been an only child. I've always wondered what it was like to have a brother or sister, though. It must've been nice, having someone who was always there-"

Oh, wait. Except her sister isn't. Utena clears her throat and quickly adds, "I mean, you guys must've spent a lot of time together growing up, right?"

"Yeah. We were pretty much inseparable growing up. Running circles around my mom and dad." Laurel laughs, sounding wistful. "It was fun."

Things had gotten more complicated when they were older but Laurel liked to think that she and Sara were in a good place now. They had bonded again.

"What about cousins? Have any of those?"

Sorry Laurel. That question just made Utena shake her head again.

"No cousins, either. I have an aunt, but she never had any kids of her own - between work and me, she just never had the time for that sort of thing. Having other kids around would've been nice, but..."

Utena paused and looked down at her mug of tea, and a soft, nostalgic smile spread across her face.

"At least I had her with me. That's more than what a lot of people can say."

"Yeah. That's definitely something to be glad for."

Laurel hoped that she hadn't brought up a sore point for Utena by talking about family. It hadn't been her intention.

"So, uh. What kind of world do you come from? Is it anything like this one?" It's a question that Laurel tended to ask people in order to get to know them.

"Like this one? Well, I come from Earth, if that's what you mean. Well, an Earth, I guess - there's, uh, more of them than I expected."

Utena leaned against the counter and continued, "Other than that, it's pretty normal. Or at least, I always thought it was normal. There's no superheroes, no space aliens, no weird technology... this place is actually a couple decades ahead of us, I think. Sometimes funny stuff happens where I go to school, but that's about it."

She paused just long enough to take a sip of tea, and asked, "What about you? Is it anything like this place?"

"It's very similar to where I'm from. Especially in terms of technology and how everything looks - like the buildings, methods of transport. We don't have aliens, as far as I know anyway. But we do have superheroes of a sort. Both non-powered and powered."

Laurel also didn't know how many metahumans existed in her world but they were mostly based in Central City, not her own hometown.

"How many years do you have left in school?"

Superheroes? Utena's eyes lit up, but before she could ask her more, Laurel shifted the question onto school.

"Four, I think?"

Utena shrugged and added, "Maybe five - I kind of came at a weird time. It was the middle of the school year back home, see, so I'm not really sure what grade they'll stick me in. And there's college too, I guess, but I don't really know what I'd do there. But it's not like I'll be here long enough to worry about that, right?"

There was a brief pause before she realized that her question might not be rhetorical after all.

"...uh, right?"

Sure, some people get stuck here longer than the norm, but they were the exception and not the rule. Or so she hoped.

Oh, boy. She didn't want to give Utena the wrong answer or dash her hopes entirely. Laurel also didn't want to patronise her.

"I don't know if I can answer that question. I don't think anyone can. We'll be here as long as the Porter wants us to be here, and that's okay." A slight smile. "There are good people around who try their best to make things easier for us."

Laurel tops up her coffee.

"At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at college. You've still got a few years to figure it out."

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Where're we going, where're we going

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sorry about the delay!

It's okay!

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