ic Shell Game (IC)

[Electra]

"You can come in if you want," Danica offered, scooting back from the door. The room inside looked very much like a typical young teenager's bedroom, though the wide variety of posters and decorations gave it an oddly timeless quality. There were old and curling posters for movies that had come out well before Danica's classmates had been born, Now and Then, Casper, 10 Things I Hate About You, right alongside posters of Rey from the new Star Wars and a sprawling Minecraft vista. A pink landline phone with a curly cord sat next to a nearly-new laptop hooked up to a ZIP drive with several adapters. A bed with a plushy green comforter took up much of the space, and the parts of the wall that weren't covered in posters had windows curtained in the same green color. 

 

"ASHLEY!" Danica yelled out the door. "JUDY'S IN HERE! WE'RE OKAY!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Sure enough, Judy was just coming out the bathroom, running a tortiseshell comb through her long dark hair. "Oh hey everybody!" she said a little nervously, looking at Danica to make sure that the visitors were welcome. "Have we been in here long?" she asked, shooting a look at their host. "Ah didn't mean to scare anybody out there." She smiled at everybody, looking relaxed. "Danica's got a real nice little house in this...place!" 

 

Outside, Ashley hastily screwed the stopper back on her flask and called "...okay! I'm coming in!" And soon enough, a slightly disheveled, thoroughly baffled-looking Watchdog emerged from the door to the outside, joining the growing crowd inside Danica's place. She didn't say much except move to Judy's side; the circumstances evidently stealing her words entirely. 

 

 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah had come into the room, at the back of the small group. He placed himself close to the door and far from the others. He managed not to flinch when Watchdog came in, but the way she carried herself made it a near thing. As the initial hubbub died down, he spoke up as his eyes wandered the room.

 

"Just....how large is this place, Danica? Is it house-sized, or are we getting into TARDIS level interior space?"

[Heritage]

Lulu poked her head in, had a look 'round, and then crawled inside. Once inside, she dusted herself off and surveyed the room. "Ah like it! Especially the whole 'retro' feel with all the old posters and stuff." But then she started to notice the condition the posters were in. These were not lovingly assembled collectibles; they'd been put up years ago.

 

Turning to the lovable 'turtle girl', Lulu cocked an eyebrow and cleared her throat. "Uh, Danica? How long have you been livin' in here?"

[Electra]

"It's as big as it needs to be," Danica assured Micah, then gave Lulu a quizzical look. "Um, it's my shell, I've had it since I was born." She stood up from where she'd crouched down to greet her guests and walked further into the room. As she approached the far wall it stretched almost imperceptibly, adding a few additional square feet to better accommodate the sudden rush of visitors. "I started decorating it when I was pretty little, but it wasn't till my powers started developing in, um, maybe 1996 or so that my parents and I figured out how to get furniture in here. When I was little-little it was all pillows and toys and stuff!" She opened a mini-fridge next to the desk. "Anybody want some clementines?" 

[KnightDisciple]

"Oh, I'll take one please."

 

After he took the fruit and began to peel it, something Danica had said a moment ago made him stop and think. 1996 wasn't horribly long ago...except...

 

"Danica....your powers are all tortoise-themed, right?"

 

He wasn't a biology genius, but this was not exactly a huge leap of logic. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hi, Ashley!" Judy was telling Ashley brightly in the corner of the small room. "Sorry again if Ah scared you, Ah just...really like it in here!" 

 

"We're inside a $(#Ing tortoise shell," commented Ashley out loud as she ran her hand along the side of the wall. "A #($(ing extra-dimensional magic tortoise shell." 

 

"Well Ah don't know if Ah would put it in that particular way," said Judy, a little nettled by her sister's tone. "But everything's fine in here. Ah couldn't stay here forever because there's no, you know, reception or anything like that," she added as she curled her fingers through her dark hair, "but it just feels very relaxing." 

