1st roll, 2nd exposure | Video

[strangeandunusual]

[the feed shows a sunny spot in an alley, just outside the Gibson Girl. Lydia has borrowed one of their tables and set it with an assortment of snacks, fruit, a pile of napkins, a stack of glasses, and a pitcher of their amazing lemonade... but the clear focus of the shot is propped against the alley wall: a giant book that anyone from the Temple party of the Jungle mission will recognize as a retired but unusual tent. She's wearing black jeans with splatters of maroon spray paint, courtesy of her roommate's creativity, and a matching brocade top, with a large, full envelope in her hands. The envelope is 8x10, yellow slashed with red diagonal lines.]

Hi, everybody. I've met most of you, I think, but my name is Lydia Deetz, and I work at the camera shop when I'm not training. I take pictures when I'm out exploring, and when we have parties, and meetings ... pretty much all the time. My friend Fenton made this giant book with his magic as a mistake, but... I want to turn it into a big photo album for all of us, as a record of everything that happens. I have a lot of pictures already, from the first two months I've been here... And some of them are from the other night, so you're all here.

[she pats the envelope]

One of my favorite myths about photography is some people think it steals your soul. Not really, but... It helps keep a memory. And memories are part of our soul, so ... Maybe what it really does is make our souls stronger. If we're going to be doing a lot of fighting and exploring and repairing... We're going to need to be strong. So. Maybe this will help. I'm in the alley by the Gibson Girl, if you want to come and help... Or even if you want to just look at the pictures. Once all the pictures are in, I'll keep it in the lobby of the apartments until I get more.

[an awkward pause as she realizes she has no clue how to end this]

Um. Hope to see some of you?

Comments

[strangeandunusual]

"Oh, that's so pretty!" Lydia reached up to touch the little gem and smiled. "I've never seen anything like it. I'm a Princess, too... but my special magic is definitely not what most people would think a princess can do, where I'm from."

She smirked, a mischievous glint in her eye, and the choker at her throat flashed green for a moment. Eventually a flat, leaf-green bug shaped like a shield with tiny, close-together black eyes crawled up onto the page Leia was inspecting, very clearly heading toward Lydia's outstretched hand.

[princess_weia]

Leia smiled. "I know! It wasn't really big or shiny, but it's just right for me," she said. "Just like yours is just right for you." She indicated the choker that had glowed briefly.

She was quickly distracted, though, by the green bug. She held her hand out flat and still so the bug could crawl onto it. "Hi there, Mr. Bug," she said quietly, not wanting to scare it. "Did Lydia call you with her magic?"

[strangeandunusual]

The little shield bug gave an almost imperceptible nod-wobble of its tiny head as it crawled onto Leia's hand.

"I can communicate with them, sometimes, too," she said. "But it takes more magic, and sometimes they're anti-social. I summoned a whole bunch of spiders, once, to save Crowley from a giant one. They all talked her into letting him go. It was like mediating a debate in Social Studies, only ... with spiders."

[princess_weia]

Leia allowed the bug to crawl onto her hand, stroking its back as carefully and gently as she could with one fingertip.

"I can talk to animals too," she said. "And not just bugs. Sometimes there's spiders and things, but its usually the mice at the castle. And one time, a peacock! But he was only there because Mr. Dreamfinder brought him."

"That does sound really hard though," she said sounding impressed with Lydia's debate skills. "It's hard enough to solve an argument between people, never mind spiders."

[strangeandunusual]

"Well, she was hungry, but it was because the Corrosion made her feel like she never had enough food. She was sick. So I had the spiders explain that if she let him go, I could heal her, and then she wouldn't be sick anymore, and the things she normally ate would be enough again... but that if she didn't let him go, my friends didn't understand, and would probably hurt her, the same way she'd hurt us if we attacked her friends."

She paused, thought about what she'd just said, and gave a little huff of surprise.

"I guess mediating between Adam and Barbara, and my Dad and Delia really taught me a lot more than I thought."

[princess_weia]

Leia nodded. "That makes sense," she said. "And that's something that a spider would understand without too much magical help. That's the hardest part about talking to animals; not assuming they think quite the same way as people."

