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Nora and Ororo - Backdated
Ororo meets her new roommate, who turns out to be nothing like Jean.
"I am sorry, Nora," Piotr said, eyes following her as she paced back and forth across the common room. "But think about it. She would not say over the message board. She did even not even hint what it was about when I messaged her privately. I have to meet her alone."
Nora sighed grumpily and flopped forward, arms dangling toward the floor. She stalked her way to the nearest couch and slouched into it, arms crossed in front of her chest while she glared at the empty space in front of her. "Hmph!" It wasn't fair. There was someone here who already knew Piotr (kind of), and she came from a different dimension. It sounded crazy and unbelievable and super cool.
"I will introduce you next time," Piotr assured her. He'd changed into a bland set of gym clothes that looked like they'd been painted onto his body, but she'd already teased him about that so she'd need to find something else to distract her from her mood.
At that moment both of their phones chimed the arrival of a new message. Nora withdrew the device she'd been issued and tapped the screen. "Omigosh!" she said, sitting up straight. "Our rooms have been assigned!" She bolted to her feet, face lighting up. "Finally!" She scanned through the message, anxious to get to the important parts. Room 206 it read. Ororo Munroe. "I have a roommate! I have a roommate!" She did a little dance in a circle while making up a song about it.
"That is wonderful, Nora!"
"I'm going to go say hello to her right now!" She bounced up to Piotr. "Meet me later, okay?" she said. Vanishing from the spot, she reappeared in the hall right next to the entrance. "Have a good talk with TJ I want to hear all about her bye bye bye!" With a quick, happy wave she skipped down the halls, headed for the west wing.
As soon as she found the right door she skid to a halt in front of it. She took a moment to compose herself and then, as politely as she could manage in her enthusiasm, knocked.
Fortunately, Ororo tended to be fairly tidy, and she hadn't really spread to the other side of the room since Jean's departure. Having the room to herself had mostly been a boon in terms of having easy privacy with T'Challa.
Still, she had known it was not likely to last, and she was looking forward to meeting her new roommate. Nora. She hadn't been told anything about her apart from her name, but given how perfectly matched Jean and Ororo had been, she had high hopes for this, too.
When the knock came, she went to open the door with a smile, white mohawk in full force, in shorts displaying miles of legs. "Hello!" she told the younger white girl on the other side of it. Ororo's accent had improved, but it was still noticeable. "You must be Nora? I'm Ororo."
Nora had to lift her head higher than expected to meet the other girl's eyes. A wide smile spread over her face. "Ororo," she said, getting a feel for the name. "Yes! Hi! Hello new roommate!" The last came with an enthusiastic, musical lilt. "I'm Nora, all right. Nora Valkyrie!"
"Hello, Nora Valkyrie," Ororo replied with a small smile. "Ororo Munroe. Come on in."
Nora let out a little peep of excitement the moment she'd been granted enough room to enter. She vanished with with a soft 'whoosh' and popped back into sight just inside. "Omigosh!" she said, eyes growing big as saucers as she looked around and stepped deeper into the room. "Omigosh! It's so wonderful (Wow, that's a lot of books)! All this is yours?" Her tone and posture strongly implied she was referring to the room as a whole, rather than any grouping of its contents.
'All this.' Ororo looked around the room, and how sparse it seemed since Jean had moved out. She had never amassed much, she felt, by comparison to her former roommate. So for Nora to feel this way about a few books and bits and bobs said something about Ororo's new roommate. "Yes, but feel free to borrow anything you like," she answered with a kind smile, closing the door. "Well, maybe ask first about any clothes," she amended with some amusement directed solely at herself.
"That really is something roommates do!" Nora shook upraised fists next to her cheeks in barely contained excitement. "I knew it!" She flashed four times in quick succession, twice to make a close inspection of what Ororo was wearing and twice to have a look at herself in the mirror. On the last materialization she used the flat of her hand rapidfire to take a measure of her height before raising it as far as it would go above her head. She repeated the motion once more, then dropped her arms limp to her sides. She let out a quiet grunt of frustration, and for the first time since her arrival, heavy bags under her eyes revealed themselves, but she was too distracted to catch it in her reflection. "Ask first. Got it."
