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[There's a blue lady on the comm's screen, not looking like she completely trusts it -- or that she quite likes being so visible. She has something to ask, though (as much as it feels like an exploitable vulnerability to ask) so she stays. And it's fair that others should see who's talking.]

Hello.

[. . . Knowing how to start is harder than anticipated, and considering the last time she was on the comm was to apologize, it feels even more awkward. She swears she can feel eyes looking at her. Unconsciously, her arms tuck into a cross.]

I heard there are "missions" every month. Where we're supposed to infiltrate, or something attacks.

. . . This time there was water in the city. In the pipes. And the sewers. But people say it's not always a city. Locations are different every time.

I need to be able to access some when it isn't there naturally.

I need . . . help.

[Silence for a moment. That was extremely uncomfortable to say, and the next question isn't much better for her.]

Also . . . I'd like to know what people do to find their own space. Where they can sometimes be alone. When . . . they need to.

. . . Thank you.

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What it sounds like is that ice is inside your body instead of organs.

[And she's not sure that's what he meant.]

And I don't understand how anyone can be made from ice.

[Says the person who's made from a gemstone and light. But that's normal.]

Also, aren't ghosts supposed to be dead humans . . . ?

[She was accused of being one herself once. Because blue and wandering the beach at night, entering the water and not emerging to breathe. Also fully normal.]

Maybe . . . it's just something I should borrow during missions.

[Though it does beg the question of where the created water gets put if she didn't use it all.]

I do have organs when I'm a ghost. ...When I remember to have them.

[His tone was a little sulky.]

And I'm not made of ice. When I'm a ghost I'm made of energy. There just happens to be a part of me that makes cold energy.

And normally, yeah. I'm weird like that. There was an accident, and now I'm a living ghost. Or something.

Well, for now probably- but if I found more, then you could just keep the one I gave you right?

[That's probably better!]

Oh, so it is a bad thing.

[She was going to remember that and know to not accept such things should they happen to her. But soon she shakes her head slightly.]

I really do not know if such things even exist where I'm from. I... never left my tower all my life. So I know nothing about the world outside my window.

If . . . you want.

[There's a little flush of blue across her cheeks. It seems quite a length for someone to go to for her, and she's not sure what to do with it.]

Thank you . . .

[Hesitation.]

Maybe . . . we should meet and I should learn how to use it?

Yes. It's a bad thing.

[At least in Lapis' world, it is. When people try to supersede your will with their own, it's one of the worst things. When it's done with smiles and trickery, it's even worse.]

[She's quiet for a long moment at Rapunzel's next words.]

Why?

[The answer is important.]

You're not always a ghost?

[Yes, this is the question rather than "when you remember to have them?" Because occasionally-there-occasionally-not organs make full sense. Gems have organs when they want to have them -- when there is purpose for them. If they want to eat, they form accordingly.]

[The rest is a better explanation . . . somewhat. Her jury is still a little out.]

How can you be a living ghost if that's not the definition of a ghost?

Someone earlier offered a "ghost pouch."

[Please don't ask her what that is; she's not sure she could explain it. Something about it being a memory in a room that once contained a pouch . . . or something?]

[. . . She's sticking with the practicalities of what it's supposed to do.]

They said it could hold a lot and still seem like a bag that wouldn't be any heavier. It . . . seems like it could work.

[Her eyes slip sideways at the rest.] . . . The spa. I've worked in one. And there's water.

But sometimes people want to use the water too.

[And they generally don't want her floating in the pool with them any more than she wants the sudden intrusion. Creepy all around.]

Technically I'm a half-ghost. And don't ask, because I'm not really sure how that works either. Like I said, there was an accident and when I woke up I could be a ghost or I could be human. I'm ...mostly certain I'm still alive?

[He mostly functioned by trying very hard not to think too much about that part. ]

[A small nod.] I know. Just.

I think that's one of the hardest parts of this place. Before . . . I at least had spaces I could call mine. Where there wasn't a time limit. And I could end that time when I wanted.

Here . . . whether anyone means it or not, we're at the mercy of everyone else. This place seems to try to have everything.

But not privacy.

[She considers this for a moment. In its own strange way, though, this makes more sense. Steven is half a human, half a Gem. No one knows quite how that works, either. If he's separated from his gem, what will happen? Will he age as a human does, just slower? If he can fuse with a human, what does that mean for the human and his own human half?]

