It had been so long, too long spent cuffed to a bed, collared and drugged. They told him he had been lucky to survive, that the ambulance had been able to get him to the hospital, that the knife wound hadn't cut too deeply and left his stomach intact enough to simply be sown up. That the seizure that happened just after arriving to the hospital hadn't killed him outright. Apparently his heart stopped for two seconds. He had died, god he had actually died. Worst he had killed the man who had done it.

The whole event had made him feel worst that sick. He never thought it would come to this.

Or perhaps the nausea was from the rainbow assortment of pills he had been given. The doctors didn't want to release him so soon after a traumatic incident. But both the school, who had been contacted, and the mutant division of the police thought the hospital wouldn't be safe for him to stay. They said videos of what happened had gone viral, that people were riled by the incident. They said the mansion was better equipped to keep him safe till the trial could be held.

Oh yes, there was going to be a trial. They were going to judge whether it was self-defense or murder. That was possibly the worst of it. Because he didn't know if they were actually going to judge the events as they occurred or if the bias against mutants would prevail. Being collared for the time he had been horrible, suffocating. He couldn't imagine it happening for any longer.

So here he was, picked up from the hospital, electronic ankle bracelet to keep him confined to the mansion grounds, and guided back into the Xavier Mansion. Safe at last, it seemed. His body felt like fire, even with the pain meds, but at least he could walk around. He was eager to lay down again though.

Back in his old room he found the second bed that had been empty when he left now was occupied. Curiosity won over pain and he found himself plopping down on the strangers bed, looking at the open laptop and the video it had pause. The image made his blood run cold. So these were the videos everyone was worried about.

Jiri really wanted to put his head down and groan. It was the kind of dramatic gesture that felt appropriate, and might just make him feel better. But if he put his head down, he'd probably fall asleep. The less he did that, the better. 

Ghost must have said something to the rest of the staff about him, probably something not very flattering and including the words jittery and liable to panic. With that sage advice in mind, one of his human teachers had pulled him aside yesterday, and delivered the news as pleasantly as possible. A fair warning, with enough time that he wouldn't freak out about it: he was getting a roommate.

By the time class ended today, the guy would probably already be in his room, in his space, hanging up posters of bands he didn't like and... and shedding, or something. Wasn't that what the tiger kid's roommate kept complaining about? Fur everywhere?

He'd had twenty-four hours to work himself up over this. Thank you, teachers. Thank you, Ghost. 

Jiri sat in his last class of the day, leg twitching spasmodically under the table. Someone had thought it was a good idea to sign him up for summer school, too. Probably to push him out of his comfort zone, and help him make friends. 

Well, they'd certainly succeeded on one of those counts.

Also, he'd pretty much failed his spring semester at his old school. Sleeping through midterms and being on suspension during finals hadn't helped. It might have something to do with that, too.

Yep.

twitch twitch twitch twitch

From the desk ahead of him, the kinetics absorber tossed a grin at him, eyes glowing a cheery yellow as he picked up the vibrations of Jiri's leg through the floor. Which meant he was storing up the energy Jiri was producing. Which was creepy. Jiri forced himself to stop twitching.

...His self control lasted for all of thirty seconds.

twitch twitch twitch twitch twitch

Finally, remedial quiz on Huck Finn done and comparative essay of racism v. genetic discrimination acceptably outlined, Jiri was permitted to leave. His room was about a minute away. 

He took twelve to get there. But there was really only so much time he could kill without socializing, and he was still easing himself into that. Talking to the regular-looking kids was easy, but when someone eight feet tall with razor claws casually joined the conversation, Jiri still got wigged out. He took it as a sign that his survival instincts were still functioning. Honestly, he was going to be a little worried when they stopped.

He stood outside his door, and took a deep breath. Finger-combed his dark curls, and forced himself to relax into the properly unconcerned teen boy swagger. All right. Time to get this over with. Here's hoping whoever the guy was, he didn't have tentacles.

Jiri turned the knob and walked in. A few things hit him simultaneously.

Fact one: the guy was on his bed, playing videos on his computer. Personal space issues, great.

Fact two: the guy was playing a video Jiri was very familiar with, and really sick of seeing, even though he couldn't seem to stop himself from repeating it.

Fact three: the guy had starred in said video. Co-starred, if Jiri counted himself.

He stopped dead in the doorway.

"Oh shit. You're alive." Maybe these were not the best words to greet his new roommate with. Or the guy he'd actively helped put in the hospital, for that matter. Someone might even mistake his shock: Oh shit, you're alive, how unfortunate rather than oh shit, you're alive, that's good.

