[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[Standing in her apartment, Sam is smiling, if a little uncertainly, as she leans away from a silvery snout; there’s a robotic moose nosing at her shoulder, like a horse hoping for a treat. It’s friendly enough, having done no worse than nose, but it’s the last thing she expected to find in her previously moose-free living room.]

The moose is not, itself, a problem. The moose is alright. The moose being trapped in my apartment because it can’t quiiite fit through the door, though---that is a problem. It doesn’t seem antsy or anything, but this is still too small a space for something its size.

Comments

[10_20_15_5_50]

[Sam starts to say something, but huffs and presses a hand to her face. It doesn't hide that she's sort-of smiling, though.]

I'm sorry. I'm not telling this very well. [She drops her hand, and gives Hiro a look that's all earnestness.] I haven't had a whole lot of practice.

I screamed for my mom, like I said. When she came in, I could see her---but only insofar as I could still see her aura.

I probably have a good deal of explaining to do now, don't I? Saying 'still.'

[diagnosispuberty]

It's...sort of out of order, yeah. [Have a small grin, and another very gentle elbow-nudge.] It's cool. Like one of those really confusing old movies. [...he's probably talking about "Inception".]

...uh. Also "aura". Explain that part first, actually.

[10_20_15_5_50]

I'm still bummed we have't found Memento. [Have an elbow-bump back as she just... sorta tosses that out there.] But, alright.

A person's aura is... sort of like the emotional atmosphere coming off them, but it's not just that, because aspects of have some, ah, signifiers reflecting their physical condition. Or conditions, if they've got something going on. It looks a little like the 'aura' in Kirlian photography, if you've ever seen some of that.

[diagnosispuberty]

Patience, grasshopper. All we need is patience.

[Hiro frowns, scrunching up his face in thought.] So it's...sort of like...an outline? That...tells you stuff?

[10_20_15_5_50]

And luck, if we wanna find it before I'm fifty.

[Sam nods, smiling a little as Hiro speaks.]

Yeah. It's like the photographs and not like the photographs cause they're pretty dynamic. Cross the photo outlines with wisps of smoke, and you'd come closer to a fair fit because that's kind of how they waver? Waver's not the word I want, but it's close enough. Bottom line, auras aren't static.

[diagnosispuberty]

...have you always been able to see them? Were you born with it, or...struck by lightning or something? [Are you the kid from the Sixth Sense, Sam?]

[10_20_15_5_50]

I've always been able to see them, but I've gotten better at picking up what's there to be picked up as I've gotten older. Looking at an aura is a little like looking at a page of print; you might catch a few words in a passing glance, but you have to pause and focus to read what's there to be read. Or at least, I do. [She snorts, shaking her head.] Spent a lot of time in libraries as a kid trying to find something, anything on auras that meshed for me, but no dice.

[diagnosispuberty]

...yeah, I, uh. I guess you can't really Google "I see fuzzy stuff around people, what does it mean?", huh.

[10_20_15_5_50]

Yeah... [Even so, the thought---and the memories---prompt a wry smile.] A lot of my life has been 'the hell am I looking at, here?' though it's nothing to know the regular ropes, cause this has just always been there for me.

As far as I found, just me.

[She draws a breath, shifting a little where she sits.]

...which is what scared me on the second day.

[diagnosispuberty]

...there's more? What happened on the second day?

[10_20_15_5_50]

More of the same, which doesn't sound like much, but I'm going to try and set out just where I was at. Home, the hospital, the party after; I couldn't see anything, except for auras. I'd take it, sure---infinitely better than being all-the-way blind; I wouldn't be walking into anybody; I wouldn't be at a big disadvantage for being unable to see the look on anyone's face. But seeing only auras... that was weird. And so when I woke up the second day, and still couldn't see anything else, I started to worry: 'What if they're wrong? They've been wrong before. What if they're wrong and all I'm going to see from here on out is the stuff no-one else is seeing?'

[diagnosispuberty]

[All of this sounds frankly terrifying, Sam, ngl.] But...but you can see stuff now, right?

[10_20_15_5_50]

Oh, yeah. [She nods, turning her palms up.] That night I realized I could sort of distinguish brighter/dimmer, and over the next couple of days my vision went back to normal.

[diagnosispuberty]

...that's pretty freaky. I mean, not gonna lie. Even if it all came back. Did you ever, just...think about pretending you didn't see aura's anymore?

[10_20_15_5_50]

[That question catch Sam off-guard and she tilts her head, considering.]

I don't know how I would've done that.

I mean, it probably could've atrophied away when I was a lot younger if I'd tried to not focus on what I was seeing, but there was no reason to do that. It was, instead, always me trying to make out more. I couldn't not see that there was something, you know?

[diagnosispuberty]

[Hiro shrugs minutely, keeping his head ducked.] Sometimes it's...tempting to pretend you aren't special. Make everyone leave you alone.

[10_20_15_5_50]

Ah, that's the thing. [Sam leans over, enough to touch shoulders, and stays at that angle.] Everyone was leaving me alone already, because the aura thing wasn't really out. By the time I was good enough to sift for actual information, I was old enough to figure I should sit on it.

[diagnosispuberty]

Ohhh. [Have a gentle nudge back.] That's smart. Did you ever tell anyone?

[10_20_15_5_50]

I'm opportunistic. Ask Breakdown, sometime---nobody knows better. But, not between grade three and graduation, no. I've explained a whole four times, twice since hitting Haven.

[diagnosispuberty]

...that's a big secret to keep that long.

[10_20_15_5_50]

Usually didn't feel that way---kind of like the opposite of being colour-blind. Besides, I'm not bad at keeping secrets.

[diagnosispuberty]

...you got any others? Like...are you also secretly a vampire?

[He has a theory, okay.]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[Sam laughs at that, because really? Really, bud? What is this theory even.]

Yes to the secrets, no to the vampirism. I used to be brunette? That's one.

[diagnosispuberty]

[Mildly alarmed look.] Aren't you brunette now?

[Hiro might have no idea whatsoever what brunette actually means.]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[That prompts an eyebrow up... And a hair-ruffling for Hiro.]

I think my hair's a little too black for me to qualify.