“RAWR!” Elizabeth roared as she soared over the town, spewing death and destruction with the fire from her mouth. Her vast, leathery wings nearly blackened the sky, causing a shadow to blanket the countryside. Little tiny arrows tickled her armored ribs now and then, but she laughed them off as the knights ran screaming through the forests to escape her terrible draconic might.

“HA HA HA HA!” she laughed. And then she demolished a squad of Meatball fighters from WWII, who were clearly intent on stealing her mindless, princess body from her very back. But she hadn’t possessed a dragon for nothing! sHe was to be her own master! Muahahaha!

Her titanic feet crushed the city, leaving gaping crevices in her wake. Her tail shattered a mountain and her voice evaporated an entire sea. Sorcerers and wizards, their puny magicks sliding off her superior power, crumpled beneath her awesome gaze. And the earth screamed and squawked, as if it had taken the form of a bird and--

Liz sat up quite suddenly. She was in her bed, in her room at the mansion. The lights were off, but a faint glow was beginning to emanate in through the windows, clearly heralding the beginnings of dawn. The blonde scrubbed at her eyes before slapping her alarm clock. Why was it going off? Wasn’t it Sunday? Liz didn’t set her alarm clock for Sundays. But her alarm also wasn’t shutting off.

Blearily glancing over at the dysfunctional piece of technology, Liz finally realized two things. First, her alarm clock had not been set and so she was hitting it for no reason at all. Second, the “alarm clock” actually sounded like a loud, shrieking African grey parrot (who shall remain nameless) exclaiming all of his righteous indignation at something from his perch on top of her dresser.

“Shush, you,” Liz mumbled at the bird, but since the parrot wasn’t really the sort to follow instructions he didn’t want to follow, Liz submerged him beneath a wave of weariness and a bit of sullenness. Kinda like what she was feeling at the moment, too, as a result of being woken up so early and in the midst of a wonderful dream that was already striving to escape her memory’s bounds.

And then, as Liz rubbed her eyes again to remove the grit, she noticed that she and Nico were not alone in their room.

There was something on the other bed. Something moving and occasionally making some odd noises or something. Obviously it was some sort of demon-creature that hated it when teenagers actually managed to sleep in for once. Or a random drunk who’d managed to make his or her way into Liz’ room. Or it was that new roommate Liz could now vaguely remember hearing about that she knew she’d be receiving soon.

So instead of going with her gut and poking the creature with something sharp and pointy, Liz stumbled to her feet, crossed, the room, and gently laid a finger on the person’s shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?” she asked in a soft voice, one that was soothing, yet forceful enough to be heard (even in sleep, she hoped), but also wouldn’t wake up the city.

Serena had been tossing and turning all night, for she was having a violent nightmare. She heard a gentle voice calling out to her. It was asking if she was ok. Suddenly everything in the nightmare went bright and she bolted up out of sleep.

She was in a cold sweat and was breathing heavily. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a friendly looking, sleepy looking blonde girl staring at her. She looked to be about Serena's age. She was pretty. Serena assumed that this girl was her roommate.

She looked up at the sleepy girl "Hi, I'm Serena, I got told to just slip in quietly if I got back late, I'm your new roommate I guess" She said, between deep breaths, clearly still shaken from her nightmare.

How blessed Elizabeth was that she no longer needed to hire any exorcists to disinfect her room. That, and how she suddenly had a new roommate! It had been so long since she’d had one. She smiled at the girl--Serena--and brushed some mussed up hair out of her face. “I’m Elizabeth.” There, now they were officially introduced. At the moment, there was only one other thing to do.

“Are you okay?” Liz asked the girl, concern quite evident. “You seemed to be having a bad dream.” She remained standing beside the girl’s bed, hovering in case Serena needed something. While not having exactly been expecting the bed to spawn a new roommate during the night (which would explain why Elizabeth’s half of the room wasn’t completely clean), Liz quickly took up the mantle of Concerned/Caring roomie.

“I can go grab a glass of water or something. Chocolate, maybe.” In Liz’ experiences, chocolate possessed magical qualities that could get rid of so many negative thoughts and feelings. Even at--she glanced at her clock-- 6:07 in the morning. Whelp, no matter what happened, there went her beauty sleep. Liz was not going to be able to retreat to the warm paradise of her blankets and pillows.

Serena smiled "Nice to meet you Elizabeth, that's a beautiful name" Serena added with a weak smile. She was doing her best to be friendly, even though she was frightened of herself at the moment, that didn't mean that Elizabeth had to see that.

Bad dream? "That's one way to put it..." Serena's dream hadn't just been bad... It had been downright terrifying. And the worst part of it all was that the other person in the dream wasn't what had scared her. It was the way that she had acted that had scared her...

