12135/Fix You

Fix You
Date of Scene:	24 July 2022
Location:	Lydia's Apartment
Synopsis:	Clarice comes by for a visit, and bring Chompy and Bitey, her microraptors! Lydia demonstrates a bit of her power, with a hint of things to come.
Cast of Characters:	Lydia Dietrich, Clarice Ferguson

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Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia is currently experimenting with baking. After her conversation with Jon, she's decided to try infusing some bread dough with her ectoplasm. She's spreading out the dough and making a little divot in the middle, settling an orb of ectoplasm into it, and then folding the dough over and releasing the ectoplasm. She has /no/ idea if this is going to work or not, but seeing as the dough is taking on a slight golden color she thinks this just might work.

    She's dressed in one of her light summer dresses, walking around her apartment barefoot, and happily humming a tune to herself as she works. Unlike usual, she has the aircon on, since making bread requires a more controlled environment than whatever the temperature is outside. She wants the little yeasties to be warm and happy, and not prematurely baking in the summer heat.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    A portal appears in the hallway outside Lydia's apartment - after all, it's far more polite than arriving inside someone's private quarters. Clarice steps through, carrying a pet carrier in one hand, a small bag slung over her other shoulder. She stops at the door to ring the chime, waiting politely for her sister to let her in. As per usual, the magenta-hued mutant is dressed in deep green - with a light blouse, this one with short, puffy sleeves, and a pair of black shorts, exposing her long legs, with black strappy sandals.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Come in!" Lydia calls out to Clarice. She can smell her sister from all the way over here. It's a scent that she's so familiar with that she'd be able to detect scant traces of it. "I'm hands deep in dough!"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Assuming the door is locked, Clarice doesn't even try it - she teleports herself in, making her way over towards Lydia, to wrap her in a brief side-hug. "What're you making this time?" she asks curiously. She still has no experience with cooking herself, so it always makes her curious. "I have my latest writing assignment done - I sent it to you a few minutes ago," she adds, while she finds a clear space on the table to set her carier on. "I hope you don't mind that I brought Chompy and Bitey - they get hungry pretty often." The names are temporary - she's still workshopping better names with Theo and Pete.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia is cool on the hug, not returning it, and kind of oblivious to how that would make Clarice feel. "My friend, Jon, has turned into a demigod so regular food doesn't sustain him like if he was mortal. So, I'm seeing if I can incorporate some of my ectoplasm into a loaf of sourdough bread and see if that works." She puts one last dollop of ectoplasm into the dough and folds it over.

    "Still don't have a real name for them?" she asks as she kneads the dough. "If I'd known that you were coming over I would have picked up some meat for them to snack on. When I'm done here you can let them out. I don't really want errant feathers to get mixed in with this."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Oh, I brought some - fresh from the kitchen." If Clarice has noticed the lack of a hug, she doesn't comment on it. After all, Lydia is busy with her baking, and her hands have bits of dough sticking to them. She pulls out a chair to sit while she waits, opening up the bag sh brought with her to feed a few tiny hunks of meat through the bars towards the voracious and quickly growing hatchlings. "It's nice to see their feathers starting to come in. They're so beautiful, the way they shine... I'm sure better names'll come to me, eventually."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Yeah?" Lydia says, craning her neck to see if she can see them in the cage. Seeing as she can't, really, she turns back to the dough, gives it a few more kneads and then places it into a well greased bowl and puts some saran wrap on it. "Okay. We'll let that rise one final time and then we'll bake it."