After stroking the little bug for a few more moments, she gently lowered her hand to a nearby plant. "That's for coming to see me, Mr. Bug," she said. "But you can go back to what you were doing now. I know you probably have things to do."

[strangeandunusual]

Leia may have been young, Lydia thought, but she was sharp in her own ways, and smiled, impressed, as she let the shield bug go. He twitched his antennae at them in a particularly friendly sort of way and trundled off.

"He said thank you, and that you're a very nice small giant for thinking of him." She grinned. "Sometimes it's hard remembering not even all people think the same way. But that's why we have to all get to know each other."

She reached up and smoothed a hand over the scrapbook. "So we can remember, and know each other, and how to help. How to see things from as many different points as possible."

[princess_weia]

Leia smiled and nodded. "Well, I'm the smallest apprentice, so it's kinda my job to look out for things that are even smaller than me," she said. So mice, bugs, and other small animals all fell under her protection. or something like that.

"And yeah, knowing those things is important," she said. "I just wish it didn't come with so much studying back home. Here it's easier to get to know people." The expectations of a Princess in the Kingdoms were somewhat different from those of a Princess on Alderaan, after all.

[strangeandunusual]

"Well," she said, pausing a moment to think about that. "Maybe that's part of why you're here. So you can get really good at it, and then when you get home, it'll be easier, and studying won't be so difficult? ... For what it's worth," she finished with a guilty, secret smile, "I hate studying, too. Especially math."

[princess_weia]

Leia giggled at Lydia's conspiratorial tone. "Yeah," she said. "Though it's more language lessons for me; I'm not bad at them or anything, but I'd rather be doing something fun instead of sitting around learning Twi'leki verbs."

[strangeandunusual]

"Well, if you're a Princess, that's when you just insist on having a royal translator once you're old enough. Then you can have someone around who knows all those verbs, in case you forget. Where I'm from, even some of the ambassadors have translators who travel with them,
there's nothing wrong with it."

[princess_weia]

"Oh yeah, we have those too," Leia said. "Protocol droids. Most of them know thousands and thousands of languages, so they're really good at translating. But my mommy and daddy and my tutors say that it's important for me to learn anyway, because being able to do it yourself shows that you cared enough to learn." Which is nice, but doesn't make it any more fun.

[strangeandunusual]

"I guess I never thought about it that way," Lydia remarked. "Your parents both sound really smart, and really nice. ... You must miss them a lot."

[princess_weia]

"Yeah, they are," Leia said, her pride in her family obvious. Though her expression became more somber as she continued. "And yeah, I do. Not all the time, but sometimes when I sop and think about it more. Or at night when there's not much else to think about."

"Don't tell Mr. Jose, though, OK?", she said. "He's really nice, and I don't want him to feel bad. It's just not the same having him taking care of me as it is having my mommy or daddy around."

[strangeandunusual]

"I won't tell," she promised. "I miss my dad, too. And my mom, sometimes, but ... I've been away from her longer, so ... as awful as it sounds, I got used to missing her. My parents haven't lived together for a while."

[princess_weia]

"Really?", Leia asked. "Why not? Does one of them have a really important job that keeps them off world a lot, like my daddy does?"

The question was asked with all the innocence of a young child who knows nothing of how messy adult relationships can get. And that not all married couples share the kind of deep bond her parents do.

[strangeandunusual]

Lydia's heart sank a little as she realized she was probably about to tarnish that innocence a little. "No ... they just ... don't love each other anymore. My dad met someone else that he liked more."

[princess_weia]

Leia seemed both genuinely surprised and genuinely sad about that. "Oh...", she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that could happen." She supposed it made sense when she thought about it, but still...

"My mommy and daddy really, really love each other though." One day she would compare the kind of love they had to sharing souls. It had just never occurred to her how rare love like that could be. "I just... didn't realize that wasn't true for everybody."

[strangeandunusual]

"It should be," Lydia said quietly. "You don't have to apologize, it's okay. I'm pretty much okay with it now. ... I'm glad your parents are so happy together, though. That's good."