She instantly brightened back up again, turning a huge smile on Ororo. "I've never had a roommate before. It's so exciting! We're going to do all the things roommates do together and learn everything there is to know about each other, right?"
"I don't think I know everything there is to know about me," Ororo replied with a small, amused smile. "But we can certainly try."
She could already tell that being Nora's roommate would require a lot of energy. Perhaps she could help the young speedster learn to channel hers? If she needed the lesson, that was.
"We can start now, if you'd like," Ororo offered, toeing off her sandals to sit cross legged on her bed. "Come, sit, tell me about you, and I'll tell you about me."
Wow, that bit about knowing herself was super deep. Ororo seemed like she was really wise. "Sure!" Nora said, pausing to follow Ororo's example with her own shoes, using her heels to hold them in place while she slid her feet out of them. She bounded up to the bed, arms swinging at her sides, and sat facing her new roommate. "Ooh, bouncy," she said with a slight giggle. "Gosh, where do I even start? I know! I'll tell you about my stuff, since I've already seen yours. I've got this hammer." She held her hands out to demonstrate the size of the head, looking like a fisherman bragging about their catch. "It's really big, and it turns into a grenade launcher. I call it Magnhild. But I'll understand if you don't want me to keep it in our room." 'Our room.' She really loved the sound of that.
"As long as it's not going to go off in the room, I don't mind," Ororo answered, but she was a little puzzled. Never mind where it was now, what she most wanted to know was, "Where did you get it?"
"Promise!" Nora agreed without hesitation. "I grabbed it when Piotr and I escaped a couple days ago." She lazily waved the back of one hand as she spoke. "One of those places Shen called a 'shitty covert organization' or whatever." She shrugged. "Anyway, they made it specially for me, and kept us there for something like four years I guess, so I figure it's mine and where I go, it goes." She let out a quick gasp of realization, then, face going serious as she looked at Ororo. "Oh! But please, please don't ask Piotr about it, yet, if you see him. Please? He's still having a real hard time with all of that."
"I won't bring any of this up with him," Ororo assured the other girl. "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to make anything harder on him." She gave Nora a soft smile. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, both of you. He came in with you, then?"
"Thank you," Nora said with relief. Piotr would get better someday, now that they were out of that horrible place. She didn't doubt that for a second, but until then she intended to keep him safe and his spirits up any way she could, same as always.
Trust was another one of those super-important things she'd heard roommates shared, and Nora was glad to know she could depend on Ororo for that, too. "Yeah, big guy," she said, smiling. "Really big Russian guy. Turns into an even bigger guy made of steel. Total sweetheart. How about you? How'd you end up here? Did you come with anyone?"
Ororo shook her head. "No. I was... with my tribe." The words still came with that odd, wonderful, frightening sense of belonging she had never felt before she reached the valley. "But I wasn't discreet, word was starting to spread about me, and that garnered unwanted interest. The Professor showed up and offered me a spot here."
Nora hung on every word, eyes wide as she formed vague images based largely on the emotions attached to things Ororo said, rather than any clear understanding of their meaning. She didn't have the slightest idea what having a tribe was supposed to look like, but it sounded wonderful. Like family. "That's not fair," she said in a tone that expressed more regret than outrage. "It's hard to be quiet about your power when it makes you happy. Or other people happy."
"I think this was my path, though," Ororo replied steadily. "I'd never really had an education. Next year I should graduate. I never would've expected that for myself." She would be able to go back to the valley a lot wiser, on many levels.
"That's great!" Nora said with a delighted smile. "I think I know what you mean, maybe. I haven't set foot in a classroom since, well..." she rolled her eyes, "...since I was eight or something and I don't know how I'm ever going to catch up."
"I managed, so will you, if you're dedicated," Ororo assured her warmly. She hadn't set for in a classroom since earlier than that, after all. "Are you taking summer school?"
Nora beamed in complete agreement with the confidence Ororo expressed. Just because she didn't know how she was going to do something didn't mean she couldn't. "Oh yeah, we're doing all the summer school. Sounds like a lot of the students are going to be gone, too. Are you still going to be around? Taking any classes? We could help each other study!"