    She makes her way over to the sink and start washing her hands. "Have they started showing signs of personality besides just being... bitey and chompy?"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "They're biting a bit less - I think they're used to me now, and know that I'll feed them. I mean, it must have been very confusing for them at first. Now, they're a little more curious. Chompy's more curious and out-going. Bitey's a little more cuddly. But they don't really wander far - I mean, they should still be in a nest for a little bit longer. If I'm understanding avian biology and- well. If avian biology even applies..." Clarice grins at Lydia for a second, before feeding another pair of meat chunks through the bars.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia finishes tiding up and comes over to the table to sit with her sister and the baby dinos. This is, perhaps, the first time that Clarice would notice that Lydia's eyes are now a strange off pink color instead of their usual golden hue. She peers in their crate and grins. "They're getting so big! You can let them out, if you want. They're not going to be able to reach anything important."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "No, they can't fly yet. Or- glide, I guess? They're not even good climbers yet." Clarice opens the top of the carrier, reaching in to pick up one of the dinos, which cuddles into her lap as she rubs gently at its feathers. A white dust begins to fall into her lap, as she works loose the sheathes covering the growing feathers. She smiles down at the dino for a moment, then lets out a laugh at the sound of a squawk of protest from the crate. "Find! You too, Chompy."
    Soon, both are snuggled in her lap, and she looks back up towards Lydia - a frown appearing on her featues. "What happened to your eyes?" she asks.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia get something of an eager gleam in her eye as Clarice pulls Bitey out first, and then Chompy. "Can I hold one?" she asks, scooting her chair closer.

    "What?" Lydia asks, sounding confused, and then remembers that, yeah, her eyes did change color. "Oh, right." Those oddly colored eyes dart around the apartment as if looking for snoopers. "Can you keep a secret? I mean it. Don't tell /anybody/."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Of course I can," Clarice confirms. She reaches into the carrier, pulling out a hot water bottle, which she sets into Lydia's cold lap. Only then, does she gently lift Bitey, as the more cuddly and accepting of the two, to settle into place next to it. "I don't what him to lose too much body heat," she explains simply.
    "But tell me - what's going on?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Of course," Lydia says as she accepts the microraptor and settles him onto the hot water bottle. She coos at him as she tries to run a finger along the back of his head, but only gets bitten in response. This elicits a gentle laugh from the vampire, "He really is Bitey." She tries again, but this time running a finger along a forelimb, a structure that's halfway between a leg and a wing. Seeing as she doesn't get bitten this time, she gently extends the limb, her fingers gently petting and examining it. "Fascinating..." she says, as if hypnotized by it.

    It takes her a minute to register that Clarice is waiting for her answer, and she looks up at her blinking, as if escaping from a trance. "Oh! Um. Okay. So, there are these beings that are from... from places where the universe isn't. They've been getting in the Justice League Dark's dreams, and I thought that I would be safe from them since, you know, I /don't/ dream."

    She moves to absently scratching the back of Bitey's neck, which he seems to enjoy quite a bit. "Well, I was wrong. They got into mine. A being called Viscera and..." She squints her eyes trying to recall the name of the other one. "Too Close I Can't Breathe, I think she was called." She shakes her head. "Something like that."

    "It was..." She shudders, "Terrifying, to say the least. I was in a cavern that turned out to be a gullet that was slowly closing in on me." She shakes her head, "I've never really told anybody this, but I used to have nightmares as a kid that I was being swallowed by an anglersquid. I was down in the bottom of the ocean and the pressure was so tight I couldn't move and this /thing/ that's all teeth and tentacles would come up and just swallow me whole. I'd usually wake up in a cold sweat after that. This dream..." Another shudder courses down her spine. "It was what happens /after/ I get swallowed."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Like your friend Jonathan Sims," Clarice supplies, when Lydia mentions the JLD. She continues to listen with polite attention as she gently scratches at Chompy's growing feathers. More white dust covers her lap.
    "That sounds... awful. How can these things make you dream if you don't dream? They're- affecting your mind, somehow? But what does that have to do with your eyes?" There's concern in her voice. Aren't thee people doing //anything// to protect Lydia?

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia raises a hand to signal patience. "I'm getting there, I'm getting there. I don't know /how/ they broke into my dreams. There's a lot we don't know about them. They only seem to be targeting /us/ which is good. Well, good for humanity, not good for us." She watches as Clarice preens Chompy for a moment before looking down and starts doing the same with Bitey.

    Again she seems absolutely absorbed by this, as she struggles to bring her attention back to the conversation. "What was I saying? Oh, yes. So, in this dream, the only way out was to claw my way through the flesh. Like really /tear/ into it. Viscera... did something to me. He made me feel like like I do my ectoplasm. Gave me the power to mold it... shape it to my will, like my ectoplasm."

