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Slowly but surely, Vanessa was settling herself into the Mansion. She never got to experience being a college freshman living the dorm life, so it was a new and anxious experience living around so many of her teenage peers. The thought of dorms always concerned Nessa, who wondered if she would have been forced into a room with guys due to her situation, or potentially worse, girls who did not want her there. Suffice to say, shared living was a point of contention for the young woman.

The Mansion was kind enough to arrange for a single room for Nessa for however long she planned on staying. The situation was temporary, though Nessa had no specified timeline. She could figure out her own living situation, but she needed to get her feet under her first in an unfamiliar world.

In the meantime, being around other mutants helped Vanessa normalize this part of her public identity. When she ventured out of her cozy little room, she would pass students in the halls. Some of them were like her with invisible mutations, but she saw mutants who were clearly mutated walking around casually. There was even one girl made entirely of slime that Nessa made an effort to not stare at in amazement as she puddled around the halls.

Being around mutants made Nessa slightly less apprehensive about wandering around. She worried about people eyeing her and marking her as trans, but with people who had coral hair or space skin, Nessa was starting to believe she stuck out less than she was giving herself credit for.

The Mansion was impressive. There were so many places to explore, and as someone still feeling aimless with where to go next in life, she could at the very least find new directions to physically go. The gym was well-equipped, she was becoming familiar with the kitchen, and the pool caught her eye even if the notion of swimming in public still filled her with uncertain dread.

Eventually, Nessa asked Miss Grey if the woods out back were open to the students. The kind teacher awkwardly confirmed residents could go into the woods, but warned her not to stray so far she got lost. The averted mismatched eyes from Miss Grey had little to do with Nessa’s mutation, she was pretty sure. Evidently, when you had a messy breakup with a girl who you suddenly had to be responsible for, it made it hard to meet her eye.

It was a pleasant spring day with the weather idling around seventy and sun peeking through the trees as Nessa’s converse padded along a packed dirt path. Nessa was already pleased with her decision; there was something serene about being surrounded by woods. The sound around her was limited to the ambiance of birds chirping and leaves rustling.

That was why it was such an unfortunate surprise when she was struck atop the head. ”Ow!” It was not a serious strike, but something had fallen upon her and clattered on the ground. She crouched down, realizing a pencil was the culprit. A pencil? From where? Curiously, the telepath looked around, then finally tilted her head up.

What could have happened? The thought of Winnie had vaguely floated through her head initially, but now that she realized she was somewhere else… did she go out last night? Did they get in over their heads? It would not be the first time, but if she woke up in the wrong place with Winnie, at worst it would be on her couch or maybe her bed that one time. (Strictly for body heat, obviously.)

This tiled floor was unfamiliar. She forced her eyes open, taking in the world around her. The scents hit her; a bathroom. Nessa felt a sinking in her stomach. Did she get dragged here or something? Was this some cruel joke?

Still in a daze, a voice called out as a woman in full cosplay ran up to her in a panic. Where the everloving fuck was she? And who was this? The noticeably younger Vanessa did her best to be mindful of her voice, especially when she just woke up. She sounded soft, trying to speak a few notes higher than her normal speaking voice to be careful. ”I’m.. I don’t know how I got here. I’m sorry, Miss? Where… where are we? Who are you?” She hated asking that last question because this woman knew who she was somehow. Was she tied to this sensation of lost time?

If Nessa was going to be left in her own future, it was comforting to have pillars of support. She barely had stability in twenty-twelve, so could she do much worse in twenty-twenty? Shay offered to help Nessa if she needed them, and their eyes certainly made them sound sincere. Maybe they needed a roommate?

Ever the problem solver, Booker had a suggestion that caught her off guard. The Mansion? She had looked up Xavier’s when her powers manifested, but she wanted to keep that as a last resort since it would out her biggest secret.

A secret that was out in twenty-twenty, evidently! ”So… wow. I… guess you know.” Nessa suddenly wished her brother’s aura did not lock away her powers. He knew about her, and she could not see why, leaving her vulnerable.

”So that’s new. Um, how did you find out? Who else knows? Gina?” A more chilling thought hit her and she cautiously asked, ”Mom and dad? Did they find out, too? Wait--what about mom and dad. Are things still…?” Still what? Bad? Silent? Eight years passed, so was it impossible for her parents to evolve as people in that time?

Booker was one of the most empathetic people Nessa knew. She would argue that he got most of it when he was born, leaving her the sarcasm and snark he left behind. It was nice to know time did not make her brother cold or jaded. That would have been the true tragedy of being de-aged and thrust into her own future.