To be entirely fair? He wasn't sure which way he'd meant it.

"Oh shit. You're alive."

The words jerked him from his quiet viewing, he must have looped the video a couple times, to have not noticed the stranger walking into the room. The voice was vaguely familiar, distantly so, like from a far off dream. He didn't bother to think to hard on it, there were too many things going on to bother with something like that. Not when he had something to catch his curiosity right in front of him.

"Yeah...I guess you saw the news like everybody else. Shit..."

He glanced at the video again, looked at the amount of views this single one had garnered. Just over 100,000, and this was just one person who uploaded it, downloads and re-uploads and, god, he never wanted this much attention. Hell he never wanted any attention. He stood up and went over to his own bed, carefully laying down, so as not to jar his stitches.

"I would laugh if this situation wasn't so fucked up. Everybody is arguing over what my power is. Which I guess is better than focusing on what I did..."

He covered his eyes with his arm, trying not to panic. He couldn't be normal like this, this was going to finish off whatever life he had started building, what he was trying to protect. He shuddered to think what that mutant hater website had him listed as now.

There were two very different ways this could play out, and they matched pretty neatly with the two feelings behind his oh shit greeting.

Alex didn't recognize him. Thought he was just a generic Mansion kid, a random other mutant, who'd seen the videos and recognized him from them. He would have seen Jiri clearly in the dream of that house in the desert, but he'd been half-way to dead by the time he'd had those dreams. On the bus, during the fight? Jiri hadn't exactly been wearing his own face, then.

This could be how things were between them. He could just be the generic kid who happened to live in this room. Pretend like nothing had happened. Maybe even be friends. Get away with it, completely.

Unless Ace remembered, or Mary. Unless days or weeks or months from now something clicked, and Alex pieced it all together, and suddenly it would all come crashing down.

The second way this could go, then, was to own up to things right now. The first time they met. And hope Alex didn't kill him.

Figuratively or literally.

His new roommate returned to his own bed. Not a single word of apology about using his computer, but that really wasn't the big issue here. Jiri sat down, and eased the laptop's lid down until it clicked. He even managed to keep his breathing steady, and his green eyes on Alex.

"How are Ace and Mary doing? Ace seemed, ah, pretty shaken up. Last we talked." He fidgeted where he sat; shifted his feet, clasped his hands in his lap.

"How are Ace and Mary doing? Ace seemed, ah, pretty shaken up. Last we talked."

He lifted his arm to stare at his new room mate and give him a long hard look. "What the hell are you talking about? You shouldn't know-" He stopped short, eyes growing wide with realization. The dream, memory, flooded over him with sudden and terrifying clarity. The memory space of the house in the desert, a young man with a strange cup of tea. Ace and Mary arguing over the intruder's presence. Mary purred in the back of his mind, pushing forward to watch the stranger.

"You..." He breathed, tone between anger and shock. He sat up slowly, careful not to hurt the wound. "You were there. In my head...I thought I was hallucinating, or dead. I did die! For three seconds but the point is, you didn't help! You could have helped!"

That was probably the thing that offended him the most. That he was there and aware of everything that was going on and he had done nothing to help. He just sat there and watched, let Mary take up too much space, move through the cracks in his brain. It was hard to handle in the first place, dying on top of everything didn't help. He had to leave it to the constructs to care about keeping him alive.

But the stranger in his brain only made Mary all the more eager to jump ship. Even now, he could feel her staring at Jiri with something akin to love. However much such a possessive creature like her could actually love.

And there we go. The teen lifted his arm, stared, and then--

>> "What the hell are you talking about? You shouldn't know-"

--Joined the same conversation Jiri was a part of. 

"I, ah, checked that you were in an ambulance? And I came back to say that you'd made it to the hospital, but you were already pretty out of it by then. I don't know if you heard me." As help went, he knew it had been rather lacking. He kept his hands clasped tight together, to keep from fidgeting any worse. What was he supposed to say? That from where he'd been sitting, it had just been a mostly pleasant dream were someone happened to be dying? "I'm not really sure what else I could have done. My power, I... don't have very good control over it."

Very poor control. Alex didn't even know the half of it. Jiri didn't notice, but his voice was growing more faltering, more quiet with every word he spoke.