She looked up at Elizabeth again. Her new roommate was lovely! She had only just met her, Serena expected that her tossing and turning in reaction to that nightmare had probably woken her up and here she was, seeing what she could do to help Serena...

"I'd love a glass of water if that isn't too much trouble" Serena smiled, very weakly. It was as if, when she had used her power in the dream, the physical effect which it has on her body had happened anyway.

“I’ll be right back, then,” Elizabeth informed Serena. She moved away toward the door, taking only a moment to glance down at herself. Shorts and an oversize tee. It would work. Liz was by no means a prude, but she didn’t really want to be caught wandering the halls of the mansion in her pajamas. It was just an embarrassing concept to her. But her current outfit would pass for a lazy day’s apparel.

On her way to the kitchen, double-timing it while still trying to be courteous of other people (it was still early, and most teengagers tended to sleep in late, and nobody wanted to be woken up by a girl stampeding through the halls), Liz only belatedly remembered that she probably could’ve just grabbed a Dixie cup from their bathroom. Which was much, much closer to the room than the kitchen. Oh well, maybe next time.

On her way back from the kitchen, though, Liz realized it was probably best for her to have taken a while. It would give Serena a chance to pull herself together. After all, they had only just met each other, so Serena must be feeling terrible about breaking down in front of some stranger, or even something as simple as having a nightmare. Liz knew that she wouldn’t particularly like having a stranger all up in her face after something like that happening.

So as Liz pushed the door open, carefully balancing the two-thirds-full glass in her other hand, she made sure to make as much noise as possible entering the room that would still announce her presence, yet wouldn’t be too obvious or potentially cause a ruckus. Because she wanted to give Serena that final chance to sort herself out.

“Here you go,” she said with a sympathetic smile as she extended the glass outwards to Serena. “Fresh from the tap.” And since her work for the moment was done, Liz retreated to her bed, sitting cross-legged on its edge. That way, she wasn’t intruding upon Serena’s personal space, but the other blonde could still talk to her or whatever. Liz just didn’t want to be rude.

Elizabeth left to get some water. Serena was thankful for this as it gave her a little bit of time to pull herself back together. She carefully slowed her breathing, then sat upright and relaxed a little. She glanced across to the parrot and couldn't help but giggle at it...

Serena heard the door knob turn. Liz walked back in with two glasses of water. Serena smiled at her. She was already starting to really like Liz. She accepted her glass and took slow sips, while Liz sat on her bed, facing Serena with her legs crossed.

When Serena had had most of her drink, she set it aside, on her bedside table, then turned to Liz with a smile "Thanks Elizabeth, that helped a lot." Serena said with a warm smile, the colour now returned to her face.

Elizabeth slid her gaze from Serena for a moment to analyze the state her bird was in. Nico seemed to reacting predictably to her efforts. He’d definitely stopped shouting. But his feathers were still puffed up a bit. She splashed a bit more zen-type feelings at him, hoping to unlock his inner “Make love, not war” side. It seemed to help. His feathers flattened, but then he seemed to twist his head around and glare at her before tucking his head under wing, pretending to go to sleep.

Huh. Odd.

But the blonde dismissed it. She had a crazy bird. So what? Anyways, she should pay attention to Serena instead. In acknowledgement of the gratitude, Liz demurely ducked her head. “No problem,” said Liz. The empath turned her bark-colored gaze at the other girl, trying not to obviously examine her. She was looking a lot better. Breathing seemed to be normal, no pallor. Eyes didn’t seem to be widened or dilated. Liz was no doctor, but she was feeling pretty sure that the girl would be fine.

“Anything you want to talk about?” asked Liz. That’s what roommates were for, right? Besides, Elizabeth wanted to make the other girl feel welcome while walking the fine line between casual concern and outright nosiness. She didn’t want Serena to think that she had to tell Liz anything, but Liz wanted her to know that she could, if she wanted to. Besides, coming to the mansion in the middle of the night and just sneaking into the assigned room? Liz was bright enough to deduce that that wasn’t a normal situation, which only led to the idea that Serena might have many other unfortunate situations in her past.

Liz was mostly playing the whole thing by ear. She’d help if she could, but she’d also respect Serena’s privacy.

Serena smiled at Liz's friendly attitude, yes, Serena and her roommate should get along perfectly. Serena noticed the parrot glaring at her roommate, could birds glare? If they could, this once certainly was... how strange. She wondered why Liz decided to keep the bird for a pet, it wasn't the most usual choice...

Serena realized that she had been thinking of Elizabeth as Liz this whole time... She had mentally abrievated her name. Serena pondered Liz's question for a moment. "I don't really know... by the way, do you mind if I call you Liz? I like to shorten my friends names." Serena said with a smile.