    "I... it was just a taste. He offered me more but..." She looks up at Clarice almost pleadingly. "How could I have said no? I can do /so much/ with this."

    She reaches out and gently takes Clarice's hand in hers. "Look," she says, as color blooms over the mutant's hand, turning the purple skin a rich brown, a shade that matches her brother Theo's. "I can /help/ people with this. Mutants who have obvious mutations wouldn't have to hide if they don't want to. If you have ugly scars that you hate, I can smooth them over like they were never there. In the field I can close wounds." She lets out a breathy laugh, "I can even regrow limbs." By the time that she's done talking all of Clarice's hand, from the wrist up, looks like what it would have looked like if she hadn't gone through her mutant awakening. "/Think/ of the possibilities."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    Clarice looks down at her hand, and it's certainly not wonder reflected there. There's surprise - but this is accompanied by discomfort that borders on disgust. "I'm sure there are people out there who'd wish for something like that, but- out cause isn't served by hiding who we are. I'm not ashamed of who I am - I'm... //Blink.// I'm proud of that." She gestures to her face with its electrc green eyes, bright purply-pink hair, and sharp, triangular markings and pointed ears. "This is who I am."
    She frowns thoughtfully as she adds, "I'm sure there's a lot you can do with it. Like the mutant who removed my tattoo - but we're trying to build a world where we can proudly and openly be ourselves. Yeah?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia scowls as anger rises up in her. How /dare/ Clarice refuse her gift? But confusion quickly follows that. Clarice is only saying something that Lydia, herself, has always believed in. She should have known that this would have been her reaction. Why would this make her angry?

    Shaking her head to clear it of these thoughts she reaches out to take Clarice's hand. "Of course," she says. "You're right. Here, let me fix it and put it back." She shakes her head as she works, changing the skin back to its original color. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was thinking."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "You have a new gift - you're excited by it," Clarice answers - briefly giving her sister a small smile, but there's just a hint of concern lurking behind her gaze. Yes - Lydia //should// have known how Clarice would feel about this. After all - Clarice has access to image inducers, and she refuses to use them unless there's some important reason to be anonymous.
    "And it can be used for healing too, you said? That's wonderful. It'll come in handy, but- why would these things give you a gift like this?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia lets out a long sigh, "That's the question, isn't it? These are creatures of chaos, first and foremost. Anything that shakes up the natural order of things is attractive to them." She shakes her head, "Maybe they think this power will corrupt me, but I've got my head on straight." A little chuckle that sounds almost desperate escapes her, "It's not like I'm going to build flesh abominations out of this or anything."

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Well - I'd hope not. The clay golem works just fine - a flesh one would go... rotten." Wouldn't it? Or could Lydia make it... live? Create life? That seemed far fetched.
    "Look, you know if you need help, or just someone to talk to - you can always count on me. Yeah?" Clarice offers in a worried tone. "Whatever these things are, I'm here for you."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Yeah," Lydia says, giving her sister a grin. "I mean... you helped me with disposing bodies the other day. If I can rely on you for that, I can rely on you for /anything/." She looks down at Bitey and grins as she scratches at his fledgling feathers. "And you /did/ give me the idea to create a portal to flush them into space."

    She looks up suddenly, "Oh! I figured out how to use the Vampire Mind Whammy! Now I can just catch some unsuspecting rando walking home alone at night, take a bit outta them, and then wipe their mind of the encounter. As long as I don't get caught on camera, and I don't take too much blood, they'll never notice!"

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
    "Oh!" Clarice says in surprise. "That's good. That's great! I mean - no harm in occasionally taking out one of those assholes when you get the chance but- I'm glad you won't have to do it every night. Someone would have noticed that many missing people eventually and found the pattern."
    She smiles at Lydia encouragingly, then leans over to give her a hug. "Now - let's give Chompy and Bitey a little love - and when your dough is ready, you can show me how to bake."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Okay!" Lydia readily agrees, this time actually returning Clarice's hug.