"I'm leaving for a few weeks in late July, some of August," Ororo confirmed. "Going back to Kenya and doing remote summer classes for that time. But we can help each other study in the meantime," she agreed with a warm smile.
"That's wonderful!" Nora said. "Wow, Kenya! I'm so glad the bad people who found you aren't able to stop you from visiting your tribe." That may not have been exactly what Ororo meant by 'unwanted interest,' but Nora's own experiences made that the natural way for her to interpret it.
Ororo nodded with a thankful smile. "They are safe, for now."
"I hope they'll be safe always," Nora said without hesitation. "I'm from Asgard. Originally, at least."
"That sounds like a story," Ororo remarked, with a faint questioning lilt to her voice.
Nora conceded that with a nod. Her tone and expression became matter-of-fact as she said, "Family died in a car crash in Russia when I was young." She shrugged a little to let Ororo know it was something she was okay with talking about. It had been a long time ago, after all. "Craaaazy Thursday. I pretty much grew up on my own, wandering from place to place. Never stayed anywhere more than a week if I could help it."
Ororo nodded at Nora's news, clear blue eyes full of understanding. She knew all about this sort of circumstances, after all. "That sounds lonely."
Nora couldn't deny that, so she pressed her lips together and made a faint, "Mm-hmn," sound. "It always seemed better than getting caught, though," she said. "People can be mean when you're in a place you don't know and don't belong. Kids can be even meaner." Adults, mostly, acted like they were getting rid of a problem, which meant as long they thought the problem was going away, they'd leave it alone. Kids, on the other hand, acted like it was fun. That made it a lot harder to get out from their radar.
She stifled a yawn that suddenly snuck up on her, and her eyes went wide as she blinked the surprise away. A moment later she perked back up, bright and cheery as ever as she smiled at Ororo. "But I also learned to be really brave. And I met Piotr, and now we're here and I'm going to make so many friends and then it will be like the rest of it doesn't even matter anymore."
Your past never stopped mattering, Ororo had learned. It was just the way it mattered that shifted. Sometimes around you, or through you. Sometimes out from under you.
But Nora would learn this in her own time. "Making friends is always a great goal. And you can start right here in this room." Ororo smiled warmly at her new roommate. "You'll see, people here are friendly, for the most part."
Nora looked like she'd just awakened to a room full of birthday presents. "I would love to be your friend!" she said in a rush. "It'll be great! You'll see. I'm lots of fun to be around. What did you mean by 'for the most part?'"
"Everyone has got their sore spots or cranky days," Ororo replied with a small shrug. That was just human.
"Oh, that," Nora said, nodding. "Sure, I get that. I guess that's one of the nice things about so many people living together, right? There's sure to be someone who can help turn that around, even if it's just by giving them space when they need it?"
"We all try to be mindful of each other," Ororo confirmed with a soft smile.
"Sounds like you really know the school well," Nora said, nodding confidently. She cocked her head to the side. "What kind of power do you have?"
"I can control the weather," Ororo replied, and smiled, "but no, I don't use it to make it sunny when it should be raining, or vice versa. And you're a speedster, yes?"
Nora could tell she was going to have to get used to people thinking that. "Shen says I'm a 'labels never really work all that well,'" she said with a shrug. "I'm pretty tough, and really strong. Grrr." She puffed out her chest and struck a bodybuilder's pose from where she sat. The faux growl collapsed into a quick giggle as she relaxed back to her regular posture. "The speed just kinda happens, except when I absorb electricity. Then all of it gets a boost, at least for a few seconds until the charge wears off. Your power is so cool! Is it any kind of weather? Can you stop tornadoes and stuff?"
"I could," Ororo confirmed with a nod. "But that might just start more somewhere else. I can only control the weather locally." But she smiled, then, and white bled into her eyes. "We're a good match," she remarked, using the static electricity in the air to send tiny bolts of lightning arcing from one of her hands to the other.
Eyes widening with amazement, Nora followed the path of the bolts with a soft little laugh of delight. "Oh, wow," she said. She lifted her eyes back to Ororo's, beaming happily. "We really are, aren't we?" she said. "I can't wait to see what we can do together!"
