saveourearth | Going Green [Log]

Entry tags:

Going Green [Log]

Date: January 15th
Characters: Nel and Mary Ann
Notes: More characters and prompts may be added; especially so other family can see or she can talk about it with friends

Sometimes, having cats about makes for an interesting, if unnecessarily early, start to the day. This is especially true for anyone in the household that had become associated with providing the felines with anything more than passing attention. As such, one of the younger cats wakes Nel rather rudely by walking on her head after repeated meowing failed to get the child up. Immediately greeted with purring and head butting, Nel groans as she begrudingly pets the pest until the cat turns and walks to the end of the bed to start meowing again. Rather than let the cat wake her younger sibling sharing the room, she rouses and putters her way downstairs.

Spotting the lights on, she knows her Mum is already up to get ready for work and greets her sleepily, “Mornin’, Mum.” Nel obligingly follows the cat to the shallow planter sporting mere stubs of fresh catnip sitting in the kitchen. She shoots the cat a look, “...this couldn’t have waited an hour?” The cat unabashedly purrs and rubs at her leg, and Nel huffs as she kneels down in front of the pot. With her Mum already present and permission to return to the use of her magic recently granted, Nel proceeds to begin the process of regrowing the stalks of catnip, pinching them one at a time to raise to a tender yet potent height.

Previously, when Nel has used her magic indoors, the scent of wildflowers and woods wafting from her hair has been readily apparent. That much came standard with the gift. Only, as she calls on that warmth in her chest now, the roots of her hair shift in color from red to vibrant green. The new color spreads a few centimeters out from her scalp and remains with the child unaware.

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"Morn'n." Children or not, this is about the level of articulate that Mary Ann will get this early in the morning without a good coffee or two first. Or three or four. No matter how long she's been staying in England, tea just never started doing anything for her.

She watches her daughter as she waits for the coffee to finish, bleary morning eyes looking at her but not really taking anything in, the green colour entering her eyes but getting intercepted by the lack of coffee somewhere before truly registering as being off.

Eventually, the coffee is ready and Mary turns towards it, pouring herself one mug and putting enough milk in it that she can down it immediately, and then pouring another directly after before wandering over to the table and sitting down to drink this one with a bit less speed.

Halfway through it, she frowns. ...Something feels not quite right. No, something is definitely off. Somewhere in her mind a little observation has been waving flags and blowing vuvuzelas for a while now, and all that noise finally managed to bring the observation to her attention.

................What.

What.

She turns around abruptly to look at Nel.

"Why is you hair green?"

A constant in the Tilly household is not to expect much interaction with Mary Ann before she has had a chance to drink her coffee. As such, Nel makes no attempts to talk and puts her full focus to the catnip restoration and the cat that had insisted it be regrown when outside is still dark. She uses one hand to pluck the blades upwards, while the other is used to pet the purring cat. The moment a decent patch has been made, the cat steps her front paws up onto her lap to help herself to the fresh catnip and makes Nel laugh, “Dizzy! I’m not done yet, silly.” One attempt made to nudge her away is resisted, and Nel shakes her head as she moves on to the other side of the planter to work while Dizzy munches on the blades.

Minutes later, Dizzy is purring and rolling back and forth as she kicks away at a fake mouse between her front paws. Nel is nearly finished with the work when her mother startles her with the odd question, and hand snapping away from the catnip, she turns to look sideways to her mother. The green at the roots of her hair starts to ebb immediately, receding out of the part of her hair and from around her face. Delayed by a few seconds in processing what she actually asked, Nel reaches to grasp a lock of her hair, searching for signs of green in the red strands. With nothing immediately apparent, she instead starts to run her fingers back through her hair closer to her head to search for something stuck in her long hair that might make it look green. Expression puzzled, she asks, “Huh? Where? Did I get paint in it again?”

"...It vanished just now, but..." She frowns and gets up to come over and kneel next to Nel, running a hand over her hair. "The crown of your hair was green just now. And had been for a while."