[olopi]

Monica had a clear baffled expression on her face all the way as she moved into the shell and then the room. With everything she'd already seen in her short time as Lady Liberty, this definitely took the top spot in terms of weirdness. It was pretty pleasant and all, but that didn't make it less weird. She looked around the room while listening to the conversation, as the others seemed to voice her thoughts pretty well. There were only so many things one could think of when coming across something like this, apparently.

 

Danica gave an interesting insight into her powers. 1996? So…. Monica went through some scenarios in her head, and in either way, Danica's powers seemed to be quite the thing. Monica stood there a bit absent-mindedly as she considered some things, only responding to the question with a slight delay. "Oh, yeah, I'll take one, thank you."

 

She could just about overhear the conversation between Judy and Ashley, and Ash's assessment of the situation.

 

Word.

[Heritage]

"Oh, sure, ah'll take one," said Lulu with a nod as she did the math in her head. No way a kid born in '96 would be into Heath Ledger, which meant she'd been a tween at least back then, if not a full-on teenager. Add into that Micah's comment about tortoise powers...

 

You know what, forget about it; it's her life and her information to share. Accept the sweet girl as she is, and thank the Lord she was given two parents who clearly love her and had the patience of saints.

 

As the telepath placed delicious juicy wedges into her mouth, she tried to imagine living a life in slow motion, surrounded by kids who ran past you at normal speed; a lonely life indeed. "So can we do sleepovers in here? Because that's obviously the next logical step."

Edited August 17, 2019 by Heritage

[Electra]

Danica passed around the clementines, which seemed entirely normal for food stored inside a fridge in a giant tortoise shell. "So far all tortoise-ish," she agreed with Micah, peeling one for herself with careful fingers. "I might develop more powers when I get older, lots of superheroes do, but having a shell and being hard to hurt are not too bad. I like being able to keep people safe." She grinned at Lulu. "I was never allowed to have sleepovers in here at Nicholson because of no adult supervision, but nobody at Claremont has told me not to..." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Sounds good to me!" said Judy with a grin. "You've got good ideas, Danica." She gave the other girl a hug, her skin warm to Danica's turtle-touch, fever-hot by any human standards - but then, she was pretty familiar with that aspect of her energy-emitting friend. "Do you mind if Ah say something to everybody?" she whispered.

 

When she had that permission, she cleared her throat and turned to all the friends who'd joined them inside the shell. "Hi,  everybody! Ah just...Ah wanted to say something, since we're all gonna be going our separate ways this summer and who knows what'll happen after that.' She took a breath and said, "When Ah first got here, Ah was...ah was really afraid," she admitted. "Ah was afraid of leaving everyone Ah knew and being around people who were...not like me," she said, swallowing the last few words. "But you all are good friends, better friends than Ah deserve. And Danica, thanks for letting us in your shell." 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah looked a bit uncomfortable at the discussion of sleepovers. He considered himself a friend of everyone here, but, well. His family wasn't high society or anything, but the only phrase that came to mind was "it wouldn't be proper". When Judy spoke up about how she considered them all friends, Micah blushed slightly, but smiled. This, at least, was familiar territory.

 

"I mean, I can't say I know your life exactly, Judy, but I hear what you mean. This is a good school, but it's still scary. I'm glad we could be friends."

 

He looked at the others, sincerity shining in his eyes.

 

"You all are good people. You aren't afraid of people's powers, even if they're a little scary, and for some of us, that means a lot."

[Heritage]

Lulu wiped tears from her eyes at Judy's heartfelt declaration. "Aw shucks, you're makin' me cry! But ah gotta thank you, Judy, for just...bein' you! Ah know you and Ash have been through a lot, more than most of us, and that creates a bond stronger than steel. So I want to thank you-" And here she looked at Ashley, a small smile on her lips. "Both of you for lettin' us into your lives; you're good people who deserve the best out of life, and I hope you're findin' here."

 

And then she reached over to give Judy a hug, too.