She noticed that she was no longer sleepy. How odd, it must have been the conversation. "I... I don't know where that dream came from," Eager to change the subject Serena picked herself up rather quickly. "Sooo, sorry that they just dropped me on you like this, I hope it isn't too imposing.

“Liz, Elizabeth, anything works,” said Elizabeth easily enough. “Although I’m not fond of Beth.” She glanced off to the right and somewhere above her head, spending a few moments in thought. “Well, Lizzy isn’t the greatest, but I won’t complain. Eh, Liz is probably the best.” At that point, the multiple-named girl in question realized she was on the verge of a major babble-party she cut off her stream of consciousness.

She also noticed the particular diction of Serena’s sentence: she mentioned shortening the names of friends. Which only logically followed that she considered Liz to be a friend. After a fraction of a second’s worth of thought, Liz decided she liked the idea. She made a new friend. And Serena didn’t seem like a complete nutjob or anything, so she’d see where things went.

The sleepy disturbance was brushed off as just a dream. Okay. Elizabeth mentally shrugged. She wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it; she wasn’t even involved with it. But the next topic was directly related to her.

“Don’t worry about it. Besides, we’re roommates now. It’s expected that we constantly impose on each other. But seriously, it’s no big deal. I just wish the administrators or whatever had given me a heads up or something. I mean, I knew someone would be coming eventually, but it was so descriptively vague.” Liz smiled at that, throwing that bit of info out there in the hopes of a shared attitude towards “the system.”

“If you want, you can go back to sleep,” said Liz. “It’s Sunday. OR we can make breakfast or put your things away or something.” Because Liz didn’t feel like sleeping anymore. She was already awake, up, and therefore mentally prepping herself to take on the day. She’d feel like she’d be wasting it if she went back to sleep at that point.

Serena grinned at Liz's babbling. She was rather happy with who she had ended up with as a roommate, she seemed rather bubbly. That really made Serena happy. She seemed great. After she had rambled on for a while, she realised that she was and stopped herself.

Serena giggled lightly at her complaints about the mansion organisation. "Again, sorry, but yeah, I wouldn't know. I only really got here a night or so ago" She smiled at Liz.

Did she need more sleep? After that dream, she decided that she would rather do something. Breakfast might be good, but it wasn't even really 7am yet, maybe they should wait a little. "I'm not really that hungry yet, I could eat if you wanted to though.

She had felt a looming question over her for a while now. And decided that she needed to ask it. "Hey Liz, can I ask, what can you do? I don't mean to be rude, but this whole mutation thing is still very new to me and I'd like to know more about how it works, or how other people deal with theirs..." Serena shifted in her place slightly awkwardly.

Serena’s decision fit perfectly into Elizabeth’s plans. “Alrighty then: breakfast later.” Eight o’clock would probably be a good time. Liz herself was in a similar state of hunger as Serena, and she preferred being properly dressed and all before making a public entrance, despite her recent downstairs traipse. But she didn’t want to just sit idly around so the girl leaned forward and slid off her bed, her intended destination being her desk. She took up a hairbrush and proceeded to brush out her golden locks, almost positive that she was suffering from a severe case of bedhead.

Before Serena could finish talking, Liz, who was just sitting back on her bed, thought she detected hesitation in the girl’s voice. But the question came forth easily enough and Liz found it to be simple enough to answer. “Well, first of all, it’s really not rude to ask what someone’s mutation is. After all, that’s pretty much why almost all of us are here. And you’ll find me pretty difficult to offend.” She smiled at her new roommate and pulled more of her hair over her shoulder, allowing it to splay out in front of her, enabling her to more easily brush it.

“And as for me, I can transfer my psyche into that of any animal I touch. And I know how animals feel and can render their moods malleable to my influence.” Erk. That sounded like gibberish. And it made her sound like some type of mad scientist. What was she thinking? Although, that explanation (one she’d only just decided to try out) sounded less creepy than her standard I can possess animals and control their emotions. Because that always made her feel like a witch. And it was bad enough that she already had a parrot familiar.

She tried not to grimace at her own explanation and chose to alter the topic. “Feel free to ask me questions at any time. I remember how tough it was when my own abilities manifested. And as long as you don’t try to kill me or anything when you experiment, your own gifts will be just fine,” Liz said. She was trying to be sincere and compassionate and she fervently hoped she didn’t come off as bragging and uppity. She really did only want to help.

Serena smiled at Liz's comment, it made her feel less nervous and a little better about asking people about their mutations, She felt she needed to know more in order to better control it. Maybe she should find somewhere that she could use to practice her mutation away from prying eyes.

She simply smiled and nodded at Liz's description of her mutation was interesting. She definitely sounded much more in control than Serena was... She probably shouldn't mention it. "Thanks, and that sounds awesome. So you can feel what mood your parrot is in?"