"Can they hear me?" He asked. "If they can: hi? There's a whole observatory up on the roof with a telescope, if Ace didn't know. And it's definitely not my place to say, but you probably hate me already, so I'll say it anyways--you should let Mary out more. Ace says she gets cramped in there, with how little you use her, that's why she wanders. Also I'd like to know if she's that pretty in real life, or if that was just the dream, so it would be cool to meet her."

It was almost impossible to hear him by the time he got up the nerve to fully confess. From the tone Alex had used... he was angry, but he wasn't angry enough. Which meant he hadn't figured out the worst of it yet. 

Jiri helped him there, before he could put two and two together and murder him in  his sleep.

"Also I was possessing those guys who attacked you sorry my name's Jiri I guess I'm glad you didn't die."

...And this is how he would get murdered, in his first week in the Mansion, by his new roommate. Imagining the look on Ghost's face when they found the body was a little hilarious, in a giddy, panickingway.

He listened, frowning up until Jiri admitted he had very little control of the situation. That his power didn't really bend to his will. It was a good indicator that everything that had happened to land him in this position wasn't his fault. He felt a little guilty for snapping at him, but only a little. After all, he had gotten stabbed, killed a man, and may very well end up in jail at the end of this. He had a right to be upset.

"Can they hear me? If they can: hi? There's a whole observatory up on the roof with a telescope, if Ace didn't know. And it's definitely not my place to say, but you probably hate me already, so I'll say it anyways--you should let Mary out more. Ace says she gets cramped in there, with how little you use her, that's why she wanders. Also I'd like to know if she's that pretty in real life, or if that was just the dream, so it would be cool to meet her."

He laid down once more, attempting to relax and ignore the mounting headache in his brain. He never had someone address his constructs directly. This fact brought the more mature ones to surface, a near physical presence behind his eyes.

"First of all, yeah they can hear you. Just like I can see and feel everything when they have bodies, they can see and feel everything I do. Second of all, cool, but I don't think I'll be heading up to the roof any time soon. And third, I know very well Mary gets cramped and restless. However, the bodies she wants, feels like she needs, are too big. Do you know how big a mountain lion is? A hundred pounds at least, so that's a lot of material. Plus I need to consume her caloric intake and for a body that size, that's a lot of food. A day of prep and rest, at least. And don't say, just give her a smaller body, because last time I did she ran away from me. She keeps finding new ways to be a disobedient every time I give her a body, the little bugger. And depending on the body I give her, yes she can be very pretty or very ugly."

He groaned and pinched his brow, Mary didn't like a lot of what he said and was currently clawing at his brain box. No permanent damage mind you, but enough to give him a headache. Why did he have to have someone who actively tried to dislike him in his own head? Was he self loathing? Was that it? Was this self punishment that was happening?

Jiri had (indirectly) stabbed the teen and (directly) caused him to kill a man. Alex had a right to be upset. It made him feel just a little sick, a little like something was horribly wrong in his gut, that Alex was not as upset as Jiri thought he should be. 

His new roommate had flopped back on his bed, and was looking like life had bludgeoned him between the eyes. And yet, he wasn't taking it out on Jiri. Not even when Jiri had the presumption to talk about the other teen's powers. Because he was such an expert in that area, himself. The longer this conversation lasted, the more it became clear that Jiri should not be allowed to open his mouth. 

"That's... fair, I guess," he said in reply to the teen's description of his power, and Mary in particular. Something at the tail end of that explanation belatedly clicked, and he frowned. "Wait. So when you have a hundred plus pound mountain lion around, you can't actually control her? No offense, Mary, but you are pretty and dangerous." He could still remember the feel of her claws on his chest. Not that alarming in a dream. If it happened in real life? He would probably scream like a little girl.

Alex groaned. Jiri sat up a little straighter in alarm.

"Hey. Are you all right? Do you need me to get you some water, or something? Maybe help bring in your luggage?" It didn't seem like his new roommate had brought much to the room, yet.

"Wait. So when you have a hundred plus pound mountain lion around, you can't actually control her? No offense, Mary, but you are pretty and dangerous."

He couldn't help but smirk at that. He still thought Mary was pretty despite knowing the reality of her. Strange kid...But Mary liked him like that. Perhaps all of them did, because Jiri knew about them, in a way that nobody has. Well perhaps aside from Alex but that was a given. It was hard on all of them to be secluded to the confines of his brain with only each other to talk to. He wondered sometimes how long it might take for him to unravel. One could only take this kind of living for so long and Mary was getting closer and closer to breaking off from him.

