first roll, first exposure

[strangeandunusual]

[the morning of the 18th, before Aziraphale's little "miracle", the mirror turns on to show Lydia, sitting outside on the balcony of the apartment she shares with Mal. those who met her at the arrival ceremonies saw her with her hair down, but today she's pulled it up into a wild, riotous ponytail like a gothic palm tree]

Um, good morning. I'm Lydia, and I've never used anything like this before. Mal says it's like a "smart phone", but I'd never heard of that, so bear with me.

[there's an awkward pause. the morning breeze ruffles her hair and the black poncho she's wearing. which she may or may not have made out of one of her spare bedsheets because she didn't want to wear the same thing two days in a row.]

Anyway. The Dreamfinder, he said we have to get jobs in order to buy stuff. I know there's a decent amount of food in my kitchen, but we're gonna eat through what I know how to cook, pretty fast. So I'm going job hunting. If anyone wants to join me, I'll be downstairs in like, half an hour? I just need to finish my cereal and brush my teeth. Or you can meet me here at room 3A. Just knock first.

Comments

[strangeandunusual]

"Mmhm." She nodded, smiling. "I got my first camera from my Aunt Zelda... She won a Polaroid in a grange raffle and said she didn't have use for it with a farm to run. I spent our whole visit taking pictures. By the time I got back to the city, I was hooked, and my Dad got me a Nikon for my birthday. Then for Christmas, he got the zoom lens and ... Mom got the flash."

She pursed her lips, suddenly trying not to cry. She hadn't thought about it since Adam and Barbara came into her life, but... the camera had been the one way her family was still in one piece. And now it was gone, or at least, not with her. His comment about her fingers was just enough to pull her back, though, and she pulled in a breath, wiping at her eyes.

"This...isn't spray paint," she admitted with a guilty smile. "We tried the magic, too."

[guitar_hero]

He can tell it upsets her and pretends not to notice it, eating his cereal and treating the situation as if it's still just a casual conversation. He wonders though if she lost them or if they'd separated somehow. She's still a young girl after all. But just old enough to step out and see the universe.

"What did you do? And how did you manage it?" He's curious as this kind of thing is going to be his MO shortly, and he doesn't feel the slightest bit capable.

[strangeandunusual]

She's the same age as Ace, almost, actually. She finishes off her cereal, thumbs a drop of milk away from the corner of her mouth, and leans back in her chair, gazing over his shoulder back into the apartment, bringing the moment back to mind.

"Mal was talking about wanting to dye her hair, because she didn't want to be a blonde anymore. She'd dyed it to impress some guy and ... well, he's not here, and I think it got complicated. She hasn't told me the whole story yet. But anyway. She knows magic where she's from, so she tried something she already knew. And it ... sort of worked? Her hair changed color, but it also started growing like crazy. She was starting to freak out, and when she put her hands in her hair, they started to turn purple, too." Lydia closed her eyes. "It was all really surreal. I didn't even think. I just remembered that the only magic I'd ever seen worked in threes, so I grabbed her hands and said stop it, stop it, stop it. ... And it did. All the color kind of ... looked like it went out of everything for a bit, though. Like the saturation levels on the world went down. The next morning, when I woke up, everything looked normal again. But my fingers are still purple."

She doesn't speak for Mal, because well, she has a feeling her roommate wouldn't appreciate that. Also because, well, thread in progress. "I cut her hair for her though, back to its normal length. I think ... if you try and do things the way they work wherever you're from, they go weird. That's why her hair kept growing and I couldn't see right."

She took a sip of her coffee and mulled it over. "What do you think?"

[guitar_hero]

That sounds like a nightmare, frankly. Like something out of a horror movie. Uncontrolled intention. And he was supposed to be a mystic? Some sort magic wielder? He didn't like it. He could fix things. He could invent things. But drawing up energies from thin air? Making something out of nothing? He was out of his depth.

"I don't know. I have no clue. Kind of fun not knowing, isn't it?" It isn't. "But I'm glad you sorted it out and kept your head. That kind of loss of control can be terrifying for people, even if you only just witness it."

[strangeandunusual]

"It was pretty scary, but nowhere near as bad as the first time I ever saw anyone try to use magic." She shuddered. "My Dad moved us to a house in the country so he could relax - he has a heart condition, so leaving the city was kinda supposed to be good for him. But he bought a haunted house. The people who owned it before us, Adam and Barbara? They died in a car accident right down the road. They're really nice ghosts, but ... my step-mom didn't care. She wanted them exorcised, and she got one of her yuppie friends to try and do it."

