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| Scene Title | Samara's World |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Brian asks a Lighthouse orphan to help a girl out of the looking glass. |
| Date | November 28, 2010 |
"Okay." So… Brian looks from one side to his other. It's late in the evening when they finally wrangled Samara back into their vicinity. Having found her earlier while patrolling the halls with his Disney Princess Mirror. Finally wrangling her in, Brian started leading back down… Another 'I have something for you!' Bringing her down to one of the empty common rooms. Sitting on the ground, his back is placed to the wall.
Adjusting his heavy jacket, Brian takes his vision off of Samara and glances to Paul. Having to do a little more of giving him a pep talk. Paul is in. Bringing him up to the room, they are both sitting across from each other Brian in the middle. Hands in his laps, he tilts his head back, looking forward.
"Okay. Make it happen."
If Samara objected to randomly following, Brian couldn't have heard it, although the notion of 'something' caused her eyes to narrow as she'd floated after him. Her steps were silent, as always, but her expression, in that reflected image, was intrigued, complete with a quirked eyebrow, a tilted head, and a curled lip— for someone who hasn't had many surprises over the last four years, she's experienced quite a few in the past month or so.
Once in the empty common room, the auburn-haired woman's gaze turned to the boy with a soft smile, like it or not. Her hands grasp each other behind her back as she glances between the pair of 'men,' her smile broadening; she expects to be punk'd— that some practical joke designed for the not-quite-living (or as she prefers to be called these days 'the living-challenged') awaited her in this space.
Her mouth opens to speak, only to close again, the question on the tip of her tongue. Yet even if no one can hear it she can't help herself, "What's going on?"
Peering at the mirror, Paul's eyes widen as he sees the reflection of the girl, then turns his head immediately to see where she should be — and seeing nothing. "I don't… I don't know what to do," he says, reaching for the mirror and taking it from Brian and maneuvering it here and there, watching it, his dark brows knitting together in perplexity.
"I can't…" he says, reaching for the empty space beside him and coming up with nothing. "Hold on."
He stands up and moves toward the wall. "I don't think I can… just grab her. I can't phase unless I am going into something, or at least I don't know how yet. It's not working right now." His little face screws up with concentration as he waves his hand through thin air, cheeks puffing out as he forgets to breathe.
Finally he expels a noisy breath with a whew. "Nope. I think maybe if I grab 'er while I go into the wall, it might work?"
"I was thinking more like teaching her man. But, umm.. grabbing her? Why would you.. Okay." He's the phaser. Placing his hands on the ground he pushes himself to his feet. Gesturing for the invisible girl to go stand by the wall, Winters shrugs at Paul. "You're the phaser." Brian goes to fold his arms over his chest. Watching Paul, he lets out a yawn.
A little wave is given to Paul, coupled with a sympathetic smile and a slight shrug. Her word is mouthed this time, not even spoken in her out-of-sync state, and it's simple, 'Sorry.' She blushes slightly, she can't blame the kid for not knowing what to do; she certainly doesn't know. And she's the adult, theoretically, anyways.
A skeptical glance is cast towards Brian as she steps next to Paul, her own hand held out towards him, even if he can't see it in his tangible state, she's there— ever-present, and ever supportive, even towards this kid she doesn't know.
Her lips twitch into a soft smile, a small thank-you for any effort rendered.
"I don't know how to teach her! It's just… I just do it," Paul says with a frown, looking at the reflection with curiosity and confusion. "Hi," he tells Samara and waves, putting his hand against the wall, then gesturing her to it. "Can you… Can you do this?" he asks, putting just part of his hand through the wall, waving it on the other side (hopefully no small children are on the hallway on the other side), then returning it to the interior of the room they stand in.
He nods to the Princess Mirror. "You try!" He grins, so very confident that this will solved the problem.
Brian watches Paul, tilting his head slightly. The phasing part isn't really the problem. The unphasing is the big part here. Brian clasps his hands in front of him. Winters watches the pair.. or half of the pair. "You're doing great Paul." He's not. But, he's doing great.
Poseorder is not enabled in this room.
Paul's enthusiasm sparks Samara's with a broad dimpled grin. She watches him do his trick and bites her lower lip before following suit, her own hand held out semi-experimentally with a giggle and a hint of mischief. She knows what she can do, but to share with a child only inspires her to relive the childhood she'd lost so many years ago. Her own hand goes through the wall with ease and then comes back equally easily, although still intangibly without the aid of the mirror.
She spins in a circle and holds up her hands in the air. No one needs a translator or words to understand the message: Ta-da~
"Hmm." Paul says thoughtfully, brow creasing, then he grins at Samara and claps so the reflected girl knows he's not angry at her. He then taps his chin with one hand, beginning to pace back and forth along the wall, the picture of a tiny latino Sherlock Holmes trying to figure out this mystery. "I thought that maybe if you phased through the wall and back, you might come out normal. Can you go through allll the way, and come back? Like this!"
Just in case she doesn't understand, he moves close to the wall before he shimmers slightly as he disappears into the stone work, appearing on the other side for a moment — luckily, there are no children or anyone else there today to spill their soup — and then returns. "Like that?"
Persistence is a virtue, after all.
Paul earns another smile as Sami lifts her hands in the air like some kind of magician's assistant before walking through the wall completely and reemerging moments later. Again her hands are raised in the air. Like it or not, she's a woman of theatrics— probably what made her a good dancer.
She curtsies following her trick, all too pleased to entertain any size of audience, even if they aren't moderately entertained or diverted. She shoots Paul a particularly large smile in her triumph.
