So I guess I'm continuing with the thing. Okay. Still needs a better title, but "Pool of Existential Matter" doesn't have the same ring to it. Suggestions on title and story are always welcome.
Humans can accomplish so little on their own, but they have managed, at this point in time, the truly wonderful gift of altering the hue of their hair. If this woman had a different color, it probably would not be questioned. This young woman needs it, and I want it.
My Mentors would call it an unnecessary use of energy. They would say that I should make do with what I have. That's how I will learn.
I consider this. Then I cup her hands and focus on the existential matter flowing through her--my--veins.
A shimmery rainbow of mist begins to pool in my palms, gaining mass, becoming liquid. It gives off a faint glow in the shadows of evening and I'm a little entranced by the shimmering light playing on the bare walls.
Until it begins to drip. Then, quickly, so that it doesn't get wasted on the worn floorboards, I raise my hands to my scalp and work my fingers through my hair, focusing intently on the color I desire. I shake her head, watching her hair fly, sending brightly colored flickers dancing wildly off the walls. For a few moments, her bare and unadorned apartment is stunning and beautiful.
Then the color takes and the glow fades. In the lessening light from the window I squint into the mirror. Human eyes are difficult; even with the light slightly reduced they have difficulty seeing.
She is supposed to have electricity, but it does not work. Whoever lives in this place--she, now--couldn't afford to pay for it, and the place is cold and dark.
A human cannot make their own heat and light and I shouldn't waste my precious energy any more than I have, so I must shiver in the dark as her skin prickles from the chill, squinting at the mirror to see what happened with her hair.
It is still long and tangled, but is now strikingly vibrant in a hue that--
Her brain supplies me with the word pink. This yet-unnamed girl has her first trait outlined. She is partial to pink.
And, as suits my purpose, the hair will make her stand out. She will be seen as bold, daring, and unique. I can make her noticed.
