Room C-019: Roomies (Tag: Merida and Iridessa)

Everything was so beautiful. Back home in Santa Fe everything was mostly desert, adobes, and barren lands. It was beautiful in its own sense, but here everything was so green and lush and high tech. She felt a little out of place, an orphaned farmgirl here in this UN Training Center. But she was so joyful that she didn't have the time to be self-conscious yet. Cricket only had one suitcase, but it was huge and stuffed to the rim. She felt bad giving it to the cute little EVE robot, so she held it herself--which wasn't a problem at all to a girl with super strength. Even though it was extremely heavy and quite an interesting sight, it was completely fine for a girl with super strength.

When she arrived to the room on the third floor, she got even more ecstatic to see the door open for her. No more accidentally crushing any doorknobs here, she chuckled to herself as she walked into the room--looking around. It wasn't the largest, but Cricket always enjoyed new settings so she'd get excited for even the smallest of hotel rooms when she was younger--just that it was something new. "Thank you!" she said to the EVE robot, not caring whether or not it understood. She was raised to be courteous to all things, living or not.

Iridessa was a bit late to the dorms. She got lost an couldn’t find an EVE (she'd lost that too) so she decided to follow a group of people to what she soon discovered is the dorms. Much to her delight, she went right up to her room, nearly crashing into an EVE who seemed to be leaving the same place. She opens the door, holding her bag tight at her side. "Hello?" She questions as she opens the door. She sees a girl and smiles bright. "Oh, what’s up?" She extends her hand. "I’m Iridessa."

Cricket turned at the sound of the door opening to see another young girl come in. "Hi, Iridessa!" She said back to her roommate as she extended her hand out as well. "My name's Ramona, but call me Cricket." She reached for her hand and shook it. She wasn't aware if her grip was too strong or not so she realized after a half-second that she hoped she didn't hurt her with her handshake.

Iridessa cringes, scowling. "Ow, ow, ow!" She exclaims, pushing at Cricket's hand with her free one, dropping her bag. She then stops her explaination abruptly once she realizes she's started to unintentionally screech. Once Iridessa gets her hand free, she cradles it at her chest. "Sorry, girl. I got no control over this power thing." She looks at her hand. Nothing's broken. She attempts to stretch it out, enduring the pain until she's made her hand in a high five then a fist then back. "But I guess you don’t either, dog. I’m guessing you got super strength?"

Merida had never seen anything like the island. Everything looked so new and expensive, so much like something she had no right looking at, much less live in. She wished her dad could come and stay with her. He deserved the luxuries on the island more than she did.

Her neck was starting to hurt after twisting and turning her head to look at everything as she headed for the dorms. Instead of zipping across the island to make things faster, Merida had preferred going on foot and taking the scenic route. There was so much to take in!

Finding her room was easy enough, thankfully. The door was already open, no doubt to make things easier as everyone moved their stuff in. She poked her head in and grinned when she saw her roommates were already inside. Deciding that first impressions were everything, she figured she might as well throw a razzle dazzle into hers. With a giggle, she shifted into her other form, her skin prickling before it turned into blue, wispy tendrils.

"Hey there!" she said loudly, voice eerily echoing, as she charged through the doorway in a billowing cloud. "Nice to meet ya! Name's Merida."

"Sorry, sorry! I guess I was too-" before she could say anymore she heard a loud piercing scream come from her roommate and she put her hands to her ears instinctively. "Wow," Cricket said in amazement. "Sort of and yeah. Sometimes when I'm too excited--but nevermind that, you've got a great scream!"

Just then, Cricket couldn't help but gawk at the blue cloud that entered the room. "Whoa! Are you a... shapeshifter?" She walked up to Merida in awe. She was beginning to realize how there were so many different people with so many different backgrounds and powers. She was definitely going to be geeking out later.

"It's definitely not great—" Iridessa whirls, stumbling back into Cricket when a cloud invades the room and speaks. She bites her tongue in a resistance to her scream. Once she’s sure she calm, she sighs out a heavy breath. "That’s what that is? Girl you could give me a heart attack—I could blow all of the windows in this building!" She sighs again. "I’m Iridessa."

Merida laughed at their expressions. She really got them good! "Ehm...I dunno? S'what I thought at first, but I got sorted somewhere else." She answered Cricket, shrugging her shoulders as she returned to her physical form. She walked over to the couch and plopped down, kicking off her tennis shoes.

"Guess since I don't become anything solid, I don't get to join the club, eh?" She chuckled, propping up her feet as she looked over at Iridessa. "Fancy name! And what's that about blowing windows out now?" She had heard a high pitched noise before. Maybe hers was a sound based power.