[Many unanswered questions, with questions they can only figure out as they go. So she nods.]

I . . . know someone like that. Half a human, and half like me.

It just wasn't an accident.

Of course! [Why wouldn't he!

...Oh!] Yeah, we could do that... ...I could show you that ghost room at the same time if you want?

[He's . . . so enthusiastic. It's mystifying.]

[But . . . it's kind of nice.]

[She gives a little nod.] Where should I meet you?

The Quiet carriage- that's where the ghost room is, so I can meet you there. Does that work?

Yes.

I can be there in a few minutes?

[Questions can be frustrating. Unfortunately, being different means that one gets questions -- often many, because for each individual, those differences are entirely new. Lapis is well-acquainted with this. In her case, though, she's chasing similarity.]

[Unfortunately, it's different after all -- at least when compared to her. However . . .]

I . . . know someone like that. Who's both. I've never seen anyone else. I'm not sure it exists for anyone else in my world.

I was curious.

[Blue eyes flick, startled, to Alice's face at the correction.]

[She's not sure what to say in reply. She'd like to believe those words -- that people on the train are nice. Faith in such things, though, isn't something that she relies on. She'd stopped relying on it long ago.]

I guess . . . then maybe I was lucky before.

I don't . . . pull people in.

[Maybe that sounds maudlin, but she doesn't mean it that way -- nor is she seeking reassurance. For her, it's simple truth. She knows she doesn't have the ready smile, the charm, the flattery, the conversational skills that tend to lure others. She's simply herself, edges and raw spots. She expects nothing from Alice; the words are merely reflective of not expecting to be that lucky again and expression of the knowledge that she gets in her own way.]

[And of uncertainty, because truly, she was lucky to be where she ended up before, with the people she'd ended up with. Looking back, it seems like a small miracle. It seems foolish for her to expect that will happen twice.]

[ It's slightly tempting to reply with another sarcastic quip - maybe wondering if, along the same lines, Lapis somehow seems to think Alice draws people in.

Because she knows she doesn't. She knows it's the opposite, if everything back home was anything to go by. It's like she actively repels people through an unpleasant attitude, through her resting bitchface, through her past. ]

You don't need to be anything you're not.

[ It doesn't sound like a direct reply to what Lapis is saying, but it's more a reply to the undercurrent in all of this. There's no reason to behave a certain way just to make people like you, she means. ]

Just be yourself, and see how that works out for you here. [ Because just being herself has worked out differently for Alice here - if not just slightly - compared to back home. ]

That sounds good!

I'll see you there.

[Why? That was a good question and an easy one.]

Because... my mother always told me the world is a bad and cruel place and to never go outside because of it. She is my mother, the one who raised me so of course, I trusted her word on it. More so as a child because there was no way to know better. To not know that people weren't going to use me for a selfish reason... It was just scary, I guess to.

A ghost pouch? [ She's never heard of such a thing, but she won't question it. ] Well, hopefully that'll be able to help. How would you get one?

Yeah, that's true. But maybe we could see if people would be okay with leaving the car for a time, so that you could be alone and use it? Maybe set up a schedule so that there'll be a period of time where the car is empty so you can have some time for yourself?

[If she had said such a thing, she would have received an even, quiet "yes" -- because one, Lapis does believe others do it better, and because two, Alice has been quite kind to her, and Lapis has appreciated both that and the tone with which she's done it. She's frank, she's honest, and while she supports, she doesn't over-sympathize or fuss.]

[Softly,] Thank you.

[And maybe because it's easier to say in the wake:] I . . . don't know what I am. How I am. I've learned, I think, some of the things that I'm not.

I hope that's enough.

[She's quiet again.]

It seems . . . like it would have been good to be able to decide for yourself?

[Not that Lapis doesn't believe that the world can be a bad and cruel place herself. But she also knows -- or has learned now -- that there are small lights in it. If she'd stayed in her mirror, she might never have learned that those lights existed.]

[And now that she knows they're there, she can't help but always keep hoping that there are more. Her world would be very dark without that hope.]

It would have been nice and... Now I feel like I would make that choice should I go home. But it was hard.

[But Rapunzel felt like they might have been going off point. What was the point they were on originally? Rapunzel pondered this for a moment or two.]

We were trying to think of places one can be alone, right?

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