"I am sorry, Nora," Piotr said, eyes following her as she paced back and forth across the common room. "But think about it. She would not say over the message board. She did even not even hint what it was about when I messaged her privately. I have to meet her alone."
Nora sighed grumpily and flopped forward, arms dangling toward the floor. She stalked her way to the nearest couch and slouched into it, arms crossed in front of her chest while she glared at the empty space in front of her. "Hmph!" It wasn't fair. There was someone here who already knew Piotr (kind of), and she came from a different dimension. It sounded crazy and unbelievable and super cool.
"I will introduce you next time," Piotr assured her. He'd changed into a bland set of gym clothes that looked like they'd been painted onto his body, but she'd already teased him about that so she'd need to find something else to distract her from her mood.
At that moment both of their phones chimed the arrival of a new message. Nora withdrew the device she'd been issued and tapped the screen. "Omigosh!" she said, sitting up straight. "Our rooms have been assigned!" She bolted to her feet, face lighting up. "Finally!" She scanned through the message, anxious to get to the important parts. Room 206 it read. Ororo Munroe. "I have a roommate! I have a roommate!" She did a little dance in a circle while making up a song about it.
"That is wonderful, Nora!"
"I'm going to go say hello to her right now!" She bounced up to Piotr. "Meet me later, okay?" she said. Vanishing from the spot, she reappeared in the hall right next to the entrance. "Have a good talk with TJ I want to hear all about her bye bye bye!" With a quick, happy wave she skipped down the halls, headed for the west wing.
As soon as she found the right door she skid to a halt in front of it. She took a moment to compose herself and then, as politely as she could manage in her enthusiasm, knocked.
Fortunately, Ororo tended to be fairly tidy, and she hadn't really spread to the other side of the room since Jean's departure. Having the room to herself had mostly been a boon in terms of having easy privacy with T'Challa.
Still, she had known it was not likely to last, and she was looking forward to meeting her new roommate. Nora. She hadn't been told anything about her apart from her name, but given how perfectly matched Jean and Ororo had been, she had high hopes for this, too.
When the knock came, she went to open the door with a smile, white mohawk in full force, in shorts displaying miles of legs. "Hello!" she told the younger white girl on the other side of it. Ororo's accent had improved, but it was still noticeable. "You must be Nora? I'm Ororo."
Nora had to lift her head higher than expected to meet the other girl's eyes. A wide smile spread over her face. "Ororo," she said, getting a feel for the name. "Yes! Hi! Hello new roommate!" The last came with an enthusiastic, musical lilt. "I'm Nora, all right. Nora Valkyrie!"
"Hello, Nora Valkyrie," Ororo replied with a small smile. "Ororo Munroe. Come on in."
Nora let out a little peep of excitement the moment she'd been granted enough room to enter. She vanished with with a soft 'whoosh' and popped back into sight just inside. "Omigosh!" she said, eyes growing big as saucers as she looked around and stepped deeper into the room. "Omigosh! It's so wonderful (Wow, that's a lot of books)! All this is yours?" Her tone and posture strongly implied she was referring to the room as a whole, rather than any grouping of its contents.
'All this.' Ororo looked around the room, and how sparse it seemed since Jean had moved out. She had never amassed much, she felt, by comparison to her former roommate. So for Nora to feel this way about a few books and bits and bobs said something about Ororo's new roommate. "Yes, but feel free to borrow anything you like," she answered with a kind smile, closing the door. "Well, maybe ask first about any clothes," she amended with some amusement directed solely at herself.
"That really is something roommates do!" Nora shook upraised fists next to her cheeks in barely contained excitement. "I knew it!" She flashed four times in quick succession, twice to make a close inspection of what Ororo was wearing and twice to have a look at herself in the mirror. On the last materialization she used the flat of her hand rapidfire to take a measure of her height before raising it as far as it would go above her head. She repeated the motion once more, then dropped her arms limp to her sides. She let out a quiet grunt of frustration, and for the first time since her arrival, heavy bags under her eyes revealed themselves, but she was too distracted to catch it in her reflection. "Ask first. Got it."