Cricket grinned at Iridessa's reaction. She seemed like she would be a funny roommate, and Merida herself also seemed like a pretty laid-back person too. When she returned into her physical form, Cricket couldn't help but notice her huge, curly hair. "Wow, I love your hair!" It didn't hurt that she also had red hair too. She was the only one with red hair back in her hometown. It was probably a part of the reason that she was picked on when she was younger.

"My name's Cricket, by the way." She was about to extend her hand but then remembered what had happened with Iridessa, so she just instead waved to Merida.

"That’s really scary, dog. Don’t do it when I’m sleep or I just might hire an exorcist by mistake." Iridessa smiles at her. "Oh, my power is a sonic scream sort of thig? I can’t control it so if I yell it kind of just comes out. I’m here to train to control it and all." Iridessa nods.

Merida grinned at Cricket's compliment. "Redheads unite, yeah?" She smirked, doing a salute. She noticed Cricket's hesitation to shake, but said nothing about it.

"Feh. I don't bother people when they're sleepin'. Too easy a target." Merida told Iridessa. If she was gonna prank someone, she wanted them conscious. "Sonic scream? Nice. That'd be real useful on a mission."

"Right. Missions. You think there's going to be dangerous missions? Fighting? Combat? Giant monsters?" Cricket wondered out loud, half-joking but half-actually wondering. She had no idea what kind of training they would be doing, just that it would be top secret and very intense. It was good to know that some people couldn't control their powers all that well either. It would've been terrible if she wound up to be the worst agent on the island.

Iridessa doesn't like monsters. Since when were monsters a thing? "I don’t like monsters, dog. That’s some next level shit. And missions? Girl, I don’t care if they throw me into te desert to stop bioterrorism as long as I can control my power I don’t care what they have us doing." Iridessa waves a hand nonchalantly.

"Well, I think they might give us dangerous missions. Lotsa dangerous things what need taking care of, you know?" Merida mused. "But it'll probably be years 'fore we get any assignment." At least she hoped so. She might've had a good handle on her powers but that didn't mean she was ready to go into battle.

"In the meantime, we train hard and learn what's what." She reached into her jacket pocket and fished out a bag of gummy worms, eagerly ripping it open. "So let's have a sit down and talk about ourselves. Got time before we need to do anything, yeah?"

Cricket sighed a little bit. Her powers weren't difficult at all to perform, but the real issue for control was in willpower and restraint, so as not to break everything around her--which she was still learning. She had always been a bit clumsy.
"That's a good idea! I guess I'll start." She said as she sat down crossed-legged on one of the chairs in the room. Deciding she wasn't going to bore them with her whole life story, so she just started off with the bare facts. Cricket counted off each fact she gave with her fingers. "Well, I'm turning 18 in a couple of days actually.. I can be a little messy while eating, kinda clumsy too so those are just some fair roommate warnings. And umm well my reason for being here is that I'm strong. Like, pretty strong." She was proud of her powers but also could get bashful about it sometimes depending on the situation.

"Yeah, I learned that the hard way." Iridessa winks at Cricket before sitting on the floor and leaning against the coffee table. "Well...y'all can call me Iri—or anything that’s not my full name because it can get to be a mouthful sometimes. I'm from Chicago, hence my accent. I’m obsessed with spoken word, I love to sing but I can’t do it anymore." She pauses, thinking hard. "I love the sun. I’m here because as I said, I love singing but I can’t do it because I can’t control this bullshit power."

"Me next, yeah?" Merida sat up as she wiped her sugar coated fingers on her shorts. "Well, you already saw what I can do. So long as it's not air tight, I can get into any place, and I can't be hurt either. That I know of. I've been doing it since--" Her mother's horrified face flashed in her mind. A slight grimace was the only hint of her discomfort, but it passed quickly.

"Since I was a wee baby." She finished, clutching her gummy worm bag tight in her hands. "I lived with my dad and worked at a gas station. It almost got robbed, but I took the guy out. I figured I could keep bashing baddies' faces in so I signed up for the program." She grinned, thinking of the scuffle with the would-be robber. It still felt nice to have actually done some good for once.

"I'm pretty clean and sleep like the dead. I can cook, too, so I can do all of that. Used to do it for me and my dad, so I like it."

Cricket smiled weakly. Her roommates were really cool and what she considered to be hardcore. She didn't want to be the odd ball out. "You guys are both really cool! Hopefully we'll all end up good friends." She said as she began to put her stuff down and begin to unpack. "I used to live with a whole bunch of girls in the same room so I'm used to roommates. But we didn't get along that well... so whatever you guys do, you won't be bad roommates to me." She looked up with a friendly grin.