She stared straight ahead instead of closing her eyes, not wanting to imagine the way their faces had shriveled, the horrible way they'd started falling apart as they levitated above the dinner table.

"It went bad. Really bad. Really fast."

[guitar_hero]

"Co-habitation is tricky." He doesn't mean to make a joke of it. It's just a statement of fact. He also doesn't know the situation, so doesn't try to offer advice or wonder if it's better that they moved on. It seems painful and horrific, at least judging by the way her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." He straightens a little, looking out over the town. "But this place seems like an interesting new experience. I bet you've never dimension hopped before." Because when all else failed, change the topic.

[strangeandunusual]

"They're okay." She felt the need to tell him that, at least. "They didn't get exorcised. I called another ghost for help. ... I haven't been to another dimension, but I almost did! Barbara and Adam had this door in their attic... But they wouldn't let me go through."

[guitar_hero]

"Usually exorcism is the good end. But on the other hand, no use kicking ghosts out of their own house if they can get along." He taps his spoon thoughtfully against his lips. "I wonder why not. Might be a dimensional gateway. Or where they keep hidden treasure." He wiggles his fingers.

[strangeandunusual]

"It's the good ending for bad ghosts," she corrected him tactfully, much the same way he'd straightened her out about Fenton. "I think it's the gateway, honestly. They said we really shouldn't let everyone know ghosts are real, or they'd get in trouble."

[guitar_hero]

"Interesting. No letting go and going into the light? No reincarnation?" Hanging around incorporeally just seems like it would get old and sad very fast. "I wonder why. People believe in them regardless. And who would they get in trouble with?" Not that he expects an answer, but it's always worthwhile to ask the question.

[strangeandunusual]

"There's a Neitherworld, where the ghosts live, but they have to haunt places for a while before they can move on and go there. I'm not even supposed to know that, but I guess dead people have authorities, just like the living."

She shrugged. "The Handbook said the waiting period was so that they could keep up with expansion and dimensional resource demand. And then there was a lot of talk about paperwork. It was pretty boring. Adam said being dead is like being alive, but with more paperwork."

[guitar_hero]

"That sounds absolutely hideous." Who would want to die only for there to be a million rules. "You're supposed to rest in peace, you know. Free from the constraints of the mortal world. What's the point of dying if you're going to end up right back to where you started?"

[strangeandunusual]

"I didn't even think of it that way." She frowned, then lifted her bowl, now devoid of cereal, and drank the sugar-infused milk that remained. "They must be able to rest, though. I mean ... if we hadn't moved into their house, that would have been pretty peaceful for them. All they ever really seemed to need was their house and each other."

She sounded wistful - maybe a little jealous.

"Anyway, I hope there are places that'll hire me. I've never actually had a job before."

[guitar_hero]

"That's a nice kind of love, isn't it?" He sounds a little wistful himself. Even though he's sort of got that. He has his TARDiS, and really that's all he needs. A home and a heart all at once. He misses her sometimes. Especially now.

"Oh I'm sure there's somewhere. If you need I can pose as your older brother and convince them to let you on. They'd never buy me as a dad."

[strangeandunusual]

That made her laugh, but she was smart enough to know she probably shouldn't make the grandfather jab. Instead, she licked her spoon clean and pointed it at him. "I'll give you one even better: you can be my super cool uncle."

[guitar_hero]

"You've got it." Finger guns. "One super cool uncle just as ordered." And then, he holds out his hand. "Brofist?"

[strangeandunusual]

She's more of a high five girl, but she'll give him one. "Totally. So what kind of job are you going to get?"

Once he finishes his breakfast, that is. Then they're totally taking this coffee to go.

[guitar_hero]

He's just about done actually. He's a bit of a sneaky eater.

"Don't know. Something that'll keep me occupied. Too bad adventurer doesn't pay well."

[strangeandunusual]

"Not in money, anyway." She gave him a knowing smile and took a swallow of her coffee. She was still easing herself into drinking it... She'd only had a few cups before this one, and the bitterness under the cream and sugar was just starting to be enjoyable. "There's got to be something. And even if there isn't, we could get something random and do it together, and make it fun. Like in sitcoms."