At his groan Jiri seemed to freak, "Hey. Are you all right? Do you need me to get you some water, or something? Maybe help bring in your luggage?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Mary's just being a little baby because I said the truth. She'll calm down in a bit...And I uh, don't have any luggage. Kind of lost my stuff..." Well no he left his stuff with Hades, so it was safe. Just in a place he couldn't reach yet. So at the moment he was using someone's old clothes. He didn't really know who's but it fit well enough.

Alex smirked. Jiri didn't know what he'd done that was smirk-worthy, but his shoulders relaxed a little. If his roommate was smiling, then he probably wasn't dying of remorse. Or of mountain lion induced cerebral hemorrhaging, for that matter.

Then it was his on turn to smirk. "Did you just call the giant prideful mountain lion a baby? Is there a betting pool for when she mauls you, or does Vegas not give odds for that?"

On the matter of the teen's things, Jiri took a long moment to think about it, and noted with relief that he wasn't responsible for that. Alex hadn't had much on him, by the time Jiri had possessed him. "If you need to borrow some hoodies or jeans until you get new stuff, just ask," he offered, sizing Alex up with his eyes. "They might be a little big, but whatever." Jiri was taller, but they were both beanpoles. Wear a belt, call it good.

"So, I think I have... a decent idea of your power." Blood wasps came to mind. And intestine snakes. Part of him, the rational part that cared about his survival, was just as happy not to meet Mary right this second. "I'm a... I guess you could call it a body snatcher? That's what some of the other kids have been calling it." One of the older teens had downloaded Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and shared it on the Mansion's network a few days ago. Jiri now had the younger kids squealing and running from him in the halls. Having a five year old sister back at home, he'd determined the best way way to react to this was to hold his hands over his head like bear claws and stomp dramatically after them as they ran. "I'm just going to apologize in advance. I've been working with some of the staff, but nothing's really helping, so if you wanted to get another room I wouldn't hold it against you. Umm. Whenever I fall asleep, I possess someone nearby." Implication: as his roommate, Alex would be nearby. "And just to make it better, I've apparently got narcolepsy now."

Yep. Being a mutant was awesome.

"Did you just call the giant prideful mountain lion a baby? Is there a betting pool for when she mauls you, or does Vegas not give odds for that?"

He chuckled at that, careful not to laugh too hard so as not to jar his stitches. "Heh, the odds aren't that great. She can be as angry as she wants but killing me would end her too. And she is a baby, hardly more than two years old." Oooh, Mary didn't like that, he could feel her snarling and pouting at his commentary. But it was true, out of all of them she was the youngest to be realized as a personality. Ace had seniority on all of them. Well, perhaps not swarm, it was hard to tell really if swarm had always been there or not.

"If you need to borrow some hoodies or jeans until you get new stuff, just ask. They might be a little big, but whatever."

He nodded, not minding the idea of borrowing someone else's clothes. Honestly that's how it's always been. He never truly bought anything that was really his or new for that matter. Thrift was cheaper and nobody cared if you stole from donation bags. That's how he got his winter coat. Ah, but that was coming soon wasn't it. He'd have to buy something for himself soon. It wouldn't do to constantly be borrowing from Jiri.

"I'm a... I guess you could call it a body snatcher? That's what some of the other kids have been calling it. I'm just going to apologize in advance. I've been working with some of the staff, but nothing's really helping, so if you wanted to get another room I wouldn't hold it against you. Umm. Whenever I fall asleep, I possess someone nearby. And just to make it better, I've apparently got narcolepsy now."

"From what I remember it sounded like you couldn't tell you were dreaming. Ace is saying that you said you were basically god or some such nonsense." He smiled a little, understanding the confusion of one's powers in the onset would be tough. "If the stuff with the staff isn't working then...maybe I can help you. I'm not psychic, so I can't force your mind to reset or anything like that. But I'm willing to bet spending time in my brain will be safer than accidentally taking over someone else who has more destructive powers. And I learned how to control my powers all on my own, so maybe I can help you with control too."

Jiri didn't point out that mauling did not necessarily mean killing. If Alex hadn't thought of it, and Mary was a part of his mind, then Mary probably hadn't thought of it either. Hopefully. Jiri wasn't going to be the one to open his mouth and get his roommate crippled by his own power.

Still. He wasn't going to call the giant lioness a baby.

"I'm sure that mountain lions mature faster than people," Jiri said, in a blatant attempt to stay on Mary's good side. "Two years old probably makes her a fine young lady." 