When had it started bothering her? Not too long ago, but it had been there for some time...

Hands lowering from her hair as her mother reports that the invading green has withdrawn, Nel looks all the more confused as her mother approaches. She stays put as her mother joins her on the floor, and briefly closes her eyes as her mother runs a hand over her hair. The strands feel the same as ever, quite soft to the touch thanks to how rapidly her hair grows.

“A while?” she repeats. “Was it green when I came downstairs?” If so, maybe her hair changed while she was asleep in her bed.

"I don't-" know, she wants to say, but if she thinks back through the dull fog of drowsiness? "No. No, it wasn't, I don't think. But then you knelt there and suddenly it was.

And now it's not."

What changed? Is Nel just cursed with random hair colour changes now?

While not as hindered by the early hour as her mother, Nel is similarly puzzled by the exclusion of her hair changing during her time asleep. She has not undergone the dizzying symptoms of an Echo since Halloween, nor had she felt the change in her hair that her mother observed.

“All I was doing was bringing back the catnip and...” she trails off to look down at the planter. Her hair does change when she uses her magic to smell like plants. Without another word, she extends her fingertips over the remaining blades that have been chewed away and takes a slow breath in and out before she calls on her magic to restore them. As the catnip grows, the same brilliant green color seeps back into her hair, reaching out the same distance as before only to recede slowly after Nel pulls her hand away from the planter entirely with her magic influence ended.

Unable to see for herself, she looks to her Mum.

Edited 2019-01-16 21:42 (UTC)

And her Mum looks back at her.

With a very serious look on her face. "Well, you certainly should not work on plants anywhere where people could see you. Even if they can't see the plants." Because that's what it has to be, doesn't it? "I think working on them makes your hair turn green."

She only keeps herself from cursing with a lot of strength of will. This is so not good at all.

Color changing hair is a common enough gimmick in toys that Nel has seen such dolls. To her, it seems like a nifty special effect. That it relates to her growing pool of magic does not translate along with it despite the growing ease using it.

Any delight at the idea of her hair temporarily changing color is suspended by the obvious stress it is causing, and she tries to reassure her Mum, “I’ll keep practicing when I’m with you, Feste, Grandpa, or Skypa... That’ll be safest, right Mum?” There may be other solutions, but none as simplistic. Nel has been abiding by the rule well thus far after all.

Hands put to the floor and the last of the catnip left short, she scoots herself closer to Mum.

"When one of us is around, and when absolutely nobody else is around.

People can actually see you do magic now even if they can't see the magic itself..." And isn't that just a headache. She doesn't want to scare her child unnecessarily, but it is hard not to react to that realisation.

Sliding on the floor up close to her Mum, Nel quietly reaches to hug her. Although she doesn’t share the same distress over the new development, that does not mean she is not aware of the strain on her mother.

“I’ll practice in secret, Mum,” she assures, only to then ask for one clarification as she looks up while still hugging her, “But…can Mummy still see sometimes?”

"Sometimes," she agrees after a moment of thinking about it. "But less is better. It's just..." She shakes her head. "I'm worried that she's going to catch this too." And then there'll be two parents involved, and since they don't know where this leads...

It's important that there is someone who will definitely remain to take care of everything. "And it's better for your siblings that aren't affected if one of your mothers isn't, either, right?" Clearly that's the only thing.

Nel takes a moment to think it over. Given what her Number had done to her, it would be potentially dangerous for all the adults in their family to have one. Whether it is possible or not to transmit the magic like a cold, Nel is uncertain, but it does seem better to avoid the risk if it might be there. For now at least.

She sighs and lays her head against her mother, reluctantly accepting the restriction, “I guess so... I won’t show her unless it gets really green.” In this case, she intends to wait until all of her hair turns green to where she can see for herself. “But you can tell her if you want.”

Keeping secrets from her own family is hard.

"We can tell her. Just..." She shrugs softly, a bit helplessly. She hates to try and keep the family apart on something, especially something as big as this, but it is just safer to do so until they know more.