Paul's crooked smile rewards Samara for her success, though it's clearly not what he wanted as an outcome. "Hmmmmmm," he says, a longer thoughtful sigh as he paces again, along the length of the wall and back, three times before stopping.
"Okay. I can't explain how to unphase. It just happens, and she isn't doing it, and I don't know why," he says to Brian, then looks into the mirror and makes a face of apology for talking about Samara when she's right there in the room with them. Maybe.
"Unless she really is a ghost," he adds, a little frown marring his chubby face as he peers into the mirror.
"Let's see. I'm gonna see if I can grab her with me, and phase with her, and maybe if we're touching, she'll unphase with me…" he finally decides after a few more paces. He raises his brows at the mirror as if to say ready? but he doesn't wait.
He steps closer to the wall, one hand angling the mirror to keep an eye on where Samara is even as he begins to slip into the wall. Meanwhile, the other hand, now shimmering into incorporeality, makes a grab for the dancer's hand.
It catches a hold of her, tugging her into the phased world with Paul.
The mirror falls to the ground, however — and after a few seconds, neither Paul nor Samara re-appear from the wall.
What Brian does see when he peers down into the now-cracked mirror is not only his face and Samara's — there is a third entity sharing the reflection, though it does not seem to be in the room:
Paul's.
"Oh fuck." Brian is adamant about not cussing in front of the children. Many adults have been chewed out for saying the fuck word in front of the Lighthouse kids. As the Disney Princess mirror falls to the ground, Brian rapidly drops to his knees. Peering in the mirror, Brian's heart sinks. "Okay. Okay Paul. Unphase." Brian commands, rather seriously.
"Oh god damnit. Paul get out of the mirror. Paul!" Not only did he not bring Samara back to life, he killed Paul! Son of a bitch. "SamEye you bitch! You killed Paul!" Brian brings up the mirror, looking rather panicked. "Paul. Unphase buddy."
Sami shrugs a little when Paul ends up stuck like her. "I am so so so sooooooo sorrrrrry…." the apology is directed to Brian, but Paul is the one that can hear and see it without the aid of the mirror. With spiked adrenaline, however, her habit of panicked talk takes over. "Seriously! I didn't know that would happen— I didn't kill anyone, I couldn't kill anyone— This one time we had a mouse in our garage and I couldn't even get the courage to set a trap because I learned that traps kill mice and then the garage got taken over by mice and I was in such big trouble even though Tahir was the one who should've dealt with the mouse because obviously he doesn't have a problem with death and dying because HELLO army. You know?!"
She turns to look at Paul only to give his hand a squeeze, the sensation of contact with someone other than Rue (in the waking world, anyways) both eerie and miraclous. "Ohmygosh. I am phased aren't I? That means we can get unphased, doesn't it, Paul?! That would be freakin' a-ma-za-zing?! Think about it, we must not be dead. Right? I mean… you don't feel dead do you?"
Paul doesn't realize he's not real — for a moment he thinks he's fine, that he succeeded — until Brian starts yelling and Samara starts talking and he realizes the world looks a little wrong. Mostly, it's lacking color. "What… oh shiiiitttt."
He squeezes her hand and shakes his head. "No, I don't think I'm dead. Nothing hurts… I just… yeah, I'm like I am midphase, I guess, I just never held it more than a few seconds, enough to get through a wall…" He heads to the wall as if that gives him an idea, and he repeats the actions he'd made Sam go through a few moments before — you put your right arm in, you put your right arm out … you put your whole body in, you put your whole body out… nope, he's still stuck.
"Man. I'm so gonna be grounded…" he says, peering at Brian and shrugging at the man helplessly, picking up on Samara's over-the-top gestures.
Staring at the mirror, and when Paul can't unphase… Brian looks up blankly. Samara and Paul are ignored for a moment. Placing his hands on either side of his head, Brian lets out a groan. "Okay, Paul. If you're stuck like this. You can't fall asleep. If you fall asleep, you'll blow away. Sami blows away every night. I'm trying to find maps right now, we're going to go over them. While I also try to figure out how to get you guys unstuck." Motioning for Paul to come closer to the mirror. "Okay buddy, I want you to stay here so I can see you. And, stay with Sami. Promise me you won't leave her okay?"
"Hey, hey, hey," her tone quiets. She quickly realizes she can't panic, she needs to be the calm rational one. "You're not going to be grounded, I'm pretty sure this is my fault," Sami states plainly as she reaches for the elastic band she always keeps around her wrist. "But Brian is right. Falling asleep can be dangerous… except I think if you attach to me…." She tugs on the elastic extending it to twist around the boy's wrist and then her own "… I think we'll stay together. I can tell you this much: I've woken up in some weird places buuuut, I've never woken up naked. So I figure anything that went with me originally, it probably stays with me? SO. If you do sleep, I'll disappear with you." She shoots him a flicker of a smile. It's small comfort.
"Blow away? Blow away?" Paul echoes, his little mouth just mouthing in the mirror at Brian as his eyes grow round in his chubby face. He turns to Samara as she connects their wrists, staring down at their hands and then back up at her. "What do you mean, blow away? Why can't we just… go lie down? Why am I stuck?"
Tears begin to slide out of his dark eyes, and though she might say it's her fault, she's the only person he can apparently hold, so it's Samara he throws himself against when the tears come, his body shaking as he worries about being stuck — a ghost and yet not a ghost — in this strange and colorless world.
Samara's world.