God. Yep. Jiri remembered saying that, in the dream. Possibly several times. He'd been hoping that Alex--and Ace, for that matter--wouldn't remember. "Yeah. That's, ah, fairly accurate. I didn't really think about it, that it might be real, until I woke back up. I tried to look it up..." He gestured towards his closed laptop. "But... yeah. By then... everything had already happened."

The teen's offer left him blinking. This was real, right? Not a dream? The guy he'd basically gotten stabbed was offering to help him?

"That's really decent of you," Jiri said quietly. "Like, really decent." He wasn't sure he'd be that forgiving, that willing to help, if their places had been reversed. Was that what the mutant community was like? Was it just taken fore granted that they helped each other out like this? He wanted to ask, but didn't want to cheapen the guy's offer by doing so. Whether it was the way mutants worked, or just the way Alex worked, it was still... pretty much the most helpful thing he'd heard since he came to this place.

"I'll make sure to keep bringing tea, when I barge into your dreams." He flashed a little grin. "You are going to get really sick of tea."

"That's really decent of you," Jiri said quietly. "Like, really decent...I'll make sure to keep bringing tea, when I barge into your dreams." He flashed a little grin. "You are going to get really sick of tea."

He shrugged, "Thanks, I like tea more than coffee so I'm pretty sure I'll be okay with it. Also, it's not just decent, it's for my own benefit. They told me I had a seizure when I had arrived at the hospital. I've never had a seizure before. I can only guess that the strain of everything that just happened and you in my noodle, was the cause." He looked at him with a corked brow, wondering if he could tell that Ace was angrily glaring at him. As much as a personality with out a body could glare.

"But without the strain I think I'll be okay. Just don't go smashing walls or breaking things. Ace or me will probably be able to keep you contained to one space. I don't really control where we'll be so we could be any where when I fall asleep. Oh! And also, don't follow Mary. She doesn't need a minion to break things for her." Laying down some ground rules would be helpful and would hopefully keep things from killing him in the long run.

He yawned, stretching a bit in his laying position. "Any questions? And I really do mean any? I have really no reason to keep things from you if you're going to be in my head all the time."

Enter guilt trip. Additional, unexpected, bonus guilt trip. So he'd probably played a starting role in giving his new roommate a seizure, did he? That was... that was wonderful. A wonderful, sickly punch to the gut.

"So are you basically... trying to exercise more control in your head? Brain calisthenics, or something? Get more experience so you can handle more strain like that?"

The rules all sounded good. Reasonable. Totally solid, like things did when he was awake. When he was asleep... things always became a little more squishy around the logic-edges, and he wasn't entirely certain he'd remember them. Or care. Should he... mention that? But it wasn't like Alex hadn't met him while he was sleeping. The other teen knew what he was like. And he sounded so confident that he or Ace would be able to keep things under control. 

It gave Jiri hope. As much hope as getting permission to repeatedly violate his roommate's brain could give him. ...He was going to stop thinking so hard about all this, and just take it at face value. His new roommate was cool. His new roommate who he'd almost gotten murdered had forgiven him and was cool. This was not something he should poke too hard at.

Any questions. Any.

...

Jiri rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. "Umm. What was up with that cabin? I got a hint of something while I was in there. Like... there were bullet holes? And stuff?" And bodies, and blood. It was just a flicker of a scene, but he remembered, as well as he remembered anything from that night.

"So are you basically... trying to exercise more control in your head? Brain calisthenics, or something? Get more experience so you can handle more strain like that?"

"Something like that. I've been training since I got my mutation, so this is just another hurdle I need to get over. Eventually other constructs are going to form their own personalities and I'm going to have to get used to it." It could have also been that Jeri was untethered and his brain was reading him as a construct. Kind of like a computer reading a file as the wrong type. It worked but not entirely. There was something about Jeri in his head that was too much for his brain to handle. He was going to have to research seizures and their causes.

Still there was something about the guilt on Jiri's face that felt justified. As much as he didn't want to kick a newbie for not having control. It was that lack of control that almost got him killed. So he was going to help him, make it so it wasn't so dangerous.

"Umm. What was up with that cabin? I got a hint of something while I was in there. Like... there were bullet holes? And stuff?"

Oh, right, how to explain that...Slowly he sat up again, not really looking Jiri in the face. "Alright, I'll tell you but...it's going to need a little context first and this doesn't leave this room. You are going to be one of three people who will know. You understand? I need you to swear that this is never spoken of again, not to me, not to anyone. I'm trusting you and I'm only telling you because you're eventually going to figure it out on your own if you keep entering my brain."