She instantly brightened back up again, turning a huge smile on Ororo. "I've never had a roommate before. It's so exciting! We're going to do all the things roommates do together and learn everything there is to know about each other, right?"
"I don't think I know everything there is to know about me," Ororo replied with a small, amused smile. "But we can certainly try."
She could already tell that being Nora's roommate would require a lot of energy. Perhaps she could help the young speedster learn to channel hers? If she needed the lesson, that was.
"We can start now, if you'd like," Ororo offered, toeing off her sandals to sit cross legged on her bed. "Come, sit, tell me about you, and I'll tell you about me."
Wow, that bit about knowing herself was super deep. Ororo seemed like she was really wise. "Sure!" Nora said, pausing to follow Ororo's example with her own shoes, using her heels to hold them in place while she slid her feet out of them. She bounded up to the bed, arms swinging at her sides, and sat facing her new roommate. "Ooh, bouncy," she said with a slight giggle. "Gosh, where do I even start? I know! I'll tell you about my stuff, since I've already seen yours. I've got this hammer." She held her hands out to demonstrate the size of the head, looking like a fisherman bragging about their catch. "It's really big, and it turns into a grenade launcher. I call it Magnhild. But I'll understand if you don't want me to keep it in our room." 'Our room.' She really loved the sound of that.
"As long as it's not going to go off in the room, I don't mind," Ororo answered, but she was a little puzzled. Never mind where it was now, what she most wanted to know was, "Where did you get it?"
"Promise!" Nora agreed without hesitation. "I grabbed it when Piotr and I escaped a couple days ago." She lazily waved the back of one hand as she spoke. "One of those places Shen called a 'shitty covert organization' or whatever." She shrugged. "Anyway, they made it specially for me, and kept us there for something like four years I guess, so I figure it's mine and where I go, it goes." She let out a quick gasp of realization, then, face going serious as she looked at Ororo. "Oh! But please, please don't ask Piotr about it, yet, if you see him. Please? He's still having a real hard time with all of that."
"I won't bring any of this up with him," Ororo assured the other girl. "Don't worry. I wouldn't want to make anything harder on him." She gave Nora a soft smile. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, both of you. He came in with you, then?"
"Thank you," Nora said with relief. Piotr would get better someday, now that they were out of that horrible place. She didn't doubt that for a second, but until then she intended to keep him safe and his spirits up any way she could, same as always.
Trust was another one of those super-important things she'd heard roommates shared, and Nora was glad to know she could depend on Ororo for that, too. "Yeah, big guy," she said, smiling. "Really big Russian guy. Turns into an even bigger guy made of steel. Total sweetheart. How about you? How'd you end up here? Did you come with anyone?"
Ororo shook her head. "No. I was... with my tribe." The words still came with that odd, wonderful, frightening sense of belonging she had never felt before she reached the valley. "But I wasn't discreet, word was starting to spread about me, and that garnered unwanted interest. The Professor showed up and offered me a spot here."
Nora hung on every word, eyes wide as she formed vague images based largely on the emotions attached to things Ororo said, rather than any clear understanding of their meaning. She didn't have the slightest idea what having a tribe was supposed to look like, but it sounded wonderful. Like family. "That's not fair," she said in a tone that expressed more regret than outrage. "It's hard to be quiet about your power when it makes you happy. Or other people happy."
"I think this was my path, though," Ororo replied steadily. "I'd never really had an education. Next year I should graduate. I never would've expected that for myself." She would be able to go back to the valley a lot wiser, on many levels.
"That's great!" Nora said with a delighted smile. "I think I know what you mean, maybe. I haven't set foot in a classroom since, well..." she rolled her eyes, "...since I was eight or something and I don't know how I'm ever going to catch up."
"I managed, so will you, if you're dedicated," Ororo assured her warmly. She hadn't set for in a classroom since earlier than that, after all. "Are you taking summer school?"
Nora beamed in complete agreement with the confidence Ororo expressed. Just because she didn't know how she was going to do something didn't mean she couldn't. "Oh yeah, we're doing all the summer school. Sounds like a lot of the students are going to be gone, too. Are you still going to be around? Taking any classes? We could help each other study!"