Serena felt a small wave of anxiety, no she didn't think she would ever practice her mutation or 'Experiment' anywhere near Liz, it would be far too dangerous for her. Serena gave Liz a grim smile "See the thing is... I've only ever intentionally used it once... and it felt like it was fighting back, so I don't think I'll ever use it around you because I wouldn't want to hurt you." Serena murmured.

“Yeah, I usually know what’s going on with him,” Elizabeth stated in response to Serena’s question. “His name’s Nico, by the way. He’s weird. And never try to feed him crackers: he finds it condescending and will most likely go for your eyes.” The last comment was delivered in a perfectly reasonable, straight face with barely an inflection in her voice. It was designed to give an air of uncertainty as to the validity of the statement.

“The main downfall to animal-specific empathy is the sheer amount of it,” Liz continued, reverting back to continue her earlier remark. “Did you know that you’re supposedly never more than ten feet from a spider? And think of all the other bugs around you. Then the birds outside, other pets in the mansion, the friendly little lizard who leaves in the bushes under our. There’s a lot of stuff going on up here.” She pointed an index finger directly at her temple.

But then the empath felt like she was rambling again. Sheesh, what’s wrong with me? I normally don’t talk this much. It was probably sleep deprivation, or at least the crushed and incinerated dreams of actually sleeping in. Both were known to cause behavioral tendencies of divergent natures.

And then serena got serious. Oookay. Elizabeth made an effort to still herself, not entirely sure what would be the best way to respond to her roommate. If only I could sense her feelings like I do Nico’s. The girl looked like she was trying to carry the world on her back, or struggling with some dark secret. Well, Liz didn’t really know any other ways than the straightforward approach.

“Do you mind me asking what your ability is?” she asked in a cautious tone. “I mean, I’m not trying to pry. It’s cool if you don’t want to share. But I’m here for ya.” She smiled reassuringly to Serena. She also prayed that the girl wouldn’t turn into an incredible nutjob or something. Those were not the easiest of people to live with day-in and day-out.

Serena listened carefully as Liz explained how her mutation worked and how it could be overwhelming at times. She expected that although it could be, Liz still loved it and accepted it as part of who she was, that was something amazing.

Serena suspected, in a small corner of her mind, that she would have to do the same thing one day, but that day was a ways off. She quieted down the small, uncertain section of her mind and focused on the conversation with Liz. She was shocked by the amount of creatures around.

"Sounds like your head must get plenty noisy..." Serena murmured. She tried to imagine what it would be like, all of those emotions you could feel in your head at once... It was even harder to imagine by the fact that they were animals so were obviously more instinct driven then humans.

Serena wondered what she should say to Liz's question about her own mutation... Then she gave a mental sigh, if they were going to be roommate, and, more importantly friends, Serena would have to be completely honest with Liz.

She smiled to Elizabeth. "I guess you'd have to find out eventually considering we are roommate s." Serena took a deep breath, suppressing bad thoughts as best she could and thinking of how to word her reply to Liz, simultaneously.

She opened her mouth and spoke. "I guess the best way to describe it would be Haemokinesis? I can telekineticlly control blood. Although, I can't really control it itself, to be honest I have only ever used it on purpose once..." Serena's words sounded heavy.

She really hoped that Liz wouldn't be creeped out too much, or wouldn't want to get a new roommate, she really liked Liz, she seemed like she would make an awesome roommate.

Oh. Now that was interesting. Elizabeth’s jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide, delight shining forth from her sienna hues. At Serena’s hesitation, Liz had expected some sort of disgusting power, like super-strength by making out with corpses, or making snot-bubbles that showed images of the worst possible futures. But controlling blood? “That’s….that’s flippin’ amazing!” she said ineloquently. Oh, why did other people have to get all the cool and useful powers?

“So does this mean you can bloodbend or whatever? Like, can you control someone’s actions or make them do something they don’t want to?” Liz leaned forward and stopped brushing her hair, placing the brush and her hands on her knees in an excited grip. “Caramba! I wish I could do something useful like that.”

Okay, so maybe Liz was starting to sound a bit too wistful or dreamy. Who cared? At least, what was it? Hemokinesis? At least it could potentially be used to defend oneself. And all those troubled times gone past, Liz could’ve just turned kidnappers onto each other, or kidnap them. Oh what a great time that would be! Understanding a bird’s mood had never stopped her being taken hostage yet.

“You should totally start practicing your power. Like, I don’t think you understand how cool it is! Unless you can’t stand the sight of blood or something, which would be unfortunate. But still--” Liz cut herself off as something dawned on her. You know, there’s a slight chance I’m creeping Serenea out with my bloody excitement. I should probably explain.

“Not to be a creepy weirdo or anything. I just think you got lucky when you bought your gene-pool lottery ticket.” But Liz still wanted to know about the bloodbending part.....