There was still plenty of sarcasm in her kinder brother, with the teasing bravado she knew. ”It’s good to see some things never change, jerkface.”

As expected, Gina was not just some passing fancy in Nessa’s future. Well, her present. She was there when Nessa needed her, and Nessa did the same. It sounded like the perfect relationship. Something strong and established.

Nessa’s smile faltered. ”She sounds amazing. Like she really loved me. The older me. It… sounds like the kind of thing I’m not ready to live up to,” she finally admitted. The young woman sighed, nibbling on a chip in thought. ”I’ve got so much I need to get a handle on, even ignoring this age thing. I feel like this amazing woman fell in love with a finished product who loved her back.” And maybe she had it in her to fall in love with Gina again, but was it fair to try falling for someone who already loved a different you once before?

Eight years. That was what this came down to; eight lost years. Who even was she during that time? This hardly felt like a loss yet, because she had no clue what she was missing. If anything, she wondered how Booker was going to handle this, because she was not the sister he had grown to know, she was the one he remembered. She hoped that was not too disappointing.

As expected, there was plenty to discuss and neither of them knew where to start. Booker finally made the first move by asking about her situation when she woke up. ”It was a convention hall. When I came too, no one else was in the bathroom until Shay came in to find me. They were a nice cosplayer who I was apparently hanging out with before I went to the bathroom.” Back when she was still twenty-seven.

Specifically, Booker asked her about a name. ”Gina… I think I saw the name in my phone when I was looking for you. It had a heart next to it, so… a girlfriend, I guess?” If so, it was nice to know she moved back into the dating world after getting over some of her hangups. ”She wasn’t there with me, from what Shay said. So I guess I was on my own at a convention? I dunno, that doesn’t sound like me.”

Nessa kept finding her reflection on the way home. It was so distracting seeing her blue eyes as though someone photoshopped her in real life. It was a reminder of how weird things were for her right now.

It was nice of Shay to escort Vanessa to someone she could trust. They seemed nice, but ultimately decided it was not their place, as an unfamiliar face, to talk Vanessa through what must have happened to her. She did make a few things clear, at least.

It was Twenty-Twenty.

She had been twenty-seven when Shay met her two hours earlier, (an event which Vanessa had no memory of.)

This was apparently a thing that was happening to people around New York.

That was a lot to unpack when Vanessa was alone out of her own timeline (in her eyes) and surrounded by strangers. It was too many people and the last thing she needed was to make a scene. That sounded like a great way to get the attention of a lot of people and that many eyes on her would just stress her out more.

Thankfully, there was someone to go to. Booker was still in her phone, so she clearly had not burned her bridge in eight years with her last relative. She texted him, asking for his address. When he asked why on earth she’d need to ask, she gave him the briefest answer of, “Something happened, I can explain when I get there.”

And thus, she finally made it to a nice apartment in Midtown. It was good to see Booker was living comfortably. Along the way to the apartment, she considered looking through the internet for traces of herself, but decided to wait. If there was something she needed to be warned about, he could tell her. Well, she could see it in his eyes.

After knocking, she waited for the door to open. Booker would find her, more of a beanpole than she was the last time he saw her, probably, and obviously young and full of uncertainty. A proto-typical nineteen-year-old. ”Hey Book. Surprise?”

Shay was not the most risque cosplayer out there that Nessa had ever seen, and boy had she seen some. Sought a few out. Made out with one at a ViewCon. It was just interesting interacting with this sweet, easily flustered person and knowing they had no problem doing a lingerie cosplay photoshoot. Not being tied down to an appearance must make it a lot easier to do with that appearance whatever you felt like, though there were obviously some limits they had held to so far.

It was still impressive that those photoshoots did not all contain crimson red cheeks, because getting Shay to blush was both fun and comically easy. "I'm mostly teasing," she assured her new friend. "But really, we should hang out sometime. And if we just happen to get you talking to a cutie, would that be so bad? Well. A cutie that isn't me." It was comforting to know she had earned some confidence over the years; it made handling herself in the public eye so much easier.

Unfortunately, it was quite public and Nessa could see people approaching her. Oh joy, exactly what she was hoping for. Sighing, she took a turn down another hall and saw a bathroom door. "Would you mind if I duck into the bathroom a bit? I feel like I'm playing a stealth game and need the heat to die down," she joked. "Then we can just have a relaxed walk back, I can watch you beat all my friends at video games, and we can maybe get ready together for the party tonight? How does that all sound?"