And perhaps, depending on what the answer ends up being, after that too.

There is a strange affluence of this condition, or type of condition, in their family, so what if there's a... well, not genetic, because Feste, but some form of family-bound indication towards it?

Informing her Mummy without showing her will not have as much impact, yet it does matter. Enough to placate her desire to share her magic at the very least, and certainly enough to keep communication open with her second parent. Knowing she can talk about it takes some pressure off.

Hug released, Nel remains close to her Mum on the floor as she takes a small portion of her hair to start fiddling with, separating the strands only to smooth them together again. Then, as she is apt to do, she asks a question born of curiosity as she seeks perspective, “...Mum? What would you have done if Mummy had the Number instead?”

"I'd worry a lot."

And she'd probably be trying to find a way to remove the Number. Which is odd to think about, because actually having it herself... that's not her impulse, not really. It's not necessarily making things easy, but she... okay, fine, she is really curious about this person whose abilities and memories she's getting. Curious to learn more, too.

“Would anything make you worry less?” she inquires. Her Mum and her Mummy are two different people, yet if there is anything that could make her Mum feel better in the position of having Numbered family without a Number of her own, it may be worth a try.

"...Being kept up to date on what is happening, probably. And being able to help. But..." Well, she already kind of tries for the first. Keeping Janice at least somewhat informed.

The second is harder, because really, what can Janice do? What can anyone do?

“But that’s hard if she can’t see,” Nel finishes.

The girl goes quiet as she looks down. Her fingers slow in moving through her hair, and a moment later she pulls them free entirely to stand up and offers a hand to her mother with a smile, “Then I think she should help you the most! You don’t have to only tell her what’s happening to everyone. You can talk through how you feel or what we might need to do! Mummy’s going to see things differently than we do, so she might have ideas we don’t think of. That would be a big help.”

Mary Ann pauses, and blinks, and then nods. That's a lot of insight - really, the kind of sudden insights that she should expect from Nel, but they're still pleasantly surprising when they come.

"You're right."

She should talk to Janice more about these things. ...If she will is the other question, but she should.

"You can talk to her too if you want the opinion of someone who isn't directly involved in this, too," she continues, reaching out to ruffle Nel's hair a tiny bit.

This particular pearl of wisdom is like many of her others in that it formed from the experiences she has living in her large and close family. Talking through a problem often leads to a solution, or at bare minimum a release and better understanding of the issue. Such support for her Mum would be a welcome brace against the challenges to come.

Hand passed over to have her hair ruffled instead, Nel giggles as she makes a paltry effort to duck, “I will! It’d be too hard to imagine not having magic anymore.” No doubt she will, especially should she ever have cause to worry about her Mum.

Taking her mother’s hand after, she glances to the abandoned cup on the table, “We can tell her about my hair tonight. Don’t worry about it when you go to work, okay?”

She has to laugh. "...I'll try." It's not that easy to not worry, but it makes it a bit easier to remember that Nel has her head screwed on right and will be able to look after herself, as much as she never hopes that she will have to.

And her daughter is right. There are safe ways to involve Janice.

“I can always wear a hat today,” she points out.

Nel urges her mother towards her feet with a little tug at her hand, and once her mother is up off the floor, the girl takes the opportunity for one more hug. Beginning to relax in that hug, a small yawn sneaks free. Maybe she can make it back to bed and sleep a little longer before her alarm for school.

"That's one way of dealing with it," she agrees, a bit mollified by her daughter's words and the hug.

A look at the clock makes her nudge at Nel gently, though. "If you want to sleep a bit more, you can. You just need to go back to bed now."

Heeding the nudge, Nel drifts a step away from her Mum before she pauses to smile to her and speak, “’kay, Mum. Have a good day at work.” Not lingering any longer, Nel trudges her way back up the staircase to return to her room so she can burrow back into her bedding and stuffed animals for a little more sleep.

Her attire for school that day does include a hat as a precaution.

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Going Green [Log]

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