"I'm leaving for a few weeks in late July, some of August," Ororo confirmed. "Going back to Kenya and doing remote summer classes for that time. But we can help each other study in the meantime," she agreed with a warm smile.
"That's wonderful!" Nora said. "Wow, Kenya! I'm so glad the bad people who found you aren't able to stop you from visiting your tribe." That may not have been exactly what Ororo meant by 'unwanted interest,' but Nora's own experiences made that the natural way for her to interpret it.
Ororo nodded with a thankful smile. "They are safe, for now."
"I hope they'll be safe always," Nora said without hesitation. "I'm from Asgard. Originally, at least."
"That sounds like a story," Ororo remarked, with a faint questioning lilt to her voice.
Nora conceded that with a nod. Her tone and expression became matter-of-fact as she said, "Family died in a car crash in Russia when I was young." She shrugged a little to let Ororo know it was something she was okay with talking about. It had been a long time ago, after all. "Craaaazy Thursday. I pretty much grew up on my own, wandering from place to place. Never stayed anywhere more than a week if I could help it."
Ororo nodded at Nora's news, clear blue eyes full of understanding. She knew all about this sort of circumstances, after all. "That sounds lonely."
Nora couldn't deny that, so she pressed her lips together and made a faint, "Mm-hmn," sound. "It always seemed better than getting caught, though," she said. "People can be mean when you're in a place you don't know and don't belong. Kids can be even meaner." Adults, mostly, acted like they were getting rid of a problem, which meant as long they thought the problem was going away, they'd leave it alone. Kids, on the other hand, acted like it was fun. That made it a lot harder to get out from their radar.
She stifled a yawn that suddenly snuck up on her, and her eyes went wide as she blinked the surprise away. A moment later she perked back up, bright and cheery as ever as she smiled at Ororo. "But I also learned to be really brave. And I met Piotr, and now we're here and I'm going to make so many friends and then it will be like the rest of it doesn't even matter anymore."
Your past never stopped mattering, Ororo had learned. It was just the way it mattered that shifted. Sometimes around you, or through you. Sometimes out from under you.
But Nora would learn this in her own time. "Making friends is always a great goal. And you can start right here in this room." Ororo smiled warmly at her new roommate. "You'll see, people here are friendly, for the most part."
Nora looked like she'd just awakened to a room full of birthday presents. "I would love to be your friend!" she said in a rush. "It'll be great! You'll see. I'm lots of fun to be around. What did you mean by 'for the most part?'"
"Everyone has got their sore spots or cranky days," Ororo replied with a small shrug. That was just human.
"Oh, that," Nora said, nodding. "Sure, I get that. I guess that's one of the nice things about so many people living together, right? There's sure to be someone who can help turn that around, even if it's just by giving them space when they need it?"
"We all try to be mindful of each other," Ororo confirmed with a soft smile.
"Sounds like you really know the school well," Nora said, nodding confidently. She cocked her head to the side. "What kind of power do you have?"
"I can control the weather," Ororo replied, and smiled, "but no, I don't use it to make it sunny when it should be raining, or vice versa. And you're a speedster, yes?"
Nora could tell she was going to have to get used to people thinking that. "Shen says I'm a 'labels never really work all that well,'" she said with a shrug. "I'm pretty tough, and really strong. Grrr." She puffed out her chest and struck a bodybuilder's pose from where she sat. The faux growl collapsed into a quick giggle as she relaxed back to her regular posture. "The speed just kinda happens, except when I absorb electricity. Then all of it gets a boost, at least for a few seconds until the charge wears off. Your power is so cool! Is it any kind of weather? Can you stop tornadoes and stuff?"
"I could," Ororo confirmed with a nod. "But that might just start more somewhere else. I can only control the weather locally." But she smiled, then, and white bled into her eyes. "We're a good match," she remarked, using the static electricity in the air to send tiny bolts of lightning arcing from one of her hands to the other.
Eyes widening with amazement, Nora followed the path of the bolts with a soft little laugh of delight. "Oh, wow," she said. She lifted her eyes back to Ororo's, beaming happily. "We really are, aren't we?" she said. "I can't wait to see what we can do together!"